I picked up Vonage phone service prior to moving to Colorado so my daughter could stay in contact with her family back home, without risking her dropping/breaking my cell phone.

She also has a prepaid mobile phone for emergencies.

I've decided to consolidate these and add a line to my cell plan and get her a cheap phone and eliminate the two extra bills a month.


I called Vonage to cancel today, they said they'd give me two months free service. I said, I have no use for it any longer, I'd just like to cancel. She comes back off hold and tells me I have an outstanding balance of $139. This was a shock to me, I was under the impression it was no contract. She informs me that new customers beginning on or after Sept 8th, 2010 are under no contract, however, I signed up Aug 25th, 2010. I said, so you're gonna hook me for 140 over two weeks? She said, yes sir. I said I'd like your supervisor please.

5 minutes later, she comes back stating she has the corporate office I can write to. I said, ma'am, I worked in customer service, I know you put me on hold for X minutes and came back with this story, I'll wait until your supervisor is available, thank you.

10 minutes pass, supervisor comes on. I lay it out for her. If I cancel on or after Aug 26th, 2011, no fee for cancelling right? She says yes sir. I say, you're offering me two months of free service appending to my current bill, right? She says yes sir. I said, that's going to put my service into Sept 2011 of which I could cancel at no financial penalty, why not just cancel it now and waive the cancellation fee?

Long story short, I finally said, Okay, I'll take the two months and re-evaluate Vonage and my relationship in September and determine our future.


The service is good, the customer service is overly scripted, but c'mon ... this is silly. I explained thoroughly how and why I don't need the service, why waste 30 (exactly 30 minutes) of my day, your day, discussing this? Just cancel it!!! I haven't had the damn thing plugged in for two weeks now.


/rant off

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Seems like a typical shuffle. "Guess which nut the peanut is hiding under?" It is annoying to me too.

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Typical.
There is no "customer service" anymore. It's "How can we screw the customer around enough, that he/she will not cancel?"
You see, they are HOPING you will just forget, and end up keeping it.
How much do you want to bet that in 2 months when you try to cancel, that they don't come up with another hassel to string you along?

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The lady told me there would be no hassle, so I took her name, "operator number" and attached it to the confirmation email I got about the two months being free.


I just feel it's a waste of time, but I suppose the cost of their servers being used by me for two months is less than the potential of someone doing as you mention, forgetting to cancel. But I won't forget, I've added the cancellation date in my phone and calendar at work. I'll have to reminders.

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I'm surprised Vonage still exists. It's a pretty useless feature and probably a dying (and desperate) company. We had it, never used it, then canceled it and of course got a similar run around.

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I canceled Vonage back in 2006 when it started hurting my business because my customers could not hear me on the phone. The quality, while incredibly cheap, was always questionable, if not downright shoddy.

So is the background of the founder of Vonage, by the way. Co-founder Jeffrey Citron was previously convicted of securities fraud in a suit that resulted in the largest penalties ever levied by the SEC, and was subsequently barred from from associating with brokers or dealers.

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