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Review 6/21/2011
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I logged into Boingo on my phone at the airport. Paid the 24hr service fee because I needed internet access. When I finally logged in and created an account, i fired up my laptop (as I was needing to print maps out).
That's when I was made aware that it would cost EXTRA to use the laptop under the same account. Nowhere did I see that I would have to pay more to use my laptop. It did say "mobile account", but that doesn't mean much. My laptop is mobile, my desktop, not so much.
Because it was going to cost another $8 to use my laptop, I decided to pay for the monthly subscription instead. I was headed to Europe for two weeks and the hot spot finder sounded like a good way to find internet access I could use while on my trip.
Well, the hotspot finder is next to worthless. You MUST have internet access for it to find a place for you. Otherwise, you just walk around aimlessly hoping to land upon a "free" wifi spot. When you need to book a hotel, check you bank accout, etc, you're outta luck.
Besides the fact that it can't find service for you without internet (which is retarded), when I was able to locate the "free" hotspots in Europe, I was NEVER able to connect to them. They're supposed to be partnered with all these other wifi vendors, but I could not get it to work (for reference, I'm an engineer and "good with computers"). Looking directly at the European providers login page, they show a list of other wifi vendors they have a partnership with. Boingo is not listed.
Finally, since the only place I was able use the service was in the US airport (which was very slow as well), I decided I'd cancel the subscription when I got back. Is there an easy way to cancel the subscription. NO. You have to call their customer service, wait, wait, wait... then they try to sell you on the service and keep you on the montly plan. "I don't want the service anymore." So, do they cancel your plan? Not really, they switch you from montly to a "pay as you go" plan..
what's a pay as you go plan? Well, they keep your credit card on file and if you login (accidentally or on purpose) you get charged that $8 service fee each day it occurs. So, you just delete the program so it can't log in right? You can do that, but you better hope someone doesn't spoof your MAC address (the "unique" ID of your ethernet *wifi* device). basically, if someone logs on using a fake device ID (yours) you'll get charged because Boingo assumes it's you. I'd much rather just REMOVE my account entirely so I don't have that issue and can't be accidentally charged (or have a credit card number that can be stolen in a hack on their servers).
So how can you truly cancel your subscription? The only way I know of is switch to pay-as-you go and call the bank and have a new credit card reissued.
The crux of the matter ... don't EVER use Boingo if you don't want to be billed forever.
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