Damien Katz

Be careful what you write online. They might decide to countersue for libel or such like. I would just present the facts.

Are they covered by the same rules as other telephone companies? Aren’t you just using your broadband connection to exchange info? I guess if it's interstate commerce then the Dept. of Commerce could be involved. Also, if you're worried about libel, just preface your statements with a good ole, "In my opinion".

Call your credit card company. Tell them to cancel the charge. Move on with your life.

Will, agreed, I won't say anything libelous. I'm stating the facts, even if I do use swear words. Even if I say they are a bunch of greedy fucking bastards, that's not libelous. My wife majored in journalism in college, we know the rules.

Ronnie, I don't want to hire a lawyer. If I sue them, it will be in small claims court. Why? Because it's something anyone can do, and as such it will make for interesting reading: One man's quest to get back a refund from a large faceless corporation while navigating the legal system. I'll show everyone the steps I take, and try to make it as interesting as possible. Lawyers are boring, average schmoe's taking on big corporations in interesting. I like leading an interesting life.

Chris, I did that. We didn't notice it in time and now the credit card company won't take it off. And it's not about the $100 they owe me anymore, it's about the wasted time and aggravation. It's about a company taking advantage of regular people. I'm in a position to show in a very publicity grabbing way what they done and the measures I'm forced to go through to get my money back.

My understanding is that you may win in small claims court but may not actually ever collect. There are government and other public resources available to help you actually collect, why not use them? See http://www.mass.gov/portal/index.jsp?pageID=ocaterminal&L=4&L0=Home&L1=Consumer&L2=Shopping+%26+E-Commerce&L3=Resolve+a+Problem&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=resolve_a_problem&csid=Eoca

Isn't this the same Jeffrey A. Citron who is the prick that just paid $70M in fines for illegal trading in the 90's? You'd better start reading some law books.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp17929.htm

Chris, you're absolutely right, but here's why that didn't work if you're interested: After the original problems I told AmEx that the Vonage charges were unauthorized. AmEx said I'd have to wait until the charges actually appeared on my statement, then dispute them, which I planned to do. In the mean time Vonage actually called me to say that they were going to credit back all charges. That is why I didn't call AmEx to dispute when the original charges showed up. In my experience credits can take 1 or 2 cycles to show up, and I just forgot about it until after that time. You only have 60 days to dispute a charge through AmEx.

Sounds appalling, and I hope it all works out, but:

I'll blog the whole and will be a PR nightmare for them. I'll probably increase my readership along the way.

I think you might be overestimating just how interested the world might be in a "blogger has snit with phone company" story.

I think you might be overestimating just how interested the world might be in a "blogger has snit with phone company" story.

I'll make it interesting. You were interested enough to post comment. :) And the more time I spend on this, the more bad stuff I find out about them. And the more publicity it receives, the more "me too" stories will show up. See my previous blog entry. It steadily gets traffic from Google and people still post comments to it.

And I wasn't even trying then. But now I'm angry, and they are going to pay. It might not show up on a balance sheet, but I'm going to educate as many potential customers as possible. Every educated consumer who doesn't sign up with them will be a small victory against what is starting to look more and more like criminal behaviour.

You go Damien! Just don't get their commercials taken off the air, they crack me up.

I had a similar situation with Comcast a while back. I had moved from MA to NH and remained a Comcast customer. However, I had given up on their internet (cable modem) service but kept on as a Cable TV subscriber. When the tech came out to turn on the Cable TV, I dutifully relinquished the cable modem I had been leasing.

For some unknown reason, Comcast decided I had never returned the modem and continued to charge me $180 for it. Even threatening to call a collection agency and ruin my credit rating and junk like that.

Of course, during this time, I repeatedly called their customer service number, waded through the menu, faxed copies of my work order, where the tech noted the return of the cable modem, complete with serial number!!! I was going nuts with frustration! Again, as you said, it wasn't about the money, it was the whole feeling of helplessness.

I only got it solved when I happen to notice that Comcast had a business office next door to where I work with REAL LIVE PEOPLE IN IT.

About 30 seconds with a REAL LIVE PERSON and I got the situation cleared up. I think Comcast is a reputable company and it sounds like Vonage may be quite a bit less than that but I just wanted to chime in.

If only they could put a REAL LIVE PERSON on the other end of the phone, I think stuff might get straightened out a lot sooner.

My .02....

That is so funny Kudla, we had the same charge when moved from Mass and cancelled our cable service. They claimed I never returned their cable modem, when in fact I purchased my own modem at Circuit City. The really ironic thing is I bought that modem to save me money in the long run. Which it did, except for $180 dollar charge at the end. But we got it straightened out and I think it took less than a day, not 5 months.

So at least I don't blog ALL my customer disputes. Just the really really aggravating ones. Actually Vonage is the first and only one I've blogged. They make me sooo mad!

Can't comment on the business side of things related to Vonage, but wanted to chime in about their technical support: It sucked equally bad :-)

So, I switched from Vonage to Voicepulse (http://www.voicepulse.com)

a) I had tons of problems with Vonage (ISP was ComCast in Cambridge), and Vonage's help desk always pointed the finger to Comcast, whatever the problem was. Funny that then I told them that I also tested another offering from Voicepulse, which had NO problems on ComCast, they would STILL blame ComCast.

b) at the time of switch, the configurable 'perks'/features offered by voicepulse were much better than what vonage offered, PLUS voicepulse was cheaper.

c) Voicepulse also allows you to use the VoIP box for services other than just calling over the phone. For example, they allow you use it from any SIP code or softphone apps, too. Vonage might allows that now, too, but didn't back then.

Overall, it felt that Vonage acted already as if they were 'owning' the VoIP market (more expensive, less features and crappy help), and the Voicepulse folks acted in exactly the opposite way: Extremely helpful, better service and more reliable. They even switched my phone number a couple times for free (vonage would want to charge a 'service' fee for that.). Clearly the underdog, clearly determined to beat Vonage. Awesome.

Been using voicepulse for over 2 years now, very happy with it. Screw Vonage.

Well, I am going to be the lone dissenter. I guess I have incredibly good luck with Vonage. When I have called for customer service they have taken care of my chargebacks immediately, first time. Early on when I was trying to get everything working (with the early Motorola router) and I called into tech support, the person was knowledgeable about the router and networking in general, and was very helpful (I even blogged about it).

As of now I have two Vonage routers - one for home and one for business (business one has a regular line and a fax line). I commented to my wife the other day that the service has been so reliable and "transparent" that I forgot we were actually using VoIP/Vonage. The service has been flawless for at least 6 months - but I will admit that early on there were quality of call issues, but since then it has been fine.

So, I guess I am fortunate that I haven't had the problems you have had with Vonage - but for me every call I have made to them has been handled correctly and efficiently, and the service has been transparent (as it should be).

--Rock

Rock, I can't say what happens with them on the technical side. I've heard lots of similar reports. No big problems, works as expected. As I understand it they use standard, off-the-shelf equipment, so why shouldn't it? It's when you want to change service or cancel, that it becomes a nightmare to actually get what belongs to you.

And it appears to be getting worse. All the examples I listed above are within the last month. And yet I still see their ads all over the place.

Vonage already knows darn well that they suck:

http://vonagesucks.com/

Brilliant!!

Go, Damien!

It's probably just swapping one large, evil corporation for another, but the line of thinking in the link below is that the cable/telcos will squeeze Vonage out of existence before all is said and done.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050303.html

Sorry to hear all of you have had such bad experiences. I've been a Vonage customer for almost 3 years with nothing but great service. I have recommended Vonage to 3 clients with 100% satisfaction as well.

I would be very careful about what you say here. While you may have had an excrutiatingly difficult experience, I doubt that you are indiciative of the majority of their customer base.

Peace!

Have you posted any of your comments on the Vonage Forum? Just wonder how they will be accepted? http://www.vonage-forum.com

Damien, I applaud your efforts.

On December 2003, This American Life aired a segment where they "went after" MCI for a similar customer service debacle.

The show's senior producer, Julie Snyder, had spent 10 months trying to get credit for incorrect charges, while additional charges contined to mount. Julie's incredible frustration was palpable (I heard a rebroadcast of the show a few months ago). She really didn't want to take advantage of her position on a national radio show, but I'm guessing her anger and patience ran out and she gave in. I'm glad she did as it was a great segment.

After Julie recounted the "highlights" of her nightmare, Ira Glass, the show's host, placed a live, on-air, call to MCI customer service. When MCI found they were live on a national radio show, Julie finally got some small satisfaction. The show is a great listen and is online at:

http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/03/253.html (look for Act Two)

(Amy Gahran's Contentious blog has a nice synopsis of the episode).

The telephone and cable companies are notorious for their tendencies to "screw the little guy." Your blog, Mr. Greenspun's page and shows like This American Life should give us hope that we might even be able to fight back.

FWIW, if you search Google.com for "fuck vonage," your page tops the list! Also under the heading of "FWIW," I searched Google for Vonage and your AdWords listing was number seven (I didn't follow the link -- didn't want to deplete the balance on the account ;-).

