Vonage is sending spam to your friends, using your name

Posts: 4750 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4750

If I may go off topic for a moment, welcome back! Long time no see.

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:10 pm Post subject:

In response to Trowski's comments,

I think that it was the content of the email that bothered me.

Quote:

Subject: New - Stephen Cerruti Wants You to Enjoy a Special Limited-Time Offer

Clearly this is untrue. I wasn't even aware of the special limited-time offer.

Quote:

Stephen Cerruti asked us to tell you about our great new Refer-A-Friend offer.

This is a flat out lie. At no time did I ask Vonage to tell these people about the new offer.

I also mentioned how they failed to update the refer a friend information on the Vonage web site to indicate these emails had been sent. Clearly this indicates an attempt to hide their actions, implying clear knowledge that the behavior was wrong.

I may be acceptable that Vonage would send emails out to these users since they were in the marketing database. It may even have been acceptable for them to say that I once referred them. I think it is fraud that they sent an email claiming I specifically referred them for this promotion. That is what is upsetting.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Oct 27, 2005 Posts: 34

I can find nowhere that your giving up your friends e-mail address would result in only one mailing to them. You gave up their name, you assumed wrongly that they would only get one e-mail with your name on it. Just go to the refer a friend page, delete their name and stop ranting and do something about it!

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 12:58 am Post subject: Re: Flaw in your "spam" argument

spdickey wrote:

I can find nowhere that your giving up your friends e-mail address would result in only one mailing to them. You gave up their name, you assumed wrongly that they would only get one e-mail with your name on it. Just go to the refer a friend page, delete their name and stop ranting and do something about it!

First, my complaint was not that they sent the email, but that they claimed I specifically asked that an email about this promotion be sent.

Second, it doesn't take much effort to find;

Quote:

How It works

Every time you refer a friend through our Refer-A-Friend program, Vonage will send an e-mail with a Refer-A-Friend e-coupon link to your referral's email address that you provide. To activate the Refer-A-Friend offer, your friend will need to sign up as a new Vonage customer at the Vonage website using the e-mailed e-coupon link.

emphasis mine So, any assumption to the number of emails was clearly supported by Vonage's own description of the program.

Third, publicizing this event may encourage others not refer friends. This will hopefully not only encourage Vonage not to do this again, but other companies that use referrals to think twice before acting.

Fourth, talking about this event does not preclude other outside actions. However, talking about other outside actions at this time would not be beneficial nor relevant.

Posts: 1389 · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:33 am Post subject:

Steve48 wrote:

If I may go off topic for a moment, welcome back! Long time no see.

Thanks Steve!
This place is like crack, you always come back for more. Very Happy

I can see scerruti's point about saying he specifically said his friend would want to know about this promotion.

But would I change providers over this? Heck no.

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 28, 2007 Posts: 5

I know the spamming thing is bad but in order to drop your service some other things must be bad also................Oh wait they are!
Worst customer service imaginable
Tech support barely existent
Price compared to other VoIP high
Features limited
Call quality poor
Service interruptions many
I have had vonage for over 4 years and over the last 18 or so months things have become progressively worse.
Comcast is now looking to compete with Vonage in my area offering good limited time deals but if you argue enough you can get them permanently.
I have 4 Vonage lines for my home and business under 1 roof.
The VoIP test reports my QOS at 31% but I can support 37 simultaneous lines? How is that so?
Anyway I will be dropping Vonage very soon and I hope you all take a look at other options also.
I believe this spamming issue is the proverbial straw.

Posts: 44 · Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 3:12 pm Post subject: Goodby Vonage

Vonage . . . you've just lost another customer.

As soon as my year's commitment is over . . . I'm gone.
You can point to this single issue as the reason.

I don't support spam or spammers.

Posts: 43 · Full Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2004 Posts: 43

[quote="Trowski"]

Steve48 wrote:

...But would I change providers over this? Heck no.

@Trowski:

I agree that this would not be a single cause for me to change providers. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was already near certain that I was switching providers. My reasons are the continuing degradation of Vonage's customer service/tech support. Additionally, though Vonage claims that I have the "true E911" service at my location, the director of my county's 911 center cannot confirm that I indeed do -- test calls to 911, with the director's knowledge and permission, do not indicate that I am actually getting through directly to the center. When I try to query Vonage about this, the techs do not seem to have the knowledge to respond properly, and worse, they make it abundantly clear that this issue is the very least of their concern. The impression is that by inquiring about this, I am simply an annoyance to them.

Then visiting this forum and seeing this thread just does nothing to make me feel any qualms about my decision!

Posts: 646 · Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject:

I just randomly stumbled back to this site cause I was bored, and it looked like this had turned into some kind of reunion thread, so I figured I'd post something in it.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 3

After all this discussion, and multiple phone calls to Vonage, they haven't replied at all. More great service from Vonage!