When I called the phone company last week to have my service transferred to the new house the CSR mentioned at one point that I would have to contact PeoplePC to change my information with them. Huh? I have DSL so why would I have a dial up service them them?
The CSR checked my billing records and found that PeoplePC had been billing me through my phone bill since March. That was news to me but explained why my monthly phone bills had seemed higher lately. To be honest when I come in off the road I don't spend a lot of time going over my monthly bills. I just pay them and go about my business. I guess I'll have to make a point of checking them from now on.
Once I informed the CSR that I never signed up for their stupid service he placed a billing block on my account to prevent them from billing me any more and provided me with their customer service number so that I could call and deal with them. He also gave me the total amount they had billed me over the past few months. $115.61. I wanted my money back!
Today I called them. One of those call centers in India of course where you get a person with a thick Indian accent named "Bob". The first CSR I spoke with there kept asking me for all sorts of person information so he could "verify" my account despite the fact that I kept telling him that I do not have a damn account with them and didn't want one and there was no way in hell he was getting more than my name and the phone number they had been billing to steal money from me.
I finally demanded to speak with his supervisor. I was on hold for a few minutes and instead of a supervisor coming on the line I got another CSR and she starting the identical routine. Instead of wasting time with her as well I simply demanded that she transfer me to a supervisor.
20 minutes later I was finally on with a supervisor. I gave him a quick run down of the problem and demanded that he initiate a full refund immediately. At first he tried the same nonsense about asking me for all sorts of person information and I informed him that I wasn't born yesterday and there was no way he was getting my personal info so he could build a fake account. Not gonna happen. He got my name, mailing address, and the billing phone number and that was all he was getting.
He tried to offer me a 3 month refund and I said that was just fine but that I would be forced to file fraud charges against his client through the state Attorney General's office and felt pretty sure that would most likely cost him and a few others their jobs as the state of Florida takes a very harsh stance on these things.
He placed me on hold for a few minutes and then finally came back on the line, said that I could expect a check in the mail for the entire amount, and that he was placing a billing ban on my phone number so that it could never be billed by them again.
I would love to see the companies that practice these fraudulent "cramming" tactics put out of business for good and their executives jailed for a while. That would end this crap for good. A quick web search shows literally hundreds of complaints about PeoplePC ripping people off through fraudulent billing. They really need to be shut down for good.