Vonage
Reviews and Complaints

I recently decided to take advantage of the massive promotion Vonage has going. When I called to setup my account I was told that I have 30 days to try the service with 100% money back guarantee, additionally I was told that it would take between 4-10 days to port the number and I should receive the adapter in 2-3 days. Lastly I have 30 days to try the service and would get 100% money back if not happy.

I didn't get the adapter until the 5th day and it took them 18 days to port my number. After the number was ported to Vonage no one could call me and I couldn't call anyone even though there was dial-tone. I call Vonage technical support multiple times to get this resolved with zero success. Within 6 days of trying the service I decided to not keep Vonage and called them to cancel the service. The support rep told me that if I don't port the number to another carrier they would give my number away to someone else (I've had the number for 10 years); so I decided to call another carrier and switched my number.

The new carrier took 10 days to port my number and as soon as my number ported to the new carrier Vonage reamed me with at $125.84 charge for canceling the service and charged me for the adapter for which I had already paid when I activated my account.

I explained to them that it took them 18 days to port my number and zero success in solving my problems while I was with them and asked them about their money back guarantee. Their response was you ported the number past 30 days of the trial period.

How does it make sense when it took them 18 days to port the number and I switched within 6 days of them taking over my number. They still refuse to refund my money.

Anyone looking to get Vonage should ABSOLUTELY NOT DO IT. Their advertisements are false and a way to trap customers. They don't tell you of the hidden charges even if you disconnect within 30 days.

I don't know how such business practices are legal and why the attorney generals don't shut them down.

This company does not keep you in the know they where suppose to mail me to say if my phone number had been changed so that I could use my old number, but as I had not contacted them for the 30 days, they charged me 23.99 for not getting in touch with them, they where suppose to mail me to say that this had been done but upon calling them was told that I should of kept in touch with them, (and I though that I was the customer) as it was they never transferred my number, but as the person taking my order had written down my email incorrectly they said that they could not contact me so this was my fault and they have their policies. I would not recommend this company. The day I originally called to set up with them everything was fine and very helpful, the second day I called back realising that I needed my original number so I was going to cancel my arrangements not realising at the time I could keep my old number that is when the analyst told me no problem you can have your old number and we will mail you to let you know this has happened. No email came, I do not have time to sit an my PC looking for such mail, and time flies.

I decided to give Vonage a try because it is cheaper. I liked the online account management. It was easy to install. That's about it for liking it.

They advertised at 24.99 but it was almost ten dollars more per month after other charges. Ok, that seems to be the norm, so I disregarded it.

There were numerous small oddities in quality, but again, I disregarded it and thought it might be attributed to ther things, like maybe the integrity of my power supply, my computer, my cable modem, various wires, etc. There was a consistent echo, the time between dialing on my end and ringing on their end was occasionally really long, more times than I could count, my initial call would have to be dropped and redialed because it sounded choppy, like we were both talking through a fanblade. At times, it would go completely mute on my end, and either I would hear nothing from the person I called or they would hear nothing from me, for sometimes a half a minute at a time. There were clicks and pops consistently. And sometimes I would get a call on my cell from someone trying to call my home phone, and if I am on my home phone, didn't get a beep or any indication like call waiting like I normally would and should, or if I wasn't on the phone, it would ring once, or not ring at all. The only way I knew the call didn't make it, was because the caller tried my alternate cell phone number telling me they calledmy home phone and couldn't get through, yet I often didn't hear it ring even when it was right next to me. It makes me wonder how many calls have been lost that I didn't know about from people that didn't know my cell. Clicks, pops, sporadic muting, I shouldn't have had to deal with, but I did. But towards the end, it was all that plus repeated problems dialing out and receiving calls at all. I do not want unstable phone service.

Now, in regards to customer service, I have mixed reviews about this. They were hard to understand sometimes (India from the sound, which was fine except for the few of them that had an extremely thick accent), and didn't ever seem to understand what I wanted and continued talking over me for a script without hearing me. This was frustrating. However, if I had an error message that made the phone service inoperable, they walked me through it, frustrating commnication and all, successfully and politely. Problem is, the error messages became more and more frequent. The several times I had to call support, they fixed my problem, but the problem always came back almost immediately.

