VONAGE AMERICA VONAGE DELIBERATELY SET UP CUSTOMER SERVICE OVER SEAS TO LEAD CUSTOMERS ASTRAY HOLMDEL New Jersey

Vonage is set up in a kiosk at your local mall. You are approached by a rep and asked to try a free trial period for 30 days. The signing up process is easier than chewing gun and walking.

I asked the mall rep how much it would be for an unlimited plan. $24.99 a month. I asked if there were any ways to receive a lower price or any discounts may be available. He suggested $19.99 for the same plan, but I would have to pay for the year upfront - which would save me $60.

So I wrote 2 checks out. The first for $32.59 for activation. The second for $302.60 for the year of service at the $19.99 month, plus 9-1-1 surcharge, taxes and whatever other junk fees they tack on.

Before I left the kiosk at the mall I asked the mall rep if I could get my money back if I got home and didn't like it. He said YES just make sure you return your usb device with the headset and you can get your refund pretty quick.

8-14-07 was my activation date, tried it out for 30 days hated it and returned it to the mall and to the rep I got it from initially. He took it back and gave me my paperwork showing I returned the device. I asked him how to get my cash back and he called customer service for me from the kiosk.

I was on the phone with them and he had provided a phone number incase I needed to call again from home. The first rep on Vonage's customer service line accepted my cancellation and assured me my activation fee of $32.59 would be in my checking account in 72 hours. Well, $31.59 was credited into my checking account. $1 less than what I paid for activation.

I received an email from Vonage stating the $31.59 was going into my account. I called in 9-15-07 to find out what happened and was informed that I needed to request my refund for the year of service cancellation refund because the activation was the only thing allowed to be credited.

Going through the process yet again, an "account manager" sends what they call "an escallation request for a refund". I was assured with in 7-10 days I would receive my money.

9-24-07 I called to check the status. Guess what I had to do again? "An escallation for a request of a refund". I spoke to 6 different people on this day and spent 2 hours on my cell phone during peak times. This rep assured me that it will be handled by the proper department.

10-4-07 I called in pissed off and ready for war. I immediately asked to be transferred to a supervisor or a manager. I was transferred to 13 different reps! I bounced between "customer service" agents and "account managers".

All of these people that we call in and speak to are paid to just take our complaints listen and frustrate us. The are in foreign countries and do not understand the complexities of my question or anyone else's.

Vonage is showing me the very same thing that AT&T Wireless did back in 2001 --- outsourcing the customer service complaint calls or billing refund calls to what ever country is cheapest, pay the rep in the foreign country $10 a month, keep the customer thinking that in another 7-10 days they will see a credit until they give up and cut their losses.

In the meantime, the average person will get frustrated and give up. Not I butterfly. They owe me $302.60 and $1.00. I have already contacted the Attorney General's Office in FL and contacted the Better Business Bureau in Trenton, NJ.

I would hope that an attorney would pick this up as a class action law suit because they are making money hand over fist doing this to customers. I was stupid enough to talk to the people in the mall. Anything being sold in a kiosk will not ever be purchased by me again.

The rep I spoke to yesterday also told me that the "account managers" are not "authorized to give refunds of that size to anyone". I said what does it matter how much my refund is? I paid money to you for a service I cancelled with in an alotted time frame.

What is hard to understand about this? I demanded a manager/supervisor/director of billing SOMEONE anyone who could get me my money!

Guess what I had to do again?

"Place a request for an escallation refund". I was told this time that Vonage had the right to hold my refund for 60 days. I have never been disclosed this information the other times I have called in.

This company needs to be taken down because they falsely advertising a service as "easy and innovative". I swear I signed up in less than 5 minutes.

Getting a refund has been the most aggravating issue I have faced yet. I am 31 years old, a professional rep for a company and have never seen people get away with this sort of service before. AT&T in 2001 tried to do that to people by not cancelling or refunding money back-- they had to pay for that.

I really am reaching out to anyone who is looking to file a class action law suit against Vonage. I am determined to take the proper steps to ensure this does not happen to other Americans. This is horrific.

I see them clearly and what they are doing. Route the calls overseas, dupe the customer into thinking they will get a refund, never let them speak to upper management, they will get frustrated with the foreign customer service team, give up and Vonage laughs all the way to the bank.

This is unacceptable and a fraudulent shady way to practice business. It is beyond belief. I will not rest until I get my money that I am owed.

I am tired of being "duped" into thinking I am receiving money back. No one has told me I am not within the cancellation agreement either. I am due the money. Vonage holds it and doesn't release it until people like me get huge agencies involved.

Please if you have not already register with the BBB in Trenton and file against them and with your state attorney general's office. They will help.


Sweetsweeps08
Tampa, Florida
U.S.A.