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IntouchVOIP.com Scam Company Wilmington, Delaware
I am a senior and on a very limited and modest disability income and budget of $540 a month and therefore I watch my personal banking accounts very carefully. While reviewing my checking account this morning I discovered an ACH charge for $39.95 that has been removed. The ACH payment had been made by a company identified on my bank statement as "IntouchVOIP.com" . I had not heard of this company and was to say a bit furious because I am currently on a time line waiting for a payment to process and am on very thin ice with my account. I contacted my bank immediately to ask what to do. They suggested looking this company up on the internet, finding a phone number and contacting them for answers, which I did. I did not directly reach the "IntouchVOIP.com company but rather a "clearing" house who offers "customer" service for several companies. I explained that I had an payment taken out of my account. The customer service rep looked in the computer files and discovered that this charge was a delayed charged. She went on to explain that this company has a phone answering service (and other bundled services offered) and they give you the service for free for the first 3 months or 6 months, she wasn't exactly sure and she thought it depended on what promotion they were having at the time. But they do take your credit/debit card information and after the "alloted" 3 or 6 month period, they process an ACH payment on your account.
The customer service rep took info and cancelled service. However at the beginning she didn't act as if they were going to refund my $39.95. When I inquired, she said yes it would be refunded but she needed to explain that I was the one who had authorized this service. I had already read numerous scam reports about this company and feel lucky my ACH payment was only for 1 month of $39.95. Some I read were out of pocket for over $400 or more because they didn't keep a watchful eye on their account and by the time they found this problem, could only receive the current month refunded.
After a little arguinig and raising my voice as I had to talk over her in order for her to listen......she did cancel the service, provided me with a cancellation number and then said it would be 10-14 working days (and explicitly let me know that weekends and holidays were not included) before the payment would be reversed. She did begin an argument indicating this was actually "my" fault for signing up for a service and when the charge hit my account to play dumb like I know nothing about it. This infuriated me and I told her that if she didn't want to process the transaction that I would recoup my money by disputed the charge at the bank and they would retrieve the $39.95 and refund it to my account. She then went off on me and told me that the bank will not get my money back. They will keep it. I corrected her by saying that the bank will dispute the charge and will refund it to my account when the funds are recouped from "iNTOUCHvoip.COM". So, I again told her she could cancel and reverse the charge or the bank would take care of it. If neither took care of the cancellation, I would contact the state's attorney who would take care of this illegal and sam type operation. She finally did take care of it and gave me a "cancellation" number.
So my bank account is $39.95 less and I am short on a pyment. This ACH withdrawal may create an overdraft at $35 added bank charges that I can not afford. However, this doesn't help me now when I need this in my account to pay for a bill but hopefully in 10-14 working days.
I truly do not remember signing up for this kind of a service. I live modestly on a very fixed income. I have an old fashion answering machine, a lan line with no extra features. I do have a computer and have very minimal internet service on it. I have never heard of this company and hope I never do again.
The other quirk that bothers me about this company is they should give you a heads up notice they will be deducting the income for a couple of reasons. If they are a legitimate company they will not have all the negative scam type activity. Next, there may be folks that truly would use this kind of service, I am just not one of them. and last, it sure would save the world a lot of negative arguing back and forth not to mention the bad moods and paperwork involved. And, I'd like to know why they can take and ACH payment so quick but take so darn long to return the funds.
I do contend that I did not give them the info in the first place to set this service up and that it was scammed from another source. What if any, I do not know. But, I sure have never heard of this company nor needed this services on a trial basis or otherwise. Scammed and aggitated.