Problem with Canceling Service

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2008 Posts: 4

WARNING Heed the words I say right now: GET A CANCELLATION NUMBER

I want everyone to know what a horrific time I had disconnecting my phone service with Vonage. I was a Vonage supporter to the 100th degree. But now I have and will steer everyone that tries to sign up with Vonage away from the service.

It all started with attempting to cancel my temporary phone service that was only used for a short time. I was charged for 4 additional months and spent about 5 hours on the phone with numerous Customer service reps. Every month a charge was on my credit card and I would call again. I was told at least 4 times that my service had or will be disconnected when it actually was not. The last time I was on the phone I waited for a cancellation number and that appears to work. That took over 45 minutes to accomplish. I would also recommend recording the conversation or at least tell them you are recording the conversation.

The lost my business account as well as my temporary phone service.

There practices are Disgusting and should be illegal.

There is a class action lawsuit in California for similar practices.

If there was a class action suite in Oklahoma I would participate.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/03/vonage_class_action.html

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Mar 07, 2005 Posts: 28

Thanks for the confirmation number idea. Here is what I don't understand. Why when switching to Vonage from the telco you have to do nothing to cancel from your old service. If you cancel Vonage to go elsewhere you have to basiclally sell your soul to cancel? When I cancel here is how I'm going to do it. Right after a monthly charge from Vonage I will cancel my card telling the bank it is lost. Cancel Vonage, Get a new card with a new number within a week and bingo, no future billing from Vonage on my card.

Posts: 8 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 01, 2007 Posts: 8

This is even easier if your bank offers digital credit card numbers. Bank of America, for example, has a system called ShopSafe that allows you to create a "virtual" card number. The virtual number can be used like a real credit card number and pulls from your real account. You can close the number at any time so it can no longer be used, *but your real credit card stays open*. To those whose bank offers something similar, I definitely reccommend doing it.

A while back, I went to my gym and filled out cancellation papers in person. Three months later, they were still billing my credit card. When I called they told me that I'd never cancelled my account. I hung up the phone, cancelled the ShopSafe I was using for the gym, and never gave it another thought. At that point there was no way they could charge me again.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2008 Posts: 4

jasperaxle wrote:

Thanks for the confirmation number idea. Here is what I don't understand. Why when switching to Vonage from the telco you have to do nothing to cancel from your old service. If you cancel Vonage to go elsewhere you have to basiclally sell your soul to cancel? When I cancel here is how I'm going to do it. Right after a monthly charge from Vonage I will cancel my card telling the bank it is lost. Cancel Vonage, Get a new card with a new number within a week and bingo, no future billing from Vonage on my card.

Thats hilarious, cancelling my card would have been easier.

I talked to some call center in Indonesia every time. I bet they dock the employees pay if someone disconnects on there watch.

It was a phone number used for a political campaign. I only needed for a couple of months but I kept it for the 1 year period. Then tried to cancel and tried to cancel again, and agaiin, and again, and again.

The cancelling of my business account was easy the new company handled the disconnect. I did overhear a couple of conversations and it seems they had to postpone my switch for similar reasons. My guess is that nobody gets away from the darkside(vonage) easily.

I pay a couple of bucks extra a month now but it is totally worth it.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2008 Posts: 4

s_rage wrote:

This is even easier if your bank offers digital credit card numbers. Bank of America, for example, has a system called ShopSafe that allows you to create a "virtual" card number. The virtual number can be used like a real credit card number and pulls from your real account. You can close the number at any time so it can no longer be used, *but your real credit card stays open*. To those whose bank offers something similar, I definitely reccommend doing it.

A while back, I went to my gym and filled out cancellation papers in person. Three months later, they were still billing my credit card. When I called they told me that I'd never cancelled my account. I hung up the phone, cancelled the ShopSafe I was using for the gym, and never gave it another thought. At that point there was no way they could charge me again.

Thanks for the tip. I will check into it. That could be really beneficial for future use.

I had a similar issue with a gym they required that I send the paperwork back certified to somewhere out of state. The would absolutely not accept it in person.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 14, 2006 Posts: 13

When you attempted to cancel your service did you hop onto Vonage's website and follow the instructions about cancelling your account? Here's what the website says:

Please contact us at the number below during business hours in order to cancel your Vonage service. To cancel your account and provide you with all of the important cancellation information, we need to verbally verify the owner of the account.

Our Account Management Department is available to assist you Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. EST at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357).

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 14, 2008 Posts: 4

MikeKV wrote:

When you attempted to cancel your service did you hop onto Vonage's website and follow the instructions about cancelling your account? Here's what the website says:

Please contact us at the number below during business hours in order to cancel your Vonage service. To cancel your account and provide you with all of the important cancellation information, we need to verbally verify the owner of the account.

Our Account Management Department is available to assist you Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. EST at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357).

As a matter of fact, I asked - pleaded with some other area to do the disconnect because of the blatant disregard for my disconnect request 5 TIMES.....

I have people that ask me about Vonage all the time because I used to swear by them. I still give them the pros and CONS. I ask them if an extra $5 or $10/ month is worth the crappy customer service and the 5 to 10 hours on the phone it takes to disconnect your phone service if and when you no longer need it.

I have never been treated like this by a company and I hope to never be treated like that again. It was the worst experience of my life dealing with a company and I will never forget it. We can only hope that Vonage pays for what they are doing in the court system one day.

At the end I was not even complaining about the lost $$ from my bank account for the last months of drafts. I just wanted the disconnect done and taken care of. I realized by the 3rd or 4th month that this was pretty serious situation with a company that has no morals. The loss of the last few months was pretty cheap compared to the lost time that I had suffered.

Maybe not everyone will have the same issues that I have suffered but my guess is that it is being done as a Vonage POLICY.... How else can it be explained. Could it be mis-interpreted POLICY? Who knows

It made me realize why there needs to be a goverment agency helping the little guy out of these situations. And I am against big goverment.