Signed up for NetZero Platinum on May 30th. Found out after three hours of wrangling with the connections that NetZero was not compatible with my system (Computer and Webtv). Refused to pay the $14.95 fee for what is advertised as a "toll-free" phone call for customer support.

Got lots of useless automated advice. Called billing support the next day and after a looooooong wait got a guy who tells me "yeah, we don't support Webtv by the way".

Then the phone went dead. Called back and got a different customer service rep, "Acton". He tells me, "No refund". Refused to allow me to talk to a supervisor. Told me I was stuck with this $49.75 fee and that I would have to pay because of my stupidity (his words, not mine).

Oh yeah, and I was taping the whole exchange. Don't worry, these people were informed of this. (Acton had a short memory, however.) So I called my credit card company and am disputing the charges which came in just this morning. All very timely, all well documented. So when NetZero says "you will be entitled to a refund for amounts prepaid to cover future periods from the date of termination", they don't mean it. As I have more time than money right now, I'll go to the trouble of taking this small issue to the mat.

So think twice before recommending NetZero to anyone. Lots of run-around, extremely unfriendly and frustrating customer interface, ridiculous charges and basically a "bait and switch" attitude towards products and services. Oh and as to the service? Well, if it's free, people expect to have their internet surfing turned over the the scrutiny of marketers, but I ordered the Platinum NetZero which is basically an ISP service. They promise no banners and no pop-up advertising, but they still force you to watch an paid infomercial while you wait for their service to slowly boot up (and I do mean slowly) and force you to go through the gatekeeper of their homepage where there's even more opportunity for marketing mischief. I have since found just a basic ISP who charges the same amount of money as NetZero "Platinum" (what a joke) and stays out of the way.

You're a bad company NetZero and I'm going to give you the $50 worth of bad advertising you deserve of the money you took from me.

Michael Ballow

Recommended: No