I was a customer of Vonage for over 3.5 years, but decided to consolidate some of our service. We ended having access to 4 lines -- 2 land and 2 mobile. We don't make many calls in the first place so saving $30+ a month looked great. For example, our Vonage account show 64 minutes of in/outbound calls in a recent billing cycle and we always have hundreds of minutes to spare on our mobile plan.
I ported our Vonage number to my wife's mobile phone since she recently got that number and most people still called our Vonage number at home. This was a simple process at T-Mobile and it took about 5 minutes to confirm my identity, the number to port, the Vonage account information and our "security question" at Vonage so the port would occur. I did that at 12:30am on April 1st, 2008. On April 7th, all of the call to our Vonage number started going to my wife's mobile handset. I called T-Mobile and confirmed with the representative that the port was successful. Wow, 7 days which 2 days were weekend days. That was fast!
Now, to close my account at Vonage. I called yesterday evening only to find out that you have to call during business hours (ugh!). I called this morning and got the automated, "please repeat that request", system (I admit some places have systems that work -- Vonage not so much). Got a representative right away. Confirmed details about the account and "security question" was less than 2 minutes. Then I requested to "close my account" and the rep gives an "offer". Then a bunch of questions about why you want to leave Vonage and a long story that (I kid you not) "because of the sound of your voice, I know you are family oriented person. We know that family oriented guys know how to save money. Let me offer you..."
This is unbelievable! Ended up requesting to "close, terminate, cancel, end my service/account" over 12 times to this representative. Now my call is over 30 minutes of listening to cross offers, explaining why you want to cancel and the representative taking your reasons but getting all the details wrong. Then they take your reasons and try to work them into their offers.
After the 24 minute mark I repeatedly asked for a supervisor and/or manager. At the 30 minute mark, I was transferred pretty much mid-sentence to a supervisor. The sup then tried 2 times to offer me a "new deal" which I recalled as offer number four or five from the first person. I kept asking to "close, terminate, cancel, end my service/account" to no avail! Until, the magic words - "Please disconnect my service and close my account." You must say "disconnect my service" in order for the rep to do as you ask and I suspect that you have to get to the supervisor level as well. Also, I recommend that you do not answer their questions about stuff as they use it to retain you as a customer and give additional offers. Midway through the call I just started to say that "I am not comfortable sharing that information with you."
The service quality from Vonage was good - B+. The customer service from Vonage was very bad and this experience does leave a bad taste in your mouth especially since I was trying to leave in the first place. I give the customer service - F! I can understand two or three offers, but 10+ special offers, two representatives and 35 minutes of my life gone. Glad to be done with Vonage.
P.s. We use Packet8 for our VoIP business PBX and it's great. Plus you get to talk to somebody in the US at Packet8 instead some unknown foreign country(as with Vonage). Worth checking them out at
Packet8.net. And no, I don't get a thing for putting a link to them.