J2 Global Communications / Efax - free account

j2 Global

6922 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 500

Hollywood, CA 90028

Offers Electronic faxing services – faxes sent to customer’s email account.

I opened a free Efax account knowing my legitimate usage of faxes was far below the allotted 20 pages per month. Third party SPAMMERS began overloading my free account with JUNK faxes, and j2 Global responded to me by 1. insisting I upgrade my account to pay for the next level of service (because they could not support my level of usage on a free account) to continue receiving JUNK faxes, 2. threatening to suspend my account and 3. finally suspending all service until I agree to start paying j2 Global $12.95 per month. This is a typical "bait and switch" tactic - luring customers in with a "free" account, knowing that third party accounts will force the customer over the allotted monthly usage, then using heavy-handed, bullying tactics to force the customer to pay for a level of service that they do not need. I refuse to pay $155.40/yr for nothing more than JUNK FAXES that end up in the garbage. j2 makes no provision to support their customer and turns the blame on us as though we are the ones violating their Terms of Service. I will gladly pay for a service that is legitimate; however, I refuse to pay for, be bullied by, or force to pay for service that uses bait and switch tactics.

After emailing the Customer Service department twice and not receiving a reply, I went to their website ( www.efax.com) and opened a “Live Sales Chat”. I explained the situation to Joanna S. and kept receiving scripted answers that neither addressed the problem nor provided any resolution to my now suspended efax account. Joanna kept referring me on to customer service though refused to acknowledge that I’ve already tried to contact them twice, but to no avail. Joanna kept offering typical scripted answers of “I understand your frustration…” and “I am sorry that you are experiencing problems…”, etc. She finally terminated that chat session on her own when she realized that she no longer had any additional scripted answers to my inquiry. You can imagine how it looked when she kept using the same scripted answer again and again.

We have a national “Do Not Call” list prohibiting telemarketers to make unsolicited calls to phone numbers on that list. Telephone companies offer credits for long distance numbers that are misdialed. Cell phone companies offer credits for dropped calls. J2 Global makes no allowance to their customers who receive JUNK faxes but uses the market to threaten, intimidate, and bully the customer to pay for a higher monthly usage of pages for JUNK. I certainly will never do business with this company again – and I urge caution to anyone considering to do the same.