ComplaintsforSpectrumVOIP

• Initial Complaint

  02/22/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In late November 2021, I entered into a business leasing contract for the rental of 6+1 VOIP Yealink phones (6 identical and 1 with a larger screen). During the initial sales pitch I was promised that they would lower my bill and upgrade my analogs phones to VOIP. I was never told that I would enter into a rental agreement with a third party, which by the way, they are called Navitas Credit Corp. Their names were never mentioned until after I had already signed the proposal. To sum it all up, I was deceived into accepting a monthly rent for devices that are worth approximately $275 each for a total of $1,925. Instead, I signed a contract, that, oh by the way, cannot be cancelled, and is for 36 months at $182 for a total of $10K+!!! This is simply outrageous. SpectrumVOIP is using the word "Spectrum" to misrepresent Spectrum at its best. My business is a non-profitable organization (church) and I believe we've been scammed in the most despicable way possible. Not only we will pay a ridiculous amount of money in the long run, but I was also billed by my current provider for early termination fees of two of our voice lines. SpectrumVOIP proposals never mentioned signing up a rental agreement with a third party, specially where such agreement cannot be voided/cancelled.

  Business response

  03/22/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/02/23) */ Mr. *******, We are very sorry for your dissatisfaction. Please allow me to clarify some things which will make better sense. Regarding lowering your bill: Your previous bill with Frontier for phone service was $264+taxes and the new rate is $182.00 +sales tax. Regarding entering into Navitas agreement: In review of your paperwork, Parris signed the initial contract (Rental Agreement). The final agreement after any changes made throughout the process was signed by you and is a Navitas document, with language making that very clear. We can send you a copy upon request. Regarding the amount of the contract: We have an option to purchase all of the equipment upfront, and pay out of pocket for installation, training, etc, but for the exact same monthly rate, we offer the contract promotion which includes all of that with no upfront expenditure. Your payment to Navitas includes all hardware, onsite install, training, lifetime support, licensing, porting, and unlimited features, and it replaces your Frontier bill for plain vanilla telephone service alone. You are incorrectly associating the monthly payment to Navitas as being for phones only, and making the incorrect assumption that you are being over-charged. Regarding the Spectrum name: We have been SpectrumVoIP (all one word) for over 15 years. Time Warner and Charter merged about 5 years ago and rebranded themselves as Spectrum Business, aka Spectrum. We are not affiliated with Spectrum Business in any way, but continue to operate as SpectrumVoIP as we have for over 15 years. Regarding the Early Termination Fee: As part of the agreement, you received a $1000 Visa gift card to more-than offset the ETF fees from Frontier. Again, we are very sorry for the frustration that you have experienced and welcome a call anytime to clarify further. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2022/02/24) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The option to pay up front for the devices was never an option. Had I known that I could purchase the devices at retail price I would have save my organization thousands of dollars in senseless rental. Just like you would with a cellphone device, you pay an additional fee until the value of the device is paid off, after that period, all charges related to the value of the device are dropped and you continue to pay for the service. This contract contained hidden fees from the beggining as the total amount to be paid was not provided. All this time I thought I was paying for VOIP service and not for renting a very inexpensive device at the cost of thousands of dollars by the end of the contract. It is obvious that this is why the contract explicitly says that it cannot be cancelled. A customer should have the option to return the devices and buy them at retail price saving approximately $8,000 in rental fees. I was misled by the "Spectrum" brand thinking that I would be treated like a valued customer, yet I was tricked into signing a contract and this mistake will cost the church thousands of dollars. I hope the BBB hold you guys accountable for "omitting" the option to buy the VOIP phones at retail price. Yes, I was promised a $1K gift card but I have to see how this money was applied to the balance of my account. The project manager at SpectrumVOIP doesn't seem to understand that either I receive a check for that amount, or that exact amount is discounted from my bill. Feel free to send me a copy of ANY document that states where this $1K has been paid and what method was used. Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2022/02/25) */ Mr *******, I apologize that we are still not communicating this clearly. There is no scenario where your monthly recurring charge would be less. The monthly payment for service is the same, regardless if you purchase the phones outright or not. We include all of the equipment for customers who agree to a contract term, so that our customers do not have a capital cost to sign up for our service. It is simply a promotional offering where we absorb the cost of the equipment for those customers who agree to a contract term. Hopefully this explanation provides better clarity.

