Customer stuck paying for a service that doesn’t work

HOUSTON – Whether it’s a streaming service, a grocery store, or a clothing store, you probably have a subscription to something. But many of these businesses and subscriptions are automated, and getting in touch with someone when you have a problem can be tricky. One woman turned to Amy Davis for help when she had to pay for a service and product that didn’t work.

The client cannot contact the company after purchasing the subscription service

Michelle Hall ordered a tracking collar with a monthly subscription to make sure she can always find her dog. The service clearly appealed to many pet owners. But, as with Hall, when they tried to use the collar, they couldn’t get it to work and couldn’t get help from the company.

“He is my child. My wayward child,” Hall said, introducing us to Stan.

Half dog whippet bread, Stan is loyal but he’s a runner.

“I literally have constant nightmares that he runs away and doesn’t come back,” said Michelle Hall. “I’m not fast like a whippet, so he’s running, he’s chasing something he doesn’t know.”

Worried about the loss of her beloved friend, Hall ordered a Fi brand dog collar with GPS tracking.

“So if he escapes, we will at least tell me where he is and hopefully I can find him and bring him home,” she said.

In December, she paid $120 for a collar and a six-month subscription. But she still couldn’t get the collar to work.

“I cannot activate the collar that I have that I bought. I’ve already started paying for my subscription that I can’t use,” Hall said.

For several weeks, Hall did his best to contact someone from the company.

“Many times they will post and ‘oh we’ll contact you’ or ‘contact us and they’ll give you an email’ but then it’s not going anywhere. It’s just crickets.”

On social media, Hall found that she was not alone; other clients had similar problems.

“Many problems – no response, billing issues, subscription issues. I didn’t receive my collar. It’s been eight weeks, all kinds of crazy stuff.”

BBB shows Fi is rated B-mostly with complaints from customers who can’t contact support when they have a problem.

More people having trouble accessing companies

Leah Napoliello with Houston Business Improvement Bureau says they’re getting more complaints from people who just can’t get in touch with companies when they have these kinds of problems.

“Many companies are understaffed, so this is a problem that we see in many different industries,” Napoliello said.

She says if you’ve sent a message to the company and posted on social media but still can’t reach anyone, contact your bank and dispute the subscription fee.

“Also, tell them that you are ending your partnership with this company. You don’t want any future fees and hopefully your bank will work with you on that,” she said.

The company is overloaded with orders

What happened to Fi is something you can often see at this time of the year. The Fi rep told us they were stuck during the busy holiday season.

“Demand has far exceeded our expectations, resulting in many more inquiries from our customer support team than expected.”

“We have hired a significant class of new support agents to strengthen the existing team.”

What you need to know about subscription services

• Consider free trials to test the company.

• But be careful, sometimes free trials come with automatic renewals.

• Make sure you know how to stop your subscription.

• You should check your active subscriptions periodically to make sure you are still using them.

Fi eventually got Hall’s collar to work. Hall made sure they changed the start date of the subscription so she wouldn’t have to pay for the weeks the collar didn’t work. (This is good advice if you run into a similar problem.)

Full Fi statement

“We launched the latest version of our Fi Series 3 smart dog collar during the 2022 holiday season. Demand far exceeded our expectations, resulting in many more questions and requests to our customer support team than expected. This has resulted in delays for all Fi users contacting support for up to a few days (definitely not weeks, some customers tend to exaggerate delays), but we are responding to requests in the order they are received and the team is working. 7 days a week. To reduce response times and prevent future issues like this, we have hired a significant class of new support agents to bolster our existing team and we expect to be back to same day support as we have done for many years. soon.”