On 04/25/2017 I signed up for a FreedomPop Basic 200 plan which promised 200 minutes of talk , 500 text messages and 500 MB of data for a monthly fee of $0.
10 months letter while checking my credit card statements I discovered that I’m been charged $7.99 every month by a FreedomPop. I contacted the company by email inquiring about those charges. They reply was : it’s a charge for special services. I never signed for any special services. I only need this phone line for emergencies. They signed me up for those services without my consent and by charging my credit card without my consent they’re committing a fraud.
After I disputed those charges they agreed to refund 2 of them but not the rest 8 charges. A quick online research showed that I’m not the only one being ripped by them. There are hundreds complaints about this company and I’m wondering why are they not being investigated by the FCC and by the FTC as a fraudsters.
Please help me get my money back and stop the practice of a fraud and abuse enacted by the FreedomPop.
I canceled before 14 day period but no refund on 26 dollars they charged for free service. Frredompop is a trap and a scam. I am a victim so my goal is to pass this message to at least 100 fora. Spread the word before falling into this scam.
So i woke up to a little surprise today on my paypal account, i was greedted to a bill from freedompop for $27.98 which i never autorized, after tirelessly looking for a way to report this to freedompop i was greeted with a return email about their terms and conditions about how they dont do refunds.
Anyways this is a old early GSM account from 2016 yeah i ordered the sim card but i also canceled the plan anyways i looked up this account and it miraculously showed up obviously no activity from me on the account from the first month i had it in summer of 2016 but now im greeted with a bill jan 2019.
Now they are saying its my fault and i need to cancel the account well i tried that and just like last time i always get a failed to delete account, last time i was able to call customer service and they said they took care of it when i called, but now if you arent a premium member you cant call in and im still getting the error to delete the account.
This commany has random charges for everything they make you pay in order ot call them or get internet support. They make you pay $20 credit then keep it. they have somewhere in their fine print that they never issue refunds. It's a total scam. They got me out of 100s of dollars and they have the worst customer service. if you are ever able to get in touch with them. This company tries every trick in the book to scam you and they even made some new tricks to get you some more. I have never heard of a company that could get away with doing this to so manhy people and Im not sure how they sleep at night knowing that they are ripping people off every day.
"I paid Freedom Pop for a year of cell phone/data service. However, I am unable to make a phone call. In an emergency, I was unable to dial a phone number because they impose advertising that interrupts the dialing process. This happens 3 or 4 times each time I try to make a call. They lied to me and never informed me they I would be bombarded with ads and so badly that I would not be able to use my phone. Freedom Pop refuse to listen to me or give me a refund. They scammed me and stole my money.” My CCard recognized Freedom Pop as a bad and troubled business and issued me a refund immediately. Freedom Pop said if I want to stop the ads, I’d have to pay us more money in addition to the annual payment. By obstructing me from making phone calls and cheating me out of my money, Freedom Pop has made a Great Enemy of me. When I tried to make an emergency phone call, Freedom Pop bombarded my phone with ads (as is their Standard Operating Procedure) and that obstructed and prevented me from calling for help. As a result, one person almost bled to death and another is in a coma which would have been prevented if I could have been able to at least dial 911. The injureds’ lawyers and state regulatory officials who are asking to meet with me to sign an affidavit of my attempt call for help. I will be most eager to work with them to expose freedom pop and take them down!
Freedom Pop is named that because they will imposed endless ads on your phone - so many that it overrides your ability to dial a phone #.
They said if you want no ads, pay use more money on top of you annual charges. Unable to make any phone calls becuauseI was too busy deletating ad after ad, they did not care I had no phone service, they REFUSED TO REFUND my annual payment. I only used the service 10 minutes of the year.
I was charged 2 times for plan and service that I did not want and did not use. After submitting a ticket to asking for a refund, the customer service representative CarlosG told me that there was no refund.
Over a year after I cancelled my service Freedompop withdrew a $32.57 charge from my bank account. I had no charges after I dropped that plan until this week.
About 2 years ago I bought a SIM card kit from Freedom Pop. I decided not to switch over to them for cell phone service and canceled my online account.
Here we are 2 years later and Freedom Pop charges my credit card almost $94.00. My credit card was frozen and later cancelled. Waiting for a new Credit card to come in the mail.
In my opinion Freedom Pop is a fraud and a scammer.
I had cancelled their service when I found out their Sim card didn't work on my phone. But they went and charged me $59.97. I requested a refund, never received it so reported them to PayPal. Now FreedomPop is saying they won't refund my money because I reported them to PayPal. Now it's been over a month and I still haven't received my refund.
I cancelled my account with FreedomPop well before the end of the "free trial". They continued to bill me. Noticed now on my credit card after 2 months. $32 per month for a service I do not use.
A year ago 4/2017 I tried to activate a phone and it was the biggest hassel that I've ever gone thru plus it never got done. Now a year later 4/2018 I tried again and after 7 phone calls and being passed around to rep after rep after rep, again it never got done. The phone both times were approved for the Freedom pop system but every rep seemed brain dead. Why anyone would put up with these untrained idoits is beyond me. As you know this is a free cellular service and believe me it is worth every penny. God forgive me but these people have no business running a business as they haven't a clue what their doing!!!
Where do i begin? Being on a fixed income i saw some rave reviews for freedom pop and believed them. Big mistake. I went on line to get their cell phone and mobile hot spot. The ads on the website were supposedly outdated though on the website brand new) i ended up forgetting the cell phone for the bait and switch offer being too expensive and end up with $39.99 hot spot. They gave me 3 supposedly free trials. But to my surprise when i reached 75% of my data limit i was hit with a unauthorized $15.00 fee on the second day of the trial. Feeling uneasy at this point. I told the representative to cancel all my accounts and direct me to refund department for i wanted a refund on my the hot-spot since i wanted to send it back. The representative had the guts to tell me that until i paid the $15.00 they couldn't cancel my accounts and i would be charged for them the following month. That's right until i paid the $15.00 they wouldn't cancel my accounts. Stunned and shocked i put down the phone dialed back and the other representative supposedly canceled my accounts. We'll see how that goes.) still wanting a refund on the hot spot. I went on-line with their supposedly on-line support. Long story short.. Some 20 emails back and forth and four more phone calls btw you must go through the sales department just to speak to a live person. If not you will be booted back to automated service and hung up on.) i supposedly got an authorization and my case would be sent to refunds department to email me a authorized return shipping label to return the product. That was some two weeks ago. They never sent the label and all i get from the company are bot generated emails telling me the issue has been solved. Without me ever having received a return shipping label or a refund. After reading so many negative costumer experiences with un authorized charges. I shudder to think what i'm going to find on my bank statement next month. This is high thievery and this company needs to be put out of business. I've filed an official complaint with bbb over this company. But i have little hope of seeing a refund in my lifeltime. As i said i am on fixed income and this hurts!
I had heard of Freedom Pop on several so called consumer advocate groups so being between jobs decided to check them out.
First of all that cheap Phone and or Hot Spot your seeing advertised on their web page and that 500 megbites or 200 Free Minutes. Does Not Exist they play a bait and switch on you.
I was sold a top of the line phone for 60 bucks plus and or Hot Spot for $40 plus. Sold a so called “Testing Period” for their premium services. Never told the catch that as soon as you Approach or go over that data limit by 2 gig testing persiod or go over it you will Pay for it $15-20 coming directly from your bank account without you knowing!
There is no protection nor warning that your going over your limit. In fact it seems to be how Freedom Pop makes its true living. Charging you the moment you even approach your limit!. So as of right now I am out $60 for a hotspot I really did not want and I can't get a refund until I pay them an addition $15 for going over a data limit they didn't tell me existed in the first place!
If your on a fixed income such as myself. Avoid this place like the plague! Move to an alternative such as Tracphone and save yourself a headache was well as high blood pressure with this company. Good luck finding a live customer service rep too or using your online account. Everything is designed to trap you into paying in one form or another while your given the run around.
After comcast went from what was suppose to be a $99 plan monthly for basic, which turned into $150, then $300, then turned my service off after i disputed and sent $150, explained im on a fix income from back surgery. I heard about freedompop. I called them and they stated free internet with one month free trial for $19 a month. And the phone is $109.98. And i purchase freedompop modem for $69.96. Then every 6 month i was to pay 70 a month if i want more speed of internet. Started feb 3rd 2018. I received the phone two weeks later but never received the modem. I called on the 25th of feb. They said the modem went to a different address and gave me a extra month free trial that i wouldn't have to pay anything, until april the 3rd. And the modem was recent to me in 7days. After 7 days i called about it and mark said they never had a moddm in stock. A day later my phone service off everytime i call they switch me to a system asking to update my credit card.
They been trying to get money off my credit card for payment when they know its too soon and i get my income every 3rd month. I only had the phone for almost 2 weeks and it took 3 days to get it working. Now all my doctors have this freedompop number and they shut my service off and going into my credit card account unauthorized.
three times tried to establish cell phone service. After a short time Phones only make phone calls via internet or not at all. takes 5days before they respond to service ticket. Tried all of their suggestions Nothing they said worked. So I dicontinued service. Several months later got another phone same story. Keeps quiting as a phone, Data works. They called me to see if I wanted a years unlimited talk and text and 1gig data 79.99 for a year and 99 cent activation. I said only on the first phone. Set it up as another account totaly.
Agent said he could activate the phone in 1/2 hour without a sim card. I knew a GSM only phone would not work. Told me here is his dept direct phone in case it did not work. Well it did not and calling number did not work. Just referes you to go online. Paid 5.99 for phone support. waited 1/2 hour for a tech who had me do several things. could not fix phone, And of course we got "disconnected."
Called back over and over. Even when I told them do not transfer me. They talked over me like I did not exist and transfered me to recordings that talked about online suport and then hung up. They OBVIOULY do this on purpose.
Not worth free unlimited everything for the level of abuse they dish out. Recording asked for yet another 5.99 to speak to billing to cancel. Billing agent said no record of them charging me for that we shall see. He was only reasonable person.
FreedomPop advertised 100% free mobile data wnen in fact it is not 100% free.
At first I thought their profit mechanism was to charge activation fees or unusually high shiping charges. Also I knew that you had to cancel their premium service to not be charged a reoccuring service free. What they don't disclose is that they charge you $10 to downgrade to the free service. They claim that the service is still free because this mandatory fee is for "topping up" the plan if you exceed your data limit. This is not disclosed in their marketing, and therefore, their "100% free" claim is not true.
