I’m a pretty happy Vonage user. It’s cheaper than the Cable or Telco alternatives. Especially now that we have an income (I just found a job) and have upgraded our internet to the Time Warner maximum of 5 Megabit, it works really well.
However, I just received a phone call on our Vonage line from…Vonage! Was this because we had not paid our bill? No. Was this because there was a problem with our service? No.
It was a telemarketing call. They were trying to sell, no trick, us into adding a $9.99 second line onto our Vonage account. They could not even be straight about what they were calling for. “Hello sir, we want to let you know we are adding a second line to your Vonage service.” “But”, I said “I was under the impression that that extra feature was 10 dollars extra per month.” “Not so” the kind Indian telemarketer replied. “You will be getting this second line for only $0.99, for the first two months.” You can see where this went. I promptly told him I was not interested and he hung up.
The first place I headed after that, as steamed as I was, was the Vonage website. I logged in, and looked around for a place to “opt out” of said telemarketing calls. Maybe a “how can we contact you?” option. I would not mind receiving emails, but I definitely am NOT OK with them calling my home tricking me and my family into accepting a larger bill for features we DO NOT NEED. No such option is available on the Vonage website.
The second thing I looked for is a place for feedback on the Vonage website. They have a place for email technical support, but NO FEEDBACK FORM.
Vonage, this is completely and utterly unacceptable. It also reminds me of a post I’ve thought about on great, small companies who do sketchy things for exposure (see Netflix). I’m gonna go punch something.
GAAAAAA!!
UPDATE 11/19:Â It seems that Vonage is having some real trouble these days. Here’s another disturbing tale regarding privacy and exploitation.