Lingo Telecommunications
Reviews and Complaints

Worst service ever, I got the hardware but no one setup my phone with the number. They never activated my account, servers were down for almost a month. Customer service is poor. I tried to close my account and stop using this service and never got entertained.They charged me service fee without providing the service and no way to close the service. I filed dispute transaction on my account and highly recommend no to use this service.

I never ordered service from lingo phone service, , , this is fraud! I want my money back!

If you are planning on getting Lingo or if you have had problems with Lingo PLEASE READ! Together we can make a difference.

I have signed up for Lingo phone service in October 19th of this year. The plan I signed up for was Lingo World Max which cost 23.95. As the company advertised on their website this plan allows FREE UNLIMITED calls to over 70 countries and FREE UNLIMITED calls all over USA. FREE UNLIMITED is in bold on their website. Company also claimed it will provide 30 days money back guarantee. My 30 days expired on November 19th, 2009. However after the 30 days expired on 11/27/09 they sent me an email saying my accounted has exceeded allowed minutes. I was baffled because I didn't understand how I can exceed my allowed minute on an unlimited plan. So I called them and they told me they will allow 500 minutes maximum of international calls and 5000 overall. I was obviously upset but since I am in contract I didn't cancel. They mentioned nothing about my account being suspended at the time. On 12/1/09 my phone stopped working and I got an email saying they suspended my phone account and asked me to call the number provided. On 12/2/09 I finally got a hold of a customer service rep after being on hold for 1 hour and 8 minutes. I am not exadurating.
At this point the lady told me my account was blocked due to high usage since I used 4 hours and 16 minutes. You ask yourself is that unlimited? She also told me it will take 24 hours for the service to be turned back on. 24 hours went by and nothing.
I contacted customer service department again and they told me I need to contact Account Management Group. However everytime I try to contact that department it puts me on hold for about 10/15 minutes and then asks that I call them back during regular business hour. Only issue is everytime I do try to call I do so during business hour. Finally today 12/4/09 I got a hold of someone in that department after being on the phone for about 10/11 hours no lie. They told me at this point I have three choices:
1. Cancel my account.
2. Hello USA plan 21 bucks a month however no international calling for free.(They noticed I call call the country Bangladesh a lot. So they said with this plan I will have to pay 5 cent per minute for calls to Bangladesh)
3. Another similar one.
Seeing that I had no choice I chose option 2. And they told me my phone will not be back on until 12/9/09. So days without phone.

Here is the reason I didn't cancel...If I cancel my phone number will not be able to be transferred to different career. Now as soon as they activate my phone number again I will switch back to Vonage. And yes I don't care about the 99 bucks they will charge me. I will also cancel my Credit Card. So they can bill me rather than have access to my credit card.

I figured out their business plan...like many of you.

They suck customers in by claiming it's an unlimited plan. Within the 30 days they will give you no problem since customers can cancel during that time frame. Right after the 30 days they will suspend the account. This way you are stuck with their pay per minute plan which is what they want to begin with. Or if customers cancel their plan they will collect $99 cancellation fee and make about $150 off of the customer. Not bad for a month and a half worth of service. What a well thought out scam. I can't believe they are getting away with this in America. I have filed complaint with Better Business Beareu and FCC. If you have had problems with this company please don't think you can't make a difference. File a complaint! We as customers can't fight alone but together we can bring this company down. FCC and BBB can ignore two hundred complaints but if EVERY SINGLE customers who has been ripped off by Lingo complained, FCC and BBB WILL take action. I know it will take 30 minutes of your time away. But is that really much compared to the hours you spent on phone trying to solve this issue with Lingo? Save the trouble for thousands of other new customers who will sign up for Lingo. Please.

Price kept raising quality got worse and was ripped off when I switched to other provider and lingo continued to bill me.

I was a Lingo customer for 6 years before switching to a better company in Oct 2010. They continued charging my credit card and I unfortunately did not catch it until late December. Lingo "cancelled" my service at that time, but would not reverse any of the charges, so I had to contest the charges with my credit card.

