IP phone man's Vonage hell
Vonage has apologised after coding slip-ups caused one of its customers to be billed 80 times - at a cost £5.99 per occasion - for changes to accounts that didn't belong to him. Reg reader and UK-based small businessman Tom came to us with his problems last week after he found out he was able to see other customers' account details and credit card information when he logged into his Vonage account. The IP telephony firm had changed his number so many times that his Linksys router had given up to the ghost. To add insult to injury, Tom discovered he'd been billed scores of times for changes to other people's accounts. Other customers were subsequently assigned numbers temporarily given to Tom. Another UK-based customer, Jeremy, was assigned a virtual number Tom had paid for, as a way of transferring calls when the latter moved business premises. Last week, Jeremy began receiving other peoples' calls. When Jeremy logged onto his account online, he saw Tom's details and contacted him. Jeremy told us that unlike Tom he hadn't suffered much inconvenience as a result of the problem. "I may have missed a few calls so it's a little inconvenient, but I conduct most of my business online via email," Jeremy told El Reg Tom told us he'd been unable to receive voice mails for 18 months since becoming a Vonage customer, a problem he attributes to the phone number merry-go-round he's been forced to endure. The problem peaked last week when he was able to see one of five other customer's personal and billing details at random when he logged into his account. more>>>