We received a telephone call from a caller who said that they were part of AT&T (our current provider). I fielded the call on a very hectic and busy day. The caller said that they would be able to reduce our calling rates and that we would receive 2 free months. At no time, was I aware that I was talking about terminating our existing service with AT&T (we had just renewed our contract with AT&T). I was told that we would receive an email confirmation of our new terms within five days. We were transferred to at least one more person and told to answer "Yes" to all the questions.
We never did receive any kind of email confirmation. After about a week, our voicemail stopped working. When I called AT&T, they told me that our contract had been terminated. Now, I was starting to realize that I had not spoken to AT&T but with another company (turned out to be Birch Communications). I immediately contacted the number provided to me during the initial call and asked for the email I never received. The email confirmed my suspicions--they had basically duped me into signing a Master Service Agreement.
Had I received that email right away (as promised), I would have realized that Birch has misrepresented the agreement and I would have immediately cancelled well within the five days. However, by the time I realized what was going on and had to chase down and research the situation, the five day cancellation period had passed. It took me another several weeks to get our former provider (AT&T) back (they graciously waived the termination and re-connection fees). When a representative from Birch called to tell us that we would now owe them early termination fees (in the amount of $1750) plus $164.85 for the services we received from 12-11 to 1-6.
Now, we are getting collection calls daily. We refuse to pay for any of these costs because of the manipulative and shady way in which they handled these transactions.
Birch Communications is a d*** SCAM! I first heard of Birch Communications when I was normally looking through the Greensheet newspaper in my city and saw one of their ads, and decided to contact them since what they advertised interested me.
Once I contacted them, I was already signed up (Paid them $23.92 to "activate and pay my first month of service" from my precious hard earned money - Gladly I didn;t pay with my credit card or they would have ABUSED my number) with my landline service and account # around March 25th, 2015 and they told me that "it would take 3-4 days for my phone service to be activated" and that "I didnt need a technician for it to be connected."
I patiently waited the 3-4 days, no connection and I didnlt think much of it, 2 days passed by and no connection still, that day my family and I where trying to connect our home phone ourselves for hours trying to get a connection. I called them back and they said to give it more days and it would connect on its own because there was a "techinical """"""""problem"""""" with their services in my neighborhood", so I did.
When it still didn't, I finally decided to call them back last Friday morning (Friday, April 3rd, 2015) and I was trying to settle an appointment for a technician to come to my house and put the supposed "line" for us (Which I know now there is none) and they said that they have no technicians at the moment in the area and that sometime next week (THIS WEEK) they would e-mail me with the appointment for the technician to come, I waited patiently all week and they never contacted me, the fact too that I contacted them SEVERAL and PLENTY of times and now completely ignore me. OH! And fact too that every time you call their customer service, EVEN if you call at 8:00AM SHARP like I have, you still have to wait for MINIMUM 45 minutes for someone of their customer """""""Service""""""""""" to answer you, because they have THAT many calls at 8:00AM SHARP, and when they finally answer you you get s***** representatives that pressure you and want to hang up quickly on you and if you are complaining about their services they tell you to "hold", and you do, unti,l you realize that you were actually hunged up, it's already happened to me with their representaives doing this to me 5 times and I'm surprised that I'm not infuriated because I have a huge patience.
I called about 45 minutes ago and since it's the weekend a sales representative named Anthony told me to call back Monday and call 2 different of their phone numbers of customer service of a JOKE that they are!
I have been a respectful and honest customer with you and you have taken me a complete joke, look at me for a FOOL, ABUSED MY PATIENCE. F*** YOU BIRCH COMMUNICATIONS YOU WILL NOT TAKE ME FOR A FOOL. You guys are just trying to pass me and ignore me until the months over so you gus can keep the money and charge another month after month and THINK you can keep doing the same techniques to me to keep milking out free money out of me, F*** YOU!
Like I've contacted you guys for the FOURTH TIME! CAN I PLEASE GET A REFUND? AND OH I'M NOT ON CONTRACT FOR YOUR LANDLINE """""""SERVICES""""""" SO I HOPE NOT TO BE TOLD THAT I WAS IN A CONTRACT WHEN I NEVER WAS AND HAVE THE NEWSPAPER THAT SAID NO CONTRACT AND WAS TOLD BY THE REPRESENTATIVE!
