Voipo

I have done business with Voipo for 2 years now. In the beginning I liked them. Their prices were good. However, I have had several issues with service and their response to those issues was about as poor as you can get. Just one example: a very important fax I sent I was told was completed successfully but then told it was not. I tried to get a hold of someone to find out. Never could. Finally, sent email. They did not respond until the next day and then still did not really answer the question. They have an arrogant attitude, but their service is poor. Odd. There are other issues. Most recent problem was billing. I specifically authorized a payment to be debited but not before the date it was due. I went out of my way to tell them on the 10th and not before. They took the money prior to this and then basically told me "that is what we do" when I complained. I consider it tantamount to fraud to take money out of a bank account before the date authorized. I am looking for another provider and will eventually change. I would strongly encourage anyone who is searching for a voip provider to keep looking (and this goes double if you are looking for a fax provider) .

Review: We bought Voipo (Voice Over IP) service 2 years ago to our small business and after using a couple of month we cancelled our service and transferred to Vonage. We double checked with Voipo customer service (due to zillions of complaints about this company, we believed in their word) and they told us that our service has been cancelled and asked us to ignore future bills/notices about forthcoming years. But, last week we learnt that they have NOT closed our account yet and still charging $185 yearly. This is one of the biggest crook companies ever. I spent hours to reach their call center but unfortunately could not succeed. Voipo has is scam and please be careful and never give your credit card information. They just send you automatic emails and replies. Voipo accounting department and call center has no correlation at all and/or they are doing by purpose.Desired Settlement: How we are going to settle with a crook company like Voipo whom does not look after their phones at call center and not cancelling/charging yearly fees by purpose. We are using another phone (Vonage) company for 1,5 years instead of Voipo but they have been charging our credit card without our consent or knowledge.

Business

Response:

This customer signed up for an account

with VOIPo on 02/14/2012 and recently had a renewal invoice charged. The account was not cancelled until 02/12/2014 when the customer contacted us via email, threatening a Revdex.com complaint and chargeback dispute. This was a full service account with VOIPo, so the customer did receive equipment, which is given on a free lease.

“VOIPo provides all residential

customers with a telephone adapter and softphone solution to use to

connect to our service. This device remains the property of VOIPo and

must be returned to cancel service or if a replacement device is

issued.”

The USPS tracking number for the

adapter sent to the customer s [redacted].

As you can imagine, 2012 is too far

back for USPS to have any delivery/shipping confirmation. However

the device was sent to the billing address used for purchase and it

was being used for the past 2 years. Here is another

relevant excerpt from our terms of service:

“Accounts renew automatically

unless canceled. Accounts will renew on or around the anniversary of

your initial order based on your selected term. All VOIPo services

are prepaid at least one month in advance. If you have a credit card

on file, VOIPo will bill you automatically when charges are due.”

Although the customer claims to have requested cancellation "1.5 years ago," we have no record of any request. Also, if they did request cancellation, our policy would have been to send them to the cancellation form at http://www.voipo.com/cancel/. As stated kin the terms of service, all cancellations must be submitted there. Since they were on the biennial billing plan, they

were automatically charged for renewal two years after their initial

sign up (02/14/14). The invoices are charged a few days prior to avoid any disruption in service.

If they wish to cancel the account, the leased

equipment in their possession needs to be returned or purchased. I've already refunded the most recent renewal, minus the cost for the equipment. We'd be more than willing to refund the rest if the customer is able to return the leased property of VOIPo.

Here is that

excerpt from the terms of service:

“Before a cancellation can be

processed, users must return the provided VOIPo phone adapter. If a

user wishes to cancel service without returning the VOIPo phone

adapter or service is disconnected for non-payment, a $49.95 fee for

the purchase of the adapter will be charged. Users are responsible

for paying service fees until the adapter is returned to VOIPo or

purchased.”

Please note the

customer must agree to the terms of service before any services are

rendered. Before ordering, there is a link to our terms of service and the customer MUST agree to them before the order can be placed. Please let us know if

there is anything else we can provide. Thanks!

Terms of Service: http://www.voipo.com/tos.php

Best Regards,

###-###-####

[email protected]

Consumer

Response:

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

We asked Voipo to find the call center records.

Up to now, we called them 2 times, once for opening an account second closing an account.

