I was unknowingly signed up for PRIMUS long distance as a result of my credit card’s long distance plan getting deep-6′ed. Seems Visa Aerogold fed them my account number somehow.

No agreement to switch, I’d already made arrangements with Rogers, and here I find myself with a PRIMUS account. And they’ve got my credit card number, so they’re dinging my credit card.

So… call PRIMUS to get the account cancelled, and I get a nice letter welcoming me to the PRIMUS family.

I call customer support, and I get a nasty prick telling me I have no business calling them.

I call the credit card company and am told I have to get a letter from PRIMUS before they’ll cancel the automatic billing.

Not only will PRIMUS even issue a letter confirming the account is closed, they won’t even issue a letter instructing the credit card to reject the charges.

Step 1… cancelled the credit card (VISA Aerogold) for not being any more supporttive for my $100/year fee.

Step 2… contacted the BBB and they’re treating them with about the same amount of impunity, but it is going somewhere. Especially once I mention I have no signed agreement with them.

Step 3… (thanks for the suggestion)… am gonna hit the CRTC up for some help.

So then, after cancelling my service, I got a call saying “we can’t cancel your order.” I tried to get them to explain to me what that meant given that I do not yet have any phone or internet service at my house — what is there to cancel? And since I have not yet any service from them, it should be a simple matter to cancel it with them and returned their unopened DSL package. But apparently not. So I talked to three different people — telling them I did not yet have service with them and I was not going to let the technician in if there were to be one, so my service was not yet started, so cancel it. Eventually got to someone who weakened his position, told me I wouldn’t get a bill (a bill? for what?) and told me what I think the crux of the matter is — I have already been assigned a phone number with some sort of central bank with that carrier (Primus) and any subsequent phone service would have to know that. Fine.

Terrible customer service and lots of wasted time — and some pretty belligerent support people. I’m glad I got out of it before it started.

–Fred

From the beginning there have been screwups. It took almost two months to sort out my initial activation when they ended up assigning two separate accounts, complete with 2 gateways being mailed to me.

When it was finally sorted out, I was put on the wrong LD plan. After spending a month calling Europe I received a massive phone bill. After much hassle, they changed me to the proper plan and re-rated my calls. However, they had already overcharged me $200+ which they refused to refund, saying instead it would be applied against future bills. They then stopped sending bills (because I was in a credit position) and expected me to trust they would get it right while we worked off the $200 overcharge. I wouldn’t trust this company to correctly move a turd from one side of the room to the other!

I was prepared to accept their past stupidity and their substandard phone service until about a month ago…

In mid-December, they sent me a letter stating that the credit card they had on file had expired. Fair enough. I promptly emailed updated CC information to the same email address I have used countless times when trying to sort out their messes. I heard nothing back, but assumed everything was functioning normally. As I said, I have used this email numerous times (it is an entry in my Outlook, so it cannot even be chalked up to fat-fingering some keys). Several weeks later my phone went dead. After spending half an hour of cellular airtime, I reached a moron (I mean customer service rep) who advised me that my account was suspended for non-payment. They then tried to tell me they did not receive the email I had sent them several weeks before with the updated CC information. BS!

To put this into perspective, lest someone think I am a deadbeat who brought this all on themselves. I have had service with Primus for well over a year. In that time, the bill has been paid in full and on time, EVERY time. At the time service was suspended, I had missed paying the December bill on December 1st and now the January bill on January 1st. Since they bill in ADVANCE, I was only several days behind paying them when they cut off my service. SEVERAL DAYS!!!

Anyway, getting back to the moron who took my call for reinstatment…

I explained that I had done everything a prudent individual could be expected to do and that I did not believe they could not have received my email. She agreed to take my payment, but then proceeded to tell me there would be a $30 NSF fee applied. I told her that she was NOT authorized to charge an NSF fee to the credit card (which sadly, I had already given her), that I would pay the outstanding bill for service but not a penny more. She said “alright” then went away to process the payment. When she came back, I asked how much it was for. She replied with an amount that INCLUDED the $30 NSF. I told her she was not authorized to charge this amount. She said it was too late, the payment was processed and there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak with a supervisor, but of course they were all unavailable. I phoned back at the start of the following week and did manage to get a supervisor on the phone. She told me that they would not be refunding the $30 they stole from me (NSF fees are only levied by respectable companies when THEY have incurred a charge from their bank for a customers bounced CHEQUE. There is no such thing for a VISA charge that was refused simply because of expired information. Their charging of this amount is essentially theft.)

I advised them that I was not prepared to be taken advantage of and that if they did refund the $30, plus additional funds for my inconvenience (it took 24 hours to get the service turned back on), that I was cancelling my account. Their response was basically “go ahead”. The cow I was speaking with said she would note on my account that I had provided my 30 days notice as of that date. What kind of company kisses off an otherwise loyal customer simply because they took offense to being robbed!!??

Since that date, they sent out my February bill which includes ANOTHER $30 NSF. How on earth they figure that there should be TWO of these fees is beyond me. What a bunch of crooks!!! I am warning all Canadians to stay away from these bandits. There are plenty of other providers out there. Do a Google search and you will find others. Some are small Canadian businesses that charge less and do not suck the money out of our economy and into the American economy (like Primus).

On a happy note. I have already called VISA and disputed the charge. Not only will Primus never receive another dime from me, but they will be refunding (like it or not) the entire amount of the NSF fee along with both December and January phone service charges. After all, I very clearly stated to the woman that they were NOT authorized to charge this amount. Primus is of course free to sue me to try and recover their money. I will happily sit in a courtroom and explain to the judge what an inept bunch of business people this company is comprised of. I suspect I will prevail.

Seriously people, go with anyone else!! NOT PRIMUS!!

primus is THE WORST

it took 3 weeks for them to set up my home phone service . they told me it would take up to 4 business days! customer service lied to me 7 times! the wait time for so called customer service (lie service in india) was 1/2 hour every time! or more!

then they charged me a 55$ reconnection fee when they cut me off without warning! after i paid my bill to avoid this. one week later i was cut off! i don’t have a cell phone. they cut off my only communication, along with my internet.

then they said ok we will waive the 55$ cuz it was their mistake. the payment wasn’t recognized by the accounting dept. in time, that was their excuse. then they lied again! i had their supervisor call me. 3 reps told me they don’t have supervisors! it took them a month to call me back! the man in india promised me! i made him actually promise. this so called supervisor told me she has no control over what customer service promises me!she then blamed me for the charge. she told me it was my fault! i called her a bitch and hung up on her. i’m normally a calm and nice person. i didn’t want to do this, i had just had it with the promises and lies!

THIS COMPANY TAKES ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE. EVERYONE CONTACT THE BBB AND MAYBE WE WILL GET JUSTICE.

I had same probs with voice quality caused by router not handling properly voice stream. I swithed my router couple times until I found dlink DIR-525. It is a little outdated but works perfect. I can give highest priority to voice stream to allow downloading/uploading files in the net.
Primus Customer Service sucks for sure.