As I mentioned not too long ago, we switched to using Magic Jack. Is it perfect? Nope, nothing is in this world but it is very low cost, solid quality and serves its purpose. So as a result we were going to cancel our account to Vonage. That should be a no brainer. Why would you retain a phone service when you have replaced it? That would be wasteful of the dollars that are getting scarce.

So the next step was to call their number to cancel the service.

You go online and access your account. Then you go through the standard process of going through the FAQ or equivalent section to find the number to call. However, it is not that simple. When you go to the question regarding canceling your account, they tell you to call the Vonage customer service except they do not give you the phone number. You have to keep searching each question and scrolling down on each question until you finally find one with the number on it. Hint: They put it on the ones that mean they will make more money and not lose it – but at the bottom of info.

Finally, you get to place the call. You get to go through the standard identification hoops and have a discussion so they can transfer you to another department and put you on hold. When you get a live person, you get to do the exact identification hoop again. Instead of getting to the point and fulfilling your request to cancel the account, be ready for a lengthy phone call of them trying again and again to keep you as a customer. Their last push is to offer to hold your account for 3-4 months so you won’t lose your phone number. They don’t even mention any cost so why not as a just in case?

Don’t do it as it is a trick. They will be charging you $5 per month for the hold and jack up the bills for anything such as calls that come in to your old number and a high per minute fee for the transfer. Additionally, you can get hit with the full bill again if you forget to completely cancel it within that timeframe. You’ll have to go through the whole mess again.

Calling back in to completely cancel requires you to go through the exact same double identification process again. When you get to the one who can cancel the account, expect a 15 minute long process of them trying to use anything you say as a reason why to stay with Vonage. They’ll even offer a hold on the account for four months free as their last resort. (Do note you’ll get it in the wallet on the 5th month.) This whole process starts to seem like that commercial that says “Can you hear me now?” They seem to be deaf to the words “cancel my account.”

My recommendation is to say the following to cut through the endless barrage of excuses and delays:

Be blunt and say. “I am canceling my account completely. I do not want to put the number on hold. Do not try to push any deal on me. Cancel my account completely so you can move on to the next call.”

Then be ready to get hit with another bill for $39.99 in the form of a cancellation charge.

Lesson: Always, always, always read the Terms of Service.

Thank you,

Anah

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