vonage telephone service sucks! Phone supports horrible

[ladykiri]

You work for vonage? Can you help me? WILL you help me? Because I have been hearing "We will fix this in 24 hours" for 3 weeks, only to hear, in my email, every morning, that I will need to go and spend another 100 bucks for another device.

I call, explain the mac address issue, am assured it will be fixed in 24 hours...

Again to recieve a mail saying that I should go buy another device.

Please help me!!!!!

ladykiri@yahoo.com

[fancy]

I have never been so frustrated with any service provider in my life. Vonage sounds really good and appealing in theory but in reality, the service sucks! I work from home a lot and cannot rely on the service to perform my duties. I was out of phone and internet service for 3 days once. I have spent more time resetting and configuring the router than actually using the service. The support reps are very rude and incompetent. I sent them an email from a friend's house, asking them to call me on cell but they called back on my home phone when they knew damn well that I could not receive calls. The service and support has been very dissatisfying. I am definitely going to switch back to SBC as soon as possible and pay the extra montly fees for a peace of mind.

[jasona]

You would think that Vonage service would operate like a regular phone company (call quality issues aside).

There are many 1-8xx numbers that you cannot dial from your Vonage phone or even some local numbers as well. You just get "Invalid phone number".

However, these same numbers work just fine from another Telco line.

I called technical support can got a sob story about some other Telco's gateway not talking to Vonage's equipment or something. It doesn't really matter to the customer does it? It should just work.

As for quality issues, lots of calls with "echo" or huge delay in them. This is using the normal (low) bandwidth option.

[jeroentas]

We took a monthly trial. It has been totally impossible to cancel. It tooks us 2 months to cancel. Thfree months of service were charged to my card. Hold times were more than 40 minutes. Agents were total morons, selected on a complete lack of IQ and customer orientation.

Don't even consider.

[stockboy_7]

Hey Folks, on top of the issues mentioned in this forum, it may also interest you to know that Vonage is the new name of the former theglobe.com. As a financial guy, I remember when theglobe.com first came public in the late 1990s - huge first day jump, from to $10 to $100, which started the internet investment craze. The founders made a ton of money and then eventually ran the company into the ground, leaving shareholders holding the bag. When the company finally became almost worthless, these guys stepped, bought out all the shareholders, brought the company private, polished it up, came up with a VOIP initiative, and re-named the company Vonage.
Vonage recently went public less than 1 month ago. It is the worst-performing IPO in quite a while. Poetic justice in my mind for the folks at theglobe.com that are putting you customers thru such hell.

[jarbun]

Vonage is the worst company I have dealt with. I stuck with them for a year and a few months, and my phone service started experiencing problems. I had to spend about two hours trying to cancel my service, and even then they charged me about a 100 for no reason. Their billing department is an innovation on hell. Their account managers and credit reps are outright liars. First they told me not to return their phone adapter and then they went ahead and charged me for it. Not to mention the hidden cancellation fees that no one tells you about. Go with the big guys, and stay away from this "broadband phone company."

[Abby]

I have been reading consumers' posts regarding Vonage's practices. I work for a consumer rights law firm and I'm investigating Vonage's actions. I would like to hear from consumers about their experiences with Vonage. If you are interested in sharing your story, please email me at abby1100ny@yahoo.com

[vonageshouldclose]

I tried switching my telephone number to Vonage to save money as I was starting a new small business. The business (selling cruises) relies almost completely on telephone and internet. When Vonage transferred the telephone number (which had gone out on over 600 announcements to former clients) they also CANCELLED my internet service - which came in over the phone line. Gosh, their mistake, I had to fix it. Naturally I was not enamored of the mess they had created and wanted out of anything to do with them. Unfortunately, I'm now suffering from the Vonage Curse. I have spent weeks
1. getting internet service re-installed (had to open up a new account with BellSouth)
2. changing my personal e-mail address with all personal accounts (no point paying for Earthlink when I had to sign up with BellSouth just to get reconnected quickly)
3. trying to cancel the Vonage (dis)service
4.disputing their charge through American Express and
5. attempting to get my local telephone number transferred back to BellSouth. (over 600 of my best potential clients have the wrong local number - thank God the toll-free number was not with Vonage).

Between BellSouth & Vonage I don't know which company is worse, all I have gotten is "the request is being processed", "the request was refused because ________ (fill in the blank), "that's handled through a 3rd party provider, we don't do that", "it will be at least 10 working days before that can be done", etc. Over a month later my rage is over the top.

As my finances slip slowly into the sea, I am essentially helpless (other than ranting and raving) to correct my service and get the heck rid of Vonage.