You go Damien! Horrible customer service and dubious practices such as these deserve to be seen and heard (and punished!). And don't listen to that James Kew character, he's just trying to get a rise out of you. Anyone who's ever dealt with customer service from a big corporation knows your pain, and knows it shouldn't be tolerated.

I was about to buy Vonage and saw your website. I am glad I did read things. THanks. Another prospective Vonage customer lost.

Just saw this site in the nick of time before purchasing vonage. One more point for the home team!:)

Thanks I guess I will not get Vonage. You have help make my decision.

Hey Damien, In my opinion, you're an idiot, and have no idea what your talking about.

I have just signed up for vonage. IT SUCKS REALLY REALLY BAD. The router that we bought won't work with internet or the phone. Called Linksys like 10 times (great and polite customer support by the way) then comcast (also great customer support)and still problems. Everyone told me to call vonage. so...... After 2 calls (only 2) I was getting pissed. 1 hr waits. up to 3 transfers (meaning more waiting). Lazy and Bad customer support that always lie. (4-13-05 10:00PM "I'm sorry, We're too busy now, may I get your call back number so we may call in 15-20 minutes?" tick tock.... now it's 12:00PM. No call. Next day no call. and so on.) One guy was on Instant Messenger while he was helping me. I heard the IM recieve chime in the background..... Vonage also recently sent us a new router. Which of course sucks too. Wont go online for more than 10 seconds and I get dial tones every minute that last for 2 seconds. I've called to have my number transfered and well... That never happened. So I'm paying for 2 phone services.... Vonage is bad and I would not suggest it.

No one really cares unless this situation belongs to
them. I was interested in Vonage, however, I am
currently in my own nightmare with Dish Network.
Therefore after reading the above comments, I would
not touch them. THANK YOU FOR THE INFO!!

Why is it that a bunch of my friends just got Vonage and they all love it, yet all of you hate it? In my opinion, I think that all of you have the technical ability of a garden house. Although, I could be wrong.

Glad I Googled for Vonage and found this. I had a funny feeling that I should check them out before committing, so....I'll keep my land line.

Hey DamienDogz, did it ever occur to you that setting up and using a phone should not require any technical ability?

I sure wish that I had encountered your site before I got suckered into getting Vonage. To make things worse, I convinced a friend to sign up, too. Vonage has been intermittent at best, and although people can call me, lately those whom I call can't hear me. Not good when calling work. Fortunately, the secretary has figured out that after two successive "dead air calls" she should call me back. That's how common the problem has become. I've NEVER been able to get any response whatsoever from Vonage "Customer Care" despite many repeated attempts. I intended to register the vonagesucks.com domain, but lo and behold... Vonage already registered it. Smacks of self-awareness. Kudos for your continued efforts to expose Vonage for the crooks that they are. They even began billing me from the moment I ordered service, eleven days before I got the equipment to use it. I now also know to keep my RT31P2 router when I cancel service, rather than returning it for a refund that will never be honored.

Hello, Hello, oh man, hello ??!?

I was just getting ready to order the service. Thanks for posting all of the nightmares you have experienced with Vonage, it saved me from a nightmare of my own. I will make sure I pass this on to everyone I know to save them from this scandelous company.

Wow! I am soooooo glad I ran across this. I WILL NOT be diving into broadband phone service. I emailed Vonage about a year ago to see if they would accept other payment methods besides credit cards. This is EXACTLY what I was afraid of when they came out. Trust your instincts people. If it is true good to be true, then it's probably a screw job.

Viva La Resistiance!!!!

PS. www.vonagebites.com is available. I think you should buy it and post there too :)

i just want to say that i was researching before ordering, and dannnnng, am I glad I came here. I am an outside plant engineer and can confidently say that it shouldnt take *Technical Ability* to make a home phone work. Does anyone know of any of the broadband phones that will take anyting other than a credit card?...thanks

I signed up for Vonage about a week ago. USPS lost my router shipment so I had to call Vonage support to ship another one. I did not have to wait long at all to speak with someone. They were very friendly and sent another router next day air without charge to me.

I just got the router last night and hooked everything up with no problems whatsoever. I had it up and running within ten minutes.

I am very happy with Vonage so far, and would highly recommend them.

Sorry to those of you who didn't get good customer service as I did, but I'm willing to bet that those problems are few and far between. Is there a company that has a 100% customer satisfaction rating? I think not.

I was about to buy Vonage and saw your website. I am glad I did read things. THanks. Another prospective Vonage customer lost.

I was just about to sign up for Vonage, decided to check reviews and this would be the 7th Different website with HORRIBLE reviews.

It took me only one site to decide not to, but this is so everyone that reads this can see how bad this is, glad I checked before giving up my credit card.

Do not fall for it, plus the good reviews on all 7th sites seems remarkable alike -- just a comment.

Thanks for the info.

I have already placed a Vonage order before seeing this site... I am tempted to cancel, but one thing I noticed is that many problems seem to occur in transferring old numbers. I'm getting a brand new number, and it's pretty much going to be dedicated to faxes and occasional back-up voice. So. I'll see how it goes and get back around here next month; good, bad or ugly.

I was about to sign up with Vonage but your posted info changed my mind. I will look else where for this service. Thanks.

I think with any company they are bound to have some customers that are not pleased with the service. I have had nothing but success with communicating and having customer care resolve my issues. I transferred my telephone number to Vonage and after about 3 weeks of staying on top of them it was completed. They even had a service outage in my area which caused me to miss some important calls and gave me a six month credit for the problem. It was fixed in about 3 hours!

If you look at it, Vonage is a company that is growing. They rely on our trustful and smelly friends in India to route their technical support calls back to New Jersey. The funny part about the routing is their network overseas is so crappy, New Jersey ends up calling me back, every time!

I would suggest that you set aside what everyone has posted and give it a try. They are not as bad as everyone is claiming them out to be. Their CEO might be a crook but at least they are providing a service to me that have saved me several thousands in long distance charges. I am willing to put up with that for under $50.00 a month! Again, stay on top of them and when they say they are going to credit you then make sure they do! Stay on top of it!

I've had Vonage at home for about a year. I struggled with service quality problems at first, but then things seemed to go well for a little while.

Now I have periods of time when strange things seem to happen. For example, at one point calls to my home were occasionally routed to the same doctor's office. This happened off-and-on for about a month.

Due to the continued glitches and non-responsive customer server, I decided to move my number back to SBC. It's been 45 days and so far it doesn't look good. Yesterday after 40 minutes on hold, a "customer service" rep told me I need to get a PO# from SBC for the service "Win Back." SBC said there is no such thing and that they have attempted to escalate the number transfer 11 times.

SBC also said that after 45 days, legal proceedings begin regarding the number transfer. They expect this will cause things to move along, but I'm not holding my breath.

This is all pretty interesting.

I noticed today that Sams Club is now selling the routers and service. (I wonder if Wal-Mart is aware of Vonage's issues?) I also happened to notice that the State of TX sued last month and Connecticut filed today. They're both siting misleading consumers about potential delays in calls to 911.

It appears that someone broke into the house of some little girl in Conn who tried to call 911. Her parents got shot. The little girl had to go next door to get through to the police.

The 911 call apparently went into voice mail because the local emergency department couldn't receive calls from outside of the local area. Vonage is pointing the finger at the local emergency department.

So, there are issues, for sure. At the same time, you have to admit that Vonage (and now others) are stirring up a lot of excitement. Why? Because we all hate the phone company! When we see a chance to stick it to the phone company an save a few bucks ...

Anyway, I'm sure that Vonage has experienced a great deal of growth, perhaps more than they anticipated. Rapid growth in any business is tough.

Being a software developer, you should be able to understand what happens to systems when demand exceeds capacity. Sometimes, demand can't be adequately predicted (who can guess the emotions of the American public)?

People aren't like distributed software objects. You can't just do a UDDI lookup, replicate and re-deploy. It takes time to react to market demand, staff up, train, etc.

Bottom line, Vonage may be their own worst enemy -- and not without your help! If Vonage wasn't staffed to handle the market interest, the more calls they get the worse the situation will become. The more publicity they get, the more people may be inclined to call (I've thought about it just to test what you've said -- and I'm not a customer), and the worse it will get.

So, you may indeed topple this rising giant with your pebble from the creek. As a rising giant, however, millions of hyped up Americans may be drawn to Vonage. They may experience the same displeasure that you have, or worse. I'd guess that at least half of them won't understand the issues. VoIP will take the hit and be discarded in their minds as technology that simply doesn't work.

Who wins, then? Ma Bell -- that company we all hate.

For what it's worth, I probably WON'T subscribe to Vonage as a result of this site. Congratulations!

My vonage service is like a septic tank....if i doesn't watch my IP router, vonage blows up....and shit be everywhere

I think you will win.

Damien,
I applaud your efforts. This is the intersection point of democracy and capitalism; analyzing with accurate information and voting with your dollar. It is obvious that experiences with Vonage run the gamut from good to bad, and you have every right to voice your experience and for that effort we should thank you (and everyone else that has taken the time to factually document their experiences).
Good luck to you.

