Vonage → I am a Vonage customer for 10 years - Filing FCC Complaint

It is March 1st, 2012 and I have been a Vonage customer for more than 10 years now. That means that I have been a customer since you guys started in business. Until now I have always loved your service but my company has grown and it was time for me to move on. What you guys do in order to delay your customers from canceling their account, is in my opinion, bordering on outright deceit.

Most of those ten years were at $59 per month so this means that I have paid you guys thousands upon thousands of dollars and now the only thing I want to do is to cancel my account. I am in the Internet business with a network of more than 1000 websites that I administrate so I am more than familiar with all of the tactics that Internet website owners use to delay a user from canceling their service but you guys have take this to a whole new level. Maybe I should make a network for users that are having the same problem that I am so that they can collaborate and unite together in a single place.

This is my experience so far.

1. No way to initiate a cancellation on the site and you require a phone call to cancel. This use to be a very common old school Internet tactic to delay cancellations.
2. I have been calling for two days now and last night at 9pm Central Standard time I let it ring 2 1/2 hours with no answer after indicating that I wanted to cancel. It is now the next day and it is ringing and ringing again and again even as I type this post with the time passing 52 Min's now of just ringing.
3. I just called you sales department on another line and got though right away
4. I also just called your billing department on another lone and it took only 4 Min's

How is someone suppose to cancel their service if you require a phone call but never answer your phone?

I am filing a formal complaint with the FCC today.

This is really not the correct way to treat a long time customer that has spent thousands of dollars with your company an has been a loyal customer for more than 10 years now.

Thanks,
Vonage Username: ffireptile
Vonage Phone number: 954-727-8507
I do not answer this number any longer as I have already started using a new service that gives me a PBX option.

PS. The ring time has just passed 2 hours as I am finally posting this

The FCC's responsibility is more for technical issues than for customer service or business practice issues.

You may want to consider filing a complaint with the FTC since fraudulent business practices does fall under their auspices.

You might have better luck filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. They can mediate complaints of this sort. On the down side; it may take a while as you argue back and forth with Vonage. Have you considered just not paying them? That will certainly get their attention.

I think that the FCC is broadly interested in this as well.

It certainly doesn't hurt to file an online complaint with them.

Vonage's behavior might be construed as interfering with number portability, which the FCC does pay attention to.

I agree with your points, but the easy way to have done this would have been to have your NEW carrier port your number from Vonage.

If the port worked, then Vonage would have probably cancelled your account automatically, assuming that you had no other phone numbers with them.

OTOH, if Vonage held up the port, then you would have had a very clear-cut complaint to the FCC about THAT.

I was suggesting a complaint to the FTC in addition to the complaint the OP had already decided to file with the FCC.

Also, the OP made no mention of porting a number, just closing an account. Attempting to close an account with a number port process active would pretty much kill the number port process. If the OP were actually doing that, then perhaps it is a good thing that Vonage was not answering the phone.

Agreed, couldn't hurt, though I imagine that the FTC would bounce it over.

The OP could also see if Vonage had entered into a consent decree with the Florida Attorney General.Of course. He should have ported the number away, rather than doing a cold cancel.

Why would you not want to retain usage of a phone number that you've had for more than 10 years? That puzzled me!

Possibly, but they would be passing the buck that they are supposed to be watching if they did.

»ftc.gov/ftc/about.shtm»transition.fcc.gov/aboutus.htmlThe FCC and the FTC have very different primary missions.

read on another complaint site that although customer ported the number to a new carrier and vonage was aware of this (admitted in emails to customer) they continued to charge number even though they no longer serviced the number.

I haven't had that happen, but I have had (with two different phone numbers) Vonage keep the number(s) in their database after a port out, which prevented Vonage callers from reaching my numbers (Vonage customers would get a "not in service" announcement). It took threats of FCC/FTC complaints (both from me and the other carrier) to get that fixed.

I've seen multiple reports of that happening with Vonage.

Not sure if that's because of a systemic problem, or simply because as a large provider they'll have a large number of portouts.

But of course they should have fixed that for you without such a hassle....

I'm presently in the process of replacing my landline phone with some voip service. When I read threads such as this I have to say the focus of my irritation is on the consumer. I'm well aware that as one of them, I represent the dispiriting (and therefore generally dispirited) two percent who take the time, make any effort at all, to investigate such complaints and thereby make better informed decisions from the very start.

Sorry, nothing to add to this substantively. Just wanted to get that off my chest. Business cannot be blamed really. Business is, for it's own health generally, amoral in these regards. The only thing that can possibly change that situation is consumer awareness. The internet has provided the opportunity... if so many ignore that opportunity then they "deserve the services they get".