Vonage retools customer service

IP telephone service provider Vonage is on a mission to rebuild user trust by improving its reputation for customer service. That reputation has been less than stellar in the past. User postings online complain about everything from lousy tech support to confusing terms and conditions. But does Vonage deserve that criticism?

Since activating the service more than three weeks ago, I've had no problems.

A truly global call center

I've gotten through to the sales and customer support lines within one minute or less and for the most part its call center reps - located in Chile and the Phillipines - were able to answer my questions.

The one exception was the Phillipino call center rep who had a hard time understanding what I was asking for when my request went off script. I kept asking the same question and she kept replying with the same canned response - a response that indicated that she didn't fully understand what I was asking.

Christian, on the other hand, was very knowledgeable. He knew all of the permutations of the product inside and out, and even explained - at 2 in the morning his time - how I could use buy two V-Portal devices and use the V-Portals in two locations without paying another $24.99 per month for a second line. And Claudia in Chile quickly walked me through some setup confusion. I was on and off the phone in about three minutes.

Better technology,  better training, more staff

Vonage says that it has taken several steps to to reduce customer service issues, including adding staff and increasing the amount of training. Customer satisfaction now falls "in a positive range within industry standards," the company claims. That's not exactly high praise, but it's a step up, and the spokesperson says the company is aiming for excellence.

Customer service has been a priority at Vonage since a CEO took the helm last year. Since then Vonage claims to have implemented a new CRM system that has helped to improve its rate of resolving problems on the first call by 18%, as well as new call routing software that has posted a 243% improvement in the number of calls that are routed to a live person within 30 seconds. That may explain why I have gotten through every time I've called (about a half dozen calls) without waiting more than one minute.

Many customer complaints talk about bad setup experiences. A spokesperson says the company is focused on "improving the on boarding process and early life customer experiences." To that end it's working on logistics so that equipment shipping, telephone number porting and installation support are better coordinated, and it is hiring and training support representatives to specialize in setup issues.

Cancellation confusion

Another point of confusion appears to be contracts and cancellation fees. Users must buy equipment such as the V-Portal device, and that includes a substantial instant rebate. If you cancel within 30 days of the date the order is placed you can return the unit at no charge. After that, you own it. If you cancel you must must pay a "rebate recovery fee" plus a $39.99 early termination penalty that Vonage calls a "discontinuance fee." The total can easily add up to more than $100, and that catches people by surprise.

The rebate recovery fee no longer applies after 12 months, and the discontinuance fee goes away after 24 months.

Some users complained that by the time they had the equipment set up, number ported and realized they couldn't overcome technical problems the 30 day money back guarantee window had closed. "We're working on ways to make the costs clearer," and setting expectations before placing the order, a spokesperson says. And Vonage includes some of those terms and conditions right on its home page. It also tries to explain this when sales people take orders. However, a quick summary is better than reading the terms and conditions, as the sales person did in my case. Those terms and conditions scripts, read in a monotone, are more likely to put the customer to sleep than they are to help him understand what he's buying. Those monologues also extend the sales process: I was on the phone for nearly a half hour.

User reviews: Who can you trust?

Despite these improvements, complaints about Vonage online persist.

But a colleague and long time user of Vonage services says he has never experienced service problems or customer service issues. He thinks it's important to take online complaints with a grain of salt and recommends trusting references from people you know, not anonymous online posters. "People like to be trolls online. Negative comments always outweigh," he says.

Vonage isn't the only business to get a bad rap. Competitors such as AT&T and Comcast don't appear to fare any better in these forums.

My colleague puts little trust in online user reviews, and he cites this PC World story about fake reviews that hype products.

I pointed him to negative comments on sites such as My3Cents and Whichvoip.com "To my eye, a quick scan of some of those comments look fake. It's a real problem these days, fake reviews," he says. He thinks competitors not only pose as users to build their own products up but also go in to trash their competitors. But there's no way to prove that.

In the end I went with the personal recommendation. "All I know is that it has been rock solid and very good. I have never had a dropped call," my friend says.

I've had two so far, one right after the other. Both occurred - ironically - during a conversation with Vonage's product people.

Other than that little glitch, however, it's been smooth sailing. So perhaps the lesson here is to read the reviews in places like PC World, listen to people who you know when it comes to recommendations - and hope for the best.