Company information:
Boingo
United States
boingo.com
When it comes to Boingo, it's way way worse than "accidental" charging.
I paid for their one-day pass, out of desperation since I usually don't give out my credit card details online, one year ago.
ONE YEAR AGO. Since then, I have clicked "Cancel" and closed down the GoBoingo! pop-up whenever it shows up. Since there was no setting for disabling the pop-ups (fishy fishy!), and since I had no intention of using the service ever again save for emergency, I went into my computer settings and made sure Boingo wouldn't automatically start up.
So you can imagine my surprise when, going over my account bills for the past three months - this would be about 10 months after originally using the Boingo "service" - I see four separate charges from Boingo Wireless.
I have been nowhere near an airport these past months. In fact, I have been nowhere near wireless - being abroad, the only place I have access to internet is through my DSL line at home.
Yet Boingo has charged me somewhere upwards of $50 over these past months. They do it extremely cleverly: no single amount is greater than $15, $25 - easy to miss unless you, like me, are abroad and have no other activity on your American bank account to distract the eye.
Since the Boingo pop-up stopped showing up, I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CLUE THEIR SOFTWARE WAS RUNNING. I checked my statements for the past year, and this isn't the first time they've snuck in a charge, so in no way is this just a technical glitch about me disabling their pop-up.
I am guessing their "service" recognized the fact I am currently in an underdeveloped country, and figured I'd be less likely to report this to my bank. There is no other way to account for the brazen way in which the charges started accummulating once I got here.
I have never, ever, EVER logged in during the three months they raped my credit card. I have used nothing but my own broadband connection. I have not been notified of the program even running.
Needless to say I'm pretty pissed at this under-handed practice, not to say outright credit card skimming, and I'll be copy & pasting this sad little tale to any other blog and forum dealing with the issue.
Please do not sign up for Boingo, no matter how big and modern the airport! It is a sophisticated scam from a seemingly presentable company - but a scam nonetheless.
What galls me the most is their PR campaign: any forum where this same complaint is lodged, a super-polite rep of theirs will inevitably show up, explaining it all away with misunderstandings and glitches. This, dear sirs, is no glitch. It is a fully intentional, quasi-legal way of ripping off anybody stupid enough - me included - to give out their credit card details to Boingo.
