Review by mpatrick14 
UPDATED: 198 days ago
member for 1.8 years, 18 visits, last login: 198 days ago
 Las Vegas,Clark,NV
 $1200 per month
 about 999 days
 "Nothing"
 "False Advertising/No Customer Service/Fraudulent use of CC Info"
 "DO NOT FALL FOR THIS COMPANY'S LIES"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
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Tech Support:
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Hawk Communications LLC dba JoiPhone is a corrupt VOIP company who has committed the following illegal acts against me:
Breach of Contract: I never received the equipment or my money back as provided under the TOS, even after receiving confirmation that my account was canceled.
Unjust Enrichment: In addition to taking the money I paid for their service, which I never received, they have repetitively charged my credit card 4 times so far in the amount of 200.00 each time with no explanation. All requests for explanation of these charges have been ignored. I have received nothing of value from this company, yet they have stolen over $1,200 of my money.
Fraud: They have engaged in false advertisement and misleading sales pitches, including the use of the word "Unlimited" when referring to their VOIP phone service, which, in reality, is severely limited. There is very vague verbiage in their Terms of Service that says using the phone more than 5 times the "average" residential line is considered "abuse of the system." Basically, if you use the phone more than they want you to, despite the lines being advertised as UNLIMITED, they can charge you fees, and/or discontinue your service, while keeping all of the money you prepaid. There are reports of very limited amounts of usage resulting in this type of activity. For example, one customer received a threat of cancellation after using the phone for 500 minutes over the course of 15 days - does that sound like UNLIMITED to you? There are also reports that any call longer than 60 minutes is viewed as "abuse" and can result in your line being blocked.
They also advertise a 30 day no risk guarantee, yet they do not even deliver the equipment required to initiate the service within 30 days, thereby ensuring that if you wait for the equipment, you have no recourse under the 30 day guarantee. Also, if you do cancel, as I did, within the 30 day period without ever having received equipment or using the service, they do not return your money.
Embezzlement: I entrusted them with access to my credit card account and after they confirmed my account cancellation, they charged my credit card four additional times so far with absolutely no justification. I do not have a service with them, so any justification based on a "Terms of Service" policy is unjust.
This company fails to meet their obligations, outright lies to its prospective customers, and engages in fraudulent activity.
It is also worth noting that Hawk Communications dba JoiInternet was found guilty of many of these practices in Atlanta, GA, including false advertising, breach of contract, and limited access. There was a settlement involved, and the company suddenly folded, leaving many customers without service that they prepaid for.
Several companies that were subsidiaries of Hawk Communications have folded unexpectedly. The reason this matters is because almost all of the deals JoiPhone offers involve prepayment for 12-24 months of service. Personally, I find it highly unlikely that JoiPhone will be around long enough to fulfill these contracts, and based on their current behavior and the actions of former Hawk Communications companies, I have a feeling many JoiPhone customers will soon be out a great deal of money and have no service.
If you do take the risk of signing up with this company, I URGE you to sign up for a monthly plan with no prepayment and give it 6 months or so to ensure the service is worth continuing.
If you want to see more info on this corrupt company, check out the BBB info on Hawk Communications LLC, Joi Internet, and JoiPhone. All of them have unsatisfactory ratings with the BBB.
UPDATE: I was successful in disputing all of the fraudulent charges with my credit card company, and getting my full money back. I encourage anyone who is also having issues getting their refunds do the same thing!
UPDATE: I see people are still posting bad reviews of this company. Looks like they have done NOTHING to improve their level of service. BUYER BEWARE - before you give these people any money or cc info, ready all of the reviews!
Followup comments:  joiphone
join:2007-08-09
Delray Beach, FL
| User violated TOS, SPAMMED our ticket systems The user spammed our systems with over 10000 emails, caused us great damages and according to the TOS spammers and hackers can be fined by us, and by their ISP. COX Abuse department was notified and blocked this customers account, and we did the same. As the customer continues to SPAM and try to flood our systems we will continue to fight him via charges, and legal means. JoiPhone have 1000's of satisfied customers, and most of our customers come from referrals.
