Vonage hit me with a $1,000 bill...

playercool · Sep 22, 2009

Well this sucks...

I was using vonage as my VOIP to use dial up. I bought all 5 of the devices myself without a refund. They were $87 each. I then set up 8 lines. Then out of no where they suspend my account. Ok fine they see I am calling a ton I am caught so I just move on.

Then out of nowhere they upgrade my account to $100 a month plan. Wow this is crazy I don't even use them anymore and haven't for 10 days. So now they are trying to charge my CC for a $1,000. I don't know where the other $200 in charges is coming from.

Anyone have any suggestions? I just spent a couple hours reading all the horror stories of customers trying to cancel their accounts. How do I get out of this? I can easily just dispute it with my CC company and not pay the charges(In fact MY CC already didn't allow the last 1k to go through). The problem is I see that they will send it to collections. I don't recall entering my DOB and I know for a fact I didn't enter my SSN. I don't mind telling them to F Off but if they send it to collections my Credit Score is gonna take a big hit.

I almost feel like Vonage is the biggest Blackhatters of them all. And then I feel like this is just karma catching up to me for getting people to sign up for free trials and ewhore shit.

Anyone know of a good way out of this bullshit?

Phunky · Sep 22, 2009

lol so many people who do ewhoring end up feeling so guilty. Anyway, first of all you should try to contact Vonage and sort this out. It could be a simple mistake and then all your worry can disappear or it could be something in the TOS that you didn't read but agreed too. If they can somehow bind you to contract then you're done for. IF they decide to try and stick you with the bill without anything binding you then just refuse it. Get a free consultation with a local lawyer or something if needed.

beyondrecruiters · Sep 22, 2009

Dispute it with the collection agencies if it goes that far..Will vonage take you to court? I doubt it.

Total Noob · Sep 22, 2009

Sorry for the bad news but...

Section 6.13 - When any user of Vonage uses Dial Up excessively (ten or more connects daily) from five or more lines, we reserve the right to increase the customer's bill to a new fee located here.

:-(

BTW I made that up.

robertodelgato · Sep 22, 2009

They won't take you to court.

Worse. Much worse.

They will sell the debt to some savage MOFOs who specialize in calling you every 30 minutes, 7 days a week, 14 hours a day.

If they can't squeeze it out of you, they'll sell the debt to some even more savage MOFOS who (depending on the debt) may show up at your door or workplace demanding to be paid.

It's a big business, especially now.

By the way, every time the debt is sold, the collector WILL DOUBLE IT to cover their costs. Is it legal? Yep. It is done? Every second of every day.

Anyone else get emails recently selling a course called, "There is MONEY in your neighbor's foreclosure debt!!"

I am not making this up. You can't make stuff like that up.

beyondrecruiters said:
Dispute it with the collection agencies if it goes that far..Will vonage take you to court? I doubt it.

MachTurtle · Sep 22, 2009

Jared255 said:
Sorry for the bad news but...

Section 6.13 - When any user of Vonage uses Dial Up excessively (ten or more connects daily) from five or more lines, we reserve the right to increase the customer's bill to a new fee located here.

:-(

BTW I made that up.

lol harsh.

Sorry to hear about the troubles Roberto, but you are getting some pretty good advice. If indeed there is something about this in the contract you entered with them, you are indeed SoL. You don't wanna sorch your credit score, I did when I was younger and definitely regret the poor decisions I made. Just thoroughly read through their ToS and determine what your rights are. If this is something you can't fight, just bite the bullet and pay it off. It'll be better in the long run. You might be able to get them to work with you.

Good luck man.

thugkilla · Sep 22, 2009

If they don't have your SS#, they can't report any items with the credit bureau. However, like stated previously doesn't mean collectors won't be calling.

GOOD LUCK

ataga12 · Sep 22, 2009

Jared255 said:
Sorry for the bad news but...

Section 6.13 - When any user of Vonage uses Dial Up excessively (ten or more connects daily) from five or more lines, we reserve the right to increase the customer's bill to a new fee located here.

:-(

BTW I made that up.

oh ok...I was about to take a thorough review of my verizon TOS

azxten · Sep 24, 2009

ataga12 said:
oh ok...I was about to take a thorough review of my verizon TOS

LOL..

