Review of Vonage - dslreports.com

HoustonRealtor

@comcast.net

Vonage- Horrible Experience

This is the most horrible experience I've had in some time!!!!

A friend referred me to Vonage. After touring their website, I decided to try the service. I proceeded to sign onto new service via the "refer a friend" on line. I came to a point where I needed some questions answered so I called the number posted on their site. I spoke with someone named "Rachael" who answered all my questions. I initiated the call telling her I was referred by a friend and was proceeding to sign up online. She asked for my email address and was able to find my referring friend through her system. She told me that she could take care of the referral and things could be processed through her. She indicated that we'd both get the "one month free" and "$50 American Express Gift Card".

After my service was set up with "Rachael", I went into my "account" online and set my "network availability number" to ring my cell number should the service be unavailable. After that, I received MANY various calls from people dialing a completely different number that was in no way associated to me.

After realizing that the problem must be with VONAGE, I called to speak with a "technician" who had me on the phone for no less than 30 minutes. After all this time, having repeat steps over and over again, he could not figure out what the problem was. I then asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told that all the supervisors were in "a very important meeting" and that other managers were "not available". It was at this point that I just asked him to cancel my service.

He told me he could not and that I needed to speak to someone in account services. He then transferred me to "account services". I then received a message that wait time was "15 minutes". After about 5 minutes, I hung up and tried calling again. I then spoke with an "account manager" named Lawrence, ID# 26166. He apologized for such a horrible experience thus far with Vonage and figured out what the problem was. Apparently, the "virtual number" that was assigned to my account until my equipment was delivered and service was hooked up, belonged to someone who had an ad in a newspaper for "escort services". I asked why they would assign an active number to anyone and Lawrence told me that "that must be an old ad as that was not an active number". Well, once Lawrence diagnosed the problem, he agreed to change my "virtual number". He added another "line" at "no charge to me". Problem solved, right? I thought so... I then asked Lawrence to confirm the "refer a friend" gift items that "Rachael" indicated would be delivered to me and my referring friend, i.e. one month free service as well as a $50 American Express Gift card. He checked my account and told me there was no indication of these gifts as the only way to receive them was to apply for new service via the Vonage, "refer a friend" web service. I explained to him my experience with "Rachael" and that she assured me that although she was taking my order via the phone, the "refer a friend" gifts would still apply. Lawrence then told me that "Rachael" made an error by telling me that but that he would check on it and see what he could do to make it right. Lawrence told me he'd call me back in a couple of days, no later than "Thursday, July 23", 2007. I waited until Friday, July 24th, 2007 for a call and never heard from Lawrence. To this day, I've never heard from "Lawrence". Friday, July 23, 2007, I called their customer service line and ask for Lawrence in New Jersey. The man I spoke with did not know Lawrence as he was "in India", however transferred me to the New Jersey office after I told him Lawrence was in New Jersey. Someone in the New Jersey office finally picked up the line. I asked to speak to Lawrence. After a wait of about 5 minutes, another person picked up the line. It wasn't Lawrence. Her name was "Rose". I told her that I was waiting to speak with Lawrence. She told me there "was no way to find a specific person" as they "did not have extensions for all representatives". Being very frustrated at this point, I proceeded to tell her the lengthy story of my experience thus far. Talking to Rose was like talking to a robot. First of all, the connection was very bad, like a bad cell signal, so I had to strain to HEAR what she was saying, furthermore, she had a heavy accent which made understanding an even bigger chore. On top of that, it was a connection that required only one conversation at a time so if she was talking I had to wait until she finished to say anything and vice versa. Needless to say I was very stressed at this point. After explaining everything to Rose, she offered to investigate the "refer a friend" gifts however that would take a couple of days and she'd have to call me back. I told her I did not believe that as I was told the same thing by Lawrence. She offered me several discounts and incentives to stay with Vonage, i.e. 6 months at a discounted rate, dollar amount credit to my account. I can't remember the dollar amount credit she initially offered me, it was something like $120. I told her that I was signed into my account and if she would add the credit to my account, and I could immediately see it, I'd consider staying on. She asked me to hold on "2 minutes" (which is what they all asked you to do, "hold 2 minutes"). She came back and told me she could only give me a credit of $60, not the $120 amount she'd just told me she would give me. At this point, things were getting comical to me. It was then that I told her I did not want to discuss any further credits or gifts to my account but without any further discussion I wanted to cancel. End of story! She got that and proceeded to cancel. She indicated to me that once they received the equipment back in the same manner it was shipped to me, they'd refund all fees incurred with them.
The last phase of the story was discussion about shipping the equipment back once I received it (which I hadn't at the time of this conversation). I told her I would ship the package back as soon as it was delivered to me, as a matter of fact, I told her I would just refuse delivery and have it sent back to "sender". She indicated to me that I needed to accept delivery as I needed to include a "RA#" that she would provide via email, and if I didn't include that upon shipping back, I would not receive my refund. I then told her that I did not want to incur any fee for shipping. She told me that I would have to as they would not pay or refund me for shipping. After fuming about that, as I was already $42.94 sign on fee, & $41.41 cancellation fee, invested into this company, it angered me to think I had to spend another red cent on anything to do with Vonage. I eventually concurred that I'd pay the shipping and wash my hands of Vonage once and for all!!

Well, the shipment arrived July 31, 2007. I had to pay $6 for postage to have it shipped. Gas to a shipping drop off box and $1 parking fee. I put it in the mail August 1, 2007. I'm now tracking delivery and awaiting my refund. So far, I've invested about 5 hours of my time, $7 out of pocket and much stress and frustration that affected about a week of my life.

Since my experience with Vonage, I've investigated the web reviews and was surprised to find NUMEROUS complaints with similar experiences. What a fool I was to look AFTER the fact. Not much like me to do that. I trusted a referral from a friend who was happy with Vonage and didn't think any further. Mistake! Not only have I check reviews, but checked the BBB in their area of New Jersey and found 5193 complaints. Check it out »www.trenton.bbb.org/nis/newsearc···11005249

Needless to say, STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! Like one review I read, it'll result in lots of stress and "tears"!!

permalink · 2007-08-02 16:07:37 · Print ·

Member review of Vonage

Vonage- Horrible Experience

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Re: Vonage- Horrible Experience


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