Sincerely,
David | |
|  | mpatrick14
join:2007-12-27
Las Vegas, NV
 ·Joi Phone
1 edit |  Re: User violated TOS, SPAMMED our ticket systems
First of all, I did not send over 10,000 emails to their systems. I sent about 1,000 emails over the course of 4 days. And that was only after JoiPhone ignored all of my attempts to cancel my account the right way. I sent 6 individual requests for an update on my request to cancel, and they ignored all of them. Secondly, I never sent any SPAM. All of my emails were legitimate requests for support. I thought if they found it so easy to ignore a single email, they might find it a little more challenging to ignore 100 emails. Little did I know they have no problem ignoring all emails.
My ISP did not block my email account; I am still using it just fine. JoiPhone blocked my email account from sending requests to them because they have an outdated email system that could not handle my requests for support. If they had made any attempt to stand behind their 30 day no risk guarantee, then it would not have even gotten to the point where I sent 100 emails, which was all I sent after being ignored for over a week after requesting my account be canceled. The only reason I sent more than 100 emails was because after they finally said they had cancelled my account, they started throwing charges against my credit card with no explanation. So I would send another 100 emails, they ignored them all, illegally charged my credit card some more, and then waited for me to send more emails. In fact, I think they intentionally ignored my emails so I would send more, which they would then try to use to justify charging me $800.00 worth of fraudulent charges. To this date they still have not told me why they charged those amounts.
JoiPhone committed credit card fraud by processing $800.00 worth of charges without my permission. The TOS agreement between us was rendered invalid when my account was canceled, and I did not send excessive emails prior to this point. Just because you have somebodys credit card on file does not mean you can illegally charge against it because you dont like the fact that they sent you too many emails.
I am looking forward to fighting JoiPhone via legal means, as I have already consulted a lawyer and confirmed they have committed credit card fraud.
JoiPhone is a corrupt company, with a history of deceptive advertising and fraudulent activity, as proven by the Georgia's attorney general's office.
The only reason JoiPhone has customers is because they con people into signing up for their service by advertising Unlimited phone lines and taking 24 months of service fees up front. When the customers finally realize what a crappy company they are dealing with, they get no response from customer service, and spend months trying to get their money back. If JoiPhone only offered month to month services, they would already be out of business. There is a reason they offer rates so much lower than everyone else, they want to take you for everything they can up front. I paid 441.45 up front and never received a minute of phone time. And I STILL havent been given my money back. I know there are people working in the billing department because they are busy committing credit card fraud, but don't seem to have the time to honor their 30 day NO RISK money back guarantee. The only one violating the TOS is JOIPHONE, and any court of law will find this to be true.
I thought, like most customers who have fallen for the scam, that 441.45/ 2 UNLIMITED lines/24 months = 9.19 per line per month. Great deal right? But wait! Factor in that they dont send you the ATA for over a month, then factor in that your account phones will be blocked if you exceed a mystery number of minutes that they deem to be "abuse" (but they cannot tell you how many it is). Then factor that they could very easily be out of business with 30 day warning like their predecessor company JoiInternet. Bottom line - you could be paying WAY more per month than you think. So far they have charged me $1,241.45 and provided no service. I am wishing I would have opted for a real VOIP company instead, where I could have paid $20-30 a month per line for actual VOIP service.
Even the 'success stories' they have posted on their website are BS. One of them came from someone who was happy 2 weeks after signing up, and then within another two weeks realized the truth about them, canceled the service and is currently trying to get his money back.
If their business is based on referrals, they will be out of business WAY before the 24 month scam "unlimited" lines they are conning people into paying for right now.
BUYER BEWARE. I am not the only one posting the negative truth about these guys online. Just take the time to do your research and you will discover the truth about JoiPhone.
It is very easy for a company to put together a flashy web site and a slick advertising campaign, but it is not easy to hide the fact that it is all a scam once the consumers they defraud take their stories to the internet, and ultimately to the courts. Just ask JoiInternet. Oh wait, you cant, because they went belly up!
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