Eletelephony

Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant-
No! no! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone-
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I’ve got it right.)

Howe’er it was, he got his trunk Entangled in the telephunk:

The more he tried to get it free, The louder buzzed the telephee-

(I fear I’d better drop the song Of elephop and telephong!)

Poem Eletelphony by Laura E. Richards (1850-1943)

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Being in a contract with a company is like being in a marriage. Both parties in the beginning have the high hopes that everything will work out. Each side pledging to fulfill their part of the commitment that completes the union. But then, something goes wrong, and the party that you entrusted in the union doesn’t live up to the end of the bargain. So, you think to yourself: I need to cut my losses and move on.

So you’ve tried for a year to get what you wanted from the other party, but to no avail. This is not going to work. So when you discuss with the other party that you want to end the union, they immediately want to make you pay alimony because you want out! They want to continue to tell you that they have another option and that if you stay they will live up to the original tenet of the agreement, but --- to no avail. You want out.

So here begins my drama with Vonage. I thought I would try the service and save over 700 bucks a year on the bogus phone service that I was getting from Verizon at the time. Now Vonage can disconnect your service anytime they want without paying you a fee, but if you want out because you don’t like the service they hit you with a punishment fee, which only adds up revenue for them.

I am sick of companies and their bullshit fees. I am already stuck with this hardware that I probably won’t be able to even sell on Ebay. So I figure, being stuck with hardware I won’t use that I pay for is fee enough. So, maybe I’ll wait until the next electronic road show so that I can ship it off to the land of forgotten toys.

I wanted to be successful with Vonage and be able to refer others to the service because it would cheaper than paying exorbitant phone costs, but it just wasn’t meant to be. I remember when you wanted to cancel a service, you just cancelled it. No questions asked. I have to be grilled by their people as to why I want to get out of the service. I DON’T HAVE TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING!!!!! It’s obvious that it’s not working for me or I would have kept it!

On the 12^th of February, I called to cancel this account and was told about the alimony fee of $39.99 that I would have to pay. I asked how to avoid the charge and they told me that I could cancel on my anniversary date of February 27^th. Well, I call and guess what; they tell me I can’t cancel for free for another year because I have a 2 year commitment! I don’t recall any two year commitment and the person on the 12^th didn’t say that I had to cancel on February 27, 2010.

So, today when I call these bozos at Vonage, I am told that the person gave me incorrect information and that they are going to be handled. To which I responded, “The fact that you don’t train your people properly is not my problem, it’s yours. I was given wrong information. “

So now, I have to send a snail mail to dispute the charges. Of course, I did my research online and it’s apparent that I’m not the only one who wasn’t advised that I couldn’t get a divorce from this company for two years. I checked Clark Howard.com and found the same complaints.

http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/2006/06/08/11043/

So here’s the deal in a nutshell. If you are going to battle with any of these low life revenue vampires, be prepared to put in a little time. But, as they say, to thine own self be true. Fight the good fight, because you will win.

To find out more about VOIP-(Voice over internet protocol) Click here

http://www.fcc.gov/voip/