Clark issues apology to Vonage, takes Comcast to task on clarkhoward.com

Clark owes an apology to Vonage after he took a recent call from a woman who ripped them apart. This particular caller complained about several things, among them being hit with a larger cancellation fee than her contract called for. To add insult to injury, the call quality was so bad that the Vonage people couldn't hear her when she called to cancel her service!

But recently Clark learned that Comcast allegedly targeted Vonage customers for bad connections -- in the hopes that they would drop the service. Comcast denies the charge, saying that they simply didn't have enough broadband capacity. The two companies have since kissed and made up.

But this is not the first time Comcast has been accused of purposely ruining the experience of customers who use competing technologies.

Clark believes it's time for the FCC to issue clear rules that outlaw the kind of practices Comcast has been engaged in. As always, Comcast is free to come on the air and counter Clark's perceptions of the company.

Interestingly, the penny-pincher noticed that his MagicJack service works fine during the day with his Comcast connection. But at night, there's no way he can make a call.

Which again begs the question: Is this a question of (in)competence on Comcast's part -- or an instance of specific sabotage of a competing technology?

What others are saying

Vonage and Brighthouse
When we opened our second office three years ago, we were determined to not to do business with Verizon. At the time, the local cable/internet provider, Brighthouse, had no business phone service available but we did contract with them to do our high-speed internet connection. We had four lines installed with Vonage at reasonable price. Customer service was pretty horrible but overall we did pretty well. Two months ago we added a MagicJack and enjoyed service for a while. About a month ago, our Vonage and magicjack lines started dropping calls. Vonagae was unable to solve the problem. Coincidently, someone from Brighhouse called US to offer a business phone package. The timing is extremely suspect but we have no eveidence, only suspicion and we need to run a business...so we signed on with Brighthouse business phone. I would definitely recommend an investigation into intentional interference from Brighthouse. Anyway, called Vonage to cancel the accounts (after three years) -got disconnected twice and finally was able to talk to a rep to disconnect me. The rep tried unbelievably hard to keep me from cancelling.
By sean c @ 10/12/09 04:26:03 PMreport abuse
Vonage is Excellent
We have been a Vonage customer for over a year, and the service, and customer support have been excellent. Our daughter uses Vonage with DSL in Portland, Oregon, and they were the reason we switched from AT&T. We have Comcast broadband, and their bandwidth fluctuations caused problems. The techs at Vonage corrected the problem, and have had no problems since.
By John Mangis @ 08/29/09 02:48:57 PMreport abuse
Magic Jack on Comcast
Clark et al,
The reason MJ works during the day and not at night is because there are fewer users on during the day. You see, comcast's cable technology uses a shared connection for its customers. the more traffic the less speed, like I-285, hence the fluctuation. The same applies to downloads of any significant size. So pick your time to call wisely.
By B Alexander @ 08/23/09 07:09:16 PMreport abuse
Poor Business Practice at Vonage
I tried to cancel my Vonage after being a customer for 14 months. They kept me on the phone for an unreasonable amount of time trying to sell other plans and then hit me with the cancellation fee of $39. I cannot recommend doing any business with this company.
By Kevin @ 06/25/09 03:14:12 AMreport abuse
vonage
Do not complain to Vonage Customer Service. Call 732-444-2398 CEO Marc Lefar's personal secretary and ask to speak with Marc Lefar. Now you will get their attention.
By rolf @ 05/04/09 11:31:05 PMreport abuse
Vonage - SCAM STAY AWAY
You can read on anther post that you cannot cancel inside of 30 Days - TRUE, you cannot cancel without paying their steep cancellation fees and paying for the box ($105.40).

Stay away from Vonage.

You're only avenue of support is to write a letter to Homdell NJ - guess what? mailing certified gets you nothing!

Clark Howard owes his listeners the apology not Vonage.

