Think twice before signing up to Finarea (1899/18866/18185 /voipbuster/voipcheap etc)

bikeman

As a user of many of these Finarea SA services I am disaapointed to advise that these people are either a bunch of crooks or just plain incompetent.

4 months ago I realised that I has been billed at 10p per min for several calls that should have been free.

I was promised a credit on my next bill.
My next bill came and went so I reminded them.
I was assured that it would be resolved on my next bill.
And so we went on for four months with promises being made and broken.
They now ignore my correspondence.
So I have requested a chargeback on my credit card.

They don't provide any customer contact other than by email so it's real difficult to resolve issues such as this.

I know many hand over their credit card details and don't have any problems. I also never had a any previous problems. But when you do have an issue and these buggers just ignore you, you will wonder whether saving a few quid on your calls is really worth it.

I lost most of the savings I made over 9 months with one billing error which these buggers are not interested in resolving.

Let this be a warning to others. Paying a bricks and mortar telecoms company upon receipt of a bill can be a lot safer than agreeing to credit card debits by some internet company who don't even provide a customer services phone number.

Think twice before you sign up to any of these Finarea services.

mike_paterson

I have to say that I've never had a problem, and because it is paid by credit card, I do have some protection.
I'd absolutely recommend them to all.

redux

I agree with Mike, and disagree that they totally ignore customers; they have replied to the majority of queries, even twice in a day.

What is more, they have always emailed a copy of the bill (I've read some people say that they never do), and sent a useful reminder that the credit card in use was approaching expiry.

Wig

I saw some other bloke ere who had problems getting them to look at his problem. I agree that when things go wrong they for some unknown reason will just ignore you.

Luckily nothing has gone wrong for me except not getting through on the ntl access number. Which when complained about they just ignored.

I get emails every time saying what I will be getting billed, but it is not itemised, I have to go to the site to find the itemised records.

I'm actually dreading what might happen when I change my credit card over to a diff one.

redux

Wig, no problem at all changing card details over. I've done it a few times (the bank forgot to send a new card on one account). They bill straight away on changing.

ginger_nuts

my friend no longer has a pc but uses 18866/1899 /18185 .
All the bills are sent to one of my email addressed .
The 1899 payment failed and they sent an email at 00.20 am saying payment has failed .
At 10:30 am they sent another to say payment had been collected .
My only gripe is they take a payment as soon as they email you .
At least with DD you get a few days notice .

redux

ginger_nuts wrote:

my friend no longer has a pc but uses 18866/1899 /18185 .
All the bills are sent to one of my email addressed .
The 1899 payment failed and they sent an email at 00.20 am saying payment has failed .
At 10:30 am they sent another to say payment had been collected .
My only gripe is they take a payment as soon as they email you .
At least with DD you get a few days notice .

sorry, I pressed Thanks first by mistake...

What is wrong with collecting the money straight away? They attempted to collect once, and it failed. It's natural to expect they'll collect it on the new card details without further delay.

In fact they also collect immediately if the card details are changed for other reasons, which is the only part that seems slightly unnecessary

ginger_nuts

in my friends case he didnt need to change the card details .The payment failed on the first try but I dont know why He didnt change any details and they collected later the same day .With a card payment the emal is sent after they take the money .If the payment fails you get the email saying payment failed .As they dont bill every month a bit off notice would be nice .With DD they have to give notice .