Tech lied about free return shipping

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2006 Posts: 5

First off, I referred my brother and father to Vonage, and they have both cancelled it due to service issues. My brother told me a horror story when he cancelled! I have been pretty happy with my service, though. There was a couple of weeks with frequent downtimes, but other than that, I am happy. I did submit an e-mail thru their website for tech help about the downtime, but I never heard a response.

Anyway, the Linksys router that Vonage provided started to fail here and there. I am a network administrator, so computers are not a foreign object to me. I spoke to the gentleman and told him that I had narrowed the problem down to the router from troubleshooting. He told me that he would ship out a replacement. I asked about the return shipping, to make sure that I wouldn't have to pay for it. He told me that I would be responsible. I said that I didn't think that I should be responsible since the Vonage equipment was faulty. He consented and said that I would not have to pay for return shipping.

Fast forward several days....The new router gets here and I install it. I don't see a return bill, so I call Vonage and ask how I am to get their router back to them. The gentleman that I spoke to, who I "think" said his name was Felbar, said that Vonage didn't issue return bills. Honestly, his Indian accent was SO thick that I could hardly understand him. His manager had an Indian accent as well, so I am assuming that they farm out support overseas. (read: I am not defaming Indians at all. He simply had such a poor control over the English language that it made his job of support ridiculous, because I had to ask him to repeat everything 10 times.) He finally suggested that I pay to return it and call back for a credit to be issued for the return charge. I told him that I wasn't comfortable with that, since I didn't think that the credit would be honored if the original guy that I spoke with fell thru with his end.

After speaking with him for several minutes, he transferred me to his manager, Jack. His manager said the same thin and finally transferred to me a General Billing Manager. He said that he could issue a credit of up to $8.00 after I return it. I asked him to have to the original tech that promised no shipping payments to call me back. He said that he will be in on Monday and will call me back. I will see what happens.

I can't say how much this pisses me off. I specified that I wouldn't pay for shipping and the original tech, Michael, agreed. I don't want to jerked around. Why won't they just honor what the first tech told me?!?! I would have told them to keep the new equipment if I had to pay for shipping.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 16, 2006 Posts: 5

Well, I think they simply made a mistake(not defending it but I think thats what happened). I had a similar situation with the router and having bad phone ports. Now the good thing is that I was speaking to a 2nd level tech in New Jersey so there were no communication issues but I asked for a return label and he said they simply don't do it. I think its due to the fact they ship with a DHL/USPS alliance. He told me however that he would credit my account $9.00 and I saw the credit on my account the next day and honestly, it'll cost less than half that to ship it back ground.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2006 Posts: 5

Thanks for your response.

Well, in the second call, I told the manager to credit my account first and I would send it back. He said no. I know it isn't alot of money, but it still burns me to be lied to. I swear the original problem call was like 90 seconds. The guy didn't want to troubleshoot anything. Just opted to send a new router out. I was adamant about not paying shipping. If they were doing a credit after the fact deal, you think he would have explained that first.

The manager I spoke to said that they stopped issuing return labels about 4 months ago.

Posts: 409 · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a lack of communication.

The tech probably meant that you would not have to pay for the return shipment via a credit to your credit card once the transaction has been completed, but didn't precisely explain the process.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 25, 2006 Posts: 30

Nope not a lack of communication...I was told the same thing.

I expressed that I would not pay for shipping the device back and they said they would refund the shipping money...and I asked 3 times...in different ways and the girl said they would refund every cent.

This is before they lost my device in shipping after a week of waiting for it.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2006 Posts: 5

Well this went from inconvenient to a downright horror story!

I am so incredibly angry at Vonage that I am going to explode. I logged about 3 hours on the phone with them since this incident, most of which was on hold.

