Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

David:

Make sure you activate the OPTIONAL 911 service. However, if there's a blackout and you get a cheese doodle lodged in your trachea, your only option is the Heimlich hug, cuz the 911 won't work.

Stern out.

The service is shaky at best. Tech support makes you wait for a half hour every time you call. After six hours with tech support, I asked, "why is this so difficult?" and they responded with, "we have never had anyone with 2 boxes before". Huh?

Customer "Care" is great on the way in, they are all can do. Not on the way out. In fact, if you notice, on their website you can add a line with one click, but there is no cancellation button. Instead, they make you wait a half hour for billing and a half hour for Technical support. So prepared to be listening to their little jingle for about an hour and a half or so.

Ultimately, this company is rude and irresponsible and if it is any indication, guess who own www.vonagesucks.com? That's right, Vonage. Why would they even think to be purchasing such a name? What a farce! Wait a year until some legitamate business people enter the market.

I think I am going to start a Verizon lovers group after this experience. I could go on, but I won't, this company has wasted enough of my time and money.

I had a different experience with customer support, at least the people you deal with while getting installed. I had to call three times, but each time I got through quickly (5 mins) and was well-treated.

Sorry to hear about your troubles with them. I hope you were an exception or they improve. Or both.

I have been using vonage for 12 months now with no hitches, (except a day or two initially setting up the system, I got some good help from the people at vonage, even though the problems were at my end. I suppose I would be of different opinion if I'd experienced the same probs as David.

I just cancelled my Vonage service and changed over to AT&T Callvantage. End of my sufferings!!! I used to call India a lot and the call quality was absolutely worse. Vanage blamed it on poor infrastructure of Indian telephone exchanges. But with AT&T Callvantage which is also a VOIP, the quality is superp, there is no difference between a landline and their VOIP. I am really satisfied.
On the domestic front too, Vonage service was not so great. The volume would keep going up and down. Started suspecting my phone instrument. But with AT&T, it is really working great. Overall stay away from Vonage. Lower cost should not mean poor quality.

My business requires a lot of calling in the US and to Europe. I have a couple phone lines and an ok long distance service. Would any of you kind folks recommend Vonage or a similar service over standard providers?

Have you heard consistently good reception with the service? If it was your business would you use Vonage???

Just added CallVantage (still have Vonage). I will probably be getting rid of Vonage. The call quality is much better than I've been experiencing with Vonage and it's always consistently the same. May have to do with the DLink ATA/router that ATT uses which gives priority to voice over data and is at the edge of your LAN (first in chain after your broadband modem).

I can tell you that Vonage has bad quality and not only that there boxes are encoded. so it you are thinking that you can buy the box use there service and if you do not like it, re0use the box that you bought with another servie think again.

Vonage has echo, delays and overal a bad quality that you are paying for. I can also tell you that MSN 6.2 as better quality and its free.
Vonage also misleads the clients as you could receive a free box from the directly, but they are not telling you this when you buy it at Best buys or Cicuit city.

So think again before becoming a customer of Vonage.

Forsaone

My goodness! This Vonage or is it VanAge. They really know how to mess you up. I am currently using them for my business and now I cannot even dial out or receive calls. All incoming calls now goes to their voicemail. This is alarming as I can no longer conduct my business with a dead phone. I am loosing money by the seconds.

I have also tried several times to call them with no luck. Their website is also on the blink. If you are thinking of using this company, please think again.

I also am having trouble this morning. My Vonage phone line is dead, and all calls are ringing fast busy... so any client that calls up may think I am out of business.

I have had Vonage for over a year, and in the beginning their quality was superb. They have steadily gone downhill over time, however.

Jay

Our phone is also out today. The site is not up for us to check status. Calls to our number all ring 4 times and then hang up. I think it tried to forward calls to my cell phone a couple of times but it is not consistent.

Overall though, we have been very pleased with Vonage. It saves a bunch of money and it is almost never down.

I have been using them for 8 months now and have had no problems. The quality is clear 99% of the time. This is the first time I have had no phone service. The web site and phone line are now up and working here.

My Vonage service has been out for 3 hours and just came back. I hope that they prove to be more reliable. I have only had the service for 1 month and it is a long wait on the customer service line.

I can't believe that vonage can give worse service than AT&T, it's not possible!

Well I had it with Vonage...6 months and lots of headache and poor quality. You get what you pay for !!!

I recently lost dial tone and the only way to get a human was to bitc# at the president by calling his office. They got me tech support quick.

But the truth is that I too have been losing dial-tome on and off for a few weeks and I thought it was my gear. Not now...it is vonage. They are going after the volume instead of the quality. Did I hear that Verizon is an investor in vonage? Kind of a conflict huh?

Whatever...if you don't have it...avoid getting it. If you do...then stop whinning and move on to another service like me.

Vonage is still working well for me. I haven't had any of the problems that Tom's had.

I cancelled vonage yesterday after they never responded to my tech support tickets about poor connection quality. (I couldn't hear what the other person was saying for seconds at a time, although it seemed fine the other way.)

