- Report: #1004639
Complaint Review: Freedom Pop
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| Freedom Pop
Internet United States of America |
|
Freedom Pop FreedomPop Not Truly "Free Internet" or 100% Refund Internet
*Consumer Suggestion: Not bad at all, it could have been worst.
*UPDATE Employee: Fee Explanation
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Corporate Advocacy Program™
Beware, the Internet offered by Freedom Pop is not truly free.
Firstly, keep in mind that they charge you for the device. This is communicated and is not a problem, but keep reading...
Secondly, after signing up for the "free" plan, I began to notice these small charges on my credit card. After contacting the company, they admitted to charging me a fee on months where I didn't hit a certain amount of usage. What this means is that there is sort of a sweet spot of usage that you need to hit for "free internet". If your usage is under the "minimum cap", you are charged. If your usage is over the "maximum cap", you are charged.
This is not clearly communicated to the user upon signing up, and is very dishonest. They send you a device with the guise of "free internet", and then charge you for it if you don't meet conditions that were never communicated.
Thirdly, the company boasts of a "full refund" if you're unhappy with the service. I'm unhappy with a dishonest company, so obviously, I wanted to return my device. Here's the catch. The device cost me $105. When I returned it (I paid for shipping) in perfect working order, they refunded me $90. Another 15 dishonest dollars in their pocket.
In summary, by no means expect "free internet" from this company. They will nickel and dime you until you send your device back, and even then they will take another $15+ from you. Stay away at all costs.
Firstly, keep in mind that they charge you for the device. This is communicated and is not a problem, but keep reading...
Secondly, after signing up for the "free" plan, I began to notice these small charges on my credit card. After contacting the company, they admitted to charging me a fee on months where I didn't hit a certain amount of usage. What this means is that there is sort of a sweet spot of usage that you need to hit for "free internet". If your usage is under the "minimum cap", you are charged. If your usage is over the "maximum cap", you are charged.
This is not clearly communicated to the user upon signing up, and is very dishonest. They send you a device with the guise of "free internet", and then charge you for it if you don't meet conditions that were never communicated.
Thirdly, the company boasts of a "full refund" if you're unhappy with the service. I'm unhappy with a dishonest company, so obviously, I wanted to return my device. Here's the catch. The device cost me $105. When I returned it (I paid for shipping) in perfect working order, they refunded me $90. Another 15 dishonest dollars in their pocket.
In summary, by no means expect "free internet" from this company. They will nickel and dime you until you send your device back, and even then they will take another $15+ from you. Stay away at all costs.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 01/28/2013 08:13 AM and is a permanent record located here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Freedom-Pop/internet/Freedom-Pop-FreedomPop-Not-Truly-Free-Internet-or-100-Refund-Internet-1004639. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year.
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Search Tips#1 Consumer Suggestion
Not bad at all, it could have been worst.
AUTHOR: Rene - ()
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, April 03, 2013
I do not work for this company. But in their defense what you experienced is just the standard terms and conditions that you didn't read situation. As consumers we are all guilty of it. It does seem like a bit of a sneaky business practice but by law as long as they have it in their terms and conditions and disclaimers they are fine. ALL companies do this so it's not anything new they pulled out the bag. It does say in their terms and conditions if you don't use 5mb they charge .99 cents. 99 cents for a month! I know how you feel but come on I say enjoy Freedom POP while they last at these rates. Hopefully they will stick to the same rates as they grow. The big internet and cable companies would have charged you way way more than that. I switched my family to ALL prepaid services because now we have the exact same bill every single month. I was with 3 different major cell phone providers and every month it was a different price and sometimes it was due to overages from data usage raising my bill well over 200 bucks a month EXTRA on top of the normal bill. Same with cable sometimes. I don't know how a bundle package runs different prices every month and we barely watched TV some months, barely used the home phone, and rarely used the home internet connection because we were always on the go, yet the bill still bounced up and down.
I wouldn't be mad at these guys, once you found out about it to use 5mb in a months time is soooo easy. That's pulling up one website and doing a few clicks on it I mean that's nothing. Play a quick game on Facebook or send a couple of emails out. Out of 30 days that is really not hard to do.
If you're not even using 5mb in a thirty day period then you may have not needed the service in the first place.
And the shipping situation, that's the same thing for a lot of companies. You foot the cost to ship it back and they have a certain percent shelf fee it's another standard practice.
I do understand how you feel but you were no where close to being ripped off.
I wouldn't be mad at these guys, once you found out about it to use 5mb in a months time is soooo easy. That's pulling up one website and doing a few clicks on it I mean that's nothing. Play a quick game on Facebook or send a couple of emails out. Out of 30 days that is really not hard to do.
If you're not even using 5mb in a thirty day period then you may have not needed the service in the first place.
And the shipping situation, that's the same thing for a lot of companies. You foot the cost to ship it back and they have a certain percent shelf fee it's another standard practice.
I do understand how you feel but you were no where close to being ripped off.
Respond to this report!
What's this? #2 UPDATE Employee
Fee Explanation
AUTHOR: FreedomPop - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Hello,
As a new start-up devoted to shaking up the mobile data industry, we are charged a real fee by our data partner in order to keep your device active within its system. If you use more than 5MB, your account is not marked as inactive and we are not charged to keep it open. Users can avoid this small $0.99 fee by just turning the device on once a month and downloading a few megabytes of data. Our customer support agents are usually more than happy to provide a first-time refund for users who did not read our available information on our website.
The cost of the device is $99. As a small business giving away tons of free data every day, were unable to cover shipping charges. When devices are returned to our distribution center, our logistics partner charges us a fee to inspect, clean, and restock the device. If we were to absorb this small fee, we would not be able to provide the device as a security deposit, and we would really like to ensure that people have that option to return the device outside of the short 30-day return policy that most other businesses have.
As a new start-up devoted to shaking up the mobile data industry, we are charged a real fee by our data partner in order to keep your device active within its system. If you use more than 5MB, your account is not marked as inactive and we are not charged to keep it open. Users can avoid this small $0.99 fee by just turning the device on once a month and downloading a few megabytes of data. Our customer support agents are usually more than happy to provide a first-time refund for users who did not read our available information on our website.
The cost of the device is $99. As a small business giving away tons of free data every day, were unable to cover shipping charges. When devices are returned to our distribution center, our logistics partner charges us a fee to inspect, clean, and restock the device. If we were to absorb this small fee, we would not be able to provide the device as a security deposit, and we would really like to ensure that people have that option to return the device outside of the short 30-day return policy that most other businesses have.
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