Vonage Routing Causes Reader To Miss $1,000 Giveaway
Ari's wife had ten minutes to call into her local Washington D.C. radio station to claim a $1,000 giveaway, but couldn't connect because Vonage routes all calls to 1-800 numbers through New York, and the radio station was only accepting local calls. For ten anguishing minutes Ari and his wife suffered through busy signals, worried that the radio station was deluged by other callers. After emailing both Vonage and the station producer, Ari and his wife finally realized what happened...
Ari writes:
I've been a loyal Vonage customer for over a year now and sing their praises all the time. I think its an incredible bargain and I have been a very satisfied customer. That changed this morning when my wife's name was called as a winner as part of a promotion on a local radio station here in Washington DC. She had 10 minutes to call their 1-800 number to claim $1000. She tried calling from our Vonage line and got a busy signal. She tried calling from her cell phone and got a busy signal. She repeated this well past her allotted 10 minutes to no avail. The $1000 prize was gone, but we did not give up. Prior to the 10 minutes expiring, she emailed the DJ of the show saying she had won but could not get through. Around 30 minutes later, a producer wrote her back, and that led to several emails back and forth and they guaranteed us there was no way the phone lines were busy at that time.After a little bit more investigation on my part, I identified the problem was actually our Vonage line. The radio station was blocking non-local numbers from calling their 800 number, which explained why our cells were getting busy signals, but our Vonage number was a local number and should have worked just fine. An email to Vonage Executive Support and a subsequent return phone call explained all. "Calls to 800 numbers," the representative told me, "are all routed through New York...so it makes perfect sense your call was blocked by the station." All Vonage offered me was 2 free months... which leaves us $936 short of the prize that should have been ours.
Certainly an odd situation, and not one that is necessarily unique to Vonage since we can easily see other VoIP providers routing 1-800 calls through a central office.
What do you think? Is it Ari's fault for relying on services with inherent limitations, or should the radio station pay up if he can prove that his wife was trying to call during the giveaway window? Dispense your justice in the comments.
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Comments:
I think the radio station absolutely does owe him the money, UNLESS the fine print in the contest rules clearly states that you must be calling from a local phone number.
That's a really strange thing imo to block all non local callers... these days with people moving around but keeping their phone numbers, I know quite a few people who have a cell phone with a number from the city they lived in years ago.
A lot of radio stations stream online in addition to broadcasting. If this particular station does, how is it any different than someone from the area listening somewhere else (business trip, vacation, etc) and calling in? Even if they don't stream online, a friend could have just as easily heard someone's name on the radio, called, and had the winner call in from out of the area. Blocking non-local calls can fail on several levels, and the radio station should pay up.
I don't use VOIP, and don't like it clogging up my inter tubes in the first place. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't take as much as other things, but when everyone's doing it...
And when your internet goes down with VOIP, how do you call to get it fixed?
You couldn't go to a neighbor's house? A pay phone (remember them)???
"Radio Station Blocking Non-Local Calls Causes Vonage Customer To Miss $1,000 Giveaway" seems like an equally valid headline...
@chocobo: Agreed. Because the radio station blocked non-local calls, they blocked technology that defeated other issues and basically denied them the prize (albeit unintentionally).
was her cell also not a local call, otherwise why did it get a busy signal as well?
They are owed nothing. I can't even understand why vonage gave them 2 free months. Digital services have limitations and voip isn't just like your old POTS line. It's also totally reasonable for the station to only accept local calls; radio has a limited service area, why do they need to pay for LD calls from NY or otherwise?
Perfectly acceptable for the station to block non-local calls..
As for people keeping their numbers and moving, that works both ways.. She could have had a local cell number and not live in the city and won the grand fraudulently..
The radio station under good will should give them some concert tickets or something.. And they should drop vonage if they do not like being routed through New York..
I'd be more upset with the radio station than Vonage. The listener did what she was supposed to do. It's not her fault, or Vonage's that the radio station blocked her call.
I've been living in the MA area for a few years now and still have a CT number. Hope this never happens to me...
I blame the radio. It didn't work with Vonage, didn't work with their cellphones and probably wouldn't even have work from some "hard" landlines. These days, it's pretty much impossible to tell if a number is local, and people stopped caring with the advent of unlimited or per minutes nationwide calling plans.