Right after I called to cancel, they finally responded to my open tickets and told me to go to http://www.brixnet.com to test voip from my connection (click the "test" graphic). I'm in sf on a comcast cable modem that measures 256k up, 3.2m down according to http://speedtest.tds.net/speedtest (the other site they told me to go to).

Anyway, brixnet gives you a score. Yesterday, I got a score of 1.0, which is "try pony express instead". It showed nearly 50% packet discards in the details. Interesting that I got 1.0 to San Jose, 1.4 to Boston, and 2.8 to Montreal. Clearly the problem is network congestion, and it seems to be at vonage's end, not mine. Watching network traffic from the voice terminal, I was connecting to vonage in Arizona over 15 hops.

Today i get 4.1, which is a little better than "a decent cell phone call". Not really what I was hoping for!

BTW, Vonage charges you $39.99 to cancel, something they didn't make clear when I signed up. If you are lucky enough to have kept all the packing materials to the voice terminal, they'll refund that.

I just cancelled my service with vonage due to their complete lack of customer service. Now when I try to connect to the internet without the motorola phone adaptor, I can't. I can only connect when I have the adaptor connected. Can anyone help me please? I've tried vonage but no luck. Thanks.

After two months with Vonage, I still cant receive incoming calls(i.e. no one can call me at home and has not been able to in over two months), the outgoing service is shakey at best. I have a constant hum in my phone which they cannot get rid of, and have had to switch to my cell phone numerous times because the line becomes unlistenable (imagine the worst cell phone line that you have ever talked on). I have been on the phone 3-4 times with customer service and technical support to try to fix my problems, and the only reason that I have not cancelled yet is because it takes customer service 1/2 an hour at a minimum to get someone to pick up the phone. Maybe some of the other VoiP companies offer a better service, but I would not even recommend Vonage to George W Bush.

Alright dude,
NAME ONE PHONE COMPANY THAT HAS AN ADEQUATE TECH SUPPORT? THEY ARE ALL CLUELESS SOMETIMES!!!!! A LOT OF THEM ARE UNKNOWLEDGABLE.
ARE YOU SO SUPRISED? GET OVER IT.

Signed up for Vonage April 17, 2005. I want to keep my phone number so I send in my transfer letter. Vonage alleges they send transfer letter to SBC. A few Emails back and forth, then all of a sudden it's you have to wait 20 days(business). I have waited almost a month and I have paid Vonage 2 payments and SBC 2 payments, because I could only transfer my number if I kept my SBC account active. Sounds and beginning to feel like a scam to me???????

It took me 2 1/2 months and 5 phone calls to cancel my Vonage account. was laughed at, lied to, made to hold endlessly. They took 2 payments AFTER acknowledgeing I had properly returned my equipment. Will never deal with these people again and am spreading the word just how terribly bad they really are. It went from annoying to almost criminal really fast. Went so far as to complain to the BBB and the FCC. Dont know if it will do any good but people need to know this company is a scam. BTW, service over 6 months never was good enough to use.

Don't use Vonage! I recently signed up for Vonage and I have spent 2 hours trying to set up the router they gave me to work with my PC. After 2 hours I spoke to their Customer Service and they were useless. A few issues:

1) Don't take this the wrong way, but their Customer Service is in India and, unlike Dell's service from India, this group was difficult to understand and noy knowledgeable at all.

2) Any issues are not logged, so you need to remind every single technician of the problem. It is a huge waste of time. In addition, one technician would say he would send me an e-mail with instructions for my router...he did not!

3) The router and system itself is a nightmare. The router Vonage used should be easy to set-up and connect , but nooooo.

Please save yourself the effort. Everything about this service as been horrible.

Best.

Thanks gang. I was going to sign on but not now

Vonage is the worst NIGHTMARE I EVER HAD.... customer service is a joke ...never ever try this .. I have owned 2 isp's and am familar with voip... this service is really a joke.. I got thier box ( start up Kit) and tried to set up per instructions on thier web site .. but thier web site says the mac address doesnt exist.. I called the customer service... she cant help me,put on hold, sent me to tech support, put on hold, they cant help .. put on hold, sent me engeneering they cant help...said they will call back within a hour never heard anything ... 8 hrs later I called tech support again stating i was suppose to get a call back ...put on hold...they cant help... transfered me to another tech.... put on hold for 20 mkinutes got tired of being on hold I hung up and called back to customer service 10 minutes later someone answers they said they would check call waiting times put on hold hold again.. came back on line later and said it would be at least 20 minutes more before i could talk to a tech, or they could call me back...I was disapointed to say the least .. I declined ...and told the customer service rep that if this is the way they do business I didnt want any part of it and that they should seriosly consider working for a company that cares...so after wasteing 8 hrs there is one thing they have learned to do ...put you on hold
oh yea it is very hard to understand anyone they speak to fast and have a real difficult/heavy accent. but they can transfer you ....oh well.. I decided that if it is that hard to give them some money and sign up with them that I didnt want anything to do with them.... just wish I could get to thier CEO and make him go through this routine when he wanted something done ..but then again he probably doesnt care either ... stay away from this company ... I would be happy to respond directly with anyone wishing details.. I am taking this vonage start up kit back to Sams club and lettiing them know That they are selling defective equipment and that by selling Vonage
services/equipment they are hurting thier own customers

Never.... ever... have any dealing with this company ..you will get ripped off/ frustrated and disapointed ... in my opinion as I was..