No what's, if's, or BUTS!!!! REFUND PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!! WHERE'S MY REFUND!!!?!
PLEASE STAY THE F*** WAY FROM BIRCH COMMUNICATIONS, THEY ARE A SCAM AND WILL TAKE YOU FOR A FOOL IF YOU ARE A PATIENT PERSON LIKE ME, THEY HAVE NO LINES ITS ALL LIES, THEY JUST MAKE YOU WAIT, WAIT, WAIT UNTIL THE MONTH'S OVER TO CHARGE AGAIN AND GET FREE MONEY WHILE GETTING YOU NO SERVICE. STAY AWAY FROM THEM THEY DON'T GIVE A S*** ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS THEY CARE ABOUT WHAT'S IN THEIR POCKETS!
I recently switched my local telephone service from Birch to another carrier. A couple weeks later Birch sent me a notice that by leaving them, I had terminated my contract early which generated an early termination fee of $350. The letter stated that "if I would like to reconsider my decision" to call them back.
So I called & asked them send me a copy of whatever they have showing/proving that I agreed to such terms. They played a recording for me that DID take place where I agreed to certain things. The date of the call was Oct. 27, 2010 and the quote from the call was that I "agree to the terms in Birch's master service agreement for a period of 12 months". Obviously today being April 9, 2013 is far, far in excess of that the term of that agreement. But the lady told me that the master service agreement contains an "automatic renewal clause" and because of that, it is still valid so I terminated early.
So I told her I had never seen that & that the lady who called me on Oct. 27, 2010 had not explained this feature to me (both of which are true) and that this is obviously a deceitful practice....and I asked her to waive it. She said she wouldn't and was very argumentative about it with me. She persisted in trying to convince me I had to pay it so when I told I absolutely was not going to pay it, she said "well then, we have nothing left to discuss on the matter" and that she was going to put that in the customer notes. I told her I expected her to ALSO include in the notes why I objected that the automatic renewal was valid - she said she would, but continued to be argumentative to me and I highly doubt she included it.
I will never, EVER do business with this company again & will spend all my days explaining to everybody I know why they shouldn't either.
Birch Communications Inc. Reviews
We received a telephone call from a caller who said that they were part of AT&T (our current provider). I fielded the call on a very hectic and busy day. The caller said that they would be able to reduce our calling rates and that we would receive 2 free months. At no time, was I aware that I was talking about terminating our existing service with AT&T (we had just renewed our contract with AT&T). I was told that we would receive an email confirmation of our new terms within five days. We were transferred to at least one more person and told to answer "Yes" to all the questions.
We never did receive any kind of email confirmation. After about a week, our voicemail stopped working. When I called AT&T, they told me that our contract had been terminated. Now, I was starting to realize that I had not spoken to AT&T but with another company (turned out to be Birch Communications). I immediately contacted the number provided to me during the initial call and asked for the email I never received. The email confirmed my suspicions--they had basically duped me into signing a Master Service Agreement.
Had I received that email right away (as promised), I would have realized that Birch has misrepresented the agreement and I would have immediately cancelled well within the five days. However, by the time I realized what was going on and had to chase down and research the situation, the five day cancellation period had passed. It took me another several weeks to get our former provider (AT&T) back (they graciously waived the termination and re-connection fees). When a representative from Birch called to tell us that we would now owe them early termination fees (in the amount of $1750) plus $164.85 for the services we received from 12-11 to 1-6.
Now, we are getting collection calls daily. We refuse to pay for any of these costs because of the manipulative and shady way in which they handled these transactions.
Birch Communications is a d*** SCAM! I first heard of Birch Communications when I was normally looking through the Greensheet newspaper in my city and saw one of their ads, and decided to contact them since what they advertised interested me.
Once I contacted them, I was already signed up (Paid them $23.92 to "activate and pay my first month of service" from my precious hard earned money - Gladly I didn;t pay with my credit card or they would have ABUSED my number) with my landline service and account # around March 25th, 2015 and they told me that "it would take 3-4 days for my phone service to be activated" and that "I didnt need a technician for it to be connected."
I patiently waited the 3-4 days, no connection and I didnlt think much of it, 2 days passed by and no connection still, that day my family and I where trying to connect our home phone ourselves for hours trying to get a connection. I called them back and they said to give it more days and it would connect on its own because there was a "techinical """"""""problem"""""" with their services in my neighborhood", so I did.
