Phantom calls made by Vonage

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 01, 2004 Posts: 1

At 8:00 PM last night my cellphone rang, it was my friend who I was in a taxi on the way to meet. I answered and no-one was there. The phone rang again 20 seconds later, same thing. I texted him and asked if he just called and he said his phone was in his pocket and that he did not. It rang again. and again. and again. Then I finally met up with him and having thought he was playing a prank on me (and him thinking I was crazy) it happened again and he was most definitely calling me. So I thought, ok this is a tmobile problem... His cell "called" mine for a total of 26 times.

So I call tmobile and tell them that I am having this problem. While on the phone with them, I start getting a call from a number I do not recognize. It starts again and again and again. A total of 12 times. Tmobile is as nice as could be and said they would disconnect me from their network and then reconnect me.

Great I thought, that'll solve the problem. So I took my battery out and then as soon as it booted back up... and guess what. ringing from that number again.

I was ready to chuck my cell.

Then at 10:30 my girlfriend called and dais that my parents had called her 5 times and each time no-one was there.

Thats when I figured it out. Vonage!!!!!
Her number is sometimes the call forwarded number and mine is the network unavailability number. there must be some glitch in their matrix.

SO I got home and unplugged my phone adapter. but it still kept happening, and now my parents were "calling" my cell.

I called Vonage Customer Service from my cellphone (in case I needed to do any unplugging of my adapter) and I was told it would be a 15 minute wait, which by the way is completely unacceptable for a company to have so few representatives that a wait should ever be that long...

15 minutes pass and still on hold.

20 minutes.

On the 28th minute the annoying music stopped and I thought I was finally going to be speaking with someone in India and have to explain my pain and suffering and that I would be told that it was my problem and not the system....

But the phone went dead.

Nothing.

Well, nothing except for my ringing cellphone, my girlfriend's ringing cellphone and at 11:30 the Vonage home phone started ringing and it was my girlfriend's sister... or was it? (12 times)

Evil or Very Mad

Posts: 1327 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Nov 08, 2006 Posts: 1327

I called my brother on his cell phone the other night and a few hours later my Vonage line rang and I answered, it was my brother's cell. He wasn't on the line so I called him back. he was in a deep sleep, and we both thought it was his cell phone.

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2007 Posts: 7

What bothers me A LOOOOOT is not the technical issue itself.
I understand that Vonage is experiencing such a big problem and there are trying to do their best (I hope).
But what is really disappointing is that they should have publish a big-fat notice on their home page saying the kind of problems this could have generated to the customers (especially about the phantom calls).
I was so frustrated because I couldn't figure out were the problem was coming from.
Actually at the beginning I thought was AT&T issue.
Anyway, I have Vonage mainly because we call europe a lot.
After this issue, If i can find a nice alternative I will close with them for sure.
thanks again for sharing.
G.

Posts: 22 · Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 11:48 am Post subject: same deal

i had to go and post that i wasn't receiving phantom calls Rolling Eyes

guess what? at 3:45am, my Vonage phone (2 ringers) and cell phone were ringing like crazy. 3:45am! Mad

i answered it the 1st time - no one on the line - and then shut off the ringers and my cell. at least i had seen this thread and half expected some problems...

the way i see it, Vonage owes everyone an apology and possibly a credit on the next invoice. AND it should be automatic. no one should have to call customer service in India or wherever, stay on hold and go through that whole ordeal. besides, i doubt the company wants to experience all those calls. is anyone from the company actually listening (reading) here Question

speak up!

Posts: 7 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2007 Posts: 7

charlienyc wrote:

the way i see it, Vonage owes everyone an apology and possibly a credit on the next invoice. AND it should be automatic. no one should have to call customer service in India or wherever, stay on hold and go through that whole ordeal. besides, i doubt the company wants to experience all those calls. is anyone from the company actually listening (reading) here Question

speak up!

I agree with you 100%
I've sent a complain to their CS but I don't think anybody is gonna ever read or answer to my email.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2007 Posts: 8

It stopped for me as welll around 1:30am, but then about 8:30am pacific I got another seires of repeated so it may not be over.

Woodinville, Wa.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2007 Posts: 2

I've also been having the phantom calls this morning, including two from my wife's cell which I can see sitting on the bookshelf. Very anoying at 6 am.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2007 Posts: 2

Oh, and caeled, I'm just outside of Mount Vernon, so someone local feels your pain.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 15, 2007 Posts: 8

I work for a company that provides telephony services, Toll free and local for marketing tracking.

As the tech support manager (so I grok what they are going through)

And am on call this weekend.

And my phantoms mostly look like they are coming from my office emergency line.

Which means I HAVE to answer everyone of them. Just in case.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 03, 2006 Posts: 3

Thankfully it's not making calls out of the blue but the problem I'm having as of Friday evening is that any calls that come in to my Vonage number goes to my wife's cellphone (she's not even in my forward to setup and never has been!!). I'm away on business for 3 days and couldn't believe it when she told me.

Before I knew Vonage was having problems system wide, it was really blowing my mind. I thought maybe it was picking up the wireless phones in the house. I told her to power off her phone and let me call the number. When I did this I got a recording after a few rings saying the "Verizon customer dialed is not available" - that was the double-whammy....she's on T-Mobile. So where the call is going to, I have no idea.

Funny how the customer service number is not easily found on the website anymore like it used to be. I found the number through Yahoo on another website. I finally talked to someone at Vonage (and I don't think it was India either which surprised me!) who told me that someone previously had also the same problem and the number is not their forwarding number either. It's really screwy.

I'm told they hope to have it fixed by late tonight or sometime on Sunday morning. Let's hope so.

I really think Vonage is crumbling and with lawsuits, stocks not so great - I have a feeling they'll be going bye-bye in the not to distant future.

I've been with them for the last 2 years and have not experienced any major problems until this. Worked pretty good up until now.
Confused