REBATES!!!

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 9:17 am Post subject:

Outlier wrote:

Also, there was an interesting article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal August 26 concerning Vonage and its competition that somehow didn't seem to make it onto this website's news listing Rolling Eyes

The cute item in the article was how Vonage refers to its competition as Von-a-bees. The most interesting item was how Citron, at the end of the article, stated that Vonage didn't want or need to be the lowest price service in the market in that they were selling SERVICE Eek

, which the WSJ pointed out is exactly what the old line telephone companies said too, when Voip first came out.

Outlier, cheaper doesnt mean better...Sunrocket has had 2-3 MAJOR nationwide outages, some at least 1 was for 24 hours plus.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 3

BubbaBob wrote:

Trowski wrote:

How long did it take Bubba?

About 6 months. My status was stuck on step three for a while. Once my 90 days was up and emailed them about it. THe next day they e-mailed me back saying they would send me a check ASAP. A coupel days later my status on web-rebates.com went BACKWARS! Eek

ANyway, I was away for about a month. When I got back and got around to calling them, the Vonage rep gave me another number to call. I called the other number, talked with them a bit, and a few weeks later recieved my check.

If i had called them earlier i could have shaved a month or two off thoough.

its not just Vonage. Ive been waiting for 5 months for my Callvantage mail in rebate. ANd like many here it didnt even show up on the rebate website until I complained and emailed everyone I could find 3 times. Then it stayed there as processing for a month, finally the website says a check dated 9/13/05 has been issued. But I bet my new Vonage box beats it to my doorstep!

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 15, 2005 Posts: 12

After reading through all the posts here on this forum regarding Vonage Mail-in Rebates, I was dreading to check the status of my $75 Vonage (Circuit City retail) rebate I submitted in Nov05. However after much courage I checked the site and as I feared, the status showed as 'processing' errors:'Submission postmarked more than 30 days after service activation date'!!!. The requirements of the 30 day deadine was not mentioned on the Circuit City rebate form. Requirements were:-

1. The rebate form filled out
2. Copy of Circuit City Sales Receipt
3. Copy of UPC barcode from product packing
4. Copy of First Month's Service Billing Statement ***** takes 30 days!5. Need service to be kept active for 60 days post activation.
6. Form post marked later than 12/15/05 are ineligible **** Note: today is 12/15/05 and the rebate was submitted a month ago.

Well I called the 1-800 number for GFS the rebate fullfilment center that Vonage employs and I was told by a representative that it was all an error and that I need to call again on Mon/Tues....and conveniently the rep. repeated.."I am loosing you sir...I cannot hear you... and then disconnected me abruptly". I called again after a few hours and this time another rep. repeated the same. Only this time he said he had made the status changes and that it would show up in 5 days online..and that I my rebate required 3 months wait and then 5 - 12 weeks for mail to be rcvd. Anyway I wanted to confirm this and so I sent an email to the Customer Help CustomerService@gfsinc.com and within minutes I got a reply from Jason saying that my rebate did not meet the requirements for the reason shown online and that the other reps comments did not mean anything. NO CHANGE. NO REBATE was the msg and asking me to contact Vonage HELP. I tried to call them, its tough to get the correct person and so finally called the DISCONNECT line and put in my complaint. All in all a total bad experience with rebates. Now Planning not to go anywhere near CIRCUIT CITY ever. Also sent a final mail to the help lines at GFS and Circuit City with the above clarifications. God help us customers.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 15, 2005 Posts: 12

Ok here goes the follow up. Sent another reply to GFS rebate help mentioning that there was no requirement to submit the form within 30 days of activation. Also cc'd the Circuit City Rebate help address I got from the local store and said in the email that I would go to the BBB and state Attorney General's office if my issue was not resolved.

No reply received till date. So called the Vonage Help# and spoke to a rep who said that they could not help. Explained the problem again and now the rep. said can u fax me the rebate form so that I can see the requirements. Tried to fax and found the phone number provided 732-287-9119 did not work.

So hung up and called Vonage Help again. This time some lady possibly from India call center took the call, heard my issues, put me on hold and then came back and transferred me to another lady. This one did not understand the issue and was not willing to do anything. I could hear the reps laughing on the rebate issue call. Looks like this is a common issue for them. Anyway after telling me to call the GFS# again this lady hung up on me.

Till date no one from Vonage called me back at my call back number after I called the disconnect line y'day. No one seems to want to resolve the issue. Neither Vonage and neither its fullfillment center have helped. I do hope the people do not get hooked to the REBATE carrot that this company seems to offer.