Right before cancellation, for two days I had continual and changing error messages. Not only would my phone not work, but my internet would not work either. I called Vonage first. They determined it was an internet connection problem. Ok. I called my internet provider and they walked me through but couldn't fix anything either. SO, my internet provider sent a service technician who came to my house, confirmed my internet was fine by using his laptop, but could not determine why my phone nor internet would actually work on my computer. Ok, I hooked up a seperate computer to my net modem after he left, and the net was fine just like he said. I then hooked up Vonage, and boom, their computer froze, the net stopped working, and ofcourse, the phone still didn't work. Aha, so the problem is with Vonage after all. I called Vonage a second time with intent to cancel, but decided to walk through fixing it one more time (maybe it was a fluke, stupid me thought), and he successfully got my net and my phone working. I was happy. Until I hung up, tried to use my phone a split second later, and saw another error message and had no dialtone. And the net was out again. Aggravated, I unhooked Vonage completely, rebooted my pc, and my net worked again. So, the problem was Vonage. It was Vonage all along.

I called Vonage to cancel and a thousand times I had to tell them I was to disconnect service instead of using technical support. They were determined I was going to go through technical support. I was firm and repeated over and over I wanted to disconnect. I was put on hold, transfered to another, went through the same thing, put on hold, transfered, and put through the same thing. I was informed I was going to have to pay 39.99 disconnect fee and 79.99 for the Vonage adapter. I was furious. I now owed my internet provider $25 for a service visit because the service visit was determined to have been rooted in a cause other than with their internet. And they were right. They came out to fix the net and nothing was wrong with the net. The problem was with Vonage. So I owe $25 extra to my internet service provider. Because of Vonage making me think, through their tech support, that I had a net problem. And considering my net didn't work, well, it made sense. Problem was, Vonage was what was screwing up my net. SO I said, "I do remember the disconnect agreement, BUT you can deduct the $25 I spent because of your tech support, and I certainly will not pay for faulty equipment that I am more than willing to ship back." She was determined I owed the bill, because she said I had used the service three months and also tech support resolved my problems. Yes, three months of overlooking minor problems and tech support temporarily fixing a problem only for it to come back almost immediately. They were tryign to say they had given me flawless service when they didn't. I have read from other users that they will charge your card for this disconnect/adapter fee almost immediately, so my advice is to not give them a chance. If they take your money, I guarantee you will never get it back, and customer service's "dispute resolution" is code for "Try to get your money back now" according to other users. To provide not even substandard service and think they are justified in charging for faulty equipment and fining you for disconnecting service because of them providing you with inadequate service is ridiculous. I can understand if Vonage was great service and you just decided to stop. But it's poor service, and disconnecting is a result of poor service. Not because I have nothing better to do with my time. The agreement was I get quality phone service. They didn't keep their end so that negates me of any responsibility on my end as far as I'm concerned.

My advice is don't get Vonage to begin with.

I was sent a Vonage phone I never ordered from this address. I called
Vonage on 11/12/2009 to report it. They determined the phone was ordered
under fraudulent terms by someone else, using an entirely different
person's credit card. I asked them to stop any further activity
involving my name address and phone number, and told them to close this
account that was opened under fraudulent terms. They told me I would
have to wait 10 days for their fraud dept. to get back to me.

On 11/13/2009 my home phone number was taken ( ported ) by Vonage with
out my consent, and my service provider ( Qwest ) also gave it to them
without my consent. Have been fighting Vonage for 9 days, with multiple
phone calls to multiple people, including supervisors, managers, etc to
give my home phone number back to Qwest, as Qwest can't do anything
until the number is given back by Vonage.

I did not order this service.

It was ordered with someone else's credit card I do not know.

It was ordered with a fraudulent e-mail address.

How can Vonage just take my home phone number without first, confirming
it with the owner of that phone number?

