TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
|  Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap
Is anyone surprised by this?
When a company puts out a product at a very low price point, customer service is usually of very poor quality. Customer service and the employees needed to staff it are expensive. And Vonage spends all its money on those annoying TV ads. They have nothing left over to hire people to answer the phone. You get what you pay for.
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Jeffrey
Merry Christmas
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Vonage
·magicjack.com
| said by TKJunkMail  :Is anyone surprised by this? When a company puts out a product at a very low price point, customer service is usually of very poor quality. Customer service and the employees needed to staff it are expensive. And Vonage spends all its money on those annoying TV ads. They have nothing left over to hire people to answer the phone. You get what you pay for. The only thing I'm suprised about is the people cancelling Vonage. While I have had the occasional hiccup a few times a year, and the annual outage of 5-10 hours on a given day, Vonage has been excellent for me in every aspect. Call quality, price, features. It has passed the "Mom and Girlfriend Test" with flying colors, after the initial issues I had when I setup the Motorola ATAs on my network, which in all fairness, were due to my errors.
The biggest obstacle in the beginning was the quality of my Optimum Online connection. Latency was a bit high, and I had some water damage at the tap causing some drops, which obviosuly effected everything on the LAN, including phone calls. Once that was fixed (by CV), the quality of the Vonage calls were much, much better (nearly perect), and after switching to Fios, I haven't had any issues at all with the quality of the call.
That being said, I ahve never had to call Vonage customer support to cancel. A less-than-technical friend who called Vonage when I was on vacation 2 years ago found their customer support to be horrendous, and they too, had a problem cancelling. (My friend insisted it was Vonage at fault, and not a 30 year old outside splitter feeding the cable modem.)
Regardless, if people want to cancel, any company needs to make that easy.
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"When you get lost in your imaginatory vagueness, your foresight becomes a nimble vagrant."
[Ramblings] [RIP Millie 1993-2006]
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redhat1968
join:2000-10-17
Appleton, WI
clubs:
| reply to TKJunkMail
Took me almost 65 minutes of being on hold to reach someone. They then said I didn't have an account with them so there was nothing else they could do and they hung up. I called back and was on hold almost 45 minutes this time and again was told I didn't have a Vonage account. After 2 days, I received a nasty email stating they were going to close my account if I didn't pay. I called them back and again was told I ddin't have an account with Vonage. Another call back (55 min) and they finally realised that I DID have an account with them but I didn't owe anything on it. I tried to close the account and was given a bunch of crap but I stuck to it and they finally closed the account.
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I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet..
»www.mnrstudio.com
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DaveNJ
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey | reply to TKJunkMail
Thats why Cable is better, because CS is already there, and its there system. Vonage better cosy up with ATT, because there a perfect fit. This was ATT can get triple play in non-att areas. Actually i think ATT should just buy Comcast. |
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mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Jeffrey
I loved their services and never had an issue (issues were always my ISP, not Vonage). But I just realized how seldom I used it and just didn't need it anymore. I experienced the same crap... on hold forever and the looping torture voice.
If they wish to require phone cancellation, then it means they want someone to speak with me about staying maybe for a lower price or plan. But who in the WORLD would want to stay after being treated like that. If it was a quick process, I would have considered staying for a lower price since I don't use it so much but it's nice to have... but I wouldn't even consider that after that ordeal. |
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moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to TKJunkMail
said by TKJunkMail :Is anyone surprised by this? When a company puts out a product at a very low price point, customer service is usually of very poor quality. Customer service and the employees needed to staff it are expensive. And Vonage spends all its money on those annoying TV ads. They have nothing left over to hire people to answer the phone. You get what you pay for. Doesn't matter if the product is cheap or expensive, customer service is declining all around. |
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N3OGH
Bear patrol must be working like a charm
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon FIOS
·Verizon Online DSL
| Beat me to it.
Even when I'm paying a premium price, seems as though customer service is dead.
But, when I do deal with a company with good customer service, I stick with 'em. Even if the price is a bit higher..
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Welcome to cat noise Wednsday!! |
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Trinijoy
Premium
join:2005-09-12
Brick, NJ
| reply to redhat1968
Please go work at the Vonage Call center then you will see if you "complain" about the CS. You are treated horribly there and it sucks more then naught to work there. I used to work at the Vongae call center, you mine as well work at a factory line, or the Garbage company.
Honestly.
It's HORRIBLE to work in a call center and deal with 50+ customers a day who yell in your ear all day and forget the Representative has rights too.
So sorry for the 1400+ employees there who do not do a PERFECT job. |
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DreamWraith
Premium
join:2004-04-07
Mount Vernon, WA | They can quit and work somewhere else instead. I don't feel sorry for any of them. Anyone who goes to work in a call center knows damn well what to expect. If they don't like it, they shouldn't apply there in the first place. |
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phattieg
join:2001-04-29
Winter Park, FL
·Verizon Wireless B..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to TKJunkMail
Well, they seem to love charging customer who send their ATA back with the labels Vonage provides. The always claim they get an empty box, but refuse to research it with THEIR account with UPS/DHL... I have been thru it twice, and each time took 4 calls, and finally I told them to eat it, because I can't produce something I don't have. I had to update by bank card as "stolen" so I would get a new expiration date, since they refused to give me a new card number. At least Vonage has a valid #, just no expiration date to use...
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SIPPhone/Gizmo # 17476200648 / PIMPNET Chatline / Ran by Asterisk & Slackware 10.1. |
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mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV
 ·DIRECTV
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast Digital Vo..
·Comcast
| reply to DaveNJ
att wont buy comcast because they wanted out of the nationwide cable business back in 2002 when they sold att broadband to comcast. Why would they buy comcast again after selling out to them less than 10 years ago? I don't think the board of investors would enjoy that. |
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