In November of 2008, my mother asked if she could use my credit card billing details to reactivate her account with Vonage. I agreed that she could use my credit card for that transaction, and that transaction only. I spoke to the Vonage representative on the phone as he processed the payment, and made it clear to him that I was authorizing my credit card for that one transaction only.
My credit card was obviously put on an auto-billing cycle, because it has been billed in December, twice in January, and now again it’s up for billing in February. I have asked my mom repeatedly to change the billing details, but she oh-so-conveniently can’t do it right then, but will do it later. And then it never gets done.
This morning, I realized that my credit card is due to be billed yet again. I e-mailed Vonage, thinking it would be a simple matter to explain the situation and have my credit card removed from her account:
To whom it may concern:
Several months ago, my mother, [name] (phone number [phone number]) used my credit card to activate her Vonage account. Since that time, I have asked her multiple times to have my credit card removed from her account, because I do not want it to be billed. She has not complied with my request.
This is equivalent to theft, so I am asking you to remove my credit card from her account. Again, her name is [name], and her Vonage telephone number is [phone number]. The credit card is in my name, Jennifer [last name], and it is a [credit card type] whose last four digits are XXXX.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
Imagine my surprise and fury at the response I got:
I understand that you want us to remove your credit card information from your mothers account.
I apologize for the inconvenience caused. Please note that we are unable to remove your credit card information from your mothers account due to security reasons. Only the account owner has the access to the billing information. Hence only your mother can change the credit card information. Please note that you will not be able to remove the credit card information, you can only replace it with another payment information.
I appreciate your patience with our security measures.
I called Vonage on their toll-free number (, in case you’re interested), and spent close to a half an hour going around and around with a telephone representative, and then his supervisor, “Dodge”. I’m not sure how far I really got, because all Dodge kept saying is that only the account owner can make changes to billing. However, if I knew her credit card number or banking account information, I could authorize the change, since the current billing method is using my credit card.
So let me see if I’m getting this straight:
Because I’m not the account owner, I cannot authorize the removal of a credit card that has been used fraudulently for the past several months.
But if I, a person who is not the account owner, can cough up the account owner’s billing details, with or without his/her permission, I can immediately having my credit card’s billing information removed from the account owner’s account.
It sounds to me as though Vonage doesn’t care about account safety and security, and the proper handling of credit cards, but just about the bottom line: MONEY.
It was only after I pointed out that this situation is the same as if someone robbed me on the street, took my luggage and wallet and used my credit card to set up an account for themselves, only in this case the robber isn’t a stranger but my own mother, that “Dodge” came up with something about not auto-billing my credit card until March 14th, and that I have until then to get my mother to provide a new billing method.
Excuse my language, but what the fuck? My credit card is being used repeatedly without my permission, I verify my mother’s account information (name, phone number, address, security question’s answer) and my own, including my credit card numbers, and report fraud/theft, and it’s still up to me to get her to change the details of the account? Just what do you think I have been trying to do for the past three months!?
I’ve had Vonage for our home phone service for over two years now, and while I have no complaints about the service itself, I am very tempted to switch to another VoIP provider, simply because of how they are grossly mishandling this situation.
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Yes, this is ridiculous on the part of Vonage. No, they are not the real problem. Why do you enable your mother to do things like this? You let her walk all over you. You need to put your foot down, Jenn, and let her know you’re not going to put up with this BS.
That sucks! I really like Vonage. I think as a service, they are fabulous, but I’ve heard horror stories about their customer service itself. I think it’s fine as long as they are providing you service and you are providing them money. But other than that … oh lord! Good luck! If you can’t get your mom or Vonage to do anything, as a last resort, I would cancel your credit card (or just have them reissue you another one with a different number – citing fraudulent charges on the old one).
Sort of agree, sort of don’t with Cole. I feel your pain because our mother’s are a lot alike. Yet, Vonage can put a stop to this, but they know if they don’t they’ll have to find their next payment.
On the flip side go to your mother’s house, sit down at the computer and force it out of her. Or simply call her and tell her to do so NOW and if she does not, cut her off. You drive her to see your brother’s correct? Stop. Stop bailing her out.
Kristy,
we did this method one time. It was more like the card expiration date fell at the right time and we were sick of fighting with the company over a $30.00 a month charge. It was stamps.com btw. They refused to acknowledge our cancellation of services. So when the card expired it went in our favor because it bounced the billing back at them.
