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My worst was with Megapath (i.e. Speakeasy after it was bought up and they destroyed all that was ever good with it). I filled out their web form to cancel and

by Natsu 11y ago

My worst was with Megapath (i.e. Speakeasy after it was bought up and they destroyed all that was ever good with it). I filled out their web form to cancel and... nothing happened. Someone apparently called me at an odd hour without warning, but there was no message and no callback number so I couldn't figure out why. They just kept billing me. Then I called up and asked to cancel on the phone and they told me you can only use the website. I told them I had done so already and that wasn't working--no feedback at all, just a form submitted into the ether. After much arguing (including the point that my CC had expired and they were NOT getting any more money out of me, no matter what), I finally submitted that form while on the line with them. Lo and behold, it magically gives an email confirmation this time. I asked about the two months the service had been completely unplugged and unused, at which point they demanded proof that I'd submitted info to their broken webform. At that point, I realized it was a scam from the very start where they set you up to fail to get away from their service and decided never to do business with them again.

neoCrimeLabs 11y ago
I had a similar experience with MegaPath. One day my DSL went down and never came back up. I called support, no answer. 2 days later still no answer. I canceled my serice on their website and called Century Link for service. Months go by, and I start getting mail (physical and email) from "Global Capacity" telling me that my account for DSL service is overdue and my service will be suspended if I don't pay. At first I ignored it thinking it must me a scam because I never heard of the company. I get 2 more in the following months, the ammount they say I owe them still increasing. I call Century Link, why I've had service from for months at this point, to confirm my bill is paid in full. It was and my service was not at risk. Finally I break down and contact them. They explain to me that they purchased MegaPath. So I go to MegaPath's website, which is still online[1]. There's nothing about being purchased to this day. After searching around I find they did indeed purchase Megapath[2] -- AFTER my service went down and I canceled my account! Global Capacity are still threatening to cancel my service -- which I haven't had in about a year now. Every bill increases according to their monthly service fee. They also refuse to negotiate or admit that I canceled my service prior to their purchase of MegaPath. I don't know what to do at this point. I have a feeling that Megapath was failing horribly and Global Capacity received unmaintained information from them. Either that or Global Capacity is a fradulent organization. Haven't decided which yet, but it may be a little of both. [1] - http://www.megapath.com/ http://www.megapath.com/ [2] - http://info.globalcapacity.com/global-capacity-acquires-megapath-network-services-business http://info.globalcapacity.com/global-capacity-acquires-mega...
- Natsu 11y ago
  Their cancellation was basically fraudulent when they were MegaPath, from my experience. I paid off what I "owed" and no more to get rid of them. Not sure what you do in your case, but they're a complete pain to deal with. I might try to negotiate by offering to pay off some amount, but they will NOT admit that you've cancelled unless you have some kind of proof... which they will make sure there's no way for you to provide. Because their webform sure as hell won't respond and they definitely won't admit that maybe, given that you were using another ISP the entire time, it could somehow be their fault for forcing you to use a web form that doesn't actually work when you've tried it dozens of times and it magically only does something when you have a rep on the phone. Like you said, they might as well be a scam company at this point. I felt like they'd turned "customer retention" into some kind of hostage situation. I had to play hardball with the rep before their cancellation form magically worked. My theory is that there's a manual component to the unsubscribe where they have to confirm it with the customer, but they probably don't try very hard (or at all). I'm sure they'll conveniently blame human or technical errors for any faults, even if they've deliberately set things up to fail. Be sure you document every call, etc. somehow when dealing with them and get legal help if you need to. My impression was that everyone working there is in on the customer retention scam and all the ways to play hardball and abuse their customers. I seriously wish someone would do an expose on them. Speakeasy was a really awesome ISP back in the day. The people who bought them out were scum, so I'm glad they changed the name in a way.
  - lucaspiller 11y ago
    How are companies like this allowed to operate in the US? In the UK there are multiple regulators you could complain to about something like this, who would quickly come down on them like a ton of bricks.
    - Natsu 11y ago
      They're only cheating me out of a little money and they've made it hard for people to prove that they're right and easy for them to blame a single rep or a glitch. If enough people complained, something might get done, but you have to figure out who to complain to first. Occasionally, someone can interest a TV show into exposing them, but it's really hard to prove something like this. You could complain to a state AG, but unless they get a lot of complaints, it won't go anywhere--they're too small-time for that. I get the impression that they were squeezing the last blood out of the business they strangled and left to rot. I only know what I did and what the reps said to me and I knew that I didn't have enough proof to go to court with this so I didn't--I'd just end up losing more time & money to it. So I just retell my experience when it comes up again. I have seen a few other people on HN who got burned by them, though. It's sad, because Speakeasy was a really good ISP back in the day, before it was sold and gutted. The original Speakeasy support reps were awesome. But that's gone now and it makes me sad. I've never seen support like theirs from an ISP before or since. You used to find geeks singing their praises everywhere, too, but I'm sure you've never heard that about Megapath or whoever bought them.
nadams 11y ago
If you used a credit card - you should have asked your credit card company to do a chargeback. I've only done about 4-5 in my life - and every time the credit card company always went in my favor. One time was even a scammy ebay seller - wouldn't talk to me so I contacted my credit card company told me to send the item back to his address and I would get my money back (the item in question was defective and did not state it in the ebay auction). Unfortunately some people do abuse it - there was one guy who admitted on DSLreports forums that he uses his credit card to buy all items off ebay. And if he doesn't get it in 2-3 days he does a chargeback - even if he gets the item later. Which, I'm under the impression that when that happens Paypal may yank the funds from the seller's account. I don't agree with it - but I understand why. My experience with Paypal disputes on the other hand...
zhte415 11y ago
For anyone in a similar situation with online forms seeming an official means, I now screencast myself in basically every transaction. Shift+PrtSc and done. Having never much been into recording screens before, this took a while to discover, but is not automatic behaviour. There are lots of utilities for doing so. I use ShareX (with the above keyboard shortcut configures) and it is the most useful app I never knew I needed. http://getsharex.com/ http://getsharex.com/ [So useful, I just submitted it as a link. It took a long time to find and trust anything similar.]

