My opinion about Vonage
Today I cancelled the Vonage account we were using to test various things. I probably should have cancelled it eons ago, but sometimes it takes a while to get around to doing it. I actually did it Thursday, but saw a notice that the credit card was charged yesterday, so of course I called in to get that reversed.
Anyway, the rep had told me a couple of things that were rather disturbing. The first was that if I had tried to cancel after less than a year of service, I would be charged an approximately $40 termination fee. Yeah, it’s buried in the terms of service, which nobody reads. Heck, even the Vonage rep admitted that to me. The second, and I thought this was especially dumb, was that my Vonage device is not only locked to Vonage–a fact I don’t like, but can live with–it is locked to me specifically. Anyone else who signs up with this device will not be allowed to do so. Sure, if I decide to re-sign up, I can sign up with the activation fee waived, but I can’t sell the device on eBay and have someone else be allowed to sign up with Vonage.
Am I the only person on the planet who thinks that policy is just, I don’t know, retarded? If you buy a device, it should be yours to do with as you wish, including resell it to someone sel. By locking the device to Vonage, providing no way to unlock it so the device can be used with another service, and then preventing someone from essentially giving or reselling the device to someone else. Once the person is done with Vonage, the device is basically a paperweight. This policy borders on irresponsible from an environmental point of view. Not to mention drives up customer acquisition cost.
