I bet each and every one of you who has had previous phone service (before Vonage) ended up on the phone …on hold forever….and you just needed something ’simple’ but the phone company could not would not due no matter how reasonable your request!

My sister had her phone number for 40+ years… She switched to Vonage…and moe than a year later…the phone company said..hey.. you cannot have that number and took it away. She actually had NO phone service for days.

The Phone company supervisor first denied taking the number..than a supervisor said she was not entitled to take the number and should not have been able to and yet a third supervisor said she should be able to take the number and they would get it straightened out for her. Vonage gave her a ‘temporary’ number until (I believe it was Sprint) straightend it all out.

PS…it is 2 + years later…and now… Sprint has still not assigned the number to anyone else, but will not oops… CANNOT release the number.

It is to their benefit to not let Vonage take the number. They do not want Vonage to get business and they know Vonage will get the heat for the problem..not the company hoarding the number for no good rational reason..other than….’because they can’!

Vonage service is as good as your cable connection. I have great service but ocassionally it is not good sound quality. I would say that happens for a hour or so every couple of months.

I have a cell phone..so if I have an emergency, I still have a phone..

I LOVE getting my voice mail messages in emails. I can play over and over…”I love you Grandma Hugs & Kisses” and feel great…. Plus…I can prove what someone said to me in an offer they left on my voice mail as I have a copy of it on my hard drive.

You are paying at least half of what you would pay anywhere else…for lots more features….

Nothing in life is free…. quit looking for it. Have a plan B. Be Prepared.
Expect from others what you are willing to give.
How many of you whinning here GIVE anything they don’t HAVE to?

Yes I am a grandmother and older than most of you. I have reasonabe expectations. I have found their customer support ot be EXCELLENT!
I have recommended them to my family and friends.

They are happy too. Sometimes it helps to be nice to customer service instead of short tempered and angry. You are a blank slate when they pick up the phone…. paint a good picture of yourself… maybe they will go that extra mile for you too… and find a way to make your situation good for you.

The old Golden Rule works wonders… Treat others as you would like to be treated. It may not work all the time..but it does MOST of the time… and even when it does not work… in your heart you know you did the right thing.
Rose
Las Vegas

My phone quality is excellent. In fact, the sound quality is better than what AT&T was providing for me. (dallas texas area)

I agree with Mark, pretty much any company these days are going to charge you fees for cancellation. Is it fair? Not really but that is how it goes these days.

If you want to try Vonage, give it a try. Dont be scared off by horror postings. You will see just as many great postings on other sights as well. Just like buying anything, your friend may buy a certain PC and it works great. You buy the identical one and it turns out to be the batch’s lemon. It happens.

We switched back to Verizon at 2 weeks, and just as Vonage said they’d cancel our Verizon account, we anticipated our Vonage account to be cancelled since the number was no longer with them, AND i told them over the phone I was switching back to Verizon.

We called to send our device back to them, and found out they NEVER cancelled our account..despite the fact that they haven’t had our phone number in almost a month. Long story short, we’re no longer in the 30 day trial period and owe them $115. Worst customer service and business policies I’ve ever experienced. They wouldn’t cancel our account unless we paid the $$ despite the fact they said we could dispute the bill.

Why do i get the feeling that disputing the bill falls on deaf ears? Don’t do it. Also Verizon offers the same plan $25/month for unlimited calling including Canada & PR….and it’s a land line.

The quality is great, I really can not tell a difference, though mainly because I have a very good ISP connection (FIOS). I’ve only had the service now about a month, had to call support once because I forgot my username and immediately was put in contact with support, they were friendly.

Pretty much any Corporation you deal with these days if you try and cancel a service with them you are going to get tac’d with a cancellation/service fee. Case in point cell phone carriers are the worse, they offer you incentatives by offering there phones at low cost..but cancel before contract period and they’ll hit your pocket book before you know it. Wife and I had a two year contract with Sprint, its debately how we got the date mixed up. But we ended up cancelling 6 days before the contract was up and they nailed us for $150 cancellation per phone, I had 3.

It certainly isn’t right, and websites such as this are very helpful.

I just thought I’d add a litte “balance” to the bashing taking place on this forum.

So, I call back 2 months later and after waiting over 20 minutes on hold, I tell them I want to disconnect, they try to give me more free months, discounted services…bla, bla, bla. I tell them nicely “no thank you, please just disconnect me.” Then the Customer Abuse Rep tells me that I have to pay a fee to disconnect. I said “what?” I was told that there would be no fee. She argues and argues with me saying that there was this other fee, but then there is this now additional fee, I tell her that the previous rep told me there would be no fee. After 10 minutes round and round, she offers to waive the fee if I sign up my friends… WHAT??? After all the hassle that this has caused, I wouldn’t sign anyone up for this abuse. Geez. I tell them I would rather pay the fee nad not subject my friends to this type of treatment. I hang up and about 15 seconds later get an email saying my service has been disconnected and my credit card has been charged $44.79… I paid almost $45 for a 10 second disconnection and a lot of hassle and abuse.

Here’s the moral – STAY AWAY FROM VONAGE – they are ridiculous to deal with and lie, cheat and steal to get customers. By the way, I told them that I would be warning everyone about their tactics online – please post on as many places as you can find too, maybe together we can stop their bad business practices.

I got Vonnage to save money but it was important to me to keep my current phone number. Vonage “promised” this but they don’t make it clear (it’s in the small print, of course) that it’s only if you keep the number ACTIVATED . So you have to pay two bills until your number is assigned to your Vonnage line. This is expensive, esp. if you are moving. I had that number for six years but I ultimately lost it.

No one called my Vonnage line. I had it for three months because the first month I was waiting for my old number to be assigned so the phone just sat there and never rang. I was attempting to contact customer service to disconnect for the last eight weeks. When I called CS I got a voice mail stating “this service is temporarily down, please try again later.” So I did that – not every day but often – until I finally get my request for D/C honored after complaining through e-mail. They had a money back guarantee but charged me $85 D/C fee instead because I didn’t request it within the first 30 days. I was still trying to get the phone to work for the first 30 days, when I had it and wanted to stop the service, they were the ones who were not there. I was very upset. But you have to pay it as they deduct it out of your checking account. So there was zero service and it ended up costing me about $200.

Their $25 a month unlimited fee is BS, too. By the time all is said and done, it will cost you about double that amt. Their hardware didn’t work PLUS was an extra cost PLUS they require you return it when you D/C even though I purchased (not borrowed) mine at Target! it went. on and on, ad nauseum…

I complained to the AG of my State and they contacted Vonnage.. who refused any amount of refund. To dispute this, i have to sue Vonnage .. IN NEW JERSEY! I literally live about as far away from there as you can and still reside in the mainland US.

I am still sore about all this and wish we could class action these jerks!!
We need updated consumer protection laws specific to on-line services. Thanks for this chance to blow off steam. plt