Menu
CB Mobile and Cell Phones Helio BILLING MISHAPS AND EXTORTION
Helio

Helio review: BILLING MISHAPS AND EXTORTION 10

S
Author of the review
12:00 am EST
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

Don't get me wrong, as far as the unlimited data and messaging service being all-inclusive, I love Helio. As far as their customer service and that their billing department is seemingly run by monkeys, I am about ready to eat an early termination fee and tell them to shove it.

I pulled up my bill for my second line and see a balance of $238.00. WHOA! Nothing downloaded, minutes well under the 1500, so what's the deal?
I see a charge for $138 stating NSF. Few problems with this:

1. I never had a bill in that amount.
2. I have never paid by check; always with American Express.

I get some CSR on the line, who seems to have issues with the English language. When I tell her that this is an error, and I have all payments showing paid and on time, she wants to argue. I tell her that I am willing to pay the balance that I actually owe, but not the $138. After 15 minutes on hold, I am told that if I don't want my service cut off immediately, I have to pay the $238 and I can mail in proof that I don't owe this for a possible refund or credit.

Being that my husband needs his line for work, I was basically extorted into paying this. In addition to mailing in proof that I don't owe this, American Express is telling me to dispute it when the charge is posted.

Think it is time to say bye bye...

More Helio reviews & complaints

Helio - Scam and rip off! 11
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Helio - Stupidity
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Helio - Scam and cheating 3
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Helio - Customer Service 9
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Helio - Poor Quality
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Helio - Billing
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
10 comments
I
I
IHATEHELIO
Lexington, US
May 18, 2009 4:53 pm EDT

Helio, now Virgin Mobile, are a bunch of IDIOTS, CROOKS, AND LIARS! I've been dealing with these lying, idiot BAST((!@#$# for nearly 2 years - just waiting for my contract to expire so that I can go back to TMobile.

I sent them an email in January, telling them I will not be continuing my service one day beyond my contract expriation, June 17. I sent them another email in April, asking them to please adjust my pre-billing in May to knock-off days falling after my contract cancellation on the 17th of June. I didn't get a reply until May, and it was totally incorrect.

Now they are trying to say I need to pay the bill dated June 20, which will be adjusted for my cancellation. Problem is that the May 20th bill contains the pre-billing for the period May 20 through June 19 and is the last and only bill I will be responsible for. They are trying to make me pay for the period pre-billed on the June 20th statement, June 20 through July 19 when I will have no service after JUNE 17th!

From the email they sent me, it sounds like they are trying to hang the additional charges on making me call customer service in June to verbally cancel my service on June 17th. How utterly stupid and idiotic! They've received my cancellation notice in January, 2 times in April and again in May - each time in writing. They think that if I call them in June to verbally tell them to disconnect me that gives them the right to pre-bill me on June 20th or the period June 20 through July 19th? Do they think their customers are as stupid as they are?

SURELY THERE'S SOME GOVERNMENT AGENCY THAT WE CAN ALL REPORT THESE (((*&^%$$##@#'S TO?

This is only one out of about 100 things they have done to me in 2 years. All incidents merit the same level of stupidity, out-right lying and trying to steal my money.

S
S
sung
Flushing, US
Apr 30, 2009 3:36 pm EDT

WOW.. this company, feels like a scam!

I am currently on the phone with them alomost every month.

what they hey about the monthly charge is that, we pay in advance.
Fine, ! i don't mind what i pay for ina dvance. i am a paying customer. i was with verizon as long as i can remember, so i wanted to try different company so i tried HELIO. that's where my nightmare started. At start i was to pay them 2month in advance. At that time, the store told me that it's for the last month, when i disconnect them it's free, month. hummm... when i increased the minute, it's a choas! they told me to pay about 211 and i went to the website to pay it was 311. so i paied figuring that i was going to go to next month! so i checked on the 4/17 and my balance were 150 due on 5/20. so i thought it was paid for April but i was got off the phone with them and they said it's because system thought i was not paid the that they and it went to the next month while the billing system was not created.! what a crap! i feel like they should be under investigation. God knows how much they might have scamed people from who doesn't want to bother with these kind of fighting.!

L
L
lchow
, US
Mar 09, 2009 5:53 pm EDT

I agree with all you folks out there, Helio is the worst company. I called customer service over serveral months to take care of a charge that they told me originally that they were going to drop. They keep telling me that the matter is elevated to the next level, and I would have to wait for them to call me to let me know the result. They never call me back to let me know the status. Finally, I got a letter in the mail from the credit agency stating that I need to pay $163. I was so mad, helio agreed that I don't need to pay the amount and yet they submitted my name to the credit agency. I'm about to give up and pay the freaking money and not have to deal with it anymore, but I'm so mad, I have spent so much time on this crap. I tried to file compliant to BBB, but I can't find the address to the head quarter of the company. Does anyone out there know this info?