Don

They dinged my credit card twice.....I never even opened the box they sent. They said my phone number wouldn't change, but then they said it had to change. Not wanting a change in phone numbers, I returned the box immediately to Vonage in Edison, NJ, with their return authorization number. I never connected anything, never even opened the box. Think I'll get a refund of a double $41 charge plus the $7.11 I paid to ship it back? Almost $100 spent for absolutely nothing. My checking account was overdrawn, and the bank charged me another $33. Screw all these people......you're not saving money, you're wasting it. I wonder if Bush & company are on the board of directors...

We ordered the service and then found out it would not work with our DISH Network satellite UNLESS we paid Dish $5 a month per receiver (we have 4). Not going to happen. We immediately canceled the service and the request to port our number over. The never advised Qwest - so the number was ported over any how. We are not fighting to get it back. Every day they send a new e-mail telling us we have to do something else. Qwest has been in the communications business forever - they know what to do. Vonage is dragging their feet, throwing up road blocks right and left. We have been WITHOUT phone service now for almost a week. Qwest now tells us that the last time Vonage communicated with them it was another 10 days before they can hold up to their bargain.

Their customer service sucks...their number transfer department sucks...and we never even set anything up! Router was sent back to them...and yes, we did send it FedEx so we can prove they got it. Sure wish I would have found this site before we started this mess. They suck. Period the end.

Well, I ordered Vonage 4 days ago. This was a transfer of a business line to a 14.99/month line. My box arrived yesterday. I plugged it in and i got dialtone. I dialed, it worked yahoo. The transfer hasn't gone completely through since my old line is still picking up so I called tech support. Got thru in about 2 minutes (on the vonage line ). They said it takes 10-20 days so i should be patient. The voice quality is acceptible...not as good as the land line but not bad. For the significant decrease in price, I'm willing to sacrifice some quality. So far I'm pretty happy.

The number transfered over as promised. I'm a happy VOIP'er

I worked at Vonage and let me tell you something. It was the worst working experience I ever had in my life. This is the cheapest stingiest company I ever have worked for. And anybody considering sending them an e-mail you can forget about getting anything back soon. They had over 50,000 e-mails waiting to be answered some of them dating back as long as 8 or 9 months.

If you know anybody who is thinking of getting a job there tell them not to. They promise you the world and try to penny pinch everything out of you. They hire people every week and maybe about 25% of the people make it through their training. And they pay horrible on top of it. All the money they are making goes straight to the management and nothing for the workers so their turn over is unreal. That is why when you call them nobody knows what they are doing. Because nobody works there very long and everybody is fairly new.

You will also love they way they deal with their customers. I lost ove $8000 when they dropped my business phone number last summer. For the whole sad story, see:
http://www.netadventures.biz/vonageproblem.htm

looking to sign up for vonage. Can someone send me an invite to join vonage, their site says you can get 2 months free for inviting someone to join.

Waiting,

dfduarte@msn.com

I can't beleive the nightmare. I signed up for Vonage after the sales person got back to me in 2 days to say they can handle my number even though the Web said it wasn't available. She even told me they can provide Cell phone service with my existing number and cell phone and Vonage would pay the contract off. At that point red lights should have stopped me but thinking an emplyee (sales person)would know better I signed up. I also referred my son who lives accross the US and my daughter who lives 400 miles away. I asked the polite sales person to call them to see if they wanted the service. Well I soon got messages in my email confirming me and my adult children to Vonage and had routed the 911 services. I called immediately and spoke to several people. The next day we noticed we were charged 6 times for vonage service. With my wife holding a perverbial gun to my head I call the nice vonage people. The person said the system was down and I would be first on getting a call back. A stay of execution by my wife. After 24hrs with no call back I called the nice Vonage phone people. A person told me they saw the error and she would reverse the billing and gave me a confirmation number. Well in 2 days we had now 9 new charges from the nice people at Vonage. Today I received the 9 units. I called and the person on the other end of the phone call said He saw the peobleb and would help me cancel everything. He had to transfer me to refunds/cancellation dept. He came back on the line and said they were swamped and I needed to call back in an hour. I am not hopeful at this point but "Caviat Emptor" Buyer be ware'

I signed up with Vonage in on January 23rd. They assigned me a vitual number and few days later I received an adapter for which I paid. After a number of communication e-mail & phone I was told that it will take about 20 days for the transfer of my existing number. Meanwhile Vonage went ahead and charged my credit card for services, which I am still waiting to receive.
It means I am stuck with two telephone bills each month. During my communications with them Vonage has disregarded my complain about billing and have put the blame on my present service provider for not transferring my number. Is there any agency looking into their business practices.

