NetZero wanted MrConsumer back as a customer (do they know who they are dealing with?? ) and sent me a postcard offer with a fabulous price — $4.95 per month (click on picture on the right to see the entire offer). There is an asterisk after the $4.95, and one would have hoped that would lead to the catch: only if you buy a computer for everyone in your family, only if you sign up by no later than yesterday, or only for the first two months of service, etc.
Their mouse print on the postcard reads: “Additional phone and live technical support charges may apply. Special pricing not available to all members. Service not available in all areas.” [NetZero offer received 6/30/06.]
Okay, nothing (seemingly) bad there. But, when I visited their website link for this offer, that’s where the real catch was lurking.
*MOUSE PRINT: “Up to 10 Hours only $4.95 per month.” [website 6/30/06]
It is unfortunate that a company that goes to the trouble of sending you a personalized offer, does not include one of the most important details, even if only in the mouse print. Instead, they force the reader to go to a website to find the catch.
One test of deceptiveness is to measure how far away from the original claim the asterisked disclosure is. A fine print footnote in a print ad is often considered too far away from the headline. But how do you measure the distance from the $4.95 postcard offer in my hand to the disclosure only found in cyberspace?
netzero like time life are despicable on the way they refuse to cancel a subscription and pretends to not realize they overbilled you. I cancelled thier service in Feb 2006 and just got off the phone with a supervisor 8/29/06 and got another confirmation # to cancel. I raised enough hell to get my monthly billing back retro active April.
Will not do business with them again. (AOL, Time Life???)
I also love the way it is disclosed only online. What if I was going to use their service to establish internet for the first time? I would have no way of knowing this until after I purchased it?!
Can you imagine the cost of your bill for going over the 10 hours a month?!! And who wouldn’t go over 10 hours/mo. Do you know anyone who uses the internet for an average of only 20 minutes a day?? Some deal!
The other thing that has bugged me forever about Netzero is the name. Netzero implies getting the internet for zero (dollars), right? What a scam. REally sounds like false advertising. I just wonder who isn’t doing false advertising these days.
The worst part about it, NetZero is called “net zero” because they used to provide internet acess for free. Your 56K modem could dial one of their numbers for your metropolitan and gain access to free internet connectivity. Now they’re just another crappy, for profit “ISP” who won’t last.
I remember when NetZero was free. You had to give up most of your screen to advertisements, but it was free. Also, isn’t this offer for dial up? With todays websites, you could spend your ten hours just opening up yahoo. I don’t see how the net is useable with dial up anymore.
Never used NetZero and never will…what a rip
Here is something else they need to disclose. You can never ever cancel them. You need a credit card or bank account to sign up. Once they have this information they have you for life. It is like selling your soul. When you try to call to cancel you will be on hold for no less than 45 minutes. Then in 3 months time you will have to call again to cancel because you are still being billed. This goes on and on and on. And on…..
AOL isn’t any better, Don. After haggling for a half hour with them when I was attempting to cancel, they basically begged me to give them another chance to provide better service. Like a fool, I did. A few months later I had to go through the same big hassle again. Only THIS time I told them that I NEVER wanted to do business with them again. I was paying $29.95 a month for a service that I couldn’t use. I couldn’t get through 85% of the time. Now I have Netzero, and I’m paying less, and have better service. But it sounds like I’m going to have a problem should I ever decide to quit them too. I keep my email at gmail.com (Google) so that no matter what service I use, my email address remains the same. Okay, now I know someone is going to tell me some horror stories about them too?
