We don’t know what the hell happened with this customer service situation, but somehow the CSR for Vonage decided that when Sarah abruptly hung up on him, she agreed by default to a service cancellation and $92 cancellation fee. That sounds like the kind of angry-CSR “mistake” that can be fixed with a second call—but according to the next CSR Sarah spoke to, that’s just Vonage policy. What?

I am writing to you to vent my frustration on the poor customer service I received from Vonage today. For one the service sucks! It hasn’t worked in about 4 or 5 months, and that’s with spending about 12 hours total on the phone with “technical support.”

The “supervisor” I talked to today told me that there was a $92 fee I would have to pay. I told him that I felt since my service hasn’t worked in 4 months and that it still doesn’t work today after all the hoops technical support put me through that I should not have to pay this “termination fee.” The guy got an attitude with me so after I told him I wasn’t going to pay the $92 I hung up. No where in the conversation did I tell him to go ahead and cancel my service. (Plus my account is credited till February. The guy also explained that if I would wait to February then that would be a whole year and I would only have to pay $40 to cancel the account.)

I just received an email that states that Vonage went ahead and canceled my account and $92 was debited from my credit card. As I write this letter I am talking to another poorly trained customer service representative that says that it is Vonage policy: If you hang up we will cancel your account!! Never would I think that hanging up the phone would cost me $92, especially when I never gave him the go ahead to cancel my account!

We’re going to assume based on your email that maybe both of you were fairly emotional on that first call, or you wouldn’t have hung up on the CSR without confirming exactly what was going on. That said, if you didn’t explicitly authorize the cancellation, there’s no debate here: Vonage screwed up. They can’t say that silence = yes. Simply—and calmly—explain that since you never approved the cancellation, they need to revert the process and immediately reverse the unauthorized charges on your card. If they say you did approve it and refuse to re-open the account, ask for proof of your agreement, and in the meantime contact Vonage’s Executive Support Team.

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