I Hate Vonage, You Hate Vonage, We All Hate Vonage!
Published April 10th, 2007 in Sentiment Tags: I Hate Vonage, marketwatch, Rothschild, sentiment, short, trading, trading blog, verizon, vonage, We Hate Vonage.As a student of sentiment, I try to keep a sharp lookout for new, wacky ways of taking the mood of the crowd. There are the traditional methods. And then there are other more unorthodox ways of seeing sentiment.
Just recently I’ve been paying more attention to the keywords that people use to find my trading blog. Just a few days ago I started noticing something interesting. Quite a few people were googling: “I Hate Vonage!” and “We Hate Vonage”… which would take them to my post, Vonage: Please Don’t Leave Us!
Not only has Vonage had a very difficult time over the past year to make money and retain customers, recently insult was added to injury when a judge ruled that they had infringed on patents held by Verizon and ordered them to stop taking on new clients. Ironically, this might be just the thing Vonage needs since every new client brings with it much more expenses than concomitant income 
But the market was ruthless in punishing the stock as it gapped down to reach just below $3.
Tangentially, since I’ve promised to hold myself accountable in my previous opinions, I’ll take this opportunity to give myself an A+ for this call. The red arrow is when I made my first post about Vonage. The next day it gapped down and fell into the ~$9 area, consolidated and fell further. Never to see that level except when it came back a few months later to ‘kiss’ the resistance level.
Getting back to sentiment, when I see people actually typing in ‘I hate Vonage’, the contrarian in me feels an almost irresistable temptation to go long. I’m not sure though if these people are customers or shareholders (or both!). As Rothschild said, ‘Buy when there’s blood on the street!’. There isn’t any blood on the street perse, but definitely it is splattered all over the Vonage chart.
The MarketWatch’s individual stock sentiment measure is slightly negative (52% bears and 48% bulls) but the sample size is very small at slightly above 100 respondants. At the very least, I think that Vonage’s stock has reached a crescendo of negativity. So if you’re still short, I wouldn’t press it. And if you have no position, crazy as it might sound, it just might be smarter to go long than short.
By the way, we’re into the last days of my first trading blog contest. If you’re interested in sentiment, and you haven’t entered yet, hurry!
I Hate Vonage, marketwatch, Rothschild, sentiment, short, trading, trading blog, verizon, vonage, We Hate Vonage
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maybe they’re trying to find: www.wehatevonage.com
VONAGE is an unscrupulous company and I refuse to do business Vonage. Vonage refuses to cancel my account after approximately two weeks of repeatedly trying to cancel my Vonage account by telephone and email. To end the phone conversation Vonage has repeatedly said Vonage computers are down and to call back.
I filed a complaint against Vonage with the Better Business Bureau (complaint number: 5576109) 3 Oct 07.
I filed a complaint against Vonage with the Federal Communications Commission (complaint number: FORM475: 07-W13431095) 4 Oct 07.
I filed a complaint against Vonage with Florida Congressman Jeff Miller 4 Oct 07..
I filed a complaint against Vonage with Florida Senator Bill Nelson 4 Oct 07..
I filed a complaint against Vonage with Florida Senator Mel Martinez 4 Oct 07..
I am pursuing legal action against Vonage.
For further evidence of Vonage’s behavior and what kind of reputation Vonage has developed go to http://www.wehatevonage.com/, http://www.consumercompare.org/review.php?provider=vonage, and/or search the Internet for “I HATE VONAGE”.
I signed up with Vonage to save money on home office calls. It was for a new number, so I didn’t have all the hassle of waiting for the switch, but I ordered a phone from them that didn’t come and didn’t come and eventually I had to call back to get another one sent. Finally, I get another one, and despite my high-speed DSL connection, the phone quality was terrible. My boss could not hear me properly and my calls kept getting dropped. So my boss told me to disconnect the service and since they were paying for it, I tried. Vonage Customer Abuse line told me that I could not disconnect without being charged a $50 rebate recovery fee before 6 months of service. I said that was ridiculous and that their service was the problem. They offered me 2 months free service to make it up to me, which would take me to 6 months. I figured, fine, I can remember to call back in 2 months. No mention of the disconnect charge at this point, and I even confirmed with the rep that there would be NO FEE to disconnect. She agreed.
