Be ready for $100 cancallation fee

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 17, 2008 Posts: 3

I've been using vonage for 5 months and is shocked by their termination fee of almost 100 dollars. Even though they stated that there is no any contracts or hidden fees to the customers like most of internet companies or cell phone companies charge, they do charge a 39.99 dollar fee plus the price of the vonage router which is 50 dollars plus tax if customer wants to terminate service within the first year. As far as I know this is no difference with usual contracts from internet or cell phone companies. What's worse is that Vonage don't accept used Vonage routers nor recycle them, which means once you have vonage phone service, you pay for that router for not just month by month within your monthly fee, you also have to pay the rest money when you want to cancel your service. And they don't provide customers any other options such as not buying this router since they may not need Vonage service any more through out the rest of their lives. So I'd also like to suggest people think about it twice before switching to Vonage from traditional land line telephones, because as far as I know 100 dollars is the same as how much traditional phone companies charge from customers by 50 dollars in the beginning to set up lines and another 50 dollars when customers want to cancel services, plus the sound quality of traditional phones is much better than Vonage's.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

I guess you finally decided to read the Terms of Service.

BTW, most services charge you for the remaining portion of a contract. Vonage does not have a contract and does not charge you for a remaining term. Regarding the fees:

The adapter is $79.95, with a $70.00 instant rebate. The web page where you choose it clearly states:

* Instant Rebate condition: If you cancel your Vonage service after the Money Back Guarantee period and within 1 year of activating service, your account will be charged for the remaining balance of the equipment. The Money Back Guarantee applies to new customers and the first device only.

As far as the cancellation fee, the TOS clearly states:

Disconnection Fee (Does Not Apply to Business Plus Customers).
You will be charged a disconnection fee of $39.99 per voice line if your service is disconnected, subject to state and local laws. However, if your subscription date is on or after February 1, 2007 and is disconnected after 2 years following your subscription date, the disconnection fee is waived. If your subscription date is on or before January 31, 2007, the disconnection fee is waived if your service is disconnected 1 year following your subscription date.

I and most who read the TOS and the offer were aware of these terms. Not sure why you were not or why you are surprised.

As far as quality, I find it equal or superior to POTS service with more features as well.

Posts: 227 · Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:33 pm Post subject:

Termination fees do bother me, I must admit. The only reason I didn't loudly object to one with Vonage is because I knew I was going to be sticking with the service for longer than the one year period (I signed up in 2005, before they changed it to two year) and thus I wasn't going to be affected by it. It's one of the main reasons I do not sign up for a cellular phone plan that isn't pay-as-you-go or pre-paid.

In my opinion, as long as you're a customer in good standing and you don't owe a balance, or if you pay off your balance within the same month that you're terminating, there shouldn't be a penalty. Likewise, if you were provided a device as part of the sign-up, as long as you return the device you shouldn't owe a penalty.

I can understand owing a remainder on a device where you were offered a rebate. But once the device is paid for and the account closed out, Vonage should either offer to take the device off your hands or make it clear that it is eligible for resale and re-registration by anybody else interested in using the service.

Maybe I should bring these things up with Danon when I speak with her on Thursday. Hmm.

Posts: 293 · Vonage Forum Master Joined: Jan 22, 2006 Posts: 293

The Forum archives are filled with gripes about the cancellation fee. I feel bad for those that are caught by it but I feel bad that no one pays attention to the TOS.

As far as call quality there are other migating factors that play a role. There are some very good posters here that do an excellent service helping others. I've stated before that Vonage gets blamed for alot of either configuration issues or ISP issues. My quality is as good as anything I ever had on landline. I've had maybe 2 or 3 issues in nearly 5 years of service.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 17, 2008 Posts: 3

Well, I did read the TOS so I called them to pay for the 39.99 dollars and terminate my service. But I then was shocked that I have to pay money for the Vonage router which is going to be totally useless to me. I also asked the manager whose name is Maria I talked to today to show me that where from their website or their people that I could possibly know that I have no other choices but buy this router before I signed up for their service. And the manager instead of explaining a sound reason just said they don't have to inform customers these many detailed information until customers call in to terminate their services........I mean.... I don't see how this kind of business concept makes any sense. Plus my experiences of using Vonage to many different countries have been always horrible so that for example my family members always complained about how unclear my voice is. Another prove to Vonage's bad sound quality is the many times of me and Maria's "Hello?" to each other during our conversation today to make sure we are still on a good connection. Anyway, I'm just sharing my personal experience even it's not helpful to every body.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: Dec 17, 2008 Posts: 3

I'd just like to provide more details about how Vonage process termination to more people since I spent more than an hour with their people on the phone to learn this. Based on 1 very odd fact that Vonage only accept payments through credit or debit cards that have been kept with customers' account, they can basically withdraw money from customer's credit or debit cards as soon as customers call in to terminate services, which is also why I said before I have no choices but buying the Vonage router. They even automate this penalty withdrawing process so that none of their people can stop it once a client calls to terminate service. So that's why I'm just trying to let people at least think about using Vonage twice before actually sign up for it, because there really are information missing from the TOS and there is no way to stop them getting money out of your pocket at the first place when you were just informed and are still realizing.

Posts: 227 · Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 2:35 am Post subject:

The quality of the Vonage service is highly dependent on the quality of your Internet service. If you had previously contacted Vonage technical support to inquire about the quality, a technician should have lead you though doing some diagnostics to see if there were any problems with your Internet service that could be detected. The Vonage V-Portal device also has some basic diagnostic utilities built into it.

If you had not done those things, and you're still interested in the Vonage service, it might be possible to still talk to Vonage and try to resolve these issues.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

kamnet wrote:

Termination fees do bother me

...As they do me. The web is littered with complaints about cell phone companies, satellite TV companies and of course Vonage about cancellation charges.

If I were to cancel my cable service today, I would owe over $1,000 in fees due to a 2 year contract. Cell phones, I would owe over $500.00

In addition, according to numerous posts throughout the web, cancellation is just plain painful at Vonage due to the required retention process they use.

Posts: 4751 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: Aug 30, 2005 Posts: 4751

It's true that the TOS tells about the termination fee, but it has always struck me as unfair that Vonage advertises "no contract" where it's easy to see, and buries termination fees in the TOS. If a termination fee doesn't turn the service into a contract, it's a distinction that eludes me.

Posts: 810 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 810

Steve48,

I see your point, but I have been with My POTS provider over 30 years with one number or another. True, my residential number was ported over to Vonage but I retained a POTS line for other purposes. I had LD disconnected and I was charged a disconnect fee of $5.95.

No contract, just the supposed cost to turn the switch.

There is a NEWER VOIP company who does not have a disconnection fee but does have a $25.00 porting fee. Hmmmm, Vonage ports for free but charges a disconnect fee, they are EVIL. If the $39.95 was a porting fee, I wonder . . . .