Vonage, Vonage Holdings Corp Refused to cancell service, continued to charge my credit card, refused to issue refund Holmdel New Jersey

I had a vonage account for my consulting business for a little over a year. I had three telephone lines, a fax line, and a toll-free number all connected into my PBX. I cannot complain about the Vonage service for the time that I was actively using these lines. Although, to be fair, during that period I had no actual contact with Vonage personnel.

Their service was indeed less expensive than my ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier- the local phone company), but not the large 50%+ margins that residential customers experience. However, I was trying to grow my business and every penny counted.

I also had planned to use Vonage to quickly add a local telephone number for on-going client accounts. I thought that this would be a nice touch and demonstrate to my out-of-state clients the level of commitment I had to their accounts. However, this rarely worked out due to the spotty area-code coverage.

As a technology person (my consulting is Strategic IT and Telecommunications Planning) I was willing to overlook this issue since I am genuinely eager for sustainable VOIP options in the marketplace. However the voice quality through Vonage was simply too poor and became a frequent irritation to several of my clients. This was due primarily to latency issues within my ISP's upstream provider; not Vonage's fault.

I determined that I would need to cancel my Vonage account and go back to my local Telco until I could find an ISP that could consistently support IP Telephony (i.e. voice packet prioritization and voice SLA's with upstream providers). This is when my issues with Vonage began. From this point forward my experiences parallel the several hundred Vonage customer complaints on this site.

In early August 2007 I ordered my new lines from the local Telco and began to search the vonage account management site for some way to schedule a disconnect and close my account. As everyone here already knows this is not possible with Vonage. You are required to call the customer service center to close an account. This information is available on the website, but is buried and difficult to locate.

I called the customer service center and selected the voice prompt for cancelling service. I proceeded to wait on hold for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I hung up, called back, and selected the option to make changes to my account. This time I reached a rep in only 10 minutes. When I asked to close my account I experienced the same argumentative stance that others have. It was very near an outright refusal to close my account. I was offered discounts, free months, and upgraded equipment. After many rounds with the rep I was told that my account was cancelled.

In October my credit card began showing Vonage charges again (there were no charges for August or September). I was traveling for the month of Oct. and had paid my bill online without looking too closely at the charges. By the time I had noticed the charge and called Vonage it was the beginning of November and there was another monthly charge.

When I called Vonage (with another round of exceedingly long wait times) I was told that I had not requested to cancel my account in August. The Vonage rep told me that I had merely asked to have my service suspended for 2 months. After much back and forth about the validity of that statement and her trying to convince me over and over to not cancel my account, she finally agreed to close the account and said that she could process a refund for the 2 months under their customer satisfaction guarantee. She then stated that she had completed the closing of my account and "was there anything else that she could help me with today?". I said thank you and asked about the refund for Oct and Nov.

This is where it reached an entirely new level. Her response was "I am sorry. The money back guarantee is only for existing customers and I have already closed your account. You are not a customer and I cannot give you a refund."

I asked to speak with her supervisor and was immediately transferred to a man that only said "you can write to the billing disputes department at 23 main street, Holmdel, NJ 07733, but I have never heard of anyone getting a refund, ever. So you are wasting your time. Have a nice day sir." Then he hung up without waiting for a response from me.

*in the interest of full disclosure, the supervisor spoke so quickly that I did not catch the full mailing address. I have substituted the address listed on Hoovers for Vonage.

Richard
San Angelo, Texas
U.S.A.