My credit card quickly reversed the charges and considered my case closed, and in a couple of weeks I get a nastygram from Lingo saying I am about to be turned over to collections. This week I am disputing with their collections company and they send me a copy of the supposed "terms and conditions" I had with Lingo, which quite plainly state that they can and will continue billing you even if you no longer have a phone number with them -- until you call them to explicitly cancel your service.

I have dealt with many phone companies over the years and NEVER run across one that would behave anywhere close to this manner. Thanks for the link, gigagig. My complaint has been filed.

Lingo is definitly a company with fruad written all over it face. I signed up with Lingo in May 1999. I signed up with I think "Hello world" plan. I call a country that is not covered within free country calling list but rates were cheaper so I signed up. I confirmed that I was not signing up any contract and that I will be able to cancel any time. I kept their service until December of 2010 when I found out they doubled my international rates without any communication. When I called them to ask they told me that it was written in the terms and conditions on thier website that they can change rates at anytime and that it was my responsibility to check the rates everytime I call. So I decided to pay the bill and cancel my service. They told me that I can't cancel my service because I am on a contract which I can't cancel. I told them that I never signed any contract and I was told that it is written in the terms and conditions that I am signing a contract for three years. I was also told that terms and condition may not have been the same when I signed up but when I signed up terms and conditions said, "Lingo has right to change terms and conditions at any time". So I didn't sign the contract but they changed terms and conditions after my service and slapped a contract on me on their own. The only advice I have is to file as many complaints with FCC as you can using this link http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm and selecting the option for Internet service and VoIP. That is the only way to get their attention.

I just got a call from Lingo, saying I owe them $166 – $99 “early” termination charges, and $60 for two months of service (after porting the number out) + taxes!

Awesome! Early termination after being their customer for 5 years!

I had lingo from 2006 till 2010, I have to say that calls quality and connection are great, I never had a problem in that regard, but starting a year ago, on international calls, they started charging much more then their published rates, I contacted them to see if their rates went up, and their answer was no and my charges were a mistake and I would be refunded, NEVER DID, for the next 3 months had the same problems and same answers and NEVER A REFUND, not only that but it got worse, they started charging me for calling countries that are suppose to be free within my plan, EVEN WORSE, some landline numbers I called were considered mobile numbers and was charged triple the rate, finally I gave up and cancelled with them, and recieved a confirmation e-mail thanking me for being a loyal customer since 2006, GUESS WHAT, a month later I was charged $99.5 for early termintion fee because I did not complete a 2 years contract, I WAS WITH THEM FOR 4 YEARS, another call and another apology and this time with an e-mail confirming that I shouldn't have been charged the termination fee, 3 MONTHS LATER NOW AND NO REFUND YET.
I researched my problem to see if I was the only one and GUESS WHAT, I'm not the only one, I'm really considering an action lawsuit, so good luck joining them.

This is their "unlimited" calling policy...

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Dear XXXXXXXX

It has been determined through analysis of the traffic patterns on your account that your in plan outbound usage exceeds normal usage. This is a violation of Lingo Terms & Conditions Section III. Service; Part F. “Residential Use of Service and Device”; Part G. “Business Use of Service and Device” which can be found on our website www.lingo.com:

Please note: “Unlimited calling is subject to Lingo’s fair usage policy as specified in the Terms and Conditions”.

