Bertram Communications

I have now had Bertram as my internet provider for approximately 2 months. I have the Freedom 450 and have had no issues. We live in a rural area and no one would come to us so we were using a hot spot with limited internet. We are now able to watch Netflix, download, upload and my son is on xbox live. I had to contact costumer service/tech support on two occasions and have had no issues with them resolving or answering my questions for me. I would recommend them.

Review: We have had Bertram as Internet provider for past 8 years. Only provider available in our area.

We complained for several years, and a few weeks ago were told our problem is due to Bergtram overselling the capabilities of the tower. Paying for 3mb only getting 1mb or less.

They told us they now have new technology that will eliminate the issue. We agreed to upgrade and they did discount the equipment but it still was an additional expense plus higher monthly fees.

Now on several occassions the new equipment is not working and we have no internet.Desired Settlement: Very important for my work to have reliable internet.

They have a monopoly in our area so they don't seem to care.

I see several other complaints with similar issues.

Business

Response:

Our customer had a service call scheduled for today (06/01/15) from the tech support call they placed on Saturday (05/30/15). Customer has agreed to trim some trees, which will affect signal, especially after heavy rains. I contacted the customer before and after the service call and have given the customer my direct line in case there are ever any further issues. We did comp the cost of the service call and the customer is satisfied with our efforts at this time.

Review: This business has not provide the internet service that was paid forDesired Settlement: refund of installation cost and half of all payments made to the company

Business

Response:

Our customer has had service with us since June of 2008. He has been on our basic 768K X 256K speed plan until 10/13/15, when he tried out our 2M X 768K speed plan. In July 2013, we tried to upgrade the equipment to a different frequency capable of higher speeds. This was not successful due to line of sight obstacles; the existing 900mHz equipment was built to penetrate these more effectively. In December 2013 we applied a $10 monthly discount for a one year period which expired in December 2014. Our customer has an annual contract which renews on June 11th. On 04/12/2015 we sent our customer a notification that his contract would automatically renew on 06/11/15 unless he contacted us to cancel service. We received several calls in October 2015 from our customer with speed issues. We sent out a tech and waived the $50.00 fee for a service on 10/06/15 to make adjustments to improve the service. Our customer's account was due to shut off for delinquency on 10/13/15 for non-payment. We applied a grace period through 10/16/15 for payment. This was not made and the account went delinquent on 10/16/15. Our customer did pay on 10/18/15 and we removed the $25.00 late fee. Our customer was still experiencing issues so we again sent a tech out, waiving the $50.00 fee again for a service call on 10/20/15. Our customers stats were improved, but there was still some interference occurring. We are still looking at identifying the source of the interference to see if we can make adjustments to avoid the frequency being affected. Our customer has used an average of 22.5GB of data per month over the last year on the slower 768K plan.Our customer used 18GB of data in October. The service has worked within the confines of the speed of the plan and the 900mHz antenna equipment necessary due to tree coverage until recently. We have sent out techs for service calls to try to eliminate our customer's service issues and are still working on this now. We are willing to wipe the balance owed on our customer's account for November and December service and release him from his 06/11/16 contract and waive the $250.00 early termination fee. We will also pick up the equipment and waive the $50.00 pick up fee. We are actively working on finding a solution to the interference issue our customer has been experiencing and will continue to do so until it is remedied.

Business

Response:

We have not at any time

breached our contract; our speeds are defined in our contract as:"THROUGHPUT RATES Provider does not guarantee that Customer will

obtain the Maximum Throughput Rate for the Services at any given time or on a

continuous basis. The Throughput Rate experienced at any time will be affected

by a number of factors, including the nature of the Internet and its protocols,

our facilities, the bandwidth Provider devotes to carriage of protocol and

network information, the condition and configuration of our Equipment or

Customer Owned Equipment at Customer’s location, whether Customer uses an

in-home Wi-Fi network (which can significantly limit the Throughput Rate

obtained by devices attached to it), Provider’s use of Network Management Tools,

data volume and congestion on Provider’s network and the Internet, the time of

day Customer is using the Services, the performance of the website servers

Customer attempts to access, and the priority, if any, Provider gives to

business subscribers’ data traffic and specialized services Provider delivers

using Provider’s equipment."Our customer’s contract

expires yearly on 06/21 and he has had the option to not renew his contract

with us every year and has not done so.Our Contract Termination policy

is defined in our contract as follows:“TERMINATION Per

the accompanying Services Agreement, Services shall automatically renew on an

annual basis on the month and day that initial service was activated, once the

initial contract term has been fulfilled, unless Customer provides written

notice of termination no less than 30 days prior to expiration of the term.

