Integretel tried billing me for $29.95 per month for a website from BestWebUSA.
Who? What??!! I never ordered a website, so the only information on it might be a name and a telephone number. Gee, I really want to spend money on that! I never heard of BestWebUSA!
An Internet search turned up no website. A support e-mail to BestWebUSA got no reply whatsoever. A call to Integretel was answered by someone insisting that I ordered a website. Whoa! They had a tape of one of the employees???
Seems that BestWebUSA had called while I was out and told this employee that they worked for our "real" telephone company and that was who was extending this "offer for a free thirty day trial website". He told them that they would need to call back when I was there as I make all those decisions and he could not answer "yes" or "no".
The BestWebUSA "pseudo phone company" employee then said he needed a tape "just to verify to his superiors that he had contacted us with the offer so he would be paid".
The tape is then used by Integretel to verify that you DID order a website! How slick is that?
The Integretel employee told me to pay it this month and they would credit it back next month. Yeah, right! I read this site, and know that Integretel is often synonymous with Big Trouble. Getting money back from them after they have it in their greedy hands is like finding hen's teeth.
Since every phone number I have is listed on the FTC's National Do-Not-Call registry, BestWebUSA should have never called in the first place.
Complaint number one went to the FTC. I believe the fine can be up to $11,000.00 per violation. Too bad for them!
The second complaint went to the Attorney General of Arkansas, who oddly enough, already had reports of the same scam. It seemed to be running rampant in this area.
The third complaint went to the phone company, who graciously removed the charge. I also informed the CSR that this BestWebUSA employee had masqueraded as one of their employees. She was aware that this was happening as well.
I also urged them to consider permanently severing their billing relationship with Integretel and referred her to this site.
I have since received a letter from the Attorney General's office detailing how BestWebUSA handled the offending employee. They claim to have fired him. I have no way to verify that and I feel he is still out there making these phone calls.
They lied in a big way once, so I am using that as a guide to the veracity of their claim.
The pertinent line in the letter is the one where they say "The website (?) has been taken down and the billing will not reappear". We'll see.
I will fax that letter to the phone company should this billing reappear on my phone bill. That will undoubtedly put an end to it once and for all.
I don't think BestWebUSA will be calling anytime soon, but I received another call from yet another company just recently trying to "verify my online listing". And then came the "free thirty day website trial offer".
And then I told her about my "Three Easy Step" method to rid myself of such an offer. At which point she bade me have a nice day and hung up.
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