My telephone provider informed me that I had a third-party provider charge on my bill and that if I had not authorized it, I may want to call. My husband and I often alternate on taking care of the bills, so I did not notice this charge that had occurred over a period of two months.
Upon contacting this company, the representative was on the defense immediately when I asked how this ended up on my bill. She claimed I had authorized it, and when I asked when and how, she said, "I have your signature on the contract RIGHT HERE." I further asked "where is right here?" and got more defensiveness and no answers. Knowing I would not get far if I didn't take care of the cancellation first... I asked that it be removed from my bill. This representative said she couldn't do that. I never raised my voice, but did tell her that she could do that, and if not, I needed to speak to someone else. She then asked me to stop yelling at her and calm down... Yelling at me of course. I got her to agree to take the charges off and then asked her to take me step by step through how I authorized this.
She told me that they sent me an e-mail. I told her I had not replied to an e-mail, at which she told me I didn't have to reply. Confused, I prodded for more information. I then asked her if I didn't reply to an e-mail, how is it possible I agreed to a contract? She told me that by not "opting out" in the e-mail, you are agreeing to be charged these fees.
So, basically, this is their scam. Despite the fact that your anti-spam filter or even e-mail rules may keep you from ever seeing this e-mail, this company is slamming people for erroneous and most likely non-existent services when you SIMPLY don't opt out from their UNSOLICITED e-mail. How this can be legal, I am unsure.
I spoke with them again today, because I had to call for a third charge. The first representative I spoke with said I couldn't call back until I actually received the bill. I was also told that it could take up to three billing cycles to refund these charges, which is completely unacceptable in a legitimate business.
My phone company told me to put a "pick-freeze" on my account so that I can keep other companies from slamming me. I didn't realize I had to do this, but basically, what this action does is it tells your phone company you want them and them only as your provider and until you verbally or in writing tell them otherwise, no other company can provide those services. This prompts them to contact you should someone attempt to bill on this account. You wouldn't think you would need to do this, but people do actually authorize some changes, so in order for them to know you do not want it changed is to use this "pick-freeze" action.
I highly doubt I will ever get the money back. The charges show they are billed on the behalf of Voicenet Telephone and they charge $1.42 for a "Universal Service Fund" and then $12.95 for "More Minutes Monthly Fee" and the final charge is. 79 for "Local Communication Services Tax" for a grand total of $15.16. Not a huge amount, but it amounts to a lot over time and if they are doing this to millions of unsuspecting consumers, they are making millions.
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