ACTION 9: Woman Needs Help Canceling Phone Service

Many people are turning to internet phone service for long distance calling. But the Vonage company is generating tons of complaints from its customers.

The Better Business Bureau has almost 10,000 complaints against Vonage.

Joan Hauck signed up for Vonage, a high speed internet phone system that allows her to make and receive phone calls world wide. But a few weeks after using it, she started getting dropped calls.

"I got an important called that dropped and it really upset me a lot. At that point I called customer service and said I wanted to cancel my service. She looked at my account and told me I couldn’t cancel because I had a contract,” Hauck said.

The Vonage representative told her the contract allowed 30 days to cancel. But Hauck said that's not what the agent who signed her up said.

Vonage insisted it could stop the dropped calls. But Hauck no longer wanted the service. That's when she tried to stop Vonage from withdrawing the $31 monthly payments she'd authorized from her bank account.

"So when I went in to my account online to try to cancel it, I couldn't, they stop you,” she said.

She then canceled her debit card to stop the payments. But Vonage demanded she pay $170 in cancellation fees or it would report her to credit bureaus.

That’s when she contacted Action 9. Action 9 got in touch with Vonage headquarters in New Jersey. It said it was looking into the complaint, but would allow her out of the contract if she returned their equipment. She agreed.