[iDriveX]

I just signed up for Vonage. I am unhappy with their customer support and I hope this will not be indicative of the future service I will receive.

- With the small business package I purchased it came with a free dedicated fax number. I am having business cards printed for my new office location that I just moved into. I called Vonage and the rep disconnected me by accident.
- I called back again and waited 10 minutes on hold until I was reconnected to a rep. I asked if I could get my dedicated fax number from him because it wasn't showing up on my online account access. He told me that wouldn't be available until they "set up" my order in the back office and it would be available tomorrow most likely to see online.
- Tomorrow came and went and I even waited an extra day. Still nothing online. So I called back again, and again I was disconnected, but this time, the phone tree disconnected me. So I called again, I told them I still had not received my package from Vonage and when I go to the DHL website and enter my tracking information that they gave me, it says "No shipment exists". They told me that I should wait a full 7 days before contacting them about a lost shipment.

So here I am, On Day 3. I have no phone line, except for my cell phone, which is costing my money to use during the day time like this. I can't have my business cards printed until I know my fax number. I still don't have a fax number with them. Their customer service has been less than steller in helping me resolve this. And I have to wait until next Monday to even see if my package was shipped by them (which according to DHL) it wasn't. So Next Monday, when I find out that it was some sort of warehouse mistake, I'm sure it is going to take another week to get a package out to me.

I hate to say it, but it might have been better to go with SBC. Anyone else had experience with Vonage? I'm feeling like this right now:

[turtle777]

You should learn to use the search function. We have had countless threads on Vonage and VoIP.

IBCR.

-t

[E's Lil Theorem]

Originally Posted by turtle777

You should learn to use the search function. We have had countless threads on Vonage and VoIP.

IBCR.

-t

Right.

Here's one of the latest threads on it: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ghlight=vonage

[iDriveX]

Damn....This is no good. After reading everyone else's experience, maybe I should cancel with them before I even start! In fact, I think I am going to do that today! I don't want to have to wait another week with no phone at my business to find out that my clients will be frustrated with dropped calls and call clarity.

[chabig]

I've had Vonage for about a month now with no problems.

Chris

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by iDriveX

Damn....This is no good. After reading everyone else's experience, maybe I should cancel with them before I even start! In fact, I think I am going to do that today! I don't want to have to wait another week with no phone at my business to find out that my clients will be frustrated with dropped calls and call clarity.

What are you talking about ?

Vote results:

Yes, and it works great, costs less 11 50.00%
Yes, but I have issues.. (post what) 0 0%

-t

[rozwado1]

all I know is that the Linksys vonage router really f's up my airport express with airtunes.

[Mastrap]

I had serious issues with Vonage customer service myself, even before signing up. Needless to say, I didn't.

[macforme]

I've had it for almost a month now, and it's been pretty good. The only problem I had was yesterday when my Road Runner crapped out on me for an hour or so (nothing to do with Vonage - but if I didn't have it, the outage wouldn't have even been noticed).

[iDriveX]

I cancelled today, and that too was a customer service nightmare. They told me about some shipping dispute they were having with DHL and that's why it hadn't been processed yet. I told them that it wasn't my problem and they should have informed me before I had to call them. So they said they would transfer me on the phone to the cancellation dept.

Well after being on hold for 15 minutes a woman, not in the cancellation dept., picked up the phone and told me that she was filling in for the cancellation department because there is a half hour wait. She took down my name and phone number and told me someone in cancellation would call me back (they were having a large volume of cancellations today).

No one ever did.

Tonight at 11:30 I got shipment notice from DHL that my package has been processed and shipped. Too bad I already signed up with Verizon and they installed my line this afternoon.

No excuse for poor customer service. Sometimes events are out of control of the end vendor, but with good customer service, 90% of people like me can be retained as customers.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by iDriveX

Tonight at 11:30 I got shipment notice from DHL that my package has been processed and shipped. Too bad I already signed up with Verizon and they installed my line this afternoon.

So half of the reason why Vonage suxx is because DHL messed up your shipment.

And you signed uo with Verizon ?
Ah well, good luck not getting ripped off...

-t

[iDriveX]

Originally Posted by turtle777

So half of the reason why Vonage suxx is because DHL messed up your shipment.