Wow, I was considering switching to Vonage.
No way!! Not after what I've read so far.
Don't need the aggravation.

Sorry you all had to go through this but thanks for the FYI

I AM A SUCKER FOR CHEAPER ADVERTISED PHONE SERVICE . AFTER BEING BURNED 9 MONTHS AGO BY SWITCHING MY CEL PHONE TO CINGULAR WIRELESS , GREAT RATES AND LOUSY (NO) RECEPTION .(I AM WITH VERIZON NOW : GREAT RECEPTION).I ALMOST DID IT AGAIN WITH MY LAND LINE , WANTING TO SWITCH TO VONAGE FROM SBC . LUCKILY I READ THIS 1ST .

Their Commercials SUCK-I want to kill them.

Thanks for the warning! Another Vonage customer-to-be lost forever!

My wife and I have had Vonage now for over a year, first in Virginia and now in Vermont and have had zero complaints. Half as much as Verizon for what we use it for, home and business line, and I love the features, especially to be able to listen to your voicemail online.

Don't know exactly why many people don't like it but I've referred several of my friends also and they have all loved it. Obviosuly the "baby bells" don't like it (hint, paid site), but I'm surprised this many "individuals" don't like it... :)

Before I say anything, I would like to say that I feel terrible for those of you who signed up for Vonage and have had nothing but problems.

As someone who works in the burgeoning VoIP industry, I share the sentiment of the software developer who said that Vonage is its own worst enemy. Their customer service issues are a direct result of overmarketing and understaffing, plain and simple. Poor phone service is probably the result of a bad ISP connection (fast connections can still have quality issues). And the phone number move problems are the result of an antiquated system that was never upgraded by Ma Bell in which a company must fax, yes fax, all requests to a clearing center where someone manually inputs the number move request. Faxing was okay in the 1970's when there were about 2 requests coming in each day but obviously the world has outgrown that.

The potential downside of Vonage's aggressive marketing is a consumer backlash like you see on this website. But Vonage doesn't have a choice, market forces dictate that the first movers will win and the investors who've poured millions into Vonage wouldn't want it any other way.

My advice is to wait and see unless you are:

1. Really into technology and don't mind a few hiccups in reliability and customer service
2. Are currently paying an exhorbinant amount for your phone service
3. You're looking for a second line from Vonage

In the long run, VoIP will mature and become as reliable as your regular phones are. But in the meantime, it has some growing pains. Nevetheless, I applaud your website as it takes some degree of backlash in order for these companies to know where they are going wrong and what they need to focus on.

I was looking at Vonage as a possibility to replace my local phone company and get cable or satellite at the same time but after seeing your blog I am staying away.

I have had a GREAT exsperiance with my broad band service! I recieve service from Jirehcomm.
Jirehcomm's service has been flawless. Jirehcomm is a telecommunications company with a twist. For $30 a month you get unlimited local & long distance calling just like all the other broadband telecommunications companies.But Jirehcomm's is owned & operated by the sales team. Jirehcomm works by relationship marketing. Anyone can buy into the company for a one time fee of $250. Everyone you sign up for any of the services offered, you recieve a residual income from that customer's bill. I have been a sales agent for one month & I now have enough encome that I have quite my other full time job & I do this now.. With Jirehcomm I have created finacial independance. I now have freedom to do the things that I've always wanted to do.
If you would like to know more contact me at

918-637-0434
jason
or check out the website,
www.jirehcomm.nett/23864

I have had Vonage for 14 months now. I used to pay about $50/month with Bell South (package was $30, but after myriad taxes, fees, and such the final bill was usually around $50). I also paid $60/month for cell phones for my wife and I which we used for long distance calls. My wife is from Brazil and would spend $40/month on calling cards for a total of $150/month for all of my communications needs.



Enter Vonage...



We started out with the 500 minute plan from Vonage, later added a fax line, upgraded to the unlimited plan, then decided that we didn't use that many minutes and dropped back down to the 500 minute plan and ditched the fax line. Every transition was simple and painless, I think I only had to actually call them to drop the fax line.



My monthly bills now go something like this: I pay Vonage $15/month for 500 minutes including long distance (my parents got it too and are happy with it), The cell phones were rarely being used anymore so we ditched the two of them and got one prepay phone with Verizon for another $15/month. My wife calls Brazil with Vonage and gets nearly double the talk time for $10 less than she got with the calling cards.



So... Without Vonage I paid $150 per month, and with Vonage I pay $60 per month and get more features. After subtracting the money I spent on extra services for some time and adding the $100 I got from referring two people, I have saved $960 over 14 months with Vonage.



As for quality, I did have the issue of people not being able to hear me. I called customer service (I waited about 5 minutes), they made some changes, I plugged my phone into the other port and the problem was solved. I also had less than spectacular sound quality occasionally, but once Comcast bumped up my speed to 4M down and 384K up, I have not had quality issues at all.



For a site dedicated to the small minority of people with complaints about Vonage, I thought it would only be fair to represent the vast majority of people that are happy with it.

if you think vonage is bad, check out BroadVoice!

This is to DamienDogz from 4/15/05. What the hell is a "Garden House"? Did you mean HOSE? I wouldn't be so fast to insult people when you can't even type! Talk about your technical INABILITY!

I had some initial quality problems with Vonage, dropped calls & dead air, but it turned out to be my own fault. I had used a splitter on one phone jack instead of installing a dedicated jack for the modem. Since I fixed that issue my Vonage service has performed perfectly. I wonder how many other people tried that trick... and are now blaming Vonage for the problem??

Has anyone any experience ti ATT CALLVANAGE? $5.00 MORE.
Sam's Club is selling the Vonage PAP2 phone adapter stating on box, "includes a $40 credit from Vonage towards your monthly service" **90 activation needed.
On the Vonage Forum a customer ask if anything is missing from the package relating to the stated credit, because nothing in box acknowledges this credit. see http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic5823.html+club&sid=f672b09e7a5044e4ce48a67beaec3a16 As a matter of fact, there is nothing in box justifying this credit, so what is to hold Vontage to what is printed on the face of the box cover in bright orange background?

CORRECTION:
Has anyone any experience with ATT CALLVANAGE? It's $5.00 more but may be worth it.

Sam's Club is selling the Vonage PAP2 phone adapter stating on box, "includes a $40 credit from Vonage towards your monthly service" **90 days activation needed.

On the Vonage Forum a customer ask if anything is missing from the package relating to the stated credit, because there is nothing in the box acknowledging this credit.

see http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic5823.html+club&sid=f672b09e7a5044e4ce48a67beaec3a16

As a matter of fact, there is nothing in the box justifying this credit, so legal proof is there to hold Vontage or who ever is responsible for printing the information about this credit, which stands out on the face of the package? If you buy Norton or many other products there be will some sort of documentation inclosed!

Without documentation outlining the credit and the procedure which is followed, I would not feel comfortable in following through on the purchase.

Purchased Vonage service 2/28/2005... submitted request for local number portability 3/2/2005... its now 5/30/2005 and the number STILL isn't ported. Calls to Verizon reveal requests were never recieved. Calls to Vonage state that it surely must be Verizon's fault or MY fault, but certainly not Vonage's fault. After some persistence I discovered that the LNP request had been incorrectly transcribed from my written form into the computer and a request for the WRONG NUMBER had been submitted. The request was resubmitted and still no transfer! Attempted to cancel and Vonage doesn't want to refund my service charges or pay to ship the VoIP device back, even though I've been paying all along for a line I could not use. NEVER again!

I requested the phone# transfer over 2 months ago. I get the same response that you got every time I call. I think this company is run by a couple of guys in a basement somewhere. I'll give them a couple more weeks and then cancel the service. It is by far the worst customer service I have received from any company.

I wish I had found this site Last Week, I used to work for this "Company" known as Vonage until they fired me for reasons they would not tell me. When I asked why am I being Fired they said "Call HR next Monday" What on earth is that????!!!??? If you're going to Fire me you have to have a reason!!!!!

Your a jackass - maybe if you did not call up saying you're gonna sue and you have political power and your going to call the president of the united states and he is going to come to your house - and resolve the issue for you.

Give me a fucking break - you think that will work - deal with it in normal manner and you may get results - that goes for any company fuckhead!!!

POST from TIM

I wish I had found this site Last Week, I used to work for this "Company" known as Vonage until they fired me for reasons they would not tell me. When I asked why am I being Fired they said "Call HR next Monday" What on earth is that????!!!??? If you're going to Fire me you have to have a reason!!!!!

Tim, June 2, 2005 12:03 AM

Tim - you were a fuckhead - that's why you got fired. When you act like a loser - a company fires you. There are retarded people in this world smarter than you

Well what do you know, I got my reason for being fired Thank You "Jackass".......by the way....it takes a real man to talk shit the way you did, of course you probably needed help to come up with the fake screename so maybe you're not a real man after all.

