Here's my VOIP phone story:
I signed up for Lingo on August 13, 2004. They've never sent me equipment and they've never let me quit.
Here's what has happened. I've kept very careful records.
No equipment had been received by September 9, 2004. So I called to cancel. I was put on hold by the "cancellation team."
Called numerous times to get through to the cancellation team. Finally got through to someone named Michelle after days and days of calling. This was on September 17.
She put me on three way hold to see if she as an employee could get through to the cancellation team. She was not able to do so.
Michelle put a note in her file saying I had been trying to cancel for weeks after she personally tried to get through to the cancellation team 3 times.
By the time I spoke with Michelle, I had spoken to 7 different people all with one objective in mind, to cancel.
Keep in mind that I never received equipment so I could not possibly make VOIP phone calls.
On September 24, 2004, an employee called John tried to get me through to the cancellation team. He failed.
I finally got a phone call from the cancellation team on September 28,
2004. Presumably this employee successfully cancelled me but this is when the horror really started.In early September, I wrote to my credit card company, MBNA, and disputed the charge on my card.
The charge was 39.90 from August 14 and MBNA reversed it since I had never received equipment, had since canceled, and could not possibly make phone calls.
In total, Primus Telecommunications has charged my card a total of 4 times successfully. In addition, it has made other unsuccessful attempts as well.
Each time the charge on my card has been reversed by MBNA. So far, Primus Telecommunications has received zero dollars from me and has in turn given me zero telephone service.
Today, I received a letter saying I've got 10 days to pay Primus Telecommunications 61.99 or they turn me over to a collection agency.
Here's an excerpt from the letter:
********** Start of Excerpt **********Our records indicate that some of your invoices with our company have still not been paid. We want to give you a final opportunity to pay your outstanding bills before we forward them to a collection agency. If we do not hear from you in 10 business days, we will have no alternative but to send your account to a collection service, which may influence your credit rating or result in legal action.
************** End of Excerpt ***********Any suggestions? Do I call a lawyer or the local television station to be interviewed?
What would you do if you were in my situation?
Ed
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is just my opinion, but I would say don't worry about the collection agency unless you feel like giving them a hard time as well. Remember, an agressive debtor is the best kind of debtor, and you are the 'debtor' in this situation. They (collection agency) are hoping to make at least _some profit_ from this account which was placed with them by the VOIP company. Let them see how unrealistic that idea is. Yeah, I would say call an attorney -- but don't file suit; let Lingo file the suit, which is doubtful, then you _counter sue_ which is always better. That action alone will blow them out of the water, if they are typical of most collection agencies, which frankly expect their bluster alone will convince you to cooperate. And if Lingo induced you to provide them with a credit card number but then had no intention of supplying you with an adapter, which it sounds like to me, that amounts to fraud.Do you have any tracking numbers from the shipment Lingo was supposed to send you? Insist that Lingo prove someone signed for the adapter, and how many times did you say they have attempted to charge your account? Three or four times? That's how many instances of attempted fraud they have committed if they cannot ever prove where they sent you the adapter. PAT]