How can Qwest give my phone number I have had for 30 years to another
company without first verifying it with the primary account holder?

These business practices should be illegal!

Vonage needs to do the “right thing” and fix this issue, NOW !

Vonage are Liers, I wanted to transfer my number over to a homeline for a T.T.Y. system. Vonage said yes, That it would be no problem at all to transfer my Number. On that note, I waited for 3 weeks and complaint with 3 phone calls. After each complaint, they assured me that my number will be activated within three days. After being lied to several times, I called to cancel with total dissapointment in their service and honesty . I also told them not to charge me any fees at all because i will not pay or anything that i didnot recieve or i will take further actions. I have already spread the word and will keep on spreading as much as i can

I am appalled by the treatment of my mother, who is a senior citizen in Long Island, NY by the phone company, VONAGE. She signed up for service in December, promptly cancelled service and returned the equipment, but they keep billing her monthly for service she doesn't have.

Frustrated, she called me to ask for my help. I was sure I could straighten this out, but incredibly, and just like my mother said, they actually REFUSED to cancel the service when we called them. In addition, there was no record of her calling to cancel the service prior to this phone call. I was simply stunned. I asked again and again, "Are you saying that you will not cancel service and refund this woman's money for services she never used?" Not only did they refuse the refund, but they said they would charge her a cancellation fee and an equipment fee, for an additional 99 dollars.

I begged and pleaded with the rep, who claimed she "couldn't do anything to help", but incredibly kept pushing to have my mother sign up for a cheaper monthly service plan. No matter what I said, this rep continued to push the plan!

Exhausted, we hung up the phone and my 80 year old mom went to the bank to close her account, since it seems that is the only thing she can do to get them from charging her monthly fees.

I went to the consumer affairs website and apparently, lots of other customers nationwide have experienced this same scenario. There should be a news expose on the terribly business practices of this company! People should know before they make that call to start service.

We could really use some help,

Below is a synopsis of what has transpired over the last couple of weeks between us and Patrik Sheth in Vonage’s executive response team, and the reason we are dealing with Patrik Sheth from their Executive Response Team.

We have been a Vonage BUSINESS customer since April 2007. Until recent events we really have not had any MAJOR problems with Vonage.

On or about July 1, 2009, I contacted Vonage to Change one of our numbers for a new Magazine we were going to publish. I was given [protected]. I had that number printed on everything in the magazine, business cards, and made a $14, 000 advertising agreement for the next 8 months with a radio station. Part of the agreement was we would get a full page ad in the radio stations once a year publication which goes out to 6700 CEO and Business owners in our area; it was to be printed in July. At first the number went to some guys voice mail, Vonage told me to give it 24 to 48 hours, I did. It worked for a few days. We went out of town for a week and I called to check my messages much to my surprise I get "You have reached the rejection hotline..." OMG, you have got to be kidding me! I called Vonage and was told I would have to reset the Vonage device, hello, I am out of town, can't very well do that. The said they would try and fix it. The CSR even heard and recorded the message. They did get it fixed a day later. By now our FIRST issue has been printed and distributed and the ad for the annual publication has gone to print. The phone was not ringing though. I was working from home and went to check the voice mail and when I called the business number I get some girl voice mail with every other word being F**k, and s**t and any other cuss words you can think of. I was horrified and thinking OMG what are people thinking when they call us to get information on our magazine! Once again I called Vonage and the CSR heard and recorded it again. This time I was told I would have to change my number. I didn't want to do that, all the printing we had done etc. They once again said they would fix it. They did for about 2 days. This last time when you called the number you would get Spanish music and someone speaking Spanish. Finally got someone in upper management, Patrik Sheth and he found out VONAGE NEVER HAD THE RIGHT TO GIVE US THAT NUMBER. IT HAD BEEN PORTED OUT BUT NOT REMOVED FORM VONAGE’S DATABASE! We were told by Patrik Sheth in the Executive Response Team we would be reimbursed for our expenses. After jumping through hoops to get him what he wanted and the run around we got we agreed on a small amount. Well it has been right at 30 days since we agreed to a settlement and we are still waiting on our money! The paperwork that we signed said we would have the money in 14 business days! Patrik Sheth has done NOTHING but lie about everything!