Also, they claim a free 500 MB per month, but they don't tell you it actually suspends the account at 400 MB per month (rather then just ceasing to supply data). 400 MB is less than 500 MB.
I decided to give FreedomPop a try on home internet, but as soon as the call ended, I had a question I'd forgotten to ask.I immediately called back and got a runaround and was met with rudeness. After over 15 minutes of that I determined as this was just the start, it wouldn't get any better. So in less than 30 minutes of the order, I canceled. I was told it would take 3 days to process the refund. Three days later and it still has not processed. In addition, a day after cancelling, they shipped the equipment anyway. So I'm getting equipment tomorrow, that I'm going to have to return in order to get my refund I'm sure, and I won't be surprised if shipping is at my expense. And it amazes me that I now can no longer reach them. Sales says I'm a customer and won't talk to me. They transfer me to support. When I tell them support is automated and wants my phone number to connect me and says I don't have an account, they just say I do and transfer me anyway, or just outright hangup. I even asked for cancellations, same thing happens. They won't answer my emails either. I'm going to make this costlier than the $45 they ripped off of me, by the time I'm done with all my complaints, the BBB, FTC, disputing the charges at my bank, closing my bank account so they can't charge more, and trashing the equipment they underhandedly mailed out (IF the USPS doesn't allow me to refuse it), etc.It would have been cheaper for them to have done the refund.
Beware scammers my first set of phones I got one was chipped and the other one effective setback for two others even upgrade it and paid for two more phones got those One battery defective the other one the battery was DOA still gave this company another chance and talk to a guy named Dean who swore and promised if I bought two more with two more hangover plans he would take the other two back and refunding my money on the other two angle plans so now I'm at at over $1,200 later and now have to sue true you get what you pay for the ethics of this company are on deceiving.
I was contacted by a sales clerk on 9/1/17 this cell phone that I agree to. I also was not tolc of the condition of their products. On 9/8/17 I received the package but when Iooked at. I begin to complain about how bad it was when I had asked if those phones where new and she said yes. So, I return it on 9/11/17. I have receipts for all transactions and bank statements with their name and phone number. The only thing that is wrong is that. Bribhtpoint was the receiver and signed the postal slip. But, yet it was not credited back into my account. Thanks, Carol Smith
FreedomPop constantly taking payment out my bank account and the service has not been used. I'm trying to ask for my refund so I can cancel it the service but there's no answer to the FreedomPop number that they have provided for us people or users to call if you have we a problem with the service
FreedomPOP/STM Media This is a pure scam. They offer a free service for the purchase of a .99 sim. But, in truth it is a passive opt in scam that charges you for a trail service that is so deeply buried in their legal disclosures, it makes it easy for them to steal you funds and violate your credit. Customer service is also a complete joke. I was told the only way to obtain a refund was to purchase a new sim for $10.99 and activate it under a new email. Which is ridiculous, why pay more to get a refund only to be charged again. Be warned, this is not a free service
So before getting Freedompop I had made sure to find out how much data is used for different activities. So I knew that I could not watch movies, youtube or play games without incurring high data usage. This was going to be just for checking and responding to email and getting in grades and doing some web surfing. So I ordered the Franklin Mobile Hotspot and their ordering page was a little confusing, which ended up having me order two hotspots instead of one.
The issues have been the following:
-my plan beginning from the moment I ordered the Franklin mobile hotspot. Even though I did not receive it for about 10 days after ordering it and that it did not work when I first received it.
-To get it activated I had to pay $5.00 to get to speak to a technician. That is right. If you want to bypass the automated ready made answers you have to pay. You can choose to pay once or to pay a regurlar $5.99 monthly fee for the priviledge of getting online or phone help when you need it.
-So I got one of my other devices activated (more to come about the second device). so how I have paid $19.99 + $5.00. And I start surfing the web and doing some light Youtube watching. I keep checking the freedompop usage dashboard to see how the datat usage is accumulating, but it never shows any usage at all being used. Ever!
-Now because there was a promo I ended up with a couple of extra gigs for the first month and took advantage of that by watching some shows. I still never saw the usage amount go up. Not after 3,4,5,6, etc. hours.
-Eventually I saw in my email that they were toping off my account automatically as I was using extra data, which was not showing up on their account. This cost me an extra $45. I was frustrated but chalked it up to inexperience and found where I needed to turn of the automatic topoff in the fredompop site.
-by now I am a little leary. I turned my device off until the next billing cycle. It's ok, I have other internet venues. I am patient.
-Next cycle I turn on the device and it just doesn't work. Well fine I really wasn't feeling good about it anyway since I felt I should not have to pay for customer service. I turn off the device and decide to downgrade my plan and chalk it up to experience. Now it gets interesting.
-I downgrade and suddenly realize that they had me on a $9.99 premium service plan I had not agreed to obtain, so now I am charged $29.98 instead of $19.99 for a device that does not work and that I will have to pay $5 to have a person reactivate. No thank you.
-but that is not all. Remember that second device I accidently ordered because the ordering process creates a bit of confusion? well I thought that since I had not had it activated it was not being charged. OH NO. It was being charge and not only charge another $19.99 but also the premium service $9.99 AND the premium VIP service for $5.99 so in total this month I have been charged $70 without any service working. Of course I quickly deactivated everything and am calling my debit card company to make sure they are blocked in the future.
-I guess their business plan is to nickle and dime the populace which can still amount to a fair little petty. I will say that I will call Sprint, who is my carrier, and tell them that if they continue to do business with them I will stop recommending them.
My account hasn't been active for months. It was canceled in March 2017. On May 18th 2017 I requested that Freedom Pop cancel my equipment warranty and refund the policy payment. My policy then was #FPE747E8B8GAD. That was not done. Instead they switched me to CPS. I contacted CPS and they said I need to Freedom Pop. I was finally able to get the warranty canceled and got a refund of one months insurance charge in August 2017.
When talking to Freedom Pop support, they confirmed that my account was not active and I shouldn't have been charged for the warranty. I thought it was over. Since then they have charged me for two more months of service, again after the account was canceled in March 2017.
I was finally able to cancel the account again 10/11/2017, but I have no guarantee that they will not charge my account again, since they have my card on file and have continued to charge it each month.
Their claim is that the account was never canceled even though when I talked to their support, they agreed that the account was not active and I should not be charged.
I ordered a unit and First they sent me 2 units $19.99 each unit.. I im emediately tried to contact them to return the unit/units and they told me to keep them and try the 2nd unit for free.. I again, tried to return both units.. I tried to get a address to return them and again for the 3rd time they would give me a return address.
I also called 11 times and they switched me to an autimated operator that gave no options to speack to a representive... On about the 6th time I requested a manager and they still conected me with a automated operator... All together they have charged me for 2 units and 2 months service that I didn't even activate.... A TOTAL RIP OFF!!!!
I ordered a sim card but never received and forgot about it but one month later I found there is a $98.88 charge on my credit card by FreedomPop. This is absolutely wrong. How come I have to pay for the service I never used/received?
This company advertises free phone service yet when i order they automatically sent me 2 sim cards when I only ordered 1. Then I had to go into my account and find the tiny writing to downgrade to free service then they start charging me constantly.
It is impossible to get anyone on the phone and if it happens only by chance, no one does anything no one tries to even address the issues.
This is a company designed only to steal peoples money.
Freedompop is a scam. This is supposed to be 100% FREE! Even the box containing the Hotspot device says it on the box! I never set up anything to be charged automatically. Matter of fact, I never used the device because I moved and got normal internet services from a real ISP! Then I began receiving email messages telling me Freedompop credited me $15 in order to prevent disruption of services but the truth is as one of the aforementioned reports states, "Freedompop was not crediting me anything but was debiting my bank account!" As I mentioned, I never used the device!! I went to their site and I noticed an account was set up for me without my knowledge giving Freedompop permission to debit my account $15 each time I go over the plan allocation. This is absurd because I never tuned the device on Worse, as I mentioned, the box that contained the hotspot device clearly states it is 100% free.
Even worse, 1. I turned off the auto pay and today I now see a debit charge of almost $40 on my bank account. I am not able to cancel because whomever in Freedompop who set up my account never gave me a password and even the default password on tje box doesn't allow me to cancel my account which I never set up! This is a small fee but Freedompop has now debited my bank account 5 times! I yet to receive a phone call or email response from the multiple times I have sent Freedompop an email contacting them to assist me in resolving this issue! As I said, this is a small amount but I would rather have Freedompop go do jail time for consumer fraud and obstruction of public accounts! Freedompop has continually ignored my complaints regarding a service I have never used!
They would automatically deduct $30 each time they said I went over my free time or allowed time even though I would earn free service. They deducted several payments from my bank account.
When I joined their company I was told I was going to get free internet services. After I joined I could not get a downgrade even though they said I could before I joined. When I called their number I was told if I wanted to talk to a person they would charge me an adfitional $5.95 a month starting immediately!
Then they told me that I could only get free phone service NOT internet service. That was the reason I joined in the first place! Now they want to charge me $36 a month and I can't stop them! Now I am going to have to have me debit card changed to stop this ripoff! NEVER go with this company or you will be sorry!!!!!
I signed up for their free plan, and got my sim card, then the next month they stole $90.00 from my account. It is an obvious rip off, as they don't even have a plan that charges that much and I couldn't have any overages, as I literally have not even activated my sim card. Buyer beware, this is a company run by theives.
Their service was charging me a ton of money for very little data. I cancelled my account and they have CONTINUED TO BILL MY BANK ACCOUNT. They are illegally snatching small amounts out.! I have the bank investigating it and and a stop payment on them . But the bank told me if they change their company name and info they can still scam my account as someone new! I may have to cancel my entire bank account and get a new one and a new card because of these scammers!!! Don't use them ! Freedom pop is a scam
I was looking for a way to save some money on internet service and came across Freedompop Free internet service up to 2 gigs after that you must pay for it. I found a Freedompop site where you can order online and save by purchasing used and/or refurbished equipment in top working order. I ordered a Netgear 6100D router/ modem for 69.99 and the service was free. I never received a confirmation of my order so I called Saturday and the Freedompop sales person said my order did not go through, I told him it must have since it showed pending on my credit card. He assured me that the order did not go through and that I definitely would not be charged for two units. I went ahead and ordered on the phone through Freedompop.
