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Report: #131937

Complaint Review: Vonage - Edison New Jersey

  • Submitted:
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  • Reported By: Grandview Missouri
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  • Vonage 2147 Route 27 Edison, New Jersey U.S.A.

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I have called Vonage a dozen times over the past two months, and talked to several different representatives on the telephone. Each time, I was VERY specific about my reason for wanting to switch my cell phone service to Vonage; reason: I'm tired of feeding the machine at the stores hundred-dollar bills every month, and I thought Vonage was a company that provided cell phone service for less money via voice over IP address. I can't believe I am the ONLY one in the entire world who thought this. I would have to guess that there have been many more people who thought the same thing as I did.

What makes me very upset is, not ONE time out of all the numerous times I called Vonage, did ONE single person EVER say to me, "Wait a minute...you must have misunderstood what Vonage is all about...we're NOT a cell-phone company - WE DON'T DO CELL PHONES!" If they had told me this in the first place, I would have NEVER bothered with them. Even their commercial leads me to believe that this is what they are.

So it wasn't until AFTER my phone number was already switched over to Vonage that somebody FINALLY told me the truth! Then they tried to blame ME, almost implying that I am stupid for not understanding.

I think I made myself extremely clear the dozens of other times I called them. So it's not MY fault that I didn't understand - it's Vonage who didn't communicate clearly and truthfully to me what their service was all about. So it's THEM - NOT me!

The rep on the phone whom I spoke with had the nerve to insult me, telling me that he had worked there for a year, and I was the ONLY person he had ever spoken to that thought Vonage was a cell phone company. He made me out to be a complete idiot.

It's dishonest and deceptive to wait until people have already switched their service over to tell them the truth. And that's what happened to me. BEWARE! Believe what you read here. It's true.

Now if you are looking to get rid of your cell phone, and you want to transfer your cell phone number over to your home phone so you don't lose your cell phone number, then Vonage will work for you. But if you were suckered like I was, thinking Vonage was for cell-phones --- DON'T DO IT!

Tammy
Grandview, Missouri
U.S.A.

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/18/2005 11:57 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/vonage/edison-new-jersey-08817/vonage-deceptive-dishonest-advertising-edison-new-jersey-131937. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
13Consumer
1Employee/Owner

#14 Author of original report

Responding to Candace

AUTHOR: Tammy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, March 11, 2006

Candace said:

"...you would have known vonage was for home phone service it even says so in their tv commercial you cant rely on something they told you over the phone they will tell you anything. As consumers we have to protect ourselves and know what we are paying for. I know that i am paying a great price for a home phone that i cant get from local service. I am sorry you are having such problems but part of the responsibility falls on you."

And you are being very presumptuous to assume that I didn't do any research. I don't have time to explain myself all over again. It's already explained above. And by some other people's rebuttal's above, I'm not the only one who was misinformed and mislead by Vonages TV advertisements AND by their telephone reps. I guess you are the only one who got the facts straight - good for you! At least one person wasn't deceived. But don't make condescending comments and imply how stupid everyone else is who didn't understand what Vonage was the first time.

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#13 Consumer Comment

vonage

AUTHOR: Candace - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, March 11, 2006

To start i am a vonage customer not an employee. I have had vonage phone service and have not had any problems so far..to respond to the original comment to start i am not calling you stupid are trying to demean you in any way but if you would have researched the company yourself you would have known vonage was for home phone service it even says so in their tv commercial you cant rely on something they told you over the phone they will tell you anything. As consumers we have to protect ourselves and know what we are paying for. I know that i am paying a great price for a home phone that i cant get from local service. I am sorry you are having such problems but part of the responsibility falls on you.

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#12 Consumer Comment

vonage

AUTHOR: Candace - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, March 11, 2006

To start i am a vonage customer not an employee. I have had vonage phone service and have not had any problems so far..to respond to the original comment to start i am not calling you stupid are trying to demean you in any way but if you would have researched the company yourself you would have known vonage was for home phone service it even says so in their tv commercial you cant rely on something they told you over the phone they will tell you anything. As consumers we have to protect ourselves and know what we are paying for. I know that i am paying a great price for a home phone that i cant get from local service. I am sorry you are having such problems but part of the responsibility falls on you.

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#11 Consumer Comment

vonage

AUTHOR: Candace - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, March 11, 2006

To start i am a vonage customer not an employee. I have had vonage phone service and have not had any problems so far..to respond to the original comment to start i am not calling you stupid are trying to demean you in any way but if you would have researched the company yourself you would have known vonage was for home phone service it even says so in their tv commercial you cant rely on something they told you over the phone they will tell you anything. As consumers we have to protect ourselves and know what we are paying for. I know that i am paying a great price for a home phone that i cant get from local service. I am sorry you are having such problems but part of the responsibility falls on you.

