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Jeffrey
Bye George, 1937-2008
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Long Island
clubs:
 ·magicjack.com
 ·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
| Re: Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap said by TK Junk Mail  :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:
| 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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Trinijoy
Premium
join:2005-09-12
Brick, NJ
·Vonage
| Re: Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap 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 | Re: Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap 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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DaveNJ
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey | 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. | |
| | | mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV
·Comcast Digital Vo..
| Re: Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap 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. | |
| | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| said by TK Junk Mail :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
It's Biden Vs. the Biscuit. Sarah's hot
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap 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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Jim Gurd
Premium
join:2000-07-08
Plymouth, MI |  Cancelling
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Nate425
Premium
join:2005-02-03
Charlottesville, VA
clubs:
| Re: Cancelling said by Jim Gurd :Can't you just port your number over to another carrier? That should automatically flag your account as cancelled (or at least that's the way wireless numbers work). They'll still charge you even after you port away from them. You're still stuck calling them and canceling. Makes voip in general look bad. | |
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verolom
join:2002-03-23
Eatontown, NJ | Re: Cancelling This is ridiculous. Why closing an account cannot be a web-based account management function, just like opening one, and paying the bill are? Maybe that should be an important criteria before signing up for any service with any provider. | |
| | | | chemaupr
join:2005-06-06
Alexandria, VA | Re: Cancelling Tell me just one telecom/cable/cellphn service you can cancel online.
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verolom
join:2002-03-23
Eatontown, NJ | Re: Cancelling Have you or anyone you know demanded such capability? I have, not very successfully indeed, but if many people make a point maybe it will happen. | |
| | | | | | chemaupr
join:2005-06-06
Alexandria, VA
| Re: Cancelling It makes not sense from a business standpoint to give up a client that will still need the service, so it will just go to your competitor. You have to try to retain your customers as much as you can. Do they need better practices?, probably yes. But if you had any subscription business canceling will still be the only option I will remove from their account menu.
I want to know why you want to cancel, is there anything we can do better, etc.... Often people will be mad or frustrated for a minor incident and they want to call it off... and often a we are sorry and a discount or a month off will retain a customer for many more months or years.
Sure if your services s**ks they will end up leaving regardless. But if you have a good and competitive service where you have invested $$$s in getting the customer, are you just going to let them walk out of the door without trying to retain them?
Vongage obviously needs to improve their process, but no one can blame a company for at least try to talk to you before closing your account. | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| said by Nate425 :said by Jim Gurd :Can't you just port your number over to another carrier? That should automatically flag your account as cancelled (or at least that's the way wireless numbers work). They'll still charge you even after you port away from them. You're still stuck calling them and canceling. Makes voip in general look bad. Thats why you sign up with a prepaid credit card.
When you want to jump ship, quit reloading the card and things work out naturally.
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
| | | | unixwolf
join:2007-05-04
Flower Mound, TX | Re: Cancelling Thats a great idea!!! Or if you are just about to cancel, change your card number over to a prepaid card, port your number, and tell them to go F%$* themselves. | |
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Nate425
Premium
join:2005-02-03
Charlottesville, VA
clubs:
| Re: Cancelling said by unixwolf :Thats a great idea!!! Or if you are just about to cancel, change your card number over to a prepaid card, port your number, and tell them to go F%$* themselves. That's all fine and good except when they send it to collections and it ruins your credit. Might be able to fight that off though, I dunno. | |
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Toadman
How do you like these Apples
join:2001-11-28
Medina, OH
 ·Armstrong Zoom In..
| Re: Cancelling Why in the world do you have to give your SS number to these guys. Go to viatalk or some other VOIP service provider that only wants to know where you live and have a valid cc number. Thats it.
With your SS number they can smear your credit. And you may not care much, but keep this in mind, most credit card companies will check your credit quarterly and any mark on your credit is reason for them to raise your interest rate to the max. Read your TOS. | |
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aaron8301
I can't get myself to go away.
join:2005-01-03
Clarkston, WA
·CableOne
| Vonage does NOT ask for your SSN (at least they didn't ask me when I signed up), so they CANNOT ruin your credit. They don't even try to collect. They just shut off your service.