Review: There are 2 complaints here:1. PRIVACY INFORMATION:When I bought this account, there were a lot of voice-mails form the last customer that might had this account. I called and opened the ticket the very same day, however, wanted to point this clearly that TOMORROW WHEN YOU CANCEL, remove all your voice-mails as VOIPO might hand these over to the next customer that can use them for anything they want to. 2. UNUSABLE SERVICE:I have never received the equipment and hence the reason the service was not usable and hence the reason for cancellation. I am canceling the account only because the service is not usable since I have bought. I tried contacting them several times, however, the response was dead slow and always a predefined template response that was useless. When I escalated to make someone in the company listen. They without trying to find a reason cancelled my account and said they will see if any refund can be processed. In addition to this they also sent me an email stating to return the equipment that I never received else they will charge me $49.95.These guys are running a BAD RACKET and the customer service is just pathetic. A SHAME on hostgator.com .Desired Settlement: 1. A Full refund is requested since this service was not made usable by voipo. 2. An email confirming that all my information will be deleted from VOIPO's system since they can pass this on to the next customer.

Business

Response:

In regards to the customer's first complaint of privacy information, VOIPo does not provide customer

account information to anyone other than authorized users on the account. No info is given to listing

companies or anything similar. For the phone number we provide to be tied to the customer's name,

they must submit to have that information included with a phone book company on their own.

When the customer signed up for an account, a phone adapter was sent to the billing address they used

to sign up. However, that device was returned due to an insufficient/undeliverable address. We

contacted the customer by email and were told by him/her to try shipping to the billing address once

more. The second adapter we shipped was also marked as undeliverable and was returned to our

shipping facility. Here are the two tracking numbers with USPS, which you can search on the website:

([redacted] - USPS: [redacted])

([redacted] - USPS: [redacted])

We again attempted to contact the customer and advised, for security/fraud reasons, we could only ship

to the billing address on file or the address of a government issued ID that matched the customer name

on file. They were unable to supply an ID that matched the account name.

Although they never received the equipment, the service is not useless by any means. Most features

are still available, even without the equipment, including call forwarding, voicemail, SMS capablities,

etc. They were still able to access the online control panel and even did so as recently as 01/11/2014.

Keeping the number active in our network costs VOIPo money, and since all accounts with VOIPo are

prepaid at least one month in advance, the charge on their account is valid.

The customer finally contacted us to cancel the account on 01/11/2014, almost 7 months after they

originally signed up. Since services were provided, the refund due on the account is in accordance with

our refund policies listed on our terms of service. Please keep in mind that all customers must agree to

these terms of service before we are able to create the account. Here are the relevant excerpts:

Any prorated refunds due in accordance with our refund policies will be calculated based on the

monthly rate being charged for service used and partial months will be rounded up to the nearest full

month. Refunds will be calculated only based on funds paid to VOIPo as VOIPo-issued credits and

coupons have no cash value for refund purposes.

Accounts renew automatically unless canceled. Accounts will renew on or around the anniversary of

your initial order based on your selected term. All VOIPo services are prepaid at least one month in

advance. If you have a credit card on file, VOIPo will bill you automatically when charges are due.

The rest of the terms of service that the customer agreed to can be found here:

http://www.voipo.com/tos.php

After the cancellation was submitted, we issued a refund via paper check in accordance with our refund

policy. If you need proof of this transaction, please let us know.

Also, I'm under the impression that these complaint replies are public information, so I do not want to

give too much personal information away of the cusotmer. That being said, if you need further proof of

the account creation or the email correspondence we had with the customer, please feel free to let me

know.

Thank you!

Best Regards,

Review: I want the whole world to know just how terrible of a Service this company (Voipo) provides. It is so terrible that after several support queries and even access to my parents computer, the line still only worked properly for a few days ... each time after unplugging the junkyard Voipo device first ... and plugging it back in a couple of minutes later. This is not a fluke because we're experiencing the same problems as my parents on one of our two Voipo lines. Believe it or not, that's not even the worst of it. VOIPO HAS THE WORST, MOST RELENTLESS BILLING PRACTICES that I have ever encountered in my 53 years on this planet. _______________________________________________________________________ My parents were so sick of this service that they decided not to renew for another term. This term expired on either the 14th or the 18th of the month, don't recall the specific date at the moment. IN ORDER TO AVOID CONFUSION & BILLING ISSUES it was important to me to contact Voipo about the cancellation for my parents since both of my Senior parents don't do Internet billing related things. They're not computer literate at all. So silly me, I contact Voipo in writing on the 14th of May to let them know that my parents will not be renewing the service. Since then these relentless jerks have sent me no less than ... EIGHT NOTICES IN FIVE DAYS ... about the credit card not working as well as numerous notices about returning the 2 ounce smaller than a card deck device in lieu of being charged $49.95 for said hardware. EVEN THOUGH THE INITIAL WRITTEN CANCELLATION FROM VOIPO stated that there were 30 days to return the equipment, this company continues to relentlessly send notice after notice after notice ... and that after being notified by me in advance, to avoid exactly this type of scenario. Never have I seen more shameless & endless notifications than with this unscrupulous company. LOST US FOR GOD because in the next 3 months I'll be cancelling our other 2 Voipo lines as well. I am disgusted and livid.Desired Settlement: STOP SENDING YOUR RELENTLESS BILLING & RETURN MESSAGES !!! Have you no shame and no professionalism? There is no bill due since the monthly service was terminated on time and you will receive your hardware back WELL BEFORE the 30 days expiration. Unbelievable ... Never again !!!

