If V for Vonage then C is for crappy customer care.

Unable to keep pace with demand and explosive growth, Vonage seems more adept at distributing quirky advertising than delivering and servicing its actual product.

Despite having placed her order on May 6th, Holly has yet to receive her phone. In the meantime, she’s been forced to satisfy herself with rigmarole, broken promises and confused customer service peeps.

It’s a doozy of a complaint letter, and its yours for the low low price of clicking the word below that begins with an M…

Holly writes:

“To: Vonage Customer Care
From: Dissatisfied Customer
Subject: Other

Telephone:
xxx-xxx-xxxx

I am writing to reflect on my recent experience with your company. I ordered my service on May 6, 2006, and completed the necessary steps to transferring my existing business phone number to my Vonage account. Nine days later, I still had not received my equipment, despite receiving an email notifying me that my number transfer was nearly complete.

I called customer service, and a very helpful gentleman assured me there must have been a shipping error, and offered to ship me a new device via DHL 2-day. I was pleased with the resolution to my problem, and also the customer service representative’s friendliness and helpfulness.

Four days later I still had not received the second device. I called customer care once again and spoke to another nice gentleman who apologized and told me the shipment had failed.

He had no explanation as to why it had failed, and why I had not been notified that I would not be receiving my equipment. Then he transferred me to the shipping department, where I was placed on hold for over 40 minutes. When I finally spoke to a representative there, I was informed the first shipment was lost; the second one was never configured and processed, therefore it never even left your warehouse. Then I was told I’d be shipped yet another device that would not arrive until Wednesday, May 24.

Sadly, that is not the end of it. I was told by the customer service rep that I would receive an order confirmation via email for this THIRD attempt. After a few hours of waiting, I had no order confirmation, so I emailed customer service to ask them to please confirm the order was being processed. I received an email back saying that the second shipment had been successfully canceled, but that no new order had been placed and I WOULD HAVE TO CALL BACK AGAIN TO PLACE ANOTHER ORDER.

An hour and two customer service reps later, someone finally figured out that they can’t order more than one device for the same account, and explained to me that is why none of the shipments had been successful. He then created a dummy line for me so he could ship out another device, via 2-day DHL. I was told I’d receive the device on Wednesday, May 24 AT THE LATEST.

I still have not received a device. I can not fathom why it is so difficult for a new customer to obtain service from you. I have now been without a phone with which to conduct business for nearly a week. This is not a good way to begin a relationship with a new customer.

As a public relations professional, I cannot stress enough the importance of good word of mouth about your business. My experience with your company thus far has not inspired a rave review, nor has it inspired any confidence in the service I have purchased. I can’t think of a single good reason not to cancel the “service” altogether.

I would appreciate someone contacting me to resolve this matter, as I can not spare another hour waiting on hold enduring horrible, static-y muzak on order to speak to someone.

I can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Don’t bother calling my Vonage number, since I STILL HAVE NO PHONE.

Dissatisfied Customer”

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