Everyone - stay away from Vongae - RUN !!!
By Vonage Peeved @ 04/27/09 02:26:25 PMreport abuse
magic jack
magic jack worked well for three days then, I cannot receive calls. I tried fixing it according to their web site but it wouldn't work. I tried their live chat but waited hours and no one ever got back to me. Then, I discovered their secret. They have absolutely no way for you to contact them, no mail address, no phone number nothing! Thank goodness I didn't buy the five year package, I just wish I could through the junk in their face! Pete
By pete weyhrich @ 04/21/09 09:33:48 PMreport abuse
Vonage
I do not recomen the services, is low quality services and yes they charge you for cacelation even in the 30 days trial, and when you call the customer services is who knows where.. but you can her people in the backgroun spekin other languges..
By Marly @ 04/20/09 01:59:46 PMreport abuse
AT&T DSL Sabotage?
I had AT&T DSL + Phone, and piloted Vonage for 3 months, and it worked perfectly. Dropped the AT&T Phone line so I just have AT&T Naked DSL + Vonage, and now DSL is totally unreliable making it impossible to use Vonage at times. Called and complained and they said nothing is wrong with DSL, but the connection was fixed while I was on the phone with them. Very suspicious to me. DSL service will have periods of hours where the modem loses connectivity and blinks red every 105 seconds.
By Jeff @ 04/16/09 10:22:40 AMreport abuse
Possible non-competitive practice by Verizon
I currently have DSL thru Verizon and recently attempted to use MagicJack over the connection. The connection was so bad I gave up on MagicJack. These posts make me suspicious about Verizon doing something to cripple the competitive MagicJack.
By Vern @ 02/17/09 02:56:32 PMreport abuse
Vonage is crooks
I tried to have vonage and like others they charged me a 49.00 connection fee. i was never able to get connected. They had issues connecting. i tried to cancel on the 29th and 30 th day after starting service and mysterously their systems were down on day 31 they told me that I would be hit with cancellation fee and not be refunded the activation fee of 49.99. I called everyone. I was told yes then no. I ended up get everything back but the activation. I was never able to make one call. If you do have a problem their customer service is in India and they will either hang up on you if you ask for a manager or tell you they have no manager.. This company is a poor excuse for phone company and their customer service reflects their moto(We care less about anything but your money).. Please do not get this service.. Do what I did take advantage of the cell phone deals for talk all you want for one price and make the switch...The only calls you get on home phone is from sales people anyway!!!!!
By Sonya @ 01/30/09 05:47:57 AMreport abuse
Comcast giving me problems
Funny that I should post a comment about Comcast and Vonage and start having issues suddenly. Saturday evening my wife, myself and my wife's daughter all tried over the course of nearly an hour to reach Bogota, Colombia to no avail. I've contacted Comcast. Gonna call Vonage next. I'm upset that I sang the praises of both and a day later I'm having issues.
By Paul @ 01/12/09 04:31:30 PMreport abuse
Vonage is awesome
Sorry to hear about the bad experiences. I fired BellSLOTH in December 2005. My wife calls South America frequently and before Vonage we were paying around $300 a month and were subjected to per minute fees of up to $0.38. When we signed up with Vonage we were paying only $0.08 per minute. Now, we pay a flat $15.00 per month (on top of the $24.99 monthly fee) and call South America as much as we want!!!! Thanks Vonage!!!! Also, we have Comcast high speed and have had very few issues with our service.
By Paul @ 01/07/09 01:11:48 PMreport abuse
Vonage Cancellation Fee not disclosed
I just called and tried to cancel Vonage. The first person wouldn't cancel it. He transferred me to Carla. Who tried to sell me various other products and stop me from cancelling. She even talked over me when I said I wasn't interested.

Then finally, she told me that she would cancel but there would be a $39.95 cancellation fee for cancelling before 2 years. I never heard such a thing. I told her I wanted a copy of the agreement. She said it was over the phone. (It was NOT). Then she said they sent it to me and I had 30 days to cancel if I wanted to cancel after activation.

I told her to cancel it, but I would not pay the fee. She said they would charge the credit card I used for billing. I told her I did not authorize this. "Do NOT charge my credit card. Cancel this account." and hung up to call the credit card.

I called the my credit card company immediately afterward. They informed me that Vonage has already sent through the authorization. I will have to wait 2 or 3 days until it processes and then dispute the charge to my credit card company.

And to think, I used to like VONAGE. Now they have reduced themselves to these tactics to make money. I looked through my paperwork. Vonage did NOT disclose anything about a fee to cancel service.
By Suzanne @ 01/02/09 04:13:56 PMreport abuse
Vonage
I have had Vonage for roughly a year. The service has been okay for the most part. I have had my share up the device losing connections among other things. This is actually pretty typical of other services as well. However, Comcast offered me a really good deal to come back and naturally I accepted. Here where the problems lies...Vonage charged my credit card 120.00 after the service was disconnected. They also charged my credit card the monthly fee and did not issue me a credit for a partial month of service. While i understand certain business practices, this is one that I as a customer absolutely do not agree with. Vonage never mentioned to me at the time that I was accepting the service that if i disconnected and terminated then they would charge my account 40.00. Had they told me that, I would have NEVER accepted the service. Also, they charge me 80.00 for there device and never sent me notice to state that they were going to do that. I am appalled at there practices once you decide this service is not for me. If you just tell me upfront then there will be no surprises...but to charge my credit card roughly $160.00 in 15 days with no warning in my opinion is definitely UNFAIR business practices on there part. Guess what, they may not care but I DO....
By JR @ 12/31/08 12:28:08 AMreport abuse
Vonage service.
I have the Vonage service since late 2006 and never regretted subscribing to the service after leaving Bellsouth for basic phone. I get all the amenities that Bellsouth offered for a fee for FREE with one low monthly price plus no charge for calling US Long Distance domestic numbers. This is great since I can call my cousin in Okinawa (who's also a Vonage subscriber) for free... since, he will be using a US number with his service.