On 9/15/09, we spoke to him and he assured us they would be sending the check out to us on 9/17/09, and we would be getting it Monday or Tuesday. Tuesday rolls around and no check. So we tried calling Patrik; left all kinds of messages, finally late in the afternoon he calls and tells us the Finance Department told him the check would be sent out on THURSDAY, 09/24/09, overnight and we would have it Friday 09/25/09.

On 09/24/09, we tried calling Patrik all day again and leaving message after message after message. He was suppose to be giving us the tracking number and the check number. Guess what we never heard from him, imagine that!

On 9/25/09, after calling him all day again and leaving messages, he finally returns a call and gives me a tracking number and said “it might go out today but if today on Monday”. Well anybody can go and print an air bill and get a tracking number, we are not stupid! Here is the tracking number he gave us: 1Z4FY0450166495836. He did not even have the check from the finance department yet, so there again he lied!

On Monday 09/28/09, I called him at 12:30 CST and left him a message. He called back around 1:30 and said the Finance Dept. told him the check would be ready today. (Monday) So again we waited and waited and waited. I called and left him several messages and finally called back at 4:31 CST which is 5:31 EST with the check number. He said he saw the check and took it to the shipping department himself. I have worked for big companies here in Houston and I know that at 5:30 most shipping departments are gone for the day and UPS and FedEx have usually picked up by 4:30 or 5:00. Patrik assured me I could go to UPS’s website around 8 pm or so and the tracking number would show a change in status, well at 10:00 CST the tracking had not changed status! So again Patrik lied!

So here it is 09/30/09, waiting on the check from Vonage. There are no words to describe how I feel right now.

I have filed complaints with the FCC, the BBB, the attorney general's office in New Jersery contacted an attorney here in Texas which is where I live. I will make this my mission in life to bring this comapany down or take them to court get what I have truly coming to me. The 3700.00 we agreed on is a far cry from what they have done to our business.

I attempted to transfer my phone service to Vonage in good faith, and followed all of the instructions provided by Vonage. And as a result I am now out $11.00 for nothing.

Very, very poor business practices indeed. Not only will I never become a customer of Vonage, the relatives and friends that I was intending to recommend your service to will never hear a whisper from me. And I intend to file complaints with all regulatory agencies available to me.

All this trouble for a simple refund of $11.00. In hindsight, once my service had been canceled, the customer service representative should have initiated a paid return label for the adapter. It's not like I have been using your service, and then decided to change plans. The fact is, I NEVER transferred my service, and could not do so without incurring additional costs. The whole reason I requested to change plans was to save money, which ultimately I could not.

Do you really think it reasonable to burden a prospective customer with unforseen charges when attempting to become one of your loyal customers? You may want to revisit your marketing plan. Seems very strange to me.

********************************************************************

From: [protected]@vonage.com

I understand that you wish to receive refund for the shipping charges for returning your Vonage phone adapter.

As per the Money Back Guarantee policy, customer is responsible for shipping the phone adapter. Once the phone adapter is returned to Vonage, Vonage will issue refund for the charges made on your account. However please note that we do not have an option to issue credit for the return shipping charges as our system will not allow to issue refund higher than the charges made on the account. I appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this issue.

To check our Money Back Guarantee policy, please visit the following web link:

http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=guarantee

If you have any questions, your Vonage team is available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Contact us whenever and however it suits you!

- On-Line Support Center at http://www.vonage.com/support.php
- Contact Us at http://www.vonage.com/help_contactus.php
- Or call Toll-Free at 1-VONAGE-HELP [protected])

If you call us for Technical Support, in order for our highly trained specialists to successfully assist you, it is highly recommended that you are near the Vonage phone adapter you are calling about and in the location you intend to use your Vonage service.

Thanks again for choosing Vonage, a better phone service for less!