T
T
Tarin
,
Dec 01, 2008 12:55 am EST

I’m not a big believer in law suits but I’m just about ready to ### Helio over for everything they are worth and after reading this site I know that I’m not alone in this feeling. In November 2007 I signed up for helio service cause i needed internet on my phone for my job and at the time it was the best deal for my wallet. my roommate at the time was working for helio and convinced me to go with them. so a few months go by and my bill comes at a reasonable price and I feel satisfied with the service. so satisfied that i told everyone that i knew to switch over to helio cause they wouldn’t be disappointed. I felt like a ###ing spokesperson for the company except that i wasn’t getting paid. so all of a sudden i started having some serious problems with my BRAND NEW phone, the battery only lasted an hour, the screen went black, It wouldn’t tell me when i had missed a call or had a new VM. I went into the store and had to switch it out twice. Then all of a sudden… the ###ing stores close down and they partner up with virgin, move all of the employees to india or some place half way around the ###ing world and my bills spike up to no less then $150.00 a month (double), even though i cant seem to make any calls. In July I moved back up to San Francisco from LA and I really couldn’t seem to make a single call. I would stand in the middle of the street with full bars and watch as my phone would blink a blue light and say connecting for ten minutes. I was dropping calls left and right and I finally had it with this ###ing service. so i called to complain and cancel my service and let them know that i refuse to pay the cancelation fee especially since I went back on my bills and realized that they had been over charging me by adding on an extra 5-7 days per month, and every time i would call to ask some questions the ### hole half way around the world would hang up on me when i would ask for a supervisor. so you know what they finally said to me?… that according to there computer that the service was perfect in SF and that there was nothing they could do. BULL ###! I kept asking for some one higher up and they kept saying that there was no one else higher and that i would just have to pay my bill. I then asked them to send me a copy of all my bills from the start of service and they refused. That was 2 months ago and I just recieved a letter in the mail saying that they have sent me to collections for almost $300! Those ###ing ###. I signed up for a phone service that had LIVE people to help me FACE TO FACE and stores to walk into, a service that was only going to cost me $70 a month and where the costumers where valued and important, and i for dam sure didn’t sign up for Virgin mobil. IF ANY ONE IS HAS FILED A LAWSUIT AGAINST HELIO PLEASE LET ME KNOW! send me an email at tarin_muir@yahoo.com

M
M
Msvega
,
Oct 01, 2008 5:40 pm EDT

its a shame what there doing.. and yes watch your bill.!

L
L
Leo
,
Sep 02, 2008 11:42 pm EDT

LETS ALL SUE HELIO FOR THE TROUBLE THEY'VE CAUSED US. ANY LAWYERS OUT THERE WHO HAD A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH HELIO?

L
L
Lynn
,
Sep 02, 2008 11:34 pm EDT

Same thing happened to me. I returned my Helio phone and it's been almost a year and they have not given me a refund. I have all the tracking number and information to show that the items have been received. For months I've waited for their resolution. And when they finally did, the customer service told me they've given me credit for the bills I've had previously. Waaaa! To make a long story short they are a bunch of ripoffs. They want to frustrate you so you'll give up with your complaints. Well I am not giving up. I will be filling a lawsuit against Helio because this is America and we have a law against CROOKS!

K
K
Kwan Soh
,
May 22, 2008 6:49 am EDT

It will take most of my time if I decide to talk about tHelio's stupid billing system.
Beside that, now Helio give me an inbearable pain to their customer.

I have replaced a defective phone.
Helio received the defective device on Jan.30, 2008 (FedEx tracking #[protected]).
Helio have not been applied a credit for the returned device for more than 110 days.
As of today May. 22, 2008, Helio has been intrerrupted the service more than 10 times.
I have to call everytime when the service was interrupted and Helio help desk repeated same answer saying that it takes time to be approved for the credit.
I have called for more than 14 times for this unreasonable interruption, but it seems nobody from Helio care about their customer.

Kwan Soh.

B
B
BETTY
,
May 15, 2008 1:07 pm EDT

Hi I too am fighting this bs circle of non english cs pay pay pay for what I do not owe and recently printed my every bill and every payment to do the math and see what is going on with this 99.00 a month unlimited but am paying bills for 200, 300, 696.00 a month and come to find they never credited my acct for a over charge of 415.00, also it turns out they owe me 291.00 in addition to the 415.00. When I finally get someone on the line my landline and cell phone mysteriously drops the call disconnecting me every time its right after I finish explaining where and how it is they owe me this amount. Besides that I get hours on hold and the round about bit that they can't transfer me to a supervisor or when I did finally get in contact with a corporate number I left vm one after the next even to the CEOs and still I have heard nothing. I don't know what to do about this! ( e mail me if you figure a solution or get a number to someone at helio that cares to resolve issues for us customers please or if their are enough willing parties over the bs games with helio wanting to do a Class action suit against this company I'll be happy to assist! thanks.

J
J
joe swan
,
Apr 26, 2008 7:48 pm EDT

I also have helio and I am having terible issues with thier billing department. I didn't reciev a bill for march 08 and got a text on the fourth that said if I must pay immediately in order to prevent any interuptions in my service. I called and paid the bill with visa and explained that I want the bill mailed as well because my employer pays half of it. About three weeks later I recieve a bill that showed I haven't paid my payment in two months. This makes me look lik a [censored] to my employer. So I called thier India call center and asked to be transfered to a supervisor as I could not understand thier representative. The supervisor explained to me that they do not send out proof of payment and that they cannot send another bill showing the actual amount I really owe.

I dropped a phone service that was working perfectly fine to switch over to a "BETTER" company. I deeply regret signing a contract with these communists. My phone doesn't work well on International calls, and after about a twenty minute conversation the phone just hangs up. Also by the end of six hour day you better be near a charger because these batteries suck bad.

Trending companies