Sure enough, I received two of the same unit. I found out after I received the router/modem that my computer does not have wi-fi interface, therefore, the units will do me no good. Ever since then, and I did explain this to the Freedompop people, I have been trying to return the Netgear units under the Freedompop 30 day money back guarantee. I sent one back using the RMA number they sent me. The other one they "claim" they cannot fine even though I have given them the Order number, ID number of the Netgear unit even the warehouse delivery number. When I called back the third time and talked to another salesperson, he found the unit with no problem and even told me the reason I did not get a confirmation number was that I only used one"r" in my email address instead of two. Why can't the customer service people find this even though I have sent it 5 times? From looking on the site here I see why this is a habit with these people. I have reported this to the FCC and of course here. I hope this does some good.
All I want back is my $69.99 but a lot of other people are losing much more than this. I hope this may result in a class action law suit against these people. I have spent hours and hours on emails and phone calls...over 70 emails and when you call sales people are all you can talk to unless you want to pay $5.99 per month to be hung up on or placed on hold. These are the most non-caring impolite people you will ever talk to. They jerk you around, you return an email and get someone else rather than the person who is familiar with your case. My advice is NEVER to get involved with these people. I stopped payment on the unit I was not supposed to get and received an email saying I should try to work things out with their company so I will not get back any refund. I believe 70 emails would say I was trying to work things out. I really hope something can be done about this company before many more people get ripped off! They do everything they possibly can to not answer or sidestep the issue. Maybe, it is the way they are trained!!
The old adage, "You get what you pay for", is more than likely a rule to live by. The company Freedom Pop offers a low-cost alternative to cell phone service that sounded great for my daughter. The first issue popped up when I noticed they charged me $15 without my knowledge. I called them and called them and had a very hard time getting a live representative. The only way you can talk with someone is if you call their sales line, otherwise, you need to give the company an additional $5.99 per month for customer care.
So eventually I did what their phone system said and contacted them via their website. I never got an email back saying if the problem was resolved or not so I called their sales number. The person there was able to refund the $15 and said it was due to an automatic top-up to keep the service from being interrupted. I guess it was probably built into the terms and conditions. They gave me the option to "opt-out" of the automatic overbilling like this. I asked that they go ahead and do this.
Fast forward to the present time and they charged me $111.44. I'm a bit irate at this point. I spent 3 hours on the phone trying to talk to someone about the issue. Every time the reps (which many times I got the same person multiple times who's name was Christian). He kept sending me over to this phone line that says if I want live help I need to pay them 5.99 on a monthly basis. Every time I called I basically said, "Hear me out, do not transfer me and do not hang up on me." When I finally said I want to cancel my service the sales rep started to help me out. They told me they would get have someone call me to rectify the problem. They said it usually takes 24-48 hours for someone to call back, but because I am a VIP customer they will have someone call me back. Guess what... by the end of the day still no callback.
I called my bank and they have blocked this company from being able to take out anymore automatic/unauthorized billings. If this company does not rectify the issue of the money they stole from me I will also have those charges reversed by my bank.
My suggestion is to never do business with this company. They have poor customer service, no... make that absolutely no customer service. They steal money from people. My bank account was extremely low the day they decided to take that money causing me to not be able to buy food after we lost all of our frozen and refrigerated food due to a 21-hour power outage.
3 years ago I gave them my card number. Today I got charged $0.01 I have called and tried to get information about the transaction from their billing department. They gave me a fake account number their sales team did. And they've hung up on me 12 times no exaggeration.
This company advertises 100% free cellular service / Mobile service. But the service its a fake wi-fi setup using their app that has to be installed .The supposed free account service it's not, after a brief period they let it go on the second months when you get distracted they start to charge fees on the credit card that you file with the account .Them when you call they answer with very nice excuses and "promise that the refund will be issued, direct but in reality, they don't and their bugs charges continue until you directly call the bank and have it blocked and the chrages reversed.
This company it's the most efficient scammer and nobody does not to protect the consumers against their fraudulent charges
So the best way, stay far away from them and let other people know about the way the way they are scamming the customers they have.
Singned up for service in November 2016, selected a phone number and the service was supposed to be $0.99. But when the SIM arrived, I could not activated it as the particular phone that I was planning on using for Freedompop service was not unlocked therefore not eligible. So I thought, since the SIM not activated, meaning their service is never used, therefore they won't charge me, so I just put it aside. After that, I saw in my bank record something like I was charged by freedompop but I thought since the only amount that I agreed with them on was 99 cents, that's not a big deal, I will call them later and explain. But (normally I don't pay that much attention to my bank charge details) after couple months, I realized that Freedompop had been charging me each month $27.98 for nothing whatsoever!
So finally on May 15, 2017, I called and talked to an agent called "Evelyn" with the work ID 2749. At first she was rude and was flatly denying any responsibility, basically saying that even though the SIM was never activated they were still supposed to charge me, and the tone was basically that I am lying about not agreeing to be charged the amount that they have been charging me, basically they did nothing wrong. The conversation naturally bacame heated and when I asked for a supervisor, she said the supervisor is not available, and then all of sudden she said she's issuing me full refund. Surprise! Too good to be true? Yes, indeed.
She said she's issuing a refund at a total amount of $167.88, which is $27.98 times 6 since November 2016, and it would take 24 hours to be in my bank account. I told her that I will give her 72 hours and call. Now here is the tricky part. Of course the refund never showed up in my account. I just called after 72 hours. Now, they blocked me out of the "eligible" caller to receive "free service over the phone" category, meaning they never have to face me on the phone since even their "refund" is fake.
Firstly, the service was supposed to be, and if ever were used, only $0.99/month, and they have been charging me. Secondly, nowhwere I agreed to them or ever signed up for any service that cost me $27.98, and they, while never providing me with any service, had been charging me this amount. Thirdly, they fooled me off with a fake promised about a fake refund which never was refunded to me.
Bought phone from them and Phone worked 'ok' for 1st 4 month AFTER I upgraded from FREE service to Premium Voice etc. at $7.99 / mth. IF you sign up for free service, you will not be able to make phone calls, you will not have voicemail and ou will be Lucky if you can text.
Once paying them phone worked ok, but with many deadspots - if they do not have service in an area - you get a message that you must have dialed incorrectly OR you have dialed a non-working number ?? - huh :)
beginning of 5th month and could no longer text - called their 'so-called' tech support no less than 8 times over next 2 weeks and was told one of 2 things Everytime: your Freedom Pop Messaging app is not up to date OR youneed to do a carrier reset. So, after 'updating' and resetting about 5 times each phone did seem to be working for 2 weeks. The reps seem top be trained to direct people to do only do these 2 things!!
Now phone will not even boot up -meaning their freedom pop App is not loading, so I can't call, text or browse - can't do anything with the phone that I paid $150 for and am paying $8 / month. Called yesterday telling rep phone would not even boot up and she kept telling me to connect to the Play Store to update my Freedom Pop App. She was not even trained well enough to understand that if phone woul not boot up, I could not do anything much less connect to the Play Store. After trying to explain this to her for no less than 15 minutes, she gave me an 800 number for Google to call them and tell them that i could not connect to the Play Store - HUH ?????
When having just the texting issues 2 weeks ago - I phoned another carrier trying to get my phone switched over so I could actually use it - they got Freedom pop on the line and Freedom pop told me they would noy Unlock my phone because i did not haave 6 months of their 'so-called' service !!!!!
So, i am waiting until the end of April which will be my 6 months and then they will probaably tell me they will not unlock phone until I have their useless 'service' for a year.
Seems like I will have to buy another phone and get service from a reputable company - SUPER SCAM !!
So I bought a phone, the $3 service was horrible, and I upgraded to the $11 service. Service in my home (wi-fi) was fine, but outside, I got nothing. After several attempts to correct matters I gave up and canceled service.
Put my phone up for sale.
The prospective buyer tells me it hasn't been"released" yet. I attempted to call Freedompop to straighten things out. Turns out it's impossible to get a live person.
The buyer has a Sprint account, and my phone is using a sprint carrier, so he calls to see what's going on, eventually through sprint we talk to a Freedompop drone.
"WE don't release phones for 6 months -- it's policy" Doesn't matter that I paid for the phone, the service is unavailable, they chose to hold the phone hostage so it can't be used on another network. "We'll be happy to reactivate the phone" (No comment concerning the lack of signal).
Bottom line --- I have a phone I can't use, can't sell. Freedompop is getting a bad reputation. No winners here.
In ignorance I contacted freedompop andregistered a username and password, and received in the mail a set of 3 SIM cards, for which I was charged $2.97. This took place in November 2016. Suspicious because of being automatically moved from the free to the 1GB data plan, I chose not to use their services. I did not install the SIM cards in any of my devices. I tried to cancel the service but kept getting replies that my username or password don't match their records.
Nonetheless, having never employed their SIM cards, I never activated service. So I expected no further charges. Now, late Dec 2916, I found 3 charges of $27.98 each from freedompop on my credit card statement. As these charges have no basis whatsoever, I have contacted the credit card company and officially disputed them. I strongly recommend that no one do business with freedompop. The content of other reviews confirms the nature of my experience with that company - that it has a record of deceptive and dishonest business practices spanning years.
Fraudulent charges, false claims, inferior service, complete lack of support. This is an abomination of a cell phone provider. It is a cell phone provider from hell. It's fine to vent here, but the Attorney General of California needs to be contacted with your pertinent information.
Kamala D, Harris, Attorney General
Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, Ca. 94244-2550
(916) 322-3360
(800) 952-5225
This horrid company sold me a "refurbished" iphone with a 30 day money back guarantee, and battery was 79% depleted.
Within 2 days I complained and requested a refund. They assured me that a good-working replacement iphone with a good battery would be shipped. The replacement was worse than the original. After many, many emails I finally received an email acknowledgement that I was entitled to a refund, and that a prepaid return would be issued. After returning the phone I was informed that the length of time had elapsed and they would not issue a refund. So, they have the phone, and I have nothing. To add insult to injury, they proceeded to charge my credit card for a year's service, months after I made the return. Not only do I not have a phone but there is no phone number associated with my account. I have hundreds of emails from FreedomPoop, many of which contradict previous ones. This company is clueless where it pertains to cell phones or the public.
