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I’ve given Vonage a lot of business. How do I know this? Because, my post about Vonage offering free calls to Bangladesh is my most viewed page of all time and is still the most viewed post on any given day. In fact, that post is the number one Google search result when searching for both “Vonage Bangladesh” and “Free Calls to Bangladesh”.

I could have easily set it up so that I could have gotten some referral rewards from Vonage for all the business I sent their way. But I didn’t because I genuinely liked Vonage’s service and wanted to praise it without the implication that I was getting anything in return for my praise. I say I liked Vonage’s service because I can no longer recommended Vonage in good conscience.

Why? Because Vonage has screwed their loyal customers without so much as a warning or an apology.

Thanks to some of the comments on my blog post, I recently learned that Vonage has delisted Bangladesh as part of its Call Asia plan. As a long time loyal customer of Vonage, I didn’t get an email notifying me about this. Like most customers with Vonage, I had to grant Vonage permission to automatically deduct from a credit card for each bill.

If it wasn’t for this website, my family would have seen a huge hit in our credit card bill without warning. In any given month we talk anywhere from 1000 to 3000 minutes a month in long distance calls to Bangladesh through Vonage. I guess Vonage thought a huge credit card bill was going to be their way of letting us know about their change in phone plans. This is not how you treat your loyal customers.

I know I’m not the only one affected by this. So what can you do? Here’s a list of suggestions after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Vonage Screws Their Loyal Customers (and What You Can Do)’

[IMPORTANT UPDATE: Vonage has recently delisted Bangladesh from their Plan Look-up Table. But, Dhaka landline numbers are still shown as being under the "Call Asia" plan if you manually check a phone number. I am getting conflicting reports as to whether or not Vonage has cancelled their unlimited calling to Bangladesh and started charging 19 cents a minute. Customers such as myself whose family heavily relies on this plan have not received any warning or notice of its discontinuation. This is not how Vonage should be treating their loyal customers. I can no longer recommend Vonage in good conscience. More updates as I get more details.]

I wish I found this out before my parents spent hundreds of dollars a month calling me in Bangladesh. Vonage – the internet phone company with the annoyingly catchy song in its ads – now offers free calls to Bangladesh as part of its Call Asia international calling plan. My family already uses Vonage – I gave it as a gift to my mom and dad almost two years ago so they could keep in touch with me while I was studying at Notre Dame.

For ten bucks a month more, I just added the Call Asia plan which gives them unlimited calling anytime to all Dhaka and Chittagong landlines (but not any cellphones). I double checked to make sure it works with landline numbers in regions like Baridhara, Shantinagar, and Gulshan (where my relatives live). After setting it up for my dad online – I had him give me a call. The call was surprisingly clear – better than the phone cards my other relatives use. It was even better than many of my local calls to cellphones.

What’s really neat is that Vonage also offers things like free call conferencing. So, after talking for a bit my dad call-conferenced my aunt into the conversation who lived elsewhere in Canada. All of that at no additional cost or per minute charges. I spent most of the conversation going “wow”. This solution is also ten times better than my use of Skype – whose quality is heavily dependent on the bandwidth I get on my end. With Vonage, my family can take full advantage of the DSL line we have back in Canada and just call me on a Dhaka landline instead.

I know I am coming off sounding like a commercial for Vonage. I am not affiliated with them nor am I getting paid by Vonage for this glowing praise. I’m just completely amazed that something like this exists.