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Report: #23838

Complaint Review: Compuserve - Nationwide Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: San Diego Ca
  • Author Not Confirmed What's this?
  • Why?
  • Compuserve www.compuserve.com Internet U.S.A.

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Here we go....bought a Compaq LapTop from Circuit City and recieved a $400 rebate through Compuserve. The service was lousy; constant disconnects; and slower than sap but I put up with it.

The laptop blew in just over one year and it was returned to Circuit City as a piece of junk. Two months later I was involved in an auto accident and placed on disability.

I can no longer afford Compuserve's inadequate service, so I called them to explain my situation. Geez, who would guess that they would practically laugh at me and do nothing over the phone!

I did manage to get them out of some form of sympathy to give me a whole month free of charge....Yeah Right! Guess what?

Just got my bill and they still charged me. I also sent a very polite and professional letter explaining my situation to Compuserve's Customer Service Department.

They haven't even had the courtesy to even acknowledge the fact that I sent it to them. This has to be the most inept company I have ever dealt with.

CAN ANYONE ADVISE how to cancel this ripoff of a contract without being sued or sent to a collection agency. All Advice would be appreciated. I NEED HELP!

Terry
San Diego, Hawaii

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/01/2002 11:26 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/compuserve/internet/compuserve-rebate-scam-breach-of-contract-for-lack-of-services-provided-i-need-help-ri-23838. 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. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
0Author
9Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#9 Consumer Comment

I bought a computer at Circuit City and got the same $400 instant rebate

AUTHOR: Anonymous - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Sunday, March 16, 2003

I bought a computer at Circuit City and got the same $400 instant rebate, taken at the cash register, when signing up for a 3 year contract with Compuserve. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, but my spouse pointed out we were going to have to sign up for internet service anyway, might as well get a substantial rebate out of it and have the added convenience of already having an internet account ready to go when we set up our computer at home.

I actually believe you're getting off easy by repaying the rebate and the cancellation fee. I believe my contract says that if I cancel service before my 3 years is up I have to pay out the rest of the contract.

Not that I plan to. I haven't had any problems from Compuserve. I sometimes got a slow connection but I have recently moved cross country and I now get a consistently fantastic connection at my new home. I think I'm in a less populated area so the local servers aren't as busy. That has a lot to do with it.

You should also be aware that the problems you're experiencing with your connection could be glitches in the computer. Most programs do not work well together. For example, a computer might work fine with Windows, but add the AOL software and they interfere with each other. I am also around my 21st month of service, and my computer is still working fine. Compuserve can't be blamed for the quality of the equipment you purchased.

I was originally dreading a 3 year contract at $21.95/month but it's a comparable price to most internet providers that don't have a bunch of pop-up ads. My observation has been the cheaper your monthly fee, the more pop-up ads you get. You could pay about half, but you also double your hassles.

Anyway, I'm not trying to undermine your frustration. I just think you're only hurting yourself by paying to get out of your contract with less than half left to go. Why not just ride it out, then switch? You may pay all that money to get out of your contract, switch to another company and find that the grass is not any greener.

My point is, it is a perfectly legitimate offer. Compuserve is not running a scam.

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#8 Consumer Comment

Same Scam Continures

AUTHOR: paul - (United States Minor Outlying Islands)

POSTED: Monday, December 09, 2002

I had purchased 2 computers different states but Compuserve was the internet provider. Service in California was fine for a month and then just suddenly stopped. Contacted company they said everything fine. We couldn't connect, after months contacted BBB. After several more attempts (and months) to solve problem I STOPPED PAYMENT on Credit Card. COMPUSCAM immediatedly sent letters to forward payment. I talked to customer service and put me on hold or disconnected me. BBB said they could not help they had NO Enforcement Ability.

It died..They sold me a Cheap Computer which cost me several hundred more PLUS Non-Esistant Internet Service. There Customer Service is sore.

Well my company was going to make a major computer purchase of ComPAQ Laptops. I conviced them to abort and to utilize a competitor.

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#7 0

Editor's Comment ... Bill from Jacksonville, ..plenty of complaints on all companies, which use this marketing scheme

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Tuesday, October 15, 2002

This type of reasoning is responsible for the wholesale loss of ethics and integrity in business today. Just because all the other companies are doing it does not make it right.

I remember when CS unethically obtained personal information from individuals' PC's via various means, such as Trojan Horses in the mid-90's. Now, I am sure no one would willingly grant access to the information in their hard drive, and yet it is standard practice.

Finally, there are plenty of complaints on all companies, which use this marketing scheme. These victims detail how they routinely have problems getting customer service issues resolved. The gimmick used continually is that an individual's thrift will drive the repeat business.

ED Magedson
EDitor@ripoffreport.com

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#6 UPDATE Employee

Response to unhappy Compuserve Member

AUTHOR: Bill - ()

POSTED: Monday, October 14, 2002

The purpose of offering the rebate program was to allow consumers to make the purchase of a new computer more affordable and to then provide them with a premium online service provider.



Compuserve along with MSN, Prodigy and others have offered these rebates for several years with both positive and negative results. The one thing that these rebate offers all have in common is that the customer has to agree to the terms of the contract. No one that I am aware of has ever been coerced into one of these agreements. The primary reason most customers become disenchanted with the rebate plan is that they run into some type of financial problem and want to reduce their debt load.