I’ve got to disagree that NetZero didn’t disclose everything on the postcard. It says, right there in big bold print, that this is a “LIMITED TIME” offer!
hhhhmmmmmmmm……….and I thought there Free account was the $10.00 one, though all I ever use it for is Email, and it’s not an account I get anything on(backup/emergency originally)
Yea, NetZero, we paid $14.99 for high speed but nerver got it, then when we call tec-support we were billed $25.00 on our
credit card, then I had a hard time installing it on my lap top and they wanted to charge me for that? To install it on my computor/
I don’t think so- so then they said I had credit for 2 mo. & no charges for tec-support, but then they refuessed to credit my credit card & said I had to reuse the minutes of tec-support. what a sham- I tell everyone not to use NETZERO>
I am soooooooooooo sorry that I ever decided to do business with
NetZero. They are the shadiest,most deceitful people I have ever
had the displeasure of associating with. They advertised ISP for
$9.95 a month, first month free and indicated nothing would be charged to my debit card until after that first month. I signed up. They then opened an additional account using my phone number and debit card with a computer generated e-mail address, without my permission, I could not even access that second account. Then they immediatley charged my card $15.00 for each of the two accouns.
Net Zero needs to be shut down because of the way they handle cancellations I called and wanted to cancel my account with them after only having it for a month and was put on hold for an hour then they said ok and I thought I was done with that then the following month they charged me again and I called them again and went through the hassle of waiting and finally got a rep on the line and told them they charged me after cancelling and I wanted a refund abd they were trying to say they will just use that money for an email service which I didnt want and I said no I want everthing closed and to stop the billing which they didnt until I got my Bank involved and finally it was resolved by the bank so Beware Of Net Zero they will rip you off.
I have been a netzero customer about 2 years and yes they do have extreamly bad customer service BUT. I’m only paying $4.95
FOR LIFE!! All i did was call to cancel after the first free month told them i was going to cancel my my credit card the guy asked me if i wanted 1 more free month and
$4.95 for 1 year i said no then he asked
if I wanted 3 free months and $4.95 for 1 year
I said no then he said 3 free months and
$4.95 for LIFE. and I said yes. so even though i cant get any customer service and I get knocked offline every 3 hours I will never have to pay $9.95 EVER and if I do want to cancel I’ll just call my credit card company and say MY CARD WAS LOST
I received one of these offers. I considered it but after reading the fine print I was concerned. I chose not to do it & broke the disc in 1/2
I called to cancel NetZero on July 4, 2004 because I had switched to DSL. They told me there would be multiple problems with DSL–not true–and offered me a free year of NetZero just to use as a back-up when DSL was down. I was furious to open my July 2007 statement and see a charge from NetZero for $9.95. I immediately called them and after only being on hold for 47 minutes, they told me that they would refund only $8.29 of the charge because I had already “used” some of my service. Since I have NOT signed in to their so-called service for over THREE YEARS, how could I have USED the service? Isn’t there something we can do about this to prevent them from ripping off people like this?
Netzero WILL bill you even after you cancel your account. Be warned. It may not even be the first month after you cancel, heck it could be 3 months down the road but WATCH your account like a hawk. They are know for this practice.
Yikes! Cancelling your free trial with Net Zero results in a $25.00 fee. Who would have thought!
What low lifes!! Where was that in the fine print?
Currently in the process of trying to cancel my NetZero account. I have been at it since the middle of November. Will try one more time with their call service in the Philipines, and then on to the Consumer Protection Division at the State AG’s Office, the local BBB, and one of the local TV stations that do the consumer protection spots. NZ is advertising heavily in this local market. Plan also to block any additional charges to my credit card, or as one of the bloggers said loose the card. I may also start calling them two or three time a day. I am retired and need a new project. A letter or two to the Editor of the local paper outlining the issues and updating my progress in resolving the problem might be helpfull too.
cancelled Netzero–and now they charge a 25 dollar cancellation fee–they said I signed up for 1 year–never!!
Net Zero is despicable. I tried to cancel my account in August of 09 – did not charge me in Sept.
but in oct, nov, dec, and jan they charged me $4.95 a month. for what. I cancelled. Called today
of course you get someone in India poorly spoken English. Very difficult to understand. Guess everyone should go to Better Business Bureau – maybe these tactics will stop.