On May 1st, I purchased a $15.00 AT&T Go Phone "card" from the site www.pinzoo.com. I am exceptionally careful about whom I do business with on the internet and what information I put out there (like who I give my cell phone number, but it is a requirement at this site). Within a matter of moments of purchasing my time (okay, it's not "time, " it was $15 towards my $2/ a day unlimited "plan" with AT&T), I was signed up for a $9.99/mo. Messaging service, providing "inspirational Christian messages." I discovered the nature of this "service" from AT&T, not Pinzoo. The only place that my number could have been garnered was from Pinzoo. I would NOT sign up for this sort of service (I am NOT a Christian). This service ate up the bulk of the airtime I had purchased. I was not notified I had been signed up with any sort of message, and only discovered the full amount I had put on my phone wasn't there when I went to use it two days later, and was informed by the AT&T recording telling me I had insufficient funds on my account to make a call to Canada (the call usually costs 19 cents). I contacted Pinzoo (twice, by email) and they chose to do nothing about this. AT&T was nice enough to refund my money and credit it to my phone, despite the fact that it wasn't their fault (but Pinzoo's under-handed billing of my account). This is speculation, but Pinzoo must have some sort of arrangement with the provider of this wonderful, can't live without it service... A percentage of funds received from everyone that they scam at the time of purchase? I cannot say enough in warning of Pinzoo's shady business practice. Pinzoo might seem like a vendor to save some loose change with by purchasing your airtime online (about two pennies on the dollar), but when they sign you up for bogus services, your entire purchase may be blown for some silly, worthless service provided by a shifty third party. If this is the cost of skipping out on taxes by dealing with Pinzoo instead of AT&T's online store or the local stop and shop, it goes beyond not being worth it and becomes downright criminal.
Talk about your low-down scams!
Shame on Pinzoo for not rectifying the situation once it was brought to their attention. Thank goodness AT&T cares about the folks who use their products and their public image. They fixed something that was CLEARLY Pinzoo's doing.
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