Beware when requesting for disconnection of service

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 17, 2009 Posts: 1

I have FINALLY disconnected my service with Vonage. It was really a bad experience dealing with some of Vonage's customer service representatives who seems to implement some deceitful scheme of offering customers (who like me have decided to switch to other service providers) with 'FREE' extended/extra phone service.

I initially called sometime May 2009 to have my account terminated. The CSR(1) that I spoke with was very courteous and told me to reconsider my decision of disconnecting and offered me 1 FREE month of service just to compare call quality with my new service provider. I accepted this offer and WAS TOLD to call again before June 5 to finally request service disconnection incase I finally decide to do go with my new provider. After that period, I called again June 4th (?) to finally request termination of service with Vonage. And this time, the CSR(2) that assisted me said that since I have been a good customer (without record of late/missed payments) for more than 2 years, they can offer a service to forward calls to my Vonage number to my new number - for FREE again (for one month)! And since it was a good idea to have this feature for free, I availed of this. But I was NEVER told that to avail of this offer, they would need to keep my account active for another month and would ENTAIL and REQUIRE me to call them again after one month to have my service finally disconnected. All the while, I was thinking that my account was indeed disconnected during that second call or will automatically disconnected after one month and that a FREE and SPECIAL service for 'good/long time' ex-customers was being given to me. What a way to show gratitude to ex-customers (that's what I thought then). But to my shock , I noticed that I was again recently billed last July 6th 2009 for services from July 5 to Aug 6, 2009. I again called one of their CSRs and experienced one of the most RUDE and UNREASONABLE CSRs(3) I have ever dealt with. I explained to her that I was never told by CSR(2) that availing of the FREE call forwarding service will entail that I am agreeing to keep my account active for another month and that I have to call again after one month to have it disconnected finally. Unlike the conversation with CSR(1) where in it was clear that I have to call again after 1 month, hence I did on June 4th. She was telling me that CSR(2) also never instructed me 'not' to call Vonage so why didn't I call to have it cancelled after one month? WOW! What kind of logic was used to give that reason? Blame was fully being pushed over to my side saying that I should have known that they are keeping my account active for another month and that I should have known that I need to call again by July 6th to have it disconnected, since I already had a previous experience of being given this promo for previous month. And since I can no longer afford to waste my time listening to such ILLOGICAL reasoning I just told her to have my account terminated immediately (and just agree to pay) and asked her not to even dare offer or apply any such deceptive FREE promotions in my terminated account to mislead ex-customers like me and lure them into another trap of unknowingly extending their service. I'd rather pay the $30+ dollar bill than waste further my time talking with this RUDE CSR(3). It's just 30 bucks anyway! But I will make sure that I can atleast share this experience with other Vonage customers, how 'great' you reward your ex-customers - so they will never be a victim of this misleading scheme! Twisted Evil

So beware when that day comes when you finally have to call Vonage to have your services disconnected...beware! Twisted Evil

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Posts: 27

Sorry to hear CSR3 was rude to you. However, common sense would tell me they couldn't forward my calls unless my account was still active. They are trained to try to save accounts from canceling. I'm sure if CSR's aren't able to save a certain percentage of customers calling to cancel, they don't remain CSRs very long.

YOU have to take it upon yourself to say, no, I don't want another month, I don't want to forward my calls, I don't want a cheaper plan, I just want to cancel my account. Their job is to save the account. Your job is to stick by your guns and cancel if you want to cancel.

AOL was the king of the don't-let-the-customer-cancel customer-no-service department. There was hysterical audio on Youtube a few years back of a guy asking for 20 or 30 minutes for account cancellation and he couldn't get the rep to do it. The recording went viral and was a HUGE embarrassment for AOL.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 4

Sound typical for lots of companies. I had a Sprint cellular phone several years ago, after I graduated from college I was going to move so called to have the service disconnected. After about 6 months I couldn't start my car and wanted to test the battery by plugging the phone in and used a speed dial number on the phone and a call went through. Later I get a bill for 6 months of service and 6 months of late fees. Turns out they never disconnected the phone, just stopped sending bills. The bill was well over $300 for a call that lasted about 1 second. Recently I had problems with Nationwide. After moving I wanted to cancel my renter insurance. They kept saying they would, but billed me for 3 months, for a place I no longer lived at. They eventually canceled it when I stopped paying their bills.

Posts: 27 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Posts: 27

You kept paying premiums for rental insurance on a property you were no longer renting for three months? The best way to cancel insurance is to STOP PAYING THE PREMIUMS. Then you go into default and the policy is canceled.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 02, 2009 Posts: 4

I also had car insurance with them. The state the policy was in seized people's vehicles who stopped paying insurance and sold them at auction. So this wasn't an ideal way to stop a insurance policy.