Hi Damien!
Imagine my surprise when I was reading your page about the worst company in the history of mankind....Vonage! There, for all the world wide web to see was MY quote as your personal favorite! I felt all important! lol

I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in your hatred for Vonage. I kept at it, filed reports with the Better Business Bureau in New Jersey. The first response from them included a letter from Vonage in which they addressed me by not one, not two, but THREE different names! In a letter written by the same person, and a short letter at that! They said I had my refund. I quickly wrote back that I did NOT. I wrote letters to all the CEO, CFO, etc. I finally got all my money refunded to me at the end of May, but in their second letter to the BBB, they said that "even though I cancelled after the 14 days (A damn LIE!), there had been little activity on my account so they would refund me." So I felt like they were saying here's your money, but we are still attacking your integrity. UGH!!!

I will badmouth them until the day I die, and then some maybe, lol. I am glad you took the time to make this page and let others know....Vonage is bad, mmkay? lol Thanks! Bren

I am getting beat up by Vonage and have about had it!!!

I live in Florida and went to California on vacation. I called my neighbor for a status on the house. The neighbor replied that the police came by due to (3) – 911 calls that came from our house. I used the “Contact” page on the Vonage to log the issue. The following night the police came to my house at 1AM about a 911 call. At that point I called the Vonage customer service which NEVER did pick up after an hour. I then filed another Contact log on their web page (neither has been responded to). The following day the police then came by again (after still another 911 call) and demanded to do a search of our house under the assumption that they could be being held as hostages!!!! They interviewed my toddler son (who was home with severe stomach flu) to see if he dialed 911. One of the policemen looked at the phone message log and could see that 911 was not dialed. I then called again and could not reach the service group. I then changed my strategy and selected the phone selection options like I wanted to order a new service contract. And as you could guess the service representative answered within seconds!!

Hopefully the police will not come tonight!!

Has anyone else had this issue??

Could the issue not be related to Vonage?

I've had Vonage for about five months. I cannot remember when I felt more empowered as a consumer than when I told SBC to drop dead and take its $90/month bill (plus long distance) and shove it. I now pay a total of $27.50/month for phone service with unlimited long distance. (Actually, because I turned my buddy onto it, I got the first two months free. Righteous!) I pay no regulatory fees or any of those alphabet soup fees that SBC used to hit me with every month, and only occasionally have I had even the slightest bit of trouble with sound quality on Vonage. Furthermore, Vonage provides more features for free than what SBC even offers. As far as I'm concerned, therefore, Vonage has been an exceedingly positive experience. Go figure.

Now Cingular, on the other hand, is another story....

Regarding all the "Positive" posts about VONAGE here. It is obvious that these are shills working for VONAGE and trying to curtail the damage. WHY WOULD ANYONE WHO IS HAPPY WITH VONAGE LOOK FOR OR GO INTO A SITE ABOUT HOW VONAGE SUCKS>???

Seriously lame

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!
VONAGE PPLZ ARE MAKING IT LOOK BETTR
(just kidding....really)

it makes perfect sense that vonage would send people to sites like this.....so if there ARE people working for vonage here (and LIKE it)....i would like to say... GO FUCK YOURSELF

I have just made the switch from Broadvoice to Vonage! As bad as it might be for Vonage, it's HEAVEN compared to Broadvoice! At least my phone rings! Call quality's not POTS but hey... Broadvoice has lowered my expectations so much that carrier pigeons would do.

Yet another potential Vonage customer lost...glad I googled "vonage sucks". I work for a company that's interested in treating customers right so your situation is particularly painful to read. Thanks for enlightening, Damien...

hello people
i never had a vonage connection till now but i work as a tech support for vonage and i can understand all the troubles you have to go through as being put in hold it really irks one out and about the transfers that also is very testing and awkward but as a friend mentioned above vonage is growing and soon it will help all i dont know about corporate policies and have never been to vonage company i am from india and give support to about 30 customers per day in helping them install their device the job is fun but it is also quite sad when some customers refuse to speak to us since we are indians maybe because we are not able to communicate to your standards.so be sure that if i take any of your calls i will make sure that you will get the best service coz i know the value for money byee friends

In the future, set up a temporary credit card number with a limited amount. One such service in Safe Shopper available through the MBNA site. It gives you a card number and CVVS number and everyone is happy. The only difference is that the amount can be limited and Vonage (or anyone else) has to ask you for more, and you only pay if your happy. Very nice service for free and 100% fool proof.

I just changed the limit to my Vonage credit card to $1.00. Wait till they try to use it!!!!!

Ok, I was on hold with Vonage for 30 min and got some guy telling me that he will have them call me back. Ive had this service since Feb 05 and on average 3 out of 4 calls per day are dropped at least once during the call, many are dropped multiple times. My friends and family are just as frustrated :-( Another problem I haven't seen addressed is internet lag. I have charter broadband and NEVER had a problem before with lag while surfing or gaming but now its the norm. Could I possibly have a bad router (Linksys router from Vonage)? Does anyone else get these horrible piercing noises while talking on the phone, or the 5 second lag? Im very disappointed so far. Ive contacted charter twice and they've tested my connection. This is not a ISP issue. Is there a configuration I can change to keep me from dropped calls/getting booted while online? This lag problem happens regardless of my being on the phone or not. Ok, im done ranting TY
Ely

I am glad to read all of the posts here. I have had it with all the phone companies myself. MCI sucks , Bellsouth sucks , Cingular eats shit,AT&T sucks more, and lets not forget comcast( not a phone co. but suck cock just the same).Dealt with them all. All hated by ME. Seems like this vonage takes customer service advice from them. ( fuck'em around untill they hang up).Ill check out someone else first for sure. I'm also up for anyone that can take a bite out of the phone co. ass,though. Also, I try to support the smaller guys simply because they tend to treat their customers a little better ( or a lot better),till they get bought out by said assholes above. My DSL provider for instance is absolutly the best anyone could have. Atlantic Nexus rules. My phone service doesnt even work and my dsl keeps ripping along. Try that with ATT mci bellsouth, etc. Anyway...The best way to see how fucked up a company is....this.....see how many people bitch about them. Thanks for the info

The fundamental problem with Vonage as I see it is that finding favor with a multimillionaire CEO is a a full time occupation with the employees at Vonage. These people are technicians, programmers, VP's, etc, and that anyone who actually does anything is doomed to look for another job in disgust. I got out, and I am now happily employed elsewhere.

The frustration you express on this site, is typical of customer problems that never really get resolved at Vonage. It's truly the customers problem and not Vonages in as far the office environment goes. I feel bad for those people who have gone with little trouble for months only to experience this mess when they need "help" with anything but the most basic problems. You, at least, seemed to have gotten a good taste of the company in the first few days.

You can read my story at the link above. Feel free to pass it on.

Steve

You can read my story at the link above. Feel free to pass it on.

Steve

Here is the link for my previous post. I tried to copy the text into this post but it wasn't working so try the link,

steve

http://www.stichenor.com/vontage/vontage.htm

Dear people
i never had a vonage connection till now but i work as a tech support for vonage and i can understand all the troubles you have to go through.since i am working as Tech support in vonage division india i can understand the pain the customers are going through .And the customers are noT even prepared to speak to an indian tech. i am proud to say that I am an Indian.I BELIEVE IN HARD WORK.I AS A TECHNICAL SUPPORT ENGINEER IS TRYING HARD TO GIVE THE BEST OF SERVICE AS I CAN.BUT PLEASE DONT STOP SPEAKING WHEN U HERE UR SPEAKING TO INDIANS.I am not sure why the calls get disconnected.and how much frustrated the customers will feel when they speak to a tech on phone for hours and call gets disconnected without the issue gets resolved.I as a tech in vonage would like to appologize for what all had happened in all these days.please do co-operater with us.we are trying to endeavour the best of our service by rectifying ourselfs and the problems in calls.please dont ignore Indians.

What a total turd you are damein, I can tell from your post that you acted like an imbecile talking to vonage, probably yelling your head off, and being extremely rude. You think the ceo has time to talk to a lunatic like you and take your calls? That just shows your lack of balance in life to the extreme of putting this on the web. If some one phoned you ranting like a lunatic you think you would treat them nice, hell no, you get what you deserve.

Vonage stinks over here in Los Angeles too - I am so sick of people dropping out and I've done everything suggested on the Vonage message boards. Having a phone shouldn't mean you need to be a rocket scientist - if I hear the word "ping" one more time I'm going to scream. (Currently on hold with MCI asking to come back).

