[asterisk-biz] Beware: Teliax toll-free compensation FRAUD.

[Peter Beckman]

So disappointing to hear Nitzan.

I've found that even when I don't think my customers are right, or I can
prove they aren't right, it is better for my own sanity and for my business
to make exceptions and provide a great experience and give refunds or send
money than to make up policies or excuses or try and prove that our
business is in the right.

I had a customer who didn't pay their bill, so after 30 days we
disconnected his numbers. They got really mad and said they lost a ton of
business. It wasn't our fault, but we also didn't want to have a customer
leave super unhappy. So they sent us an invoice for what they spent on some
advertising of those numbers and we split it with them.

Was it our fault? Nope. But we did it to demonstrate that our customers are
more to us than revenue generators. And the customer decided to stay with
us, and we have a great relationship with them to this day. It took 6
months for us to break even on that, but it was worth it for that
relationship.

I'm sure this post will cost the business more than $833 in bad press. It
doesn't even matter to me or them if either of you are "right" or to hear
their side. The relationship wasn't valued enough to solve this quickly and
move on.

I know you've experienced it too Nitzan, with the VoIP rates with Future
Nine back in 2010. Hopefully the you today would never respond to customers
with "No offense, and I'm sorry about this - but we are too busy right now
with other issues which are higher priority..." when they make a complaint.

I hope this can be a cautionary tale for all of us to remember that our
customers are humans too, and we need to treat them with respect, and to
be empathetic and value the relationship over money arguments.

Beckman

On Wed, 13 May 2015, Nitzan Kon wrote:

> Hello list,
>
> Short version:
> Teliax owes us $833 for TF traffic we sent them between March-November
> 2014. To date we have not received payment for any of this traffic, we
> keep getting ignored, given the run-around ("someone in accounting is
> looking at it"), and other excuses. BEWARE, AND DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE
> FRAUDSTERS!
>
> Long version:
> Last year, in an attempt to get compensated for our toll-free traffic, we
> got referred to Teliax by a member of this list. We signed the agreement
> and started sending traffic - everything worked fine except for lack of
> payment - we never received a single cent from Teliax.
>
> After several months of not getting paid I tried contacting Simon Booth
> (Director of Business Development) who assured me payment is coming -
> they just supposedly pay about 3 months late. A surprise, but not
> something I couldn't live with.
>
> I waited another two months and not surprisingly we still haven't
> received anything. I tried contacting Teliax again several times and was
> either completely ignored, or assured that "someone in accounting is
> looking at it".
>
> A couple months later I broke down and threatened to expose them publicly
> for their fraudulent business practices, to which I finally received a
> reply from CEO David Aldworth claiming that they do not initiate payments
> for amounts below $1000 - a ridiculous practice I was never told about,
> and one that is NOT specified in our agreement. He acknowledged they owe
> us $833 and assured me payment will be sent. This was back in November.
> Half a year later we still haven't received payment, and as usual our
> attempts at contact go ignored.
>
> I have no choice but assume the worst, and label this company fraud.
>
> -- 
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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at angryox.com                                 http://www.angryox.com/
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