Comments on: Vonage Bails on VON Canada?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 18:18:44 +0000

Today I canceled my VoIP account with Vonage and found something quite scary. Their website (when I called to cancel) clearly said .99 cancelation fee when closing an account under 12 month - however the customer service rep insisted that it's a mistake on their website and is actually $34.99 - which I'm sure they've fixed by now..
http://www.vonage.ca/features_terms_service.php
“3.6 Termination Fee (Applies only to Residential and Business Plan Customers). You will be charged a termination fee of .99 per voice line if your Service is terminated for any reason during the first twelve months following the activation of your Service”
After fighting, they said they would only charge me the .99 but I am concerned for other people who signed up for the service with that .99 cancellation fee. They said they are going to change that on the website right away but does that mean that they are legally allowed to change their cancellation fee after someone has agreed to their terms of their contract ??
Vonage should issue a statement to anyone who has signed up for their service to this date, that they are entitled cancel for .99 as the contract they signed on-line specified. Otherwise, this means that any company out there can simply change their terms of their contract and charge whatever they want - which is quite scary.
I did print off the 'agreement' and took a screenshot, but I don't know if that would help protect anyone else who may have signed up under the assumption that the cancelation fee is only .99 as they agreed to.

By: Mark Evans

Mark Evans — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 00:32:07 +0000

good points. it will be interesting to see how VON is presented given the IP world seems focused on TV while voice is so last year.
mark

By: bsharwood

bsharwood — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:05:05 +0000

Mark,
I think it's just smart marketing, not a sign of doing poorly. If you look at some of their marketing deals, things like the Alliance Atlantis deal and others, you'd be pretty assured that they are comfortable with what they are doing. Spending a lot of money on what is really a 'geek show' while they are going after a broad consumer market, is probably a poor spend. Maybe I could understand a small booth, showing off their new hardware or somesuch like that, but as a premier sponsor, I think it doesn't make any sense.
I don't think it at all reflects how they are doing.