Provider shall provide written notice to Customer of such automatic renewal at

least 30 days but no more than 60 days prior to the scheduled effective date of

the automatic renewal, and such automatic renewal notice shall be sent by

Provider via e-mail to the Customer’s designated home or business e-mail

address. Termination notices must be sent by Customer via email, fax, or U.S.

Mail to Provider’s then current address as published on Provider’s website

and/or set forth in the Agreement; in addition, all equipment and software

furnished by Provider to Customer must be returned by Customer to Provider

within 30 days of expiration of the term; failing the same, Customer shall

continue to be charged his/her/its monthly fees for all Services. In the event

of early termination (prior to expiration of the term), Customer shall be

charged the greater of an early cancellation fee of $250.00 or the balance due

(based on Customer’s regular monthly fees to be assessed) for the remainder of

the term. All cancellation fees including pick-up, damaged radio, early

termination, and late charges will be automatically charged the credit card on

file.”

Consumer

Response:

Review: Bertram Wireless continues to draw payments from us after 3 separate requests made in writing and 4 phone calls.

None of my phone calls has been returned and none of the request for cancellation have be processed.

Business

Response:

In response to our customer's complaint; we have been working with them to complete the cancellation process with no early termination fees, or equipment pick up fee. We have refunded the payments made from December and January and apologize the equipment has not been picked up. We have to schedule one of tower certified climbers to perform this and will do so as soon as possible. Our customer will not be billed any further.

Business

Response:

In response to our customer's complaint; we have been working with them to complete the cancellation process with no early termination fees, or equipment pick up fee. We have refunded the payments made from December and January and apologize the equipment has not been picked up. We have to schedule one of tower certified climbers to perform this and will do so as soon as possible. Our customer will not be billed any further.

Review: I moved to a new house in August. I had service with Bertram wireless ( http://www.bertramwireless.com/). I called and had someone come out to transfer the service to my new home. The gentleman that helped me was kind enough to let me know before he even set it up, that the service would not work properly from my new house. He recommended that I end the service and go with satellite for internet because it would be the only thing that worked. I did this, and two months later I realized that Bertram was still taking the money out of my account. I called to inquire why they were taking money out when I ended there service. They said that I still had a two year contract. However, I explained that I tried to transfer there service however, I was told by there company that it wouldn't work at my new house and therefore my contract should be ended. She came back at me EXTREMELY RUDE that you had a contract, and it wasn't there fault that I moved. This was incredibly rude and not at all how you treat customers and do customer service. I explained the situation again and how it was not at all fair that I continue to pay $40 a month for a service that I am not longer receiving due to them not working at my new house. The company did nothing to help and instead to continued to be rude. This is not how a company should treat a customer. There is no reason that I should pay that, I didn't break the contract just to break it. It should be valid to leave if there company comes and out looks at the service and declares it doesn't work.Desired Settlement: I would like to be refunded the 3 months since I had ended there service. ($135)

Business

Response:

Have had the "pleasure" of dealing with this ISP for several years (due to lack of alternative), however, I have not had the pleasure of my internet working properly for more than a week.

Let's start with service.

The tech support (which you'll be in touch with often) is extremely clueless and will try to run you around useless troubleshooting for an hour or two before they'll finally "escalate" the issue. They'll take your number and tell you that you will be receiving a call back.

You won't. And if you're lucky, you might even get your service temporarily fixed. I've called several times on the same exact issue, going through the same troubleshooting over and over again, and the best I get is a 2 week wait for a temporary fix that works for half a day before I end up getting the same issue yet again.

Their hardware must be pretty weak too, because during low traffic hours (e.g. 2am), I still get frequent dips below 1/8th my paid service speed. Pair that with frequent connection drops (unless you call to remind them to restart their Playskool's my first ethernet switch), and you end up with internet that becomes painful to use for: watching streams/videos, listening to music, playing games (unless you enjoy your connection not existing for several seconds at a time), voice chatting, etc.

Only thing this ISP has going for it over dial-up within country areas is that it doesn't take 20 minutes to load google. That is, of course, you're not experiencing total loss of service, which happens much too often. Sometimes it'll be fixed in 5 minutes, sometimes it'll be gone for half a day.

Maybe if they hired anybody with any experience that gave half a crap, it might be a useful service, but in its current state I will never refer this ISP to anybody.