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#10 Consumer Comment

vonage

AUTHOR: Candace - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, March 11, 2006

To start i am a vonage customer not an employee. I have had vonage phone service and have not had any problems so far..to respond to the original comment to start i am not calling you stupid are trying to demean you in any way but if you would have researched the company yourself you would have known vonage was for home phone service it even says so in their tv commercial you cant rely on something they told you over the phone they will tell you anything. As consumers we have to protect ourselves and know what we are paying for. I know that i am paying a great price for a home phone that i cant get from local service. I am sorry you are having such problems but part of the responsibility falls on you.

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#9 Consumer Comment

Not everyone is perfect, all-knowing, and all-seeing...

AUTHOR: F - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Tommy and Keith: Unfortunately, not everyone in the world is perfect and as astute as you... if it were, we wouldn't have lawyers, judges, cops, etc.

I, too, am one of those "non-perfect" people, who, because of their misleading customer service department at Vonage, was led to believe that they also did cell phones. My saving grace was when I asked them to put into writing what we had agreed to on the phone - via email - and they were talking about standard telephone service NOT cell phone, so I ended up not signing up. Tammy, I understand that you were duped into thinking what you thought... happened to me, too. And apparently, it happens to lots of folks, and some believe that they (Vonage) are a long distance carrier (sometimes customer service neglects to tell the customer that you a) have to have DSL or Broadband and b) are only for regular phones, not cell phone services.

In speaking with other folks in other forums such as this, it appears they (Vonage as well as other businesses in the communications world) make it a habit of letting people believe what they believe just to get them signed up. They intentionally mislead them! Some of theses businesses have sales quotas they need to meet, or have their sales based on, so they try and "sell" whatever just to get the quota up; after all, it is usually just your word against theirs. I've learned the hard way to always back up a telephone conversation in writing (email or regular mail) to ensure both sides on talking the same language.

And as far as the Tommys and Keiths of this world go, they ALWAYS think they are right. Just ignore them; if it hasn't happened to them, they discount it as not being important; if it does, why then of course then they'll be quite indignant, and they'll squeal like pigs!

Best of luck to you Tammy!

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#8 REBUTTAL Individual responds

Tammy - Can you read? All ads say that Vonage is a BROADBAND phone company.

AUTHOR: Keith - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, September 19, 2005

Nowhere does it say that Vonage is a cell phone company. All ads say that Vonage is a BROADBAND phone company. Anyone who thinks that Vonage is a cell phone company obviously cannot read or is just stupid.

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#7 Consumer Comment

Beware. There are many reps working for Vonage on the net.

AUTHOR: Don - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, March 21, 2005

There is one particular "forum" that is purported to "help" the Vonage user and discuss it. This forum is ran by a Vonage employee that gets a kickback for every Vonage customer he refers, therefore anything remotely negative will be censored off of this "forum" for not being "constructive". The admin. of the forum emailed me and told me my post was not "constructive and didn't offer any solutions" so it was deleted. My post was the exact same post that I put here on ripoffreport in February. The website is www.vonage-forum.com Beware of what you see on that website because ANYTHING negative about Vonage will be deleted of this so-called "forum".
There are many people out there that will defend this company to no end and then claim they are only "customers". What I can't understand is that if they're truly not working for the company, why are they so sensitive to criticism about it?

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#6 Consumer Comment

VONAGE: Dishonest, Deceptive & Misleading!!!

AUTHOR: Tammy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, February 20, 2005

Tommy...what's in it for you to keep hounding me? I don't even know you. Have you got nothing else to do? Do you work for this company? Are you the guy I talked to on the phone the other night who was really rude and talked condescendingly to me like I'm some kind of idiot?

You know what kind of information I tried to collect about the company prior my to signing up with Vonage? It sure sounds like you do! I think some people are very judgmental, given that they don't know all the circumstances. You weren't even there on the phone with me when I spoke with these reps. I did the best I could.

As I stated already, and I'll say it again...I made myself very VERY clear EVERY SINGLE time I called Vonage. I spoke with OVER a half-dozen representatives, and every single time I told them I wanted to switch cell-phone companies, or I made comments that I wanted to download ringers onto my phone. HOW MUCH CLEARER COULD I HAVE BEEN??? Hellllloooooo!!!! I think I did my job! --- AND THEY DIDN'T! You think somebody would have spoken up and said, "Oh, you think we're a cell-phone company? Because we're NOT." NO. Not ONE time EVER did anybody tell me this!

Of all the NUMEROUS reps I talked to, they NEVER told me they are NOT a cell-phone company. After all the numerous calls I made to them, and the NUMEROUS representatives I spoke with, NOT ONE person EVER said ANYthing to me, until AFTER my phone service was already changed over to Vonage...So it is THEIR fault, not MINE for not telling me. They had PLENTY of chances to explain to me that they were not what I thought they were. But THEY failed to do so. THEY DID NOT DO THEIR JOB (THAT THEY ARE PAID TO DO)!

In addition, they charged me for services that I had never received. I notified my bank. I also called my cell-phone company immediately. Fortunately, they happily turned my cell-phone back on and didn't charge me a reconnection fee, but now I have to wait several days before my cell-phone service will be restored.