My in-laws' home phone is not local to the city that is their postal address (and closest to them). However, calls are local to a city 3 times as far and even though everybody is in the same area code.
"She tried calling from her cell phone and got a busy signal."
....
"Around 30 minutes later, a producer wrote her back, and that led to several emails back and forth and they guaranteed us there was no way the phone lines were busy at that time."
So if Vonage was the problem...why couldn't she get through on her cell phone???
I would think more than enough goodwill would be generated for the radio station to give them the $1000. Not giving kind of negates some of the purpose and tone of the contest.
@chocobo: since the callee pays for the 1-800 call, it's not that strange to block long-distance calls (just like one can't usually hide their numbers when calling a 1-800 number) . I'd say it is penny-wise and pound-foolish in that situation.
Her call was local.
Much in the same way that if you take your cellphone from one side of the country to the other, your call is from wherever you made it.
I mean, why don't we just start counting satellites and claim some people's calls are from outer space?
@Jeremy Milum: From the article, it sounds like the area code on the cell phone was not from the area where she was in.
@Esquire99: Why provide a toll-free number if you're not willing to pay the toll? Why not just give out a local number for listeners to call?
I agree though... Vonage was very kind to offer 2 free months.
That radio station needs to pony up, unless they told those entering that VOIP calls and out of area cell phones would be blocked than I would think they would be in violation of some of the laws/codes regarding sweepstakes and contests.
It would also go a long way toward earning some much needed community goodwill for a business headed the way of the dodo.
The radio station should pay her the money. I appears to me they put things in place to minimize their exposure so they don't have to pay out the money as ofter as they should.
I wouldn't be surprised if the station caused their own telephone number(s) to be busy during that 10 minute period. Please note, I'm not saying they did. I'm saying I wouldn't be surprised if we found out they did.
She should try to get the local newspapers involved. Maybe the station can be shamed into doing what's right.
I'm also curious to know if the station is a local independent station of part of a national company.
@chocobo: even if the fine print says they must call from a local number, they did do just that. but because of the way the call was routed, it went through long distance channels. The OP did not know about this until investigating.
She couldn't have gone to a payphone / neighbor's house?
@jan_itor: it wasn't a LOCAL CALL. all non local calls are blocked to the radio station. apparently her cell has a different area code.
doesn't anyone work for a living anymore, or is everyone out for the quick buck.
If the only way a caller can get through is by using a local landline, the radio station may be using this strange system to intentionally block winning calls. Most people today use cell phones, not landlines, right? I'd bet she's not the first 'winner' to be thwarted by this problem.
@rinse:
I'm sure many other things are equally valid headlines, but there can only be ONE headline, and I think they got it right here.
What's funny is many 800 service providers charge more for local toll-free service than for interstate. There might be some bonus deal from their local phone company but I doubt it. These contests usually cause them more grief in overloading their systems than they'd ever recoup.
My guess is the station is using piss-poor defense against professional prize seekers. The radio station really should pay up.
@Draconianspark: You're listening to the radio, when they tell you they're going to give you $1000 if you call in the next 10 minutes. You do (from two different phones), but it's busy every time. I know the first thing I think is
"Duh, of course the line isn't *actually* busy, my phone company is just mysteriously routing my call through New York and also the radio station is blocking calls from New York. I shouldn't do something reasonable like email them and let them know what's happening, but run over to my neighbour's house and try his phone! That's the ticket!"
@switchblade saints: You don't have to be "out for a quick buck" to accept the winnings of a sweepstakes. Do you realize that it's possible to have a job AND enjoy the radio? And to also enter fun contests from your favorite radio station?
Number portability is very common these days. There is no longer such a thing as a "local number" that can be readily identified. The radio station is the culprit, here.
@chocobo: The problem is that given the features of phone systems these days, you can no longer depend on the caller's number to determine geography. The radio station is using 1970's technology. Their blocking of local calls is the FAIL.
@Bogart's Falcon aka Philly Falcon: I agree the the radio station is the culprit, here. If their intention was to just block callers outside their area, then they need to quit using 1970's technology to do it. With number portability, there is no way to do it based on the phone number. Unfortunately, there really is no way to do that.
