RMA / RA experiences with Vonage?

Posts: 40 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 40

I lost dialtone earlier in the week. Went through the troubleshooting steps with tech support. Noticed that when power cycling the VT1000 the power light would never stay solid. It would blink in non regular intervals. I also noticed that the WAN and PC port lights would completely go off for approx 2 seconds as if the whole unit power cycled. Vonage thinks the unit is defective and has arranged to have a new VT1000 sent to me. He explained that I would need to send the old one back within 14 days to avoid being charged.

I am interested to hear about other peoples experiences with defective unit replacements from Vonage. I received two emails after I finished with tech support. The first one described the RMA / RA process and how within 14 days of receiving the replacement unit I would need to send the defective unit in the original box with all accessories or risk being charged. The second email was an order confirmation for the new unit. It did mention a price of ~$69 for the adapter but the total price was listed as $0.

Just curious if anyone has had bad experiences with being charged even though they returned the defective adapter within 14 days?

Thanks

Posts: 18 · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject:

Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I had no issues with this when I had problems with my adapter. Vonage sent me a replacement and I just put the defective hardware back in the same box and returned it. Hopefully your experience is similar.

Posts: 4777 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4777

My results were also good, but we have seen complaints in the forum.

Posts: 21 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Aug 19, 2005 Posts: 21

I mentioned in another post today that I had an RTP300 that started getting really noisy, so they sent me out a new unit. They were quick, I didn't get charged extra, and for no apparent reason, after about a year, they sent the original decommissioned router back to me. I asked how I should return it, since they didn't seem to know why they sent it to me to begin with, and they told me I'd have to pay to ship it back, but that I could keep it for free.

I have had issues on other occasions where they didn't seem to understand my questions (they didn't know that the voicemail waiting indicator (VMWI) was a feature they supported), but overall, they've been alright.

Posts: 40 · Full Forum Member Joined: Feb 21, 2005 Posts: 40

Thanks all for the replies.

Received the refurb'd unit yesterday. Connected it, powered it on and it synced right up and now have dial tone. Yay!

No return shipping was included but oh well. Have already sent off the defective unit.

I wonder if I am locked into the new terms of service as all the paperwork and email that I received with the new unit treats me as if I am a new customer. Probably just generic letters though.

thanks again!

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:29 pm Post subject:

Obviously too late for you, and probably won't be a problem anyway, but here's some generic advise on doing RMAs in general...

Any time you ship back a product that is worth anything over what you would risk losing, try to ship it using a service that offers online tracking of some sort and BE SURE to use one that at least offers delivery confirmation (preferably requiring a signature). If you have an "RMA Tag" or "Call Tag" from the vendor that uses a non-confirming shipment method, consider paying the extra to add delivery confirmation with signature required, if possible.

You want this because, if the vendor claims they never received the package, you have some proof that they did.

Many of the Vonage-related complaints (and they are all from some time ago, so the problem seems to be fixed) were caused by a very slow and inefficient returns receipt process, with the processing of returns taking days or weeks more than it should. This resulted in some cases with the customer being billed. Vonage had physically received the defective unit, but no one had taken the time to open the box and receive it in their RMA tracking system, so the system automatically billed them. Those customers who had delivery confirmation tended to get their refunds quickly.

This is not Vonage-specific, it just happens. All RMAs are processed upon receipt, and if something goes wrong you may need to prove that they received it. Problems are rare, but they do happen.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:31 pm Post subject:

iskyfly wrote:

No return shipping was included but oh well. Have already sent off the defective unit.

I don't think Vonage offers those any more, but you can always call Customer Service and see if you can find someone who will give you a credit off your next bill to cover the cost of return shipping.

Of course, it might take you a while to find someone willing to do that, so it all depends how much your time is worth. Smile