For future reference you should avoid Vonage at all costs. They are like the worst VOIP company I have ever heard of. I haven't used them so I can't really say much but everyone I know who has didn't enjoy the service.

texas_amy · Sep 24, 2009

The real question is how were you able to use dailup with voip, i thought that was not possible.

JohnG · Sep 24, 2009

I tried vonage voip for dialup once. They like every other telecom company put a carefully hidden clause in there TOS that when they say "Unlimited" they are really just flat out lying to you and mean something between 3000-5000 minutes a month. By including this in there TOS they get away with legally advertising as "Unlimited" when they are far from it, and then try to hit you up with massive bills and terminate your service at the same time.

nbsweb · Sep 24, 2009

Dial up on Vonage....
YOu're brave

Don't do nothing.
They don't have your SSN.
Just change numbers...

If bill collectors call and your number is changed.. then you're good.

blackmagicmaster · Sep 24, 2009

They Dont know ur SSN even they wont know ur CC info why to worry brother stay back and calm change ur number and when they come for collection say them "Fuck-Off" ... Thats it !

kilaz · Sep 24, 2009

Vonage sucks ass, They sent some updates to the the routers they supplied a company I worked for and they bricked them.. Then they told us that they where not under warranty and you have to purchase new ones. This is right after the tech on the phone told us it was a bad update. After going on and on with them on the phone they wouldn't do shit we said to just cancel the account.. then they said there's a cancellation fee for each line you cancel.

For my own server I purchased two SIP trunks from bandwidth.com for $30.00 per trunk and I can get DID's (phone numbers) from all over the country for just an additional $2.00 per month.. Unlimited long distance, etc. The only thing is you have to run your own PBX server like asterisk, Trixbox, etc. It sure beats vonage though and it ended up being allot cheaper.

If you can deal with running your own dedicated pbx server then its a great way to go, or you can get a hosted plan.. but thats alot more $$$

keith6andco · Sep 24, 2009

Personally - if it were me - after having had a bad rap for credit in the past - I would PAY THE MAN - provisional on a personal meeting and the fact that the bill has been paid - IN WRITING - Its just not worth getting a bad credit rating out of it - I know - It took me 12 months to get mine back after being FUTA by Vonage

playercool · Sep 24, 2009

Hahhah the bill is now over $1300

I had a 30 dollar charge go on my credit once. It lowered my score 40 points. Crazy what one little thing on your credit can do to the score.

Dealing with Vonage has been a nightmare I must say. I don't mind paying the disconnect fees which is gonna run about $350 but the fact that they upgraded my account to $100 a month per line is nonsense. I never authorized that. If they don't remove those fees I will tell them off and not pay. If they get rid of those fees I don't mind paying the other charges.

What I am worried about is that I "might" have entered my D.O.B. Them having your DOB is just as good as your SSN. I know that it sounds crazy but I have had plenty of companies use just the DOB to run my credit when I tell them I won't give them my SSN. So I am a little worried they will still be able to hit my credit. Anyone know if you have to enter your DOB when you sign up with Vonage?

Definitely a great lesson. I lost a ton of money on this deal.

Debian · Sep 24, 2009

I'd definately keep up on your credit reports. You can request a paper copy for free under the Fair Credit Reporting Act I believe. Or you can go online to one of the major credit reporting bureaus and get it instantly after paying their fee.

thugkilla · Oct 5, 2009

again, they can't do anything to your credit report, if they don't have your ss#.

If somehow they do get your ss# (i dont know how they would) and place an item on ur credit report, call all three of the credit agencies and dispute the item

angelas111 · Oct 9, 2009

why not get like 8 magic jacks? isn't that the same thing as vonage?

hawke · Oct 9, 2009

thugkilla said:
again, they can't do anything to your credit report, if they don't have your ss#.

If somehow they do get your ss# (i dont know how they would) and place an item on ur credit report, call all three of the credit agencies and dispute the item

Not True.

U can still be reported to the major bureaus, with just a name. You don't need a SSN to report, as long as you pay the bureaus to have a reporting account.

Sad thing is, it's up to the person that's reported to "Proove" the debt is wrong, but until then, right or wrong it will stay on your report.

And the "It gets removed after 7 years" ploy, is BS. I've still had stuff on mine from 15 years ago, and just recently had to sue them to get the shit removed.

Just my 2 cents

Vonage hit me with a $1,000 bill...

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