Vonage Will Pay $100 Million to Settle FTC Allegations of Trapping Consumers in Subscriptions (wsj.com) 23
Ericsson subsidiary Vonage will pay $100 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it created a web of obstacles for its customers to cancel the internet-based telephone service and charged unexpected termination fees. From a report: The agreement, filed in a federal court Thursday, represents the largest settlement of its kind in the FTC's enforcement push against companies that allegedly throw up high hurdles to customers seeking to cancel subscriptions or services. New Jersey-based Vonage will be required to obtain consumers' express consent for services and simplify its cancelation process. The cost of a subscription ranged from $5 to $50 a month for consumers, and potentially thousands a month for businesses, the FTC said. The commission said it received hundreds of complaints from consumers about Vonage's tactics.
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Does it make a difference whether you pay a slightly higher monthly fee and are able to cancel without hassle, or have to fight tooth and nail to cancel and get dinged for additional months of service you didn't want or need?
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I don't know why people keep falling for this bullshit. If you want to cancel a service, look back to the terms of service that define how to cancel. It's written in the agreement that most people agree to without reading when they sign up for the service. Read the cancellation part and follow those steps. If there's any doubt about whether or not the cancellation will actually happen, follow up with a written notice and send it via certified mail to the company's headquarters. It's far harder for the compa
Still around? (Score:2)
VoIP (Score:3)
They sold (sell?) Voice over IP service. They had ads maybe a decade ago to get people to switch their home phone line away from copper lines to their service (I believe they provided a box that plugged into both ethernet and phone wiring). They charged something like $20/month at the time, which was cheaper than a regular phone line, but much more expensive than many VoIP solutions for people who know where to look. To the best of my knowledge, they were the first to have a large advertising campaign fo
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something like $20/month at the time, which was cheaper than a regular phone line, but much more expensive than many VoIP solutions for people who know where to look
I used to pay over $700/year total for my old copper line, until I switched to a VoIP provider about 6-7 years ago - I don't think I've paid over $75/year in total since, and it has way more features.
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Me, too. We use voip.ms, but I'm thinking of switching to Google Voice, but then I have to get a temporary cell phone account to bounce the number through, as Google only lets you port mobile numbers.
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I can tell you, from personal experience, that your number port will not go through. The phone number, when transferred is still listed with its original exchange (the landline carrier) and thus will remain unportable to Google voice, even if you port it to a cell phone carrier first. You would need to sign up with a different VoIP provider that allows you to transfer in your home number (there are many VoIP providers, but they all charge a fee, unlike Google).
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Personally, given the daily horror stories of how Google is basically the original cancel-culturists (their products, people's accounts, etc.), I stay as far as fucking possible from anything Google, since it's basically a guarantee it'll either be dropped by Google (anything but search), or else become total shit (basically search).
I have vonage (Score:2)
They sold (sell?) Voice over IP service. They had ads maybe a decade ago to get people to switch their home phone line away from copper lines to their service (I believe they provided a box that plugged into both ethernet and phone wiring). They charged something like $20/month at the time, which was cheaper than a regular phone line, but much more expensive than many VoIP solutions for people who know where to look. To the best of my knowledge, they were the first to have a large advertising campaign for residential service.
All that is from foggy memory from ages ago, so I may have some details wrong (feel free to provide corrections if you think it matters).
I have Vonage and still use it. It's $19.95 per month, plus 1 virtual phone number for $4.99 per month. Adding federal charges comes to about $35/month.
The virtual number is convenient - you can use it for a year and then dump it and get a new one. Keeps a lot of people from having your actual phone number. For some bizarre reason, as soon as I give out my virtual number to my healthcare provider it's available to everyone in the world - including the local police.
You can take the modem with you on vacation
The lawsuit worked! (Score:4, Informative)
There was a big "Click Here To Cancel" link, which lead to a Google Form - which I thought was incredibly janky but now realize it was just due to some poor dev dealing with an emergency feature request ticket.
No real damage (Score:1)
Will the management that implemented this have to return their bonuses and forfeit stock?
How about tracking down where they work now?
Add teeth to settlements (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead of making crooks just fork over a fine, make them ACTUALLY undo the damage. For example, refund all termination fees charged for the relevant time period and refund anyone who terminated in that time period to say 6 months after several months of service fees that they probably didn't want.
Since it's a penalty, no reason not to err on the side of over-compensating consumers in order to make sure everyone is made whole.
Then levy a fine to make sure they don't do it again.
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Amen. That is exactly what needs to be done.
I have my own bone to pick with them. They charged me for two months of service I never used. They claimed they "had activity" on the device. I found that odd since that device happened to be in a box on a shelf in my basement where I put it after I moved and did not need Vonage anymore. So I guess my device was the Jesus Christ of VOIP because it rose from the dead without power.
Re: Add teeth to settlements (Score:2)
This could get very VERY simple...
"How much did you make from date A to date B?"
"Fork it over, this is where we start. Now, if we find you hid profit, it's 5x that much taken with no questions. Now let's talk damages and actual penalties"
I'm sick of watching giant corporations pay less* to fuck over thousands to tens of thousands of people than I would for a speeding ticket.
* As a percentage of income in a year. After all, aren't corporations people, my friends? Good. Then pay the fuck up like we do. "Frien
I cancelled in 2010 (Score:2)
I cancelled in 2010 and it was a nightmare. I had to wait on hold for 45 minutes. Was then transferred to the cancellation department and waited another hour. Only to sit on line with a jack ass who kept arguing with me and trying to get me to change my mind no matter how many times I would repeat "cancel my account". It was almost a joke how many times I said it before he gave up. Only to find out the next month he never actually cancelled it I was still getting billed. I finally resorted to cancelli
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Seen gym memberships that are also hard to cancel (Score:2)
Free months, promo pricing, and with fine print requiring a snail mail letter sent to them requesting a cancellation if you want to quit them. Part of the promo requires automatic billing to your credit card, so you know what they were counting on.
The dirty secret of all gyms is that it's the overwhelming percentage of people who pay but don't go that keep them in business. Which is OK by me as long as they can quit in a reasonable fashion.
Gyms that take cash or allow you to pay by the month, no contract, a
How about Sirius XM? (Score:1)
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I have never had a problem with SiriusXM either joining or leaving. I was a charter subscriber to Sirius when they started, as I did not like the idea of ads on music channels like XM had. I dropped them for many years but have added and dropped them over the years as my travel habits changed.
In all seriousness, what is the complaint that people have? They do offer options, but never gave me the runaround.
Wow, me too (Score:1)
I canceled in 2019 with no issues (Score:2)
The offboarding (that a word?) process was refreshingly painless for me.
What's changed since then? Ericsson completed their purchase earlier this year, and you can imagine that the valuation was tied to the number of subscriptions that they had at the time of the sale. Ericsson is going to end up paying that $1e8 - not the departing executives. This is pure speculation on my part.
It does seem like many VOIP providers have lost interest in the consumer market - marketing seems to be all about business these