[WXC/VFX] World Exchange accounts warning

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MichaelNZ

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#116806 10-May-2013 17:07

In 2006 we had a business account with World Exchange. We left them because their billing had constant and unbelievable issues ie: being billed for services we didn't have and overcharging - month after month. At the time we parted ways the account was fully paid except for the overcharges which World Exchange had agreed to refund.

Yesterday I received a call from my secetary that Dun & Bradstreet had left a message with her demanding I call them by 7pm that day and quote a code they left. At some inconvenience I dropped what I was doing and called them.

They claimed they were acting on behalf of World Exchange for an invoice dated 2009 in the amount of about $109. I responded no way did we purchase anything from World Exchange during 2009 (or close to) and we did not owe them a dime. I told the lady at D&B - in no uncertain terms - I still had every invoice from World Exchange filed away and I would have no hessitation in taking them and World Exchange to Small Claims.

She seemed to understand what I was saying but she still claimed I would have to initiate a dispute. I responded I would send them a bill for my time. She promised to send me this alleged 2009 invoice by email (It never arrived).

I then contacted World Exchange and told them exactly where things were at. I was told the outstanding balance claimed was $40-something. After a few minutes on hold the customer service rep came back and said they would write off the claimed outstanding balance - the implication taken is they thought that my business owed the money and they couldn't be bothered chasing it.

To me this looks very dodgy. Not everyone has the confidence to defend themselves and, ironically, this is not the first time I have seen an ISP go feral in association with debt collectors. I think many people would just pay the money to make the problem go away.

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ajobbins

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#815400 10-May-2013 18:10

OP, it sounds like you had disputed the charges with WorldExchange originally, correct? If that's true, WxC cannot send it to collections.

Do you have a record of raising the dispute, in case this doesn't get resolved?

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mattwnz

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#815429 10-May-2013 19:25

But did you check your records to see if you may have owed them money? It may just be a simple oversight on your part, or theirs. Did they provide it in writing originally that they had cleared the account? However you should have been warned in writing if someone was taking you to a collection agency, so you had the chance to dispute it.

I would ask them for proof that the $40 was owed and get this in writing. $40 can easily go to over $100 when a collection agency is involved, so that sounds correct. If they say they have wiped it, it is important to get this in writing from them, incase it occurs again. Make sure you always get a zero balance statement from a company after ceasing services with them.

I don't think it sounds dodgy that they wiped it, but it is a little odd that all this time has past.

MichaelNZ

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#815555 11-May-2013 00:25

mattwnz: But did you check your records to see if you may have owed them money? It may just be a simple oversight on your part, or theirs.

Obviously they're World Exchange - a big company can do no wrong right? It's excusable as a mere "oversight" when they come across someone who won't fall for it.

We last purchased from them in 2006. Dun & Bradstreet claimed the money was due from 2009. They have not supplied the cited invoice because their claim is without merit. I know who we purchased internet, telecoms and cellular from during 2009 and have the paperwork to prove that as well.

What sort of company trawls through years old accounts (that are near to or past statute of limitations) looking for an angle? There is no angle here though. We canned them in 2006 (for good reason) and they were fully paid at the time the amount correctly due.

What disgusts me the most is - having screwed up (and that is putting in mildly I think) - noone there has had the fortitude to apologise for making a false accusation to D&B.

I was in the middle of something important with a group at the time and I had to drop it all to deal with their nonsense.

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Niel

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#815625 11-May-2013 09:29

Welcome to Kiwi Country, can tell you lots of stories including the local GJ Gardner franchise have tried for the 3rd time in 18 months to get our final invoice correct now that supposedly the work is completed, which it is not. I'm happy to pay what I owe them, just finish the job and fix the invoice.

And how about the power lines company that still has us listed as house number 16A instead of 16 because for 1 week we had 2 houses on the property (built new house, then removed old house). Legally there is only 1 dwelling and 16A never existed.

I believe WxC is cleaning up their act and fixing old issues with their billing system, which highlights over/under charging and also incorrect info. After about 5 years of having 2 VFX lines and actually using only one, they told me that we were never billed for the second line. They waved the cost probably as the ATA had not registered on the network for over 3 years and clearly was not in use.

Novapay (need I say any more?).

Don't blame the company, blame the (some) employees that can't be bothered understanding their job (including some managers). The next company (in NZ) will have the same issues.

You can never have enough Volvos!

dimsim

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#815630 11-May-2013 09:44

Out of all the companies I deal with personally and in business I've found WxC to be the easiest to deal with..fullstop. I've had two Open VFX VoIP line for almost 5½ years and so far

NO billing queries
NO long phone waits
NO major technical issues
Excellent support here in the forums
Excellent service quality
Excellent pricing

I moved to VFX after having a short lived experience with 2talk where I found their support unresponsive, no such problem with WxC and no plans on going anywhere else anytime soon.

E3xtc

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#816490 13-May-2013 08:19

There are always exceptions - and from my experience WxC have been faultless in the time I have been with them (forgotten how long now)....I think if they were continually doing dodgy stuff like the OP has stated, then there would be far more content like this this through out the internet.
Good to hear it is all sorted now.
And yes those that choose not to question stuff and stand up will always get troden over - irrespective of whether or not the origin is malicous or otherwise - from getting a Cheeseburger instead of the ordered Big Mac, right the way up to (and past) collection agencies.

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Ragnor

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#816515 13-May-2013 09:45

MichaelNZ:

I then contacted World Exchange and told them exactly where things were at. I was told the outstanding balance claimed was $40-something. After a few minutes on hold the customer service rep came back and said they would write off the claimed outstanding balance - the implication taken is they thought that my business owed the money and they couldn't be bothered chasing it.

To me this looks very dodgy. Not everyone has the confidence to defend themselves and, ironically, this is not the first time I have seen an ISP go feral in association with debt collectors. I think many people would just pay the money to make the problem go away.

So basically a billing error that got fixed by talking to customer support?

Fair enough that it's annoying that you had to deal with it but all software has bugs given it's written by humans, the process would have been automatic and it seems it was resolved by one phone call.

MurrayC

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#816537 13-May-2013 10:16

Ok here's what happens - a debt collection agency buys a block of historic debt from a telco or bank for cents on the dollar in the hope they can troll it and shakedown some payment and can get their investment back plus a profit.