Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Cox VOIP
·ViaTalk
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·MegaPath
·Verizon west (ex G..
·Time Warner VOIP
| Certainly true in my case
Dealing with their retention agents was the worst. They are horribly rude and abusive, basically calling anyone who dare quit their suck-ass service an idiot.
I had to finally resort to raising my voice and saying I want to cancel about 20 times in a row before the Vonage a-hole would finally do it. |
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benc
Premium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL | Lawsuits...
I'd bet that those have something to do with it.
How can they recover from lawsuits if all the customers leave?
Anyway, their service seems a bit high-priced for all the shortcomings of VOIP over the public Internet. |
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amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22
Tempe, AZ | Didn't notice for a year?
It's hard for me to be sympathetic of someone who didn't notice automatic billing for a year.
Mark |
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hayabusa3303
Over 200 mph
Premium
join:2005-06-29
clubs:
·QuantumVoice
·AT&T Southeast
·RoadRunner Cable
| Glad i left them
Tech support was the worst and you better pay close to what they say. i cant understand you speak F****** english CLEARLY please.
Solve the problem do a charge back on them, and see what happens, or like me i changed debit cards and they couldnt bill me  |
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MuDvAyNe
Premium
join:2002-03-02
Brooklyn, NY | reply to amigo_boy
Re: Didn't notice for a year?
exactly, does this person not check their montly credit card statement..
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Mets, Cowboys, Devils |
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Nightshade
sic semper tyrannis
Premium
join:2002-05-26
Salem, OR
2 edits | reply to amigo_boy
Got a point there. I guess she doesn't pay attention to where her money goes. |
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gaforces
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA
| reply to Dogfather
Re: Certainly true in my case
Thats almost exactly what happened when I canceled AOL.
It was like being in high school all over again. I think thats how they get their retention agents, find the kids with the most complaints against them, and hire them!
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Vista ~ Less functional every day! |
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Jeffrey
too dark too early
Premium
join:2002-12-24
Dix Hills,NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Verizon FIOS
·Vonage
·magicjack.com
|  Service Is Great (YMMV), Cancel Dept Stinks, 1 YR?
A few points here:
I've had Vonage for almost 4 years. One of the best decisions I ever made was to subscribe to their service. Total of 3 lines here now, 2 voice, 1 data. Price and quality have been, and continue to be excellent.
It does appear that their cancellation/retention department is too damn aggressive. Something should be done about that...
That being said, I have little or no sympathy for someone that doesn't notice a year's worth of direct billing charges.
--
And so castles made of sand, slip into the sea, eventually.
I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to amigo_boy
Re: Didn't notice for a year?
While I * 10000000% * agree with you, I don't agree with Vonage's way of handling it.
I hate the "gotchya" mentality of any company. If they over charged a customer, they need to return it. This very debate was held in a comcast post about a year ago and people were hell bent against comcast keeping the money and on the side of the customer. hmmm.
I strongly disagree that any company should, even going back a year, should be able to keep money for a service long canceled. Even if the consumer didn't check the credit card isn't an excuse. That opens the door to businesses gambling with the consumer.
In some environments, credit card charges are approved, in a business or professional environment, and that's it. With paperless billing which Vonage is, it's MUCH easier for a company to sneak charges past people.
Personally, I have a system I use to stop this madness. I always call my bank and have a new card waiting to be activated. When I do finally activate the new card, it turns off the old one. So, when I call to stop a service, like Vonage, and want to ensure that it won't be charged again, I simply cancel the old service, and then activate the card in waiting. At that point, Vonage, for example, could pound sand all day long because any future purchases would get declined.
But, Mark, like you, I find it hard to feel Sympathetic about this one.. don't agree with Vonage either, but hard to feel sorry for her. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to Jeffrey
Re: Service Is Great (YMMV), Cancel Dept Stinks, 1 YR?
I have their service too, along side of Comcast Digital Phone, now CDV, ... to be honest, I use my Vonage line and don't use my comcast lines. The quality of Vonage is actually better for me.
Their customer service, in my opinion, is pretty hit and miss. I've subscribed to Vonage since 2004 and have had no outtages that I'm aware of.
The funny thing is that if Vonage would stop now, with their aggression practices, they'd keep more customers. I know several people alone that have canceled their service because they felt customer service was too aggressive with them.. they loved the service, but it was their agents that pissed them off. |
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hopeflicker
Capitalism breeds greed
Premium
join:2003-04-03
Long Beach, CA
| They easy way to cancel any service
Just tell them you are moving to Siberia or Africa and that you are selling the house.
problem solved. 
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Man created God in his image : intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent. |
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zipjay
join:2003-03-11
Louisville, KY | How to Cancel Vonage for only $10
Go to Walgreens or some other store that sells green dot cards.. buy one and add like $5 to it or something.. change your credit card on vonage to it, let it sit. Unless their ok with you having a late bill forever they will eventually cancel you. |
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mb
join:2000-07-23
Washington, NJ
·Comcast
·Callcentric
·Vonage
·Verizon Online DSL
1 edit | Duh
I had no problem the first time that I cancelled Vonage. It was a 2 step process that took about 20 minutes of time on the phone. I realized that my agreement called for an early cancelation fee. I ended up coming back to Vonage after brief stints with VoicePulse and ViaTalk. I'm glad that I did! |
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amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22
Tempe, AZ
·Cox HSI
·magicjack.com
| reply to fiberguy
Re: Didn't notice for a year?
said by fiberguy  :when I call to stop a service, like Vonage, and want to ensure that it won't be charged again, I simply cancel the old service, and then activate the card in waiting. At that point, Vonage, for example, could pound sand all day long because any future purchases would get declined. I'd be nervous about disabling a charge card as a way of terminating service (ignoring whether I'd reached mutual agreement with the people who charge it). A lot of credit card companies will reset your interest rate to what they call a "default rate" (28-33%) if you're late on a bill like an electric bill.
