Vonage not "Truthful"

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 13, 2004 Posts: 15

Vonage not "Truthful"

I was an early adopter and at that time they said when you disconnect, after the time commitment and since now they are giving basic ones away, that they would refund the price of the adapter. Nope. Not the case and that now it's mine to reuse on their service if I want. BUT, since it's mine and I can reuse it, I want the unlock codes so that I can use it. Oh, no that's not possible. Next stop FTC & FCC.

I just moved into a community that has Fiber Optic EVERYTHING. So I ported my number, of which if you do, you must call the business office, not Tech Support, and not the new Voip service you are going to that will tell you that when the service is ported "it's official", it's not officially canceled. Your are not canceled even though the number is gone and you are not using them. That's a nice little scam. All other carriers get the clue. Call the Business Office and to be safe and follow up a week later.

Anyway, in the months prior to porting, I called at least three times, I wanted to make sure the story was the same each time, or to see how many different versions I would get, and was told that I would receive a prorated refund on the time that I paid for and wouldn't be using. WELL, I was just informed by a "senior" manager that all I was told was wrong. And all that I was under the impression of that the agents told me, had entered the our conversations in my record, of which I asked to be done and was told was done, he couldn't find any record of nor that I was told that I would get a "pro-rated refund" for time paid for but not used. Also he said that I was offered a deal not to leave and therefore I could use my adapter again. First, there was never any conversation of me staying and; Second no offers were ever made. Third lie. So all that I was told that was true and I wanted in and was told was being put in the record was not and all this new fictitious stuff and conversations were now popping up.

So:

Vonage is getting as arrogant as their commercials are stupid. It's too true they need to spend more on infrastructure and less on dumb ads and personnel.

P.S.
Their bill was equal to my old telco bill. So where's the savings?

Posts: 414 · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:11 pm Post subject: Re: Vonage not "Truthful"

FarmerBob wrote:

Not the case and that now it's mine to reuse on their service if I want. BUT, since it's mine and I can reuse it, I want the unlock codes so that I can use it. Oh, no that's not possible. Next stop FTC & FCC.

I can comment on this part of your post as this is a subject I am pretty familiar with. Unless you have the Cisco ATA-186 adapter Vonage cannot and will not unlock your adapter. The Vonage adapters have a special firmware and chipset that gets the SIP configuration info from Vonage's server which is unlike a traditional Voip adapter. This is why, with the exception of the ATA-186, your device truly cannot be unlocked, as it is not a vanilla Voip adapter and is locked via hardware to Vonage's servers. I have heard of people being able to "hack" the old PAP2(pre v2 version) to work with other services but this is not something Vonage is going to tell you is possible or help you with as you are not supposed to be able to do this. Also I think the are pretty covered themselves on this whole issue.

Vonage TOS wrote:

(b) Unauthorized Usage of Device; Firmware or Software. Other than for Business Plus customers, you (i) have not been granted any license to use the firmware or software used to provide the Service or provided to you in conjunction with providing the Service, or embedded in the Device, other than a nontransferable, revocable license to use such firmware or software in object code form (without making any modification thereto) strictly in accordance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, and (ii) expressly agree that the Device is exclusively for use in connection with the Service and that we will not provide any passwords, codes or other information or assistance that would enable you to use the Device for any other purpose. We reserve the right to prohibit the use of any interface device that we have not provided to you. You hereby represent and warrant that you possess all required rights, including software and/or firmware licenses, to use any interface device that we have not provided to you. In addition, you shall indemnify and hold us harmless against any and all liability arising out of your use of such interface device with the Service. You shall not reverse compile, disassemble or reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to derive the source code from the binary code of the firmware or software.

As for their customer service, I think we can all agree that this is a department where at least their outsourced vendors are severely lacking in knowledge of the company policies and how to get things done.

Posts: 15 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jul 13, 2004 Posts: 15

Thank you for your reply.

I have read many forums where you can successfully unlock the Motorola VT-1005, but they all say it's easier to call Vonage and get the code. So obviously there are some that are doing it and there are forums devoted to it. Guess I'll just have to hunt or have my lawyer call.

But my point is if they are going to lie on their advertising and use as their excuse that the modem is now mine, make it mine, and let me unlock it and use it as I please. Spoke to a lawyer friend and this could be argued as fraud.

I got a VT-1005 from my old ISP when they tried to do Voip and if failed and didn't want the modem back. They tried to pull the same stunt and when my lawyer called I had the codes the next day.

So basically Vonage is acting arrogant and asinine. And in time it will filter further down to QoS. Oh wait it has.

ALSO . . . I was promised that I would be refunded the month/any residual that I prepaid for and now at their convenience, no. And there is no way around it. When you cancel the service goes down and if there is any leftover you don't get it. If you owe, they'll take a months worth. Nice little SCAM. It'll only be a matter of time before a Class Action suit pops up. Maybe I might start it. But then if the Feds do their jobs that won't be necessary.

Well have to see what my state Attorney General, the FTC, and FCC has to say. Even Verizon that can get blood from a stone gave me the month that I paid for back when I canceled with them.

Who knows?!

Posts: 153 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 11, 2007 Posts: 153

Does your lawyer actually call for less than the price of one of these modems? Wow!