Potential Clients: STAY AWAY FROM VONAGE IF YOU VALUE YOUR TIME, MONEY OR SANITY (not to mention your business).

Potential Cruise Clients: I have been in this industry for over 12 years and would be happy to give you personal and prompt SERVICE (what a concept!), great rates and the best information on the right cruise for you. www.topsailjourneys.com.[color=darkblue][/color][color=darkblue][/color]

[mr4guv]

BUYER BEWARE - Vonage service SUCKS! I've had two lines that worked some of the time. Using a speaker phone or dialing a code/number in rarely works. The money you save isn't worth the hassle... and I have a high speed Comcast connection to run this over.

[randyguy]

It must be your ISP's. We have had no problems with it (except bad weather of course) and we call all over the country. YAHOOOOO!

[snts]

First off, I'll mention that I am a computer systems engineer and I have the ability to set up my own network - I have done so in my home, and I maintain the integrity of it on a daily basis.

Second, I will say that Vonage totally sucks. It was by far the most horrific experience I've ever had the misfortune of going through with a telephone company. I ordered the service and got my router, which was broken. I tried everything to get it to work but it would not.

So, I called Vonage tech support. Big mistake. Three nights of being led around in circles on the phone, 5+ hours per night, and I FINALLY got them to admit the router was broken and send me a new one.

The new router was up and working in minutes. Gee - and the tech support guy INSISTED that the router wasn't broken? WTF.

It worked for about a month, then died again. I tried and tried to get it to work but I had no phone for at least 3 weeks. Frustrated and completely pissed off, I tried to cancel my service and go back to AT&T. That was another nightmare in and of itself. For 3 months afterwards, they were STILL charging my credit card even though I had verified my cancellation TWICE with their representatives. I called and bitched them out for a good 2 hours until they finally credited my card back the amount they had taken.

Then I promptly went to my credit card company after the money showed up and reported the card as stolen. I HAD TO REPORT MY CARD STOLEN to get them to stop charging me, for pity's sake! What kind of a business model is that?!?!?!

In a nutshell - DO NOT go with Vonage.

[Anthony C]

I would like to introduce myself and welcome myself to this message board hopefully with open arms.

I am Anthony Cimaglia and I work for an aggressive VOIP company that specializes in home users with month to month contracts.

We charge 19.99 per month and this is what you get:

Unlimited minutes of calling anywhere in US and Canada.
Unlimited free incoming minutes
No commitment, 30-day money-back guarantee

All the great features included:
Voicemail
Voicemail to Email
Voicemail Notification to Pager
Message Waiting Indicator
Caller ID
Call Waiting
CallBlast (Intelligent Call Forwarding)
Call Blocking
3-Way Calling
Unlimited inbound minutes

I would like to see if we can work any type of synergy by offering my solution. We have worked hard perfecting out product and we are priced better and with month to month contracts with no cancellation fee's the balls in your court.

[kellylitvak]

I have been a customer of Vonage for over a year. I have spent most of the morning on hold and being transferred to one person after another. After months of having multiple problems and hours of phone time trying to fix them all, they have left me with the bill and alot of wasted time. Trust me when I tell you that you need to steer clear of this troubled company. They could offer me a FREE YEAR and I wouldn't stay with them. In fact, I plan to lodge formal complaints with the BBB and elsewhere. I give them 2 more years before they are out of business.

[kellylitvak]

Vonage is so bad. I am a business owner and know that if I provided their faulty product and very, very poor customer service, I would go out of business. Steer clear of this troubled company.

[mandvtejeda]

I was considering using Vonage for mine and my husbands small business when I came across this web site, to test their customer service I sent this e-mail and amgoing to wait for their reply, assuming that I receive one. Here is a copy of the e-mail I sent:


Hello, I am not a current Vonage customer at the time but am considering your service for our business. I do how ever have a few concerns, As I was looking up your web site I stumbled across a whole internet page on your companies scustomer service. The emails from all of the customers or former customers were alarming. I noticed that the biggest complaint wa the lack of efficiency in your customer service departmant. There were quite a few complaints on extreemly long wait times and agents that appeared to be very low in job knowlwdge. I think that your service is a great value and the low cos - one cost monthly service fee is a big selle for you as I am at an impass with our local phone company and their changing rates, how ever it is unsettling that as a customer when you have a problem or concern that your needs are not met. I myself being a customer service agent for 1800flowers.com know that importance of 100% customer satisfaction. Your product could sell it's self but you must have the continual service to retain your customers to have long term loyal customers. I woud greatly appricate a reply to my e-mail to in some way reassure myself that I am making the right decision in choosing your company. Thak you for your time in this matter. Have terrific day!

I will keep you posted on the response.