I called Vonage about their phone over the internet service (VOIP) and was told I needed at least DSL to sign up. I told them that I had DSL with Earthlink and I went through an elaborate sign-up procedure. The sales rep said it would just require plugging in one wire when I received the modem so I did not call anyone with technical expertice to help me. The modem arrived within a week after signing up.
When the modem arrived I spent 8 to 10 hours on the phone with 4 Vonage technicians and made more than four telephone calls with the attendant long waits. When I finished this process I was still connected to Bell South for incoming calls but could call out on the Vonage modem. I made under 10 calls altogether during the month I waited to get transferred from Bell South.
My credit card was charged immediately for the modem ($42) and for the free month ($27). At the end of this "learning experience" it cost me $6 to return the modem.
To get back to my story, after about two weeks of sending e-mails asking why I was still connected to Bell South and not getting replies, I finally called Bell South and they said they had no record of any request to transfer my service.
I then called Vonage and finally got a human who informed me that they should have sent me an email but that it never went out. She was quite apologetic about that. This email was supposed to inform me that I could not get VOIP over the same line that I used for my DSL service. They said I needed to get another line and when I said that I was not going to pay for another line they said I could get it from Bell South for free.
When the Bell South rep stopped laughing at this ridiculous request I told her that I had said the same thing to Vonage but that I had been assured it could be done. I called Vonage and they changed their story and said that I needed to get this from Earthlink. When I called Earthlink I was told that Earthlink does not do business with Vonage.
To top if off when I next spoke to Vonage I was assured that their records showed that the email informing me about the problem went out two weeks earlier. I assume the records were corrected after the fact; I certainly never received the email as I was anxiously awaiting it and would have followed up immediately.
After all of this bother it turned out that I could not get VOIP and since this process had taken four days over a month to accomplish I was charged $65 for cancelling the service.
I appealed to the FCC, the FTC, and the Florida Consumer Services Department, and stopped the payments from my credit card company. I have not heard from the FTC and the FCC but my credit card company and the Florida Consumer Services Department have notified me that Vonage behaved according to their contract. So I am out over $170 for dealing with a company that knows how to write iron-clad contracts but does not operate an honest service and is willing to settle for grabbing what it can get from suckers like me.
I should have been informed at the beginning that you cannot get VOIP on the same line that you get DSL and I should have been informed that Earthlink does not do business with Vonage. Those two pieces of information would have saved me a month of aggravation and close to $200 which is significant money to a retiree on a fixed income that is shrinking every year. That is why I wanted to sign up for their service to begin with.
Finally I need to say that almost all the Vonage reps I spoke to could not communicate with people who did not have a lot of technical expertise. The last guy I spoke with was some administrative type who indicated that I could complain to my heart's content but that no federal or state agency would overrule them because their contract was so carefully written. I will never forget his smirky voice; he knew they had me over a barrel and he couldn't help showing his satisfaction over that fact.
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