And I sincerely hope they go out of business soon.
I decided to give them a shot when I canceled my Qwest DSL for unreliability and switched to Comcast (which has been SOLID). They promised that it would be easy to transfer my phone number, they sent me some paperwork and a catalog of interface boxes/routers. I selected one made by linksys, it arrived and I set it up and got a dialtone.
Two days later we had a wind storm and power outage and the linksys completely died. Bad experience, I conclude that having my phone service dependent on electricity is a bad idea and set out to cancel the phone number transfer.
This is where I learn that Vonage is the roach motel of phone companies. They have sales people working around the clock, but intentionally don’t put their customer service extension in the menu on their phone system. This is dishonest and I decide not to do further business with them.
Unfortunately, they won’t or can’t cancel the number transfer. I contact Qwest to see if they can stop it and at first they think so, but eventually they say no, but let it go through and in a week they can request it back. So we do. This leaves me without the ability to receive calls for over 3 weeks. I tell the reps at Vonage that I want my number transfer cancelled and plan to cancel service – they warn me not to cancel until the number safely returns to Qwest. Qwest gives me the same advice.
It takes 20 days for a number to transfer – so this entire fiasco is over 40 days long. Cleverly, Vonage provides a 30 day money back guarantee. Criminal.
I learn this last fact when phoning to cancel my Vonage “service” (which never worked) and am told that 1) I’m over the 30 days to I have to pay $30 in cancellation fees and 2) I am charged an additional $50 for hardware that I bought up front for $89 in the first place and that failed within days of power up and 3) am told that they won’t even replace the dead hardware (although the rather smug-bitchy rep in cancellations is pleased to tell me that “if you had stayed we’d replace it but since you’re cancelling you’re out of luck”).
There’s no option to simply not pay the bill – Vonage gets your credit card number up front. However, I have disputed all charges from them with my bank and returned the defective equipment so I’m hopeful to escape with my cash intact (while sticking them with chargeback costs as well).
So much for customer service. Avoid Vonage at all costs!
wow, that really sucks. I think I’ll stick with my cell phone.
Chargeback? Hardly, you went beyond the trial period and agreed to the TOS. Yur loss, clown.
Thank you for visiting Franklin the Vonage Shill.
Please be aware that I expressed my desire to cancel service well within the trial period, however the mechanics of actually completing the disconnect actually take longer than the ‘trial’ period itself.
Perhaps Franklin is the alter ego of the customer service rep who felt compelled to add “Have a nice day” as a parting shot to our increasingly uncordial exchange.
Certainly, Vonage’s customer service reps clearly view their customers as clowns. The victims, however, are not laughing.
Really? According to your own post here…
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,16670576
you state “3) Because it takes 40+ days to move a number in and then back, their “RISK FREE TRIAL” is insincere – the only reason I delayed completing the disconnect order was to allow time for QWEST to recapture the number.”
You delayed, you lose. You also lie.
Lie? When the router failed I called Vonage, got a person (not easy), said the router isn’t working anymore, I don’t want to be dependent on electric co for my phone, I want to cancel my number transfer. Vonage person said: don’t disconnect right now or you’ll lose your number. They also didn’t quite know how to send the number back to Qwest – took many phone calls to both companies to work this out.
But I’m explaining this to a troll that can’t understand that many details and unfruitful phone calls were omitted in the interest of bandwidth.
Go back under your bridge
Thanks for the heads up.
The general rating on Vonage tells a story but the preponderance of anonymous bothers me.
Reviews like yours make me feel better.
I canceled my telco service, “BRI for over $90.00 a mo” today.
I got the BRI in 1887 and it worked perfectly for over four years with only seven trouble tickets. Yes I have records that far back.
Then it went down hill every year since.
This year it’s been down about 60% of the time with them all blaming my equipment.
As I use these “router hubs” in business I have many of them. I have not had but one failure in about seven years.
I at this point have seven of them at my location and they still say it is my equipment.
Today I called them to cancel my service and went looking at Vonage.
Thanks for the heads up!
I’ll look else where.
Within several days, a week at most I will have a T-1 here via microwave.
Yes I do industrial Microwave work.
No the T-1 will not be from SWBC which has gone down hill, “WAY DOWN HILL!” We are attempting to emulate third world as fast as possible.
I thought Sprint had the worst Customer Service in the US but I think they and Sprint have joined up with a contract company as they are about equal.
USELESS!
I don’t care about the number, I do care about talking to someone in India.
I will never buy from a technical company that uses India or outsources to another country purposely.
Example Dell Computer’s.
Thanks for an honest review amongst the anonymous cop outs.
Pete G.
Pearland, TX
As many of us were seduced by the lure of cheaper prices, so was I. The problem was that with the cheaper prices, so came the cheaper service. I own a small business and rely heavily on my phone and fax service to be up to par. Boy was I mistaken. The system is unreliable. To make a call was fine, but half of the time the reciever of the call couldnt hear me. The faxing was just pathetic. I would have to resend my fax five or six times in order for the reciever to get it. The service depatment is a joke. I am not a person who is closed minded by any means but when I have a problem with a system I just feel a little more reasured by talking with someone who is in the same country. Of all the times I have had to call I have talked to one who spoke english, although in Canada, and another in New Jersey. I am switching back to the regular land line as of next week and am looking forward to sound service. Just a note to people looking for a cheaper service, alot of the phone companies now in order to compete have lowered there prices. Just remember from my mistake “you pay for what you get”. You want ultra cheap, your gonna get ultra cheap service.