- Report: #1333215
Complaint Review: SmartPay - Internet
Reported By:
Brittany -
Fayetteville, Tennessee, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
SmartPay
Internet, USA
Phone:
(844) 663-1309
Web:
https://home.smartpaylease.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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SmartPay Lease Middle Man Won't Return Money or Cancel Service Internet
My phone died it's final death at the end of September. We had service through Straight Talk, but I didn't have the money to purchase a new phone outright. Straight Talk was advertising a partnership with SmartPay that would allow me to lease a phone and make payments over time. I was desperate; I was waiting on important medical test results and needed a phone ASAP. So I signed up, despite the unfavorable terms. I chose to pay an extra $25 shipping for overnight air so that I would have the phone the moment I could.
I ordered early on Friday, so I knew I probably wouldn't get my new equipment until Monday. On Friday afternoon at 1 pm I got a "shipping confirmation" email that said the order had been placed and provided tracking info.
Yet on Monday morning the tracking said the package still hadn't been released to UPS. I tried chatting with a customer service rep at Smartpay, only to learn that they're simply a middle man, and could do absolutely nothing for me except provide the phone number for Quality One - the company that sells the phones.
I contacted Quality One and learned that while the order had been placed and the shipping label created in plenty of time, Smartpay had not released funds to them until the end of the business day on Friday. As such, my package still hadn't shipped.
At that point I was really displeased with Smartpay and didn't want to be stuck in a contract with them for two years. SmartPay CS told me that I had to cancel through Quality One, so I did. The person I spoke to with Q1 was extremely helpful. She canceled my order, sent me confirmation, and then told me that Q1 had issued the refund to SmartPay and that SmartPay should give me my money back in 3-5 business days. The next day I also received confirmation from Straight Talk that my wireless service plan had been canceled, as per my request.
10 business days later, I still haven't gotten a refund. I was planning to call SmartPay anyway, but then came the icing on the cake: an email from SmartPay saying that they couldn't change the terms of my agreement and outlining the payments I could expect to make over the next year for the phone and service that I never received.
I called SmartPay and spent 10 minutes on the phone with someone who tried his hardest to help, but for whom there was a significant language barrier. He kept stopping mid-sentence, searching for the correct words, and I could hear someone coaching him in the background. He told me "I exploit this...your situation so we can do better. here is your number so when you call back in a few days we may do better." From his end, he could see no cancellation request and apparently couldn't create one or do anything else for for me, except to "exploit" the issue (I'm assuming he meant escalate?).
I thanked him for the help and asked to be transferred to a manager. That was one hour and eleven minutes ago...I'm still on hold.
I had planned to have the money SmartPay owes me back by now, so that I could pay my first bill with Verizon. Now it looks like my biggest problem isn't going to be when the refund comes in, but whether or not I can prevent them from drafting even more money from my account.