I received offer of free Internet from FreedomPop about 16 months ago. I ordered a wireless device for a minimal charge and it arrived in a timely manner but I could not get it to work or to get their software to work. So I called to cancel the service. This month I noticed a $9.99 charge on my credit card bill from FreedomPop. But it was much worse -- I looked at past statements and found I have been paying this $9.99 for nothing since June. I called FreedomPop and received minimumal satisfaction. They agreed to stop the charges, but would only refund three months! I still don't know what I was paying for -- sales rep tried to explain but I didn't understand what value I possibly derived from them. She also said I should have canceled the service when I was first charged in June, but she could not tell me why the charges started in the first place!!
I want to tell you about my terrible experience with this very shady phone service provider. First thing you must understand, is the service is not free. You need an internet connection to make any calls or send texts and unless you are in an environment where there is constantly free internet you MUST buy a data plan from them to ensure you have the ability to use any device.
Now the horror begins..I sign up for service and purchase a phone with them. They want a cc on file so I am careful to place my pre paid AMEX on file to ensure I have control over recurring charges if the service ends up being a bust. They immediately sign me up for 7.99 of "premium service" that is unspecified as to why this is so necessary for my account. Only one of these "bundled" services seems useful: upgrading phonecall quality..the others such as "visual voicemail" seem superfluous. Upon investigating, I find the website lists premium voice for one charge of 3.99 separate from the bundle, but when I call after the initial month's required trial and use of the bundle I am mysteriously told that in my area I am not allowed to sign up for the voice quality upgrade on its own but only as part of a larger package. UHM I think well okay I'll let it go for this month since there is NO PLACE on the website to "unsign" for this "optional" service. In the meantime, I deliberately add no more funds to my AMEX and downgrade to the free 200 minute, 500 text plan and THAT is when the chaos begins...The necessary app that must be installed on the phone goes haywire, denying me access to the service. It sends a repeated looping message that I must activate my phone..and when I follow their instructions I am taken to a page that says "your device is already activated" except the APP NEVER opens up. I start calling customer service and use all 200 minutes talking to reps in countries far from here in unintelligle English that sped up sounds like gibberish they reiterate the same ridiculous instructions over and over with no results. I get emails that send the same mindless advice, all the while continuing to lock up the phone.
Finally I realize I must change my plan to upgrade my minutes. On the website it initially offered my a 10.99 plan with reduced data and unlimited minutes and texts. Suddenly this disappears and the smallest plan available starts at 20.00. I call customer service and magically the 10.99 plan is available over the phone..I guess they figured if they couldn't take me for 20 they would settle for ten. Then the kicker..when I get off the phone, and attempt to make a phonecall..I am curtly told I am out of minutes even though I have just paid for and upgraded my plan which it indicates on their website should be available immediately after updating.
Did I mention that there is no real customer service. If you contact them via their website which for some reason I now can nolonger do because it refuses to recognize my login UNLESS I am viewing my account and giving them more money..that it takes 3 or 4 days for them to respond generically.
In short, they are a SCAM and extremely shady and TOTALLY useless phone service. Do yourself a favor..and never get involved.
For the "FREE INTERNET" service, it will first cost a minimum of $60 in setup fees that includes their proprietary advice. While signing up you will be congradulated and offered what sounds like a free device. If you are unfortunately enough to agree to it by default you will then be billed for a "MIFI" proprietary device which is completely redundant but adds abiltiy to have more that one connection at a time and is mobile. The Netgear device that comes with the setup by itself does the same thing, so it is completely redundant. Upon realizing your mistake and contacting them for an RMA to return it, you will get nowhere.
Having now experienced the real cost of the data, it amounts to .10 per MB which is amounts to about a minute of connection. Therefore in reality you are paying .10 per minute for active use. The "Free" part is that they will snag you in with Free 500mb per month. Until you have a chance to figure out what that means it sounds like a lot of data. One might get by with that if you use this strickly for email. So, that in reality is 50 free minutes ($5 worth). It does not take long to go through this.
The gotcha is that unless you turn off the automatic top up or upgrade to a higher plan you will spend more that the $60 investment that got you into this. As far as expecting to be able to back out and return the equipment, forget about it. It is not going to happen.
Not knowing anything about wifi internet the deal was intrigueing to me so I threw the dice. It has been one week, three weeks to go to get through my first "trial" month. It has cost me $100 for the setup that included an redundant $30 proprietary "MIFI" device, plus an additional $75 to upgrade to their largest plan: 10gb (they discount the price per MB slightly). Of that monthly plan of which I am in only the first week I have used well over 6gb which in reality is about $60 at this point. Hence on what I thought was a free trial has cost me $175. You will not realize that you are spending 10 cents per minute while actively using this service. That is equivelent to what it probably costs a lousy cell phone plan.
If you are going to get into a wifi internet hotspot solution, my suggestion now that I have gone ahead and researched it, is to find an UNLIMITED DATA plan. You will not find one for a hotspot. However after shopping around and talking to various vendors I discovered that if you go directly to T-Mobile and get their cheapest cellphone that accomodates wifi, you will have the same thing - plus you will also have the unlimited $50 per month plan. Hence your wifi enabled laptop or whatever device will connect to the T-Mobile network for a nice $50 per month flat fee. That is as good as it gets. The only concern that this might be is about T-Mobile's coverage in your area. Per their website it might be a little spotty in my area. It is a "probably" and I have had a T-Mobile cell phone that worked for me once before. However, in my case I decided to do the research and found that you can buy a signal booster (ebay): "T-Mobile Asus Dual Band Wireless Router TM-AC1900 Personal Cellspot". I found one for $90, NIB, free shipping. The investment by ordering directly from T-Mobile's website was $130. It includes their LG K330 K7 Clam TD cell phone, the TMO starter Kit and a $50 PPD Refill card.
At least they are a legitimate company that will honor a 30 day money back guarentee. An no, I am not in anyway affiliated with T-Mobile!
BTW, as reluctant I am to purchase additional software I threw the dice on "ADGUARD" ($25 annual subscription) to stop all the popups that will also burn data and drive you nuts. It is one of two best software purchases I have made yet. IT WORKS!!! The difference in quality of the internet experience is amazing. The other best purchase was Malwarebytes Antivirus software ($25).
My advice: STAY AWAY FROM FREEDOMPOP! There are better options. I think the one I have just described is the most savvy. I wil see when it comes in the mail this weekend.
Bought a kyocera hydro-icon from FreedomPop got their free plan, apps on phone are not compatible with FreedomPop services. I tried to exchange phone but they wouldn't, they know the phone doesn't work but still selling them to the public ! I got a phone that doesn't make or receive calls, no texts,no gmail,no internet ! Don't fall for this !
FreedomPop sells their product for use on smart phones without disclosing:
1) MMS is not supported without purchasing an add-on service, and that it still may not work after purchasing the service.
2) Unable to make non-wifi phone calls
3) Buyers will need their own personal communications specialist if any difficulties are encountered, which is very likely.
I have worked with customer service on this issue, the result of which is that not only did it not fix any of my problems, but kept the phone from making phone calls all together. I had to do a factory reset in an attempt to resolve the problem, but because a backup was done, the reset reloads the backup that doesn't work. Apparently there's no way to tell the factory reset not to do this, nor is there a way I could find to delete the backup. I decided to create a brand new Google account to deal with this issue, and I'm now back where I started, which is the best I've been able to accomplish after at least 15 hours of effort over two weeks, which is:
1) I can make phone calls, but only over wi-fi
2) I can send text (SMS), but not multimedia (MMS), with or without wi-fi, even though I've paid extra for the MMS service.
On an unrelated not, one hard lesson I learned from this is to never allow your phone to be backed up. Use syncronization to keep your contacts, etc backed up, but not the phone. If you ever need to do a reset because the laydown is screwed up, you'll get that same screwed up laydown right back again after resetting.
I will be attempting to get a full refund of my purchase and a cancellation of all services. From what I've read, that too will probably take an act of congress.
Ordered a hotspot. Took 9 days to get(not their fault-carriers) and u could tell it was used as the return label on the box came from their returns dept in Indiana and the battery cover was broken and had skuffs on it. I tried to turn on only to get an error code-- needed a cable to program/update which i went and got. Remind u it was surpossed to be set to go out of the box per their site.I was also informed that 4glte is no longer available so I had to switch to a paid 3g plan.
After about 8hrs in 2 days tring to get this to work also chatting with tech support twice. I gave up. It would never get past the setup mode. Called freedom to return. The conclusion: its a gamble if u order devises from them as they send out used non working crap--They wouldnt even admit to this as they never refunded my original shipping(and i had to pay to send back because of there fault). A ROYAL SCREWING ALL THE WAY AROUND. I would never recomend them as they are the worst.
Around 2 years ago, I decided that Comcasts high priced internet just wasnt worth it, and decided to search for another provider, and that is how i stumbled across freedompop, the most shameful deceitful internet provider around. It started out great, i payed around 40$ a month for 10 GB of data, and it was pretty fast internet as well. My wifi modem only cost 89.99 to purchase, and my freedompop ccount was manageable from a simple app. All in all i was overly pleased.. Until i noticed money debited from my bank account by freedomop. That wouldnt have been so bad, if the money showed as a credit on my freedompop account. But it didnt, it just "dissapeared" or at least thats what the nice indian lady from freedompop support told me over the phone. After having 75$ taken from my account in small amount transactions over a period of 3 months without appearing as credit, i called again very upset. I was informed that it was needed for "maintenance fees" for my account and device, as well as to cover "overusage of data". Which is funny because i never went over 7gb and had a 10 gb limit, i was told it would be at least 125$ to cancel my account which blows my mind because there is no contract, so i kept using freedompop. I stopped being unfairly debited up until about 5 months ago, since then i have had 105$ worth of charges that dont appear as credits towards my internet, and nobody on freedompops end can seem to tell me where its gone, and refuse to refund me, even though theyre the ones stealing my money-,- i sincerely wish freedompop could take one millisecond of time to give a s**t about their consumers, but i guess thats not happening.
FreedomPop Reviews
On 04/25/2017 I signed up for a FreedomPop Basic 200 plan which promised 200 minutes of talk , 500 text messages and 500 MB of data for a monthly fee of $0.
10 months letter while checking my credit card statements I discovered that I’m been charged $7.99 every month by a FreedomPop. I contacted the company by email inquiring about those charges. They reply was : it’s a charge for special services. I never signed for any special services. I only need this phone line for emergencies. They signed me up for those services without my consent and by charging my credit card without my consent they’re committing a fraud.
After I disputed those charges they agreed to refund 2 of them but not the rest 8 charges. A quick online research showed that I’m not the only one being ripped by them. There are hundreds complaints about this company and I’m wondering why are they not being investigated by the FCC and by the FTC as a fraudsters.
