I signed up for Lingo some time ago in the hope of reducing my phone bill from the $80/Month Verizon is charging me. I ported my Verizon number as was off and running. I had a number of problems at first, but being in the Telecom industry at the time, I was quite understanding.
Right away I started having intermittent 1-way voice problems, no dial tone, people calling my cell saying that they could not call my house. Then my VoIP (Lingo) device failed completely. I mean it just wouldn't even power up.
Again, I am a technician by trade, so the 1st thing I did was check the 'Power brick', which was good. I checked it's rated output, and tested it at the connection point. The device was DOA.
Troubleshooting with the helpdesk was torturous. This guy is asking me to disconnect this, bypass that. Everything on his checklist for morons. After about an hour of him wasting my time, he finally said what I had said an hour earlier - "sounds like you need a new unit".
So now here I am with no phone service in my home at all. You would expect any decent service provider to attempt to get you up & running ASAP not Lingo. It took them a couple of says to process the order, and then they ship it snail express.
After more than a week with NO voice line in my home at all, I finally get the replacement VoIP adaptor. I hook it up (using the OLD power brick) and it works like a champ I put the new brick on anyway just because they sent a complete kit.
That evening the 1-way voice issues started again. I could hear my callers fine, but they couldn't hear me at all. The sound quality was erratic. Sometimes crystal clear, other times quite garbled - typical of a transport issue known as jitter'. By this point I consider my little experiment with Lingo a failure.
Here is where the fun begins.
When I left Verizon, they stopped billing me the same day Lingo ported my number over. It makes sense, since I no longer had a phone number associate with their phone line. Now when I had it ported BACK to Verizon, Lingo never cancelled my account. So here I sit 6 months later getting threatening e-mail from Lingo that they are going to send me to collection.
I called customer service and tried to reach a mutually agreeable solution to the situation. All they say is that in the subscriber agreement, it states that the only way to terminate service is to actually call them, or terminate the service online.
Are you kidding me?
How can you bill me for a service aI don't have? I mean if there is no phone number associated with the account, how can you say I am still active. OK, blame me for not reading every inch of the fine print. I am willing to throw them $20, even $40 begrudgingly to make them go away.
I will accept some culpability in this situation even though any REASONABLE company would say You know what Mr *, you're right. We will credit your account and close it.
These people just recite the same line over and over again. Well, I am not paying and plan on contacting a lawyer. I can't see how it's legal to bill me for a service that isn't usable.
Closing thoughts, STAY AWAY FROM LINGO AT ALL COSTS!!!
Goto usacomplaints.com and search Lingo. You will see all sorts of billing BS including people going through hell when they terminate their service event before the 30 free trial expires. I wish I checked here 1st.
You have been warned, I hope you heed my advise.
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