sometimes, you can’t cancel (Part III)
December 18th, 2007
I called my VOIP service provider to cancel my account 2 weeks ago, but today I received an email stating that they were billing me for another month. As I type this, I’m on hold with Kriti, the representative of my VOIP service provider, and she is trying to find a record that I called to cancel my account.
Okay, Kriti is back on the line. She found a record that I called in April, but she says that because I received an equipment rebate, I had to continue with their services for a minimum of six months, and then I could cancel without paying the disconnect fee of $44. Well, six months has come and gone, and she still wants to charge me a disconnect fee. At this point, I’ve already paid more than $44 in the monthly charges since the time I initially called to cancel (in April, btw).
So I offered to send the equipment back to her. I haven’t used the Vonage equipment since February or March, so it is in near-new condition. But, she said, no, don’t bother to send it back to us. So I replied, oh, the equipment has no value to you? Right, she said. Well then why don’t you NOT charge me the disconnect fee, since there is no value in the equipment? We went around on that topic for a few minutes, I gave her some quick calculations to show that I would have been better off paying the disconnect fee back in April when I initially called to cancel, she acknowledged that my math was good, and she said math doesn’t matter, that I have a user agreement and terms of service that say I have to pay anyway. Well, the legal writing in terms of service always trumps math and logic, so she had me there.
End result is I am STILL a VOIP customer, but the next two months are FREE! And after that, I have to call to cancel, again.
Anyone need a VOIP adapter?
Oh yeah, one more comment on this ordeal. I think the Amish are really on to something.
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