Bertram Communications

Review: Started service with Granite Wireless going on 4 years in January. Granite Wireless had a 1 year contract and after that was month to month contract. Apparently Bertram Wireless bought out and took over Granite Wireless a little over 6 months back or so. At this time we were forced to go on Electronic payments. I was going to our Shawano office to pay my monthly bill prior to this. Never been late for a bill. At this time I was signed up for paperless policy so I was only receiving emails for my statements.

Just last Friday I called to cancel my service because our internet speeds had slowed drastically without explanation and we needed service with a higher speed. Granite/Bertram Wireless could only offer us up to 3mb but we needed much faster for streaming. The gentleman I spoke to on Friday stated that I needed to give a 30 day notice for cancellation and I said okay that is fine. He took my phone number and stated that he would have the appropriate department call me back to go over conditions and set up for receiving equipment back. So, Friday afternoon I called and set up an installation appointment to have my new service connected on Saturday. Service has been connected on Saturday and by 12:00 on Monday I have not received a phone call back from Betram Wireless. So I called them back. [redacted] stated that there was a notice sent out on the bill stating that: 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.

I did not receive a separate email notification on this. It was apparently just added to the monthly bill. My point is, I have electronic deduction for the same amount and same day of every month so of course I would pay my bill, so by doing this it states that I agree to Automatically renew for a successive one-year term. I have already had the service for going on 4 years and don't understand how this is legal to have this as my Only notification. So now they are telling me that I have to pay for service through the end of my term contract in January, which to my understanding and many other customers was month to month. Even the girl that works for them named [redacted] stated that she doesn't agree with what is going on and that she is having to deal with these phone calls from customers and can't do anything about it. She stated that she is unable to obtain supervisor or owner approval to cancel the so called contract. She stated that the company/owner doesn't care about what this could do to company reputation or customer service as long as they get every dime possible from the transferred customers. I don't see how this is legal at all.Desired Settlement: I want the contract to be able to be ended now and not in January. I don't think I should legally have to pay for their service until January when they are being "sneaky" so to speak in order to obtain a longer contract out of the transferred customers. I have very good credit and don't want to ruin my credit by not paying this bill but I don't want to get sent to collections for not paying them. I really think this is very unethical of this company to do this in this manner. Please help me out as I don't know what options I have without ruining my credit.

Business

Response:

Review: I had an internet service contract with Baycom wireless which was sold to Bertram wireless. My contract was a three year contract set to expire 3-6-13 and then be serviced on a monthly basis. We did not renew our contract because we were getting a new roof this summer and didn't know how moving the dish off the roof would affect our signal. After the new roof and moving the dish we discovered we could not get a signal so we decided to end our service with Bertram wireless. According to Bertram because we can still get a signal (by wrecking our roof and or house) our contract still stood and we were not allowed to end service. When I brought up the contract ending in march they then informed me that by me paying my bill every month I have now entered into a new contract with them and I can not cancel without paying an early termination fee. When I asked them to provide me with a new signed copy of the contract they stated that they were unable to do so and that me paying my bill was their "signature" on the new contract.Desired Settlement: I want my contract to be terminated with no fees.

Business

Response:

Thank you for contacting us regarding complaint: [redacted].

In recent review of the account the customer was notified by email invoicing

regarding our “Terms and Conditions”. Our “Terms and Conditions” can be

reviewed at: [redacted]

By the customer paying his or her bill they understand these terms. In the

end, a credit was issued for the service call that was done on their account.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused and we thank you for

your time.

Sincerely,

Bertram Wireless

Consumer

Response:

Review: For the past year we have been working with Technical people at Bertram Wireless to try to improve the speed of the service which was not performing at the speed we were paying for.

My husband must be available to work from home. The speed often dropped service and performed far below what we were paying for making working from home challenging and nervewracking. My husband [redacted] would regularly e mail and or text the technical people images of the speed. These calls and e mails are documented through our phone and e mail services.

Last fall -out of frustration and in the hope paying for a faster service would at least get my husband to the speed he needed to be, my husband upgraded our service. After many attempts to get Bertram to "fix" the problem...two months ago we dropped the service back down to what we were paying for it prior to last fall. We began looking for other internet services because they could not perform as agreed by the contract.

I called to cancel service yesterday June 9th and was advised the cancellation would need to come in writing. Fax was acceptable - This has been done.

I was advised Equipment must be returned - there is a $50 fee for pick up / My husband is not able to climb on the roof - so an installer must remove.

I was advised the contract requires 30 days notice for cancellation

I was advised our contract is up for renewal next month. it was unclear if there were additional fees they feel are due for the contract cancellation now

I was advised Bertram does not have a record of the significant number of calls and complaints made this past year...only someDesired Settlement: Due to Non- Performance of the Contract by Bertram Wireless I am requesting

1. Waive $50 fee to pick up equipment - we already pay an additional fee monthly for service calls

2. Waive requirement for 30 days Notice to terminate contract due to Non- Performance of service

3. Waive any additional service fees after the 6/9/14 request for termination

4. Waive any fees associated with Termination one month prior to the contract renewal date

5. Refund Partial Monthly Service fee of $73.30 Collected on 6/1/14 for the unused portion of June

Thank you for your consideration

Consumer

Response:

This complaint has now been satisfactorily resolved with Bertram Wireless

Please confirm receipt

Thanks!

