iTOK.NET

Review: I received a threatening letter saying pay $330 or else when I cancelled the service with them six months prior.

I received a letter from collections saying:

We have been able to reach you regarding the past due balance on your account of $329.88. Your service has been cancelled and your account has been sent to collections.

Please contact us today to bring things current by calling XXX-XXX-XXXX. Our account service hours are Mon-Fri, 7AM-7PM MDT.

iTOK Account Services

Interesting enough I cancelled my service after my last service in April of 2013. I informed the technician that serviced my account that I wanted to cancel and my card will need to be removed from the account. The technician said he would forward over my information and I did not get another service from ITOK. Here it is nearly seven months later and I receive a bill saying I owe for six months of service that I clearly cancelled months before. It seems they waited until they had an amount that would make the collection seem valid and try to force me to pay for services I never received. After I sent an email saying their practices were invalid and illegal then I was told they have no record of anything I was saying and that they stay in business by making people pay. I told the rep that I would not continue to argue my points as I was telling the truth and she said they'd sue me.Desired Settlement: I would like the company to remove the collections information from whatever filing system they keep and remove the balance from my account. My account should go back to zero from the time I cancelled my service in April 2013. The company should not send any additional collection emails or letters to my inbox or my home as well.

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2013/11/15) */

Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Retention Manager

Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted]@itok.net

Thank you for the opportunity to help clear up some miscommunication with Ms. [redacted], we have spent some time digging into this issue and hope that we can come to a mutually agreeable resolution.

From what we read in the complaint, Ms. [redacted] said she cancelled our services in April of this year. Unfortunately we can find no record of this and we have checked our email and phone records and even listened to the last few interactions she had with us by telephone, all with no results.

It should also be noted that we do not sue people for past due balances, nor was that in any phone calls between Ms. [redacted] and our agents here at iTOK. It is simply not how we do business.

We want to make this right with Ms. [redacted] as she seems very confident that she did indeed cancel with us. Her past due balance will be cancelled and no further action will be taken in regards to her account. We apologize for the errors made on our part, they were not intentional.

We sincerely hope that this will resolve the concerns and invite Ms. [redacted] to contact us if she needs further assistance, as we believe we have provided value to her in the past and want to prove that we are even better today.

Review: I believe my wife was scared into an unneeded and intrusive service on our computer.

On July 17, My wife called Cox Cable in Arizona and was transferred to ITOK from that call. She says she was transferred, thought the ITOK rep was from COX. They asked if they could call her back which they did.

I was out of town and she had just called Cox to get her email password reset.

Two months prior I had the computer cleaned and Trend Micro virus protection installed and active.

ITOK spent about an hour on the call with my wife. They said we had 100's of registry errors. They sold and installed a second virus protection, changed our default browser and generally made the computer slower and performance has suffered greatly since. Many toolbars and add-ons appeared that continually slow response. Since then, Internet Explorer is almost inoperable. Our Outlook spell check was disabled as a result of their work.

My wife is not computer proficient. I believe she was manipulated with scare tactics and taken advantage of. We did not need a second virus protection. The one we have (Trend Micro) is much higher rated that the Malware one they loaded. I called and stopped the ongoing service and complained to the company. No help on the original charge. I disputed the bill with Discover. In response to Discover our credit card company, ITOK justified the charge by saying my wife initiated the service which was not true. From the phone records, I could she my wife only called Cox. I believe possibly that someone from Cox was complicit and transferred her to them.

Desired Settlement: I want a credit of $109.75 to my Discover account or to at least get a complaint noted which affects their future practices especially with seniors and non-computer proficient people by ITOK.

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2013/09/19) */

Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Retention Manager

Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted]@itok.net

We appreciate the feedback which Mr. [redacted] has provided to us, it allows us to review our policies to ensure that we are doing everything we can to meet the needs of our customers.

Part of our process involves diagnosing the customer's computer to ensure that there are no threats, errors, or issues which could have contributed to the problem we are being asked to fix. Without this, a problem may be resolved temporarily instead of permanentsly because the problems still exist and continue to cause issues.

Mrs. [redacted] contacted us on July 17 through our website asking for help with her Cox email. We called her back and during the process of helping her determine how we could best help her, discovered some issues with her registry and provided all of this information to Mrs. [redacted], at which point she agreed to have us perform the necessary work. We have a checkout process where the customer accepts our Terms and Conditions and then after payment, the work is sent to the technician to fix.

We spent a considerable amount of time working on the computer, and got all of her issues resolved. Mrs. [redacted] filled out a survey at the end, and scored everything 10 out of 10 and even left a comment which states "I felt very comfortable with his tech knowledge and how he explained my computer to me."

The charge was disputed with the credit card company, and in the end the chargeback was reversed as the credit card company got proof that the issues were valid and resolved completely.

We are sorry that Mr. [redacted] feels that there were scare tactics used or that we installed toolbars or any other type of software on the computer other than our Helpdesk and Mozy software, which is part of what we offer and the customer agrees to. We did not change his Trend Micro software, as it's the same excellent protection we use and there was no need to change that.