This is the worst product I have ever experienced purchasing. I had a computer and telephone technician spend 50 hours trying to make it work, which it did only occasionally. I had to reboot the entire system over 60 times in 60 days. There service team was useless. My computer and phone system were down hours at a time on a weekly basis. Then when I was ready to return it they charged me $200.00!!! Unless you are masochist do not buy Vonage under any circumstances. Vonage has taken communication back 100 years!

This is the worst product I have ever experienced purchasing. I had a computer and telephone technician spend 50 hours trying to make it work, which it did only occasionally. I had to reboot the entire system over 60 times in 60 days. There service team was useless. My computer and phone system were down hours at a time on a weekly basis. Then when I was ready to return it they charged me $200.00!!! Unless you are masochist do not buy Vonage under any circumstances. Vonage has taken communication back 100 years!

the worst ... just the worst ... service quality ..dependability ... $200 exit fee! ... I had to reboot 60 times! Down for hours at a time .. no computer ... no phone ... UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVEN BUY THIS CRAP!

Absolutely criminal service. Never sign up for this because you will never be able to get rid of it. Exit fees if you can ever get ahold of anyone. They do not let you cancel and then charge an arm and a leg to do it. I have been unsuccessful on countless tries to ever reach someone. Use SKYPE that is a great service and really works and it is free when calling other people on the service.

VONAGE should never be used by anyone- I promis you that you will wish you hadn't. They hold you hostage. Call your credit card company and stop the billing- that is the only way.

If anyone thinks the horror stories read here are made up or embellished, join Vonage, and your own nightmares will come true.
My Mom is 82 years old, still sharp mentally, but rather frail phyically....well, when I signed up, I was told, I would receice a temp local number, until my number transfer was completed, NOT.....
I was given a number that is in same area code, but NOT a local call for Mom or any of my friends!It is a TOLL call!
This ranting could easily evolve into a Novel, the company will do things to make you wish you never heard their name.
If after reading some of the rave reviews, you still decide to join this unhappy family of consumers, you deserve what you get.
I'm still trying to calm down,from my latest nightmare with this company.
By the way, another thing...the sales woman I spoke to, also neglected to mention an activation fee of $29.99....

The Vonage Customer service is criminal. Never sign up for vonage if you expect to make changes often.
First the account management team will not be available. I spent 8 hours on three days to get to them. It really sux.
I call and keep listning to the elevator music and the call ends automatically after 30 mins, when I call again, same thing.
While signing up they dont tell all the term. But when you want to make any changes or disconnect the service, you are sucked. They squeeze $$ out of you. They dont take back their hardware, instead they charge 59.99 for that shit, which can be used for anything else that as a switch which we would already have.
They say terms changed recently and without notice.
Lot of fine print things to trap you.
Please think of the agony you are going into before signing up with VONAGE.

mY SERVICE AND DEALING WITH CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS BEEN AWEFUL. Cancelled because of bad sevice and they still wanted the termination fee.

It's terrible, don't go there.

I read in an earlier comment that the vonage victim used to regularly call India. Well, I frequently call India and probably Pakistan and who knows who else for 'customer disservice'. These people are 'phoney friendly' and insist you let them mug you with their stupidity and lack of ability to understand english as well as being impossible to understand.

When I'm forced to call them for help (which is frequent since I have static and interferance on my line that sounds like two cats in heat) I flat tell whoever answers to put me in touch with customer service in New Jersey, USA and then shut up. They do not NEED any personal information or verification to send you to another department and it is only a ruse to try and get you engaged so they can handle the call.

I live in a very rural area and Vonage has advantages here...unfortunatey,they know it.

thr

I was hesitant about using voice over ip, but was so sick of paying the high prices for regular phone service that I thought I would give it a try. It has been great so far. Sure, there are some hitches here and there like if your internet goes out, but overall I am happy. The best part is the money I have saved by using this service. By the way, my customer service experience with my previous phone company was many times worse than with Vonage.

The Wall Street Journal has an article about customer complaints as Vonage gets ready to go public.

I used Vonage and then cancelled. We called twice and did not check our credit card. Never make that mistake. First we called them repeatedly. No luck, their cust. service either lied or was rude. We had to finally cancel a card we used for years because they simply would not stop charging us. I have considered filing a claim but I think I would have to do it in NJ and I live in the South. Dont use a card to pay Vonage!

STAY AWAY!!!!! Signed up on April 21, 2006. As of May 28, they had not switched my number!! After numerous calls (and waiting for them to answer). all I got was the run-around. Sound quality was poor. The virtual number they give you is shaky. Their website access can be spotty.
NEVER AGAIN!!!! No wonder their stock offering was a fiasco. How long will they be around? Shor time I hope.

I need to cancel my Vonage service..When I call the customer service, they will transfer to Account Management/cancellation deaprtemt..There phone is always engage...I call ed up many times and always engage..Is there any eMail ID...

Customer service: 1866 243 4357
A/C management: 18008605491

These guys are useless...No body in the A/Cmanagement picks the phone..always engage..