If people at Vonage had done their job properly and had informed me better, I would have never signed up with them.

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#5 Consumer Suggestion

Reply

AUTHOR: Tommy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, February 20, 2005

"Oh, who died and made you Judge? You know what kind of information I tried to collect about the company prior to signing up with Vonage? Or are you just assuming? You think you know it all, huh? I think some people are very judgmental, given that they don't know all the circumstances."

It is obvious you didn't research the company, as you thought it was a cell phone company until the day you received service.

Secondly, you didn't address my point about their stupid customer service reps. These are probably some local college kids making $6/hr with a quota to meet, so you shouldn't put much faith in to what they say.

"As I stated already, I made myself VERY very clear every single time I called Vonage. I spoke with over a half-dozen representatives, and every single time I told them I wanted to switch cell-phone companies, or I made comments that I wanted to download ringers onto my phone."

I can see how they probably thought this was chit-chat that customers usually babble on about. Granted, they should have thought it was funny that you started talking about cell phones, but I have heard a lot of weird things when I was a CSR.

I am sorry that you lost your money, but you are just as much to blame as them.

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#4 Consumer Suggestion

Reply

AUTHOR: Tommy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, February 20, 2005

"Oh, who died and made you Judge? You know what kind of information I tried to collect about the company prior to signing up with Vonage? Or are you just assuming? You think you know it all, huh? I think some people are very judgmental, given that they don't know all the circumstances."

It is obvious you didn't research the company, as you thought it was a cell phone company until the day you received service.

Secondly, you didn't address my point about their stupid customer service reps. These are probably some local college kids making $6/hr with a quota to meet, so you shouldn't put much faith in to what they say.

"As I stated already, I made myself VERY very clear every single time I called Vonage. I spoke with over a half-dozen representatives, and every single time I told them I wanted to switch cell-phone companies, or I made comments that I wanted to download ringers onto my phone."

I can see how they probably thought this was chit-chat that customers usually babble on about. Granted, they should have thought it was funny that you started talking about cell phones, but I have heard a lot of weird things when I was a CSR.

I am sorry that you lost your money, but you are just as much to blame as them.

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#3 Consumer Suggestion

Reply

AUTHOR: Tommy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, February 20, 2005

"Oh, who died and made you Judge? You know what kind of information I tried to collect about the company prior to signing up with Vonage? Or are you just assuming? You think you know it all, huh? I think some people are very judgmental, given that they don't know all the circumstances."

It is obvious you didn't research the company, as you thought it was a cell phone company until the day you received service.

Secondly, you didn't address my point about their stupid customer service reps. These are probably some local college kids making $6/hr with a quota to meet, so you shouldn't put much faith in to what they say.

"As I stated already, I made myself VERY very clear every single time I called Vonage. I spoke with over a half-dozen representatives, and every single time I told them I wanted to switch cell-phone companies, or I made comments that I wanted to download ringers onto my phone."

I can see how they probably thought this was chit-chat that customers usually babble on about. Granted, they should have thought it was funny that you started talking about cell phones, but I have heard a lot of weird things when I was a CSR.

I am sorry that you lost your money, but you are just as much to blame as them.

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#2 Author of original report

Vonage: Dishonest, Deceptive & Misleading

AUTHOR: Tammy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, February 19, 2005

Oh, who died and made you Judge? You know what kind of information I tried to collect about the company prior to signing up with Vonage? Or are you just assuming? You think you know it all, huh? I think some people are very judgmental, given that they don't know all the circumstances.

As I stated already, I made myself VERY very clear every single time I called Vonage. I spoke with over a half-dozen representatives, and every single time I told them I wanted to switch cell-phone companies, or I made comments that I wanted to download ringers onto my phone. You think somebody would have spoken up and said, "Oh, you think we're a cell-phone company? Because we're NOT." NO. Not one time EVER did anybody tell me this!

Of all the numerous reps I talked to, they never told me they are NOT a cell-phone company. After all the numerous calls I made to them, and the numerous representatives I spoke with, NOT ONE person ever said ANYthing to me, until AFTER my phone service was already changed over to Vonage...So it is THEIR fault, not MINE for not telling me. THEY HAD PLENTY OF CHANCES TO EXPLAIN TO ME THAT THEY WERE NOT WHAT I THOUGHT THEY WERE. But they failed to do so. So whose fault is that???

In addition, they charged me for services that I had not ever received. I notified my bank. I also called my cell-phone company immediately. Fortunately, they happily turned my cell-phone back on and didn't charge me a reconnection fee.

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#1 Consumer Suggestion

Sorry, YOU have a responsibility as a consumer.

AUTHOR: Tommy - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, February 19, 2005

You should carefully research anything before you buy it, especially relatively new technology like VOIP. Don't trust some idiot from their customer service department to inform you, they just want your money.

Their website is full of info that would have taken you about 10 minutes to research and you would have found that this is for landline access only.

Sorry, but you are at fault here.

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