Juno slammed me!

For a long time, I used Juno for my ISP. Great service, cheap price, decent speed, even the spam filter worked pretty good. I was happy. Except... I wanted to go wireless so I could roam around the house and Juno couldn't offer me wireless service.

I arranged wireless service got it up and working right and called Juno to cancel. The lady on the phone was very nice and told me my Juno account would be active as a "backup" for about 45 days as a FREE service. I didn't really think much more about it until the other day when I was looking at my credit card statement and saw a $4.95 charge from Juno.

I looked back through the past few months and those dirty buggers have been charging me every month! So I called them for an explanation. The first guy can only verify that it is for backup service. He can't do anything to change it... so I get transferred to a slightly abrasive and argumentative guy who just can't understand why I wouldn't want their backup service. Could be a language problem, from the accents I'm guessing their call center is in India... (Argh!! I hate companies who offshore these jobs!)

I keep telling him I don't want it, didn't ask for it, don't use it. Finally, he puts me on hold and a few minutes later comes back to tell me he's canceled the service. And then I ask him "what about the unauthorized charges?" Which, by the way, he admits he can't find any record of me asking for the service or authorizing charges beyond April 15. More time on hold and he comes back saying he can refund $9.90 (2 months worth). And I ask him, what about the other two months charges of $5.44 and $4.95? He rattles off some email address where I can make my complaint.

The dollars are not important at this point, I'm just pissed about the principle so I tell him, "Wait a minute. I'm the party that's injured here, I've told you - their customer service representative - about it and now I have to put out more effort to get your company's mistakes corrected? That's not right." He argues with me for a few minutes about that is their policy, but I keep telling him "no, it's not right and I'm not satisfied with the response." Finally, I go back on hold. After awhile he comes back and says he's refunding the entire amount... a whopping $20.29. I can expect to see it post to my credit card in 1 or 2 billing cycles. Why do they get so long to fix this?

Why do companies feel like they have to use such dishonest tactics? Is the dollar really that almighty and important that you have to sell your soul for it? Not to me. I know what happens when you climb in bed with the devil!!

You know, until this happened, I'd have gone back to Juno in a heartbeat. Now I won't. Ever. Under any circumstance. And if you use their service, I urge you to drop them like a pile of crap, too!