Can anyone help us out

My experience with Vonage has been horrible and their customer service is lousy! I was on the phone with 2 different tech reps for nearly an hour each time trying to get the system installed and working. Both knew it was not working. A third rep called and promised she'd call back, but never did. I contacted Vonage repeatedly asking for help, with no response. Then they send an email saying they successfully charged my credit card! I promptly responded requesting they reverse the charges and troubleshoot the system and get it working. No response from Vonage. I contacted them 3 more times, asking how to return the unit. They tell me to call their Customer Care phone number, which I tried on two different occasions. Finally, after being on hold for 55 minutes and transferred to 4 different departments, I'm told I cannot return the unit because it is past the 30 days and they are CHARGING ME nearly $119 to cancel the service - which I never had in the first place!!! The account management rep admitted that she hears from "many upset customers every day" - duh . . . big red flag!!!! I called their corporate office and had to leave yet another message and someone will supposedly call me back within 4 business hours! Ha! We'll see! Vonage is the biggest rip off currently out there!

Today in the mail we got a flyer for Vonage. Waiting for my husband and son to get home, then we talked about it for about 30 min, and decided to go with it. It would be a hugh savings for us. Our reg. AT&T bill is $100. I can call any where for free and my mom in another state could call me for free. GREAT!

Its unlike me to ever jump on anything with out first searching for the small print. I came to Google.com and typed in Vonage+Nightmare and found this site. I am so glad I did!

It saved me from a giant mistake.
Also, I am diabetic and I really need a reliable 911 service.

Thank you every one.

Hugs
Susan
Csubrosa@aol.com

Ive had loads of probs with Vonage, and i ended up cancelling it.

I had put up with bad quality and expensive calls for too long and the customer service was really terrible.

Im yet to sign up with another VoIP provider, im looking about trying to find the one most suited to me before i jump in this time.

top of my list is ephone and NETePhone from a small UK company called g3t.

seems cheap and ive trawled the net and some reviews are good, and ebay users are chuffed too by the looks of it.

just wondering has anyone come across them yet? i think they will take off soon as they have an excellent service advertised and just need some corporate backing i think.

DO NOT USE VONAGE UNLESS YOU WANT CRAPPY SERVICE AND NO INCOMING CALLS. I called up vonage to transfer my existing verizon business lines. Waited for two months then followed up on the status. At that time they informed me that they would not be able to transfer my number. I had to cancel my account plus pay over $200 for breaking the contract. Since cancelling my account with them, I've not been able to receive incoming calls from other Vonage lines. Vonage cannot give me an answer for this, they advised me to contact Verizon instead. I would not recommend Vonage to anyone.

If poor service and people who lie to you is your cup of tea. Vonage is the place you want to be. I signed up for Vonage and was told I had 30 days to change my mine for any reason. I transferred all three incoming house numbers to Vonage. 10 (TEN) DAYS LATER I STARTED TO CANCEL MY SERVICE. By time I finally got it transferred back to ATT, I was at day 24. Their stmt to me was we are sorry you used more than 250 min and we only credit back one line. My other two lines would be billed accordingly as well as next month’s usage. Total bill $350+. Wish I knew about this site before I signed up. They are true flim flam artist.

Scott

...it's the perfect time to take an advantage of a company in trouble. Just look at the discounts they are making to attract more customers http://bulgle.com/L/L/1vng.php
It's insane...

Has anyone tried porting their Vonage number to a non-VoIP company, such as Qwest? Is it possible or wilil Vonage claim they can't do what they require other companies to allow for them?

Thanks,
Rick

I am currently a Vonage customer, and have been one for about a year now. I HATE vonage so much, they drop calls, have bad quality for international AND domestic calling. Their customer service and tech support is by far the worst of any company, they just refer you to their stupid website. I also cant receive any incoming calls. I hope this company burns to the ground. CallVantage here i come.

If you are still calling tech support to get your Vonage phone operating properly, ask to be connected with the next level of technicians. It seems they keep you at the first level while your money-back guarantee expires and then if you wish to avoid the $40 cancellation fee they offer their better technicians to resolve the problems.

I have been using Vonage since last Feb. 06 and it has been one headache after another. We use it for business and have dropped calls, bad quality, messages that are not audible (breaks up leaving me with iincomplete return ph #'s, down lines, fuzzy audio etc. I've put up with a lot just because of price but am calling Verizon in a few because I've had it. Not to mention the service; trying to understand language accents while trying to concentrate on learning about technical problems. I am fine with outsourcing to wherever, I just want to be able to understand without straining so hard. AND if they send me to another dept. it's as if I had just called and the waiting period is awful.

I'm not exagerating when I say it is easy to be on the phone with Vonage for 6 hours or more. Unfreakin believable!!!!! I tho't I would feel better after going off like this but now I'm even more disgusted.................

I signed up for Vonage and received the device which has never worked. I have spent hours on my cell phone with Vonage trying to get the device to work. According to their records the calls were going through, but all I could hear was dead air or a high pitched shriek. I never once was able to make or receive a call. I called customer service and they made me go through all kinds of maneuverings with the device and then told me variously that the device they sent me was defective or that it didn't work with the computer equipment I have. They told me they would send me a new device. I never received it. At this point I'd been without a phone at all for about 3 weeks and was forwarding my home calls to my cell phone which cost me cell phone minutes.