Mark |
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SteveLV702
Premium
join:2004-04-22
Henderson, NV | reply to zipjay
Re: How to Cancel Vonage for only $10
ya but see once you don't pay the bill then they just send you to a outside Collection Agency who then harasses you and it becomes part of your Credit Report and then there goes your credit. |
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cornelius785
join:2006-10-26
Worcester, MA | reply to MuDvAyNe
Re: Didn't notice for a year?
yeah, isn't good practice to ensure that what you think you have in your bank account is the same as what the bank says you have and the charges on credit/deibt cards lines up to what you actually charged/debited? |
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lvlorpheus
join:2008-02-17
Eureka Springs, AR
| reply to zipjay
Re: How to Cancel Vonage for only $10
You can also just change it to your bank card, and tell your bank not to let them charge you. Thats free, as long as you have had there service for a year, or you are in the free trail period. Have your documentation in case you do have to fight with them. Now if you are trying to cancel your service in the middle of that first year, and did not cancel in the trail period, you deserve to have to fight with them. Also, when I canceled without hassle I did so because I had to. EV-DO rev 0 just will not handle a Vonage call, but I liked the service. Personally I don't know why people who have to have a traditional phone don't just get a bare bones measured phone just for 911, and Vonage for there primary line. You can call more places and have more features for less money including the cost of basic phone. Besides that when I tested my 911 on Vonage the local police dept. answered, and told me my address. If you test this on your Vonage line call there phone # first and let the police know what you are wanting to test. The police do not like it when you call 911 as a test out of the blue. I hope this will help someone, and I agree having to fight to cancel or keep having to check to make sure your cancellation really happened when you have meet all of the agreed terms is wrong. |
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dellsweig
Extreme Aerobatics
Premium,MVM
join:2003-12-10
Campbell Hall, NY | see this thread
»Just Cancelled one of my Vonage lines - no issues |
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La Luna
Surviving Ashraful
Premium
join:2001-07-12
Warwick, NY
clubs:
·Optimum Online
·Vonage
| reply to Jeffrey
Re: Service Is Great (YMMV), Cancel Dept Stinks, 1 YR?
said by Jeffrey :A few points here: I've had Vonage for almost 4 years. One of the best decisions I ever made was to subscribe to their service. Total of 3 lines here now, 2 voice, 1 data. Price and quality have been, and continue to be excellent. It does appear that their cancellation/retention department is too damn aggressive. Something should be done about that... That being said, I have little or no sympathy for someone that doesn't notice a year's worth of direct billing charges. Agreed. I can't imagine NOT having Vonage or having to switch to another substandard VoIP service. And looking at the number of VoIP providers some people here have tried, it looks like they can't be satisfied or there's serious problems on their end.
If you want to pay $10 for phone service, you're going to get exactly what you pay for. No thanks. Vonage rates are fine for everything we get, which includes dependability and excellent call quality.
I take with a grain of salt these far and few between anecdotal "cancel problems" that somehow make their way to various websites. Who knows if they're even true.
--
10,606 DEADLY TERROR ATTACKS SINCE 9/11~~TEAM DISCOVERY
Can't feel you anymore, don't need you anymore, don't believe you anymore, I don't need you anymore
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elister
join:2006-07-17
Seattle, WA
3 edits | Problems with phone ports....
Chances are she ported her number to a poor carrier like ATT or Comcast.
I no longer work as a CSR for a cable company, but it would occasionally happen when customers port their number over to us. I would ALWAYS tell customers to call that previous carrier back a few days after we port the number over just to verify their account was canceled. Why? Because it would happen. We would have customers sign up with their service, have nothing but problems, then port it back to us, only to find out 2-3 months later they were still getting billed. It would happen often with ATT & Comcast, either we didnt send the notice to disconnect or they flat out got it, but didnt cancel the account. Because I was an entry level CSR and didnt have access to the switch, It would be days before we could find out any info on what happened.
In the end I figured it must have been a problem with the previous carrier because I would NEVER get customers complaining about their previous carrier were Sprint, Qwest or Verizon. It was always Comcast & ATT.
This lady who signed up for Vonage, DIDNT CANCEL with Vonage, she mearly ported her number over to ATT and no doubt was still being billed because ATT really sucks when it comes to phone ports. She basically hung up on them, why do I know this? Because if Vonage HAD canceled her phone service, good luck at porting that to ATT! The number HAS to be active in order for the port to go through. If Vonage had cancled it, then the article would have been about Vonage stealing a phone number she had for years.
"Dont worry, we'll call up your old phone company and cancel your account", the customer believes this and when she finally notices shes still being billed by ATT she'll call up ATT in which they'll point the finger at Vonage. She'll call up Vonage and they'll point the finger at ATT.
Hard to say, almost all these "OMG YOU HEARTLESSS BASTARDS!" storied on DSLReports always leave out important info which could probably explain the whole ordeal.
I am, in no way, defending Vonage or any other company. |
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