[asterisk-biz] VoicePulse engaged in very dubious business practices

[David Pollak]

I had pre-paid, thus I did not close my account because it had a 
positive balance.  I explicitly turned off all auto-renew features. 
That means that I explicitly revoked any rights granted to the provider 
to charge my credit card, but they charged my card anyway.

If there was a way to get a refund for pre-paid amounts, I would have 
taken that route.  However, if I've pre-paid and made it explicit that a 
provider does not have the authority to charge my credit card, then 
there's no legal argument that the provider should be able to charge my 
card.  If VoicePulse were a post-paid service or if I had used some 
loophole in their billing system to rack up huge charges, they would 
have a right to recoup the value of the services delivered.

I've probably got more than $1,000 in prepaid services out to VoIP 
providers.  That's my cash that they're using.  Sometimes things don't 
work out the right way (e.g., VoicePulse's service problems, NuFone's 
800 number problems) but that's a risk that I take by prepaying with 
small providers and I've got no hard feelings for the few dollars that 
have gone to providers who ultimately haven't provided the bargained for 
services.

It's a whole different thing to not provide services that I've paid for, 
go charge me for additional services that I did not authorize, and then 
to argue that they have the right to charge my card.

I'm not looking for sympathy.  I'm looking to warn the non-service 
providers to avoid VoicePulse because of their business practices.  I'm 
also giving the service providers on this list information about how one 
of their competitors treats customers.



VoIP Dealer wrote:
> David,
> 
> You probably don't realize that you are posting a complaint about 
> something that has happened to 75% of the people that read this list... 
> not because they are customers, but because they are PROVIDERS.  Don't 
> expect much sympathy when you left the account open and they continued 
> to charge as expected.  If you don't tell your cable company you are 
> moving, you OWE them money whether or not you live there anymore of if 
> you "authorized" them.  You entered into a contract and are now 
> complaining when they enforced the contract on you.
> 
> In the end, VoicePulse did the "right thing" from YOUR point of view, 
> gave you a refund and returned $41 that was rightfully theirs, so I 
> don't see what your complaint is at all.  Try to even get one of these 
> one-man shops on the phone for a refund and see what happens.
> 
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