F. Residential Use of Service and Device

If you have subscribed to Lingo’s residential Services, the Service and Device are provided to you as a residential user (single family households), for your personal, residential, non-business and non-professional use. This means that you are not using them for any commercial or governmental activities, profit-making or non-profit, including but not limited to home office, business, sales, telecommuting, telemarketing, autodialing, continuous or extensive call forwarding, fax broadcast, fax blasting or any other activity that would be inconsistent with normal residential usage patterns. This also means that you are not to resell or transfer the Service or the Device to any other person for any purpose, or make any charge for the use of the Service, without express written permission from Lingo in advance. You agree that your use of the Service and/or Device, or the use of the Service and/or Device provided to you by any other person for any commercial or governmental purpose will obligate you to pay Lingo’s higher rates for commercial Service on account of all periods, including past periods, in which you use, or used, the Service for commercial or governmental purposes. Lingo reserves the right to immediately terminate or modify the Service, if Lingo determines, in its sole discretion, that Customer’s Service is being used for non-residential or commercial use. Not withstanding the foregoing, Customers on the Lingo World Max calling plan agree to the following additional terms; (i) Lingo reserves the right to adjust the Residential Usage Limit at its sole discretion; (ii) in-plan international calling is limited to up to 6 (six) unique phone numbers to a particular in-plan overseas destination; and (iii) Lingo reserves the right to immediately, suspend, terminate or modify the Services, if Lingo determines, in its sole discretion, that Customer’s usage patterns are inconsistent with normal residential use of Service.

G. Business Use of Service and Device

If you have subscribed to any of Lingo's business plans, the Service and Device are provided to you as a small business user. This means that you are not to resell or transfer the Service or Device to any other person for any purpose. You agree that the Lingo business plan to which you have subscribed does not confer the right to use the Service for auto-dialing, continuous or extensive call forwarding, telemarketing, fax broadcasting or fax blasting. Lingo reserves the right to immediately terminate, modify or upgrade the Service (and charge you the Upgrade Fee described in Section III(C)), if Lingo determines, in its sole discretion, that Customer's Service is being used in violation of this Section III(G). If you have a residential plan and are using the Services for business purposes, Lingo reserves the right to cancel the Service.

Your Lingo Account XXXXXXXXXXXX will be suspended immediately if you continue to violate our policy.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact Lingo Customer Care at customercare@lingo.com or [protected].

Thanks,

Lingo.com

This is the email that you get, when you sign up for "unlimited" calling plan and actually make normal international calls..

============================================================
Dear XXXXX,

Thank you for using Lingo digital home phone service for all your domestic and international calls.

We see from our reports that frequent calls are being made from your Lingo phone that are inconsistent with the normal calling patterns of a Residential customer. For security purposes, we are sending you this notice to inform you that if this calling pattern continues, it poses a risk of breaching Lingo’s Residential Use of Service and Device policy. For details on this policy, please see Section III Part of Lingo’s Terms & Conditions available on www.Lingo.com.

While we are happy you are enjoying your Lingo service, we ask you to please monitor and reduce the frequency and/or length of calls being made on your account. If you have any questions regarding this notification, please contact Lingo Customer Care at either customercare@lingo.com or [protected] .

We thank you for your cooperation and wish you happy calling!

Sincerely,

Lingo

I had been a loyal, long time customer of Lingo - I had signed up with them in December 2004 and had no problems with them until last year. Based on their advertisements, I signed up for Lingo's World Max unlimited calling. I paid a $10 fee to make the plan change, which became active towards the end of October 2009.

We make calls to India, predominantly to a few numbers. We were happily using the service when on Dec 16 my service stopped working. This being the only landline, my 5 month old infant and mother in law at home, we were pretty flabbergasted about the reason.

When I called Lingo, I was told that they had sent an email 10 days ago (which had gone to my spam folder) about the fact that my usage was excessive and beyond the "normal" residential usage. I asked the guy to tell me how much was "normal" and what was the meaning of "Unlimited". He kept on blabbering about "average use", "expected use" etc. etc. and was never able to answer anything specifically. When I asked to speak to the manager, he said the manager was busy on another call.

Finally, as I was traveling to India that evening, I asked what the options were - and he said that I will have to switch back to the previous plan (which did not have India free) - I could not restart on Unlimited World Max plan. It was almost that I was being punished for going over the limit of the "unlimited" plan.

