Problems with Switching Primary Phone Numbers

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 31, 2006 Posts: 2

[font=Arial] [/font] I am a new member to this forum and I have been using Vonage Service for about 9 months. I was very happy with the service and had good luck with tech support at first.

Because I was so happy with the service I signed up for a second account this time with a Wireless phone adapter and all was right with the world. At least until I made the fatal mistake of asking to switch the primary phone numbers between the two accounts. I was told that switching the primary phone numbers was easy and that it would be accomplished within 48 to 72 hours.

When a week went by I started calling back, and all of the techs I talked over the next two weeks added information to the ticket or wrote new tickets. None of them could tell me why the numbers were not being switched. They keep saying that the phone number switch was in the cue. I talked to a manager after about 3 weeks and he transferred me back to a tech without asking if it was OK to do so.

This tech however seemed to know what he was doing. After conferring with his manager he told me my request was now in the manager's cue with high priority and would definitely be taken care of within 48 hours. He apologized to me several times and said he could not explain why things haven't been taken care of.

I week later nothing had happened so I called back again and got another tech from India (most were Indian). Finally I was told by this person that my primary numbers can't be switched without cancelling one of my accounts. This was hard to believe as none of the other techs had mentioned this, so I asked for a manager to call me back within 48 hours. I also emailed Vonage. No one called me back. I called and emailed again and was told a manager would call me back within 48 hours and again nothing I called again tonight and was told that a manager would definitely call me within 48 hours and I guess we will see.

At any rate, the point is Vonage Customer Support seems to be badly broken. The techs apparently are not trained for anything beyond very basic problems and managers are apparently too busy or unwilling to call people back. Has Vonage gotten too big or to full of themselves?

Has anyone else had these kinds of problems? Does anyone have any suggestions (other than terminating my accounts which I am definitely considering)?

Posts: 1125 · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:43 am Post subject:

Call back and ask to be elevated to Tier 2 support (NJ). Explain how long you've waited for this to happen, if they can't see the ticket history. Don't get pissy, just tell them what you need. I suspect you'll have better support that way.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 31, 2006 Posts: 2

NavyDavy2001,
Thank you for the advice. Smile

I had to call 4 techs before I could get one of them to elevate me to tier 2 support. Apparently, they are told not to do this under any circumstance. All 4 techs wanted to solve the problem in the same way that had failed to work at least 15 times.

Finally, I let the 4th tech "have it" and he elevated me to tier 2. I talked to a tier 2 tech named Joseph who took the time to research how numbers can be switched between routers/phone adapters. He found out that an account doesn't have to be cancelled to accomplish this, but that a place holder phone number has to be temporarily input before the numbers can be changed.

Joseph got the problem taken care of and I am much happier with Vonage at this point. If anyone wants to switch their accounts' primary phone numbers, ask your tech to elevate you to tier 2 and then ask for Joseph P. If Vonage just had more people like Joseph they would probably be the most amazing company.

Again, Thanks for the advice.

Posts: 1125 · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:09 am Post subject:

No problem, and I'm glad it was worked out for you. Bon Vonage!

Posts: 70 · Full Forum Member Joined: Nov 28, 2005 Posts: 70

buster100 wrote:

NavyDavy2001,
Thank you for the advice. Smile

IJoseph got the problem taken care of and I am much happier with Vonage at this point. If anyone wants to switch their accounts' primary phone numbers, ask your tech to elevate you to tier 2 and then ask for Joseph P. If Vonage just had more people like Joseph they would probably be the most amazing company.

Again, Thanks for the advice.

You do, of course, realize that the chance of that happening is basically zero. A problem here is that there isn't a precise mechanism within Vonage to do this. I had a tkt rejected with the 'provisional' TN's, with a comment that it 'confused the issue' I had to put it BACK with a comment to pls do it as it's been done that way before. Got done by a different tech, but the customer was basically delayed maybe 4 days.Stinks.

Posts: 1125 · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:47 am Post subject:

Well, I think Vonage's issues in customer care are probably experienced by most major call centers, but the key is that A) Call center personnel need more training and B) They need more authority to do more mundane tasks. If you rely too much on supervisors, which you have less of than call answerers, then that is your Achilles Heel.