TEP Wireless, AKA Fonmingo Their wireless unit never worked. Their network was broken, support was non existent and they won't return my money. London / Internet

The story began in October of 2013.  I was scheduled to travel to Germany and my father had recently been ill.  In addition my dogs were being dog-sat by a friend and I wanted a means to check in, both on them and my father, in case something had happened.  I did my research online for a portable hotspot; research indicated TEP Wireless made a good product and was mature and reliable, so I ordered a TEP hotspot from them with unlimited bandwidth (an extra charge).

The product arrived on schedule-- good so far, right?  That's what I thought.

I arrived in Germany, as scheduled, and when I turned the unit on the first night I received only red bars on the status panel.  Ruh-roh.  TEP provides an in-package support pamphlet, though, so I ran through the troubleshooting steps and tried to connect again.  Still red bars, so I called support.

I spoke with a friendly support rep who, after troubleshooting and dignostics, told me that they weren't sure what the problem was and that they would escalate it.  I wasn't at a location where I could consistantly receive calls (one of the reasons I had rented a TEP unit), so I told them I would call back the next day, and I did.

The next day support told me there was an outage and that they didn't have an ETA for the resolution.  Now, I understand this happens, and wasn't upset.  I was assured I would be compensated for the outage and took the support tech at his word.  In retrospect, that was a mistake.  I told the tech I would call back the next day to check (a toll call, as a note), and did.

On the third day, when I call back, support is closed.  My world-wide TEP unit only has support from 7am to 7pm GMT, so be aware of that.  I manage to get a few minutes of wireless at a nearby hotel and see that I have an email from TEP support.  Fantastic!  The email tells me that the outage is over, so I turn on the unit and receive amber lights.  Well, something's different.  That's better, right?  I try to connect, but the web profile tells me 'Invalid Profile'.  I reset to factory default and try again, but it doesn't work.  Still no connection.

Day four: I call back.  Something must have gone very wrong this day because I call eight times (toll calls) and every time I get (only one) 'Your call is very important to us' notice before it send me directly to voicemail.  Since I still don't have a reliable phone, I leave four messages asking for them to email me the correct profile information, and hope that I can pick up email somewhere and get the information.

Day five, still no connection.  On day five I call again, but continue to be sent directly to voicemail.  I leave messages, but get no response.

Day six.  I pick up internet from my hotel for a few hours.  I don't have any email from TEP and my calls continue to go unanswered to voicemail.

Day seven.  I get a chance to use a phone again and call TEP.  Voicemail.  Again.

Day eight.  My last day overseas.  I call one last time; yet again I go to voicemail.

Fantastic.

I get home and request a refund.  I'm told they don't handle refunds until the unit has been returned, so I pack it up and ship it back to them.  Once tracking shows the unit has been delivered, I call back.  I'm told by Bill the support tech to submit my request by email to support@tepwireless.com, which I do, and wait.  I get a canned response acknowledging my email, but no person contacts me.

I wait 24 days before contacting them again.  This time I'm told by Kelly to resend the email and that she would escalate it to management.  I do.  Still no response.

I contact them on twitter.

Nothing.

Ever.

This company's customer service is the worst I've ever seen.  Their product was broken from day 1.  It literally never worked for a single second, all due to their outage and then their profile information being incorrect, and support was unresponsive or absent.  Then, compounding matters, not only did they fail to reach out and apologize, but they continue to be completely mute in all ways, and aren't around to refund my money.

TEP Wireless: How to pay $130 for the privilege of leaving a toll-call voicemail for someone who will never call you back.