Stay FAR AWAY, far away from VONAGE.
Wow...it sucks to say this, but I'm glad I wasn't alone in being treated so poorly by Vonage. Their customer service is the worst (right up there with Verizon)...and they do it with such a pleasant tone of voice, too.
They do not allow you to cancel your service any way except calling them, which is a scam to begin with...seriously. So I can access my account online, make changes to my account online, view my call history online, listen to my voicemails online...BUT I CANNOT CANCEL my account online?!?! Yeah, right.
I tried for over a month to cancel my account...and every call went the same way..."we're sorry, sir, but we cannot cancel your account right now because our systems are down and we cannot access your account". Why is it that I (customer) can access my account and you (Vonage) can’t...stop lying to me.
Plus, they refuse to call you back in those situations. I said, "fine, you can't access my account now, call me back when you can...you have my number". "Nope, sorry sir, we can only accept incoming calls in this office". BS, you are a communications company, of course you can make outgoing calls. That is all this company does is patronize the customer.
The only reason their customer service exists is to make you GIVE UP, hang up, admit that they win and continue paying $30/month with no end in site. I have an easier time canceling a cell phone contract than I do canceling my Vonage account.
Well, I finally won, if you want to call it that, granted my brain is bleeding through my ears...and I feel ten times dumber than I was earlier in the day, but I won...my account is closed...and I have the email to prove it. I feel like someone who just won a big stuffed animal at the county fair...even though the stuffed bear is huge, you know the prize sucks...it is stuffed with newspaper that someone's cat used for a litter box...but who cares, you get to walk around like a peacock with feathers in the air..."that's right, I knocked all three milk bottles off the pedestal, and you didn't...this is MY bear!"
Plus, this cancellation call ended up taking nearly an hour…yeah, one hour to cancel an account. She kept putting me on hold and coming back and thanking me for being a valued customer and how sad they are to see me leave. After forty-five minutes of her crap I finally let her have it. “Listen, lady, I have been pleasant and patient for three quarters of an hour…I’m done. Drop your script and speak to me like a real person, not a doll with some string to pull out of your back, got it, douche. Drop the fake pleasantries. You despise your customers and simply play them. We don’t like you either, got that. What I want now is my cancellation confirmation number so I can move on in life…I’m exhausted…I’ve resigned to the fact that I wasted my eighteen months with you…I deserve better…and I know it!”
Okay, so I thought I won, but then they nail me with this $44 disconnect fee. Are you freakin’ serious? Yeah, they are. They will not tell you about it upfront, but anybody who signed up after Feb 2007 will be assessed a $44 cancel fee if you don’t stay two years. I checked my email order confirmation and the disconnect fee was never mentioned. I did find the following buried on their website:
“8.7 Disconnection Fee (Does Not Apply to Business Plus Customers).
You will be charged a disconnection fee of $39.99+tax 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.”
My suggestion, stay FAR AWAY from VONAGE…you will never get out.
