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08/16/2003 Entry: "More on Vonage"

My Vonage phone now works, no thanks to Vonage. After a week of enduring polite and friendly but impotent and lackadaisical customer service, they once again told me that I needed to contact my local phone company to determine why local calls wouldn't go through to my new number.

I bought this phone service from Vonage. It's reasonable to expect that, should I have problems with the number working, I would contact Vonage, and they would coordinate with any other involved phone companies to make sure their product works as advertised. My experience seems to show Vonage doesn't share that expectation.

I finally called SBC SNET, the local phone company, and opened a trouble ticket. It took just seconds for me to reach a human. (With Vonage, I was unable to reach a human after waiting on hold for twenty minutes.) There was some confusion, as they don't generally take reports of trouble for numbers they don't provide.

Within hours, SBC SNET determined that there was a local call-routing issue between SBC SNET, Paetec (the telephone company that services Vonage's numbers in my area), and Vonage. SBC SNET resolved the problem. (Ironically, Paetec is based in Rochester, New York, where I lived until recently, and it was founded by many ex-managers of the first telco I worked for, ACC Telecom.)

Vonage never made any claim that SBC SNET was unresponsive, or stonewalling the issue. I have no evidence that Vonage ever contacted SBC SNET about the issue. Certainly, they weren't all that good about contacting me regarding the problem.

This kind of customer service problem can kill a company. For now, I will stick with Vonage because my resources are currently limited, and they offer a lot of services for a low cost. I've also heard that their service works well when it works. However, I can't recommend them to anyone else.

Consider the company I've started: local computer consulting. I will be installing home networks for people, among other things. Those people are potential Vonage customers. I could be telling them about this great company that provides my phone line, and how it could save my customers money. Instead, I won't mention Vonage. If someone asks, I'll have to say, "Well, I have it, and I can't recommend it, because their support is terrible."

SBC SNET is more expensive. That expense is probably worth it considering their phone lines work properly, and you can get problems fixed in a reasonable amount of time. I will be keeping this in mind as I decide whether or not to remain a Vonage customer.

An interesting side note: Vonage is apparently aware of "turboing" techniques. When you call their corporate number, as listed on their web site, you get a voicemail recording telling you to call their useless customer support number. You could leave a message, too. There's no opportunity to speak to a human. That's a very bad sign for a company, when it has to erect roadblocks to communications -- especially when one's business is communications.

The irony is, Vonage's CEO registered their domain name himself, and he apparently used personal contact information. Doing a "whois" on Vonage reports:

   Administrative Contact:
      CITRON, JEFFREY  (JC35114)                jeff@jeff.org
      818 linden lane
      BRIELLE, NJ 08739
      US
      732 223 7381 fax: 123 123 1234

Calling that number will get you what appears to be Mr. Citron's personal voicemail. I left him a message. I never got a response, not even from a support supervisor. That's a great way to send the message "we don't care" to your customers. A customer who cares enough to track down that number ought to at least be acknowledged. Ideally, their complaints should be resolved quickly and apologetically. After all, if complaints need to get to that level, it indicates serious problems in your support organization.

Posted by Rob @ 05/27/2005 11:47 PM ET

Chithon down there is an excellent example of a business owner who doesn't get it—and apparently doesn't bother to read things before commenting on them. I wonder if he treats his customers so callously... and if he has many of them left if he does?

Posted by Sean @ 01/22/2004 01:47 PM ET

Funny, I'm reading this weblog as I'm waiting for a Vonage Customer Service person to pick up. I'm located in Louisiana and cannot receive incoming calls from my California clients. Vonage couldn't tell me what other states couldn't call us. I can only suspect it is all SBC callers, since they couldn't tell me.

I opened a trouble ticket and they made me go through the embarrasing procedure of calling one of my clients and asking them to try to call my number again. I waited on hold with Vonage for over 30 min. after getting rejected because of "call volume." In any case they called me back about my trouble ticket not the next day, but the following day. How is that for follow-up? They said to call SBC and have ourselves added to their phone listing. Why won't Vonage contact SBC themselves? I'm paying for their business service and they are asking me to do what they should've done 3 months ago.

Recent Update: As I'm writing this, after 20min. of waiting on Vonage's Customer Support line for the third time... the phone rings and hangs up!

I bet Chithon works for Vonage. Chithon, tell your boss to fix his shoddy service.

Posted by Russ @ 01/16/2004 11:10 AM ET

I thought vonage was a great deal and was willing to work with them, but after requesting service in November 2003 and as of today January 16th, 2004 no number change in sight, no information on when that would go through. Many dropped calls when I tried to use call waiting. Several times where I had to reboot everything to get phone service at all. And then the kicker - me having to spend an extra $70 with my original phone company to keep my old phone number alive while vonage didn't seem to know really how to get my phone number to transfer, I discontinued their service. My penalty was another charge for $41.19 for a cancellation fee for a service that was inadequate to begin with. BTW Chithon why are you being such an ass? Could it be you're jealous you can't buy a MAC with your Welfare EBT card?

Posted by Chithon @ 01/03/2004 09:06 AM ET

Leave it to a Mac user to level a rant at a company because they would not respond to him when he calls the wrong number.

Look buddy, as a CEO of a small company... I can tell you... you need to call the SUPPORT number, not the Owner/operator's personal number.

For all you know he could have been out of town for 2 weeks to a month. And when he got back... IF he got your message... he would have assumed that you had the mental ability to call TECH SUPPORT or Customer Care.

Wake up and Buy a PC.

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