Sincerely,

Mani
Vonage Customer Care

I recently worked for Vonage as a salesman, they are a huge scam and i would not trust a word they are saying! I signed up for my free account because i was an employee, well when i decided to cancel they told me one thing then another. Then they told me they lost my device and i would have a cancellation fee even though as an employee you are not supposed to have that. I know all the ins and the outs of Vonage so please email me and i would be happy to tell you how to get your money back and how to get out of this Giant scam. i am going to use my resources which are thousands and thousands of vonage customers and email them and tell them all about how vonage is a scam and they screwed me. i will be sending the email in five days if someone from Vonage doesnt email me with an idea on how to make this right!

I just cancelled vonage after a year and a half with them. I do not use my home phone and did not need it any longer. They cancelled the service and went on to explain that they would need to charge a $39.99 termination fee because I was cancelling less than 2 years. I pointed out that their terms of service of their website states that termination fees would only be charged for accounts cancelled before one year of service. They said that was only for accounts after May 2009 (although it says nothing about that in the terms of service). Ridiculous!

After being a customer for 13 months, signing no contract them trying many times to have my service disconnected they send another withdrawal to my bank account for early ternimation. PLEASE be aware they are someone you DO NOT want to have access to your banking information, The only way I could stop them was to change my bank account. What a scam! I am not done complaining! Not sure who will listen, but PLEASE watch this company. I feel violated!

Few items to consider before you sign up "without contract"

1. Your $24.99 plan is more like $36.99 - they (similar to the people they criticize such as ATT and Verizon) charge all the fees and taxes and forget to mention how much it is going to be. So if you are paying your phone company $40 bills for your phone service - this is exactly what you will be paying with Vonage.

2. "No Contract" means that is you cancel before the end of a full year - they will charge you $80 for the crappy device they sent you and $40 for canceling the account. After 1 year they will charge you "only" $40 to cancel.

3. Their outsourced customer service department is always a "pleasure" to deal with. Similar to what Dell was before they moved some of their reps to US. You feel like you are talking to a robot that keeps repeating the same sentence no matter what you ask them.

All in all - no different from any other telco - so the question is WHY GO THRU THE TROUBLE OF SWITCHING?

Let's recap - same price, same features, same crappy customer service, contract or I guess a virtual contract...hmmm...

I bought in to Vonage over a year ago. When we tried to adjust our billing date and was told no way... my reply was to cancel the service. We were told there would be a $200 charge if we canceled before the first year was over, so we waited.

At the one year mark, I purchased a Magic Jack and told Vonage that we would no longer be requiring their services at the end of the billing cycle. They hung up on us with fifteen days left of paid service, shut down our service, and charged my bank account $42.00, which caused an overdraft fee of $35.00. Wow, insult to injury!

I did successfully reverse the charges with my bank, but it took 90 days, and I had to re-dispute the fee. I have since bought another Magic Jack, which I use when I am overseas to call my wife back in the US for free.

Don't get me wrong, Vonage VOIP service was great! It was reliable, it was clear... but it was also $24.00 a month and their customer service was awful. They are also very deceptive in their business and quite honestly illegal. They claim on their website that they can change their terms of service without notification... not true, and not legal. Their sales people ($8.00/hr mall workers) lie and say anything to get you to sign up.

On March 24th, 2009, I order vontage phone service. the service rep. told me I had to have high speed internet, she reconmended 3 companies in my area.
At&t, Comcast, and Clearwire. I chose Clearwire.

After getting set up on Clearwire, and Vontage phone, the phone service was very bad, there would be a long pause and a delay between my talking with someone. I would say something, and a few minutes later the person would answer. When I called Vontage, and explained the problem, the service rep. transfered me to the technicial dept. I did everything the tech. told me to do. Starting with turning on my computer. He asked me who was the carrier on my high speed compuer, I told him, clearwire, the tech. did the best he could do to fix my problem with the phone. He told me that vontage phone and clearwire high speed was not going to work, and vontage is not assoated the clearwire. (different billing). The tech suggested I cancel the computer and then my phone would work better.
I told him, no, that I would cancel the phone service and use a cell phone. he said that someone should have checked this out before the purchesd of the phone.