Other reasons include member is deceased, the member moves to an area where no local access numbers exist, the compuer they purchased has broken or been sold, the member has upgraded to a broadband connection and no longer wants to pay for the service. And there are other reasons that seem legitimate. When the customer has problems using the service, we encourage the customer to call our Technical Support. There is no additional charge for this service and the problems are often resolved.



I am one of those consultants who has to explain the terms of the contract to customers who call in to either inquire or to end their membership. I am as empathetic and helpful as I can be. Compuserve is is highly reputable and reliable provider with a history of customer service that dates back to the earliest days of the Internet. Ther are eighteen unhappy customers who are dissatisfied with some aspect of their membership. For those who never received their rebate checks even when you did all that could be expected, Compuserve may have goofed. However many customers who thought they were supposed to receive cash, actually received an in store rebate at the point of purchase such as Circuit City. Considering that a million plus consumers took advantage of these rebate offers Compuserve has lived up to its end of the bargain pretty well. The preliminary stats indicate that we are retaining over 70% of the members coming off of their contracts.



There have been other problems that I feel we need to improve on. Members who call in for help should not have to wait on hold for 20 or more minutes at a time. Compuserve is in the midst of a major hiring of new Customer Consultants. Another problem which disturbs me is when a customer is transferred to other consultants multiple times. And there is no excuse when a consultant fails to do everything possible to resolve a customers' problem or even worse fails to be respectful to the member no matter how irate the person might be.



For those customers who have legitimate complaints it is incumbent on you to voice your displeasure. E-mail is the least effective way to try and get a problem resolved or to request Compuserve to assist you. The reason for this is quite simply the volume of email that is sent. By going to Keyword or Go Word: Member or Help every customer will find valuable information as to how to get help.



I have no official mandate to write this response. In fact I could be fired. If you are unhappy with Compuserve and we fail to address the problem to the best of our ability you, the customer, will exercise your power by not using our service and telling others not to use our service. It is in Compuserve's best interest to try and resolve a problem. If we fail, we also certainly pay for this later. If you have a problem and have not gotten results then try again. Sooner or later you may even get me on the line.

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#5 0

Clarification on Cancellation Fee

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Saturday, July 06, 2002

This is to clarify my last posting on cancellation. The $50.00 cancellation fee is on top of the $300.00 that I would have to refund from the original rebate. So think about it folks!



I have had the contract for 21 months.

I have only 15 months remaining on the contract.

To Cancel it will cost me $350.00 at this time.



Now let's figure this out mathmatically.



If you take the $100.00 of the original $400.00 rebate and divide it by the last 21 months, then that breaksdown to $5.26 a month.



Now, let's take the remaining $300.00 plus the $50.00 cancellation fee, which is the cost to me if I cancel their service now, and divide by the remaining 15 months on the contract; the breakdown comes to $23.33 a month. Take that $23.33 a month and add on the 21.95 for the ISP service....well simple math tells me that comes to a whopping $45.28 a month for the next 15 months.



And to Mark of Mesa.....I contracted for a service in return for the rebate. Compuserve has done very little to fulfill their end of the bargain. The service is slow, Subject to constant busy lines, subject to hang-ups, and worst of all the subject the clients to a constant barrage of pop-up ads that is the worst I have ever seen on any system. They have failed on their end, not I! I have faithfully paid for their service monthly and have gotten squat in return.



Terry

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#4 Consumer Suggestion

Who would spend more to get less back?

AUTHOR: Mark - ()

POSTED: Friday, July 05, 2002

I worked at a company that did offer these rebates

to customers. I never pushed them onto consumers

nor did I take advantage of them because of the fact that they locked you into a contract. Why would you spend $526 (2 years) or $790 (3 years) just to get $400 back? Large rebates come with large strings attached.



The ISPs have to protect themselves from fraud. If you cancel the contract, you have absolutely no right to the rebate. A cancellation fee of $50 is much cheaper than making you pay the

remainder of the contract.



Read the paperwork. Everything that seems to be

a ripoff is written down. People just don't take

the time to read the details before signing and

then freak out later saying 'well no one told me

about this!'

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#3 0

Even More RIPOFFS

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Friday, July 05, 2002

Called to verify that the $300 fee to cancel my contract with Compuscam after 21 months, and I am informed that it will also cost me an additional $50 (cancellation fee) on top of the $300 to get out from under this contract. So I have it figured this way.....the rebate (not counting the 21.95 monthly fee) has cost me approximately $5.26 month for the last 19 months. However, it will cost me the equivalent of $23.33 a month for the next 15 months if I pay to cancel. At this point, I must admit that Compuserve is the champion of creative math. No wonder such companies as Enron and WorldCom are folding!

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#2 0

Still Being Ripped OFF

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Friday, July 05, 2002

Just heard back via email from Compuscam. Now they say they show no documentation indicating that I would be given that one month of free service they promised. This is so typical of this inept organization. And, as for the so called contract for the so called Premier Members for the so-called Rebate.....I have had their service now for 1 year and 9 months. I am committed to 3 years, and have been informed that if I cancel now; I would be responsible for a repayment of $300.00 of the original $400.00 rebate. Total rip......now I can see why AOL/Time Warner is in such financial troubles. Advice to all those out there that own stock in this company.....sell and run!!!!

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#1 Consumer Suggestion

Read the contract

AUTHOR: Terry - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, July 03, 2002

The contract you signed to get the rebate probably said that you need to be with them for 2 years. If you terminate the service prior to that you have to pay some of the $400 rebate back. The contract should say what you have to pay (probably $150) or so. Granted, paying $150 for no service is no bargain, but paying $30/month for the next year is worse.

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