Business

Response:

Review: Last year around June, 2014 Bertram Wireless increased my price. I called and complaint to Bertram. Bertram change my fee back to what they told me I would be charge but then reduced my internet speed from 3 mb to 1.5 mb. Today I look at my credit card bill Bertram charge me a late fee because my credit card had expired. My wife called Bertram and gave then the new expirations date. Bertram said ok, never mentanged a late fee and just charge it to my credit card.Desired Settlement: refund late fee, change internet speed back to 3mbsstop bait and switch sceems

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern,

In regards to [redacted] account, due to our contract

it is understood by the customer that late fees may apply if the account is

paid after the first of the month. This depends

on the customer’s grace period on the account. Generally this fee applies after

the 11th of the month as the bill is due on the first of the month. Please visit the contract that can be viewed

at any time at WWW.BertramWireless.com

and please view your invoice that is sent via email.

Mr. [redacted] has not had any prior offenses of this problem

and it was said by the technician last night the fee would more than likely be

waived but he would make sure of that for him.

Since he needed to go to a manager to do this he was going to put a

ticket in. The late fee has been waived

on his account as of 11:10A.M. 12/19/2014.

The credit will be applied to Mr. [redacted] internet account though

Bertram Wireless.

Our speeds are up to and as is. Due to devices, computers, cables, software

programs, and much more is why we cannot tell any customers they will get a

certain rate of speeds. It would be unethical

for us to do so. Mr. [redacted] was given a promotion that did run

out as of May 2013. That was over a year

ago. It was stated on his invoice and

via email to the customer.

The customer was getting his speeds as we could see from our

charts and should not have been on the 3mbps plan for only $32.45 plus tax per

month. In good faith we notified him

that this discount was not longer going to be in existence via the way he gets

his invoices. We allow the customer two more

months at the 3mbps for only $32.45 plus tax. The customer said he only wanted

to pay $32.45 plus tax per month and it was told to customer that would not be

a problem but this would be a slower plan. This was told to the customer

on: 7/18/2013 at 8:36 A.M.

Last month the customer had used 103.8GB and that is a lot

of usage to push though on an up to 1.5mbps connection. A lot of other providers would charge per GB

used. We do not do that. The customer does have the option to choose

the package that fits his needs.

We did alert Mr. [redacted] that he is welcome to search his area

for price matches. The provider that we

would allow a price match from would need to have no download limits and cannot

be a phone or satellite provider. The

price match would have to be a standalone internet pricing not part of a bundle

package. Customer did not contact us

back on that.

Mr. [redacted] called

asking for a manager last night. A

ticket was put in on: 12/18/2014 at 8:02

P.M. This was after closing time

yesterday. The manager on shift was not

in. Per our response time, it takes 24

to 48 hours for a response from a manager.

Mr. [redacted] has not allowed us that amount of time.

Bertram Wireless asks for the Revdex.com to drop

this complaint as we have not even had time to process the request. If the customer would like us to still

contact him we would be happy to do that and we wish we could have done that

before a complaint was put in. We were

not given the chance to help him. We will consider our ticket that was open on

behalf of this customer closed unless the customer would choose to accept our

help in this matter. We thank you for your time and if you need any more

information we would be happy to help you with anything you need.

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.

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]

Regards,

All though the credit may be applied Bertram Wireless applied this fee in a hope that the customer would not notice the fee and or did not inform the customer of the fee. Regarding the internet speed Bertram wirelesses did not tell Mr. [redacted] that this speed was a promotional speed for a limited time but did implied that the speed and price was the normal pricing. Bertram Wireless has a moral and ethical obligation to increase Mr. [redacted]'s speed to the original implied speed and pricing. If Bertram Wireless would like to contact Mr. [redacted] regarding these issues they may do so.

Business

Response:

Our customer's contract expires on 08/02/2015. If our Customer wishes to cancel prior to the end of the contract, we require a 30 day notice, and can either dispatch a technician to pick up the receiver and power supply for a $50 fee, or if the customer wishes to do so, they may return the equipment personally or via the mail. Additionally, the contract needs to paid out by either a $250.00 early termination fee, or pay out of the remaining months of service at the regular service rate. In this case it would be $32.45 for 7 months, a total of $227.15, plus tax. This information is available in the customer's portal and the text below appears on every invoice and receipt sent to the customer;Payment can be made through the customer portal athttps://powercode.bertramwireless.com. Please contact usfor login information.BY PAYING THIS INVOICE YOU HEREBY AGREE TOTHE CONTRACT AND USAGE POSTED ATWWW.BERTRAMWIRELESS.COMTHE SERVICES AGREEMENT SHALL AUTOMATICALLYRENEW FOR A SUCCESSIVE ONE-YEAR TERMUNLESS YOU PROVIDE WRITTEN NOTICE DECLININGNO LESS THAN 30 DAYS PRIOR TO EXPIRATION OFTERM.I believe we have answered the customer's questions fully and given all the information required to close this complaint.Respectfully,

Review: Iam being charge for a service I am not receivingDesired Settlement: Refund my money and fix damages to the roof and walls while installing their equipment

Business

Response:

Bertram is the only provider in our area, and honestly, I have had dial up more reliable than Bertram. My daughters college apps were risked, her placement tests, pages won't load and speed tests time out. I have had service calls in for over 7 months, sometimes taking more than a week to be addressed if ever. If there were any other service, I would not hesitate to switch.

Awful service, comes pretty close to fraud.