Review: I called to cancel service with Bertram Wireless in April of 2013 after 16+ months of never ending connectivity and speed issues. During my call, I was informed that there was a 30 day notification requirement and that I would have to be billed an additional month because the billing period would end in a week. I told the representative that was fine, but drop my account down to the lowest service tier available (~$30/mo) as I would not need the $85/mo gamer plan they were charging me for. The representative said they would do that and said that I would need to send in (via fax or mail) written notification confirming that I desired to cancel. On 04/26/2013 at 10:44:45 AM I faxed in a written statement requesting cancellation and requesting a service change to the lowest tier. I have a fax confirmation as well as an e-mail from [redacted]" in their billing department stating their regret that I elected to cancel my service which confirms they received my notification.

In spite of that notification, Bertram continued to bill me for their service. On June 3rd, I e-mailed Bertram (and [redacted]") complaining that I was still being billed, that they had not reduced the service level as I had requested for my final month. This was in response to an e-mail I had received from [redacted]" asking if there was anything they could do to retain me as a customer. In an e-mail dated 06/03/13 [redacted]" stated they would send someone out to retrieve their equipment (didn't state there would be a charge for the service) and that she would investigate having $120 (plus a $50 service fee) for an upgraded antenna one of their techs had installed and charge me for which didn't correct the problems I was having as they claimed it would. I heard nothing back.

On 08/03/13 I received a bill for $509.74 which included months of service (because I had removed their ability to directly debit my bank account) along with an abandoned equipment fee. This was a complete surprise to me because I had been told by [redacted]" they would send someone out to get their equipment. I called in today (08/07/2013) to speak to [redacted]" and find out why I was still being charged a monthly service charge and for abandoned equipment when she told me that *THEY* would retrieve the equipment on their own (and never disclosed a fee for that retrieval). Lauren asserted that there was a $52 dollar fee for the equipment pickup and that they had corrected the prior two months of incorrect billing. She said there was nothing she could do about the mistake in May or the $52 service fee. I asked to speak to a supervisor in regard to those issues. I proposed to the supervisor that I would let the billing mistake go if they would pay for the equipment removal. She refused. We then argued for the next 20+ minutes as she claimed that I hadn't notified them until May 27th about my intention to cancel (even though I have both FAX and E-mail evidence to the contrary). When I asked if this needed to be settled in court she stated "that was fine" then proceeded to threaten me with additional charges claiming that somehow I owed them more than I had paid them over the past 18 months because I had a home-based business that occasionally made use of their network. She also threatened me with billing me for the remainder of the two-year contract. Which as admitted by one of their service persons earlier in the year, they can not uphold on their end as their network can no longer produce a viable signal to my property. I have never seen a company respond to such a reasonable request with such overbearing vitriol. That representative lied right to my face about multiple issues. She lied about when my cancellation request was sent/received. She also attempted to lie about having been provided for the month of May... trying to make me believe that they had already provided the refund I had called to request.

I have also seen how Bertram has responded to similar complaints and before they respond to this with a bunch of talk about line of sight and how they have the right to bill even though they can't deliver their service, I would like to say that I am well versed in computer and network technology, I understand Line-of-Sight and I have been over all of these issues with their technicians countless times over the past 18 months. Line-of-sight does not account for the problems we experienced with their service where we would lose connectivity (or our speed would be drastically reduced) during typical "high usage" periods of the day. During typical 9AM to 3PM the service would be fine, however anywhere between 3PM and 8PM (and all day on weekends) the network would go down or slow down to the point to which it was unusable. My equipment was also not to blame as it has been verified working with other providers. That is not a line-of-sight issue, it's a network capacity issue. The pure simple fact is that Bertram wireless has severe institutional problems and this rep's complete and utter overreaction to a simple request to fix a billing mistake on their part is simply the latest example.Desired Settlement: I called Bertram today in good faith to have a billing mistake THEY made corrected. The resolution I requested from them was that I would let the billing error go, if they would pay for the equipment removal (the costs essentially cancelled each other out). I also was letting go the $170 in costs for the antenna. Because the Bertram representative I spoke to chose to lie about the facts of this issue then threaten me with collections and back charging me (illegally) because they didn't like my challenging their billing mistake I am now requesting a refund of $307.00 for the Month of May, the upgraded antenna costs which did not correct the situation as claimed by Bertram's employees, and the $52 service charge I have to pay to have their equipment removed (even though [redacted]" never disclosed this fee). A formal apology for the thuggish attitude of their representative would be appreciated as well. Furthermore, provided all of this is accepted I want my customer information expunged and no further contact with their company.