And you signed uo with Verizon ?
Ah well, good luck not getting ripped off...

-t

No....when I had called at 11 AM yesterday, the told me they were having a shipping DISPUTE with DHL. As in, no one was having packages shipped out with Vonage because of their dispute. Whatever that was about. I called yesterday to cancel because they told me they had no ETA on when my package would ship. I just found it ironic after canceling yesterday, my package ended up shipping at 11:30. They've got their problems over there at Vonage if people are canceling and they are still shipping out items.

As for Verizon, it ends up being a little more expensive, but I was able to get a vanity 800 number, something I wasn't able to do with Vonage. I was able to have consecutive local numbers. As in the last four of my land line is 8882, and the last four of my fax line are 8883. Which I like. I was also able to get service yesterday. And finally, I think I'll be ultimately more happy with the service and the reliability of it all.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by iDriveX

As for Verizon, it ends up being a little more expensive, but I was able to get a vanity 800 number, something I wasn't able to do with Vonage. I was able to have consecutive local numbers. As in the last four of my land line is 8882, and the last four of my fax line are 8883. Which I like. I was also able to get service yesterday. And finally, I think I'll be ultimately more happy with the service and the reliability of it all.

I am surprised Vonage doesn't do vanity numbers. Ah well.

As far as you consecutive numbers are concerned, now that you have them, you could switch to Vonage and transfer them

-t

[iDriveX]

The Vonage Follow-up:

You might remember this:

Well after being on hold for 15 minutes a woman, not in the cancellation dept., picked up the phone and told me that she was filling in for the cancellation department because there is a half hour wait. She took down my name and phone number and told me someone in cancellation would call me back (they were having a large volume of cancellations today).

No one ever did

Well, no ever did at all! So I called Vonage yesterday and told them I would like to cancel. The rep that answered the phone in Bangalore or wherever she was read her questions off her little sheet, and finally determined that I was an unhappy customer and I wanted to cancel:

Bangalore: "Sir, if I am understanding you correctly, you dislike the Vonage customer service and want to cancel the Vonage service, is this correct?"
Me: "Yes."
Bangalore: "OK. Do you have a pen and paper, I will give you the phone number of our cancellation department."

Fantastic. So I called the Vonage cancellation department and was put on the line with a retention specialist named Loquisha. She must have been from some sort of inner city because her ghetto accent was so thick I could barely understand her. "You ain't happy wit cho Vonage?". "No, I ain't happy wit ma Vonage."

She asked me why I wanted to cancel and I explained to her that I called a few days ago to cancel and no one called me back. Then she told me that someone did call me back. I told her that I haven't gotten any messages from Vonage on my cell phone. That's when she informed me they called me on my Vonage phone number but I hadn't set up my voicemail yet. I told her it was because I didn't have the box they were supposed to ship me yet. That's when she conceeded that the customer service rep called the number before I activated it. Not too bright.

At first I was the one in the wrong for not returning their call. But now she went into full on apology mode and offered me one month free service. No bite? How about two months free service. Ok Mr. iDriveX, what can we do to get you to stay with Vonage? Nothing.

So she put me on hold for 15 minutes. Literally 15 minutes. Do you know how long 15 minutes of hold music is? Yeah. 15 minutes. So anyways she came back and told me that my service had been cancelled and a final bill of $41.92 would be due within 30 days. I lost it with her over the phone. The box they shipped me just arrived, I hadn't opened it yet. I never even used the service. Then she told me it was a termination fee and that the phone number had been reserved for me, etc. And then I asked her about the supposed "risk-free" trial of trying Vonage and if you aren't happy you don't pay a dime. Well I guess you don't pay a dime, except for their termination fee.

So I asked to speak to a manager and the manager agreed to waive the termination fee if I returned the box to him unopened and he would e-mail me a UPS Postage-Paid sticker for my box to drop off at any UPS location. Guess what hasn't come via e-mail? Yeah that little sticker.

So now I have sent to e-mails to Vonage customer service to get SOMEONE to e-mail me that sticker. Ya know, I'd just be happy if someone e-mailed me back! This is just ridiculous.

For future people on this forum thinking of making a Vonage purchase: BUYER BEWARE!