VONAGE LIKES TO LIE TO PEOPLE

I signed up for a Vonage account at the end of June, when I was given the assignment at the publication I work at to write from home. I called Vonage, and told them my needs - that I wanted to forward the calls from my office line to the Vonage number, and I would be canceling the service at the end of August. The customer service representative assured me that both factors would not be problems and that I would not be charged an early termination fee for ending my account in August. The service itself was wonderful and I ended my account with Vonage in August... or so I thought. Two months later, I was still receiving Vonage Bills.

I contacted Vonage today, where I attempted to make sense of the situation with the customer service representative. She was very unsympathetic that I was still being charged even after I was under the impression the account had been canceled. She CONTINUED ON to have the NERVE to ask me what cell phone service I was using to call her from... and THEN, pitched ANOTHER Vonage service to me.

After much insisting that I did not in ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM want to continue my service with Vonage - she finally transfered me to claims/billing. Anne, an account manager, then informed me that I would be fined an $89.99 for an EARLY TERMINATION FEE. I have to admit I lost my temper - Why was I paying an early termination fee when I asked before I even signed up if there was one, and was ASSURED that there was not? I then went on to mention I could have signed up for another different phone services that would have charged by the minute but NOT charged me a fee for canceling the account if I knew about this "fee."

Anne then ALSO pitched the Vonage mobile service to me....

Why would I have even signed up for the account if I was under the impression that there would be an early termination fee - when CLEARLY that was the deciphering factor in whether or not I would commit???

The funny thing is, after I called and asked those very important questions (and clearly, was very wrongfully informed) - the customer care rep so aggressively pursued me to sign up for even MORE Vonage accounts that I hung up and opted to do the registration through the internet. This only brings me further my assumption that the Vonage customer care reps are trained to be so focused to get a customer to sign up for their services, that they will say ANYTHING, regardless of if it is true or not.

I'm sorry but the customer is ALWAYS right. If one of YOUR service reps was not properly trained and gave me FALSE information to get me to sign up for my account, I refuse to accept that it is a good business practice to basically tell a customer that he's a liar.

Anne continued to tell me that because I signed up online - I agreed to the terms of service (including a section about the termination fee for services under 6 months) by clicking. WHY WOULD I HAVE RE-READ THE TERMS OF SERVICES WITH A FINE TOOTH COMB WHEN I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT MY BIGGEST WORRIES HAD BEEN ADDRESSED WHEN I SPOKE WITH A CUSTOMER SERVICE REP MYSELF?

Anne did not like that response and continued to repeat that I had agreed to the terms of service, no matter what I said. Not once did she consider for a second that JUST MAYBE her customer care representative had given me false information by mistake.

Finally - to even better support my belief that the Vonage customer care reps and account managers know NOTHING about their company - I received an e-mail from Vonage, alerting me that my account would be fined **$39.95** as an early termination fee - NOT THE $89.99 THAT ANNE INSISTED I WOULD HAVE TO PAY.

GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT VONAGE.