• Initial Complaint

  08/17/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In November of 2020 I was contacted by Spectrum Voip regarding an upgrade from my current analog phones to digital phones. With the new phone system I was supposed to be able to use them and also use them digitally. I asked several times about the cost and was told it would be an additional $14.95/ month on my Spectrum bill. Again I repeatedly asked this question and was told the same thing $14.95/month. I could have them for 5 years and if they broke they would replace the phone system. After several discussions I agreed to these terms. The Voip man can and installed my phones on November 17, 2020. Right after that I started having problems with dropped calls, static, calls not coming through, not being able to hear those who called. I called Spectrum Voip and Spectrum Charter, thinking they were the same company to get the matter fixed as it was health care season and I needed to be able to talk with my clients. I finally got an honest answer from VOIP and they told me to

  Business response

  11/12/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/08/20) */ Ms ********; I have researched your case, and have to draw attention to the fact that you have been in contact with us, as well as your attorney, for months, and all prior correspondence never mentions service issues, only a dispute that you feel your monthly bill should be just $10 per month, and not $110 per month as the contract stipulates. It was pointed out to you that you signed detailed contracts on two separate occasions 5 weeks apart, which were consistent and clear about the charges. You stated that you felt rushed by our sales rep and didn't read the contract. Yet you signed it a second time 5 weeks later via Docusign. Your own attorney expressed disappointment that you didn't read the contract. In good faith, we offered a $1,000 discount if you wished to pay it off and move on, and your attorney declined that offer. You stated that you though we were Spectrum Business (your internet provider), even though we went to great lenghts to inform you that we are not affiliated, and yoiu even initialed a clause on our service proposal which expressly clarifies this important detail. Until this BBB complaint was filed, you never one time mentioned any service related issues. For that reason we feel that this complaint is disingenous. Regardless, there is no way for us to address any service related issues since you have cancelled service with us and ported your numbers to another carrier. The only remaining issue is the contract obligation, and that has been fully negotiated with your attorney. Since there is no course of action we an take to address your specific complaint here, we are considering this case closed. If you wish to continue correspondence with us regarding the contract issues, please have your attorney continue to communicate with Jeff ******* XXX-XXX-XXXX. Consumer Response /* (3000, 7, 2021/08/23) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) This frankly is not true, I was on the phone from the beginning of the install with spectrum voip asking/pleading to make my telephones to work. Over and over again I had to call Spectrum and Spectrum voip and finally Duwane from VOIp told me that I had a problem with the Spectrum Modem. I then called Spectrum Charter again and they told me at that point it was not their equipment. I guess that makes sense as to why Jason from voip told me to try to find different internet service because the phones were not working very well with the current internet provider. I asked the Spectrum/Charter manager for Montana, Idaho, Wyoming why Spectrum would suggest I get another internet provider. He told me that Spectrum Charter would never recommend finding a new internet provider. I then asked several other questions about my telephones being analog phones and he also explained that there were no Spectrum analog telephones. I was shocked that I had been lied to by Spectrum Voip. In an effort to make the new phones work in my office I did contact another internet provider but unfortunately in Butte Montana the only other provider was century link and they only had 3 band widths and I needed 40 so I had to stay with Spectrum/Charter to run my business. I spent 10 days on the phone with the service people trying to make the phones work, I plugged and unplugged, restarted, redid the phone system at least 20 times. The phones were installed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I was on the phone for 10 solid days trying to make the telephones work between the 2 companies. After the last support call with Spectrum Charter that told me that it wasn't a charter modem and they could not make it work that is when I decided to cancel the service. you can see the attached emails from VOIP regarding my need for help. Again this was their solicitation of my office and their misrepresentations of who and what they were doing along with the inability of the phone system to work with my internet is why I wanted the system cancelled. I am willing to pay the price for the 10 days of use of the phones but they were shipped back to the company within 20 days of the installation. They also took 2 of my 3 lines which is something I also did not understand and then it was an entire month I had 1 line and no fax line in my office. This was critical because it was health insurance and medicare supplement time and I had only 1 telephone line. As you can see from the attached emails with VOIP that I was not happy and did not want the service. It must also be extremely confusing for the BBB as I have been contacted twice by Charter/Spectrum as that is where you initially filed the complaint. This is a bait and switch issue which is illegal in Montana and there has to be some sort of law that you cannot charge people 1000 times the cost of a product that didn't work and was returned. This is ruining my business credit, it is a scam, it has happened to several other people and I was provided information from Charter/Spectrum that there are several lawsuits in place regarding this activity from Spectrum Voip. I am a small business and have done nothing wrong but return a defunct telephone system that would not work. Please review the following emails. Thank you Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2021/08/24) */ Ms ********; You are referencing an issue that arose at installation, whereby your ISP provided a modem that is not compatible with any voip provider other than their own. It is rare but we do see this from time to time, and if the provider won't fix or replace their equipment we recommend that they switch providers. In this case the issue was corrected by your ISP. We did not consider your installation completed until after this was resolved, and it wasn't until then that you re-signed all of the paperwork, confirmed your acceptance of terms via email, and also verbally acknowledged the terms with your project manager. On XX-XX-XX you voiced your billing complaint to Jeff Wetter, and told him that you would pay $10 per month but not $110 as the contract stipulated. Since there is no course of action we an take to address your specific complaint here, we are considering this case closed. If you wish to continue correspondence with us regarding the contract issues, please have your attorney continue to communicate with Jeff ******* XXX-XXX-XXXX. Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2021/08/25) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) As you can see from several of the emails that I forwarded to you the telephones were not working correctly immediately after installation, the date of the support emails and the numerous telephone calls should have been noted, I asked to have the system cancelled on December 3 or 4th and at that time I found out that my telephone numbers had been ported to another carrier. It was at the time that I found out that the equipment I had did not work with the telephones and I had no other option for any additional internet provider. Dewayne from VOIP is the one who told me that I could not get the system to work and then I confirmed it with Spectrum/Charter. Again, the phones were returned to you on December 10th, I requested the contract be voided and in Montana when we cancel a finance agreement the money is then refunded back to the client so I am wondering what you did with the $6000 you received for the $600 phone system. You have kept the $6000 that was paid to you by Graybar and also the $600 telephone system. I offered initially before I returned the telephones to purchase them and Jeff Wetter explained that I could not cancel the contract. Also the docusigns were signed only one time not weeks later as described by VOIP in an earlier response. This is a SCAM and they are stealing money from phone providers and Graybar financial.