Please help me get my money back and stop the practice of a fraud and abuse enacted by the FreedomPop.
I canceled before 14 day period but no refund on 26 dollars they charged for free service. Frredompop is a trap and a scam. I am a victim so my goal is to pass this message to at least 100 fora. Spread the word before falling into this scam.
So i woke up to a little surprise today on my paypal account, i was greedted to a bill from freedompop for $27.98 which i never autorized, after tirelessly looking for a way to report this to freedompop i was greeted with a return email about their terms and conditions about how they dont do refunds.
Anyways this is a old early GSM account from 2016 yeah i ordered the sim card but i also canceled the plan anyways i looked up this account and it miraculously showed up obviously no activity from me on the account from the first month i had it in summer of 2016 but now im greeted with a bill jan 2019.
Now they are saying its my fault and i need to cancel the account well i tried that and just like last time i always get a failed to delete account, last time i was able to call customer service and they said they took care of it when i called, but now if you arent a premium member you cant call in and im still getting the error to delete the account.
This commany has random charges for everything they make you pay in order ot call them or get internet support. They make you pay $20 credit then keep it. they have somewhere in their fine print that they never issue refunds. It's a total scam. They got me out of 100s of dollars and they have the worst customer service. if you are ever able to get in touch with them. This company tries every trick in the book to scam you and they even made some new tricks to get you some more. I have never heard of a company that could get away with doing this to so manhy people and Im not sure how they sleep at night knowing that they are ripping people off every day.
"I paid Freedom Pop for a year of cell phone/data service. However, I am unable to make a phone call. In an emergency, I was unable to dial a phone number because they impose advertising that interrupts the dialing process. This happens 3 or 4 times each time I try to make a call. They lied to me and never informed me they I would be bombarded with ads and so badly that I would not be able to use my phone. Freedom Pop refuse to listen to me or give me a refund. They scammed me and stole my money.” My CCard recognized Freedom Pop as a bad and troubled business and issued me a refund immediately. Freedom Pop said if I want to stop the ads, I’d have to pay us more money in addition to the annual payment. By obstructing me from making phone calls and cheating me out of my money, Freedom Pop has made a Great Enemy of me. When I tried to make an emergency phone call, Freedom Pop bombarded my phone with ads (as is their Standard Operating Procedure) and that obstructed and prevented me from calling for help. As a result, one person almost bled to death and another is in a coma which would have been prevented if I could have been able to at least dial 911. The injureds’ lawyers and state regulatory officials who are asking to meet with me to sign an affidavit of my attempt call for help. I will be most eager to work with them to expose freedom pop and take them down!
Freedom Pop is named that because they will imposed endless ads on your phone - so many that it overrides your ability to dial a phone #.
They said if you want no ads, pay use more money on top of you annual charges. Unable to make any phone calls becuauseI was too busy deletating ad after ad, they did not care I had no phone service, they REFUSED TO REFUND my annual payment. I only used the service 10 minutes of the year.
I was charged 2 times for plan and service that I did not want and did not use. After submitting a ticket to asking for a refund, the customer service representative CarlosG told me that there was no refund.
Over a year after I cancelled my service Freedompop withdrew a $32.57 charge from my bank account. I had no charges after I dropped that plan until this week.
About 2 years ago I bought a SIM card kit from Freedom Pop. I decided not to switch over to them for cell phone service and canceled my online account.
Here we are 2 years later and Freedom Pop charges my credit card almost $94.00. My credit card was frozen and later cancelled. Waiting for a new Credit card to come in the mail.
In my opinion Freedom Pop is a fraud and a scammer.
I had cancelled their service when I found out their Sim card didn't work on my phone. But they went and charged me $59.97. I requested a refund, never received it so reported them to PayPal. Now FreedomPop is saying they won't refund my money because I reported them to PayPal. Now it's been over a month and I still haven't received my refund.
I cancelled my account with FreedomPop well before the end of the "free trial". They continued to bill me. Noticed now on my credit card after 2 months. $32 per month for a service I do not use.
Same to us
We cancelled one day before the free trial ended and got billed with $20 and $26. Now they told me I need to pay for half a year.
A year ago 4/2017 I tried to activate a phone and it was the biggest hassel that I've ever gone thru plus it never got done. Now a year later 4/2018 I tried again and after 7 phone calls and being passed around to rep after rep after rep, again it never got done. The phone both times were approved for the Freedom pop system but every rep seemed brain dead. Why anyone would put up with these untrained idoits is beyond me. As you know this is a free cellular service and believe me it is worth every penny. God forgive me but these people have no business running a business as they haven't a clue what their doing!!!
Where do i begin? Being on a fixed income i saw some rave reviews for freedom pop and believed them. Big mistake. I went on line to get their cell phone and mobile hot spot. The ads on the website were supposedly outdated though on the website brand new) i ended up forgetting the cell phone for the bait and switch offer being too expensive and end up with $39.99 hot spot. They gave me 3 supposedly free trials. But to my surprise when i reached 75% of my data limit i was hit with a unauthorized $15.00 fee on the second day of the trial. Feeling uneasy at this point. I told the representative to cancel all my accounts and direct me to refund department for i wanted a refund on my the hot-spot since i wanted to send it back. The representative had the guts to tell me that until i paid the $15.00 they couldn't cancel my accounts and i would be charged for them the following month. That's right until i paid the $15.00 they wouldn't cancel my accounts. Stunned and shocked i put down the phone dialed back and the other representative supposedly canceled my accounts. We'll see how that goes.) still wanting a refund on the hot spot. I went on-line with their supposedly on-line support. Long story short.. Some 20 emails back and forth and four more phone calls btw you must go through the sales department just to speak to a live person. If not you will be booted back to automated service and hung up on.) i supposedly got an authorization and my case would be sent to refunds department to email me a authorized return shipping label to return the product. That was some two weeks ago. They never sent the label and all i get from the company are bot generated emails telling me the issue has been solved. Without me ever having received a return shipping label or a refund. After reading so many negative costumer experiences with un authorized charges. I shudder to think what i'm going to find on my bank statement next month. This is high thievery and this company needs to be put out of business. I've filed an official complaint with bbb over this company. But i have little hope of seeing a refund in my lifeltime. As i said i am on fixed income and this hurts!
Agreed Freedom Pop is a scam.
I had heard of Freedom Pop on several so called consumer advocate groups so being between jobs decided to check them out.
First of all that cheap Phone and or Hot Spot your seeing advertised on their web page and that 500 megbites or 200 Free Minutes. Does Not Exist they play a bait and switch on you.
I was sold a top of the line phone for 60 bucks plus and or Hot Spot for $40 plus. Sold a so called “Testing Period” for their premium services. Never told the catch that as soon as you Approach or go over that data limit by 2 gig testing persiod or go over it you will Pay for it $15-20 coming directly from your bank account without you knowing!
There is no protection nor warning that your going over your limit. In fact it seems to be how Freedom Pop makes its true living. Charging you the moment you even approach your limit!. So as of right now I am out $60 for a hotspot I really did not want and I can't get a refund until I pay them an addition $15 for going over a data limit they didn't tell me existed in the first place!
If your on a fixed income such as myself. Avoid this place like the plague! Move to an alternative such as Tracphone and save yourself a headache was well as high blood pressure with this company. Good luck finding a live customer service rep too or using your online account. Everything is designed to trap you into paying in one form or another while your given the run around.
After comcast went from what was suppose to be a $99 plan monthly for basic, which turned into $150, then $300, then turned my service off after i disputed and sent $150, explained im on a fix income from back surgery. I heard about freedompop. I called them and they stated free internet with one month free trial for $19 a month. And the phone is $109.98. And i purchase freedompop modem for $69.96. Then every 6 month i was to pay 70 a month if i want more speed of internet. Started feb 3rd 2018. I received the phone two weeks later but never received the modem. I called on the 25th of feb. They said the modem went to a different address and gave me a extra month free trial that i wouldn't have to pay anything, until april the 3rd. And the modem was recent to me in 7days. After 7 days i called about it and mark said they never had a moddm in stock. A day later my phone service off everytime i call they switch me to a system asking to update my credit card.
They been trying to get money off my credit card for payment when they know its too soon and i get my income every 3rd month. I only had the phone for almost 2 weeks and it took 3 days to get it working. Now all my doctors have this freedompop number and they shut my service off and going into my credit card account unauthorized.
three times tried to establish cell phone service. After a short time Phones only make phone calls via internet or not at all. takes 5days before they respond to service ticket. Tried all of their suggestions Nothing they said worked. So I dicontinued service. Several months later got another phone same story. Keeps quiting as a phone, Data works. They called me to see if I wanted a years unlimited talk and text and 1gig data 79.99 for a year and 99 cent activation. I said only on the first phone. Set it up as another account totaly.
Agent said he could activate the phone in 1/2 hour without a sim card. I knew a GSM only phone would not work. Told me here is his dept direct phone in case it did not work. Well it did not and calling number did not work. Just referes you to go online. Paid 5.99 for phone support. waited 1/2 hour for a tech who had me do several things. could not fix phone, And of course we got "disconnected."
Called back over and over. Even when I told them do not transfer me. They talked over me like I did not exist and transfered me to recordings that talked about online suport and then hung up. They OBVIOULY do this on purpose.
Not worth free unlimited everything for the level of abuse they dish out. Recording asked for yet another 5.99 to speak to billing to cancel. Billing agent said no record of them charging me for that we shall see. He was only reasonable person.
Freedompop charged me 96 dollars because they said that i had a account but i am not even with them and i want all the money they charged taken away
FreedomPop advertised 100% free mobile data wnen in fact it is not 100% free.
At first I thought their profit mechanism was to charge activation fees or unusually high shiping charges. Also I knew that you had to cancel their premium service to not be charged a reoccuring service free. What they don't disclose is that they charge you $10 to downgrade to the free service. They claim that the service is still free because this mandatory fee is for "topping up" the plan if you exceed your data limit. This is not disclosed in their marketing, and therefore, their "100% free" claim is not true.
Also, they claim a free 500 MB per month, but they don't tell you it actually suspends the account at 400 MB per month (rather then just ceasing to supply data). 400 MB is less than 500 MB.