I asked him to switch the plan and restore the service (while at Chicago airport, waiting to board the flight). The next thing I did was to order Vonage right there, before boarding.

Once Vonage was setup, they took almost 6 days for number transfer (happened on Jan 6, 2010). While looking up my credit card statements, I was appalled to see Lingo charges continuing on the card. I called them up to ask what the charges were for and was told that since I had not canceled the service, those were month charges for Jan and Feb. I asked the rep her name, her agent id and asked her to tell me what service did Lingo exactly provide in Jan and Feb to me, for which they charged my credit card. She said that even though I did not use the service, as per the terms and condition, as the account was still active, they had billed me. I corrected her saying that it was not a question of me "not using the service" - "there was no service available to me from Lingo" as the number had already been ported out of Lingo and I did not have any other number on the account. So if Lingo decides to bill me, it is charging for nothing and I am going to take this further - to the courts if required.

She then said that she will request a credit for the two months that they charged me without service. I will wait to see if it actually occurs.

Lingo Sucks! They suspended my service yesterday w/o any warning. When I reached some one in the(worst) customer service(~25 min, music even worse ), point me to the security department. Each time I call to the security department, it goest directly to the voice mail, and the voice mail stated it is full(how funny). This company chose to SCAM customer without disclosing the real facts.

this is a fraud company. they suspended my line after 10 days of use. while signup they claimed unlimited calling plan but suspended the line without any warning within 10 days of use. while asked, they said their mgmt decided to allow 500 mins/month (what a BS). stay away from them.

their customer service is very very bad. waiting time is 30-40 mins minimum. customer service is very inefficient and cannot answer any questions, just forward to some other dept.

I have been a Lingo customer for many years, but when I cancelled was haunted with a false device charge of $75. My experience shows this company is logistically incompetent at best and malintended at worst, and I would strongly advise against anyone doing business with them.

Details: In 11/2012 I cancelled my accounts [protected] and [protected]. Verbal assurance, "you're done, no charges". Letter a few days later, "return the devices or we'll charge you". I used prepaid UPS tracking number #1Z88X96E9048443645 to return the devices from the 2 accounts (and left a second tra#1z88X96E9044685294 unused). Mayhem. They expect one package = one device, and by God, that's how it will be recorded. After much e-mail, it is finally straightened out and they admit receiving both devices. Three weeks later, a new letter " we charged you $75 for a missing device". Their internal systems are as poor as their logistics management! Here we go again, back to the phone and e-mail. They may have nothing better to do, but I do.

I recently signed up for unlimited calling to 70 countries. It mentions nowhere that there is a 300 minute limit per month. I just beg you as a consumer...DONOT sign up for lingo. I am stuck with a 2 year contract with them and I can only use 300 minutes per month for 23 dollars. I may as well get a cellphone contract. Please know that this company is a scam and will rip you off. Stay away for your own good.

I was told upon cancellation that I would get a $99.95 cancellation fee. I was never aware of this when I signed up.
Lingo service was lousy at best. It only works for one phone and will not work with any sercurity system. If one has to use the internet phone service and aware of its limitation, magicjack is much cheaper alternative.

This is very bad Service. I took this service since they have cheap calls to India .But there service is really bad. I tried to cancel the service and called the customer service which goes to a call center in india. They wont cancel the service and gave me lot of trouble. Finally after several calls I am able to cancel the service. They still charged me with the cancellation charge. Do not take this service at all.

DO NOT do business with this company.!

They are 100% a sham.

Their email address are flase and they loop you in their phone system to get you NO help.

Please help me spread the word, it's not right what they are doing.

I totally agree with this review. Lingo s***. I cancleed my service long time back and then send a bill after 6 months saying there is a past due. Well, I dont pay for services that I did not use. Evidently, I called lingo customer service a zillion times only to be answered by some **** music. So, I emailed them about the issue and they replied back saying I should hear a response from them in 2 days. Well, I dont know when their two days time get over ! This service really *******. Never ever use it !

