We had Vonage phone service from Jan 18th to July 18th. We are still trying to get our account resolved 3 months later.
To summarize, We started unlimited phone service on Jan. 18th. The phone was unreliable and would drop calls, or the call would have a digital delay and would make it impossible to have the conversation. I travel a large amount for business and wasn't home a lot. I used their troubleshooting guide on their website to help my phone problems. About 2 months later I could not resolve the issue and tried to cancel their service.
During this time, I had used about 230 mins over an 8-10 week period. I was paying $24.99/month taxes. Vonage told me I could not cancel without paying charges amounting to almost $200.00!!! I only pay $25 a month anyway! They said I would have had to cancel in the first month. Since I wasn't home to use the phone because of work, I couldn't have met that time frame anyways. When I had signed up, the paperwork I get never explained the time frame to cancel service or the fees associated with that. It was cheaper to keep the service going than to cancel. They told me to call back on June 18th and there would not be any fees to cancel.
I called back on June 18th to cancel and they told me I could not cancel service without paying the $200 etc. I explained what the previous person had told me to do. Vonage they said to call back the next month on July 18th and cancel and there would not be any fees to close the account.
I called back on July 18th to cancel and they told me I had to pay the $39.99 tax cancellation fee! This is of course more than a month of service. They also charged me a month of service on top of that because I didn't cancel on July 17th, which was the end of the billing cycle! I lost it and they finally took of the next month charge. So I'm left with a balance of $42.87 and my account is closed.
Now the fun starts... I had my credit card stolen about a week prior to me cancelling. I did not have a current card number to give them to pay my balance online. I told the person I couldn't pay the remainder and needed a bill sent in the mail and I would promply pay by check. The Vonage representative told me that would be fine and I would get a bill in the mail.
A few weeks pass by and there is no sign of a bill or anything in the mail. My account still shows the balance. I emailed their customer service/billing through their website and heard nothing. I contacted the Better Business Bureau about the situation in September. Vonage replied to the complaint and said that I could pay the account online and sorry for my troubles. I went to Vonage's website again, I couldn't access their credit card system to pay it. I called them, and they said they would have the bill sent in the mail. I also emailed them a second time.
Now (October 15th), still no bill, no phone calls, etc. Finally I get a bill in the mail. The only problem is that it is from collections. I call the collections agency and mentioned that Vonage won't send me a way to pay my bill and haven't sent me any notices about the bill. The Collections Agency said that they would put my bill on hold and contact Vonage.
I called Vonage and spoke directly to the manager in the billing department. I learned that as soon as my account was closed, Vonage "does not respond to email requests." I also learned that once the account is closed and there is an outstanding bill, "I is automatically sent to collections the next day."!?!?!?!? So I couldn't even pay my bill the next day with a check / credit card etc. This completely contradicts what Vonage told the BBB. I also learned that Vonage won't send anything in the mail and the only way to pay the account is with a credit card... Which I did not have. So Vonage won't let me pay my bill. It isn't that I wouldn't pay the account... It is that I wasn't allowed to pay the account!
Any suggestions?
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