Damien - Good luck to you and your wife getting this fixed. I think some of the posters who are commenting on how good the vonage "service" is are missing the point. While technically, the VOIP service is good, it's the way they do business that is bad. I have had vonage since 2003 and as a network engineer I know the difficulties involved with this technology. I've had few problems with the phone service they provide but I've had a softphone line with them for months that I cannot get them to cancel!! It simply did not fit my needs but they continue to charge me for it even though I can't use it. I've contacted them via phone and email and yet every month the 9.99 charge keeps showing up. They seem to purposely misguide - for example when contacting them to cancel the line a CSR told me to cancel it via the web interface. When I look at the web interface it says I need to call. I call and they put me on hold for a terribly long time, or "transfer" me to a dept which seems to end up in getting me disconnected. I've been trying to cancel this softphone line since March. I have finally decided to simply quit the service altogether but I am going to attempt to port the number first. I don't have high hopes of this actually working but what the heck. If by some remote chance the number gets ported to my new provider and the Vonage people actually stop charging me, I will be shocked. If it cannot be ported, it's not that big of a deal - my family will just be a little annoyed with me for changing phone numbers again. I am expecting to have to fight Vonage to get my account canceled as well as the cancellation fee credited when I send back the equipment.

I understand how a company grows big fast and can have a tough time - I was part of startup that went from 0 to 10k customers in a year, but when people call to cancel their service they need to get that done and not screw around with charging people for something they don't want/need/can't use!

you really dont have a clue what you're talking about with all do respect,had you read the terms of service prior to signing up you wouldnt have incurred half the problems that you did. Vonage is nearly 1 million lines strong and most customers dont have a problem with the service, or the tech/customer support. of course there is always a percentage of customers who wont be satisfied no matter what and you are obviously one of them..there isnt enough space here to say all that needs to be said, but you need to realize that the company is young,the technology is still in its very much in its infancy and we reps and supervisors on the vonage floor put up with more bullshit from ppl like you than we need which isnt in the job description. you really need to get a life

I have to say I have Vonage phone service for over two years now and have never had any issues other than my voicemail indicator light not working when first getting the service and they corrected it fast when calling in. I still have them to this date along with friends and family and I was with them last year and before when they were just a start up company so I understood the long hold times and for the price yuor paying how can you really complaine? If you want faster answer times go pay MCI or Verizon $90 for unlimited calling. Vonage has since last year highed more reps from what I read and hear from reps and now I get through to care in about 10 mins at peak hours and no hold time off peak call hours. I'm sure there is more to the stories you had with Vonage and your not putting out your part on the deal but everyone is has there say. I'm just sick of reading thigs like this and other sites where people are bitching about poor customer care or hold times and want a service that is already extreamly cheap cheaper. I have Sprint cell service and there customer care is the worst but there service is priced good and works everywhere with no issues so should I change providers, pay more and have shitty service just for customer care. You must deal with the bad side to a company and I did with Sprint and now they took like Vonage have improved there customer care and now handle things fast and in one call resoultions nine out of ten times. Like I said there are many sites with people bitching but you want a service that is $25 a month to be as solid as a land line which is not possible if thats what you want again pay the 90 bucks. If I can have quiality phone service like I do and have to deal with no service if my ISP goes out for $25 a month I have a call phone to use. If your ISP is crappy blame them not Vonage for call quiality and what not as its not there broadband. I'm sure you wont post my response or delete info to fit your website but thats ok.

I wish I had seen this post a few months ago - I signed up for Vonage on May 17 and was told it would take 20 days to port my number over. It wasn't until the 20 days passed until they told me it would be 20 business days. Fine print, I figued, and sucked it up. Its now July 24 and they have yet to get the number ported over and I'm paying for BOTH phone services. I finally told them that if they couldn't port the number to just tell me and give me any number in that area code, but they insisted that sooner or later they would get it ported and I'd be happy with a refund of any days over 20.
Well - they keep charging my darn credit card and I have yet to get my number ported. I've e-mailed them numerous times (7 or 8) asking to cancel my service and refund my money, but they just tell me that they will get it right later. I'm going in Monday to dispute the charges, but I'm pissed. All they had to do was tell me it couldn't be done, give me a new number, and they would have had a happy, yet slightly disappointed customer. Now I'm fighting to get my money back and posting everywhere I can how I hate Vonage. I want my money back and wish I never considered them to begin with.

Glad I found this site. I guess I'll stick it out with TimeWarner for a while. Just got got for $9.75 a minute for 20 minutes on an InMarSat call. Two hours on CS with TimeWarner..."Sorry, but that's the rate". At least I got through. Vonage quotes $1.92 per minute but seeing all these problems, I'll have to pass. Hopefully, one of these days we'll have reasonable and reliable phone without the "hey, we screwed you and there's nothing you can do about it" mentality...anything's better that Southwestern Bell. Keep up the good work and thanks for the info.

all of you who have had a bad experience with vonage, especially with the number transfer issues need to understand a few things. 98 % of the time its not our fault..the system is far from perfect but we @ vonage are basically at the mercy of YOUR carriers...Further its clearly stated on the letter of authorization that it is a minimum of 20 Business days..people dont read all it takes is a little patience and if you dont blow off at the handle after the 20 business days ..wow you'll get a credit. some ppl just dont get it

I'll be the first to say Mr Citron may not be Mr wonderful and the vonage system definately has its faults but then again ..for 24.95 with your virus infected computers that fuck everything up to start with, what do you expect?? most of you cant follow simple instruction and then blame Vonage because you're the ones who are inept. As I said in a previous post at almost 1 million lines strong there will be some who love it and some who hate it enough said for now

Guess what will happen, we will suspend your service for non payment and then you will be calling saying that your phone doesnt have a dial tone... Then I bet you will change that temporary card back...

You people are so funny I just sit back and laugh...

In the future, set up a temporary credit card number with a limited amount. One such service in Safe Shopper available through the MBNA site. It gives you a card number and CVVS number and everyone is happy. The only difference is that the amount can be limited and Vonage (or anyone else) has to ask you for more, and you only pay if your happy. Very nice service for free and 100% fool proof.

I just changed the limit to my Vonage credit card to $1.00. Wait till they try to use it!!!!!

Leo La Marca, June 21, 2005 12:33 AM

I would like to say Vonage is a great deal for the money and would like to invite you all to try us out at www.vonage.com/newhome Under this link you wont be charged for the activation fee or first month of service only shipping at $9.95. If you have any concerns about the service feel free to email me at jeff@vonage.com

LOL!!!½11!1

This discussion brings the term "Soap Opera" to a whole new level :P

This awesome. I don't know anything about Vonage, minus the title on the webpage, "The broadband phone company".

But, I know I won't purchase the service based on what has been said here.

To the vonage reps: while I am sure you meant well and will give all the excuses in the world, it just seems like bad business to treat your customers like crap. If you go into a restaurant and the waiter gets the orders wrong, the manager might purchase the meal for the table.

You should learn something from that:

Good luck Damien Katz!!

I signed up with Vonage in February, 05 - after being told my number could be transferred to Vonage. I have an e-mail that says so. However, every call, and there have been many, to them results in them saying "I'm sorry" but your number is not transferrabe. Like many who have posted before me I am paying for 2 lines. Vonage really is sorry. In addition, I have been waiting 6 months for the $50 rebate on the adapter which I bought at Best Buy. Best Buy won't help, saying it isn't their rebate. Vonage says the terms of the rebate are 90 days and then 120 days. I think Il'' print up some labels that say "Don't deal with Vonage until you check out http://damienkatz.net/2005/04/fuck_vonage.html and be aware the rebate takes over 7 months" and put them on all the Vonage adapters at Best Buy.

Damien - Thanks for putting up this site. I had been considering Vonage for a few months and could not find anybody I know that uses the service. No need to go through all the trouble now.

I have vonage since 4 month, never had a problem until I got to call customer service, then the problems started, I'm very disappointed and angry with the customer service.
first of all they don't understand what I was trying to explain and I don't understood what they were saying, we got to keep repeating twice or three times to understand each other.
after talk for a whole day with customer service, and they keep transferring me to the "appropriate department" and every new people that I spoke to askme the same think and telling me to do the same thing I was so mad.
in the end I fix mi self the problem, there is a short circuit on the wiring in my house, so every time I connect the whole thing the dial tone went off.
and I am a tech guy, I know and I love computers and electronics, I don't know how people who has no idea about all this can be happy with a service like that.
after that I got dial tone I call again because when I turn on my phone the display show "parallel set in use".
and is not normal, usually if it say that is because somebody is listening with the other phone, but it was not possible because I just had 1 phone connected. customer service did not help me with that neither.
after that I tried to call from my vonage number to my cell and I notice that the number that it show was not my number, the person there toldme it was fine, but is not the first time it happens then I tried again and work fine.
and the last thing
I called again and asked for a Spanish speaking person, the person there told me no problem he is with a call right now, but he is going to call you back in 10 minutes.
I never receive that call.
they never fixed my problems, they never answered my emails
now I'm checking others voip broadband companies.
so if somebody have any other company just let me now so I can cancel vonage.

Anyone else having problems in the Phoenix area?

It's been two months and no number transfer as promised.

I've called the Customer Help line and they said they would call back... Sound familiar?