Finally, I called Verizon and told them I wanted to switch back to their service. In order to keep my phone number, it took two weeks to switch back. This caused me to go beyond the one month date I had to cancel my Vonage service. I called Vonage and told them to cancel the service. They informed me that they would charge me a $39 cancellation fee, and $49 for the "free" device I'd gotten. I offered to send it back but they said they didn't want it. So, to date I have paid: $44.00-Activation Fee, $26.97-Monthly fee, $39.00-Cancellation fee, $49.00-Device fee, $95.00-Over the limit on cell phone minutes = $253.97-Grand Total. And none of this includes the time I lost. The money I’ve lost would have been better spent taking out a newspaper ad warning others against Vonage. I filed a report with the BBB and did a search on their site which says there are not complaints against Vonage. How can that be?

Vonage stinks! I have been without a phone for over a month! They sent the wrong equipment, they refuse to give up my number to another company, and so on. It's been like a dog chasing his tail. I am so angry. I will be writing and telling everyone I know they suck, including their CEO and Board.

Vonage Warning!

Think twice about ordering Vonage... I wish I did. The service hasn’t worked 90% of the time since I ordered it (no dial tone).

If you call Vonage, the “customer service” option, Option 5, says it’s an “improper selection.” Ultimately, it will disconnect you (over and over again). There is no problem, of course, with selecting Option 1, New Service, which I did and asked him to cancel my account. He said (in something that almost sounded like English) that he can’t do that, Customer Service had to and he’d transfer me. He disconnected me.

After several more calls, they reluctantly canceled the account (after demanding to know “why”), BUT they charged me a $40 disconnection fee and an $80.00 modem recovery fee. I told them I’d box up the modem and send it to them. They said they didn’t want it.

Be forewarned! Buy a book of stamps. Smoke signals. Telepathy. Anything but Vonage.

we had an outtage, and it MUST have been on their end....because everything here was working and checked out....we bought a new adapter just in case...same problem....I plugged our original one back in and used online system (which IS NOT CLEAR) to switch info back....and we can MAKE calls now.....at least....but NO INCOMING CALLS.....

their support SUCKS.....

I use SKYPE in the meantime......

But as we are all pioneers in VOIP land.....we have to be SMARTER than VONAGE.....

Vonage Bonage. I just got a letter from a collection agency for $91.19. I can't believe this. I cancelled my Vonage account in April 2005. Its now December. I had it for a month and it never worked. I spent three weeks on the phone to India politely before I lost it. I finally got through to an American customer service rep who told me he understood my frustration and he would credit my account and cancel my contract. He also told me not to send back the equipment. I can't believe I fell for that. This company is unscrupulous. Its like a Boiler room call center. Someone get me a phone number and an address so I can personally visit them.

i was thinking about swtiching to vonage but after reading most of the emails. i think i am going to out of it.

Bad experience with Vonage. I hooked up to their system in August of 2006, largely so my wife could call unlimited to her mother in Canada. Then one month later, my mother in law sold her home and moved to an apt. When we called her new apt., we could not get through. I called Voange and they said they would correct in 24 hours. THEY DID NOT CORRECT. I called again the following week and then again the week after. After 5 weeks, Vonage sent me an email saying the problem was not with their (Vonage) system, but with my mother in law's phone system and that there was nothing they could do. I was furious, as I could make calls to the number in Canada with other phone companies. I wrote Vonage back saying NO, THE PROBLEM WAS WITH VONAGE AND I WANTED THEM TO FIX IT. No response, so after 7 weeks I switched to another phone company, Sun Rocket, which I immediately tested for the number to Canada. It worked. As I was waiting for my phone number to transfer, the Vonage people finally figured out their problem and repaired. Too late, I switched to Sun Rocket. When I called Vonage to cancel the account they charged me a $39 cancellation fee. I told them that they, Vonage, had breached their contract with me, by not delievering the services they promised (Canada calling) and therefor they were not within their authority to now charge me this cancellation fee on a contract that they breached first. No such outcome. Too bad, they lost me as a customer with bad service and many others that I have told this story to.

I have a Vonage line, and it took a while to get it working smoothly. Now the voice quality is great for me.

As most folks have discovered, their support is pretty much nonexistent. I have one friend who couldn't get his quality problems resolved, so he cancelled and switched back to Bell South. Now I can't call him using my Vonage line. It goes to his Vonage voicemail which he never gets because he cancelled months ago. LOL Fortunately, I can call him on any non-Vonage line fine.

Also, I have someone who tries to fax my Vonage number 6 or so times a day, and has for the past several weeks. I've asked Vonage for the calls to be blocked, but "they don't offer that feature.". Sigh ...

I realize that they are fighting for their lives against the cable companies (eg, RoadRunner), and they can't afford to improve the software or properly staff support. I expect to hear of their demise someday, but in the meantime, use Vonage to make your long distance calls. Just don't give up your landline if Vonage is your VOIP provider.

