Blinko - M-Qube ripoff, cellular, fraudulent billing, cell slamming Watertown Maine

November 2005, it came to my attention that a company calling itself Blinko billed a shared cellular service with my MIL, husband, daughter, and I for services we did not order nor were we aware of until then. It turns out the company began billing in July 2005, but we did not know it at the time. The bill was a bit higher but instead of searching for the difference, each assumed we had overages on minutes or something. It turned out to be Blinko. After calling Cingular for answers, it turned out that the company was in fact M-Qube. The customer service rep for Cingular gave me the phone number to M-Qube, which turned out to be the wrong number. Thankfully, the company whose number I did call had the number for M-Qube only because they received many angry phone calls daily from people trying to locate the company known as M-Qube, Inc. I dialed the number the lady gave me at the other number and I did get M-Qube.

The call with M-Qube became rather interesting. The customer service representative seemed to know why I was calling and even asked for my name, the cell number, and my email address to straighten out the issue. Somehow, I wound up on the phone with the supervisor. The supervisor became irate to the point of hanging up on me but not before telling me I had the wrong company and therefore needed to call Blinko as M-Qube did not sell cell phone services. She claimed M-Qube only provided software for the billing of such services but had NOTHING to do with the actual services. I did a google search to find out otherwise. The company M-Qube does indeed sell services. A search through the Better Business Bureau revealed 30+ complaints against M-Qube for fraudulent billing practices that are the equivalent to telephone long distance slamming! Before hanging up on me, the woman actually denied Cingular having their phone number or anything else related to M-Qube on the statement! She had some nerve. I was able to contact Blinko and was told that M-Qube and Blinko were one and the same with promises of having the charges removed and refunded but not before I received an email from M-Qube. It originated from the woman I spoke with initially with M-Qube before the supervisor took over the call. It promised to remove the charges but said little else. I replied to the email but received an auto-response saying that email address did not accept incoming emails. I thought perhaps the threats of filing with the BBB and promises to contact the attorney general and/or the FCC fixed the problem. I was wrong.

The December 2005 bill had Blinko charging me again but this time, the bill itself had M-Qube as the company to contact with a phone number and an email address. (The view bill option is down so I can't get the email address right now but I will add it later if it is still on the billing) I called again to get the charges removed and to have the money refunded. At this point, the company/companies owe us somewhere in the neighborhood of $70 not counting the two months that Cingular removed the billing and the fact I've had to call, sometimes long distance, to get a response at all. The company does NOT return phone calls. I've only received the one email and that one did not allow for email replies. I have gone beyond furious at this point.

Finally, I went online to find the M-Qube contact number with intentions of speaking directly with the public relations department. Instead, the operator puts me through to customer service quickly saying that I did not need public relations despite my disagreeing with him. I spoke with Mandy Man who claims to be the supervisor of customer service for M-Qube. She claims, as did the first supervisor, that M-Qube does not charge for services yet could not explain how the M-Qube name, phone number, and email address appears on the bills. She said she would find out which company charged our bill and have them contact me. I told her I would wait on hold while she did this but she claimed she could not find out until next week. She promised the company responsible would contact me on the next business day within 24 hours. Somehow, I don't believe her. I did tell her I had filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and planned to come here at Rip-Off report in addition to contacting the FCC and the attorney general of my state as well as the one in Maine to stop this fraudulent practice of slamming cell phones for unwanted and unauthorized charges. I went on to let her know of the more than 30 complaints against the company per the BBB website. It did not seem to phase her one bit.

In addition to charges for the service itself, I've had charges for internet time on the cell phone yet nothing comes onto the phone so I can't figure out how they get that charged. We don't even have internet capability on any of the cell phones for that matter. I want this company brought down and shut down. They are getting away with scamming people out of money every single month and what makes it worse is that most people paying for the service are not aware of it, did not order it, and probably do not realize they are paying for it. It gets worse because it is darned near impossible to get the charges stopped due to each person claiming they are not responsible because it is another company or having the CSR people hang up on the caller. It is time for action as in class-action lawsuits.

The information I have available includes one name, various phone numbers, and one email address and follows here:

Molly Man supposedly is M-Qube's supervisor of customer service.

1-866-626-2823 and 1-617-673-2400 with the email address of customersupport@m-qube.com. The bill had another m-qube email address but I can't get it right now. I will add it later if it is still there.

I did have one name of Bree but could not get a last name.

The company website claims to have charges stopped within 48 to 72 hours. I've spent 60 days trying to stop the charges and get a refund on the money paid to them in addition to the sheer aggravation and elevated blood pressure from the aggravation.

It is important to get the word out on this company and be certain to check your cell phone bill thoroughly for fraudulent charges from them. I understand from other complaints that Blinko is not the only aka they use so it could be under another name attacked to M-Qube, Inc. Again for clarification, the Cingular customer service representative, actually two of them so far, traced the charges and services to M-Qube, Inc including their phone number. This company does NOT just make software for other companies. They do more than that given the answers I've gotten from them over the last two months.

This has to stop because it has gone on long enough.

The company url is http://www.m-qube.com.

Cingular says they cannot stop the billing; I have to contact the service company to get them to stop the billing. That is becoming impossible.

Samantha
Selma, North Carolina
U.S.A.