What does one do?

dear whining former or contemplating customers:

have to wait for your call to be answered? cry me a river.. with a million lines and 800 reps to address the issues (and not all on duty at the same time) you will have a wait..get over it and let go of your donald trump i want it now syndromes. life just does not work that way when your call is instantly answered...stay tuned for number transfer process 101

LNP (number transfer 101)

1. MINIMUM 20 BUSINESS days. waiting more than 2 months? start a petition to the FCC to come down harder on your FCC Regulated landline carriers to let go of the numbers when they are told to. vonage is not regulated by the FCC and as a result your carrier isnt obligated to release the number in any specified period of time..the problems stem mostly from this political issue...more to follow

LNP continued

to facilitate a transfer we are bound by law to use numerous 3rd party carriers to get your numbers transferred and sometimes they drop the ball. Vonage actually has little to do with the actual transfer process any voip company involved on LNP is like this as they also must utilize 3rd party carriers to transfer the numbers..to those reading this.. do some homework prior to starting the transfer process in the industry and you'll save yourself some headaches but stop blaming vonage its simply not our fault 99% of the time any questions feel free to post here and i'll answer TVR

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=159536&cid=13361359

That link is what brought me to this site. I had no idea that there were so many people with these problems with Vonage. I thought I was alone ... my oh my oh my was I wrong.

TVR - I know you're not a "Vonage Rep", but I'll bite.

1.) Why is it that customer service and technician lines have HORRIBLE hold times, but the sales lines are never EVER busy?

2.) Why do I have to state a reason for canceling my service? Follow-up: If I don't want vonage anymore, why the hell do I have to go through a "Are you sure" song and dance?

3.) Why can Cingular and other cell phone providers roll over minutes, but vonage cannot?

4.) Why is the sales line open 24/7, but the cancelation line is only open 8 hours monday - friday?

5.) Why does everything have to be handled "online" as far as billing and payments etc are concerned, but you have to call to cancel service?

6.) After canceling vonage, why do you automatically charge a cancelation fee, why not just wait and see if the equipment is returned like other company's do?

7.) Why can you only take credit card?

8.) Why is every problem that anyone ever has with vonage due to the ISP or network hardware?

Anyways I'm done now. It's pretty simple really. Vonage is a shitty company with shitty customer service and shitty operations. I will never recommend vonage to anyone ever again.

Damien,

Thanks for the tip. I will not be ordering Vonage after all. Thanks to your website I will be saving money keeping my present service.

Thanks for your website. I know that it has taken you a lot of valuable time to put your experience on the web in addition to the time you have spent dealing with Vonage or, should I say Vonage's voicemail. I have had my dealings too, especially trying to get rid of AOL. That took forever and I could not believe that our credit card company would not help us, telling us that it was our contract with AOL. We were angry that AOL would not end our agreement and the credit card company would not stop the charges! Who was going to help us? So, anyway I was seriously looking to switch to Vonage, but looks like you have saved me some serious time and frustration, which is more important than saving a few bucks each month.
We are not 'techno wizards' at this house and really anything involving PC's and modems would only complicate & frustrate our lives further anyway. LOL! Had we joined Vonage, we would probably look to switch back to land line service soon and likely have your same experience.
Thanks & know that your website is helping people make informed decisions.

Vonage's service can take a while to get to you and sometimes can even be busy... but I've been using the service for 4 months now without any problems and loving it, especially some of the extra features!

I absolutely hate their Canadian Advertisements. Those stupid popup people "Have you got Vonage yet?" bouncing around the screen, makes me want to take my TV and throw it out the freakin window.



Glad I read up on your site before thinking about a VOIP solution - we decided to go with a unlimited long distance provider for $19.99 a month Canadian$. So, we dont really need to get VOIP just yet, however if the tides turn, I will definately not be looking in Vonage's direction.



Keep in mind, the positive reviews could be "corporate bloggers" from Vonage itself, trying to reverse the effects from your site. From a company who has a CEO with that background, anything is possible.



Good luck!

Holy hatorade, Batman.

My Vonage experience has been very positive. My main gripe is that for some strange reason, they don't provide numbers in Idaho (208 area code). Oh well.

The 911 lawsuits are a complete fucking joke. Vonage makes you *very* aware of the 911 limitations, to the point of becoming annoying about it. If they made it any more direct, you'd have to sign a form and fax it to somebody.

To the prospective customers: take these stories, and others you find, with a huge grain of salt. Nobody ever runs to a blog to sing a company's praises. Nobody calls tech support to say everything's working fine. Myself, I dropped my $90 Qwest bill to $50 ($29.99 for internet, $19.98 for Vonage + toll free plus).

Nathan

Get this out there loud and clear right now, (especially the ceo's issues) and it could end up costing them millions or tens of millions in light of their ipo. They want to raise 600 million. Good luck.

You obviously have the social skills of a mouse pad, if you can't manage to file a chargeback on your credit card. HELLO PAL, you have up to 36 MONTHS to dispute a MC/Visa charge. Ask any merchant around, they'll tell you have you must keep very accurate records for three years to dispute any possible chargebacks during this period. Looks like you take everything at face value (as evident by your comments that Vonage staff is "incompetent"). You know, there is a reason why investment bankers make off with millions while you make lengthy pages bitching about their lives (sounds like a lot of jealousy to me). Do you come from bumblefuck, alabama or something? Are your parents related? Not too quick, are we chief?

Superdug,

I can answer your questions as I used to work for Vonage in tech support (Worst employment experience in my entire life). The sales lines aren't busy, because they made sure they had more than 75 people answering sales calls and only about 10 tech guys when I worked there. They would not allow any rep terminate a customer's service upon request. All terminations had to be sent to the "song and dance" team. All management cared about was getting more customers and not helping the ones we had. When I was there, they were using the Motorola phone adapter which had terrible problems, mostly due to a memory leak in the software which caused the thing to lose connectivity about once a day and would not come back online without a reboot. While this was happening, we were not to tell the customer this, but lie to them to make it seem as though it was their personal network hardware, or ISP. If anyone has any questions about this disgrace of a company, I'll be glad to respond.

Dude ... while I sympathize with your problems, I have to admit that I haven't had ANY problems with Vonage. I've been involved with their beta program, and have consitantly had good, friendly customer service when I called. I've referred friends and family to Vonage, and all have had similar success in getting switched over.

I've been using the Cisco ATA-186 without a problem since day one. Bring on any question you might have.

I'm having major problems with vontage.
Are there anymore other people out there experiencing problems also. Please e-mail me
if so.

acretajr@optonline.net

Thanks Anthony Creta

I worked for Vonage for 6 months befor i was let go on a medical condition, i worked at vonage on Rt. 27 in Edison NJ.

The company is horrid in giving people their money back, Why? customer service is not allowed to give credit back to your credit card, they can only credit your account, so you go to billing they tell you that your credit card has been credited when it realy hasen't the Vonages computer software does not allow for emidiate refunds, and that is where the rip off starts.

They figure if you compain over and over again eventually you'll get tired and just give up and with that said your money just disapears.

I hate vonage becuse they realy do make it hard for paying customer. and for employees to realy help you. I'v tryed to be honest with the hundred or so customers i'v come in contact with and all were so disapointed by the lack luster service.

more to follow......

Vonage has a departemnt called customer retention, also known as account management dept. this department will under no secumstance closes a customer account at all, why? numbers. The longer they make you wait the more they get from your account.

As a customer care rep, If you called to cansel your account they will send you to "account management", go ahead and try it, first you will be asked, why you want to cansel your account? then you will be put on hold while the care rep talkes about you and then you are transfered to retention, oh just to let you know, this is also the same thing at verizon so prepare yourself.

more inside stuff to follow.

Hey Damien --

I was gonna register "vonage-fraud.com" to start my own blog about similar issues, but then found yours.

With this 'impending' $600M IPO runored, it appears to be clearly about the numbers.

I signed up in late June after seeing on their website that a local number was available in may area and 'verifying' through their website that I could port my number from SBC.

Bought a device retail at Staples for $60 for which I was 'entitled' to a $50 rebate after 90 days of service.

On day 34 (conveniently after their Money-Back Guarantee period ended) I am mailed with a message that my number will not port, even though the website said it could and the local CLEC partner offers dialtone and LNP from SBC. I call and inquire and four hours later an e-mail said "oops, we goofed, call us to get LNP in place". I call and was told that that mail was a mistake, LNP is impossible.

Looking over the Terms on their website and that they had mailed to me concerning their E911 dilemma, I see that my options are limited.

As far as a rebate on the retail device, I was not in the mood to fight with Staples staff on a return of a 45 day-old used device with the UPC code cut off then box for a (yet unmailed) rebate from Vonage.

I figure I'm screwed so I e-mail back to cancel. I also send a telegram of cancellation (figuring that would get their attention over other means) and someone called my home the next business day to say I needed to call them to verify my decision to cancel.

I outline my issues in an e-mail to a service rep who volunteers to credit "all the monies I have paid" but the hardware cannot be returned; and am told I have to call him or the cancellation line to cancel.

Nowhere in their Terms does it say I have to speak to someone on the phone to cancel. I'm tired of calling, being placed on hold or simply being dropped on a call. So I also send a letter with my signature, using a USPS pre-stamped envelope with my pre-printed address saying CANCEL.