I second this question. I am filing a separate complaint complete with all the details of the unethical business practices of this company. The very day my trial was to run out, I received notice that my term was changed from 6 months to a year, and that cancellation prior to 12 months would cost me 99.95. They take advantage of every loophole in their accounts, and full advantage of the new laws regarding the legally binding affects of electronic signatures.

Basically, these laws state that the minute you "sign, " proof especially if you've authorized credit card activity with their company, you're saying they can do WHATEVER the want and you are legally bound to their every whim.

Something should be done legally to protect people, but I wouldn't have the first clue how to initiate such a class-action suit.

I cancelled and sent back their device 7/9/15.
I saved my TRACKING INFO and I am harassed by them daily. They want to charge me for August. Even though I did not
have service with them.
This after a long fight about them charging me 1 year of service for cancelling.
The rep. lied to me initially saying I would also be able to connect to internet with said device. LIE.
That is when the back and forth started in June 2015 and I cancelled. THEY say I did NOT cancel.
They also want to charge me for said device $75.00 that I SENT BACK JULY 9, 20125.
I get emails every day to this fact. As well as calls EVERY day. EVERY DAY. Sometimes 2 or 3 calls. I do not answer anymore.
I stopped talking to them due to the fact they refuse to listen and the money for said device was even put back on my card.
I stated today to simply delete but instead will save.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?tab=wm#label/Katz/14fae4883bf31529

LINGO Account Number: [protected]
Katz
x

Jellie Gaspay
AttachmentsSep 8 (2 days ago)

to me
Hi,

Your account has been properly closed.

We would like to remind you of your remaining balance as of September 8, 2015.

Please check details below:

Account Number: [protected]
Past Due Balance: $23.67
Due Invoice: August

Please be informed that it is imperative you reply to this email or contact us at [protected] to settle your account and make final payment. I have attached a credit card/bank authorization form that may also be sent back to authorize your final payment. A completed signed form may be sent either via email or thru to our fax - [protected].

Please be advised that the final bill on your account will be the charge for the shipping label - $9.95 plus taxes. However, if the device will not be returned there may still be $75 fee for the (unreturned) Lingo Adaptor.

Your early settlement of the account is highly appreciated

Regards,

Service for VOIP was ordered in August '09. It took several calls to properly set up service, but once it was established I was very satisfied. VOIP is intended to replace your costly landline charges and once service was working, we promptly cancelled. We live however in rural Indiana and cancelling the landline also cancelled the dsl service needed to run lingos VOIP properly. We attempted for several months to get a working dsl company in to replace the old one, however were not able to get anyting but satellite which VOIP is inconsistant with. Re-establishing the old landline and dsl would cost a large reinstatement fee and thus cancel out the need for lingo all together. I paid for the upfront fees, the 6 months service fees, although we only used 3-4 minutes of call time and a seventh month regular item fee. When calling to cancel due to circumstances, I was told the 'cancellation fee' which was never told upfront to begin with would be waived due to the circumstances. Today they have implemented the 99.95 cancellation fee against my bank account and the customer service rep, on a first name basis only, MARVIN, #311103 was anything but helpful and all but rude. IF YOU HAVE HAD ISSUES WITH LINGO, HERE IS THEIR FAX NUMBER TO CALL, FILE YOUR COMPLAINT OR THEY WILL CONTINUE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF GOOD PEOPLE.