Business

Response:

We are writing today about ID: [redacted]. Bertram Wireless has

researched this account and we would like to express our apologizes for

the misunderstanding. Please view our web site at WWW.BertramWireless.com.

We are very sorry you were not

told the pick up fee however it is stated in our "Terms and Conditions"

that if a service call is needed (in this case it would be needed to

pick up the receiver) it maybe a fee determined by Bertram Wireless.

Also, for more information on credits and our

service is stated there. What we are willing to do for you a credit

back $50.00 plus tax. We would like to thank you for your time today

and we are sorry for the misunderstanding.

Review: I spoke with [redacted] last August, of 2013 to cancel my service and at that time she let me know I had a contract until November 5th, but after that I would be okay to leave.

I called on May 15th, 2014 to inquire on my service. I spoke with a young man whom I think his name was either [redacted]. I let him know I was thinking about canceling my service because the speed is too slow. He told me that of course Bertram Wireless would like to keep me, but I was FREE TO LEAVE. He offered me one month of faster service for the same price, but I was not interested.

I called back a week later on May 23rd, 2014 to cancel my service. I spoke with [redacted]. She had [redacted] from Bertram Wireless call me.

After discussing my reasons for cancelling my account with [redacted], he then put my account on hold as he said he did not want to lose me as a customer. He told me I was still under a contract. We discussed this for approximately 20 minutes. he told me that after my 2 year contract was up that it automatically renews.

It clearly says the contract will renew "unless the parties agree otherwise." I DID NOT AGREE! By paying my monthly fee after the 2 year term, DOES NOT IMPLY AGREEMENT to another contract.

I told him I already had new service with another provider. I told him I did not want to be billed anymore. He told me that he would no longer be billing my account and that in the name of "good customer service" he was placing my account on hold. He did ask me to call him back in a week to see if I had changed my mind about leaving, but I let him know I would be gone on vacation and unable to do so. I told him I may come back in the future, but at this time I have new service, and that I was canceling. It's like he was refusing to let me cancel!

On June 13, 2014 [redacted] from Bertram Wireless emailed me in regards to cancelling my service. On June 17, 2014 I emailed her back to let her know it was already canceled. The same day [redacted] emailed me back apologizing for the misunderstanding and then proceeding to tell me my account was now on an away status. I emailed her back on June 20th 2014 re-iterating that I had cancelled on May 23rd 2014.

It is very stressful and time consuming dealing with this company. I am extremely disappointed in the customer service Bertram Wireless provides. I have been a loyal customer for two and a half years, they are now sending me bills that I do not agree to. The bottom line is that when I have called in the past I am told one thing, and then after I cancel, I am told another. I did not agree to another year of service and was told I had a 2 year contract, which I more than completed and paid.Desired Settlement: Cancel my service as per our agreement and reverse the charges

Business

Response:

In reply to Case ID: [redacted].

Every time a customer signs up to receive our internet service, each

customer agrees to our Contract and Terms unless the receiver is bought. [redacted] had signed a contract commencing on

11/5/11 to 11/5/2013. The contract

stated: “Unless the parties agree

otherwise, this Agreement will automatically renew for another year.” We will

supply a copy of this for your records.

Also, in case the customer forgets they did sign an agreement, our terms

are listed on the customer’s invoice. The

invoices states:

“Payment

can be made through the customer portal at

[redacted].

Please contact us

for login

information.

BY PAYING

THIS INVOICE YOU HEREBY AGREE TO

THE

CONTRACT AND USAGE POSTED AT

WWW.BERTRAMWIRELESS.COM

THE

SERVICES AGREEMENT SHALL AUTOMATICALLY

RENEW FOR

A SUCCESSIVE ONE-YEAR TERM

UNLESS YOU

PROVIDE WRITTEN NOTICE DECLINING

NO LESS

THAN 30 DAYS PRIOR TO EXPIRATION OF

TERM.”

The customer, [redacted], did receive this

invoice on October 1st 2013 at 3:10 A.M. [redacted] did pay their bill in accordance to

these terms. This means the customer

understood the Contract and agreed to another term. We are very sorry about the miscommunication

but this is legal contract with our company and the customer. It is clearly

stated to the customer by paper copy at the time of install, online at WWW.BertramWireless.com and it is sent as a reminder on their bill.

If the customer chooses to not pay out the

contract this account may go into collection status. However, we understand sometimes these terms

can be forgotten and we do allow payment plans to help the customer with their

bill. The manager on shift did help [redacted] save money by putting the account on

away status until she had time to think about the contract and if she wanted to

break it. This is something we can only

do for a few months. The customer never

called the manager back. When [redacted]

called the Customer Support Supervisor overseeing Cancellations she had stated to

her that she was going to bring in the receiver. [redacted] has not done this yet.