I decided to give FreedomPop a try on home internet, but as soon as the call ended, I had a question I'd forgotten to ask.I immediately called back and got a runaround and was met with rudeness. After over 15 minutes of that I determined as this was just the start, it wouldn't get any better. So in less than 30 minutes of the order, I canceled. I was told it would take 3 days to process the refund. Three days later and it still has not processed. In addition, a day after cancelling, they shipped the equipment anyway. So I'm getting equipment tomorrow, that I'm going to have to return in order to get my refund I'm sure, and I won't be surprised if shipping is at my expense. And it amazes me that I now can no longer reach them. Sales says I'm a customer and won't talk to me. They transfer me to support. When I tell them support is automated and wants my phone number to connect me and says I don't have an account, they just say I do and transfer me anyway, or just outright hangup. I even asked for cancellations, same thing happens. They won't answer my emails either. I'm going to make this costlier than the $45 they ripped off of me, by the time I'm done with all my complaints, the BBB, FTC, disputing the charges at my bank, closing my bank account so they can't charge more, and trashing the equipment they underhandedly mailed out (IF the USPS doesn't allow me to refuse it), etc.It would have been cheaper for them to have done the refund.
Beware scammers my first set of phones I got one was chipped and the other one effective setback for two others even upgrade it and paid for two more phones got those One battery defective the other one the battery was DOA still gave this company another chance and talk to a guy named Dean who swore and promised if I bought two more with two more hangover plans he would take the other two back and refunding my money on the other two angle plans so now I'm at at over $1,200 later and now have to sue true you get what you pay for the ethics of this company are on deceiving.
Dear theiving crook using the alias freedom pop
according to the bank you raided my account 3 time and took over about $100.00
You stole from me over and over again for an account that was never activated,
You stole from me for an account with term I never agreed to, that you made up without my permission.
You stole regular payments from me without fully explaining the consequences .
That you stole money for a 100% free mobile phone and internet service.
I was contacted by a sales clerk on 9/1/17 this cell phone that I agree to. I also was not tolc of the condition of their products. On 9/8/17 I received the package but when Iooked at. I begin to complain about how bad it was when I had asked if those phones where new and she said yes. So, I return it on 9/11/17. I have receipts for all transactions and bank statements with their name and phone number. The only thing that is wrong is that. Bribhtpoint was the receiver and signed the postal slip. But, yet it was not credited back into my account. Thanks, Carol Smith
FreedomPop constantly taking payment out my bank account and the service has not been used. I'm trying to ask for my refund so I can cancel it the service but there's no answer to the FreedomPop number that they have provided for us people or users to call if you have we a problem with the service
FreedomPOP/STM Media This is a pure scam. They offer a free service for the purchase of a .99 sim. But, in truth it is a passive opt in scam that charges you for a trail service that is so deeply buried in their legal disclosures, it makes it easy for them to steal you funds and violate your credit. Customer service is also a complete joke. I was told the only way to obtain a refund was to purchase a new sim for $10.99 and activate it under a new email. Which is ridiculous, why pay more to get a refund only to be charged again. Be warned, this is not a free service
So before getting Freedompop I had made sure to find out how much data is used for different activities. So I knew that I could not watch movies, youtube or play games without incurring high data usage. This was going to be just for checking and responding to email and getting in grades and doing some web surfing. So I ordered the Franklin Mobile Hotspot and their ordering page was a little confusing, which ended up having me order two hotspots instead of one.
The issues have been the following:
-my plan beginning from the moment I ordered the Franklin mobile hotspot. Even though I did not receive it for about 10 days after ordering it and that it did not work when I first received it.
-To get it activated I had to pay $5.00 to get to speak to a technician. That is right. If you want to bypass the automated ready made answers you have to pay. You can choose to pay once or to pay a regurlar $5.99 monthly fee for the priviledge of getting online or phone help when you need it.
-So I got one of my other devices activated (more to come about the second device). so how I have paid $19.99 + $5.00. And I start surfing the web and doing some light Youtube watching. I keep checking the freedompop usage dashboard to see how the datat usage is accumulating, but it never shows any usage at all being used. Ever!
-Now because there was a promo I ended up with a couple of extra gigs for the first month and took advantage of that by watching some shows. I still never saw the usage amount go up. Not after 3,4,5,6, etc. hours.
-Eventually I saw in my email that they were toping off my account automatically as I was using extra data, which was not showing up on their account. This cost me an extra $45. I was frustrated but chalked it up to inexperience and found where I needed to turn of the automatic topoff in the fredompop site.
-by now I am a little leary. I turned my device off until the next billing cycle. It's ok, I have other internet venues. I am patient.
-Next cycle I turn on the device and it just doesn't work. Well fine I really wasn't feeling good about it anyway since I felt I should not have to pay for customer service. I turn off the device and decide to downgrade my plan and chalk it up to experience. Now it gets interesting.
-I downgrade and suddenly realize that they had me on a $9.99 premium service plan I had not agreed to obtain, so now I am charged $29.98 instead of $19.99 for a device that does not work and that I will have to pay $5 to have a person reactivate. No thank you.
-but that is not all. Remember that second device I accidently ordered because the ordering process creates a bit of confusion? well I thought that since I had not had it activated it was not being charged. OH NO. It was being charge and not only charge another $19.99 but also the premium service $9.99 AND the premium VIP service for $5.99 so in total this month I have been charged $70 without any service working. Of course I quickly deactivated everything and am calling my debit card company to make sure they are blocked in the future.
-I guess their business plan is to nickle and dime the populace which can still amount to a fair little petty. I will say that I will call Sprint, who is my carrier, and tell them that if they continue to do business with them I will stop recommending them.
My account hasn't been active for months. It was canceled in March 2017. On May 18th 2017 I requested that Freedom Pop cancel my equipment warranty and refund the policy payment. My policy then was #FPE747E8B8GAD. That was not done. Instead they switched me to CPS. I contacted CPS and they said I need to Freedom Pop. I was finally able to get the warranty canceled and got a refund of one months insurance charge in August 2017.
When talking to Freedom Pop support, they confirmed that my account was not active and I shouldn't have been charged for the warranty. I thought it was over. Since then they have charged me for two more months of service, again after the account was canceled in March 2017.
I was finally able to cancel the account again 10/11/2017, but I have no guarantee that they will not charge my account again, since they have my card on file and have continued to charge it each month.
Their claim is that the account was never canceled even though when I talked to their support, they agreed that the account was not active and I should not be charged.
I ordered a unit and First they sent me 2 units $19.99 each unit.. I im emediately tried to contact them to return the unit/units and they told me to keep them and try the 2nd unit for free.. I again, tried to return both units.. I tried to get a address to return them and again for the 3rd time they would give me a return address.
I also called 11 times and they switched me to an autimated operator that gave no options to speack to a representive... On about the 6th time I requested a manager and they still conected me with a automated operator... All together they have charged me for 2 units and 2 months service that I didn't even activate.... A TOTAL RIP OFF!!!!
Be Aware Of Unauthorized Charges by FreedomPop.
Account Number: 7326075803
I ordered a sim card but never received and forgot about it but one month later I found there is a $98.88 charge on my credit card by FreedomPop. This is absolutely wrong. How come I have to pay for the service I never used/received?
STAY AWAY FROM FREEDOMPOP
Freedompop has misleading practices. They keep saying things are free but their process is confusing, and you end up with monthly charges.
I bought a hotspot from them and tried, as best I could, to have no monthly charges. Yet there they appeared, $29.99/mo. So I was not happy.
But what was worse, their customer support refused to refund me, unless I also paid them $5.
The reason is, to get the refund, you have to downgrade the service; and to downgrade, they charge you money!
I feel this is a scam. The company has a misleading model, bad customer support, and charging me $5 to facilitate a refund ought to be illegal.
Even Time Magaazing wrote an article about them, calling Freedompop 'Shady'.
This company advertises free phone service yet when i order they automatically sent me 2 sim cards when I only ordered 1. Then I had to go into my account and find the tiny writing to downgrade to free service then they start charging me constantly.
It is impossible to get anyone on the phone and if it happens only by chance, no one does anything no one tries to even address the issues.
This is a company designed only to steal peoples money.
Lying, Thieves.
Freedompop is a scam. This is supposed to be 100% FREE! Even the box containing the Hotspot device says it on the box! I never set up anything to be charged automatically. Matter of fact, I never used the device because I moved and got normal internet services from a real ISP! Then I began receiving email messages telling me Freedompop credited me $15 in order to prevent disruption of services but the truth is as one of the aforementioned reports states, "Freedompop was not crediting me anything but was debiting my bank account!" As I mentioned, I never used the device!! I went to their site and I noticed an account was set up for me without my knowledge giving Freedompop permission to debit my account $15 each time I go over the plan allocation. This is absurd because I never tuned the device on Worse, as I mentioned, the box that contained the hotspot device clearly states it is 100% free.
Even worse, 1. I turned off the auto pay and today I now see a debit charge of almost $40 on my bank account. I am not able to cancel because whomever in Freedompop who set up my account never gave me a password and even the default password on tje box doesn't allow me to cancel my account which I never set up! This is a small fee but Freedompop has now debited my bank account 5 times! I yet to receive a phone call or email response from the multiple times I have sent Freedompop an email contacting them to assist me in resolving this issue! As I said, this is a small amount but I would rather have Freedompop go do jail time for consumer fraud and obstruction of public accounts! Freedompop has continually ignored my complaints regarding a service I have never used!
They would automatically deduct $30 each time they said I went over my free time or allowed time even though I would earn free service. They deducted several payments from my bank account.
When I joined their company I was told I was going to get free internet services. After I joined I could not get a downgrade even though they said I could before I joined. When I called their number I was told if I wanted to talk to a person they would charge me an adfitional $5.95 a month starting immediately!
Then they told me that I could only get free phone service NOT internet service. That was the reason I joined in the first place! Now they want to charge me $36 a month and I can't stop them! Now I am going to have to have me debit card changed to stop this ripoff! NEVER go with this company or you will be sorry!!!!!
I signed up for their free plan, and got my sim card, then the next month they stole $90.00 from my account. It is an obvious rip off, as they don't even have a plan that charges that much and I couldn't have any overages, as I literally have not even activated my sim card. Buyer beware, this is a company run by theives.
