Boingo Wireless

Pros: Boingo gets you online

Cons: Charges extreme, unannounced fees - even in places w. free internet

Summary: I made the mistake of signing up with Boingo at an airport in the Midwest on my way to Europe, end of August 07. The guy on the phone, who signed me up, promised that the $ 9.95 was a one time charge for a month and thus the only fee that I would be charged. I did not need to call back to close the account. One call, one fee = thirty days wireless access in airports and hotels, where I was going, (Boston, Denmark, Poland, Iceland) I asked this twice at least, going through my destinations, and the guy got irritated for my repeated questions. I was going to be traveling for a month so this was totally perfect. I asked him to send me an email regarding this arrangement we did and he apologized, saying he didn’t have access to email. (Should have been my clue)
Then I got back from my trip and got charged an additional $ 31 and $ 43 on my credit card in the two following monthly statements, so I called them up.
Then all was of course different. I was supposed to have canceled the account and there are apparently some “prime” charges at certain airports, even the ones with a free wireless on the side (turned out to be all the places I visited, of course). I got into an argument with these guys with my Bank of America rep. on the phone. They offered me a discount, which was not valid in a second phone call, but promised that they had closed the account as of the previous day, (when the first phone call took place).
Now, looking at my statement at the end of January 08 I find Boingo charges for nearly $ 22. - every month since this irritating exchange took place. So I call my B of A, which gives me the runaround to tell me in a second phone call, that I have to talk to Boingo again. Again I am given "Please wait while I talk to my supervisor," treatment, which is standard with them. I waited some 3-4 minutes until, the slow speaking, drawn out preamble, overly "courteous" phone answering expert lady, got back and told me that her supervisor was not available and asked if she should inform "her" (the supervisor) that I had called and ask “her” to get back to me? I interrupted her lengthy, drawn out, courteous to a fault speech, and told her that she, and this Boingo scam, was way over my patience limit and I was not waiting any more since I had decided to report this to the FBI... Then, suddenly, her supervisor was on another call and would be available after that.
I decided to wait.
He, (the supervisor) got to me within seconds and promised to delete the charges for 3 months within 2-3 business days. He promised to send me an email within 2 hours, pertaining to our conversation, which has not happened (3 hours later).
Boingo wireless is in my experience a crooked company. It is set up as a scam and its employees seem to be trained to that effect. I ended up having to pay around $ 85. for 3-4 hours on line.
I will never again buy anything from them nor any other company affiliated with them. Also: if an IT company cannot send me a confirmation email, they don’t intend to honor our deal, therefore I can’t do business with them.
Beware of Boingo!!
Hal