The original tech was supposed to call me back to resolve the issue. Well, that never happened. I was waiting for him to call and then a charge for $99.84 appeared on my account. The return authorization had expired. I called back, and spoke to Wanda. She was fairly nice, but didn't really have a definitive answer. She said that if I shipped back the faulty router that they would probably credit my account for the $99.84. She suggested that I fight for the return shipping charges afterward. I asked her if she could give me a definite answer about refunding the $99 and she couldn't. She suggested that I speak to a supervisor, but there was a 25 minute wait time for one. (note: I had already held 45 minutes just to speak to her and it was past midnight). So, I called the next morning during the timeframe that she recommended would be slowest, and I ended up waiting 35 minutes for a supervisor anyway,lol...

Well, the supervisor that I spoke to was Maria. Now keep in mind that EVERY time I had called, I was told misinformation that kept changing. At one point, someone told me that I could discard the old router. Maria told me that it was never intended to be a replacement router, that I had in fact outright PURCHASED the new router.

Now who in their right mind purchases a router without asking ANY questions about how much it costs or what it's features are?!?! During my 90 second call with the initial tech, he said nothing about me having to buy a new router. Why the heck would I be fighting about return shipping fees if I was BUYING a new one?! All of the automatic e-mail that Vonage generated said that I was authorized to return the old faulty router. Who would pay shipping to return a faulty router, if they were purchasing a new one? Nothing makes sense. In the 3 or 4 times that I called trying to get the shipping charges figured out, no one said it was a purchase.

So I told Maria, that I would send back the new $99 router and just use the old one. She said that the old one had been demoted in their database and faulty and could not be reinstated and that I was stuck with the new one.

I told her that there HAD to be something that she could do to remove this charge! I simply can't afford it! I never authorized a purchase! She finally agreed that either she or the original tech would call me today after 4 pm to resovle the issue. She said that she would speak to the tech to see what his recount of the story was. I asked her to send me an e-mail so that I would have something in writing. She agreed to...guess what? I didn't get her e-mail and no one called!

I am so fed up! What steps can I take to resolve this? Can I dispute it with my credit card? It is actually my check card...took the money right out of my checking account. What would you do? Does anyone have any recommendations or anything. I am literally in tears over this. They are stealing from me!

Posts: 8 · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:31 am Post subject:

cyfarian wrote:

Well this went from inconvenient to a downright horror story!

I am so incredibly angry at Vonage that I am going to explode. I logged about 3 hours on the phone with them since this incident, most of which was on hold.

The original tech was supposed to call me back to resolve the issue. Well, that never happened. I was waiting for him to call and then a charge for $99.84 appeared on my account. The return authorization had expired. I called back, and spoke to Wanda. She was fairly nice, but didn't really have a definitive answer. She said that if I shipped back the faulty router that they would probably credit my account for the $99.84. She suggested that I fight for the return shipping charges afterward. I asked her if she could give me a definite answer about refunding the $99 and she couldn't. She suggested that I speak to a supervisor, but there was a 25 minute wait time for one. (note: I had already held 45 minutes just to speak to her and it was past midnight). So, I called the next morning during the timeframe that she recommended would be slowest, and I ended up waiting 35 minutes for a supervisor anyway,lol...

Well, the supervisor that I spoke to was Maria. Now keep in mind that EVERY time I had called, I was told misinformation that kept changing. At one point, someone told me that I could discard the old router. Maria told me that it was never intended to be a replacement router, that I had in fact outright PURCHASED the new router.

Now who in their right mind purchases a router without asking ANY questions about how much it costs or what it's features are?!?! During my 90 second call with the initial tech, he said nothing about me having to buy a new router. Why the heck would I be fighting about return shipping fees if I was BUYING a new one?! All of the automatic e-mail that Vonage generated said that I was authorized to return the old faulty router. Who would pay shipping to return a faulty router, if they were purchasing a new one? Nothing makes sense. In the 3 or 4 times that I called trying to get the shipping charges figured out, no one said it was a purchase.

So I told Maria, that I would send back the new $99 router and just use the old one. She said that the old one had been demoted in their database and faulty and could not be reinstated and that I was stuck with the new one.