Their service was charging me a ton of money for very little data. I cancelled my account and they have CONTINUED TO BILL MY BANK ACCOUNT. They are illegally snatching small amounts out.! I have the bank investigating it and and a stop payment on them . But the bank told me if they change their company name and info they can still scam my account as someone new! I may have to cancel my entire bank account and get a new one and a new card because of these scammers!!! Don't use them ! Freedom pop is a scam
I was looking for a way to save some money on internet service and came across Freedompop Free internet service up to 2 gigs after that you must pay for it. I found a Freedompop site where you can order online and save by purchasing used and/or refurbished equipment in top working order. I ordered a Netgear 6100D router/ modem for 69.99 and the service was free. I never received a confirmation of my order so I called Saturday and the Freedompop sales person said my order did not go through, I told him it must have since it showed pending on my credit card. He assured me that the order did not go through and that I definitely would not be charged for two units. I went ahead and ordered on the phone through Freedompop.
Sure enough, I received two of the same unit. I found out after I received the router/modem that my computer does not have wi-fi interface, therefore, the units will do me no good. Ever since then, and I did explain this to the Freedompop people, I have been trying to return the Netgear units under the Freedompop 30 day money back guarantee. I sent one back using the RMA number they sent me. The other one they "claim" they cannot fine even though I have given them the Order number, ID number of the Netgear unit even the warehouse delivery number. When I called back the third time and talked to another salesperson, he found the unit with no problem and even told me the reason I did not get a confirmation number was that I only used one"r" in my email address instead of two. Why can't the customer service people find this even though I have sent it 5 times? From looking on the site here I see why this is a habit with these people. I have reported this to the FCC and of course here. I hope this does some good.
All I want back is my $69.99 but a lot of other people are losing much more than this. I hope this may result in a class action law suit against these people. I have spent hours and hours on emails and phone calls...over 70 emails and when you call sales people are all you can talk to unless you want to pay $5.99 per month to be hung up on or placed on hold. These are the most non-caring impolite people you will ever talk to. They jerk you around, you return an email and get someone else rather than the person who is familiar with your case. My advice is NEVER to get involved with these people. I stopped payment on the unit I was not supposed to get and received an email saying I should try to work things out with their company so I will not get back any refund. I believe 70 emails would say I was trying to work things out. I really hope something can be done about this company before many more people get ripped off! They do everything they possibly can to not answer or sidestep the issue. Maybe, it is the way they are trained!!
The old adage, "You get what you pay for", is more than likely a rule to live by. The company Freedom Pop offers a low-cost alternative to cell phone service that sounded great for my daughter. The first issue popped up when I noticed they charged me $15 without my knowledge. I called them and called them and had a very hard time getting a live representative. The only way you can talk with someone is if you call their sales line, otherwise, you need to give the company an additional $5.99 per month for customer care.
So eventually I did what their phone system said and contacted them via their website. I never got an email back saying if the problem was resolved or not so I called their sales number. The person there was able to refund the $15 and said it was due to an automatic top-up to keep the service from being interrupted. I guess it was probably built into the terms and conditions. They gave me the option to "opt-out" of the automatic overbilling like this. I asked that they go ahead and do this.
Fast forward to the present time and they charged me $111.44. I'm a bit irate at this point. I spent 3 hours on the phone trying to talk to someone about the issue. Every time the reps (which many times I got the same person multiple times who's name was Christian). He kept sending me over to this phone line that says if I want live help I need to pay them 5.99 on a monthly basis. Every time I called I basically said, "Hear me out, do not transfer me and do not hang up on me." When I finally said I want to cancel my service the sales rep started to help me out. They told me they would get have someone call me to rectify the problem. They said it usually takes 24-48 hours for someone to call back, but because I am a VIP customer they will have someone call me back. Guess what... by the end of the day still no callback.
I called my bank and they have blocked this company from being able to take out anymore automatic/unauthorized billings. If this company does not rectify the issue of the money they stole from me I will also have those charges reversed by my bank.
My suggestion is to never do business with this company. They have poor customer service, no... make that absolutely no customer service. They steal money from people. My bank account was extremely low the day they decided to take that money causing me to not be able to buy food after we lost all of our frozen and refrigerated food due to a 21-hour power outage.
3 years ago I gave them my card number. Today I got charged $0.01 I have called and tried to get information about the transaction from their billing department. They gave me a fake account number their sales team did. And they've hung up on me 12 times no exaggeration.
This company advertises 100% free cellular service / Mobile service. But the service its a fake wi-fi setup using their app that has to be installed .The supposed free account service it's not, after a brief period they let it go on the second months when you get distracted they start to charge fees on the credit card that you file with the account .Them when you call they answer with very nice excuses and "promise that the refund will be issued, direct but in reality, they don't and their bugs charges continue until you directly call the bank and have it blocked and the chrages reversed.
This company it's the most efficient scammer and nobody does not to protect the consumers against their fraudulent charges
So the best way, stay far away from them and let other people know about the way the way they are scamming the customers they have.
Singned up for service in November 2016, selected a phone number and the service was supposed to be $0.99. But when the SIM arrived, I could not activated it as the particular phone that I was planning on using for Freedompop service was not unlocked therefore not eligible. So I thought, since the SIM not activated, meaning their service is never used, therefore they won't charge me, so I just put it aside. After that, I saw in my bank record something like I was charged by freedompop but I thought since the only amount that I agreed with them on was 99 cents, that's not a big deal, I will call them later and explain. But (normally I don't pay that much attention to my bank charge details) after couple months, I realized that Freedompop had been charging me each month $27.98 for nothing whatsoever!
So finally on May 15, 2017, I called and talked to an agent called "Evelyn" with the work ID 2749. At first she was rude and was flatly denying any responsibility, basically saying that even though the SIM was never activated they were still supposed to charge me, and the tone was basically that I am lying about not agreeing to be charged the amount that they have been charging me, basically they did nothing wrong. The conversation naturally bacame heated and when I asked for a supervisor, she said the supervisor is not available, and then all of sudden she said she's issuing me full refund. Surprise! Too good to be true? Yes, indeed.
She said she's issuing a refund at a total amount of $167.88, which is $27.98 times 6 since November 2016, and it would take 24 hours to be in my bank account. I told her that I will give her 72 hours and call. Now here is the tricky part. Of course the refund never showed up in my account. I just called after 72 hours. Now, they blocked me out of the "eligible" caller to receive "free service over the phone" category, meaning they never have to face me on the phone since even their "refund" is fake.
Firstly, the service was supposed to be, and if ever were used, only $0.99/month, and they have been charging me. Secondly, nowhwere I agreed to them or ever signed up for any service that cost me $27.98, and they, while never providing me with any service, had been charging me this amount. Thirdly, they fooled me off with a fake promised about a fake refund which never was refunded to me.
Bought phone from them and Phone worked 'ok' for 1st 4 month AFTER I upgraded from FREE service to Premium Voice etc. at $7.99 / mth. IF you sign up for free service, you will not be able to make phone calls, you will not have voicemail and ou will be Lucky if you can text.
Once paying them phone worked ok, but with many deadspots - if they do not have service in an area - you get a message that you must have dialed incorrectly OR you have dialed a non-working number ?? - huh :)
beginning of 5th month and could no longer text - called their 'so-called' tech support no less than 8 times over next 2 weeks and was told one of 2 things Everytime: your Freedom Pop Messaging app is not up to date OR youneed to do a carrier reset. So, after 'updating' and resetting about 5 times each phone did seem to be working for 2 weeks. The reps seem top be trained to direct people to do only do these 2 things!!
Now phone will not even boot up -meaning their freedom pop App is not loading, so I can't call, text or browse - can't do anything with the phone that I paid $150 for and am paying $8 / month. Called yesterday telling rep phone would not even boot up and she kept telling me to connect to the Play Store to update my Freedom Pop App. She was not even trained well enough to understand that if phone woul not boot up, I could not do anything much less connect to the Play Store. After trying to explain this to her for no less than 15 minutes, she gave me an 800 number for Google to call them and tell them that i could not connect to the Play Store - HUH ?????
When having just the texting issues 2 weeks ago - I phoned another carrier trying to get my phone switched over so I could actually use it - they got Freedom pop on the line and Freedom pop told me they would noy Unlock my phone because i did not haave 6 months of their 'so-called' service !!!!!
So, i am waiting until the end of April which will be my 6 months and then they will probaably tell me they will not unlock phone until I have their useless 'service' for a year.
Seems like I will have to buy another phone and get service from a reputable company - SUPER SCAM !!
Definition of RIPOFF - FREEDOM POP
So I bought a phone, the $3 service was horrible, and I upgraded to the $11 service. Service in my home (wi-fi) was fine, but outside, I got nothing. After several attempts to correct matters I gave up and canceled service.
Put my phone up for sale.
The prospective buyer tells me it hasn't been"released" yet. I attempted to call Freedompop to straighten things out. Turns out it's impossible to get a live person.
The buyer has a Sprint account, and my phone is using a sprint carrier, so he calls to see what's going on, eventually through sprint we talk to a Freedompop drone.
"WE don't release phones for 6 months -- it's policy" Doesn't matter that I paid for the phone, the service is unavailable, they chose to hold the phone hostage so it can't be used on another network. "We'll be happy to reactivate the phone" (No comment concerning the lack of signal).
Bottom line --- I have a phone I can't use, can't sell. Freedompop is getting a bad reputation. No winners here.
In ignorance I contacted freedompop andregistered a username and password, and received in the mail a set of 3 SIM cards, for which I was charged $2.97. This took place in November 2016. Suspicious because of being automatically moved from the free to the 1GB data plan, I chose not to use their services. I did not install the SIM cards in any of my devices. I tried to cancel the service but kept getting replies that my username or password don't match their records.
Nonetheless, having never employed their SIM cards, I never activated service. So I expected no further charges. Now, late Dec 2916, I found 3 charges of $27.98 each from freedompop on my credit card statement. As these charges have no basis whatsoever, I have contacted the credit card company and officially disputed them. I strongly recommend that no one do business with freedompop. The content of other reviews confirms the nature of my experience with that company - that it has a record of deceptive and dishonest business practices spanning years.
Fraudulent charges, false claims, inferior service, complete lack of support. This is an abomination of a cell phone provider. It is a cell phone provider from hell. It's fine to vent here, but the Attorney General of California needs to be contacted with your pertinent information.
Kamala D, Harris, Attorney General
Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, Ca. 94244-2550
(916) 322-3360
(800) 952-5225
This horrid company sold me a "refurbished" iphone with a 30 day money back guarantee, and battery was 79% depleted.
