my Letter to the FCC

Posts: 409 · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:20 am Post subject:

Any more updates on your situation ray?

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 11

Thanks Trowski,

Day 5 without dial tone and not one supervisor has called me back. This morning I had the service tech tell me the name of his manager. I will try the email this afternoon.
Regards,
Ray

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 11

Hi All,
Have contacted my local TV station and ask them to look into way to resolve this. The last person that said he call me back was Paul Torrres a manager with Vonage. I’m still holding my breath. I do not understand how Vonage can treat people this way. I have this phone number for 20years.
Regards,
Ray

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 11

After talking to a new rep. he inform me that this is not that uncommon in fact he said that Vonage routinely ports number over even after you cancel because they know that once they have your number they can turn you over to their “win back group”. He said that because I gave them permission to take my number they have done nothing wrong. I would have thought when I cancelled service that would automatically cancel the port. I’m not one that likes government oversight however after 5 days without dial tone and still no end in sight this industry need some controls put in place.
Regards,
Ray

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 11

My phone service has finely been restored. This has been quite an eye opener. I would still like to know if the Cal. PUC has any jurisdiction in this matter. Today I received an e-mail asking me to send back my original TA (the one I purchase at the store) so something tells me this is not quite over yet. I just hope I can port my number back over to my old provider without Vonage sticking the “win back group “sharks on me.
Thank you all for your time.
Regards,
Ray

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:46 pm Post subject:

Ray,
I do know that you have had a very rocky start, and can understand your feelings. But, why not give the actual service a try, and request a fairly big credit, so it would in theory be free?

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:53 pm Post subject:

raysvonage wrote:

I would still like to know if the Cal. PUC has any jurisdiction in this matter.

At this point it is my belief that state regulatory agencies are unable to regulate non-local Voip companies. Interstate commerce is typically the domain of the federal government and the FCC has already told the states in no uncertain terms not to mess with Voip providers.

Here is a news story that might illuminate the issue, FCC Exempts VoIP From State Regulation. It doesn't hurt to contact them though, they still have some impact on Vonage's business because Vonage relies on CLECs to provide local phone numbers.

Posts: 11 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 11

thank you all.
Trowski, my Problem was never with the phone service. I just wanted to port over my number. But then they had to send out the new TA and wanted to make a new account with penalties. I could not even get then to commit to paying for return postage. If a company treats you this way when you’re a new costumer how will they treat after you been with them for awhile? I do not know if I will ever try Vonage again. I think they have a great product however their customer service is so poor. I work for a public utility and I can tell you right now if we ever treated a customer the way that I’ve been treated not only the service rep. but his or her manager would have been fired. You can not allow this lack of customer service to run ramped in a company no matter how great the product is. When People call me at work it is because they need help not excuses. 5 days without dial tone, if I had not lived it I would not have believe it. I have to say that finding this forum was the best help. I was able to set up my laptop as a phone to make outside calls, what a life and money saver. Again THANK YOU ALL.
Regards,
Ray

Posts: 17 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 02, 2003 Posts: 17

rays wrote:

If a company treats you this way when you’re a new costumer how will they treat after you been with them for awhile?

You don't want to know Twisted Evil

.

Quote:

I do not know if I will ever try Vonage again. I think they have a great product

Jeff

Posts: 103 · Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:19 am Post subject: Vonage Customer Support, FEH!

I read about your problems with Vonage customer support and in porting the number you had for 20 years over to Vonage. I am currently very happy with Vonage service, but amused with their customer support. Please hear my story of techno woe, and redemption.

I had something similar happen. I originally bought a PAP2 from Radio Shack, and got a (954) number with a (954) fax number. Everything worked adequately well. I decided to get Vonage because I was going into business (health service) on my own, and wanted a business number that I could " carry" to whatever office I would finally lease. My idea was, establish the number, publish it on business cads, use the Simulring to my cell phone, and avoid having to deal with Bell South Business office. Then, I decided to open my office in (561), so I got a Virtual Number in (561). Everything was working fine, I had the (561) number on my business cards, but, when I would make outgoing calls, the (954) number showed up on the recipient's phone and I wanted my (561) number to show since I now had my office in (561). So, I called Vonage tech support, and asked, " Could I have my primary number and virtual number switched so that when I call out, my current (561) virtual number appears as on the Caller ID, and my current main number becomes a Virtual number?" The polite Customer Support fellow on the other side said that it was impossible to do because he did not have a screen to make such a change on her terminal. A week later, I called back and asked the same question. This time, when the polite Hindi accented customer support guy told me it could not be done, I insisted just as politely that I am sure that some engineer could just associate my numbers to any device as long as Vonage had control of that telno. He said it could not be done, and I then asked if I could speak to the person the next Tier up. When I got to that person, he said it would not be a problem, but would take 24 hours to do.

When the change was made, my previous main number was now my Virtual number, but some other number, with some area code from a totally different part of Florida was my main number. If I called the (561) number which I had wanted as my main number, I got a message saying all lines were temporarily busy. That was not what I wanted. I was a bit concerned, since I had already printed up 1,000 business cards and letterhead using the (561) number.

I then got on the phone, at 8:00 PM, called Vonage, spent about 45 minutes on the call, mostly on hold, got transfered to Tier 3 (I guess it was Tier 3 since I was I got transferred up a level twice.) I was told that the fix would be made within 24 hours. As of 26 hours later the change had not been made. I was wakened my my dog at 5:00 AM, and out of curiosity, I check my phone by dialing it from my cell phone, and then dialing from my Vonage phone to my cell.

It took more than 24 hours, but all is well, and the switch from Main to Virtual and Virtual to Main was done successfully! Once again, I am very happy with Vonage. The lesson I have learned is that even if Customer Support is polite, they are poorly informed of everything that can be done technologically, and that it is good to ask directly to be transferred to the next tier up. I am once again happy with Vonage service. I have also learned that it is good to be patient. Most of the problems I have had with Vonage were resolved within a day or so. (it did take 5 months for me to get my refund, but I did get it)

Oh! Another thing! A young woman I know had Vonage in (301). I would call her, and it always sounded choppy on her end. She moved to another state, and plugged in her adapter, and now she sounds great. She got a new Vonage telephone number, and made her old (301) number her virtual number, and now she sounds great and once again, Life is tekno-good. The problem with Vonage is that it depends on some ISP to function properly.

I do swear, though, that if I ever have kids, I am going to make sure they learn Hindi and Mandarin from elementary school age because that seems to be the only way they will clearly get ahead in business in the modern world and understand what customer support is saying. So, the moral of my story is that Vonage is good but requires a bit of patience.