If there is a termination service fee with Vonage of approx. $40.00, that would be fine... especially if you look at all the free stuff you get (including long distance) compared to the regular phone companies with junk fees plus their exuberent termination cost if you leave during their contract.

I currently run Cable internet by BrightHouse Networks,using their "higher" tiered internet plan, and everything works just fine. The reason for the higher tiered service... My sister and I do online gaming, large file downloads for demo-ware, video conferencing with family in the US and abroad... basically using the fullest extent of my internet subscription.
By the Earl @ 12/17/08 01:05:35 PMreport abuse
Troubleshooting tips for Magic Jack owners
If you need help to get your Magic Jack working as well as it can, be sure to check out the below web site for tips!

http://www.magic-jack.info/

This is a good primer for those who are not exactly sure how calls can be free.

There are also links to find discount coupon (promo) codes to save anywhere from $2.00 (10% off annual renewal fee) up $6.95 (the Magic Jack shipping fee).

If you are just not sure how good your internet connection is (introductory packages are often slower than speeds for average) try the cool VoIP Quality Test to see if you get all green lights.
Yellow light may still work, but voice quality may not be as good as could be.

If you are going to buy a Magic Jack as a holiday gift for someone (great idea) and want to run their setup in advance, be sure to preview the install process first. Take your time and choose the area code and local exchange (prefix) carefully if the area code you want is not yet available. Some goof that up!

Good Luck and thanks again to Howard for informing me about the Magic Jack. I have saved a LOT of money with mine!
By MagicJackFan @ 11/20/08 03:28:09 AMreport abuse
Magic Jack
Upon your recommendations I purchased a Magic Jack. Just to let you know, it does not work well and although the price is cheap, in this instance you get exactly what you paid for.

Checked with Better Business Bureau in my area and they had an "F" rating. The worst that you can get.
By Ed @ 11/14/08 05:41:39 PMreport abuse
comcast
I have had MJ for a couple of months. Initially it worked fine on Comcast, but lately it hardly works at all. I took it to my office where I have Bellsouth High Speed DSL and it works fine there.