Then I get an e-mail saying "good news, we can port your number!" (on an account I had cancelled the previous week). I fire off a zesty reply...

I take the now-locked and worthless (to me) PAP2 device and FedEx it off to the VP of Vonage Operations. Maybe he can unlock it and ship it back. Or use it as a paperweight.

Then after a week I get an e-mail telling me that my E911 cannot be processed and that I need to call to get it corrected. This for the address that they had no problem mailing the E911 letter to!

Three weeks later my next AMEX bill arrives, I see no credits. but it gets charged for yet another month of service.

I've initiated disputes with AMEX with copies of correspondence where it's acknowledged that there were issues and that I had requested cancellation -- three times (e-mail, telegram and postal letter). So any future charges I would consider to be fraudulent.

Like you, it's not about the money I've spent and lost with Vonage. It's about incompetence, misrepresentation, dishonesty and greed.

They're now claiming one million lines. I wonder how many are "pending cancellation"?

I love seeing the posts from the Vonage shills at vonage-forum.com.

Why should a user have to post to vonage-forum.com to get help with a paid subscription service? I think it's funny how many Vonage "evangelists" spend so much time "helping" other users with issues that the paid staff of Vonage can't seem to do.

These 'evangelists' are saving so much money by dropping the RBOC for Vonage? They must have no value for their time. People with 300, 400, 500 posts? Is Vonage giving them a 50-cent per post kickback?

Must be nice for Vonage...'evangelist' pays us money to brag about how much they're saving over the Bells and then gives us free tech support for our users. Sweet!

I signed up for Vonage in March. I still have it but I'm not impressed. I pay about half what I did to the phone company but it seems it only works about half as good so I guess you get what you pay for! My 2 cents.

I signed up for vonage recently and was expecting them to send me a bill or an email so I could go to their site to pay it.

Apparently, they will only automatically deduct your payments from your checking or credit card. I hate that crap, so what the fuck are you supposed to do when they deduct the wrong amount?

If anyone is thinking about signing up, their customer support is condescending, barely speaks english and works out of Bangalore.

They also won't let you pay every month but will take what they feel they deserve and make you fight if you disagree.

I guess I need to cancel and find a new VoIP company Verizon sucks and so does Vonage. I am not looking forward to this.

Found your sight to late :(

Superdug: in response to your Questions:

Q: Why is it that customer service and technician lines have HORRIBLE hold times, but the sales lines are never EVER busy?

A: STAFFING: 1 MILLION LINES 700 REPS IN nj AND INDIA COMBINED AND 20 000 CALLS PER DAY..
DO THE MATH

Q: Why do I have to state a reason for canceling my service? Follow-up: If I don't want vonage anymore, why the hell do I have to go through a "Are you sure" song and dance?
A: MARKETING. IF YOU WERE A BUSINESS TRYING TO RETAIN CUSTOMERS YOU WOULD BE ASKING TO VIA SONG AND DANCE AS WELL. IF YOU DONT, YOU WONT HAVE A VIABLE MEANS OF TRACKING AND ASSESSING CUSTOMER CHURN

Q: Why can Cingular and other cell phone providers roll over minutes, but vonage cannot?

A: VONAGE IS *NOT* A TELEPHONE COMPANY ITS A BROADBAND DATA COMPANY THAT OFFERS PHONE SERVICE AND IS NOT REGULATED BY THE FCC FURTHERMORE WE SIMPLY DONT HAVE THE MEANS TO PROVIDE THAT SERVICE NO VOIP PROVIDER GIVES ROLL OVER MINUTES

Q Why is the sales line open 24/7, but the cancelation line is only open 8 hours monday - friday?
A: ADMITTEDLY THATS A WAY OF REDUCING THAT AMOUNT OF CUSTOMERS WISHING TO CANCEL SERVICE (MY OPINION)

Q: Why does everything have to be handled "online" as far as billing and payments etc are concerned, but you have to call to cancel service?

A: THIS IS DONE SOLEY FOR YOUR PROTECTION SO NO ONE CANCELS SERVICE ON YOUR BEHALF AND ALSO RETAINS CUSTOMERS THE WEB ACCT ALSO GIVES YOU THE MEANS TO DO THINGS ON YOUR ACCT RATHER THAN WAIT IN A QUEUE FOR A REP...

GEE I THINK I'LL *WRITE* YOUR CAR INSURANCE COMPANY OR BETTER YET YOUR MORTGAGE AND CANCEL YOUR POLICYS!

Q: After canceling vonage, why do you automatically charge a cancelation fee, why not just wait and see if the equipment is returned like other company's do?

A: EVER TRY CANCELLING A CELL CONTRACT? YOU'LL BE CHARGED IN UPWARDS OF 200.00+ AUTOMATICALLY AS A TERMINATION FEE. AS OF JULY 1 YOU CAN NOW KEEP THE EQUIPMENT AND DONT HAVE TO SEND IT BACK ITS PLAINLY STATED IN THE TERMS OF SERVICE (WHICH HAVE BEEN AMENDED) READ EM!

Q: Why can you only take credit card?
THIS IS DONE SOLEY SO THAT VONAGE DOES NOT INCUR SEVERE ACCTS RECIEVABLE ISSUES

8.) Why is every problem that anyone ever has with vonage due to the ISP or network hardware?

A:SIMPLE VONAGE IS POWERED BY BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTIVITY IF YOUR ISP HAS PROBLEMS IT WILL DIRECTLY AFFECT THE PHONE SERVICE. THE HARDWARE IS SIMPLY NOT AS GOOD AS IT SHOULD BE MOST PROBLEMS WITH HARDWARE ARE BECUASE THE ROUTER/ADAPTERS ARE (IN MY OPINION) NOT THE GREATEST HOWEVER THE NEW EQUIPMENT THE vt100 IS OF MUCH BETTER QUALITY)

BY THE WAY I ACTUALLY DO WORK FOR VONAGE..OUT OF 700 SOME ODD REPS IN NJ CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY IF YOU GET ME ON THE PHONE..I RESOLVE ISSUES MOST OF THE TIME..UNFORTUNATELY MANY REPS AND EVEN SUPERVISORS THERE, HAVE THE IQ OF WALNUTS WITH MAJOR EGOS AND YOU AS THE CUSTOMER SUFFERS FOR THAT I HUMBLY APOLOGIZE..THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE COMPANY CATTLE CALL HIRES AND DONT HIRE THE THE GOOD PPL FROM WITHIN 1ST FOR MGMT POSITIONS...YOU GET INCOMPETANT PPL ON THE PHONES AND ON THE SUPERVISORY STAFF. THIS IS PROBABLY THE BASIS OF MANY PROBLEMS BUT HOPEFULLY YOUR QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN SATISFACTORILY ANSWERED

"I love seeing the posts from the Vonage shills at vonage-forum.com.

Why should a user have to post to vonage-forum.com to get help with a paid subscription service? I think it's funny how many Vonage "evangelists" spend so much time "helping" other users with issues that the paid staff of Vonage can't seem to do.

These 'evangelists' are saving so much money by dropping the RBOC for Vonage? They must have no value for their time. People with 300, 400, 500 posts? Is Vonage giving them a 50-cent per post kickback?

Must be nice for Vonage...'evangelist' pays us money to brag about how much they're saving over the Bells and then gives us free tech support for our users. Sweet!"

somedude, September 4, 2005 04:46 AM

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH somedude ON THIS.. IF YOU TRY TO SAY ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT VONAGE ON THE VONAGE FORUM YOU GET SHOT DOWN BY SEVERAL OF THE "EVANGELIST'S." IT MAKES FOR A VERY BIASED FORUM IN MY OPINION. IT'S ALWAYS THE CUSTOMERS FAULT ON THE VONAGE FORUM. I'M SO GLAD TO HAVE FOUND AND READ YOUR BLOG!

http://www.zlk.com/vonagefax.html

I run a business from home and have been a Vonage customer for ~3 weeks. Here are my observations:

1) Most problems I've had are due to issues on my end.

2) Don't buy the Vonage-enabled Linksys WRTP54G w/ 2 phone ports (different from WRT54G, which is a fantastic product) -- the whole thing breaks if you try to use the wireless network AND the wired LAN at the same time. A better solution is to use the Linksys PAP2 device or the Motorola device and separate the VoIP function from your router.

3) Make sure your router has QoS (Quality of Service), as it allows you to prioritize voice traffic. Ever since I configured this properly, my call quality has been outstanding. The Linksys WRT54G has QoS, although you may have to upgrade the firmware (it's free) after you get it home to add the feature.

4) You can't beat $25/month for unlimited calling to US, Canada, Puerto Rico, PLUS voicemail. I also like the account management features via the web.

5) The Vonage support voicemail tree sucks my ass. It took 5 minutes of listening to canned speeches before I could talk to a live person and let them know I needed to change my MAC address.

6) Anyone who treats the Indian support people like crap are asshats. There's no reason you should show disrespect to a person who is trying to help you, nor should you disrespect your Country by giving someone the impression that people with your nationality are rude.

