Complaint Review: PhonePeople

My problem with PhonePeople started on 6-30-2011 when I called the company to change my plan to a lower priced plan.  The new plan, as verified by the PhonePeople person who took my request would now be $9.99 a month.

My problem with PhonePeople started on 6-30-2011 when I called the company to change my plan to a lower priced plan. The new plan, as verified by the PhonePeople person who took my request
would now be $9.99 a month.  On 7-1-2011 I discovered that I had been billed $41.29 when I should have been billed $9.99.   When I logged into my PhonePeople account I saw that there were two invoices and one bill summary.  The bill summary showed the following:

A $20.93 credit for Junes payment, a $15.36 charge for July and a $20.93 charge for July which equaled $15.36.  Then I was billed $25.93 for June prepayment in the amount of

Before I get into my story, let me explain what PhonPeople ultimately did to me.  They refused to
refund the overcharge to me.  They said they would credit my account.  I told them I wanted my money back on my credit card immediately.  They refused. Later that day, when I told them I had reported them to the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney General, they disconnected my business phone
service.

The events leading up to me being disconnected are as follows:

I called phone people and got a person by the name of Todd.  I told him I was over billed and I
wanted the money put back on my credit card today.  He said no. The money would be credited to next months bill.  He also said my new rate is $25.93.  I told him I had changed my plan to the $9.99 plan.  He said that may be, but I have five extensions with email notification of messages and they cost $3.00 each as they are not included in the $9.99 plan. I said that was not explained to me. He said I should have read what the $9.99 plan entailed and I told him I wanted to speak to a supervisor.  He said he was a supervisor.  I told him it was appalling to me that I called to reduce my cost since I never used more than 25% of the minutes in the plan and I end up paying more.  Especially  when I clearly verified with  the person who took the order change that my new rate would be $9.99.  I told him he should pull the tape recording of the conversation and listen to it and he could hear for himself that I verified my new rate before I hung up.   I told him that if I didnt get my money back today I would be contacting the Better Business Bureau and the attorney general of that state.

Later that day I added notes to my case indicating the agencies where I registered complaints. 
Phone People disconnected my service. They know, of course, that this is a business phone with business cards, websites  and advertising.  Therefore this company made a decision to do what
ever they could to inflict maximum damage to me.

It is my belief that this company is running a scam.  It is unreasonable for them to think that a
person who is calling in to get a cost reduction should walk away with a cost increase.  Never have I dealt with a company that over billed me and wouldnt credit the money back.    There should be laws against companies refusing to refund money when they overbill you.  There should be laws against companies that play gotcha as this company did when I reduced my rate, but ended up having a higher bill.

This company employs bully tactics.  Examples of this are over charging me, blaming me that my new bill is higher than the old bill, refusing to refund the overcharge, playing games with plan changes and then disconnecting me for exercising free speech.  This company operates in a reprehensible fashion.