This was our debit card. About 6 months later we got an unexpected large amount taken out of our account because they had called the bank and told them that the card expired and they did not have the correct details and that the automatic payment was bouncing on their end. They took the money out of our account.
The only reason we got our money back was because my aunt is the branch manager, apparently the company has every right to do this and get the money from their account. It took a lot of screaming that day to get actual cancellation proof and that’s what Jenn needs to do is get PROOF her info is off of there.
I’d bet her mom will tell her it is and then not change it. Why not let her give you her password and you can take care of changing the credit card details yourself?
Wow that sucks. What a bunch of assholes. Is there any way you can maybe call the number on the back of your credit/debit card and explain the situation? Maybe they can do something about it?
My mother did something kind of similar. Except it cost me well over $2,000. I took care of the problem only for her to go and do the same damn thing. Lord only knows how much I owe now.
Good luck in getting this resolved.
That’s absolutely ridiculous! Talk about red tape!
The physical theft you equated it to sound exactly right to me!
I don’t know what to suggested to hep you, but I’m sorry you’re in this situation and I hope you’re able to rectify it.
Ranee, that’s a good thing to know. I work at a bank and we manage our own debit cards. Had a company called and asked for information like that on an account, they would have had to jump through hoops for us to let them recover that debt. As “legal” as what they did was, we tend to try and side with our customer and at least contact them first before giving out pertinent information. That’s pretty crappy that they did that to you.
I wonder though, if she closed card for fraudulent charges, if her bank would do that. Usually that puts enough of an alert on the card for the bank to at least be aware that they need to contact Jenn before authorizing any charges to the account.
Regardless, Jenn, I definitely feel for you. I hope all works out in your favor! LOL Maybe you can be sneaky and get your Mom’s info – look in her purse or something. :-)
Contact your creditcard company and get a chargeback.
Have you tried calling up the company that your credit card is with and telling them that those charges from Vonage are fraudulent for that account number? (I’m not sure how Vonage works, but for my cell provider, it shows up with the account number on the bill each month.) That way your credit card company will stop the transaction and Vonage can contact her for new billing information.
I can’t believe she’s doing this to you, absolutely absurd that she would go ahead and intentionally steal from her daughter. Seriously, refuse to help her out in the future with money. It’s really not worth the trouble if she’s going to use you like this.
How about just phoning and pretend to be your mother. In form them that you with to stop automatic billing on the credit card and would rather be billed monthly through the mail and it will be dealt with then?
I once had to phone and pretend to be an old high school friend, as we had a cell phone together when in High school and a few years after high school I wanted to change up the account information to a month to month instead of pay-as-you-go plan…
It is worth trying to do …
I thought of that too Aidan. I think she should try that and hope that it works. I can’t believe it’s gone on so long and they are refusing her the money.
Kristy,
Believe me, I ripped them good. My aunt ripped them as well. She tends to think as you do. Had it happened at her branch she would never have sided with the company without first talking to the customer. The kicker was that after she did this and had the money reversed back into my account I didn’t give it a second thought. I wasn’t hard up for cash and it didn’t cause anything to bounce or anything like that.
About a month later I checked my account out of curiosity. It wasn’t there. I called her up and questioned her again, she looked into my account with me on the phone and then called the main branch and demanded it was deposited RIGHT THEN. Within like an hour it was showing up on my online banking thing.
Had it not been for her or someone like her at a nearby branch I’d have been screwed out of over $100.00. All because Stamps.com did the whole we think her card was stolen and cannot reach her to fix this plea with a stupid CSR, and they had the right to apparently.
Another thing to try is flat out stating you will bring legal action against them if the card is billed again. They cannot legally bill your card if you, as the card holder, have told them not to. Then follow up with calling the card company and reporting the fraudulent charges immediately.
Ranee,
I am having major problems with Stamps.com right now. They are attempting to bill a debit card that has been closed for over 2 years now and refuse to cancel service that I never even signed up with. In fact, the e-mail address they send to is not even an active e-mail address, nor has it ever been! Glad you got that straightened out!
I would definitely file a complaint with my credit card company. If you have these conversations documented, most card companies will assist. Vonage will just have to back bill your mom. The same thing happened to me when my husband and I split and it was decided he’d keep the account.