I guess I will have to get DSL at home now and tell Comcast to take a hike.
By amei @ 11/06/08 11:47:54 AMreport abuse
Magic Jack
I have Magic Jack; it does not work. tried to contact; but they do not list a phone; have no phone listed as a company; and do not answer e-Mails. I have to wait 30 days before I can dispute the charge; and the web page will not print out a return form.
By Gilbert Ward @ 09/11/08 03:15:36 AMreport abuse
vonage vs ?
I replaced my vonage with xstream. voip a product I was introduced too. Vonage told me that there was a cancellation fee of $39.00 which I did not remember being told. I had quality problems when using the computer and talking on vonage. The new service remedied the problem. I got my service on line at voipcallsrus.com
By ken goldberg @ 08/29/08 03:24:31 PMreport abuse
Couldn't make it work
I've got earthlink DSL and after Vonage promised I could get the connection to work, Earthlink let me know that changing to vonage would break the piggyback DSL Earthlink does on top of my AT&T phone number. It took over 4 hours of attempts to get this researched and confirmed. I spent over 30 minutes trying to cancel my Vonage service, and they are now charging me to ship back the connection device.
DSL is not some arcane mystery, but half of their customer service people blithely answered my questions wrong.
By Alice @ 08/21/08 04:18:53 PMreport abuse
Vonage
I have had Vonage on my Georgia phone and our home in North Carolina since Sun Rocket went belly-up. I have had almost no problems and problems I have had only require rebooting my router. Vonage customer service has been extremely helpful.
By Robin @ 08/20/08 06:40:54 AMreport abuse
Lingo with Similar Difficulties
I recently learned about these facts on this article and have had me thinking about my similar troubles...Recently( in last two months or so), our phone services are experiencing drop calls, poor connection, abrupt internet outage, and so on...we have had Lingo Line for nearly three years now and recently it has become nothing more than stress....I am wondering if my troubles have anything to do with Comcast now offering VOIP lines in our area...
By frustrated in Georgia @ 07/24/08 12:11:16 PMreport abuse
Comcast not working well at night
It should be a well known fact that Cable Broadband uses a shared loop while Telephone broadband uses a dedicated line for your data. With Cable when all your neighbors kids are home downloading everything available on MTV or Myspace you end up sharing the bandwith with all that traffic. Telephone Broadband/DSL is much more consistant and higher quality. Most Telephone companies are upgrading to fiber right now anyways with speeds up to 20 Mbps
By Larry Lane @ 07/22/08 10:09:28 PMreport abuse
Comcast
Comcast (Comcrap)needs to federal standards placed on them. They are greedy and very shady billing practices. I wish At&T would install fiber faster!
By LiquidJ @ 07/18/08 09:10:45 AMreport abuse
Comcast "Traffic Shaping" Policy
Comcast is not the only ISP guilty of using so-called "traffic-shaping" technology to effectively force subscribers into buying package deals. I had the full package with Cox for over a year, and never had a glitch with my internet speed or quality. Within an hour of dropping my cable subscription, my quality dropped significantly. Tech support shows no problems at their end, but repeated speed/connection tests from my end show a dramatic difference, even at the wee hours of the night.
By Anne Pace @ 07/17/08 02:34:34 AMreport abuse
Vonage
I have had Vonage for over three years now. I tried Magic Jack and it didn't work with my Dish system when it called in. Called Vonage and said that I was going to go to Magic Jack and they dropped my monthly price from $25 to $15 a month!! I LOVE VONAGE!!!
By Robert @ 07/16/08 10:59:01 PMreport abuse
Comcast and Magic Jack
The idea that Comcast is specifically targetting competing technologies is a plausible one. I subscribe to Comcast for my cable modem because DSL in not available in my area. I am a network engineer by trade - I know how to check network latency and bandwidth availability. At times where I am getting 4100k down / 384k up and less than 20ms latency to the MagicJack servers - are also times the MJ experiences call quality issues that seem to me as dropped packets. While the constraints of a shared cable line is an option, I don't understand why it plays into the equation in my case, given the favorable network statistics I am getting during the evening.
By Ryan @ 07/15/08 01:38:13 AMreport abuse
Ignorance
Jimmy, Clark has said repeatedly that cable internet is like a party line. Listen to the show more closely. Has Magic Jack started porting existing phone numbers yet?
By Dan @ 07/15/08 01:12:15 AMreport abuse
Vonage
I have Vonage and we love it now. We had some issues before but it turned out to be Time Warner that was causing it. I called Vonage and they did all kinds of tests and decide it was my broadband connection. I contacted Time Warner and they replaced the modem and everything was fine then we experienced problems we could hear but the other end could not understand us again Vonage took the time to do multiple tests while I was on the phone with them, and again Time Warner was the problem. The Vonage tech connected with a 3-way call with Time Warner and together they fixed the issue I believe they were on the phone together for over an hour. I have a lot of respect for the way both companies handled the issue. I tell anyone who is interested in VOIP to use Vonage it's a better deal then Time Warner.
By Todd Thoenen @ 07/14/08 09:35:37 PMreport abuse
Comcast problems
I have Comcast for my high speed internet connection. At least twice a day they do some kind of ping which in turn puts my cable modem to sleep. I bought a new cable modem but this did not remedy the problem. In order to solve the problem i have to power down the cable modem and turn it back on.
This is very frustrating.
By Matt @ 07/14/08 06:23:44 PMreport abuse
Moving to Job and phone service and internet
On Monday July14,2008 you mention about moving from a bleak economic surroundings to better. Well I did that, I moved from Michigan to North Carolina for solid job and I lov it here. Now, at my decision, have to good jobs. One full and one part-time. I cut my phone service down to magic-jack and I don't have any problem. And I get free internet.I have wi fi card in lap top and I can pick up internet signals from home without any delay or problem.That saves me big time.
By Drewski @ 07/14/08 02:35:25 PMreport abuse
Ignorance
As usual, Clark and his staff show their technological ignorance. It is a well-established fact that cable bandwidth is shared within a given neighborhood. When everyone gets home from work and hunkers down for the evening, Internet usage increases, degrading everyone's experience. With everyone wanting to watch online videos, VOIP signals are going to get degraded, too. Conspiracies aside, you don't need deliberate sabotage from Comcast for this to occur, just not enough capacity to handle peak load in a given area.

That is why all the broadband companies want to go to usage-based subscriptions.
By Jimmy @ 07/14/08 02:26:02 PMreport abuse
MajicJack At&t
I use majicjack with the lowest grade dsl and it works fine. I am not sure, if it has anything to do with where I live or my computer.
By anonymous @ 07/14/08 02:04:37 PMreport abuse
Nighttime
Bad connection at night could be a reseult of higher network usage. Everyone gets off work at 5-6pm and starts signing in at home.
By Bill @ 07/14/08 09:34:12 AMreport abuse
Comcast Response
I used to install HSD for AT&T Broadband, prior to their becoming Comcast. The reason you can't pay your bill from the Comcast site anymore is because that site is only open to Comcast subscribers. The minute you canceled your service, you lost access to the site. I have Comcast cable & AT&T DSL and can pay my Comcast bill online at www.comcast.com
By Danny @ 07/14/08 08:05:31 AMreport abuse
MagicJack & Comcast calls at night
Clark, I read that you noticed that his MagicJack service works fine during the day with his Comcast connection. But at night, there's no way you can make a call.
Why are you sticking with Comcast if you "can't make phone calls at night?" Is there a better service provider?
By Andrea Lorraine @ 07/14/08 07:25:12 AMreport abuse
COMCAST
I changed from Comcast high speed internet to BellSouth/ATT DSL a number of months ago and am unable to pay my mom's Comcast cable bill online at Comcast's website. I pay all other bills online - about 10 different accounts - but can't get Comcast's site to work. I could pay mine and my mom's Comcast bills fine before switching to DSL.
By Ed @ 07/11/08 08:45:44 PMreport abuse