In the end, we feel very strongly that we provided a valuable and necessary service to Mrs. [redacted] and were able to resolve everything to her satisfaction. Due to this fact, we feel that the charges were valid and that no refund is due.

We wish the [redacted]'s all the best and we extend our offer of help to them anytime they need technical computer support in the future.

Final Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2013/09/25) */

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

1. Their response is incorrect. My wife did not go to ITOK website and request their services. She was transferred to ITOK from a phone call to our cable And internet provider company. ITOK took her name and number and called her back under the pretense of preventing loss of contact in case of a dropped call.

2. She was just trying to get her password reset when she called our cable company. ITOK took advantage of her, sold unnecessary and redundant virus protection software, caused our computer to be slower and charged us $109.

3. It is not resolved from my perspective until they at least refund the charges. I should charge them for all my lost time and expense undoing what they did to our computer.

4. Be aware they deinitely installed Malware virus protection software which I had to remove because it was redundent. They changed our default browser. Many toolbars and add-ons appeared immediately after their work that continually slow response. Since then, Internet Explorer is almost inoperable. Our Outlook spell check was disabled as a result of their updating of our computer.

Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2013/09/27) */

We certainly understand that Mr. [redacted] feels frustrated, and we stand by our original statements. We were completely upfront with what we were going to fix on the computer, we explained everything to Mrs. [redacted] and she agreed when it was all finished that everything was fixed to her satisfaction. In addition we were able to prove to their credit card company that the charges were valid and the issues resolved.

One potential reason that Mrs. [redacted]'s computer seemed slower after we were finished is because of the Mozy backup software which was installed. The process that this software uses to encrypt, compress and back up the files can cause older machines to act a bit sluggish until the backup is completed, a process which can take hours, days, or even weeks depending on the computer speed, Internet connection speed, and number of files involved. Our apologies if this was not explained properly at the time it was set up, it should have been noted.

Again it should be noted that we only install the Mozy software, Trend Micro Titanium (which Mrs. [redacted] had on her computer), and our Help Desk software, none of which install toolbars or extraneous software of any kind. Our technicians spend a lot of time removing toolbars, they certainly would not install any of them on any customer computer. There is no way to know what may have happened after we completed our work.

We wish the [redacted] family all the best and remain here to help them should they need further assistance.

Review: Computer issue was not resolved and recurred. In less than 24 hours I called to cancel membership and was told no refund and added $150 to cancel.

On Feb. 6, 2014 I contacted ITOK for a problem that had recurred after their initial fix 20 days before. They demanded an upgrade to Premium membership for add't $85.00, and still did not fix the problem. Since the problem recurred within minutes after they signed off, I called the afternoon of Feb,5 to cancel my membership. I requested some portion of refund but was denied by [redacted] and the Haley [redacted] not only denied any portion but added $150.00 cancellation fee. She said I was informed at the time of signing (which I was not). I declined to invest anymore time with this company.Desired Settlement: $324.00 for investing hours with this company and getting no repair.

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/02/18) */

Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Customer Coms Specialist

Contact Phone: XXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for this chance to clear up this misunderstanding. We have gone over all transactions that occurred between us and the customer since her upgrade to our Platinum Membership.

It appears that [redacted] had been having some issues with her password not saving in her Outlook Express account and asked for our help. As it had been 15 days after the expiration of her 5 day guarantee we informed her of the costs to fix it, but then also offered her the chance to upgrade to our Platinum Membership, which allows her to get work from our technicians at no additional cost besides her monthly membership fee. Our associate informed her of the cancellation fee that comes with the upgrade, which is also explained in the Terms and Conditions that Ms. [redacted] had accepted.

Our associate charged Ms. [redacted] the $85 upgrade fee, and then agreed to waive the charge to perform the fix with her Outlook password and we proceeded to perform that fix for free.

Ms. [redacted] called us the next day and stated that she had the same problem again. Our representative offered to have a technician fix the problem to ensure her satisfaction, but she chose to cancel her membership in stead, for which we were obligated to also charge the $150 cancellation fee.

We are very sorry that Ms. [redacted] feels that she was slighted, and that is definitely not our intent. However we do not feel that a refund is warranted in this circumstance.

Review: The sales rep from this company lied to my grandmother and scared her into supplying her credit card information.

This company reached out to my grandmother and used dishonest and high pressure tactics to get her to supply her check card info. On 10/10/13 she had a conversation with a salesperson from Itok.net. They actually reached out to her and told her that if she didn't download their programs that her computer would crash by Monday and things would be lost forever. She has been having issues with her computer(email related) and believed the lies that they told her. They charged her $149.99 and signed her up for monthly billing(which was not disclosed) and did absolutely nothing to fix her problem. I contacted the company who didn't even her the correct email program listed in their records. They agreed to cancel her monthly service and try again tomorrow to fix the problem. They refused to address the larger issue of the conversation that they had with my confused grandmother. The rep scheduled the appointment and then hung up on me! I will allow them to attempt to fix her issue tomorrow but either way I am very unhappy with the way that they treated my grandmother and myself.Desired Settlement: I would like for a refund to be provided to my grandmother and an apology. I also think that this company should take a LONG look at their sales practices. Harassing the elderly into giving their bank info is unacceptable.