Vonage service is non-existant.
Vonage is misleading and decieving: they claim on their webpage that the calls are unlimited ANYWHERE to several countries (US, Canada, select European countries, PR) and IT IS A LIE!! They do not cover cell phones (which are over half of the phones in the world) and others!!
If subscribe to to Vonage, be prepared to get ripped off.

In my lifetime,never have i had such a horrible experience. Almost a month no phone service. Did not work the first day we received......Dishonest, misleading, hard to speak with, like damn robots, after soeaking to you for over an hour, and not being able to accomplish one damn thing, they then ask you "IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO". Lost clients who called and received recorded non working messages.....Cannot switch back easily at all. VONAGE is a big mistake, a big lie, and if your goal is to take a successful business and within a week or two, go out of business....call them, If you are lucky enough to reach someone that feels sorry for you and tries to help you get back to your previous provider,,have no fear Vonage will intercept the request and it will never go through....i cannot continue, as it is making me sick to even get a person to believe it. It is a horror movie, with inconpetent Stepford people manning the phones......

I cancelled my account and was told that I could keep their device because I was with them for a year. Now I am being charged 95.99. Oh, and I can't get over the disconnection fees. Hello, where the hell did I agree to a contract?
They are so quick with the billing but when it comes to service, they suck. VONAGE IS HORRIBLE

Vonage has taken one more step into the gutter. They have deliberately interfered with a homicide investigation. They were served with a supoena 7/2004. The number the detectives are looking at might bring clues to my murdered missing son. I called the president of Vonage on 3/14/07 and was called back immediately and told a legal woman would get right back to me. I'm still waiting. I'm looking for a ways to get media attention so that Vonage will to do the right thing. They could be heroes, but instead are villains.

I just started with Vonage last month and with all initial problems aside, I think it's great. I've had no drops or wierd lines. The clarity of my calls is fantastic, unless you call Vonage Tech. Then it sounds like they're on cheap wireless systems that drop out now and again. My only two problems I had with Vonage were the Motorola modem they sent off to me was a bad unit and the prefix number they set me up with put me in a city 60 miles away and long distance for local callers to get ahold of me. Two quick phone calls to Vonage Tech and everything was fine. But outside of the necessity to learn Hindu before you call their tech service, I'd say it works as good as it says.

WARNING!!!! BEFORE YOU GET VONAGE!!! HAVE A EXIT STRATEGY!!!!

YOU WILL NEED IT!

Customer Service! Sucks, there is no service, just BS and more BS!

They talk about money you save! but they have to trap you in their service in order to keep you! Hence the $49.95 fee for a $25.00 piece of equipment that you pay for when you sign up! and what is it with this cancellation fee! You are on a month to month! So they claim, however if you leave you have a $39.95 cancellation fee!!!

The company is a LIE!!! The service is not that great! And each employee makes up his own set of rules for the company!

If internet phone service is what you want! Look around! This band of THEIVES is not a wise choice!

If any if you folks are considering moving from Vonage you may want to look at www.odysseyvoice.com
25.00 per month unlimited usa calling free 30 day trial
soft phone client
voice mail
find me follow me up to 5 numbers
blocking
time routing
voice mail to email great user portal
Call screening
click to talk

Yes, I have looked around in the event Vonage is shut down, and I find AT&T CallVantage offers pretty much the same price and features as above stated with Odysseyvoice.

However, my question is ...... if Verizon can win a patent infringement case against Vonage, then how can the likes of AT&T and all the other VoIP smaller players appear to offer the same service without being shutdown?? Why isn't Verizon offering VoIP to all of us, instead of offering plain old POTS??

Well, I finally gave up the ghost with Vonage...not because it was bad service (it wasn't really!)...and not because of cost...well, I guess it was a little about cost...but what it came down to is that I just didn't need it anymore...I've just become so used to using a cell phone that that was the number I gave out...Sorry Vonage...good luck

Im a Vonage employee, technical support is not that bad, but people is not ready for technical matters that no dial tone issues may bring. Some people refuses to connect the 2 cables, that's too much for us, and I guess it's also for you

