I opened a new VM account in June of '08. I'd been an existing customer for over a year. I paid the initial payment to activate the phone on June 12th. The phone is a pre-paid monthly and was activated after an hour using my bank card.
On July 12th I paid an additional $71.50 for July's service. On July 23rd an additional $71.47 was taken from my bank account by VM. I contacted them about the "double charge" and after being disconnected 3 times a rep told me that had no record of the July 23rd charge. I asked to speak to a supervisor and ironically enough it was the same rep pretending to be a supervisor aand he told me the same thing. So I decided to dispute the charge with my bank on July 25th.
When August came I paid out the new month's charge on the 12th as the dipute with my bank was still under investigation. My bank gave me the $71.47 back pending resolution. Keep in mind that this was the bank's money not the money that was l aready paid to VM on July 23rd.
On August 23rd, about 2 weeks after I paid for the month, VM suspended my account. I spoke with countless reps who all stated that they never received my June payment. Finally I was able to get a threeway call with my bank, VM and myself and it was concluded that even though they had activated my phone in June, they never charged my account until July 23rd. It was crazy to me that they would take the money a whole month and a half later, but I did understand where that assumed double charge came from. So I dropped the dispute.
However, VM still has not turnd my phone back o, stating they were never paid. I was advised to fax over my bank statement, account #, copy of ID and against my better judgement I did as they asked. Still no phone. When I called VM back ALL the reps were rude, I was hung up on several times and those who didn't hang up stuck to the notion they were never paid and said I needed to get a reversal from my bank. My bank finally ent them confirmation that the item was paid out to VM, and after faxes from them and myself, plus two unanswered emails my phone is still off. I have paid for 3 months of service and only got two.
It is something very shady about a company who has no means of communication with their finance department. The only way to contact them was via fax or email, and without speaking to an actual person there is no way to know if they are working on a resolution. I actually believe there is no such department, that these reps are not located in the U. S and sit in one small room that they operate from. There has to be some way to shut down VM because they are consistently ripping people off under the guise of a trusting, legit company. I advise anyone opting for a pre-paid monthly to try T-mobile's flex pay plan. I have a new T-mobile contract plan and the reps so far are very cordial. No problems as of yet.
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