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A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequilla. -- Mitch Ratcliffe | |
| | | | | | | mobbo
join:2005-04-13
Denton, TX | Re: Cancelling Gotcha. I must have confused it with some of my other services. I used direct bank draft, not my credit/debit card, so it would have been a much larger ordeal. | |
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Ebolla
join:2005-09-28
Dracut, MA | but vonage has insane portout times compared to other companies.
Verizon to comcast 3-7 days depending on if dsl
att to comcast 7-10 days
vonage 30days to port out a number | |
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RMKyote
join:2000-12-21
Beverly Hills, CA | Ported. Exactly what I did and it was quick and painless. | |
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IW4
DSwhat?
join:2001-11-03
Grandville, MI
edit:
July 4th, @08:23PM
| said by Jim Gurd :Can't you just port your number over to another carrier? That should automatically flag your account as cancelled (or at least that's the way wireless numbers work). Actually, no, you cannot. I just went through that, switching my service from Vonage to Lingo. The transfer completed 03 Jun, but I got charged by Vonage 28 Jun. I called them, and said that they do not accept cancellation requests from anyone else other than the account holder, under any circumstances, including transfers. Also, as I was a customer to them for less than six months (even though I was actually for over two years before they terminated my first account) but longer than one month, they wanted to charge me the $40 cancellation fee PLUS the $50 equipment fee, and NOT refund me for the time after 03 Jun, saying that all this was perfectly clear in the terms of service (which, of course, it isn't).
After all this, I'm glad I'm done with them. Let's just see if Lingo does any better... | |
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Gts
Hi
join:2000-10-27
Astoria, NY
·RoadRunner Cable
·AT&T CallVantage
| Re: new law: REQUIRE CANCELLATION VIA WEB By making it on the phone, they're hoping their retentions department will make you stay. they'll keep you on hold to try and drag out as much as they can out of you, so you'll eventually hang up. its a old trick used by shady businesses for years.
you just gotta file complaints with your BBB or the state they're operating in, contact the FCC as well, and make a huge stink about it. | |
| | | | | kinabrew
join:2002-02-01 | That's a great idea. | |
| | wilbywilson
join:2001-02-24
Arlington, VA
·Verizon FIOS
·Cavalier Telephone
| I've sent this exact request to numerous companies before, particular DirecTV. I can go on DirecTV's website and add a package, but if I ever want to unsubscribe from that package, I need to call in. It's just a field in their database!
DirecTV is one of the shadiest companies when it comes to these tactics. They also will charge your bill at the *beginning* of the month. So if you had subscribed to say NCAA March Madness (starts in mid-March), they will charge your bill on March 1st. You might notice this in your credit card bill online, and you when you call in and say:
Customer: "I don't want this package this year...I in fact told you to discontinue it last year".
DirecTV: "Sorry, we bill at the beginning of the month. And we see no record of you cancelling that package."
Customer: "The hell I didn't cancel that package, over the phone and with a followup email! Besides, the coverage for that event doesn't even start for 10 more days from now...so just cancel the package and refund my money please."
DirecTV: "Sorry, we bill at the beginning of the month and cannot reverse the charge, even if the event has not yet started."
Customer: "Jesus Willy. Transfer me over to the customer retention line, please."
That's about how all of my conversations go with DirecTV. And I wish to God I didn't have to threaten for the Customer Retention line, but they honestly leave no choice. | |
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aaron8301
I can't get myself to go away.
join:2005-01-03
Clarkston, WA
·CableOne
| Re: new law: REQUIRE CANCELLATION VIA WEB
Base Package Selection | 
Premium Movie Package Selection |
said by wilbywilson :I can go on DirecTV's website and add a package, but if I ever want to unsubscribe from that package, I need to call in. It's just a field in their database! I don't know about you, but I can go to DirecTV's website and select ANY package, including a smaller, cheaper one that what I currently have, and I can select or DESELECT any premium (HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc.) movie package I want.
Sounds like you have been doing things the hard way.
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A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequilla. -- Mitch Ratcliffe | |
| | othas3
join:2002-07-15
Los Angeles, CA
| I like telling this story, so I'm going to tell it again! I was an OG AOL user. I had AOL 3 times and after the 3rd time, I vowed never to use them, ever again.
1. When AOL no longer met my needs, I simply clicked on the cancellation button and I was gone!
2. After my 2nd go round with AOL no longer met my needs, I went looking for the cancellation option, but could not find it. After digging through all of the menus, I found it hidden. Click, gone.