So, on Monday 5/11/2009, I called Vontage, and told the sales rep. my problem about canceling my phone service and just using a cell phone, because no one told me about $120.38 fee for cancelling this service. the rep told me that the service rep. that signed me up that night, should have checked with the technicial dept. regarding my clearwire highspeed service.

I feel I should not be charged anything for canceling this Vontage phone service. I have already paid my first month. and do not want to pay any more. I am not pleased with this service from Vontage.

Vonage stole my credit card number...I recieved a package about a week ago from vonage with their equipment in it and a note saying thanks for the order. I ignored it for a few days until I tried to use my phone only to discover that it had been shut off by my current carrier because VONAGE was taking over my account...I called vonage to find out what was going on and they ran me in circles for several hours until they supposedly agreed to cancel the service that I did not order. I called the credit company to see if there was a charge on my card from VONAGE and there was for $24.95...I disputed the charge and the card company said they were cancelling my card and sending me a new one as they considered mine stolen...Later that day I called the credit company back to find they had tried to charge a $42.00 cancellation fee...I still do not have phone service as Qwest says it will take 6 days, we also lost the phone number we have had for 34 years and qwest was kind enough to give VONAGE my wifes social security number. keep fighting the dirty ###

I recently called Vonage to cancel my account and found out that I would be charged $39.99 to do so. I followed up this letter. It should sum everything up nicely...

This is to serve as a letter of formal dispute to Vonage Marketing LLC.

I have had Vonage phone service for approximately 1 year. I chose the service to use solely as a fax line and had access to 500 minutes a month. I have paid an estimated $360 in fees for this service. However, I have only used a combined total of 149 minutes during my entire 14 months with the company.

Needless to say it was in my best interest financially to cancel my account. I called on April 7, 2009 and spoke to a very pleasant customer service agent. He informed me that he would be able to cancel my account but wanted to make me aware that there would be a $39.99 fee to do so. We debated this fee for approximately 10 minutes, which only left me frustrated, in tears, and finally angry with the company. This gentleman was so familiar with the absurdness of this policy that he was able to calm me down, assure me that he knew there was no one that would waive this fee, and then provide information on how to file a formal dispute or pursue legal action. He had first hand knowledge from previous customers on how to contact the company and what the most efficient method was.

I was appalled that a company could be so unethical that its own employees knew the best ways for customers to file complaints. He pointed me to a clause in the terms and conditions that reads:

"8.7 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 mentioned that this is worded in such a way that the average consumer would read it to mean that if the account is involuntarily disconnected, such as when a bill is not paid; this clause does not state anything about voluntary cancellation of the service. He agreed that it is very misleading.

I have paid your company over $350 in fees and used exactly 2% of the services that I was charged for. It is completely outrageous to charge me an additional $39.99. I am trying to make financially sound decisions in tough economic times and believe that everyone, including companies both small and large, should do the same. Honesty, fairness, and kindness should come before money in every situation. I teach at a public middle school in an inner city and stress to my students on a daily basis the idea of living a life that is worthy of respect. How will our kids ever learn that if we don't first set the example for them?

Do the right thing. Stop putting your customer service agents in a position where they have to present legal dispute options because of their company's selfish ways. Stop charging your customers unnecessary fees just to advance yourselves. We teachers, nurses, firefighters, and community service workers work for far less than the average business person (I would know, I left a life in real estate and sales for a low paying job as a teacher) and we want nothing more than to see people live in a way that honors others.

If large companies set the example, others will follow. Customers would flock to a company that sets themselves above the rest by treating their people with fairness and respect. Respect the time of your employees and your customers. Respect their money. Respect yourselves as a corporation. Do the right thing.

Since I had cable TV and Internet, I decided to check out Vonage's phone service on their website. In August 2008, after reading everything I could on their website, I signed up for a home phone. On the website, they had a FREE cable phone modem, which I opted for. A few days later I received said modem and installed it. Nowhere on their website did I see where it required a contract of any specified length of time.

