Stunning Incompetence

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 06, 2009 Posts: 1

I signed up for Vonage four days ago. I was tolld at theat time that the modem was being shipped, and that the whole process would take 7-10 days to compete.

They didn't tell me there was a chance that I would be without a telephone for several days.

What Vonage did was port my number from Verizon BEFORE I received the modem, meaning, no phone service as of this morning. Adding insult to injury, I find out today that the modem hasn't even left the warehouse. It would be next week at the earliest before I can make or receive a phone call.

Does this strike anyone as being just a bit problematic?

What Vonage SHOULD be doing is waiting for some sort of confirmation that the customer has the device, before porting the number over. In doing so, Vonage would ensure that a customer porting a number HAS CONTINUOUS PHONE SERVICE. The downtime would only be a for a few minutes, rather than a number of days.

This is a no-brainer, imo.

I have lost faith in this company, and I've ported my phone number back to Verizon.

Vonage clearly doesn't know what it's doing.

Posts: 1178 · Member of the Week Joined: Feb 28, 2005 Posts: 1178

I'm sorry to hear that your initial interaction with Vonage stunk. I, for one, also ported my SBC number and was able to have a live phone throughout the process. It seems like Verizon was able to release the number immediately which really surprises me. Mine took about 25 days to port over so actually I had the opposite problem of having to pay for 2 phones while the porting was taking place.

I think, if you read the posts here, your experience is not the common one, rather it was an unusual situation, IMHO.

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

WOW . . .a number porting immediately?

Mine (which was typical at the time) took about 12 days. The only instance of immediate porting I am aware of was from and to a cell phone account (Verizon wireless to AT&T).

Was your Verizon number a cell phone?

Posts: 172 · Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:27 pm Post subject:

That is craziness. I know that it isn't good for you, being without a phone but for those of us that had to wait quite a while, this is pretty exciting.

Something you could have done, is ran over to wal-mart, best buy, etc. and picked up a V-Portal and told vonage to credit your account the expense. They could have then done a MAC swap and activated the new adapter and you'd have been up and running.

Nonetheless, your opinion is what matters and you should be on your way back to Verizon.

Posts: 627 · Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 6:18 pm Post subject:

While this is a poor customer experience and can happen, it is very rare that a number should port within 7 business days. You should also know the facts and details that happen behind the scenes so that you understand how this could happen.

You sign up for Vonage and request your number to be ported to them. Vonage is only the middleman here and does nothing with your actual phone number that deals with the number transfer request. It is automatically sent from the order processing system to a 3rd party company called STI that is responsible for porting phone numbers. They submit the order to the current phone service provider and to Vonage's partner carrier. Once a date is approved by your current provider, they release the number to Vonage partner carrier and they in return build it into their switch. This is all transparent to Vonage and there isn't much Vonage employee's can do during this time since it all happens outside of Vonage.

It is very odd that your current provider would even process the number transfer request that quickly and be ready to relase a number in a 3 day period of time.

During this time, your order is also sent to a warehouse not run by Vonage, but by the shipping company that stores and ships the devices out. It could take a about 3 days for the order to be complete and ready to ship. Then it could take a few days to reach you depending upon where you are located.