Wifi Rv Company Options

[Texasrvers]

Has anyone had any dealings with a company called WIFI RV that provides wifi service to RV parks? Did you have any trouble with them, and if so what did you do about it?

We signed up for their service at a park we were staying at last month. We were able to register and get service for about an hour. After that our service stopped, and we never were able to get on the internet again. We called their so-called 24/7 tech service line which had a voice message that instructed us to leave our name and number and they would call back. When I had not heard back in 2 hours I called again. After another 2 hours I tried to reach them again by choosing other options on their automated phone system. At no time could I reach a live person. All options asked you to leave your name and number which I did about half a dozen times. Finally when our purchased time had expired I called and asked (on the voice mail) for our payment to be refunded. To date I have not heard a word from anyone. I even managed to get an email address for a person in their customer service department, and I sent a message to them, but no one responded to that either.

Before we left the park I mentioned our trouble. They were very sympathetic and said they had had nothing but trouble with the service and that they hated it. They said they were under contract with them for a few more months, and after that they would definitely not be using them again.

I am disputing the charge on my credit card, but I was just curious if anyone else has had trouble with them.

[Texasrvers]

I really do appreciate all the responses. Since my first post I have found some websites that have complaints about this company. They all say pretty much the same thing. Someone signs up; their credit card is charged; they get on line for a short period and then the service quits working; they get a message that says the system is initializing and to try again later; they can never get through to the 24/7 tech services line; they can also never reach a live person or get a response to email; they ask for a refund, but do not get it. This certainly sounds like the company is scamming their customers.

KC, I am not a lawyer, but is it considered fraud if they intentionally cut off the service before the paid time has run out? There must be something illegal about that?

I am not sure what further action I will take, if any. There was one poster who did get a response from the company, and he said they threatened to sue him for non-payment since he had entered into a contract for their services. His point was that he did not receive the full service time that he paid for, So then the company said they would prorate the service for the time he did use (that short period when the service works), but the prorated amount would be charged at the most expensive hourly rate and would, therefore, be much more costly than the contracted amount.

All this gave me second thoughts. I do not want them to get my money, but I would not want to be sued either, and if they prorated my service, I'm afraid the outcome would be the same as above. The service was on just long enough that the prorated hourly rate would be more than the amount I originally paid.

Any way you look at this, the service this company provides is not right. It may not fit the legal definition of fraud, but it must fit into some category.

Again, thanks for your input. I just wish there was a better way to get the word out to others.

[kcmoedoe]

I really do appreciate all the responses. Since my first post I have found some websites that have complaints about this company. They all say pretty much the same thing. Someone signs up; their credit card is charged; they get on line for a short period and then the service quits working; they get a message that says the system is initializing and to try again later; they can never get through to the 24/7 tech services line; they can also never reach a live person or get a response to email; they ask for a refund, but do not get it. This certainly sounds like the company is scamming their customers.

KC, I am not a lawyer, but is it considered fraud if they intentionally cut off the service before the paid time has run out? There must be something illegal about that?

I am not sure what further action I will take, if any. There was one poster who did get a response from the company, and he said they threatened to sue him for non-payment since he had entered into a contract for their services. His point was that he did not receive the full service time that he paid for, So then the company said they would prorate the service for the time he did use (that short period when the service works), but the prorated amount would be charged at the most expensive hourly rate and would, therefore, be much more costly than the contracted amount.

All this gave me second thoughts. I do not want them to get my money, but I would not want to be sued either, and if they prorated my service, I'm afraid the outcome would be the same as above. The service was on just long enough that the prorated hourly rate would be more than the amount I originally paid.

Any way you look at this, the service this company provides is not right. It may not fit the legal definition of fraud, but it must fit into some category.

Again, thanks for your input. I just wish there was a better way to get the word out to others.

You go to your credit card company for a refund. That is the proper course of action. You bought a bad product. You wouldn't think of suing your cellphone company because it drops calls or there are areas shown on their service map as available, yet your phone doesn't get a signal. There are just too many moving parts in a wifi system to really determine who is at fault. You have the original ISP that the campground uses to bring in the wifi signal (this would not be wifi RV, but rather a DSL company like verizon or satellite like Hughesnet or a cable comany like Comcast) you have the company (wifi RV) that installed the campground's access points and you have the user's computers each with different software, modems, security features etc. To prove a crime, you would have to prove their system didn't work, prove they knew it didn't work, and prove that knowingly sold a non-working product or deliberately rigged the system to stop working before the subscription was up. The latter is highly unlikely, because I can't think of how they would gain financially from such a scheme, since the original ISP is who bears the cost of traffic, not the access point and billing company which is wifi RV.