When it still didn't, I finally decided to call them back last Friday morning (Friday, April 3rd, 2015) and I was trying to settle an appointment for a technician to come to my house and put the supposed "line" for us (Which I know now there is none) and they said that they have no technicians at the moment in the area and that sometime next week (THIS WEEK) they would e-mail me with the appointment for the technician to come, I waited patiently all week and they never contacted me, the fact too that I contacted them SEVERAL and PLENTY of times and now completely ignore me. OH! And fact too that every time you call their customer service, EVEN if you call at 8:00AM SHARP like I have, you still have to wait for MINIMUM 45 minutes for someone of their customer """""""Service""""""""""" to answer you, because they have THAT many calls at 8:00AM SHARP, and when they finally answer you you get s***** representatives that pressure you and want to hang up quickly on you and if you are complaining about their services they tell you to "hold", and you do, unti,l you realize that you were actually hunged up, it's already happened to me with their representaives doing this to me 5 times and I'm surprised that I'm not infuriated because I have a huge patience.
I called about 45 minutes ago and since it's the weekend a sales representative named Anthony told me to call back Monday and call 2 different of their phone numbers of customer service of a JOKE that they are!
I have been a respectful and honest customer with you and you have taken me a complete joke, look at me for a FOOL, ABUSED MY PATIENCE. F*** YOU BIRCH COMMUNICATIONS YOU WILL NOT TAKE ME FOR A FOOL. You guys are just trying to pass me and ignore me until the months over so you gus can keep the money and charge another month after month and THINK you can keep doing the same techniques to me to keep milking out free money out of me, F*** YOU!
Like I've contacted you guys for the FOURTH TIME! CAN I PLEASE GET A REFUND? AND OH I'M NOT ON CONTRACT FOR YOUR LANDLINE """""""SERVICES""""""" SO I HOPE NOT TO BE TOLD THAT I WAS IN A CONTRACT WHEN I NEVER WAS AND HAVE THE NEWSPAPER THAT SAID NO CONTRACT AND WAS TOLD BY THE REPRESENTATIVE!
No what's, if's, or BUTS!!!! REFUND PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!! WHERE'S MY REFUND!!!?!
PLEASE STAY THE F*** WAY FROM BIRCH COMMUNICATIONS, THEY ARE A SCAM AND WILL TAKE YOU FOR A FOOL IF YOU ARE A PATIENT PERSON LIKE ME, THEY HAVE NO LINES ITS ALL LIES, THEY JUST MAKE YOU WAIT, WAIT, WAIT UNTIL THE MONTH'S OVER TO CHARGE AGAIN AND GET FREE MONEY WHILE GETTING YOU NO SERVICE. STAY AWAY FROM THEM THEY DON'T GIVE A S*** ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS THEY CARE ABOUT WHAT'S IN THEIR POCKETS!
I recently switched my local telephone service from Birch to another carrier. A couple weeks later Birch sent me a notice that by leaving them, I had terminated my contract early which generated an early termination fee of $350. The letter stated that "if I would like to reconsider my decision" to call them back.
So I called & asked them send me a copy of whatever they have showing/proving that I agreed to such terms. They played a recording for me that DID take place where I agreed to certain things. The date of the call was Oct. 27, 2010 and the quote from the call was that I "agree to the terms in Birch's master service agreement for a period of 12 months". Obviously today being April 9, 2013 is far, far in excess of that the term of that agreement. But the lady told me that the master service agreement contains an "automatic renewal clause" and because of that, it is still valid so I terminated early.
So I told her I had never seen that & that the lady who called me on Oct. 27, 2010 had not explained this feature to me (both of which are true) and that this is obviously a deceitful practice....and I asked her to waive it. She said she wouldn't and was very argumentative about it with me. She persisted in trying to convince me I had to pay it so when I told I absolutely was not going to pay it, she said "well then, we have nothing left to discuss on the matter" and that she was going to put that in the customer notes. I told her I expected her to ALSO include in the notes why I objected that the automatic renewal was valid - she said she would, but continued to be argumentative to me and I highly doubt she included it.
I will never, EVER do business with this company again & will spend all my days explaining to everybody I know why they shouldn't either.