Vonage
Don't use vonage! Deceptive marketing, evasive tactics, runarounds - your basic scam

Since I had cable TV and Internet, I decided to check out Vonage's phone service on their website.in August after reading everything I could on their website, I signed up for a home phone. On the website, they had a FREE cable phone modem, which I opted for. A few days later I received said modem and installed it. Nowhere on their website did I see where it required a contract of any specified length of time.

When I knew that I would be moving at the end of February I called them in early January '09 and told them that I would be moving at the end of Feb. And I'd need to cancel my service. I was told by someone in Asia, who could barely speak or understand English, that there would be a $39.99 disconnect charge since I was on a 12-month contract. This was a total surprise to me! If I had known there was a contract, I would NEVER have signed up for it!

Then I asked if I could at least put the service on hold since I didn't know where I was moving to and if I'd have cable service. They assured me that I could do that. So I called back in early Feb. When I knew where I was moving to, and again told them that I needed to cancel the service or at least put it on hold. I was resigned to having to pay the $39.99 disconnect fee. I was told THEN that it was for 24 months and effective Jan. 1st, they could NOT put it on hold!

Now, here's the thing - I'm a widow on social security and I cannot afford to keep paying thru the nose for something that I'm not able to use. I was ready to lose my temper so I just hung up on that person. After I finished moving to the new location, in early March I tried one more time - I called them to cancel the service. NOW I'm told that in addition to the $39.99, I'd have to ALSO pay $59.99 for the modem - that was FREE!

Also, my service was for the 500-minutes per month plan, at $15.99 per month. After fees/taxes, it came to just under $20 a month.in February, I got a notice in the mail that it was going up to $17.99 per month - but when I saw the debit charged, it was nearly $24. HUH? How did approximately $4 a month go to $6 for the same service?

So - A WORD OF WARNING - DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE VONAGE! They raise the rates, one CSR told me one thing, the second one told me another, then the third said that my FREE modem wasn't FREE - I'd have to pay for that, that I couldn't return it!

Company: Vonage
Country: USA
State: New Jersey
City: Holmsdale

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