So, I call back 2 months later and after waiting over 20 minutes on hold, I tell them I want to disconnect, they try to give me more free months, discounted services…bla, bla, bla. I tell them nicely “no thank you, please just disconnect me.” Then the Customer Abuse Rep tells me that I have to pay a fee to disconnect. I said “what?” I was told that there would be no fee. She argues and argues with me saying that there was this other fee, but then there is this now additional fee, I tell her that the previous rep told me there would be no fee. After 10 minutes round and round, she offers to waive the fee if I sign up my friends… WHAT??? After all the hassle that this has caused, I wouldn’t sign anyone up for this abuse. Geez. I tell them I would rather pay the fee nad not subject my friends to this type of treatment. I hang up and about 15 seconds later get an email saying my service has been disconnected and my credit card has been charged $44.79… I paid almost $45 for a 10 second disconnection and a lot of hassle and abuse.
Here’s the moral - STAY AWAY FROM VONAGE - they are ridiculous to deal with and lie, cheat and steal to get customers. By the way, I told them that I would be warning everyone about their tactics online - please post on as many places as you can find too, maybe together we can stop their bad business practices
I signed up my dad for Vonage in January of 2007 and offered to pay the monthly bill myself so the billing address and the service address wound up being different. In September of 07 my dad decided to cancel the account due to dropped calls and calls not coming through at all.
I called up in September and asked to have the account canceled. The rep informed me that because the account is under my dad’s name I need to have him on the line even though the billing and payment info was my own. Fine, I got my dad on the line and he authorized the cancelation. The process was going fine until I made the stupid mistake of merging my own line with his instead of flat out canceling it. I asked if that it would be at NO ADDITIONAL COST per month and the rep said YES, NO ADDITIONAL COST.
I turns out that I still would recieve a montly charge for that line that was supposed to be at NO ADDITIONAL COST. So I called again to flat out cancel the line. I was told that because the line was under my dad’s name AGAIN that he needed to be on the line even though the line is supposed to be merged with my own.
Here we are late December and I called again. Now I have a balance of 90 dollars for the past three months for a line no one has used and they want to charge me a $40 dollar cancelation fee. I asked them to check the activity on the line to prove that I have not used the line and they confirmed that there was no usage. I told them to cancel the line and that they will not recieve the $90. I would be glad to pay the $40 cancelation fee so that I don’t have to call them any more. The rep was insistant that I have to pay for the last 3 months plus the cancelation fee or the account would go t a collection agency. At this point I was irrate because now they’re trying to hold me hostage to paying them money. At this point I got fed up and told them to pass it to a collection agency and they will not recieve a dime. I will gladly hire a lawyer to make sure that this will not get on my credit report.
Not only am I now canceling my dad’s line but Vonage’s practices have forced me to cancel my own line. I don’t want to deal with a company that has no integrity and is looking to nickel and dime their customers to the point of agrivation. I can easily move to my cable’s digital service.
Luca
I too have grown to hate Vonage. I had Vonage for about two months and final got fed up with the horrible service. Not only was the phone dropping calls, most of the time no one could hear me. So after going through about 20 min of the sales rep offering me this free and that free, I finally said if you want to help me then cancel the account. Then I was informed that the cost would be 117 dollars. I told them never mind that I would call back on the 1st when I got paid to cancel the service. Later I went to look at my bank account and guess what was on it…a charge from Vonage for 117. I send a email straight to the CEO of Vonage telling him how discussed I was for charging my account with out authorization. As soon as the charge posts on my account I am making a claim at my bank. No way will they get my money without my permission.