We would not mind again helping [redacted]

make a payment plan and we can schedule a pick up for her. The fee for a pick up is $50.00 plus tax. She is welcome to give us a call to set this

up. We are very sorry we cannot void the

contract however again we are willing to work with the customer. Thank you for your time and if you need

additional information please let us know.

Sincerely,

Bertram Wireless

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I do not agree with the response from Bertram Wireless. As I originally stated I was told several times by various employees that I had a 2 year contract and after that I was free to leave. In fact, when I called to inquire about cancelling on May 15th the young man whom I spoke with at Bertram actually told me that Time Warner Cable and Charter offered the higher speed at the price I was looking for. He told me I was free to leave because I had been with them for over 2 years.

Its a great internet service provider if your okay with extreme un-reliability. I have a package that I pay for every month for up to 3 Mbps and I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'm lucky I get 1mb service in the non-peak hours. Fraud.... Tonight like many, the service was so bad that my wife couldn't even upload college homework from home and has to wait to do it before work. Now that's 50bucks a month with a smile. They can't provide reliability, but are always willing to take on more and more customers....how about taking care of the ones that you already have? I can see the tower from my house, so distance is no issue.... What a scam.

Review: I have been with this company for about 4 years. The first three years was somewhat uneventful. However in the last 6 months they have been unable to supply service that is consistent to any degree. You can be on the internet for 5 minutes and then it just drops off. On again for one minute and then it drops off for 5 minutes. This is a constant problem. I have contacted Bertram at least 30 times regarding this problem. Never was fixed. I was told it was on my end. I had [redacted], one of their independent personal repair individuals to examine my equipment. He indicated the problem is not on my end but theirs. I then spoke with a [redacted], a supposed upper level manager. He did attempt to solve the problem but was unable. He then sent [redacted], reportedly their primary repair tec to look at the problem. [redacted] said is was a problem with their equipment and that either I wait until new equipment is installed at my tower, wait for a new tower being considered in Oconomowoc or cancel. Since I did not want to wait under the current inept service, I went with the cancellation option. I called Bertram and cancelled . They have the audacity to tell me I owe a cancellation fee for service they can not provide and admittedly can not provide as stated by [redacted], their repair man. What kind of organization is this.Desired Settlement: I want a half refund of my monthly service fee for the last 6 months and no cancelation fee. They have no fix for my problem.

Business

Response:

Review: We've had internet service with Granitewave for over three years and had no complaints. Not long ago they were bought out by Bertram Wireless and our service has gotten unusable. We've had very poor internet quality, to the point most days we were not able to use the internet at all. We had a tech come out to attempt to fix the problem. They charged $50 and the issue was not resolved. We decided to change our internet provider. We are currently locked in a contract with Granitewave until October. In order to get out of our contract we would have to pay $250. If everything was working as it should we would not be writing this complaint. If we decided to stay with Granitewave, they would have a tech come out to look at the problem, which would again cost us $50 and more than likely would have the same results as they state there is not much they can do for quality of internet. It seems the company does not care about customer satisfaction.Desired Settlement: All we want to resolve this matter is to drop the $250 termination fee for services that no one would have been satisfied with.

Business

Response:

Bertram Wireless is the most unethical company Ive ever dealt with. They are unable to deliver the service we signed up for and always make excuses why our internet is slow and blame on us having to many devices or the router which we purchased through them but they do not support. We are counting down the days until our contract expires and looking forward to getting internet from another company that can actually deliver.

I have been dealing with Bertram for the past four months now in attempts to resolve my contract issue. My contract ended in April of 2013 and states that it is then a month to month contract. According to Bertram, by paying my bills on time I have entered into a new one year contract. I now do not have service to the dish at all and still have to pay to end this so-called contract early. Besides the fraudulent contract situation, Bertram's customer service is HORRID! They are rude, unhelpful, and NEVER once called me back after numerous attempts to get a hold of someone who actually makes decisions.

