This story comes to me from a prior Vonage customer who in my opinion has had s terrible customer service experience.
Todd
I’ve been a listener for over a year, and I don’t recall hearing you
discuss Vonage’s horrible consumer record.
After looking around the web (just Google Vonage problems) it seems
I’m not alone in this, and it needs your attention. First, I want to
say that I was a happy Vonage customer for 4 years. The only reason I
chose to leave them was I got a better deal. Leaving is the rub.
In late September 2005 I ordered VOIP service from another carrier and
canceled Vonage. Several calls to Vonage sent me through a succession
of people, many who had poor command of English, and eventually led me
to wait on hold for the person authorized to end my account. The wait
was too long, and I finally believed I closed the account on a
Saturday after spending more than 2 hours on the phone with them. When
I had allegedly discontinued service, I had been using my new carrier
for several weeks and had disconnected the Vonage ATA box. They billed
my American Express charge for the entire month, and I paid the entire
bill. All was well until the next American Express bill arrived and
the usual charge from Vonage was again on the bill again. I had now
not used the service for 2 months. Long waits finally got assurances
form a Vonage employee that the service was discontinued, although no
one would agree to credit me for the illegitimate charges. I paid the
bill and moved on to more productive endeavors rather than fight over
$30. The next month, you guessed it. Vonage billed my American Express
again. I phoned American Express, and they contested the charges and
since Vonage did not bother to try to prove they were legitimate, the
charge was reversed. Every Month following that time, I had a new
charge from Vonage that was contested and reversed. I repeated called
Vonage and emailed them to no avail. As a rule no one could find my
account when I phoned them or I was told it was an error. This
continued for more than 2 years until I finally closed the American
Express account. Finally all was quiet after 2 years of trying to get
rid of the Vonage beast.
Today I received two collection notices from an agency writing on
Vonages’ behalf. They say I owe more than $250 for Vonage service
including charges from last year – more than 2 years after I canceled
service. A quick call to Vonage customer service reveals the
reactivated and closed the account for non payment. I never saw a
bill, got a call, an email or anything prior the collection agency
letters.
Anyone considering VoIP service should know about this, and those who
leave Vonage, should be ever wary. Maybe it’s worth mentioning this on
your show..
To the listener of my show as you know I read this in the listener comment segment last night. But I think it is worthy of trying to get the attention of someone at Vonage Corporate. We have had good luck in the past in getting issues resolved and companies have actually changes policies after we have aired issues on the show like this. We will see if the folks over at Vonage are willing to review you account and get this settled so you do not have to incur a hit on your credit rating and have the collection agency stop its collection action.