On February 16, 2008, my one year annual service agreement with Vonage ended. At that time I was in the process of changing carriers to another service provider due to Vonage’s extremely poor customer support and service. After repeated episodes of going days without proper telephone service when family members were unable to reach us on the phone, we had no other choice but to pursue a more reliable telephone service provider. I attempted to contact Vonage on several occasions prior to February 16, 2008, but was unsuccessful due to extremely long hold times. I also looked at Vonage’s website to see if there was a place where I could cancel my service or send them an email notifying them of my wishes. The only way to cancel service was by telephone. Finally on February 25, 2008, after patiently waiting on hold for a total of 58 minutes, I spoke with someone from Vonage’s billing department. I informed them of my wishes to cancel my service and offered to pay Vonage for services rendered for the month of February ($24.95 plus applicable taxes.)
Vonage informed me at that time that my one year service agreement automatically enrolled me for an additional year, and that I owed Vonage $283.54. I stated that I was not willing to pay that fee since I was not going to receive services from their company for more than 11½ months. I asked the billing representative if there was any way to change my account to a monthly billing account, then I would pay for the 9 days of services rendered and cancel the account. Again, Vonage was unwilling to make that change and repeated their position stating that I owed $283.54 for services beginning February 16, 2008 continuing until February 16, 2009. Again, I would have canceled Vonage’s service sooner, but it appears that they purposely did not allow me to do so in writing and then they continued to not allow me to cancel, apparently by purposely leaving me on hold for unreasonable periods of time.
I am happy to pay for services rendered, but I refuse to pay for services I did not receive, nor have any expectations of receiving. Should Vonage continue to make efforts to collect these funds, I will certainly work with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and the Better Business Bureau to make Vonage’s shady practices well known.
Start here with your Vonage complaints, will save you a lot of time and some aggravation and you might get some kind of positive result if you plead your case strong enough:
Reginald Lawal
vonage executive response team
1-888-580-4020 x 26273
Hope this helps.
Today, I contacted vonage about having no service for days, not even a dial tone. I spoke with a gentleman who looked up my calling log since beginning servces in Feb. He informed me (after trouble shooting) that my continual reason for disrupted services was due in fact to my having my internet service which was enconpatable with vonage. He said my options were to get another phone provider or another internet provider. He acknowledged that this should have been discussed in the beginning before my signing on. He transfered me to an accounts mnager who agreed and would stop my services. She claimed to be unable to do anything about refuting my charges with discontinuing services. She transferred me to billing where I spent over an hour trying to get this woman to understand that since Feb. I had been trying to get this resolved and it wasn’t until today that I found out nothing that I would do or vonage could do would insure me quailty service BUT I would still be charged since I did not discontinue services in the 30 days. What INSANITY. It was like talking to a robot. She had no ability or power to see that this was something on vonage’s side and could have been resolved in the first 30 days if it had been ever stated that it was due to incompatiblity and not to bad wires, being too close to the box or any of the other reasons I had been given or instructions that I have followed since February. In frustration I asked to speak to her supervisor. I was informed she was on another line and would call me right after getting off the other call. 3 hours later no call back, I call speak to customer service that agrees this needs to be resolved. He gives me Corp’s # since the “case” is already closed from his end. I call Corp. and guess what only an answering machine. I see that I am not the only person that has been mislead and abused by this company. I would hate to have to join one of the class action suits or go to the State and the Better Business B. yet right now I see no one from the company wanting to or able to help resolve this. Is there no one who can think, evaluate and make decision in this company?