I was a Lingo customer for 10 years or more. My bill went from $17 a month to $35 over that time period. In February of 2014, I got an email that someone added a 2nd line to my account. I called them to find out what was going on. They said they closed the 2nd number and shut off "soft phone" service but there was no fraudulent activity on my account. Then at the end of the month I got calls from the fraud dept. telling me about many calls made to Jamaica and Barbados that I didn't make. They told me to change my passcode to one with 6 digits or more. They wouldn't tell me how to do it but that I had to call technical support. When I did, technical support told me that I could only use a 4 digit number. That happened again in the beginning of March, this time calls to Latvia. I again went through tech support to change my passwords. I got email confirmations that "a change to my account was made" each time. I finally canceled my account on 3/10/15. Then on my last invoice from them (or what I thought was the last invoice), they charged me $6400 for calls to Latvia. 24 pages of calls made from unknown numbers. I called and after about 2 hours on the phone, spoke to a supervisor who would only tell me his name was "Tom". Tom assured me that he reversed the charges. (I disputed the charge with American Express anyway. They found in my favor.) I also returned the equipment using their shipping label (but forgot to make a copy of the tracking number). They are still trying to bill me monthly for the service that was canceled in March, they added $75 for the "unreturned" equipment and the amount is now up to $6600. They are threatening to send me to collections. I made complaints to the BBB, the FTC, the FCC, consumer affairs and the VA Attorney General. The only response so far (the complaints are all fairly new) is from the BBB complaint and they say that they are holding me responsible for the charges, even though they are fraudulent, because I was negligent and used "weak passwords". I have googled Primus Lingo and there are so many complaints about fraud and misconduct, that I can't believe they are allowed to be in business. I am so angry that I have to spend so much time fighting this. I do not want it on my credit report though.

I subscribed to lingo VoIP in good faith, moved my numbers and used their service for about 9 months. Then they out a $10.00 add on on my service for a mobile app that dose not work on a blackberry. I did not order it because it would not work on an older blackberry like mine. I know it wont because I tried it the previous October.They refused to take it of the bill and said they would not because I ordered it. I told them if they did not I would move to another company. The customer service person in another country that spoke very little English said that I should do that if I wanted to because she could not take it off my bill or credit back the fraudulent charges.That was in August and September of 2011 and after 5 phone calls lasting from 1 to 2 hours on hold I moved my numbers to AT&T wireless but Primus/Lingo kept billing my credit card. I had to do Fraud complaints with my credit card and get a fraud block on my card. The card company eventually cancelled my card and issued a new one with new numbers to stop the fraudulent charges.They billed me fraudulently for 8 months after I moved subscribed to AT&T wireless and played hell getting my numbers moved.They owe me money.I would like to here from others at mailto:ada.legalissues@sbcglobal.net

Several months back I received a call from Lingo that there was suspicious activity on my account. Long distance calls to Ghana. I sent them an email letting them know that those calls were impossible since at the time of the calls my phone was packed in a moving truck somewhere between Raleigh and Phoenix. They continued to send me emails to the effect that I owed them over $900. In the last email I sent to them I was clear that the issue was one of their security system and not of me making calls to Africa. Now they have turned me over to a collection agency. I'm not sure how to straighten this out but save yourself the trouble and steer clear of this company!

I agree with all other complaints. In short just stay away from LINGO. If someone from lingo read this "PLEASE PLEASE THIS IS NOT THE WAY ANY COMPANY SHOULD BE WORKING IN USA. PLEASE DO NOT THINK THAT ALL CUSTOMERS ARE IDIOTS. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Notice how NOBODY at Primus cares to chime in and defend themselves nor deny any of the accusations above. These people are total filth.

Canceled service and was told to use the return shipping label that they will send. The label arrived four weeks later and we sipped everything back. Now were charged $75 for not shipping the stuff back withing 14 days of cancellation. Unbelievable!

I have same issue today. They are worst in customer service. And lady over phone said they have lot more customer and they don't care if some one came and go.

Lingo is run by the same ### that run Primus. They have the lowest Customer Service in the world and seem to go through CEO's like McDonald's goes through French Fry cooks. Obviously a very devious and decietful group of low lifes.

I was a customer of Telegroup prior to the Primus takeover and have been beating myself in the head for staying with tthem ever since. I'm well past their 24 months of new crooked Terms and Conditions for screwing me out of another $99.95 so they can simply suck my d*ck and watch me leave!