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

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:15 am Post subject: Re: Reusing routers

mjholmes wrote:

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.

Then try thier policy, Im certianly interested how its handled by Vonage. Have this friend(that had a Vonage account) write Vonage a letter seeking written consent to sell or give you his device.

I mean if no one tries it how will anyone know if that policy is a good one or not.

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:20 am Post subject:

maryjane wrote:

2.2 Residential Use of Service and Device. If you subscribe to Vonage's residential services, the Service and the Device are provided to you solely for residential use. You shall not resell or transfer the Service or the Device to another party without our prior written consent. You are prohibited from using the Service or the Device for auto-dialing, continuous or extensive call forwarding, telemarketing (including, without limitation, charitable or political solicitation or polling), fax or voicemail broadcasting or fax or voicemail blasting. We reserve the right to immediately terminate or modify your Service if we determine, in our sole and absolute discretion, that your use of the Service or the Device is, or at any time was, inconsistent with normal residential usage patterns. In addition, you will be required to pay our higher rates for commercial service for all periods in which your use of the Service or the Device was inconsistent with normal residential use.

Has anyone ever tried to get the written consent? If so did it work out ok??

There were dramatic No answers. But not one Yes. So I'm assuming not one person has attempted to get that written consent.

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

The quicker answer is to have them call and remove the device from their terminated account. Then it can be added to your account. The problem is that they can't add a device to an account that's still on another account, it doesn't matter if the account is terminated.

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

I talked to Customer Support again. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes I was told repeatedly that the previous owner would have to call and give authorization for me to use the router on my account. Then, I'd have to wait 45 minutes or more just to request the change. They recommend people buy a new device just to avoid the hassle; for me, I can't go back to the ebay seller who hates Vonage, and ask him to stay on hold for 45 minutes just to remove the device from his account. So to answer maryjane, I did find how to get permission -- but even they admit it's too much trouble for most people. It's not that they want to shaft you, they just want to make sure they have authorization.

They said I could go to a retailer, purchase a new device and still get the $50 rebate. I found a PAP2 at Radio Shack for $60, which means for $10 I could get my phone back today. And that's exactly what I did. Plugged in, configured, used online Retail Activation to swap out devices, and no call to Customer Service was needed.

I can be angry at the expense, but I just don't have the time to mess with Customer Service. Between BellSouth and Vonage, I still like Vonage more. BS cost me $55/mo more than Vonage, and I learned the hard way even BS has no sense of customer service.

I'll stick with Vonage while the service is stable. And for the record, I'll happily pay a little more per month if I can get effective Customer Service from reps who I can understand, and if they answer in under 8 minutes. I'm sorry, but the decision to outsource CS to India was a bad move.

Posts: 409 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 10:20 pm Post subject:

ok didn't know you bought it off ebay, for some reason I assumed you got it from a friend.

Posts: 277 · Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:45 pm Post subject: Re: Got another device

mjholmes wrote:

They said I could go to a retailer, purchase a new device and still get the $50 rebate. I found a PAP2 at Radio Shack for $60, which means for $10 I could get my phone back today. And that's exactly what I did. Plugged in, configured, used online Retail Activation to swap out devices, and no call to Customer Service was needed.

Good luck on that rebate. Unfortunately, yet another Vonage CS rep who didn't know what they were talking about. The rebate form (from Radio Shack's site) which you have to fill out and send in clearly says in large, bold print:

(Rebate only valid on new service activations not existing accounts)

You really just paid $60, not $10, sorry.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:57 am Post subject:

I guess people don't understand the value of time... or aren't getting paid much per hour. Time is more than money to me -- it's the most limited resource I have. Going round & round trying to "save" a few bucks just doesn't make sense to me.

Posts: 276 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 276

VonageTPA wrote:

I guess people don't understand the value of time... or aren't getting paid much per hour. Time is more than money to me -- it's the most limited resource I have. Going round & round trying to "save" a few bucks just doesn't make sense to me.

A-frickin'-men!

Would you please tell my father this? A couple years ago, instead of spending money to buy a real PC like Dell, Gateway, HP, Sony, etc., he decided to "save money" by getting a PC from Aldi's, which is a low-grade, discount grocery store. He picked up a Medion PC "with all the bells and whistles" (his words) because of the super low price.

Since then, and I am not exaggerating when I say this, he has spent thousands of hours fixing one problem or glitch after another--system crashes, freeze-ups, software not installing at all, programs not running, devices not working--you name it. In fact, to this day his PC still has some major issues with it.

I've asked him to assign a monetary value to all the time he's wasted with his PC, but he's too ignorant and too blind to do so.

Posts: 134 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Mar 23, 2005 Posts: 134

Sounds more like issues with the software rather than the hardware to me. Did it come loaded with Windows ME or something?

Posts: 276 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Feb 09, 2006 Posts: 276

No, it came loaded with Windows XP Professional.

Most such problems usually are tied to software and not hardware. I've told the genius to buy an external hard drive to back up his files and other pertinent stuff, then reload WinXP from scratch, reformatting the drive from the beginning.

Has he done this? Of course not. But he still biatches about it not working half the time.