Complaint Review: Vonage

I saw the Vonage ad on TV and called them. They told me I could have a 30 day free trial of the service and could stop the service with no questions ask and no disconnect fee any time within the 30 days , and that they would refund the $9.95 activation fee immediatly upon my stopping the service. Like an idiot I gave them my credit card number and they took $9.95 out of my credit card.

A few days later I got a small hook-up box from them in the mail. I tried to hook it up but found that it was hard to hook up with my equipment so I attempted to call the Vonage tech support. Their tech support are foreigners in another country and I could not understand their broken Engish so I ask politely to be transferred to an American Tech. This apparently made the foreign tech people mad so they transferred me to a dead line. This happened five times.

After the fifth time of being treated like that, I decided that Vonage has a lot of problems so I called to tell them that I did not want the service after all. They told me there would be a $42.85 cent disconnect fee and that also they would send me a label and I would have to send back the connecter box at my expense. I explained to them that Vonage had told me that there was no disconnect fee so I would not pay for a disconnect fee, especially since I was never connected. I told them NOT to take the disconnect fee from my credit card but they did anyway. They took the disconnect fee from my credit card without my authorization.

After waiting for the mailing label for some time so that I could send their connecter box back, I called them today. They informed me that they do not send out labels. I ask for an address to send the box back to and they told me it was my responsibility to find the address myself. They said that they will take the cost of the box out of my credit card if I don't send it back. I ask them how can I send it back if I don't know the address to send it back to?

What a low down crooked company this is. They are trying to charge my credit card for about $150.00 total when I was never even connected to them and did not make even one call using their service.

Upon talking to the Missouri Attorney General's office I was told that they get complaints daily against Vonage and they are investigating them. The Better Business BBB also told me that they receive many complaints on Vonage as did the FCC and the FTC. The credit card company also told me that they get complaints on Vonage on a daily basis because of unauthorized withdrawls. I also read on the internet that the CEO of Vonage was charged by the FTC for Securities fraud and was fined a huge sume of money.

My advice to anyone thinking about signing up with Vonage is RESEARCH THEM FIRST, there are many many complaints against them as well as numerous law suits.

Bob
Maitland, Missouri
U.S.A.