The jig may finally be up for junk fees. First the White House, then the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and now the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has put its foot down, stopping internet phone service provider Vonage from charging its customers junk fees. Not only junk fees, but creating obstacles to those who try to cancel their service.
The FTC claims that beginning in 2017, Vonage used dark patterns to cloud the process for any consumer who wanted out of their Vonage deal. But, that wasn’t all – Vonage also allegedly continued to illegally charge customers even after those customers spoke to a Vonage representative on the phone and officially requested their service be canceled.
Vonage better hope its accountants have been saving some rainy day funds because, under the proposed court order, Vonage will be required to pay $100 million in refunds to consumers harmed by the company’s actions. Plus, it will have to make its cancellation process simple and transparent and stop charging consumers without their consent.
If you want to know how bad it was for some Vonage customers, all you have to do is read what Anjali of Sugar Land, Tex., said in their ConsumerAffairs review of Vonage.
“I am an attorney and business owner and frankly, this has been the absolute worst professional and personal experience of my life with regard to a company for services,” Anjali wrote.
“For two years, I was unable to get one human being to respond to my requests regarding legitimate issues with voice quality, equipment, loss of voicemails, spam calls, and overall quality of service. In the past week, I called four times to attempt to cancel my service when an increase in fees was made without my knowledge for the past six months. I was stone-walled each time and demeaned and representatives refused to assist me.”
If you are – or were – a Vonage customer, here’s what you can expect
The FTC said it is sending payments by mail to 389,106 consumers. When ConsumerAffairs checked the agency's dashboard, it said the "median" distribution for the Vonage case is $197 per person.
Recipients should cash their checks within 90 days. The agency said that eligible consumers who did not have an address on file will receive a PayPal payment, which should be redeemed within 30 days.
If you have questions about your payment, you should contact the refund administrator, Epiq, at 1-877-525-4728 or visit the FTC website to view frequently asked questions about the refund process.
By the way, the FTC never requires people to pay money or provide account information to get a refund, so if you get a phone call from someone pretending to be from the FTC or from Vonage and they ask you for money, hang up the phone and call the FTC.