Vonage is no bargain

I made the mistake of checking out an internet phone service that promised me more than they could deliver.

It is a New Jersey address that I am shipping the modem back to - which I have to pay for. And until they get that modem back, which was never ever connected, I am being charged a fee of $40, besides the money they took out for hookup and S&H - another $41. Postage was $7.20 - out of my pocket.

To start with, I was erroneously charged twice for connecting, with one of those fees being $15 more than the other. The charge to my checking account was immediate; the refund takes up to 5 days to get back to where it came from. That could have been a major financial crisis for me if I hadn't seen that charge and thinking I had money in my account, wrote checks against it.

I have had one absurd communication issue after another with this internet phone service and have vowed to warn others to stay away from them. Every call was long and the co-understanding was strained.

The operators were always apologetic that I had any problems, and after my first attempt at cancelling the plan before I even hooked up anything, I was offered a better deal if I didn't cancel. I accepted the better deal and continued to have one communication problem on top of another, and no phone service; it was all so absurd.

It was the most frustrating week trying to get a phone in my home and my cell minutes are just about used up for the month, most of them spent trying to straighten out Vonage's mistakes.

So, I am still waiting for a refund of $41, a refund of $40, and just forget about getting reimbursed for the $7.20 for S&H I was told. All that, and I never used the service.

I am cutting my losses now.