Impossible to cancel Lanzing.net dialup isp

[curious john]

The cancellation page on their website is down. The cancellation form download to mail/fax is down. When I call their 800 number it just goes to voicemail and they dont respond, I've called like 5 times prior to their cutoff date for cancellation last month, yet I got billed again.

So whats next step? This is apparently a smallish isp, they dont have the India call center runaround like AOL and Earthlink and some of the other biggies used to have. But they have effectively made it impossible to cancel just by disabling all methods their terms of service requires to cancel and then playing opossum. And in TOS it states that I am not considered canceled until I get a cancellation confirmation from them. So if I just get my credit card to change my card number then they may not be able to charge me directly, but have feeling they will accumulate supposed charges and try to turn over bills to collection agency.

So do I contact my state's attorney generals office or what?

[bruce bailey]

I would think the cc company could debate the charges that you don't want.

[Corrine]

The page for cancelling their services includes the option to mail a cancellation request:

By Mail to:

LANZING INTERNET
222 W. Howe Ave.
Lansing, MI 48906


From the  Cancellation Policy  instructions:

Quote:

Note: *Please include your Name, Address, return Phone Number, dial-up UserName, and Email address as well as a Request to Cancel Service and the Date you want the cancellation to occur.

I recommend sending the cancellation request via registered mail, return receipt. Since cancellations are processed on the 26th of the month, you have time to get the cancellation in before the next billing cycle.

With the return receipt, if they bill you again, you can challenge the bill with your credit card company.

The sales & cancellation phone numbers are the same but, strangely, they have a different address on the  Contact Page  from the Cancellation page. I checked the addresses in Google maps and they are about 7 miles apart.
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[curious john]

Ok, I just noticed that the billing receipt I got in my email from them was mailed from  http://dialupusa.net  which is a wholesale virtual isp service, they resell to individuals wanting to run a retail isp without the overhead.

In other words, Lanzing.net is a virtural isp. I assume its not a very active one and the owner doesnt monitor either voicemail nor email on a regular basis. The website is actually rather nice except the links to cancel dont work and nobody answers the phone. It may have been an actual independent isp at one time. Makes sense why Lanzing had so many pop numbers for a small isp, they actually dont, but dialupusa.net does.

I just emailed billing@dialupusa.net and see if I get any response. They should be able to contact the owner of Lanzing.net and build a fire under him/her. Or possibly they can cancel the account independent of Lanzing.net since they bill for it.

[curious john]

bruce bailey wrote:

I would think the cc company could debate the charges that you don't want.

After the nightmare dealing with my former credit card company over a dispute with another isp for billing a year late for a cancelled account, if anyway not to do that would be preferable. Oh I can call CC company and get current CC account cancelled and new account/number just like for a lost card. That would prevent further charges by Lanzing.net. But be so much nicer just to get hold of somebody to cancel the silly isp account and send me confirmation of the cancellation. Until somebody recognizes that I want to cancel, then charges can accumulate and its just a bigger nightmare.

Common sense would say if somebody stops paying, you just cancel their account and thats that. But modern think is just keep piling up the charges, late fees, etc. and then turn it over to a collection agency. Just cause some smart lawyer was looking for yet another legalized scam.

[pete]

Like Corrine said:

Corrine wrote:

............I recommend sending the cancellation request via registered mail, return receipt..........

This is one sure way to establish that you communicated your wishes to the company.

Do what you think best regarding your credit card, but a copy of the letter and the return receipt, will be very helpful when/if you contact a consumer affairs office, or if a collection agent takes you to court.

An Attorney General may not be interested unless you can come up with a few dozen people like yourself.

[curious john]

If dialupusa.net doesnt reply before Monday, then I will send off a certified letter to the address for Lanzing.net. (Registered mail is for mailing things of value only)

Finding out that Lanzing.net is a virtual isp makes it pretty clear the problem. Just depends on if the wholesaler Dialupusa.net is on the ball enough to deal with this. If they are allowing unmonitored defunct virtual isp websites to continue to allow account signups, then they maybe not greatest run business either.

