No doubt, Vonage Holdings (NYSE: VG) was one of the worst IPOs over the past year. The company must also deal with patent litigation with the mighty Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ).I've actually been a customer of Vonage since November. But, today I cancelled my service.
Things were fine -- that is, until my router failed.
So, I called up Vonage and got a customer care representative (who I could barely understand). Basically, the company would send me a new router but I would have to send back the defective one.
By the way, I also told them that my address had changed.
Well, Vonage did send out the phone – but to the wrong address.
Despite their mistake, I have to call DHL and somehow locate the phone. Or, if that doesn't work, I have to file a police report and fax it to Vonage. After that, I will then get a phone.
In the meantime, I guess I just have to use my cell phone.
That didn't sit well with me and I cancelled my account. As a result, I will be charged $109 for the router (that was sent to the wrong address) and $39.99 for the cancellation fee.
Nice, huh?
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-25-2007 @ 4:10PM
Bob said...
Sounds like a better business bureau complaint to me.. no way in hell Id pay that bill.
5-25-2007 @ 5:43PM
Tom Mitchell said...
Sounds like the root of the problem stems from not keeping your customer account up to date. You do know that Vonage allows you to manage your account with their website, right? If you had a customer rep that you couldn't understand (very common with many companies these days), you should have just made the address changes on your web account. After all, that's the information their automated billing and shipping system would use.
And it wasn't too smart to cancel your account after the second router was sent out and before you recieved it. The charge from Vonage seems legit then -- you cost them a router.
5-26-2007 @ 7:56AM
Vin said...
Unfortunately, if you do not keep your account up to date yourself whatever shipping address that is on your account it will be shipped too. And guess what, the disconnection fee and all that is stated in the Terms of Service. It's not there fault you did not read it. Also you couldn't wait a couple more days for the device to come, instead you just cancel it because it didn't come on the exact date you needed it? Wow. That's impatience.
5-31-2007 @ 5:15PM
James said...
I've used them since Jan 2005. Never had a problem with them. I've had problems with the 'linkysys' routers however. Ditch the wireless/router/vonage device. It gets smokin HOT! Which as I understand, heat is the enemy to any electronic equipment. I finally separated the router from the wap from the vonage device. Now all work quite well and I've never had a device problem since.