I told her that there HAD to be something that she could do to remove this charge! I simply can't afford it! I never authorized a purchase! She finally agreed that either she or the original tech would call me today after 4 pm to resovle the issue. She said that she would speak to the tech to see what his recount of the story was. I asked her to send me an e-mail so that I would have something in writing. She agreed to...guess what? I didn't get her e-mail and no one called!

I am so fed up! What steps can I take to resolve this? Can I dispute it with my credit card? It is actually my check card...took the money right out of my checking account. What would you do? Does anyone have any recommendations or anything. I am literally in tears over this. They are stealing from me!

that's basiclly what i did, sent back the router,(i paid to ship it) then call and cancelled the service.

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 25, 2006 Posts: 30

Ok...

First thing boys. Stop calling india.

If you want to cancel service and receive 100% of your money back...follow these instructions:

Try calling 732.528.2600 which is Vonage's office number. Press 2 and punch in CITRON. It should come up with a match for Jeff Citron (CEO). Leave a message explaining the situation. You might have to leave one or two messages, but someone from the office (not CS) should call you back

Jeff Citron will set this straight. If you can't get a hold of him, leave a message with complete details including the fact that you have family and can't afford to spare this money they have charged.

From talking to people in that office they are fully embarrassed by the practices of Customer Service and Tech support.

-------------------------

cyfarian wrote:

Well this went from inconvenient to a downright horror story!

I am so incredibly angry at Vonage that I am going to explode. I logged about 3 hours on the phone with them since this incident, most of which was on hold.

The original tech was supposed to call me back to resolve the issue. Well, that never happened. I was waiting for him to call and then a charge for $99.84 appeared on my account. The return authorization had expired. I called back, and spoke to Wanda. She was fairly nice, but didn't really have a definitive answer. She said that if I shipped back the faulty router that they would probably credit my account for the $99.84. She suggested that I fight for the return shipping charges afterward. I asked her if she could give me a definite answer about refunding the $99 and she couldn't. She suggested that I speak to a supervisor, but there was a 25 minute wait time for one. (note: I had already held 45 minutes just to speak to her and it was past midnight). So, I called the next morning during the timeframe that she recommended would be slowest, and I ended up waiting 35 minutes for a supervisor anyway,lol...

Well, the supervisor that I spoke to was Maria. Now keep in mind that EVERY time I had called, I was told misinformation that kept changing. At one point, someone told me that I could discard the old router. Maria told me that it was never intended to be a replacement router, that I had in fact outright PURCHASED the new router.

Now who in their right mind purchases a router without asking ANY questions about how much it costs or what it's features are?!?! During my 90 second call with the initial tech, he said nothing about me having to buy a new router. Why the heck would I be fighting about return shipping fees if I was BUYING a new one?! All of the automatic e-mail that Vonage generated said that I was authorized to return the old faulty router. Who would pay shipping to return a faulty router, if they were purchasing a new one? Nothing makes sense. In the 3 or 4 times that I called trying to get the shipping charges figured out, no one said it was a purchase.

So I told Maria, that I would send back the new $99 router and just use the old one. She said that the old one had been demoted in their database and faulty and could not be reinstated and that I was stuck with the new one.

I told her that there HAD to be something that she could do to remove this charge! I simply can't afford it! I never authorized a purchase! She finally agreed that either she or the original tech would call me today after 4 pm to resovle the issue. She said that she would speak to the tech to see what his recount of the story was. I asked her to send me an e-mail so that I would have something in writing. She agreed to...guess what? I didn't get her e-mail and no one called!

I am so fed up! What steps can I take to resolve this? Can I dispute it with my credit card? It is actually my check card...took the money right out of my checking account. What would you do? Does anyone have any recommendations or anything. I am literally in tears over this. They are stealing from me!

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 24, 2006 Posts: 5

JoeO, did that work for you? I do not want to cancel service, just want the $100 charge off of my account.

Thanks,
Oh and I am female, not male Wink

Jill

Posts: 30 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Feb 25, 2006 Posts: 30

Yup!

Give them a call..they speak english and they don't disconnect you.