Complaint Review: Answering Specialists - grand junction Internet

I never go out of my way to write a negative review. 

However, the unnecessary bullying practices and hostile attitude of THE OWNER has left me no other choice but to speak out against his business practices. 

1) Hidden charges. 

I read through my agreement, and there was no indication that there were hidden charges for Memorial Day weekend.  It is still not clear in the agreement for services where I agreed to accept any special charge. 

2) Refusal to be Reasonable. 

So I asked for the service to be discontinued, albeit a few days into the beginning of the month.  But, I pointed out that I had stopped using the service, stopped the phone forwarding, had no intention to continuing to use the service.  Additionally, I complained that I had been billed for phone calls and the Memorial Day charges, but... I had NOT received an invoice for the charges.  Worse yet, I never received an itemized list of phone calls. 

The response I received was very dry and technical.  30 days notice for cancellation, period.  No attempt to be reasonable or to treat my complaint of mistreatment with compassion or decency. 


3) Hostile and Rude

Instead, when I persisted in standing up for myself, the owner became rude. 

quote from me...

"I am uncomfortable with a business that would charge me an unknown quantity with no itemized statement ahead of time to explain the charges.  It is not a good business practice.  This is a main motivator for why I discontinued using this service and this company, Answering Specialists -- for what I consider to be less than acceptable business practice. 

It is in how you handle a dissatisfied customer, though, that is perhaps the most critical consideration of acceptable business practice. 

Mr Tim Harlan, you have dealt with me in the past with what I consider to be a considerable lack of
compassion.  While you have enjoyed pointing out the letter of the law, and have attacked me for not just accepting your point of view (telling someone to 'grow up' is not a mature response from an individual performing customer service duties); please recognize that if you cannot handle my situation as a compassionate human being, then I will look to others for assistance from this
company until I find someone who can demonstrate compassion.  Surely, there is someone in a position of authority who can be found possessing such compassion and attention to customer care.  "

response from the owner...

"I am not here for reasons of compassion Im here to run a business.  If your looking for compassion please consider joining a support group of some sort."


3) Attempted Charge with NO PROOF of service being utilized

So, you'd think they would clear my name out of their records, right?  No, they tried to sneak in another charge.  Claiming that there was a phone call... but unable to provide proof of how that phone call could have happened though I had discontinued call forwarding months ago. 

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AVOIDING ANSWERING SPECIALISTS! 

It is bad business practice to make charges but be unable to provided documentation of how those charges were justified. 

It is WORSE business practice to attack someone who asks for explanation.  In fact, the only person who tends to get upset when it is suggested that they have been treated unfairly, are bullies. 

I will not tolerate the bullying and the abuse -- I hope no one else suffers this abuse, either!