GoGo is a NoGo

So I did a bit of business travel on Virgin America in September, and I signed up for in-flight wi-fi from Gogo. I had a choice of $15 per day or $35 for the month, so I signed up for the month, knowing I'd be on a return flight two days later.

Thing is, the monthly service auto-renews, and (here's the part that bites) GoGo does not send monthly statements, via email or paper, when the recurring charges occur. Every other recurring service I use - Spotify, Amazon Prime, Flickr, DropBox - sends me a statement on each billing cycle. I DID receive an email confirmation when I first signed up, with a very poorly worded statement about automatic renewal in faint grey text. See for yourself...

Another co-worker who traveled with me was likewise misled / fooled, and we each ended up with $139.80 in charges for a service we only used two times, over two days, in September.

In late December, I received a notice that GoGo was raising my monthly rates. ("What monthly rates?") I contacted GoGo to cancel the service and requested a refund for all but the September charge. The CSR I spoke to said it would take 7-10 business days to process my request. When I checked back with them yesterday, they said they had refunded one month's service on Dec 31 (which doesn't yet show on my AMEX statement),  but they won't refund any other charges.

Too bad. Apparently, my $139.90 is worth more than their reputation. Live and learn. Two things I take away from this: Never buy anything from GoGo Internet, and review your monthly credit card statements religiously.

Update:

Two hours after posting this blog (and linking from Facebook and Twitter), I received the following response from GoGo:

01/03/2013 05:27 PM
Hello James, 

We chatted yesterday and I've been tracking your refund so I could give you some updates. Today, your two refunds were approved. You'll see two refunds of $34.95 on your statement in about 3 business days. 

If you have any further questions, we can be reached 24/7 at 877-350-XXXX. You can also contact us via Live Chat by clicking https://custhelp.gogoinflight.com while you're in the air or on the ground. 

Fly classy,
Your Friends at Gogo Customer Care

Coincidence? Probably. Still... I'm glad to see that now two of the four months are getting refunded, instead of just one. That seems fair.