OH! Forgot to mention! Vonage claims they can charge your credit card for ANY charges THEY decide you owe, because you supposedly “authorized” them to do so when you “signed” their contract. Since Vonage has fraudeulently made it impossible to REMOVE your credit card information on their site. Here’s a solution. You can CHANGE your credit card information on their site, so go out, buy a PRE-PAID Visa card and put the AMOUNT YOU BELIEVE YOU OWE on that card, not a penny more. Then go to their site and change your credit card information. Your bank will stop charges, but that is NOT the answer. When I told Vonage Customer Service Reps I was having my bank stop the payment, they said their would be new charges coming each month and charged to that card until it was paid. So I decided to CANCEL my credit card (my bank was happy to comply). When they emailed me to find out why my card no longer worked, I told them I had cancelled it so they could no longer debit my account without my authorization. I offered to send them a check for what I believed I owed. They said they don’t accept checks. I then offered to wire transfer the money to them. They refused. The only way you can pay them is ONLINE with a credit card, according to them. And if you refuse to pay them they told me they will send you to a credit collection agency and ruin your credit! (according to other people posting here..they have in fact ruined many former customers credit). So the solution I came up with was to BUY a PREPAID Visa card, with a limited amount on the card (only what you believe you owe) Oh..one other thing..ENTER your new credit card onto their site BEFORE you cancel..because they immediately CHARGE your card for $117 in bogus charges when you cancel. If you have no working credit card on file, they will REFUSE to cancel your account and keep charging you monthly until you enter a new card. They actually finally cancelled my account after repeated requests, then when they discovered my card no longer worked, they REINSTATED my account and began to start charging me month charges again!! Insane huh?
It’s a shame we have to go to these lengths to PROTECT our money from an illegal transaction…why is our government not SHUTTING THEM DOWN?? In the meantime, word of mouth can do a lot to SHUT THEM DOWN. Tell anyone and everyone how bad Vonage is! Post everywhere on the internet too..word gets around fast.
Vonage just don’t say what ever they want, representatives would just remind you on what you had agreed and accepted verbally upon sign up. Just to prevent your accounts to be messed up on ways you do not want, try to go over the terms of service before calling vonage and signing up. It is a customer’s responsibility to go over the Terms of Service, not just to immediately sign up and blame it on Vonage for future problems.
TRY TO THINK ABOUT THIS!
I LOVE THEIR SERVICE!
We used Vonage for 5 years now and they really so have the best Customer Service Representatives ever! I Love them Guyz!
I have THREE things to say to those here who CLAIM that Vonage is a wonderful company, their customer service reps are great (I have trouble even typing that one) and they are happy with their service:
1. You work for Vonage and they paid you to say that.
2. You lie a lot.
3. You haven’t YET tried to cancel your account. Try that and then tell us what you think.
There is no way anyone could be happy with Vonage..c’mon! I guarantee you that anyone who ever had to deal with Vonage customer service reps will not be happy, and will never want to hear the word Vonage again.
Oh here’s a laugh. I finally get them paid off and cancelled after months of dealing with their insanity, and now they send me WEEKLY offers to sign up! Are they for real?? I plan to “RETURN TO SENDER” all their mail. Let them pay postage twice.
Oh and to the person who tells us that we are to blame for not reading the fine print on the Vonage contract on their website and shouldn’t complain later when we get screwed:
I have signed up for many many services and not read every word of the fine print and never got screwed once in my life. A reputable company representative will TELL you at time of sign up what you are agreeing to, they don’t HIDE IT in fine print. They also don’t include a clause that you can’t sue them for doing illegal things in their contract. And generally a contract requires a SIGNATURE of acknowledgement of agreement. That’s why Vonage puts theirs on the website instead of mailing you a contract. Vonage is like those websites that have a box where you agree to buy extra things..and it’s already CHECKED and you have to UNcheck it to disagree. Same tactics.
I think you must be another Vonage rep sent to try to do some “damage control” at this site.. Your response sounds amazingly similar to the “scripted responses” the Vonage reps gave me over the phone when I was trying to cancel in fact.
At Vonage the customer is always WRONG..and they are smug and satisfied to send you to the fine print on their website to prove it. Nice try guys.