Within 2 days I complained and requested a refund. They assured me that a good-working replacement iphone with a good battery would be shipped. The replacement was worse than the original. After many, many emails I finally received an email acknowledgement that I was entitled to a refund, and that a prepaid return would be issued. After returning the phone I was informed that the length of time had elapsed and they would not issue a refund. So, they have the phone, and I have nothing. To add insult to injury, they proceeded to charge my credit card for a year's service, months after I made the return. Not only do I not have a phone but there is no phone number associated with my account. I have hundreds of emails from FreedomPoop, many of which contradict previous ones. This company is clueless where it pertains to cell phones or the public.
I received offer of free Internet from FreedomPop about 16 months ago. I ordered a wireless device for a minimal charge and it arrived in a timely manner but I could not get it to work or to get their software to work. So I called to cancel the service. This month I noticed a $9.99 charge on my credit card bill from FreedomPop. But it was much worse -- I looked at past statements and found I have been paying this $9.99 for nothing since June. I called FreedomPop and received minimumal satisfaction. They agreed to stop the charges, but would only refund three months! I still don't know what I was paying for -- sales rep tried to explain but I didn't understand what value I possibly derived from them. She also said I should have canceled the service when I was first charged in June, but she could not tell me why the charges started in the first place!!
I want to tell you about my terrible experience with this very shady phone service provider. First thing you must understand, is the service is not free. You need an internet connection to make any calls or send texts and unless you are in an environment where there is constantly free internet you MUST buy a data plan from them to ensure you have the ability to use any device.
Now the horror begins..I sign up for service and purchase a phone with them. They want a cc on file so I am careful to place my pre paid AMEX on file to ensure I have control over recurring charges if the service ends up being a bust. They immediately sign me up for 7.99 of "premium service" that is unspecified as to why this is so necessary for my account. Only one of these "bundled" services seems useful: upgrading phonecall quality..the others such as "visual voicemail" seem superfluous. Upon investigating, I find the website lists premium voice for one charge of 3.99 separate from the bundle, but when I call after the initial month's required trial and use of the bundle I am mysteriously told that in my area I am not allowed to sign up for the voice quality upgrade on its own but only as part of a larger package. UHM I think well okay I'll let it go for this month since there is NO PLACE on the website to "unsign" for this "optional" service. In the meantime, I deliberately add no more funds to my AMEX and downgrade to the free 200 minute, 500 text plan and THAT is when the chaos begins...The necessary app that must be installed on the phone goes haywire, denying me access to the service. It sends a repeated looping message that I must activate my phone..and when I follow their instructions I am taken to a page that says "your device is already activated" except the APP NEVER opens up. I start calling customer service and use all 200 minutes talking to reps in countries far from here in unintelligle English that sped up sounds like gibberish they reiterate the same ridiculous instructions over and over with no results. I get emails that send the same mindless advice, all the while continuing to lock up the phone.
Finally I realize I must change my plan to upgrade my minutes. On the website it initially offered my a 10.99 plan with reduced data and unlimited minutes and texts. Suddenly this disappears and the smallest plan available starts at 20.00. I call customer service and magically the 10.99 plan is available over the phone..I guess they figured if they couldn't take me for 20 they would settle for ten. Then the kicker..when I get off the phone, and attempt to make a phonecall..I am curtly told I am out of minutes even though I have just paid for and upgraded my plan which it indicates on their website should be available immediately after updating.
Did I mention that there is no real customer service. If you contact them via their website which for some reason I now can nolonger do because it refuses to recognize my login UNLESS I am viewing my account and giving them more money..that it takes 3 or 4 days for them to respond generically.
In short, they are a SCAM and extremely shady and TOTALLY useless phone service. Do yourself a favor..and never get involved.
For the "FREE INTERNET" service, it will first cost a minimum of $60 in setup fees that includes their proprietary advice. While signing up you will be congradulated and offered what sounds like a free device. If you are unfortunately enough to agree to it by default you will then be billed for a "MIFI" proprietary device which is completely redundant but adds abiltiy to have more that one connection at a time and is mobile. The Netgear device that comes with the setup by itself does the same thing, so it is completely redundant. Upon realizing your mistake and contacting them for an RMA to return it, you will get nowhere.
Having now experienced the real cost of the data, it amounts to .10 per MB which is amounts to about a minute of connection. Therefore in reality you are paying .10 per minute for active use. The "Free" part is that they will snag you in with Free 500mb per month. Until you have a chance to figure out what that means it sounds like a lot of data. One might get by with that if you use this strickly for email. So, that in reality is 50 free minutes ($5 worth). It does not take long to go through this.
The gotcha is that unless you turn off the automatic top up or upgrade to a higher plan you will spend more that the $60 investment that got you into this. As far as expecting to be able to back out and return the equipment, forget about it. It is not going to happen.
Not knowing anything about wifi internet the deal was intrigueing to me so I threw the dice. It has been one week, three weeks to go to get through my first "trial" month. It has cost me $100 for the setup that included an redundant $30 proprietary "MIFI" device, plus an additional $75 to upgrade to their largest plan: 10gb (they discount the price per MB slightly). Of that monthly plan of which I am in only the first week I have used well over 6gb which in reality is about $60 at this point. Hence on what I thought was a free trial has cost me $175. You will not realize that you are spending 10 cents per minute while actively using this service. That is equivelent to what it probably costs a lousy cell phone plan.
If you are going to get into a wifi internet hotspot solution, my suggestion now that I have gone ahead and researched it, is to find an UNLIMITED DATA plan. You will not find one for a hotspot. However after shopping around and talking to various vendors I discovered that if you go directly to T-Mobile and get their cheapest cellphone that accomodates wifi, you will have the same thing - plus you will also have the unlimited $50 per month plan. Hence your wifi enabled laptop or whatever device will connect to the T-Mobile network for a nice $50 per month flat fee. That is as good as it gets. The only concern that this might be is about T-Mobile's coverage in your area. Per their website it might be a little spotty in my area. It is a "probably" and I have had a T-Mobile cell phone that worked for me once before. However, in my case I decided to do the research and found that you can buy a signal booster (ebay): "T-Mobile Asus Dual Band Wireless Router TM-AC1900 Personal Cellspot". I found one for $90, NIB, free shipping. The investment by ordering directly from T-Mobile's website was $130. It includes their LG K330 K7 Clam TD cell phone, the TMO starter Kit and a $50 PPD Refill card.
At least they are a legitimate company that will honor a 30 day money back guarentee. An no, I am not in anyway affiliated with T-Mobile!
BTW, as reluctant I am to purchase additional software I threw the dice on "ADGUARD" ($25 annual subscription) to stop all the popups that will also burn data and drive you nuts. It is one of two best software purchases I have made yet. IT WORKS!!! The difference in quality of the internet experience is amazing. The other best purchase was Malwarebytes Antivirus software ($25).
My advice: STAY AWAY FROM FREEDOMPOP! There are better options. I think the one I have just described is the most savvy. I wil see when it comes in the mail this weekend.
Bought a kyocera hydro-icon from FreedomPop got their free plan, apps on phone are not compatible with FreedomPop services. I tried to exchange phone but they wouldn't, they know the phone doesn't work but still selling them to the public ! I got a phone that doesn't make or receive calls, no texts,no gmail,no internet ! Don't fall for this !
FreedomPop sells their product for use on smart phones without disclosing:
1) MMS is not supported without purchasing an add-on service, and that it still may not work after purchasing the service.
2) Unable to make non-wifi phone calls
3) Buyers will need their own personal communications specialist if any difficulties are encountered, which is very likely.
I have worked with customer service on this issue, the result of which is that not only did it not fix any of my problems, but kept the phone from making phone calls all together. I had to do a factory reset in an attempt to resolve the problem, but because a backup was done, the reset reloads the backup that doesn't work. Apparently there's no way to tell the factory reset not to do this, nor is there a way I could find to delete the backup. I decided to create a brand new Google account to deal with this issue, and I'm now back where I started, which is the best I've been able to accomplish after at least 15 hours of effort over two weeks, which is:
1) I can make phone calls, but only over wi-fi
2) I can send text (SMS), but not multimedia (MMS), with or without wi-fi, even though I've paid extra for the MMS service.
On an unrelated not, one hard lesson I learned from this is to never allow your phone to be backed up. Use syncronization to keep your contacts, etc backed up, but not the phone. If you ever need to do a reset because the laydown is screwed up, you'll get that same screwed up laydown right back again after resetting.
I will be attempting to get a full refund of my purchase and a cancellation of all services. From what I've read, that too will probably take an act of congress.
Ordered a hotspot. Took 9 days to get(not their fault-carriers) and u could tell it was used as the return label on the box came from their returns dept in Indiana and the battery cover was broken and had skuffs on it. I tried to turn on only to get an error code-- needed a cable to program/update which i went and got. Remind u it was surpossed to be set to go out of the box per their site.I was also informed that 4glte is no longer available so I had to switch to a paid 3g plan.
After about 8hrs in 2 days tring to get this to work also chatting with tech support twice. I gave up. It would never get past the setup mode. Called freedom to return. The conclusion: its a gamble if u order devises from them as they send out used non working crap--They wouldnt even admit to this as they never refunded my original shipping(and i had to pay to send back because of there fault). A ROYAL SCREWING ALL THE WAY AROUND. I would never recomend them as they are the worst.
Around 2 years ago, I decided that Comcasts high priced internet just wasnt worth it, and decided to search for another provider, and that is how i stumbled across freedompop, the most shameful deceitful internet provider around. It started out great, i payed around 40$ a month for 10 GB of data, and it was pretty fast internet as well. My wifi modem only cost 89.99 to purchase, and my freedompop ccount was manageable from a simple app. All in all i was overly pleased.. Until i noticed money debited from my bank account by freedomop. That wouldnt have been so bad, if the money showed as a credit on my freedompop account. But it didnt, it just "dissapeared" or at least thats what the nice indian lady from freedompop support told me over the phone. After having 75$ taken from my account in small amount transactions over a period of 3 months without appearing as credit, i called again very upset. I was informed that it was needed for "maintenance fees" for my account and device, as well as to cover "overusage of data". Which is funny because i never went over 7gb and had a 10 gb limit, i was told it would be at least 125$ to cancel my account which blows my mind because there is no contract, so i kept using freedompop. I stopped being unfairly debited up until about 5 months ago, since then i have had 105$ worth of charges that dont appear as credits towards my internet, and nobody on freedompops end can seem to tell me where its gone, and refuse to refund me, even though theyre the ones stealing my money-,- i sincerely wish freedompop could take one millisecond of time to give a s**t about their consumers, but i guess thats not happening.