Review: I have been having issues with the service being extremely slow, cutting out, or not working at all for the past several months. Every time I called sometimes 2 or more times a month I was told by the tech that the issue was on my end that it had nothing to do with the signal from their tower. Bertram told me every time that they did all they could to fix the issue and that everything should work just fine. That was not the case at best it would ok for a week and then start the same problems again until I called again and was told the same old thing. At no point before the last month Nov 2013 was I told by Bertram that I should have a serve call made to check the alignment of my antenna. However it would cost me $50 to have that done or I could upgrade my service plan for an additional monthly charge so that I could receive one service call a year for free. I dont see why I should pay for them to service their equipment. The last time I called because the service was again not working I was treated very rudely by the service tech he told me that I should read my contract. He told me that I was responsible for everything that happens on my property even the wind, lightning or any other natural event that occur to cause the antenna to move. When I told him that was rediculas he said to me If you rent a car and smash it up who is responsible, not the rental company, YOU are. I became upset with him and then ended the call. I called back after I calmed down to try and speak to a supervisor but there was no option but to get tech support or new acct set up I chose new acct and to my surprise got the same person again . I told him that I needed to speak to his supervisor at which time he informed me that there was no one else there and no supervisors. I called the next day and got the same two options and when someone answered they informed me that there wasnt anyone there to take my complaint but that he would forward it to the right person and they would call me back, they never did. I also told them that because of the terrible service I was receiving every month and the Extremely rude Eric was the last straw I was cancelling with them and I would tell them when to come and get their equipment. When no one called me I called them again and again only could speak to a sales person who was more polite but also told me that I was me problem to fix not theirs and since I was cancelling in the middle of the contract I would be charged $250. I told her that I was never informed that the contract was renewed I thought it was simply a month to month thing but she said that it was on my invoice. Bertram does electronic payment from my acct before I ever get a invoice so there was no way for me to cancel before the payment was taken out. Not to mention the invoice comes only 10 days before they take the payment so there is no way to possibly give them 30 days notice. Because they take the payment electronically they take the payment out the same day as the invoice making it even more impossible to cancell. I told her that I already had a new provider and that Bertram should come and get the equipment she then informed me that it would cost me $50 for them to come and do that. I then told her I would deliver it my self and was told there would be no fee if I did that but I would still be charged the $250.Desired Settlement: I expect Bertram to take the equipment back and accept the cancellation of the service due to the terrible service and just plain Rude treatment I received from tech. I also expect them to drop the $250 cancellation fee since I really had no chance to cancel prior to the renewal date. I would also like Bertram to change the renewal policy to better serve the remaining customers and any poor soles who would be so unfortunate to sign up with them in the future

Business

Response:

Review: Company provides wireless Internet services. Since mid -March, the service has been inconsistent at best, with some days having almost no connectivity. Have made several calls, with initial calls being that we have issues in our system, and for a price, they can send someone to repair it. After conversations with several neighbors, found they were having similar issues. Again contacted this company, which indicated they were aware there was an issue on their end and they would be sending someone out to resolve. This was about 1 month ago, and we have attempted to contact them, with no response. Website also indicates 24/7 technical support, but calls to the only phone number on their website indicate 8 a - 8 service Monday through Friday and 9 a -1 p on Saturdays. Was a very good service for our initial years, but current service and support is very disappointing.Desired Settlement: Either a functioning system or a refund of fees paid for the last several months and reimbursement for now useless equipment.

Business

Response:

Review: We moved out to a rural area in 2009 and were happy to find an internet provider. We had been customers of Bertram Wireless since late 2009. In December of 2014 we decided to change ISPs as we had an opportunity to get much faster service at a lower cost. On February 8th I received an email for an invoice of $250 for an early termination fee. I have contacted Bertram twice via email and have received no response as of today February 22nd. I would like this fee waived as I have not been notified of this on multiple opportunities nor has Bertram responded to my attempts to contact them.

In late December I contacted Bertram Wireless via the phone to ask how to cancel my service. The woman I spoke to explained that there would be a $50 fee if I had Bertram pick up the equipment and that I could drop it off at there office in Random Lake. When I asked if there was anything additionally I needed to provide she explained that I needed to provide written notice of my desire to cancel our service. At no time was a $250 cancellation fee mentioned.

Later that week I drove nearly an hour out to Random Lake to return my equipment. I arrived near 12:00 and then had to sit in my car for an hour while the receptionist was at lunch. During that time the door was locked on no on answered their phones. When I was able to return the equipment I again asked Bertram Wireless if I needed to provide anything additionally and was told that all I needed to provide was the equipment and a note stating my desire cancel my service. This did not seem unusual to me as every other time I have changed from one internet provide to another after years of service there was no termination fee.

On February 8th I received an invoice for $250 with the comical text "Here is your invoice as requested." I had request no invoice. Apparently as I have now learned there is an automatic yearly renewal which carries a ETF each year. I was not made verbally aware of this when I started the service and strikes me as quite different that every other ISP experience I have had since ~1996.