Vonage and Brighthouse

When we opened our second office three years ago, we were determined to not to do business with Verizon. At the time, the local cable/internet provider, Brighthouse, had no business phone service available but we did contract with them to do our high-speed internet connection. We had four lines installed with Vonage at reasonable price. Customer service was pretty horrible but overall we did pretty well. Two months ago we added a MagicJack and enjoyed service for a while. About a month ago, our Vonage and magicjack lines started dropping calls. Vonagae was unable to solve the problem. Coincidently, someone from Brighhouse called US to offer a business phone package. The timing is extremely suspect but we have no eveidence, only suspicion and we need to run a business...so we signed on with Brighthouse business phone. I would definitely recommend an investigation into intentional interference from Brighthouse. Anyway, called Vonage to cancel the accounts (after three years) -got disconnected twice and finally was able to talk to a rep to disconnect me. The rep tried unbelievably hard to keep me from cancelling.

By sean c @ 10/12/09 04:26:03 PMreport abuse

Vonage is Excellent

We have been a Vonage customer for over a year, and the service, and customer support have been excellent. Our daughter uses Vonage with DSL in Portland, Oregon, and they were the reason we switched from AT&T. We have Comcast broadband, and their bandwidth fluctuations caused problems. The techs at Vonage corrected the problem, and have had no problems since.

By John Mangis @ 08/29/09 02:48:57 PMreport abuse

Magic Jack on Comcast

Clark et al,
The reason MJ works during the day and not at night is because there are fewer users on during the day. You see, comcast's cable technology uses a shared connection for its customers. the more traffic the less speed, like I-285, hence the fluctuation. The same applies to downloads of any significant size. So pick your time to call wisely.

By B Alexander @ 08/23/09 07:09:16 PMreport abuse

Poor Business Practice at Vonage

I tried to cancel my Vonage after being a customer for 14 months. They kept me on the phone for an unreasonable amount of time trying to sell other plans and then hit me with the cancellation fee of $39. I cannot recommend doing any business with this company.

By Kevin @ 06/25/09 03:14:12 AMreport abuse

vonage

Do not complain to Vonage Customer Service. Call 732-444-2398 CEO Marc Lefar's personal secretary and ask to speak with Marc Lefar. Now you will get their attention.

By rolf @ 05/04/09 11:31:05 PMreport abuse

Vonage - SCAM STAY AWAY

You can read on anther post that you cannot cancel inside of 30 Days - TRUE, you cannot cancel without paying their steep cancellation fees and paying for the box ($105.40).

Stay away from Vonage.

You're only avenue of support is to write a letter to Homdell NJ - guess what? mailing certified gets you nothing!

Clark Howard owes his listeners the apology not Vonage.

Everyone - stay away from Vongae - RUN !!!

By Vonage Peeved @ 04/27/09 02:26:25 PMreport abuse

magic jack

magic jack worked well for three days then, I cannot receive calls. I tried fixing it according to their web site but it wouldn't work. I tried their live chat but waited hours and no one ever got back to me. Then, I discovered their secret. They have absolutely no way for you to contact them, no mail address, no phone number nothing! Thank goodness I didn't buy the five year package, I just wish I could through the junk in their face! Pete

By pete weyhrich @ 04/21/09 09:33:48 PMreport abuse

Vonage

I do not recomen the services, is low quality services and yes they charge you for cacelation even in the 30 days trial, and when you call the customer services is who knows where.. but you can her people in the backgroun spekin other languges..

By Marly @ 04/20/09 01:59:46 PMreport abuse

AT&T DSL Sabotage?

I had AT&T DSL + Phone, and piloted Vonage for 3 months, and it worked perfectly. Dropped the AT&T Phone line so I just have AT&T Naked DSL + Vonage, and now DSL is totally unreliable making it impossible to use Vonage at times. Called and complained and they said nothing is wrong with DSL, but the connection was fixed while I was on the phone with them. Very suspicious to me. DSL service will have periods of hours where the modem loses connectivity and blinks red every 105 seconds.

By Jeff @ 04/16/09 10:22:40 AMreport abuse

Possible non-competitive practice by Verizon

I currently have DSL thru Verizon and recently attempted to use MagicJack over the connection. The connection was so bad I gave up on MagicJack. These posts make me suspicious about Verizon doing something to cripple the competitive MagicJack.