I did not yet receive my Vonage equipment, but Vonage cancelled my landline before the date agreed upon. As it happened before the date, Verizon will not repair my lines. Meanwhile, the person who sold me the phone did not say that I needed to have a working Verizon jack in the same room as the cable. She actually laughed and said, "Don't worry about it." I don't have a working line for them to use, or a jack anywhere near my cable. So, they should never have sold it to me in the first place. I tried to cancel before I received the equipment, and have them give me back my phone number, but they refused. I called my phone number today (area code 973), and got someone in another area code, over two hours away. She's very upset, because she's getting my calls. My service is not even supposed to start today, but I got an email voice mail message for someone else. I called my number a few times, sometimes got voice mail, sometimes, the woman from below the Mason Dixon line. The voicemail I received was from a doctor's office, and sounded important (the patient was going to have surgery), so I called the doctor's office. Again, not in my county, not even close. The good folks at Vonage varied from passive aggressive (going silent on me when I said what they were saying was not acceptable), to condenscending and disrespectul, to outright aggressive, to giving me fantasy information (One told me I needed to get an LOC form from Verizon in order to get my number back. I asked what LOC meant, and they said, "Letter of Cancellation." The folks at Verizon said there was no such thing, and passed that one around the office, laughing, while I waited on the phone. Verizon just won a major law suit against Vonage, for patent infringement, and some think that the company is on the way out. Vonage is a very bad joke. Verizon is not that much better. I've been without service for ten days, which is why I called Vonage. Stayed home from work 3 days for repair, and no-one showed up. Someone finally showed up nine days later, without telling me they were coming that day, got a dial tone for me, which disappeared within an hour after he left. Verizon's equipment is outdated and the copper wires are eroding. Vonage does not offer a viable solution. The Board of Public Utilities does not care. They do nothing.

Well here is the jest of my short expieriance with Vonage. Today I called and setup my service with them. At the end of my conversation with the sales rep I was transferd to an automated voice recognition device that confirms you want to change your phone numbers to Vanage. I went through the process and it never gave me the option to inclued my Fax line. I then called them back to ask them why I was'nt allowed to put my fax number in, and I was put on hold for about 35 min. and when I finally spoke with someone they informed me that I would have to call them back after I recieved the modum they had shipped to me. The guy had to put me on hold twice during the call and it took about 20 min. for him to answer my question. He then said that there was a problem with my account and that he needed to transfer me to the accounting department and that they would let me know what it was that I needed to do. I was then put on hold for about 30 min. and was pretty mad by then. Some guy answered the phone and asked me what it was that I wanted. I told him what the other guy said and he said he didn't need anything from me. During this whole process I began to go online and read all of the info on Vonage and began to get very worried. I'm now on hold with them and an waiting to be canceled. Wish me luck, I'v been on the phone for 28 min. so far on this call. I'll update everyone later. Peace, Tony

hi,
Please have a look at this url too.

http://blog.stevestedman.com/comments.php?y=07&m=05&entry=entry070531-203700

Thanks,
say

Vonage has inconsistent service (our phone lines would drop all the time and sometimes took hours on the phone with a customer service rep from who knows where to say "Please reset your system")and horrible customer service (I have logged over 40 hours in the last 30 days - I know "Shame on me" - trying to update my account payment information and surprisingly trying to cancel my account. It took me 10 days to pay my bill with a credit card on the phone with one of their customer service people who I don't think could understand me (I am from Texas and have a slight drawl). I spent all day today attempting to cancel my account and have been on hold for a total of over 3 hours and have gotten hung up on five times. When I called back, NOW they tell me the cancellation dept is closed and the only way to cancel my account is to call back and talk to them personally - I can't email or send a request in writing to cancel. This is the worst of the worst I have EVER experienced. I am in sales and customer service and this puts all of us in this industry to shame......too bad they don't live up to what they promise they will do. They can't even get their url address right on their email helpline......

Vonage....Nice idea, shame about the sound quality and near impossible to cancel. Overall, an expensive mistake.

Vonage has participated in shameful, dishonest, and at times fraudulent, business practices. Do not sign up for anything, do not even call them to inquire, or it could happen that they will never let you go. I posted on May 2, 2007, regarding difficulties cancelling and letting me out of my contract. I wrote emails to the CEO of Vonage, and to any other "authoritative" department I saw on their website. I filed a complaint with the attorney general's office. I sent back the box they sent me, unopened, with the explanation that I had posted on this site on May 2. I called many times, begging them to let me cancel. I had jaw surgery on May 8th, and was not able to pay attention to my itemized bills from my credit card company for awhile. I had actually had my charge from them reversed in early May, before my jaw surgery, and was assured by the credit card company that this particular account would no longer be a problem. Today, On Sept. 24, when my credit card bill arrived, and I was able to focus, at last, I noticed that Vonage had continued to bill my credit card from June to September. I never received any type of invoice from Vonage, but they kept taking money from my account. My customer service rep. from my credit card set up a conference call with Vonage. They told her that they had every right to continue to bill me, despite the fact that I returned their equipment unopened and never utilized their phone service, because I never cancelled my account (sic). What does one have to do to cancel an account with Vonage? Is there something I have missed? I made at least seven to ten phone calls, many of them angry, emails to CEO's and other Vonage departments, and return, through the DHL carrier, with a letter of explanation inside, reminding them to cancel my account. If Vonage requires Pony Express, messengers on roller skates, or Morse Code, don't you think they should let us know? My belief (and indeed, my experience, is that they want to get your credit card number, and will continue to take your money, without conscience or consideration of ethical and legal business practices, no matter what you do.

***If there are any others who have experienced similar difficulties with Vonage, please contact me at my Email address so that we can draw up a complaint for the FCC as well as the Attorney General's office. I have a feeling that I am not the only one, and the only reason they keep doing these things is because they are getting away with it. Let's join in numbers to show up these people for who they are.***