Re-using router for another new Vonage subscriber-BIG-NO-NO!

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

If you receive the device as part of a promotion.."free"...you don't actually OWN IT FOR FREE...until a year is up.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:34 am Post subject:

JoeO wrote:

If you receive the device as part of a promotion.."free"...you don't actually OWN IT FOR FREE...until a year is up.

<shrug> Well, Vonage themselves apparently disagree with you. All I'm doing is quoting exactly from their own Terms of Service. You own it, from day one. If you cancel during the first year, they charge a termination fee of $39.99. You may send them back the adapter you own in lieu of paying the termination fee, your choice.

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

Actually they don't take devices back after the 30 day MBG anymore. You're charged the term fee within the MBG until you return the device. and if you return it after the 30 day MBG but before your 90 days, you also get charged the Rebate Recovery Fee, which is whatever your rebate was, because the stipulation of the rebate is that you remain a customer for 90 days.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 3:12 pm Post subject:

I partially understand why Vonage does this -- the adapters aren't of the highest quality. With all of the ways these routers can get damaged, I'd be very leery of buying one secondhand, and I'm assuming this is also why Vonage isn't allowing it -- they don't want to deal with all of the secondhand & reliability issues. It's probably cheaper for them to ship out a new adapter rather than try to troubleshoot a faulty adapter.

Posts: 409 · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:45 pm Post subject:

That makes sense.

Posts: 1123 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1123

The only reason I'd buy one off of Ebay is to put a firecracker (or 10) inside of it and have some fun. What? So I like to watch things blow up. Big deal. Very Happy

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 01, 2006 Posts: 4

I've been a customer of Vonage for 14 months. My router, an RT31P2, also stopped working for Voip (2 months after warranty expires, of course). Tech support says, "buy a new router from a retail store and give us the MAC address."

I bought a router from someone who cancelled Vonage after 6 months. He fulfilled his 90 days, sold me the router for 1/5 of what it would cost me in the store, so I thought it would be a great deal.

I emailed Support again with the new MAC. Within 30 minutes I had a response:

The Wan Mac address of the device that you have provided is already available in another account which has been terminated. Kindly let u know where you got the device from. If you have bought the device from the retail store, then kindly replace it from the retail store.

That was over 30 hours ago, I have not had a reply since, and still no voice service. Normally response time is minutes, so I can only "hope" they are escalating to someone with authority. If they insist that I spend $100+ on a new router, I'll be highly displeased. I've had no service problems in 14 months, so up until this point I've been 100% in favor of Vonage. So much so, that I don't complain about being without phone for a week. The forwarding to cell is flawless. But I'm having doubts about policies now, and that makes me question stability of the business and my service.

If Vonage does allow me to reassign, I'll definitely update this thread with that fact.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:43 am Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

I partially understand why Vonage does this -- the adapters aren't of the highest quality. With all of the ways these routers can get damaged, I'd be very leery of buying one secondhand

And being leery of buying (anything) secondhand and doing your homework properly is part of being a good consumer. But when there are new, sealed, shrinkwrapped items being sold for about a third of what Vonage wants to soak their loyal customers for, and then they refuse to activate those adapters, that's wrong.

VonageTPA wrote:

It's probably cheaper for them to ship out a new adapter rather than try to troubleshoot a faulty adapter.

Cheaper, you say??? Heck, its a profit center for them. Yeah, I guess its "cheaper" for them. If you're a long-term, loyal Vonage customer, and your adapter dies, there are NEW adapters available from non-Vonage sources for less than half Vonage's price. But they won't activate them for you. Why? So they can soak the customer for $99.95 for a replacement adapter that their own website openly says has a "retail value" of $79.95.

If you don't have any problems that require a call to customer support, if your number transfer goes smoothly, if your adapter never dies - Vonage is a great value for the money. But Vonage seems to have less regard for their customers, and is more eager to treat them shabbily and piss them off, than about any other company I can think of in any industry today. Sad, and likely not a good strategy for long-term success, if history is a good indicator.

Posts: 185 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Dec 18, 2005 Posts: 185

If it is a "New" device, meant for retail, it will be in the retail MAC database and you don't have a problem. The fact of the matter is, you don't b itch to your cell phone company if your cell phone breaks out of warranty, and most cell phone companies make you buy one of their phones, you can't just get whatever phone you want, a lot of companies make you buy a phone locked to their service. Your Vonage router is computer equipment, not an appliance. It requires you to set up, learn about, and maintain it. And since you own it, its your responsibility to replace if it breaks. Moreover, if you buy a 10$ conair phone from KMart, do you call your phone company when it breaks out of warranty? NO. 90% of people aren't paying for their first device anyway, Vonage already picked up the cost of a device for you the first time. Its not like they're charging any more for the Vonage version of the device as opposed to the Non Vonage, take a look at the RT31P2 on VoipSupply, and the Vonage one on Amazon, the prices are the same.

Posts: 216 · Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 12:25 pm Post subject:

Datahazard wrote:

The fact of the matter is, you don't b itch to your cell phone company if your cell phone breaks out of warranty, and most cell phone companies make you buy one of their phones, you can't just get whatever phone you want, a lot of companies make you buy a phone locked to their service.

Ah, but I can go onto eBay and purchase someone's used cell phone for $20 and have Cingular activate it (as long as it is either unlocked or locked to Cingular). Vonage says "sorry that device has been used by someone else" and forces you to purchase a new device.