3. After my 3rd go round, I went through all the customer service related menus and couldn't find it. I did a search and found the option....that then told me I had to call and cancel. When I did, I found myself playing 200 questions with a dialbot who would ask a (1 for) yes and (2 for) no question. If you answered wrong, the sphinx would kill you...I mean, you'd hear "Whew, thanks for not cancelling, good bye.", and you'd have to call back and start all over again. It took me 3 tries to cancel the service, with the other two times leaving me staring at the phone looking like Daffy Duck after he had said, "It's duck season, FIRE!"
I would deal with them one more time after they decided to start billing me for my compuserve account that I hadn't used in 5 years, since I had sent a cancellation later. They claimed that I could only cancel over the phone. I said let's see what the BBB and the Florida AG say about that. They agreed to stop billing me. | |
| lesopp
join:2001-06-27
Land O Lakes, FL | Hmmm Looks like they borrowed more than code from Verizon! | |
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dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| Re: Hmmm said by lesopp :Looks like they borrowed more than code from Verizon! And AOL too
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth | |
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ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA | Re: Hmmm Verizon and AOHELL have NOTHING on Vonage for horrid retention agents. | |
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Mactron
el Camino Real
Premium
join:2001-12-16
CM94sv
| More in common than thought Sounds like Vonage and Verizon have more in common than just lawsuits. CS for both of these companies is lousy. Guess Vonage wants to ensure that once folks leave them, they will never come back. After a CS experience like this, I know I wouldn't ever comeback. 
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If only the Verizon CSRs worked this well. | |
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ztmike
1kwikgt
Premium
join:2001-08-02
·Comcast
·AT&T Midwest
| Jump the sinking ship People are probably leaving by the boat-loads after hearing Vonage got sued. As sad at it is Vonage is going to loose the battle, and probably be sold off or just shut down.
Although i have the Comcast triple play with their phone service, Vonage really didn't seem like a bad deal, but it was just so easy to go with the Comcast triple play. | |
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RRMAN
Premium
join:2007-04-02
Cleveland, OH | Get what you pay for You get what you pay for. What do you expect from a sub par company that supplies a crappy product
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Two people shorten a road. | |
| Time4aNAP
Premium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL
·Speakeasy
·Comcast
| Snail Mail Still King As long as you're not locked into a long-term commitment, the ages-old way of terminating a contract still works. Send them a letter. That's 100% legal in all 50 states.
To make sure that they don't "accidentally" continue to bill you, report your credit card as missing. But if you're itching to go to court, make it a certified letter (a good idea in any case). Make plenty of photocopies of the signed letter and the return stub, when you get it.
If you want to be proactive, you'll have to find a Verizon employee to serve papers to. This is a task that's worth the $50 or so that it takes to hire a process server. Most are active or retired peace officers, and have easy access to information like where the local office is located. This can be a tough task for a regular citizen seeking an Internet company. But if you have a local phone number, you can bet that they have a local office. The process server can file an affidavit that the papers were served in accordance with the law in your state.
What happens next can vary. Probably nobody will show up, and the judge will continue the case until you a.) give up and drop the case, b.) miss a single court date, or c.) hire a lawyer who knows what to do next. It's not worth the effort.
It's easier to wait until you start getting collection notices. Then all you have to do is send copies of your paperwork (include bills and credit card statements to make it clear that you had no outstanding debt before you canceled, and paid any final charges. (It's better to cancel right after you pay for a new month; it leaves no doubt of who owes who.) If they persist, call the police. The cops aren't going to do much more than take your statement, but it's important that you have that statement on record. File a new report no more often than once a month for as long as is needed to obtain a restraining order.