When I knew that I would be moving at the end of February 2009, I called them in early January '09 and told them that I would be moving at the end of Feb. and I'd need to cancel my service. I was told by someone in Asia, who could barely speak or understand English, that there would be a $39.99 disconnect charge since I was on a 12-month contract. This was a total surprise to me! If I had known there was a contract, I would NEVER have signed up for it!

Then I asked if I could at least put the service on hold since I didn't know where I was moving to and if I'd have cable service. They assured me that I could do that. So I called back in early Feb. when I knew where I was moving to, and again told them that I needed to cancel the service or at least put it on hold. I was resigned to having to pay the $39.99 disconnect fee. I was told THEN that it was for 24 months and effective Jan. 1st, they could NOT put it on hold!

Now, here's the thing - I'm a widow on social security and I cannot afford to keep paying thru the nose for something that I'm not able to use. I was ready to lose my temper so I just hung up on that person. After I finished moving to the new location, in early March I tried one more time - I called them to cancel the service. NOW I'm told that in addition to the $39.99, I'd have to ALSO pay $59.99 for the modem - that was FREE!

Also, my service was for the 500-minutes per month plan, at $15.99 per month. After fees/taxes, it came to just under $20 a month. In February, I got a notice in the mail that it was going up to $17.99 per month - but when I saw the debit charged, it was nearly $24. HUH? How did approximately $4 a month go to $6 for the same service?

So - A WORD OF WARNING - DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE VONAGE! They raise the rates, one CSR told me one thing, the second one told me another, then the third said that my FREE modem wasn't FREE - I'd have to pay for that, that I couldn't return it!

Hello, my name is E. D., I work at home using my home phone. I live in Florida and the company I work for is in California . In a time of recession, when there are just about no jobs anywhere, I do what I can legally to make some money to keep my bills paid. My husband and I first had the phone company Embarq aka (Century Tel). Since we thought we had unlimited long distance, we figured there would be no problem. After 3 months of working from home, I got a letter from my phone company telling me that I had broken their rules and regulations for unlimited long distance! I was confused. I called them. They told me that there is a minute limit for unlimited long distance however, they would not tell me exactly what that limit is! Wait a minute... let me look in the dictionary
UNLIMITED- boundless, without restrictions or boundaries; infinite
With that in mind, I told them that I was working at home and I don't telemarket or make continuous outbound calls. They said, oh no, you need to have a business line to run your business. I tried to explain to them over and over that no, I don't run a business, I am an employee for a company that pays me and takes taxes out of my paycheck. I told them that this job is the reason they get their money every month. Well, they said I have 3 choices. #1 stop calling that number. Okay, this won't work, because this is my job. #2 disconnect my phone service. Okay, this definitely won't work. #3 go to a business line. Of course, they want more money. So I went ahead and said fine, I'll get the business line.
This seemed ridiculous to me, but whatever will allow me to keep my phone line, and not get disconnected. After I agreed to get the business line, they asked me make up a “business name”. I felt like I was doing something illegal. They told me that it doesn't matter that the business doesn't exist, I just need a name. So I made up some crazy name, J&L ILY (J and L I love you). Soon after complying and getting this new and more expensive “business” package, I get another letter and e-mails, that I have saved, stating that I now needed to get a second phone line mirrored off of the first line! More money! About $60.00 more per month to be exact!
I was so fed up by now that my husband and I called Vonage. Vonage advertises everywhere their unlimited long distance. There is no * by the word unlimited! So my husband calls Vonage. We didn't have any money on our pre-paid credit card, we were just looking for information. My husband explained to him that we would get the service in 2 days when we had money, we just wanted to know if it was really unlimited! The man promised him the world. He told him yes, it is completely unlimited, he could talk 24/7 if he wanted to. My husband explained to him that I work from home, and he needed to make sure that it was completely unlimited.
Again, the guy convinced my husband saying “yes it is completely unlimited”. No restrictions what-so-ever. The man was adamant on signing my husband up that second. We explained that there was no money on our card. The guy told us that because he valued our business, he would wave all of the first time fees, and start up our service for free. He put us on hold while he checked with his supervisor. He came back and told us yes he could set us up today for free! So we agreed.
We gave him our credit card number for later billing, with the promise that he wouldn't charge it now. Shortly afterwards, the guy got disconnected from my husband. My husband called back and got another operator. When she looked up the account, she saw that we had been charged $42! We were irate! We had been lied to! This is when my husband went on a mission to investigate. He read through all of the terms and conditions on the Vonage website. In section 5.4 Inconsistent with Normal Use in the middle of their terms of service he found a section that said that there was a limit to unlimited. Vonage has limit of 5, 000 minutes per month for residential lines and 10, 000 minutes for small business lines! So what is limited unlimited long distance?
We have seen the Vonage commercial everywhere and have never once seen it say: *Unlimited long distance or even Unlimited* long distance . So that you can read down below and see that it says SPECIFICLY 5, 000 minute monthly “LIMIT” for home and 10, 000 minute monthly “LIMIT”. They are false advertising and manipulating for business! I have to fight in order to keep my job with all of these phone companies! How is that right? They are changing the English language! Unlimited means one thing, how are they allowed to put limits on it? We are not running a business out of our home, I am a wife trying to make a living for my family!
Please don't take my word for it, I challenge anyone to look it up yourselves. Also test out their customer service reps and call them for some information. None of them will tell you that their so called un”LIMITED” packages are really LIMITED! Also see what happens when you point out their own policy to them!
Here are some Vonage phone numbers:
or
[protected]