• Initial Complaint

  08/04/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We signed with SpectrumVoip in November of 2019 and started having issues with their equipment and service almost immediately. They have a SOLELY email/tickets filed way of dealing with their customers and when we would file a ticket, one of the support people would attempt to solve the issue, but if it was not solved, the ticket would still be closed and we would have to again email and open another ticket. This has been going on for 18 months. Our customers were getting "this number has been disconnected" messages because the equipment was not working and because they were forwarding to our numbers and not owning them like they claimed they were when we signed on. We were never able to answer or make calls on our phones in our warehouse. They sent replacement equipment months ago and never installed it. We finally had to leave for another carrier in order to get our calls! They refuse to admit they could not fix our issues and are holding us hostage with their equipment unless...

  Business response

  12/08/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 16, 2021/09/21) */ Ms ****; As you are aware, your contract included cordless phones for use in your warehouse and around the office. After the initial installation, you contacted our support team because the warehouse phone was problematic and cutting out during calls. We determined that the warehouse location was too far for the phone's signal reach, and we sent out a repeater, a Yealink RT30. Installation requires connection to power, and then a simple process of holding down the "connect" button on the base station to sync. After receiving the repeater, you insisted that we dispatch a technician to set it up. The repeater provided a better signal for the cordless phone in your warehouse building and the ticket was closed with no charges to Maine-Ly Batteries. Regarding your customers getting a "this number has been disconnected" message, we were able to determine that the number they were calling was not a number serviced by us. That number was XXXXXXXXXX, and is not one of the numbers that we ported. We advised you to contact the servicing company to address that issue, and that it was likely call forwarded to your main number which we did service, and that they could be a limited number of "paths" for the forwarded calls. There were two tickets related to that issue, and both tickets were closed after confirming that we did not service the number. That carrier claimed ownership of the numbers and wanted a large payment in order to release them, something that doesn't involve us. You opened a third ticket on March 3rd on the same issue, and had a lengthy conversation with Tyler Kunkle about the tickets and why they automatically close when we don't hear back from you. Other tickets opened after that date were all related to cancellation, and it was explained to you in detail that the lease agreement was non-cancellable. Consumer Response /* (3000, 18, 2021/09/22) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) They are lying. The only number we have for Mainely Batteries is XXXXXXXXXX and THEY NOT WE ported the numbers, or so they said. They have done nothing but lie and close tickets. They assured us they could POT our numbers which included 3 numbers, from the "real" Spectrum Business to their Spectrum VOIP. Never in any conversation did they say they could not do that and would have to have forwarding numbers. We had no clue about the forwarding until we started investigating when they were not fixing our issues. This company should be investigated, and so I have reported them to the FCC. Further, THEY sent out a DISPATCH they said to install new equipment THEY sent to us. NO ONE ever came to install said equipment and it is still sitting here.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