Complaint Review: Freedompop - Internet

I did some research and decided to take the leap and get a Freedompop phone and account. I read some bad things but also some good things and figured, "what could possibly go that wrong?"

My wife and I actually enjoy our Tmobile service and the Freedompop account was meant to be used as a backup/emergency device if say, my wife or myself lost/damaged our phones or for international relatives occasionally visiting, so they don't have to get a prepaid card or buy a temp phone, etc.

The lure of a $50 phone accessing free and unlimited cell and text was just too good to pass up.

The fun started in June. I purchased the device 3 weeks before my Mom was to arrive, thinking she'd have it for her time here. Well....June, July, August came and she left. Still no phone. I check the website and it shows "Kitting", which it describes as preparing the phone with software so it can be shipped, which is the next step.

I contact their support in August and the response, sent to me 2 weeks later basically says what I saw online anyway, with a little more info. The phone is on back order so it's going to be shipped later than expected. This is very interesting to me because on the website, as I mentioned there's a bar with steps.

Processing - Order received and sent to fulfillment department (STEP 1)

Device Allocated - A device passing FreedomPop certification has been assigned to this order (STEP 2)

Kitting - Software updates and quality inspection (STEP 3)

Shipped - Device has been handed over to the carrier. (STEP 4)

Keep in mind what I'd mentioned - I was at step 4. So how is it he's telling me it's back ordered? That would mean that I was not even at step 2. Yet, there I was with my device being allocated and "kitted".

Alright, I didn't push it. September came and now I was a bit upset. I contacted them 2 or 3 times in August, the last email asking them to cancel the account and refund my CC, but didn't receive any responses until mid September. And pretty much all I got was "your device is still on backorder" and they closed the incident, nothing at all mentioned about the refund or cancellation of the account/order.

Hmm. Now I'm feeling a bit hot under the collar. I've given it another almost 2 months and now I'm just about angry. Not only do I not have a phone, but I've been miraculously charged $19.99 twice. To add insult to injury, I had "don't auto charge card" selected. So, yeah. Scummy company. 

I feel like there's a ghost out there enjoying the device and being the ghostly company that Freedompop seems to be, where I can't seem to get responses to emails or a human being on the phone, I'm up the creek without a paddle at this point.

Tomorrow I will attempt to call to get it all figured out. I tried calling before but the wait time was truly sick. I waited for about an hour and still had no one answer me. However I have already contacted my CC and after getting or maybe not getting through tomorrow, well, today (Monday), I will have them proceed with the investigation to dispute the charges. I have all my emails and screenshots of my account ready and waiting.

The moral of the story is, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. This is likely how they keep their pockets lined and buffers filled. They've had no issue with charging my account $50 for the phone and $19 twice for service I don't even have, but they can't respond to emails or answer their phones. If you have freedompop, it works and you're paying $0? I'm happy for you. But otherwise, if you're looking them over as I did - go with someone else, pay republic wireless $10 - $20 monthly, buy their cheapest phone and be happy with that.