United On-Line - NetZero - Mitchell Ohlman
Faulty software cost me $1050.00 in long distance charges, ripoff!

I am having a conflict with the internet company, Netzero. I had used them in the past with no trouble and I understand how to set up my account (choosing and verifying local access numbers), but this time, something went wrong with their software and it chose to bypass my selected local access numbers and used long distance numbers instead. This problem cost me $1050.00 in long distance charges for a one month period.

I submitted all my information to netzero for their review and asked them to reimburse me the money. They sent me a confirmation email saying that my case was under revue, but after waiting over a month to hear from them, I finally had to call their corporate headquarters (818-287-3000) to get some answers.

I again had to fax my documentation to Mitchell Ohlman (mitchell@netzero.net 818-287-3075) and it went under review again. After waiting another month, Mitchell called to tell me that they reviewed my case and determined that Netzero was not liable for my long distance bill because according to the AT&T long distance phone bill that I faxed to him (containing the numbers that were responsible for the long distance charges) they never provided me with the numbers that were responsible for the long distance charges. I asked him who did provide me with them then, to which he responded I don't know".

Now this is where I actually trapped them in their own words and realized that they were only making excuses to avoid reimbursing me the $1050.00. I then told Mitchell that I could prove Netzero provided me with those numbers by sending him screen captures of the Netzero software installed on my computer which clearly shows all the numbers that he said they never provided me with. At this point, he asked me to hold on the phone while he went to bring this to his superior's attention.

When he came back, he asked if I would send him those screen captures and they would review my case again. Well why would they need to review the case again when they already determined that they aren't liable because they never provided me with those numbers? Well I did send him the captures, but I knew at this point that I made a mistake doing so because now they had my best evidence against them and they would just start preparing a new strategy to avoid reimbursing me the $1050.00.

Well 5 days later they did come back with a new point of view on this case, saying that yes, Netzero did in fact provide me with those numbers but that I somehow accessed them and therefore, they aren't liable and so now I'm writing to you for your help. To me, it's very clear that Netzero is utilizing poor business practices the fact that they changed their stance after I proved the results of their first investigation were wrong, show that they are not an honorable company.

Some other things that I need to address concerning this matter are that all of my contacts with Netzero and Mitchell, were done over the speaker phone with two of my friends listening to the conversation. My friends can verify that all I'm telling you is true Mitchell, from Netzero can even verify this because he spoke with them also. The other thing is that those numbers which accrued the long distances charges were never selected by me.netzero's first investigation never accused me of selecting these numbers myself they just denied providing me with those numbers.

Now that I've proven them wrong, they've changed their position to say they did provide me with those numbers, but I selected them. I did not select them I know how to set up a dial up connection and the numbers that I selected were local and I had them verified by my local phone service provider as local, and not one of these numbers that I selected is on my long distance bill! Netzero's software has got to be at fault here, bypassing my selected local numbers and rerouting to the long distance numbers instead.

One other area of interest after I became aware of this problem with my Netzero dial up connection, I had a long distance block put on this phone line to stop all long distance calls, and this did indeed stop the long distance charges even though I continued to use the Netzero software to access the internet.

Frank
Beacon, New York
U.S.A.

Company: United On-Line - NetZero - Mitchell Ohlman
Country: USA
State: California
City: Woodland Hills
Address: 21301 Burbank Blvd
Phone: 8182873000

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