Complaint Rating:

Company information:
People PC
United States
www.peoplepc.com

Someone used my phone number to gain internet access from People PC. People PC charged my Embarq phone bill $17.40 for 7 months. When the problem was caught, People PC would only refund a small amount of the fraudulent billing. After being passed around to several different people, I finally spoke with "Shane" at People PC. He claimed to be the head of customer service and he told me that I could not speak to anyone higher than him. He told me they could not do anything else for me. He said I needed to dispute the charges within one month... and because it went unnoticed for 7 months, that was my problem. I don't know about you... but I don't sit around scrutinizing every penny on every bill every single month. I trust a big company like Embarq to bill me correctly. I also figure if a mistake was discovered by either of us, they would take of it. I know that's not how fine print works, but come on! We're talking fraud!

Here's the problem - I was charged for something I had never asked for and was refused a proper refund by People PC. Every person I had talked to at People PC (8 different people) asked me for my telephone number, name and address to verify the account. Every single one of them confirmed that my name and address did not match the name and address on the account. I said... "I know. That's the problem. Someone is fraudulently using my phone number." I don't understand why 8 different people (including Shane... a.k.a. the head of EVERYTHING) checked this information, but no one checked to see if the original phone number and name matched the billing account when the criminal had originally signed up for internet access using my phone number.

Now, Embarq is partially to blame for this problem. They could have attempted to confirm the information provided from People PC when they began to bill me for the internet access. The difference is, Embarq admitted the mistake and fixed the problem. I now know that you have to request a blockage of outside parties having the ability to bill your account. I admit that it is possible that Embarq asked me about that service when I first signed up for phone service 4 years ago, but I never imagined that someone else could charge my account without my permission. I would think that at least one or both companies (Embarq and the outside party - this time being People PC) would take the responsibility of verifying information when a new service is established.

Conclusion: People PC - Absolutely disgusting.