Real problem is dialup is dieing and not that profitable anymore so service is degrading too. But some of us have no choice, its dialup or satellite, there is no other option. I am using data connection on my pay as you go Boost Mobile phone right now. Its like 18k. I gave up on dialup as I determined it was phone company lines. However they say they are only responsible for clear voice calls, not good data connections. So dialup is dead for me. After connecting directly to phone company box I was getting dialup connection with any dialup isp of speed around 9k to maybe 12k. Yep, made it totally worthless. But voice phone calls are perfectly clear, not a trace of static and phone line is around 52volt which is normal range. So some kind of bottleneck in the phone company system someplace and they arent interested in correcting it.

Eventually I probably will just drop my landline totally in order afford satellite. Satellite *** and way overpriced, but it *** less than dialup or data connection via Boost Mobile. Verizon actually has a cell broadband connection available that I could get but they severely limit use and the price is totally crazy for that limited monthly use.

[aci-john]

I hate that you are having a problem John - and I hope by now that its been solved. BUT - you may find - dialupusa is not obligated to do anything.

One thing I will say I dont like about this thread, is saying that the problem is that they are a Virtual ISP. Thats a pretty general term... Virtual ISP basically means they dont have some physical location like your local $19.95 ISPs have where you can walk in and see a live person. VISP - just means Virtual ISP. An online company. whether they have 5, 500, 5000, or 50K users.

But on the offense, Not having a means to cancel, and rebilling is terrible, and should be dealt with accordingly. When I mess up - I take the blame. BUT in the VISP world - it is important that you properly cancel a subscribers service - because your card issuer can reverse the payment if you have tried to cancel before the cutoff time - but are being billied wrongly.

BUT - on the other hand - there are people who reverse payments just because they dont like the answer a ISP gives them (Ex: They forgot to cancel and its already into a new month - and the isp wont backdate the cancellation or refund them) Some ISPs keep a collections company on hand for things like this. Its expensive to a merchant to have a reversed payment. They charge the company who made the charge instead of the customer. Basically like its a penalty for not refunding them or for charging the card in the first place.

DialupUSA is owned by IKANO - the largest wholesaler in the US. They sell to more than 90% of ISPs in some way shape or form. These days - its too expensive to maintain all of your own facilities. So there are some ISPs that have thousants and hundreds of thousants of users that use wholesale aggregators like DialupUSA to get their service from. They are very efficent. While I dont condone this - a reversed payment may get that VISP in a lot of trouble if dialupusa is the one billing it with their own card processing account. An email to that email mentioning that you are a customer of LanZing and that their cancel site is down and that your calls arent being replied to might make them contact the ISP, but they arent obligated to since you technically arent their customer.

If it were me - Id reverse the payment if the ISP makes it that hard. Ive been in the VISP game 9 years, and I know better. When customers call me, I cancel their service for them. I dont want to be charged. But on the other hand - I have sic'd collections on people who reverse payments who didnt even try to call, or use my ticket system, or fax.
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[curious john]

I sent certified letter of cancellation to Lanzing. The PO still hasnt returned the post card confirming letter was delivered?? The PO isnt super reliable either anymore, but thats another long unrelated story. I need to stop by post office and have them put trace on certified letter since I paid extra for certification of the letter.

Believe it or not, I couldnt get a real live person at my credit card company. Customer service number on card just gets me automated switchboard thingy that didnt give option for real live person. Oh there is probably someway to contact a person in some fine print on something they have sent over the years, but jeeze louise, why hide it?? They gave option on the automated switchboard for lost/stolen credit card and yes they lumped them in together. So I did that and card number was canceled and new card sent. Obviously nobody without the new info can charge my card.

What a screwed up world this is becoming!!!!

Havent heard from Lanzing complaining so guess they are permanently out to lunch or they actually received the cancellation letter.

[curious john]

Certified letter returned undelivered. Got notice today. Lanzing is permanently asleep at the wheel. Proof that I tried to cancel service.

[Corrine]

What a headache your experience has been. At least they no longer have an account to charge. Just keep an eye on your credit report as they could submit a report for a delinquent account.
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