Posts: 18 · Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:31 pm Post subject:

Perhaps it's time to start posting at PlanetFeedback.com.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 19, 2005 Posts: 1

Jassmithus, am having the same problem as you. I called GFS 1-800-347-4017, and they told me that there is no mention of needing to send a copy of the 1st months statement. This is BS. I know for fact that they needed it. The first person I talked to said that the rebate does not say this, and that they are not responsible if the store's(Circuit City) forms say so. I asked to talk to a manager. She said that she would contact Vonage and get me an answer in 5 days, so I should call back then. Im calling Vonage to see what they say.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 13

I am trying to get the $75 Visa card for a purchase of the WRTP54G at Staples on 10/8. I submitted online on 10/15, the same day of my activation and followed it up with a mail submission as required.

I checked online on November 29 and it said mail submission still not received. I called the rebate center and was told to re-mail the copies. I did so along with a cover letter explaining that it was a re-submission. Well, this morning it now says mail submission received but "Submission postmarked more than 30 days after service activation date."

This is a huge scam on the part of Vonage. I'm contacting the New Jersey Attorney General's office.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Oct 03, 2005 Posts: 13

As an update, I finally got somebody at the Vonage Rebate Center who I don't think is giving me the run around. She acknowledged that there is a problem with my rebate and said to call back in 7-10 days and hopefully it has been straightened out.

For anyone who is mad too about their rebate situation, your best bet is to contact the New Jersey Attorney General's office HERE I have found it does little good to go to the Better Business Bureau.

I have applied for probably 20 rebates in 2005. All of them processed with no problems except the Vonage one. After reading all of the problems other people are having, I think Vonage has a big problem with the company that is processing their rebates.

Posts: 12 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Dec 15, 2005 Posts: 12

Update....I called GFS and Vonage a few more times and each time it was a pain explaining my situation from scratch. But then u gotta earn your rebate seems to be the motto of Vonage.

Anyways I finally got transferred to a Vonage rep. who promised me that he would review what my rebate problem was in his computer system first before trying to help me. This rep understood what my issue was with the rebate and he then promised to send a internal Ticket/Issue Follow note to the Management Team. I also asked him to put in his follow on request with the Mgmnt Team to give me an additional month free Vonage service for the hours and emails I had spent trying to get my rebate. Anyways I get one email with my Vonage case# and saying that my submission was post marked 30 days after activation. It did not give a clear status of what was to happen.

So next day again called Vonage and was able to get transferred to a representative who was the best till then and who after "listening to my problem" put me on to his Supervisor. Account Management Supervisor I think. This person started by saying that the post mark date was 30 days... but then when I explained the requirements to him from the Circuit City rebate form copy that was in front of me, he offered to send an email to GFS and also a copy to me. He assured me that if I did not get my $75 card from GFS , he would adjust it in my Vonage account. Anyways his mail did not spell that out...but he gave his email address/name to me. So now I wait for the elusive Vonage Rebate some what hopefully. For all you guys out there with similar problems....keep following up. And yes after explaining to the supervisor that I had spent 30 min * 20 + calls... the rep still would not give me a free month of service. Says it was not a service problem. Anyway am exausted by all this follow up and dropped my request. The http://www.web-rebates.com site seems to have gone back to Activation Period and the 30 day past... msg does not show up any longer under Errors. Good? Or bad? time will tell.

Posts: 143 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 22, 2005 Posts: 143

Most of the time the rebate doesn't show is because:

1. People enterted the information incorrectly.
THIS HAPPENS A LOT, QUITE a lot.

2. You changed your billing addreess in the past months you had the service, and keep entering the wrong one.

3. Sometimes rebtaes take awhile, I have filled many a rebate in my day and some have took as long as 9 months because of backup.

4. MANY people do not LISTEN to us when entering the MAC address that you MUST enter it with capital letters. 5 times it took with a customer to fill in the rebate forum. I got through the first step fine SO I KNEW it was his error, but remember we need to be reported to the "BBB".

5. Most likely the BBB defuses most of the issues that come to them because of human error and stupidity which in most cases is true, and/or impatience.

6. If your rebate doesn't come then it's the Rebate Departments fault and the best you can do is FILL IT OUT again.

7. I hate rebates and most of the time dont' bother with them anymore. it's like money you are never going to get. (Actually it's free money, not being cheated out of money.) You get money for filling out a forum. Not that hard.

8. It is your responsibility to save the UPC, original Receipt with the rebate. If you lose it, tough love.

9. Please stop exaggerating with "20" calls. Agents note every call you make so if it added up to 20 there would be 20+ comments on the account.