by Natsu 11y ago

neoCrimeLabs 11y ago

I had a similar experience with MegaPath. One day my DSL went down and never came back up. I called support, no answer. 2 days later still no answer. I canceled my serice on their website and called Century Link for service. Months go by, and I start getting mail (physical and email) from "Global Capacity" telling me that my account for DSL service is overdue and my service will be suspended if I don't pay. At first I ignored it thinking it must me a scam because I never heard of the company. I get 2 more in the following months, the ammount they say I owe them still increasing. I call Century Link, why I've had service from for months at this point, to confirm my bill is paid in full. It was and my service was not at risk. Finally I break down and contact them. They explain to me that they purchased MegaPath. So I go to MegaPath's website, which is still online[1]. There's nothing about being purchased to this day. After searching around I find they did indeed purchase Megapath[2] -- AFTER my service went down and I canceled my account! Global Capacity are still threatening to cancel my service -- which I haven't had in about a year now. Every bill increases according to their monthly service fee. They also refuse to negotiate or admit that I canceled my service prior to their purchase of MegaPath. I don't know what to do at this point. I have a feeling that Megapath was failing horribly and Global Capacity received unmaintained information from them. Either that or Global Capacity is a fradulent organization. Haven't decided which yet, but it may be a little of both. [1] - http://www.megapath.com/ http://www.megapath.com/ [2] - http://info.globalcapacity.com/global-capacity-acquires-megapath-network-services-business http://info.globalcapacity.com/global-capacity-acquires-mega...

Natsu 11y ago
Their cancellation was basically fraudulent when they were MegaPath, from my experience. I paid off what I "owed" and no more to get rid of them. Not sure what you do in your case, but they're a complete pain to deal with. I might try to negotiate by offering to pay off some amount, but they will NOT admit that you've cancelled unless you have some kind of proof... which they will make sure there's no way for you to provide. Because their webform sure as hell won't respond and they definitely won't admit that maybe, given that you were using another ISP the entire time, it could somehow be their fault for forcing you to use a web form that doesn't actually work when you've tried it dozens of times and it magically only does something when you have a rep on the phone. Like you said, they might as well be a scam company at this point. I felt like they'd turned "customer retention" into some kind of hostage situation. I had to play hardball with the rep before their cancellation form magically worked. My theory is that there's a manual component to the unsubscribe where they have to confirm it with the customer, but they probably don't try very hard (or at all). I'm sure they'll conveniently blame human or technical errors for any faults, even if they've deliberately set things up to fail. Be sure you document every call, etc. somehow when dealing with them and get legal help if you need to. My impression was that everyone working there is in on the customer retention scam and all the ways to play hardball and abuse their customers. I seriously wish someone would do an expose on them. Speakeasy was a really awesome ISP back in the day. The people who bought them out were scum, so I'm glad they changed the name in a way.
- lucaspiller 11y ago
  How are companies like this allowed to operate in the US? In the UK there are multiple regulators you could complain to about something like this, who would quickly come down on them like a ton of bricks.
  - Natsu 11y ago
    They're only cheating me out of a little money and they've made it hard for people to prove that they're right and easy for them to blame a single rep or a glitch. If enough people complained, something might get done, but you have to figure out who to complain to first. Occasionally, someone can interest a TV show into exposing them, but it's really hard to prove something like this. You could complain to a state AG, but unless they get a lot of complaints, it won't go anywhere--they're too small-time for that. I get the impression that they were squeezing the last blood out of the business they strangled and left to rot. I only know what I did and what the reps said to me and I knew that I didn't have enough proof to go to court with this so I didn't--I'd just end up losing more time & money to it. So I just retell my experience when it comes up again. I have seen a few other people on HN who got burned by them, though. It's sad, because Speakeasy was a really good ISP back in the day, before it was sold and gutted. The original Speakeasy support reps were awesome. But that's gone now and it makes me sad. I've never seen support like theirs from an ISP before or since. You used to find geeks singing their praises everywhere, too, but I'm sure you've never heard that about Megapath or whoever bought them.

nadams 11y ago

If you used a credit card - you should have asked your credit card company to do a chargeback. I've only done about 4-5 in my life - and every time the credit card company always went in my favor. One time was even a scammy ebay seller - wouldn't talk to me so I contacted my credit card company told me to send the item back to his address and I would get my money back (the item in question was defective and did not state it in the ebay auction). Unfortunately some people do abuse it - there was one guy who admitted on DSLreports forums that he uses his credit card to buy all items off ebay. And if he doesn't get it in 2-3 days he does a chargeback - even if he gets the item later. Which, I'm under the impression that when that happens Paypal may yank the funds from the seller's account. I don't agree with it - but I understand why. My experience with Paypal disputes on the other hand...

zhte415 11y ago

For anyone in a similar situation with online forms seeming an official means, I now screencast myself in basically every transaction. Shift+PrtSc and done. Having never much been into recording screens before, this took a while to discover, but is not automatic behaviour. There are lots of utilities for doing so. I use ShareX (with the above keyboard shortcut configures) and it is the most useful app I never knew I needed. http://getsharex.com/ http://getsharex.com/ [So useful, I just submitted it as a link. It took a long time to find and trust anything similar.]