Intergate.com Should Be Interrogated For Fraud
Written: Jul 25 '03 (Updated Aug 11 '08)
|
| Full Review |
Although my review may seem very positive, see the lower section for the purpose behind my 1 star rating…
Prices & Packages:
The packages provided with Intergate.com easy to follow:
$10.00/month ($10.00 per month total) w/free phone support
$99.00/year ($8.95 per month total) w/free phone support
I signed up using the $10.00/month plan because I never know how long an internet service provider is going to be. If you signup for a full year it'll cost $99.00, and that's alot of money to waste on a service you may or may not continuously use. With both plans you'll receive free toll free phone support, free email support, 100 email accounts, free junk mail blocker, 100mb web space, and newsgroup access, and best of all NO setup fees.
When signing up for an account, you will be immediately directed to a secure server (always a good sign). The signup process is fairly simple, basic questions like: username, password, credit number, etc. The last page of the process listed all account details (username, password, billing information, etc.) which you can then print out. My account was activated immediately and was online within minutes. I even received an email shortly after stating my card was billed 'X' amount and listed all access information I could possibly need.
A big negative to the whole service is their billing policy, which says all accounts will be billed on the first of the month, regardless of your signup anniversary. If you happen to signup on the 25th of July, you will be billed for the month of July. Then August 1st you will be billed again for the month of August. Luckily I signed up on the 3rd of December, so I avoided this initial tricky double billing situation.
Features:
- No banner ads or programs to download, simply use networking included with Windows 98.
- Nationwide Coverage - thousands of access numbers supports V90/V92.
- 100 email accounts, 100mb web space.
- No Contracts - Cancel at any time.
- 24/7 phone support, and email support.
Access Numbers:
Eight months ago when I used this service, there were only 4 access numbers in my area, but as I look at the list today there are 6 numbers. Surprisingly all 4 access numbers were located in my town, and were not considered long distance. The access number list doesn't clarify which numbers are V90/V92, and I highly doubt every number is V92.
Connection Speeds:
However because the area of town I was currently in was brand new, the phone lines were most likely cheap, or the phone company had installed some type of quality limitation device. Because of this limitation I could not connect over 28,000bps, in fact most of the time I connected at 26,000bps. My connections were 26K over 90% of the time, which is extremely slow! My average download speeds (using Download Accelerator Plus) was 2.0k/sec and my latency on multiplayer Half-Life was 250-350. Needless to say these speeds were truly disappointing, but I do not blame Intergate.com for it.
Network Time Limits:
Sadly the lower price comes with a low internet usage. You are only allowed 200 hours of access per month on some selected numbers. They also employ an 8 hour network cutoff timer, regardless of your current actions online. This is far longer than other cheap internet service providers, who usually employ a network cutoff timer of 5 hours and a cap at 250 hours per month on all lines. Regardless, Intergate's service is still considered 'metered' and members who use to much bandwith may have their accounts terminated without notice. Because of this factor, it's recommended not to test their limitations and try to use your account as an 'always on' service. Intergate is best suited for average internet users who are online less than 10 hours per day / 200 hours per month. During my 30 days with Intergate my access was always available, and I used up well over 10 hours per day!
Customer Service:
I never needed to email Intergate's customer service (exception below), BUT I did deal with their cancellation policy which included a lot of drama. In order to cancel your account and cease all automatic billing you must submit a request in writing (via US Postal Service) to cancel. Your letter must include your username/password, account number, email address from account, and home address + phone number. This is NOT written on their site, but when I sent them an email this is what I was told to include. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake, and is probably against the law.
Negative On This Entire Operation:
What happened was this: I sent a letter with said information requesting to cancel my account. They received my letter and cancelled my account, HOWEVER the following week they billed my account for $10.00 for the month of January (which they should not have done!!). I then sent another snail mail letter and received absolutely no refund or reply by email/phone. I gave up and accepted the lose of $10.00, continuing on with life. About 2 months later I got an overdraft notice in the mail from my bank, someone had used my credit card to purchase clothing costing me over $300. I thought about who had access to my credit card, and the only suspect I could come up with was Intergate.com. I suspect whoever received my snail mail complaints used my letter (including name, address, phone number etc.) and got my credit card off the Intergate system to rip me off. I say this with confidence because I had never used my credit card online or in any store whatsoever! Sadly law enforcement couldn't do anything about it, and the company from which the merchandise was purchased could care less about my situation. Thankfully my bank refunded me the cost, and I sent in a unauthorized fraud form. I also had to cancel my credit card and apply for a new one! Because of this whole ordeal, I will never use Intergate.com (or any other internet company that requires snail mail for communication) and will also say nothing but bad things about them on all possible mediums.
Recommendation:
Intergate is much better than Netzero/Juno which is also $10.00/month but requires special software and includes a toolbar and banners with logging on.
But... I personally do not recommend this service to anyone because of the customer service representatives who told me to include sensitive information in a letter which was obviously not needed to cancel my account. But if you still see the need for a cheap internet service provider try your luck with Intergate.com anyway. Just be cautious and read over every single word on their Terms of Service & FAQ sections.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Dbbum
|
 in Music, Games |
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: California
Reviews written: 263
Trusted by: 253 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.