A happy Customer Service Call -- Yes, they do happen!

Posts: 171

I have been with Vonage for a couple of months now. Originally I signed up for the Premium Unlimited Plan. After two months of using 496 minutes, then 502 minutes, I decided I'm better off with the Basic 500 plan since I don't usually call Europe and my calling on my house phone is usually very limited.

My billing cycle has been April 26 to May 25, May 26 to June 25, June 26 to July 25 and so on. I decided it would be best to switch my plans on the start of a billing cycle -- June 26th in this case. So at 6:00 am I log onto my account and switch plans. I of course get the obligatory $9.99 charge for switching. Not a problem, I realize this is part of the terms I signed up with.

Now I'm on my Basic 500 minute plan. I see that I was charged my $24.99 for the June 26 to July 25 cycle, plus $9.99 for "activating" the Basic 500 plan. Okay, so I figure I need to see a credit for the $10.00 difference in plans...no credit.

I send an email to Customer Service and get this response:

Quote:

Vonage billing system is like this: the rental charge (rate plan charges and taxes ) are pro-rated.We found that you changed the rate plan on the billing cycle date.So it is not possible to process your request.

Bummer! That doesn't seem correct, so I called the replied to the email since I didn't want to have to actually call customer service and wait forever just to speak to someone who would probably read me what was sent in my email -- which by the way makes no sense to me.

So I reply to the email with this: (notice my personal touch of Dear Vonage Digital Voice Customer Care...that's how their email was signed they sent to me...)

Quote:

Dear Vonage Digital Voice Customer Care,

Your response does not make sense. If the billing is prorated, and I changed on the billing cycle date, then my prorated refund should be either 100% ($10) (30 days, for the 30 day cycle - June 26 to July 25) or at worst 96.6% ($9.66) (29 days for the 30 day cycle).

I base this on the fact that I paid for Premium service, $24.99 for the period June 26 to July 25, however on June 26 I changed my plan rate to the 500 minute plan ($14.99) which took affect immediately on June 26. If you are not honoring a refund, then the way I see this is as follows:

I paid $24.99 for Premium service, but decided I really only need the basic 500 minute rate plan, so I paid the $9.99 new rate activation charge in addition to the $24.99 premium rate fee and am only getting the residential basic 500 plan -- for which my total outlay has so far been $34.98 -- HOW IS THAT GOOD BUSINESS?

I look forward to a quick response and resolution in this matter.

I figure, this should get some action...it did! I got this:

Quote:

Thank you for contacting Customer Care.

We understand that you would like to get a refund for the difference in rate plan.

As for the credit request, our security policy prevents us from processing credit requests received through email. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. You can request a credit by calling us at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357). Speaking to a live agent enables us to quickly validate the account owner, review the request for credit and make a final determination.

If you have any questions now or in the future Vonage Customer Care is eager to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please visit our help center at http://www.vonage.com/help.php?lid=nav_help or send us an email from our Contact Us page at http://www.vonage.com/help_contactUs.php?lid=footer_contact. You can also call us Toll Free at: 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357).

Sincerely,

Vonage DigitalVoice Customer Care

Oh no! I have to call customer care!!!! Eek

I decide to pull out my stop watches and see how long this ordeal will take. Here's the results:

1 minute, 10 seconds to navigate the voice prompts and get into the hold queue. Not bad. The voice recording tells me -- to my great surprise -- the hold time to speak with a Customer Care Agent will be a minimum of 3 to 5 minutes...click, second stop watch started...

3 minutes, 54 seconds later, I get Gloria. A real live, very nice English speaking (albeit with a New Jersey accent, but being from Boston, who am I to talk...) Customer Care Agent. I explain to Gloria what the issue is and she say, no problem, I can give you the $10 difference in a credit...tap, tap, tap...Gloria starts to enter info (i assume) for the credit. Gloria says, I think I can just cancel the activation charge for $9.99, would that be okay? Sure I said immediately, that seems fair and simple to me. Tap, tap, tap...went Gloria...less than a minute or so later Gloria comes back and says, all set! Your credit is issued. You're bill next month will be $5 plus the taxes. Cool, I'm happy. Total time on the phone...including the initial navigation and hold time...10 minutes, 1 seconds...and that included a very nice thank you for being a "Vonage customer" from Gloria.

I hung up, checked my account on-line and sure enough, there's the credit. See, Vonage does know how to treat a customer. They did it at least once...not like the guy in the Bank America ad says, "we process once check accurately, then repeat that process 7 billion times". In my book, as of today, Vonage ha moved up a full notch!

Now if they can just answer why their service crapped out on the East Coast yesterday...