By Vern @ 02/17/09 02:56:32 PMreport abuse

Vonage is crooks

I tried to have vonage and like others they charged me a 49.00 connection fee. i was never able to get connected. They had issues connecting. i tried to cancel on the 29th and 30 th day after starting service and mysterously their systems were down on day 31 they told me that I would be hit with cancellation fee and not be refunded the activation fee of 49.99. I called everyone. I was told yes then no. I ended up get everything back but the activation. I was never able to make one call. If you do have a problem their customer service is in India and they will either hang up on you if you ask for a manager or tell you they have no manager.. This company is a poor excuse for phone company and their customer service reflects their moto(We care less about anything but your money).. Please do not get this service.. Do what I did take advantage of the cell phone deals for talk all you want for one price and make the switch...The only calls you get on home phone is from sales people anyway!!!!!

By Sonya @ 01/30/09 05:47:57 AMreport abuse

Comcast giving me problems

Funny that I should post a comment about Comcast and Vonage and start having issues suddenly. Saturday evening my wife, myself and my wife's daughter all tried over the course of nearly an hour to reach Bogota, Colombia to no avail. I've contacted Comcast. Gonna call Vonage next. I'm upset that I sang the praises of both and a day later I'm having issues.

By Paul @ 01/12/09 04:31:30 PMreport abuse

Vonage is awesome

Sorry to hear about the bad experiences. I fired BellSLOTH in December 2005. My wife calls South America frequently and before Vonage we were paying around $300 a month and were subjected to per minute fees of up to $0.38. When we signed up with Vonage we were paying only $0.08 per minute. Now, we pay a flat $15.00 per month (on top of the $24.99 monthly fee) and call South America as much as we want!!!! Thanks Vonage!!!! Also, we have Comcast high speed and have had very few issues with our service.

By Paul @ 01/07/09 01:11:48 PMreport abuse

Vonage Cancellation Fee not disclosed

I just called and tried to cancel Vonage. The first person wouldn't cancel it. He transferred me to Carla. Who tried to sell me various other products and stop me from cancelling. She even talked over me when I said I wasn't interested.

Then finally, she told me that she would cancel but there would be a $39.95 cancellation fee for cancelling before 2 years. I never heard such a thing. I told her I wanted a copy of the agreement. She said it was over the phone. (It was NOT). Then she said they sent it to me and I had 30 days to cancel if I wanted to cancel after activation.

I told her to cancel it, but I would not pay the fee. She said they would charge the credit card I used for billing. I told her I did not authorize this. "Do NOT charge my credit card. Cancel this account." and hung up to call the credit card.

I called the my credit card company immediately afterward. They informed me that Vonage has already sent through the authorization. I will have to wait 2 or 3 days until it processes and then dispute the charge to my credit card company.

And to think, I used to like VONAGE. Now they have reduced themselves to these tactics to make money. I looked through my paperwork. Vonage did NOT disclose anything about a fee to cancel service.

By Suzanne @ 01/02/09 04:13:56 PMreport abuse

I have had Vonage for roughly a year. The service has been okay for the most part. I have had my share up the device losing connections among other things. This is actually pretty typical of other services as well. However, Comcast offered me a really good deal to come back and naturally I accepted. Here where the problems lies...Vonage charged my credit card 120.00 after the service was disconnected. They also charged my credit card the monthly fee and did not issue me a credit for a partial month of service. While i understand certain business practices, this is one that I as a customer absolutely do not agree with. Vonage never mentioned to me at the time that I was accepting the service that if i disconnected and terminated then they would charge my account 40.00. Had they told me that, I would have NEVER accepted the service. Also, they charge me 80.00 for there device and never sent me notice to state that they were going to do that. I am appalled at there practices once you decide this service is not for me. If you just tell me upfront then there will be no surprises...but to charge my credit card roughly $160.00 in 15 days with no warning in my opinion is definitely UNFAIR business practices on there part. Guess what, they may not care but I DO....

By JR @ 12/31/08 12:28:08 AMreport abuse

Vonage service.

I have the Vonage service since late 2006 and never regretted subscribing to the service after leaving Bellsouth for basic phone. I get all the amenities that Bellsouth offered for a fee for FREE with one low monthly price plus no charge for calling US Long Distance domestic numbers. This is great since I can call my cousin in Okinawa (who's also a Vonage subscriber) for free... since, he will be using a US number with his service.

If there is a termination service fee with Vonage of approx. $40.00, that would be fine... especially if you look at all the free stuff you get (including long distance) compared to the regular phone companies with junk fees plus their exuberent termination cost if you leave during their contract.

I currently run Cable internet by BrightHouse Networks,using their "higher" tiered internet plan, and everything works just fine. The reason for the higher tiered service... My sister and I do online gaming, large file downloads for demo-ware, video conferencing with family in the US and abroad... basically using the fullest extent of my internet subscription.

