Complaint Review: FreedomPOP - Internet

OK, on 11/16/13 (Saturday), I signed up for a Free Trial with FreedomPop. Over that weekend, I spoke with a trusted friend who warned me about FreedomPOP's shady business practices, so I thought better of it and decided to cancel the trial. Now, before signing up, I confirmed that cancelling the trial online was possible, because I trust computers more so than the competence of call center employees. Their site claimed it was indeed able to be cancelled online (as well as by calling customer service), so I signed up for the trial, double checking that I wouldn't be charged until the end of the 2 week free trial period. However, when I tried to cancel online, it kept giving me some giant error, where the screen was full of ramdom letters. After trying, and failing, two more times, I decided to just call first thing on Monday and have them cancel the trial.

First thing on Monday, 11/18/13 (their customer service call center is not available on the weekends), I called and told the customer service agent I wanted to cancel my account. She began to offer me some kind of other deal, but I wasn't interested, and very clearly/plainly explained that I wanted to cancel my account. She apologized and told me she had canceled my account and that I would receive a confirmationn email within 24 hours. I thought the timeframe seemed odd, but considering her broken English (I honestly do not intend that to be any sort of insult, simply the facts), I decided I would just wait and call back the next day if I didn't receive the email.

Tuesday morning at 8:44 eastern time, I received an email informing me that the device (for the wireless internet) had shipped! I was furious, so I called FreedomPOP later that day when their customer service began taking calls at 12 noon eastern time, and asked them why they had shipped me a package when I had cancelled my account the previous day. She said something to the effect of "Because your account doesn't get processed until the device ships, and it cannot be canceled until it processes." Not to worry, she said. All I had to do was refuse delivery, and the device would be returned to them, and my account then automatically cancelled. I asked "What if they try to deliver it while I'm not home, and they leave it there?" She said that the device is expensive, and would require a signature on delivery, so they would not be permitted to leave it at my house if I wasn't home.

Today is Friday, 11/22/13. Guess what was waiting for me when I got home from work?? That's right, a package from FreedomPOP. When I picked up the package, I noticed it had "Carrier Leave If No Response" typed for the delivery instructions--specifically the opposite of what I had been told. Of course I called and asked about this, and of course she was just as clueless as the first two CSR's I had spoken with. I explained to her everything that had happened up to that point, and said that I was not paying them, and would gladly return their device, but I wasn't going to pay a penny of my $ to do it, as it never should have been taken off the shelf to be shipped to me in the first place. I told her I needed to speak with a supervisor, because so far the front-line CSR's had gotten me absolutely nowhere. She put me on hold for 10-15 minutes, then came back and said none were available and that one would definitely call me back later today.

After I got off the phone, I checked my credit card account. Not only had it already been charged, but it had been charged 5 (five) separate times! There were four separate charges for $0.90 each (90 cents each), and one charge for $49.99, which is the price for 3 months of service that was *supposed* to have been charged only if I didn't cancel my account by the time the free trial ended. Of all of this, here's the worst part: All five of those charges were on 11/16/13, the absolute first day that I signed up for the free trial! 

It certainly looks to me like they just assumed I would forget to cancel the trial, so it wouldn't make a difference if they went ahead and charged me right away. When I called to cancel (not knowing, and therefore not mentioning, that I had already been charged), she instead made sure the device got shipped out, hoping I would feel locked in, and of course the next csr told me it wouldn't (and *couldn't*) be left without a signature, which also turned out to be false.

As of now, it is Friday, 11/22/13, 6:56 pm eastern time, and they have 1 hour and 4 minutes left to call me back before they close for the weekend. I certainly do not recommend anyone do business with this company. They have proven to be very shady so far.