Webuser Forums: Disturbing Gio Internet reports

I had a phonecall the other night at 8:30pm from Hauka/Gio Internet. They said that my credit card payment had been refused, so could I verify my card details. Being wary of spoof calls, I told them no - I would contact my credit card company first. Which I did. They had not declined any payments. I then did a websearch for anything about Hauka, World pay or Gio and found that due to a massive DDOS attack, WorldPay had not been able to charge some customers last month - nothing to do with my card details. Feeling reassured I rang Gio - and rang - and rang - and rang....

Got kept waiting in queues. Must have cost a fortune. Finally, after trying all day I got through. A bloke told me the office was now shut. Great. I told him that I had to make a pyment and that the supervisor said it was OK. He checked the ID number I had been given and took my credit card details again. Next morning I got an email from hauka telling me that my payment had been declined - a month ago. I should have got the email before the phone call, then I wouldn't have been so suspicious. Anyway, no harm done...

Next day I get 16 emailed invoices from Hauka telling me that they have taken 16 payments of £18.99. Great. More phone calls, hours wasted, frustration building up, costing me yet more money. So I gave up and called my VISA card help number. They confirmed that there were 16 pending payments to Hauka on my account. I told them that only two were genuine, and that I would not honour the other 14. They said OK, they would be cancelled in 15 days time. I sent an email to Hauka to tell them this, also telling them that I would not be wasting any more time or money calling them. Got a phonecall back from their supervisor after three days. She could not reverse the charges (huh?) so she said a cheque was on its way for 14 overpayments and could I tell the VISA people not to cancel the payments. I said sure - once I get the cheque and it has cleared. she said it would be in the post right away. Four days later - you've guessed it - no cheque.

As an aside, I did try to end my contract about 18 months ago. Phoned them, got my last payment refunded, and cancelled the World Pay agreement. then tried to sign on with another ISP. No one would have me - Gio had not deactivated my line. I asked BT to do it - they cannot - only Gio are allowed to do it as the originators of the line activation. But BT gave me the address of the company that Gio buy bulk activation from. I phoned them - no go. Off the record, they said that they had received no end of complaints about Gio. I sent more emails and letters to Gio asking for the line to be deactivated. Months passed - no joy. I got in touch with Oftel, the telecomms watchdog. They sent two letters to Gio. No reply. Seems that the watchdog is toothless - they had no legal power to get rid of the activation for me. I was caught. I signed back on with Gio. Isn't it great to live in a free democracy and not to be held to ransom?

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