By the Earl @ 12/17/08 01:05:35 PMreport abuse

Troubleshooting tips for Magic Jack owners

If you need help to get your Magic Jack working as well as it can, be sure to check out the below web site for tips!

http://www.magic-jack.info/

This is a good primer for those who are not exactly sure how calls can be free.

There are also links to find discount coupon (promo) codes to save anywhere from $2.00 (10% off annual renewal fee) up $6.95 (the Magic Jack shipping fee).

If you are just not sure how good your internet connection is (introductory packages are often slower than speeds for average) try the cool VoIP Quality Test to see if you get all green lights.
Yellow light may still work, but voice quality may not be as good as could be.

If you are going to buy a Magic Jack as a holiday gift for someone (great idea) and want to run their setup in advance, be sure to preview the install process first. Take your time and choose the area code and local exchange (prefix) carefully if the area code you want is not yet available. Some goof that up!

Good Luck and thanks again to Howard for informing me about the Magic Jack. I have saved a LOT of money with mine!

By MagicJackFan @ 11/20/08 03:28:09 AMreport abuse

Magic Jack

Upon your recommendations I purchased a Magic Jack. Just to let you know, it does not work well and although the price is cheap, in this instance you get exactly what you paid for.

Checked with Better Business Bureau in my area and they had an "F" rating. The worst that you can get.

By Ed @ 11/14/08 05:41:39 PMreport abuse

comcast

I have had MJ for a couple of months. Initially it worked fine on Comcast, but lately it hardly works at all. I took it to my office where I have Bellsouth High Speed DSL and it works fine there.

I guess I will have to get DSL at home now and tell Comcast to take a hike.

By amei @ 11/06/08 11:47:54 AMreport abuse

I have Magic Jack; it does not work. tried to contact; but they do not list a phone; have no phone listed as a company; and do not answer e-Mails. I have to wait 30 days before I can dispute the charge; and the web page will not print out a return form.

By Gilbert Ward @ 09/11/08 03:15:36 AMreport abuse

vonage vs ?

I replaced my vonage with xstream. voip a product I was introduced too. Vonage told me that there was a cancellation fee of $39.00 which I did not remember being told. I had quality problems when using the computer and talking on vonage. The new service remedied the problem. I got my service on line at voipcallsrus.com

By ken goldberg @ 08/29/08 03:24:31 PMreport abuse

Couldn't make it work

I've got earthlink DSL and after Vonage promised I could get the connection to work, Earthlink let me know that changing to vonage would break the piggyback DSL Earthlink does on top of my AT&T phone number. It took over 4 hours of attempts to get this researched and confirmed. I spent over 30 minutes trying to cancel my Vonage service, and they are now charging me to ship back the connection device.
DSL is not some arcane mystery, but half of their customer service people blithely answered my questions wrong.

By Alice @ 08/21/08 04:18:53 PMreport abuse

I have had Vonage on my Georgia phone and our home in North Carolina since Sun Rocket went belly-up. I have had almost no problems and problems I have had only require rebooting my router. Vonage customer service has been extremely helpful.

By Robin @ 08/20/08 06:40:54 AMreport abuse

Lingo with Similar Difficulties

I recently learned about these facts on this article and have had me thinking about my similar troubles...Recently( in last two months or so), our phone services are experiencing drop calls, poor connection, abrupt internet outage, and so on...we have had Lingo Line for nearly three years now and recently it has become nothing more than stress....I am wondering if my troubles have anything to do with Comcast now offering VOIP lines in our area...

By frustrated in Georgia @ 07/24/08 12:11:16 PMreport abuse

Comcast not working well at night

It should be a well known fact that Cable Broadband uses a shared loop while Telephone broadband uses a dedicated line for your data. With Cable when all your neighbors kids are home downloading everything available on MTV or Myspace you end up sharing the bandwith with all that traffic. Telephone Broadband/DSL is much more consistant and higher quality. Most Telephone companies are upgrading to fiber right now anyways with speeds up to 20 Mbps

By Larry Lane @ 07/22/08 10:09:28 PMreport abuse

Comcast

Comcast (Comcrap)needs to federal standards placed on them. They are greedy and very shady billing practices. I wish At&T would install fiber faster!

By LiquidJ @ 07/18/08 09:10:45 AMreport abuse

Comcast "Traffic Shaping" Policy

Comcast is not the only ISP guilty of using so-called "traffic-shaping" technology to effectively force subscribers into buying package deals. I had the full package with Cox for over a year, and never had a glitch with my internet speed or quality. Within an hour of dropping my cable subscription, my quality dropped significantly. Tech support shows no problems at their end, but repeated speed/connection tests from my end show a dramatic difference, even at the wee hours of the night.

By Anne Pace @ 07/17/08 02:34:34 AMreport abuse

I have had Vonage for over three years now. I tried Magic Jack and it didn't work with my Dish system when it called in. Called Vonage and said that I was going to go to Magic Jack and they dropped my monthly price from $25 to $15 a month!! I LOVE VONAGE!!!