I responded to the email which came from [email protected] on February 8, 2015 to request a signed copy of the contract I had signed. When I reviewed the contract posted on Bertram's site it stated that the "Provider shall provide written notice to Customer of such automatic renewal at least 30 days but no more than 60 days prior to the scheduled effective date of the automatic renewal..."

I received no response to that email. I thought perhaps the billing email address isn't actually read so on February 13th I sent another email via the contact link on http://www.bertramwireless.com/. As of this morning February 22, 2015 I have still received no response from Bertram.

I had been a customer for 5 years, required little to no assistance and paid every one of my bills on time. Bertram had ample opportunities to make me aware of this early termination fee and failed to. I would have continued my service until the next renewal period to avoid this fee had they only made me aware of it. I would like this fee dropped. I feel that their behavior in this matter has either been simply irresponsible or directly deceptive.Desired Settlement: I would like this fee dropped.

Business

Response:

In response to our customer's complaint. We contacted our customer after reviewing the account notes and agreed with our customer that they were not satisfactorily notified of the early termination fee. The fee has been removed from our customer's account and the account has been closed.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.

Review: I canceled service with Bertram Wireless because they did not respond to my many reports that our Internet was not working. When I finally reached an agent and told them I was canceling she informed me I had to give 30 days notice in writing and return the radio antenna. I did not agree with her since we have no written contract but complied with her request by sending a written request to cancel, paying an additional month when I had no service and returning the antenna at my cost. Two months later I received an invoice in the amount of $396 for a "damaged" antenna. I called and again talked with Sue and informed her that I did not intend to pay and she insisted the antenna was my responsibility as part of the lease agreement. I don't even know if the antenna was damaged as there was no visible evidence and it is more than 15 years old. I never signed a contract or service agreement and their "policies" were never disclosed to me. I feel the only reason they are trying to charge me for the antenna is because I canceled their service which I would have never canceled had they responded when I reported the problem.Desired Settlement: credit my account for the $396 you are billing me for the returned antenna. I would like to emphasize that Sue indicated if my insurance company would not cover the cost, Bertram would settle with me for $100. If I submitted to insurance, it would remain at $396.

Consumer

Response:

In response to your e mail, I received a letter from Bertram Wireless

yesterday (9/21/13) requesting payment and threatening to assign the

bill to a collection agency if I do not contact the company within 7

days. They are well aware that I have no intention of paying this charge

as I never signed a contract with them for equipment or service as

stated in my complaint. The only resolution to this problem is for them

to credit my account and stop all collection efforts. They already

received payment for two months in which I did not have service. In

reviewing other complaints, it's apparent fraudulent billing is a common

practice for them and I will not be bullied into paying for a charge I

did not incur.

Thank you,

Business

Response:

Review: Constantly have service problems that are not resolved... now today there service is off there web page is gone there phones are inactive so no way to contact them while stuck in a two year contract for service that does not work... I have work to do online and no internet service to do it no way to find out what's going on or to get it fixed.... ridicoulous.Desired Settlement: Fix the damn problems or let me out of my contract you just cost me a lot of mobey today and if not fixed I will contacting my laywer

Business

Response:

Review: We purchased service with the promise that service would be great . Well internet service is horrible They say it's the tower? So they recommended we upgrade the service ? So we did ,We are paying extra for service that never even changed . They state the internet service has been upgraded. But I can't even play a video without it starting ,stopping , most times not working at all. When I call them they state the problem is my computer . It has been gone through and checked and checked again . With no problems . My wife has a handheld unit and the service does the exact same thing. I pay for a service that I was told by them would play at the very least [ 720 hd ] I just spoke with the service dept he said play it in [240 ] WHAT?? Even at that speed it don't work correctly. They are ripping me off'' The service completely stops 4-6 times a week . I want a refund for what I payed out ,For the so called upgrade and want proof this was done . Otherwise I need to file suit if no proof is given for that service . Thank you .Desired Settlement: Proof of upgrade given that shows what was actually done. NOT A BILL real proof . To fix the problem ,provide service without problems , Or refunds for days with said problems listed . Refund for upgraded service that don't work''

Business

Response:

Our customer signed up with us for service in 2010 on a 1.5Mbpsx384Kbps speed plan. We received a request from our customer on 07/21/15 to increase their plan to the next speed up. We did so that day, setting them up on the 3Mbpsx768Kbps plan. We received a phone call on 07/28/15 from our customer experiencing issues streaming video. We discussed with our customer that our new Freedom 450 equipment upgrade (which has been designed with video streaming capability) was not available in their area yet as the tower had not been upgraded. The existing equipment was not designed for streaming. We offered to revert our customer back to their original speed plan. Our customer declined, saying his wife would need to call in for that. our customer did say they were thinking about canceling service and so we discussed the cancellation procedures with them. We received a call on 11/25/15 from our customer who was experiencing streaming issues. Our tech tried to get some information on what video/device they were trying to use, but couldn't get any further information from him. Our customer's stats were excellent and improved still after we rebooted their equipment remotely. We would very much like to work with our customer to get some specifics to diagnose their service issues. The equipment and plan they are on do not support video streaming, but we have many customers on this equipment who are able to do so. We are doing everything in our power to complete the tower upgrade so that we can offer the new Freedom 450 in our customer's area. We will contact our customer and try to resolve this in a manner that is mutually agreeable.

Business

Response:

Our customer was originally on a 1.5Mbps by 384Kbps plan for $32.45 a month. This was increased at the customers request on 7/21/2015 to a 3Mbps by 768Kbps plan for $42.45 a month. The attachment is a snapshot of the speed settings for our customer. The settings show a 3Mbps download and 800Kbps upload. Our speeds are defined in our contract as: "THROUGHPUT RATESProvider does not guarantee that Customer will obtain the Maximum Throughput Rate for the Services at any given time or on a continuous basis. The Throughput Rate experienced at any time will be affected by a numberof factors, including the nature of the Internet and its protocols, our facilities, the bandwidth Provider devotes to carriage of protocol and network information, the condition and configuration of our Equipment or CustomerOwnedEquipment at Customer’s location, whether Customer uses an in-home Wi-Fi network (which can significantly limit the Throughput Rate obtained by devices attached to it), Provider’s use of Network ManagementTools, data volume and congestion on Provider’s network and the Internet, the time of day Customer is using the Services, the performance of the website servers Customer attempts to access, and the priority, if any, Providergives to business subscribers’ data traffic and specialized services Provider delivers using Provider’s equipment."This was a speed increase on the same equipment with the same streaming limitations and not an upgrade to our new Freedom 450 equipment which has been designed for HD streaming capabilities. We were not able to upgrade the tower that services our customer to our Freeedom 450 equipment. We have purchased land and are in process of building a replacement which we will have ownership of. We anticipate completion of this tower in the next few months as the base foundation has already been completed. We want to work with our customer and will either let them out of their contract with us or work with them to get them a free upgrade to our new equipment as soon as the tower is complete.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory If they provide the upgrade to my internet service like they mentioned in their solutions . They state that their going to upgrade the antenna , but If my service upgrade is also included for free no added charges '[' My services ] like they said in their reply . I am willing to close the complaint if Bertram comply's as promised .

Regards,

Review: Had problems with internet connections. Gave letter of intent to discontinue service 30 days before end of contract.Owner of company called and asked if I would be interested in testing a newer system. I agreed under certain conditions,at which time I was under the impression the owner would stand by his word.After a 30day test period they wanted me to sign a 3 year standard contract without any of the term that were agreed upon suchas if I continued to loose signal for long periods of time like in the past where it had been weeks at a time.(During these time I would call and was usually told it was because trees were blocking my signal.This last time was from Oct. thru Dec. In a 3 year period I went approx. 6 months with out service.My contract Didn't end until Feb.)I would be able to cancel my contract without an penalties.After many conversations with different people,I choose not to sign a contract with them especially when they couldn't return my calls when they said they would. The one call they di return was on 4-8 late evening where they left a message stating the owner denies ever speaking with me.I went in to their business on 4-9 as agreed in earlier conversation on the 8th to pick up a paper copy of billing statement where they overcharged me.No one in office to answer questions,had to wait 25min. for them to print a copy. Said they would have someone call me 4-13. At 12:23 I called them spoke with billing,they said they would send someone out 4-14 to pick up equipment and I would owe them more money.I asked about not having a signed contractand the verbal agreement of if not satisfied I could discontinue service at no cost to me. Said they would have someone get back to me.Desired Settlement: would like credit amount back plus prorated amount of Aprils billing (only had service for 7 days)And no service charge to pick up their equipment.

Consumer

Response:

This is to inform you hat today 4-15-15 @ 3:40 pm I returned a cable and the 2 dishes to Bertrams and received a receipt for the items. they said I should hear next week sometime after they test the equipment if I will receive any refund. They said they were going to send someone out yesterday 4-14-15 to pick up the equipment, no one showed. [redacted]