I thought customer service was getting better. It isn't.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:20 am Post subject:

And the drama goes on. Remember last week, good ol' supervisor JP? Well, seeing as this is a pretty excellent example of poor customer service, I asked JP what we could do to get this documented and passed on to upper management for not only a resolution, but to try to implement some change. JP promised me that I would receive a phone call back by the end of business on Friday regarding this issue.

Monday morning, I've yet to receive that call back. So I just spoke with another customer service agent and asked him to look through my notes to try to find out why this didn't happen. Turns out that JP didn't even bother to document my conversation with him, so that explains why there was no call back.

Now I'm extremely upset that this hasn't been documented, this hasn't been resolved, and is in fact a continuation of appears to be a serious problem, IMO. That problem being that I apparently cannot trust the word of anybody on the customer service side. I was just now promised that I would hear back from another supervisor within the next 90 minutes. Let's hope so, because this is honestly starting to get to the point of nonsense.

Posts: 75 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Jun 01, 2006 Posts: 75

kamnet wrote:

And the drama goes on. Remember last week, good ol' supervisor JP? Well, seeing as this is a pretty excellent example of poor customer service, I asked JP what we could do to get this documented and passed on to upper management for not only a resolution, but to try to implement some change. JP promised me that I would receive a phone call back by the end of business on Friday regarding this issue.

Monday morning, I've yet to receive that call back. So I just spoke with another customer service agent and asked him to look through my notes to try to find out why this didn't happen. Turns out that JP didn't even bother to document my conversation with him, so that explains why there was no call back.

Now I'm extremely upset that this hasn't been documented, this hasn't been resolved, and is in fact a continuation of appears to be a serious problem, IMO. That problem being that I apparently cannot trust the word of anybody on the customer service side. I was just now promised that I would hear back from another supervisor within the next 90 minutes. Let's hope so, because this is honestly starting to get to the point of nonsense.

Don't worry, it will all be over soon. I don't expect Vonage to survive 2009.

Posts: 183 · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:42 am Post subject:

Unfortunately you are getting the bite of call centers. I don't really think Vonage is necessarily worse than any other call center. The goal is customers in, quick call, and goodbye. The front lines and the front line supervisors are paid to answer phones and do low level troubleshooting. They are usually not very technical people. (I'm not saying this for ALL of them, just many of them.) As a result, they want to get through your call to the next call so that they can look good on the reports. e.g. - Number of calls per day, per hour, etc.

Until you reach a more senior level technician/supervisor/manager you will most likely never get the assistance that you need.

I think this will only get worse as our economy drops lower and lower. 2009 is the beginning of the commercial real estate fall out. We'll see where that takes us. In the interim, I hope Vonage holds out. When it works, it works well.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:57 am Post subject:

And thus the reason why I'm being persistent here. I've worked in customer service for the last seventeen years now, including three years of call center work. In fact right now I work from home on a call center project as a live agent for a major electronics retailer.

Setting call handle times is one thing, but you cannot sacrifice quality and customer satisfaction in the name of call volume. Although I don't believe that is what is happening here - and if it is, it's particularly horrible since I'm generally a self-sufficient and resourceful individual. If I don't have to deal with another person on the phone, I won't. If I'm calling, generally it is something that is difficult enough that it takes more than a few minutes to resolve. My last several calls to Vonage this month have been 9 minutes, 2 hours (both w/ tech support), and then 20 minutes with JP. If I'm already burning up precious clock time, you might as well do the job right, ESPECIALLY when I specifically asked JP to make sure all of this was noted in my account log.

All my tech support calls were properly logged. They also have a log of all my e-mail conversations since Friday. But JP's is missing, so it's aggrivating. I'll give Vonage one more chance here, and if customer service fails me again, then I'll be whipping out the recorder and recording every single conversation to be absolutely 199% sure there is a record of the conversation, and I'll start holding some people's feet to the fire here.

Posts: 229 · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:16 pm Post subject:

ALRIGHTIE! Now I think we're actually getting somewhere! I just finished up a phone call with Danon, and I think she's taking complete ownership of the issue here. She helped resolve a secondary issue w/ shipping my RTP300 back, she went through my notes and reviewed my history as I explained to her everything that has happened over the last month. She took all of this and formed a official complaint letter, made sure everything that happened, as well as my suggestions and her suggestions for improvements, and submitted it to her supervisor to be sent up the chain.

Unlike JP, she gave me a way to contact her for follow-up, and she also said she would personally follow up with me on Thursday, and keep me updated on what's happening. She was completely appalled at what happened and feels that this does need addressed and resolved.

And, let me just make an exceptional note, I don't think I've EVER spoken with somebody in ANY customer service role who spoke with such confidence, ownership and ability. I'm now hopefully confident that perhaps there's ONE good person with Vonage. Smile

Posts: 183 · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:28 pm Post subject:

Awesome! It sounds like you found a diamond in the rough! I know how frustrating that is... I've had the same problems with DirecTV. It was an old joke in my house that we would often play CSR roulette! If you don't get help, hang up and try again. I'm glad that it looks like you're on the road to getting everything solved.

Posts: 99 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Dec 25, 2007 Posts: 99

One thing Vonage should " REALLY " do is educate there people on what devices they sell !

I called today to get a little help with my " Vonage Whole House System "

The person didn't have a clue....I mean NOT a clue.

When I asked to be moved to a Tech with more knowledge....he stated he was a second level Tech.

He then started to ask me what store I bought the system from....because my system was not a Vonage system....even after I gave him the information he asked for....model number, etc.

He did get my problem solved.

BUT come Vonage....get YOUR CS and Techs some schooling on YOUR products !

I've been using Vonage for 11 months ( as an annual pre-paid subscriber )....and do plan on renewing for another year !

I truly do love the service....but get tired really quick when people don't know their job / products !

PSJ aka Marc