I just signed up and they debited my checking account twice for the initial amount. I have been trying for over 2 weeks to get my refund and have even faxed a bank statement to them with no resolve. I have to retell the story everytime I call there and have had enough. I am canceling my service AND have filed a complaint with the BBB. Just wondering if anyone else had any issues with them.

Heather

nope...we have had vonage for three years now and it's been wonderful! We have the 500 anytime minutes though. It's much much cheaper that way!

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We have had it for over 3yrs also and really love it.It was one of the best choices we ever made to switch.We have had only minimal problems with connection and my husband usually just had to reboot the system and we we're fine. We have never had billing problems. I'm sorry to hear you are disappointed. I hope you can get the billing problems corrected quickly.

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When you're smilin...the whole world smiles with you!!!

Good luck trying to cancel. They have the absolute worst customer service known to man. My understanding is that if it works correctly right out of the box, you'll probably never have trouble. If it doesn't work right from the get-go, it will never get resolved to your satisfaction. I spent no less than seven hours on the phone with them in one day, most of that time on hold for spans of 30 - 40 minutes at a time. The CSR's are not first language English. They won't transfer you to a supervisor. When it gets to the point that they cannot figure out what's wrong, they will put you on hold supposedly to talk to someone higher-up, and in putting you on hold, they will "accidentally" disconnect you.

Here is a link to someone's blog I just googled up. Read all the comments for a complete picture.

http://damienkatz.net/2004/10/vonage-sucks.html

And when you dial 911 they can't see where the address is the call is coming from. How many people in a real emergency will not remember this or have the calmness to clearly state their address at the beginning of the call? What about a child if a parent collapses or something?

That alone was enough to make me say no way and after reading the blog that wowitsdark posted I would never even consider it.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

annadrose, everything those people are reporting is true. I'm certain of it.

We got a router that was supposedly free after rebate. I was actually just buying it to re-sell on eBay, but then saw that to qualify for the rebate you had to sign up for Vonage service. Fine - I may've missed that in the fine print, which was my own fault, and the service actually sounded like a good deal so I tried to hook it up. It didn't work. I called customer service and after about 40 minutes on hold, someone answered and put me through a long list of questions and then said they would have to transfer me to tech support. I was on hold another 20 minutes, and the person who answered put me through the same 10 minutes worth of questions only to not be able to help me. They went to talk to a supervisor and I was cut off.

I called back and waited another 35 minutes on hold before getting a person. The person would not transfer me on to tech support based on my explanation that I was already transferred there once. He said they were not allowed to transfer there unless they'd asked a series of questions. I explained that I had already answered them and that I got transferred and then cut off, but they refused to transfer me unless I started back at square one. He then decided to transfer me - surprise surprise. Then tech support had to put me through the same questions AGAIN! And then, again, he went to talk to a super, and cut me off while putting me on hold.

A coincidence? I thought so, and glutton for punishment that I am, I tried back.

This continued all day long. I'd explain that I wanted to cut straight to the chase and be sent right back to tech. I asked if there was a direct number to tech I could call if disconnected, and the answer was no. I asked that they call me back in the case of disconnection and they said they did not have that capability.

My kids go to school at 8:00. I had to pick them up from school at 3:20. I started the hook-up process the minute I got home from taking them, and had been on hold for 40 minutes at 3:15 when I had to leave to get them, after a full day of attempts at resolution. At 3:30 when I got home from picking them up, I was still on hold and hadn't missed them coming on the line! It was absolutely a nightmare.

Needless to say, I called Circuit City and explained my problem, and said I wanted to return the Vonage router. I had to mail it back at my own expense (there isn't a CC here), which was quite annoying. The whole experience was indescribable.

We've had Vonage for about 1 1/2 years. We've been very happy with them. When our router broke they shipped me a new one overnight with no charge. We LOVE Vonage!

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This space for rent

We have had vonage since December and have had absolutely no trouble whatsoever! We are paying about 1/2 of what we were paying for local service and now have free long distance. LOVE IT!!!!

They have HANDS DOWN the WORST customer service ever! We attempted to sign up last year. I was supposed to receive a free month and some free router or phone or something. They never sent it and we could never set up the service without it. I kid you not, I spend over 12 hours on the phone with them. I'd call their customer service line (you get someone in India who you can't understand). Wait on hold FOREVER and find out you have to speak to corporate in NY only they can't transfer you, you need to call another number. WAit on hold AGAIN and then talk. Thought it was resolved and it STILL never came. I called to cancel. This time called the NY office directly. Waited over an hour on hold and was told that I couldn't call them without waiting thru the regular customer service line first so they could put a note in my file. I told them there was no way in hell I was calling again and I was canceling. They then tried to tell me I owed for 1 month. Yes, it took over 1.5 months to resolve all this and they were tyring to charge me for month 2 when my service was never activiated!!! I called my CC company and said that any charges made to my account by them were fraudulent. They tried to bill me to no avail.

Glad I didn't try to work it out. I have Comcast Digital Voice and it's great. Plus, if you have a security system, Vonage won't work for you and 911 isn't good either. I lost 12 hours on my cell for those Vonage turkys. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT USE THEM!

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Smurf, I just got flashbacks reading that! lol! Isn't it nuts that they make you go through ALL the hoops, every time you can, and won't just give you a case number or something? And those hold times are crazy.

I would suggest that someone looking to sign up for them call their customer service number to ask a question. After you've been on hold 45 minutes and not had anyone answer yet, you'll understand. lol

The first time we had it, it was GREAT! Cancelled because sis-in-law (teenager) was living with us and our usage went from 30 minutes a month to over 4000, calling her boyfriend and friends back home (long distance calls so at least it wasn't being charged as long distance!). She would miss school because she was up all night on the phone . Anyway, after she left I decided it was cheaper than the cell phone I was using, so turned it back on, we "needed" a new box from them and this time I have to try local phone numbers three different ways because I never know whether the straight 7 digit number, 7 digit with area code, or the whole 1-(area code)-(phone number) will dial for me, sometimes NONE work and I have to keep trying. And we're back to 30 minutes a month of usage so I wanted to downgrade our plan... to save money, right? They want something like $9.99 to do this There are other companies out there that offer the same service and some had features that would have helped - like you can put phone numbers in that you don't want to accept calls from which Vonage doesn't do (yet).

I know! I read yours and was "OMG...someone else went thru the same hell as I did!".

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I've heard they're bad... Ive heard horror stories similar to those mentioned.

We have comcast digital voice. Im not 100% happy with it, but its phone/interent pkg ($69?) for a yr... I dunno what to do after they yr...

Jason

I really like the service most of the time, and being able to have a number local for my parents is great. However, the customer service can be rude, and the wired/wireless router with Vonage support we have was really hard to setup. I say that as a computer tech, not as a novice user, so the items' probably best avoided for most. Oddly enough, the Indian tech support we had was friendly, and tried to be helpful, while the guy in New Jersey was horrible.