It's usually not necessary to actually get the restraining order, and the courts don't like "nuisance" complaints like yours, so if it ever does go to court, you don't want to have a strike against you already. Just throw the collection notices away. I've never seen any utility reports, good or bad, on any credit report. They'll threaten, but they know that it's not worth the expense to them. If you do see anything about it on your credit report, mailing copies of all of your paperwork and a brief explanation should clear that right up. | |
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vpoko
Premium
join:2003-07-03
Jamaica Plain, MA
·Comcast
| Re: Snail Mail Still King said by morbo :said by Time4aNAP :What happens next can vary. Probably nobody will show up, and the judge will continue the case until you a.) give up and drop the case, b.) miss a single court date, or c.) hire a lawyer who knows what to do next. It's not worth the effort. i disagree. it is worth the effort. AND, if the company doesn't show, the judge may issue an order to arrest the compnay. there was a story on dslreports about this happening to Verizon not too long ago. A judge can't issue a bench warrant for a defendant in a civil case, they can only enter a default judgement. | |
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statecop
Premium
join:2002-09-16
Albertville, AL | Taking your card info out does not work either! This article caught my eye because I am going through the same thing. I took my credit card info out and and they STILL charged me!!! I am going to file a complaint with the BBR. | |
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swootton
Computer Nut
join:2001-05-11
Barkhamsted, CT
·Charter Pipeline
| The only succesful way I was able to cancel the account was to CHANGE my card info to another card. In this case my Paypal debit card with a $0 balance. Then I waited for them to call me about the bill. That still took three different people on three calls to cancel my account and show a $0 balance. Also once you get a collections letter, you also get a "real" number to call Vonage at. No lingering credit issues, none when it first hit the collection either.
I canceled when I went with SNET 1.5M DSL because I couldn't use the phone and internet without pauses in the call. | |
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aaron8301
I can't get myself to go away.
join:2005-01-03
Clarkston, WA
·CableOne
| Re: Taking your card info out does not work either! said by swootton :I canceled when I went with SNET 1.5M DSL because I couldn't use the phone and internet without pauses in the call. Sounds like an internet connection problem. I use Vonage and T-Mobile @home over my 512k/512k WIRELESS connection.
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A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exceptions of handguns and Tequilla. -- Mitch Ratcliffe | |
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toolman12
join:2004-05-16
Rockwall, TX
·Vonage
| Only took 60 minutes wait time to cancel this morning Funny thing, this article reminded me that I was supposed to call Vonage this week and cancel. Only waited 60 minutes before a rep came on. He was actually pretty cool about the cancellation. He kind of freaked out that I've been with Vonage for nearly 4 years. He offered $19.99 a month if I sign up for a year (not really a good offer IMHO) and I had to decline.
Going back to POTS now that the prices are competitive. Don't have to screw with an adapter and my new alarm company doesn't allow VOIP. I think Vonage was ahead of their time. Too bad. | |
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Trinijoy
Premium
join:2005-09-12
Brick, NJ
·Vonage
edit:
July 3rd, @02:00PM
| Whatever, you self centered jerks 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 Vonage 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. That also forget the Representative has rights too.
So sorry for the 1400+ employees there who do not do a PERFECT job.
By the way when you complain about the hold time to the rep, you waste more time complaining and bitching and moaning that you were on hold, (sometimes customers complain over 20 minutes) that they were on hold too long. They don't get there problem fixed enough or quick enough, that's irony. Since after awhile you are wasting your OWN time. Instead of letting the rep get to the problem and fix it.
I hate people who complain about something they never experienced and expect everyone has to do a cozy perfect job. Because they need to get there way and thinking "well they are supposed to not make one mistake to get MY problem fixed, on MY time, me me me me me. That's all it's about. | |
| | margaf77
join:2000-12-22
Rego Park, NY
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Whatever, you self centered jerks Yet another whiner from a call center. Its your job to deal with customers and when the company you work for provides some of the worst customer service ever, you will get crap from the people PAYING YOUR SALARY. You talk about not being understanding of reps, we shouldnt have to be understanding about mistakes YOU OR YOUR COMPANY make. Is Vonage understanding if you cant pay a bill when youre supposed to? NO.
Get out of the call center business if you cant deal with it. Ive worked support for OOL and dealt with my fair share of grief, its part of the job so stop your bellyaching. | |
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toolman12
join:2004-05-16
Rockwall, TX
·Vonage
| If you only handled 50 Customers a day then you really sucked as a CSR. A good CSR can blast through 80-100 Customers per day easy. I used to fire for 40 calls or less per day. No wonder you thought you were treated like crap.
And remember the golden rule.....Customer is always right. It is all about them! | |
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GoodyearMark
Premium
join:2001-05-02
Goodyear, AZ | hmm Die Vonage, and die a quick and horrible Death. Die for the simple reason that I hate your plethora of ads that run all damn day long. | |
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Cancelling Vonage Is a Headache
Customer support typically nonexistent when price is cheap
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They did it to me too, VONAGE SUCKS!
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