Business

Response:

Hello,

We're very sorry to hear about the customer's trouble with our service. It sounds as if some troubleshooting was attempted, but did not clear up the issue. We would have been more than willing to try further troubleshooting, but it looks like the only notes on the account refer to a remote session that was set up back in April 2013. Despite our best efforts of troubleshooting, VOIPo does use the public internet to provide phone service, so we cannot guarantee it will work the same for all customers. Most customers do not experience issues, as shown by the less than 1% of our entire customer base needing to contact us for support. However, there are so many factors that can affect call quality and uptime, including the customer's own network set up, that we cannot guarantee uptime or

availability of service for all users.

The billing notices are sent out automatically by our billing system whenever an invoice goes overdue. The customer did fill out the cancellation form, but it was after an invoice had already been generated. Per the terms of service, which the customer agreed to: "Users are responsible for paying service fees until the adapter is returned to VOIPo or purchased." Since the device had not been returned, the invoice was valid. After any valid invoice goes unpaid, our billing system automatically sends messages to remind the customer and also to warn them that the account could be suspended. We're sorry if this seemed excessive to the customer.

Once the phone adapter was received, the pending invoice was cancelled and the account was closed. There have been no further emails since that day.

If there is anything else we can answer for the customer, they can certainly contact me directly at [redacted]@voipo.com or they can give us a call at 949-829-4200. We'd be more than willing to answer any questions or concerns they may have.

Thank you!

Best Regards,

Review: Having made many, many good faith efforts to resolve issue; the company seems very steadfast. Specifically, each department shruggs off responsibility. The emails VOIP sends to me are fragmented; with each representative absolutely unaware of attempts to previously "resolve" my cancellation issue. Additionally, VOIPo took money from my authorized financial instituion, FAR in advance of purchase of any product or service. Friends I tell you true....these "MONEY GRABBERS" are acting FAST for money matters........and then they absolutely ignore requests for customer service,Something is terribly wrong here, and now this corporation has STOLEN my homeline service; and I am now stuck (after I repeatedly said CANCEL) with a company who has failed to help me everytime I begged.Summary...they ignore customer requests, shift / assign blame elsewhere, takes money from financial institution even when they KNOW something is wrong (and worse); and apparently no one is in charge who gives a rip about anything over the $.CLAND $ which more at speed of stock orders.....but ONLY if they benefit.....heck with customer'sDesired Settlement: This company has wronged me to the point of being STUCK with him. For that, I do not know of current resolution; and welcome Revdex.com opinion.My whole goal was to keep our landline number, accomplished tens of thousands times daily by competent people, regardless of carrier of a voice signal.I would like a written sequence of events, actually analyzed and written by someone who knows something..and does something too.

Business

Response:

This response is related to complaint ID [redacted], customer: [redacted]. The customer signed up for service on May 11, 2014 and used PayPal to set up the account. Unfortunately, PayPal timed out when sending the customer back to our website, so the payment was received, but the account had yet to be set up. I contacted the customer on May 12 to set up the account manually.

Unfortunately, rather than replying to open support tickets, the customer decided to open a new ticket each time they wished to contact us. There was some confusion with the original set up of the account, but all was sorted out pretty quickly. The customer filled out a letter of authorization, authorizing us to transfer the number to our network. I still have a copy of the document, which the customer signed and dated if you need it.

Since the customer signed the document, they agreed to the following excerpt listed on that page:

“Once this form is submitted, the porting request cannot be canceled for ANY REASON.”