7) I like the Vonage ad where the kid loses his grip on the bat and takes out the sliding glass door. Laugh. It's funny.

8) If he Vonage CEO made out like a bandit at Datek, why is he still working?

9) In my opinion, Vonage is well-suited towards people who have some technical know-how. I have had a decent experience so far, and now that I have QoS I expect things to be significantly better.

For those of you who have had a poor experience, that sucks. But if you are starting a business and want to keep costs down OR if you don't care if your phone number changes, Vonage is a good choice.

FWIW.

If anyone who is not happy with their VoIP would like to try our product, VoIP – residential or small business I am inviting you to http://www.broadbandphone4you.com . We have a Referral Program and if you will be satisfied and you will recommend us to your friends, we will give you one month FREE use of your VoIP per every person who will sign up with us.
You can bring us 12 friends and the whole year you can talk for FREE. Who else will offer this kind of deal? We offer even more!!! Find out for yourself!
GetBigBucks

In my opinion Linksys/Cisco is in bed with Vonage, just hope they don't go down the tubes along with Vonage, which is inevitable. Locking their products to one VOIP provider doesn't sound like intelligent long term marketing for Linksys. Also having Vonage handle hardware problems for Linksys is obviously not working out to well. They should private label for Vonage, that way when Vonage goes bust, Linksys/Cisco name isn't directly involved. wrt54G is a fantastic product. wrt54gp2,wrtp54g are pure junk. Give e'm hell Damien.

Vonage was a nightmare for the month i had it. bad customer service, and the product itself made me understand what phone service in Sudan must be like.

Dear Vonage,
20 days is one thing, but how do you explain my number still being in limbo nearly 4 months after customer service acknowledges receiving it? I can deal with the scratchy calls, was even able to tolerate having to call my dad back 5 times after numerous dropped calls, but getting any kind of customer support has been a joke. And lately, I have the choice of using the router and making phone calls or surfing the internet - not both. I'm constantly going through internet deadtimes which magically go away when I take the router out of the loop. I know, I know, it's my fault, and I should have majored in computer science if I wanted to use Vonage for phone service. You're overworked and underpaid, and I'm just a pain in the arse who clogs up the lines bitching and moaning about silly things like paying for phone service but not being able to get incoming calls (due to number portability problems) and the equipment Vonage selected for me and sent screwing up my internet access. In the rare event that all of the minions warning against Vonage create a loud enough whisper about these issues to cause a tickle in your collective ear, here are a few suggestions.

1. If you know you have a backlog transferring numbers, let people know this. Many of the people who are complaining on this issue have waited much longer than the 20 day period specified.
2. Test the equipment you send. I know, those partnership deals are usually sweet enough to silence any complaints about something small like quality. Just consider it.

Well, thanks for reading. I'll be contacting my card company to prevent any of my future earnings from going to your coffers. If necessary, I'll have a new card issued with a completely different number. What's that? You'll cut off my phone service? The phone service which does not allow me to receive incoming calls, cannot be associated with the number I want, and the one which has me switching computer cables anytime I want to make a call? I guess you know my sentiments.

Sincerely,
Spoiled (former)
Customer

Keep it up Damien

I posted a message concerning using a temporary credit card for Vonage. Well, I am here to report that after 4 months of them begging me for money, I sold their router for $5 on Ebay and still refuse to pay the $149 they say I owe. I now have a reputable company providing phone service and have zero issues. I guess the next step is court, but hell, that's what I want.

Please, before you sign-up for Vonage, use a temporary credit card and limit the funds. If all is ok, then you can change your billing to a real card. It's great to have control over your own money.

Leo La Marca

what are you people talking about, vonage is the best voip company out there. If you dint like the service you should have just terminated your service and shut the hell up. You guys act like you where loosing sleep over a phone service. If you dont have a cell phone by now than you need to crawl under a fucking rock, so all of ya'll shut up and get over it. if you have time to write post like this than you need to start having sex.

Vonage charges $40 just to cancel, they lock you in just like the cellular companies. Cell phones are just as bad as Vonage, with limited signal inside residential buildings and rural areas. About the only thing you can depend on if you want reliable service is a traditional land line.

This is what tech support is like at Vonage..

http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html

I have been a vonage customer for 2 years, and now i work for them almost one year. Vonage is a great company to work for. anytime a compnay is new they have to get rid of nicks in the system. If you dont like the service go with another company and shut the fuck up stupid asses. Damien go and get some pussy and stop being a fag.

I have been a vonage customer for 2 years, and now i work for them almost one year. Vonage is a great company to work for. anytime a compnay is new they have to get rid of nicks in the system. If you dont like the service go with another company and shut the fuck up stupid asses. Damien go and get some pussy and stop being a fag.

"Vonage charges $40 just to cancel, they lock you in just like the cellular companies. "

If half you idiots would read the TOS and have an ounce of brains on how to use a computer, you would have NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO problems. You get chatged 40 bucks ONLY IF YOU CANCEL IN THE FIRST 12 MONTHS! THERE IS NO CONTRACT AT ALL! You people, except for those with billing issus are the morons who ask "WHERE IS THA ANY KEY" and call tech support because the cup holder will not eject!

Only if I read your website before I signed up!

I signed up for Vonage VOIP and cancelled it in about two months, and was charged $41.19 cancellation fee (in addition to any monthly fee). Not only that, there is no refund for unused (remaining) month's service fee.

If there is anyone out there who is thinking about signing up, I say "Don't!" Sound quality sucks and the customer service and business practice are even worse, in my opinion.
Steve in L.A.

For those yelling about switching a number, VONAGE HAS ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER HOW LONG IT TAKES! UNDERSTAND! IT IS YOUR CURRENT PROVIDERS FAULT! When you send back the LOA agreement, it gets SENT TO YOUR PHONE COMPANY. Once Vonage sends it, which is done immediatly, it is out of their hands. Phone companys hate this and PURPOSLEY MAKE PEOPLE WAIT! I know this for a FACT! Plus, if you have ADDED features, NOT features that originally came with your current service, this adds to the time to transfer number. BEFORE you transfer number, CANCEL ALL ADDED FEATURES on your phone, THEN submit the LOA. And the KEYWORD here is MINIMUM. NOT 20 day MAX, but AT LEAST 20 DAYS MINIMUM to transfer number.

One option for getting VoIP rates for LD and Intl calls, as well as 100% free calls, and still keep 911 etc. and no LNP issues is PhoneGnome: http://www.phonegnome.com

It works with a real landline, merging VoIP and landline calls all on one phone, and adding VoIP features (like voicemail to email) even to my old landline calls. For us DSL users who have to keep a landline anyway, this is a cool way to get VoIP benefits and still get something out of our landline too.

Try this one on the schills.

My nightmare over the past ten days has been just getting a first dial tone. Since I am anonymous I can brag (please forgive me and here the good news) that for nearly 30 years I have been an intergrated circuit design engineer designing mostly telecommunication chips for Intel, Fairchild and many other great companies. In dealing with Vonage, I have been treated like a technical idiot, insulted, and lied to by Vonage personnel repeatedly. In well over 30 calls made to them they have failed to enable my service.

I have signed up with another voip provider already and will formally cancel my Vonage "service" on Monday.

I believe the electronics industries has set very high standards for ethical behavior since long before I joined so I am infuriated by these corporate billinng scams. I expect my billing odessy to start Monday. I wish I had read this blogsite before I tried Vonage.

The Bangalore Indians I talked with were polite and professional but they refered me to American based tech support who were, with the exception of one apologetic tech, insulting, incapable of even understanding how a problem is traced and isolated, or they occasionally lied about what was going on.

I was deliberately polite but was cut off twice during a converstation and about eight times during call transfer. When I requested they stay on the line until a "live" transfer was complete the transfer always succeeded. I called them from "ma bell" lines that are clear on calls to other companies but the quality of the Vonage office phone system was the worst I have heard since the 1950's... Static, cutouts, and a very distracting echo. If they cann't manage their own office phones...

I feel I screwed myself by not investigating before I bought a "Vonage Only" Linksys RT31P2 router. Caveate Emptor. I a have mostly linksys
home-office setup and have never before been disappointed with their hardware. The only help I found in tracing the origin of the no dial tone problem was from a linksys tech via live chat in the wee hours. There was an initial delay but he helped isolate the problem witn just a few Q and A's.
The phone software on this router is solely controled by Vonage; hence no dial tone. Conveying this linksys info to Vonage Tech's did not deter them from pointing fingers in technically ridiculous directions.

I will be waching this blog site as I try to get my refund for a service never turned on. I hope VISA can help with a refund but that may not be the only way a person who wrote his first computer program in 1965, designed his first integrated circuit in 1978, hacked into a computer in 1979(by request of the computer owner), built his first wire wrap and pc board computers, in 1979. and has singlely designed and layed-out a 1.7 billion transistor chip... can extract his due from these criminals who rip of the innoscent and trusting and stain my industry. Stay tuned.

did you people ever stop to think that 100+ yrs ago when alexander grahm bell developed the telephone t