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Dear Consumerist,

Your sister blog recently posted a tutorial on:
Turn Your iPod Touch into an iPhone
http://lifehacker.com/378511/turn-your-ipod-touch-into-an-iphone They mentioned a service called FreeCall, which is one of the many names they have given to VoipBuster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voipbuster

I just wanted to give this warning to all users that use VoipBuster or any of the other names they go by:
FreeCall, Nonoh, VoipWise, 12VoIP, VoipStunt, BudgetSIP, and more on Wikipedia's page.

Here's the email I sent to Betamax GmbH & Co. KG:
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—--
Dear Betamax GmbH & Co. KG,

I became a user of VoipBuster (a subsidiary owned by Betamax GmbH & Co. KG) in December 2005. A 5 euro charge was made to my credit card which then enabled me to use the service. The service worked fine for a month or two, but what had interested me initially was the fact that it provided free calls within the USA. However, after 2 months of using the service, they decided to remove USA from the free list, but then went to setup an exact same site called VoipStunt which gave free calls to the USA. The only thing difference about VoipStunt and VoipBuster was the name and the fact I had to pay another 5 euro to use it. It was confirmed through many sources that they were indeed the same company.

I felt scammed, decided to stop using the service, and didn't bother to try to get my 5 euro back.

However, recently I read some reviews on FreeCall (another name for VoipBuster apparently) and decided to give it a try again. My VoipBuster account was still active, so I created a help ticket asking what happened to my 5 euro credit.

At first, they denied that I even paid the 5 euro credit and demanded me to show my credit card statement as proof. I guess they were expecting me to not keep records for that long (December 2005).

However, thanks to the internet, I was able to request a copy of my December 2005 statement and I attached a scan of it to the help ticket.

This time customer service acknowledges that I did in fact pay for 5 euro credit, but I had used it all. I claimed I definitely did not use it all, but they wouldn't budge.

I then went through my calling history month by month and that's when I found this:
Date         Time       Number called                  Duration   Amount    
2006-06-15   00:01:19   +credit expired (2006-06-15)   00:00:00   ? 4.980

It appears my credit was expired and not used up. I bring up this fact in the help ticket and now they say credit expires after 1 year since the last phone call.

I go through my call logs again and my last phone call was made on 2006-02-04, meaning my credit expired in less than 5 months, quite a way from the 1 year mark...

I also brought up that the FAQ (http://www.voipbuster.com/en/faq.html#20) states:

    How long does my credit last for calls?
    At Voipbuster, your credit will NOT expire.
    
Then I got an extremely rude response:

You are kidding right? You haven't used our services in over 2 years and you comlain about the fact that your credit expired after only 7 months. Had you complained at that moment you would have had a good point. Obviously now you don't have any point as you haven't used your account or contacted us in over 2 years. We won't answer any more questions on this matter, should you continue to send us e-mails about this (ridiculous) matter then your e-mailaddress will be placed on the spamlist.

I have had it with VoipBuster's customer service and have decided to contact Betamax GmbH & Co. KG directly to see what type of support you can provide. Given that the FAQ states that credit never expires and the ordeal I had to go through, I don't think crediting my account for the expired credit (4.980 euro) is unreasonable at all.

Sincerely,
Toland Hon

C.C. tips@consumerist.com
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—--

While searching for the lifehacker post, I also landed on this gem:
Betamax GmbH & Co KG, FINAREA SA VOIP provider scamming and Unauthorized charges Kln Germany
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/256/ripoff0256970.htm
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