Phone Hell

My saga of phone insanity just keeps getting better worse stupider. The Vonage adapter I bought on eBay arrived within two days, which was great. But I could not get it to properly configure itself so the phone line worked. Yesterday I was poking around the support area of the Vonage web site (on my lunch break, okay?) and I realized that I had missed a step. All the adapters have an alphanumeric code on the bottom which must be entered so the adapter is "assigned" to your phone line, and I had completely forgotten about that.

When I got home last night, I immediately went to Vonage's site to enter the code. I received a message saying it was not a valid code, so I called customer service. Yes, Vonage has actual, living, sentient humans who offer tech support, and as near as I can tell, they are not in India. (Instead of numeric menu options, you have to wade through a few minutes of an insipid "helper" voice that can only be parsed by speaking your requests. I hate these things, but that's a topic for another time.)

The guy I talked to sounded like he was from South Carolina. It turned out that the adapter I'd just bought on eBay is still assigned to another person's account. Whoever that person is doesn't owe Vonage any money, but their account is still considered active, so there is no way I can use this adapter on it unless the person cancels their service or deactivates this device. Yay. Of course, Vonage will not contact that customer on my behalf, and they certainly will not give me the person's contact info.

How does this happen? I'm guessing, but I think I know. The adapter appeared to be unused, with everything wrapped in plastic and packed... in a plain white box. Electronics and computer products in plain boxes usually indicate one of two things: either it's an OEM product (sort of like wholesale, like if you get a cable modem or DVR from your cable company, they get it from whoever makes it in a plain box, versus retail packaging) or, more likely in my situation, a refurb product. Refurbs get repackaged and resold in plain boxes. I don't know how the seller acquired this one, but he also claimed it was unused, so either he didn't know, or he lied.

I have contacted him, not to ask for a refund, but to see if he happens to know the person he got this adapter from. I don't really care about the money, because it was only a few bucks, but if he does know who was using it before, there might be a chance of getting that person to deactivate their account, or at least this device. Long shot, I know, and I doubt I'll get any results that way. But I have to try, that's just how I am. And maybe I'll help prevent someone else from making the mistake I've made.