@Draconianspark: Almost all my neighbors have cell phones (each with their various non-local area codes). I guess I could run to the pay phone down the street. If the couple had known what was happening, I'm sure they could have done that. But they probably spent several minutes trying to call through Vonage, several minutes calling on their cell, and another few minutes tracking down the radio show's contact so they could send an e-mail after realizing they weren't going to get through by phone. Ten minutes is not a lot of time at all.
I second the newspaper idea. Sure, DC is a big place and a story like this would probably get buried, but if she went to a smaller, "weekly" type paper...
After working in radio for 10 years. The way these contest works is that you announce one name they have X time to call back. THEY DO NOT OFFICALLY win until they confirm. Using a local number in common practice being that radio a radio cluster will do the same promotion in multiple cities and want local listers to win. However, this is the listeners fault. They probably did not read the fine print on thier vonage account that would tell them this. Or this is vonage's fault for not telling the customer how thier phone system works. They should be blamed because it is their fault for not supplying you actuall local number. They have rules about this because so many people can and have abused this. As much as it is awesome to blame the station. They really can not award you a prize because in fact you did not call from a local number. Also you were not entitled to the prize from the begining. But also it is about 700-800$ after taxes.
I assume that she could provide documentation via cellphone and Vonage bills that she attempted the calls within the allotted ten minutes, and that the calls were denied by the radio station. If she wants to get lawyers involved, I'd think that would be enough to win in small claims court.
@kcvaliant: Blocking non-local calls is fine ... if there is a way to do it reliably. There was in the 1970's. Today, there simply isn't. Basing the origin of a call on the number in the ANI does not accomplish geographic location.
People who used to live in another area can now keep their number when they move to D.C. The radio station's FAILED technology won't know how to correctly allow it through as the local call it is.
Doesn't the blocking of non-local calls defeat the purpose of providing a toll-free number?
@BathroomDuck: So is it the radio station's fault for using old 1970's technology of checking ANI data for area codes ... that today don't mean squat?
Actually, as I read this, her call was not local as far as the radio station is concerned. They are paying for the call, and do to the routing, they were being charged for a call from NY. How Vontage internally routs the call should be irrelevant, the station should see and be billed for the local call. It appears that this is not the case.
On the other hand, since the cell phone did not work either, there may have been some other non related issue going on with the radio station's phone lines.
@EdnaLegume: If they made the call while in the local area, and on a phone subscribed to by their domicile in the local area, then it was a LOCAL CALL, no matter what the phone number or area code number is. Using old 1970's technology to block calls as non-local based on area code DOES NOT WORK in the 21st century. The radio station needs to get a clue. There is no simple low cost means to determine if a call is local now days. This is a problem entirely of the radio station's choosing or design. They need to admit to using technology that does not accomplish the intentions.
@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©: Do you mean "phones with a phone number originally acquired outside of the DC area, despite being local to the DC area now as a result of the owner taking advantage of number portability to keep their original phone number despite moving to the DC area" ?
If jurisdiction is an issue, they will need to make the rule be that if the "winner" cannot prove legal domicile in the specified area, the "win" is void and the prize forfeited. Phone NUMBERS no longer have this info. They need to show a drivers license, apartment lease, or bill of sale for a new home ... in the area ... to collect.
@Esquire99:
Why do you people continue to respond to this anti-consumer dick when he posts his nonsense? He's just seeking attention with his baiting. Ignore the troll.
@cozymoses: If a local newspaper does get involved maybe they can ask their readers if the same thing happened to any of them concerning this radio station during this promotion or any recent promotions they have had. If it turns out that many people have had problems such as the OP it should be looked into.
@smileboot: I agree. I would push the radio station to honor the contest and give them the prize.
They DID try to call in within the 10 minutes, but the radio station ADMITS to blocking their call!
What would I do? Well right now I would be debating weather to go the route of contacting a lawyer and going that way, or going to the rest of the media and try to make as big of a deal about it as possible - about how they gave them 10 minutes to call, but admits to blocking their call and not allowing them to call in from their home phone or cell phone. And that they even e-mailed the station within the 10 minutes to let them know of the issue of not being able to get through.
Woah. Thats totally the radio stations fault. Vonage should advise customers about this but the radio station having received an email before the time was up should honour the prize.