Here are some links to Vonage:
www.vonage.com notice there is no * DIRECTLY by the word unlimited.

Then go to their other link : http://www.vonage.com/features_terms_service.php?lid=footer_terms&refer_id=WEBTS0706010001W1#SERVICE and read section 5.4 Inconsistent with Normal Use and make note of their limited unlimited! These companies are going as far as changing the English language and confusing people who are just learning English!
My husband and I finally found a truly honest company named Cox Digital Services and they stand by the true meaning of UNLIMITED!
So to all consumers who are needing to get truly UNLIMITED long distance home phone services beware of lying and manipulating phone company scams! Also always ask customer service reps about their tariffs and terms of service or read the individual companies terms yourself.

Vonage are educated Scam artist. They charged me for a service when they were told I didn't want the service. Filed a report with the Customer Service and they told me that they could not call a manager on Saturday, that I would have to call them about my account.

I told them I had no account wanted no services from them. They charge on my credit card a charge within two hours. I reported to my credit card fraud. I had to cancel my credit card. I called Vonage back to tell them I knew they had charged me . They kept saying call on Monday to cancel your account. When I told them I had no account they emailed me and gave me an account number and a pin number.

They kept trying to treat me as a customer. I said I am not a customer, never have been. They kept saying I apologize. I said you don't apologize for fraud that you have perpetrated on me.

Be very careful. These people are educated con artist. If you say hello you are a customer. they make it impossible to get past the gate keeper. Be careful if you even have a conversation with them they are completely programmed for scamming.

I signed up with vonage in August 2008. I called to cancel on March 17, 2009. They tried every thing in their power to get me to stay and I still declined. I was told that I would be charged an early disconnect fee of $39.00 and a rebate recovery fee of $70.00. I was shocked upon hearing this. When I questioned this, I was told that it was part of the terms of service. These terms of service were never discussed with me nor did I discuss a commitment contract.

I asked to speak with a supervisor and he relayed the same mess that the representative said. Once again, I was very upset. I was so upset that I hung up on the supervisor.

I tried writing various emails and each time, the representative proclaimed to understand. They kept evading the subject when I asked for the name, telephone number, address or email address of a higher authority.

I will never recommend that any one sign on with Vonage. They are untruthful and charge for unnecessary charges. Their customer service is the worst.

I believe they make their money by charging bogus disconnect fees and rebate recovery fees.