By Robert @ 07/16/08 10:59:01 PMreport abuse

Comcast and Magic Jack

The idea that Comcast is specifically targetting competing technologies is a plausible one. I subscribe to Comcast for my cable modem because DSL in not available in my area. I am a network engineer by trade - I know how to check network latency and bandwidth availability. At times where I am getting 4100k down / 384k up and less than 20ms latency to the MagicJack servers - are also times the MJ experiences call quality issues that seem to me as dropped packets. While the constraints of a shared cable line is an option, I don't understand why it plays into the equation in my case, given the favorable network statistics I am getting during the evening.

By Ryan @ 07/15/08 01:38:13 AMreport abuse

Ignorance

Jimmy, Clark has said repeatedly that cable internet is like a party line. Listen to the show more closely. Has Magic Jack started porting existing phone numbers yet?

By Dan @ 07/15/08 01:12:15 AMreport abuse

I have Vonage and we love it now. We had some issues before but it turned out to be Time Warner that was causing it. I called Vonage and they did all kinds of tests and decide it was my broadband connection. I contacted Time Warner and they replaced the modem and everything was fine then we experienced problems we could hear but the other end could not understand us again Vonage took the time to do multiple tests while I was on the phone with them, and again Time Warner was the problem. The Vonage tech connected with a 3-way call with Time Warner and together they fixed the issue I believe they were on the phone together for over an hour. I have a lot of respect for the way both companies handled the issue. I tell anyone who is interested in VOIP to use Vonage it's a better deal then Time Warner.

By Todd Thoenen @ 07/14/08 09:35:37 PMreport abuse

Comcast problems

I have Comcast for my high speed internet connection. At least twice a day they do some kind of ping which in turn puts my cable modem to sleep. I bought a new cable modem but this did not remedy the problem. In order to solve the problem i have to power down the cable modem and turn it back on.
This is very frustrating.

By Matt @ 07/14/08 06:23:44 PMreport abuse

Moving to Job and phone service and internet

On Monday July14,2008 you mention about moving from a bleak economic surroundings to better. Well I did that, I moved from Michigan to North Carolina for solid job and I lov it here. Now, at my decision, have to good jobs. One full and one part-time. I cut my phone service down to magic-jack and I don't have any problem. And I get free internet.I have wi fi card in lap top and I can pick up internet signals from home without any delay or problem.That saves me big time.

By Drewski @ 07/14/08 02:35:25 PMreport abuse

As usual, Clark and his staff show their technological ignorance. It is a well-established fact that cable bandwidth is shared within a given neighborhood. When everyone gets home from work and hunkers down for the evening, Internet usage increases, degrading everyone's experience. With everyone wanting to watch online videos, VOIP signals are going to get degraded, too. Conspiracies aside, you don't need deliberate sabotage from Comcast for this to occur, just not enough capacity to handle peak load in a given area.

That is why all the broadband companies want to go to usage-based subscriptions.

By Jimmy @ 07/14/08 02:26:02 PMreport abuse

MajicJack At&t

I use majicjack with the lowest grade dsl and it works fine. I am not sure, if it has anything to do with where I live or my computer.

By anonymous @ 07/14/08 02:04:37 PMreport abuse

Nighttime

Bad connection at night could be a reseult of higher network usage. Everyone gets off work at 5-6pm and starts signing in at home.

By Bill @ 07/14/08 09:34:12 AMreport abuse

Comcast Response

I used to install HSD for AT&T Broadband, prior to their becoming Comcast. The reason you can't pay your bill from the Comcast site anymore is because that site is only open to Comcast subscribers. The minute you canceled your service, you lost access to the site. I have Comcast cable & AT&T DSL and can pay my Comcast bill online at www.comcast.com

By Danny @ 07/14/08 08:05:31 AMreport abuse

MagicJack & Comcast calls at night

Clark, I read that you noticed that his MagicJack service works fine during the day with his Comcast connection. But at night, there's no way you can make a call.
Why are you sticking with Comcast if you "can't make phone calls at night?" Is there a better service provider?

By Andrea Lorraine @ 07/14/08 07:25:12 AMreport abuse

COMCAST

I changed from Comcast high speed internet to BellSouth/ATT DSL a number of months ago and am unable to pay my mom's Comcast cable bill online at Comcast's website. I pay all other bills online - about 10 different accounts - but can't get Comcast's site to work. I could pay mine and my mom's Comcast bills fine before switching to DSL.

By Ed @ 07/11/08 08:45:44 PMreport abuse

Listen Live:

Clark On Demand:

Clark's Advice:

Consumer Action Center:

Quick Links:

Clark Media:

Call The Show:

Jul 11, 2008 -- Clark issues apology to Vonage, takes Comcast to task

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