Vonage pulling the bait-and-gradual-switch?

Posted under A Geek Dad's Life, Blog Posts

Our bill used to be $55.63 a month.  It is now $62.52 a month.  Where does this gradual rate increase end?

If you look at our Vonage bill history over the past 16 months, you can see a gradual increase in our monthly costs.  Up $0.55, up another $2.95, (then down 30 cents), then up $0.78, and up another $0.52, and up another whopping $2.51. 

The end result is: we now pay $7 more per month than we did when we started. That works out to more than $80/year, or a 12.5% increase in just over a year.

 

Old Bill Feb 2009	New Bill May 2010

What’s worse: The base product that we use costs $39.99.  Vonage piles on another $22.65 in ‘taxes and fees’ making the bill $62.52 a month.  The ‘taxes and fees’ now represent 36% of the bill.  That’s worse than this blogger’s 29%.  While there are some real increases as in the “State Communications Service Tax", they also now pre-charge me for unlimited 411 Information calls (built into the “Information Services Fee”).   I didn’t want 411 services.  I don’t want to pay for it, but Vonage has denied me that choice.  Vonage also raised their fees to offset their legal costs.  I have no reason to believe that they are not also including other revenue-generating fees in their ambiguously-named line items like “Regulatory Compliance and Intellectual Property Fee.”

Look, it’s not our fault that you had legal trouble.  We signed on at a fixed rate plus whatever variable government taxes might exist now or in the future.  If you incur new costs or need more revenue, raise you rates for new customers; Don’t pass your troubles on to your existing customers in the form of ancillary line items on an invoice in hopes that no one will notice.  Some of what you are charging us in the ancillary fees is just ‘the cost of doing business’ and your company should be eating it. 

I am concerned about these seemingly-endless rate increases.  I need to get off of this burning plane.  I’m ready to jump out and I’m looking around for the ripcord, and oh-my-god this parachute is really a knapsack!  – Vonage numbers are not always “portable” to your new phone provider depending upon which local exchange the prefix belongs in, but Vonage says that they will comply with the FCC regulations. You can try this process.

If you are considering dropping Vonage, be sure to check out Tom Keating’s article on his experience cancelling his Vonage service.  I’ve been through it once before, too, and I hope it is not nearly as painful as the first time.