A blank copy of this document can be found here: http://www.voipo.com/Porting.pdf

After going over the ticket history for this customer, it becomes clear that they were notified on multiple occasions that the number would transfer to our network on 05/19/2014, regardless if the account is cancelled or not. A completion date was set before they cancelled the account, which means a contractual agreement between carriers to move the number was agreed upon. A cancellation of that date would cause hefty fines on both sides.

We advised them multiple times to hold off on cancellation until they were able to transfer the number back out, since only active numbers can be transferred between carriers. We even advised that, after transferring back out, we could still issue the full refund. However, these requests were ignored and the customer called us to finalize the cancellation of the account on 05/16/2014.

The account has been cancelled and the refund has already been issued back to the PayPal account, so I'm not sure I agree with the “money grabbers” sentiment the customer has. I personally had multiple email exchanges with the customer, offering all I could do to address their concerns. However, instead of replying to my emails, they continued to open NEW support tickets, which would then be assigned to other support techs. This is probably why the customer believes we have different “departments” instead of just one support team.

I would be more than happy to attach screenshots of the email exchanges with this customer if you'd like. Please advise. As stated previously, if they wish to move the phone number to another carrier, the number must be reactivated on our network.

Best Regards,

VOIPo.com

Consumer

Response:

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

The "corporation is engaged in selling absolutely dead air time.....passes the buck, states "that's no my department, steals money when no product is even beginning stages of "transitions" VOIPo stands directly in the way of benefits for paying customers; where confusion.

Review: VOIPo's main website clearly states that they offer a "risk-free" money back guarantee within 30 days of signing up for the service. I tried VOIPo's service for 2 days, and was never able to make a call. When I cancelled the service, I was informed that the money back guarantee did not apply to me because I was not a residential subscriber. Nowhere on the money back ad does it say there are ANY restrictions with their policy. Had I know that these services were "no refund, all sales final" I would NEVER have signed up.Desired Settlement: I would like a FULL refund of the $4.95 fee I paid as I was never able to make any calls.

Business

Response:

Hello,

This invoice was for the 'Cloud' service we offer at http://www.voipo.com/. The cloud service is one where there is no equipment required. It is simply a phone number that would forward to another destination. As soon as the account was created, they were able to use the service by logging into the account. Despite there being no usage on the account, it still costs our company money to set up an account and order a phone number from our carrier.

Although we do offer a 30 day refund policy on our full service accounts, our cloud accounts are exempt from that policy. As stated in our terms of service, "All VOIPo services are prepaid at least one month in advance." Also listed in our terms of service is the following: "Any prorated refunds due in accordance with our refund policies will

be calculated based on the monthly rate being charged for service used

and partial months will be rounded up to the nearest full month." This $4.95 invoice is for one month of service, so the partial month is rounded up and there would be no refund due.

Please keep in mind that all customers must agree to these terms prior to signing up for service.

You can view the rest of the terms here: http://www.voipo.com/tos.php

Please let us know if we can provide anything else. Thank you!

Best Regards,

VOIPo.com

Consumer

Response:

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

THE AD ON THEIR MAIN PAGE CLEARLY STATES THAT THERE IS A 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! THIS IS CLEARLY BAIT AND SWITCH ADVERTISING. I UNDERSTAND THAT THEY WILL BE STICKING TO THEIR GUNS AND NOT OFFERING A REFUND. BECAUSE OF THEIR STUBBORNNESS, I WILL BE TELLING EVERYONE ON ALL VOIP FORUMS ABOUT THEIR LIES. Revdex.com - PLEASE REGARD THIS COMPLAINT AS UNSOLVED, AND UNSATISFACTORY AND ADJUST THEIR RATING ACCORDINGLY.

Regards,

Business

Response:

The 30 day guarantee on our website is for residential/small business accounts only. These are the only accounts we offer that provide equipment, which is why the guarantee states, "just return the VoIP adapter we send you within 30 days and you'll get a full refund."

The customer in question signed up for a cloud account, which is a number that does not require equipment and is used mostly for forwarding purposes. A phone number was ordered for the customer (###-###-####), so VOIPo did provide services. As you can imagine, it does cost our company money to order these phone numbers from our carrier. Therefore, we are unable to provide a refund in this case.

As stated in the terms of service, which were agreed to by the customer, all services with VOIPo are prepaid at least one month in advance and any partial months are rounded up to a full month for refund purposes. This customer is not due a refund.

The terms of service can be found here: http://www.voipo.com/tos.php. All customers can view the terms of service before ordering and MUST agree to them before the order is processed.

Please let us know if we can provide anything else. Thank you!

Best Regards,

VOIPo.com

[redacted]@voipo.com