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2013/10/18) */

Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Retention Manager

Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX

Contact Email: [redacted]@itok.net

This is an issue that we would like to take a look at immediately. If the claims made are accurate then we most certainly owe Ms. [redacted]'s grandmother a sincere apology and perhaps a refund as well.

What she has described here is absolutely not the way we do business here at iTOK and the possibility that it could have happened as described is abhorrent to us.

We do need the name or phone number or email address of her grandmother before we can find the appropriate account and phone calls so we can launch an investigation.

Be assured that if this is true we will take the necessary steps to resolve the issue in a timely and professional manner.

We look forward to getting the needed information.

Review: Wife had problem logging into ebay. Itok box asked if needed help. Agreed. Thought they were ebay security. Itok would help fix email and charged us.

Wife couldn't login to ebay. Itok box appeared and asked if we needed help. Then they called. Wife explain login issue. She thought they were ebay security. Thought our personal identities were at risk. Itok said they would fix our email login and check our computer for $175. Wife agreed. We were scared. Then we get email saying we're gold monthly members and will be charged 19.99 a month. Never dud get invoice for $175. These people are fear mongers preying on the elderly who are not internet savvy. We want a full refund and service cancelled. We don't even have access to an online account for their so called monthly servicDesired Settlement: Full refund of $175 and cancel monthly membership.

Business

Response:

Contact Name and Title: [redacted]

Contact Phone: [redacted]

Contact Email: [redacted]@itok.net

We appreciate Mr. [redacted]'s feedback and his concern for his wife's well being. We have taken time to research the events above, in order to identify the source of the issue and ensure the most effective resolution to this problem.

Of first concern is the matter of the pop-up ad. iTOK does not do any pop-up advertising at all. As Ms. [redacted] was attempting to access her e-bay account, she may have performed a search by mistake, and then clicked on a banner ad for iTOK. When this happens, the person will only get a call from us if they fill out a form--we don't just have them click on a pop-up and have it then go into our lead system.

I listened to the recorded sales call to confirm whether deceptive tactics were used as described. At the beginning of the call, the sales rep identified himself as being with iTOK tech support. Mr. [redacted] was unaware of the request and handed the phone to his wife, who had sent the request for help.

The iTOK rep observed that Ms. [redacted] had a number of issues on the computer that would contribute to difficulty in accessing her e-bay account. The sales rep offered to remove problematic software, perform a tuneup to improve speed, and restore access to Ms. [redacted]'s email and e-bay accounts. He also offered to make a shortcut on the desktop that would get Ms. [redacted] right into her email with a simple click. This work was quoted at $149.97.

The sales rep further offered to enroll Ms. [redacted] in our Member Care Gold program, which would provide Ms. [redacted] with Trend Micro Titanium antivirus software (which has been rated highest in protecting against phishing software). Also included in the program is Mozy unlimited data backup, a free tune-up every 90 days, and discounts on future work if needed. The sales rep told Ms. [redacted] she could include the membership in the cost of the fix as quoted, and that it would only be an additional $19.99 per month going forward, if she chose to continue after the first 30 days. We were not attempting to provide something Ms. [redacted] didn't need; we were attempting to provide services that would best ensure Ms. [redacted] didn't have similar problems accessing her email and e-bay accounts in the future, and to protect her computer from threats going forward.

We recognize that many of our customers do not know much about computers. That is really the motivation for our business--to improve lives. We aim to meet our customer's needs, whatever their skill level and regardless of age. We never attempt to take advantage of someone's lack of knowledge and make every attempt to explain the situation and the ways that we can help.

When Mr. [redacted] later informed us that they did not wish to continue with the membership, we promptly cancelled their membership and eliminated future billing under the same. In the end, Mr. and Ms. [redacted] paid only the $149.97 originally presented as the cost for the fix.

When I contacted Ms. [redacted] to discuss the complaint, she was extremely apologetic. She explained that we called her after her husband had already submitted this Revdex.com complaint (prior to our receiving notice of the complaint), and that our representative promptly cancelled her membership as requested. The iTOK rep who spoke with Ms. [redacted] at that time explained the charges and reviewed the sales call with her. Ms. [redacted] was satisfied with the membership cancellation and did not require a refund, as Ms. [redacted] now understood that the payment had been made only in exchange for services rendered that same day. Ms. [redacted] further explained that she attempted to withdraw her complaint, but that the Revdex.com would not remove a complaint once filed. Ms. [redacted] regretted this policy and apologized for the complaint. While we regret that we were unable to fully address Ms. [redacted]'s concerns before the complaint was filed, we appreciate her situation being brought to our attention and appreciate her kindness and understanding in coming to an amicable resolution.

In my conversation with Ms. [redacted], she expressed appreciation for my call and assured me that we had already assuaged the concerns that she and her husband held. She recognized the legitimacy of our business and no longer worries that we might be a scam. She affirmed that they no longer had any complaint and again apologized for her complaint with the Revdex.com. I assured her we were grateful for the opportunity to clear the air.

We appreciate Mr. and Ms. [redacted]'s patience and kindness in working with us to clear up any misunderstanding and resolve their concerns.