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Boingo Mobile - Unreliable and Horrible "Customer Service"

Boingo Mobile - Unreliable and Horrible "Customer Service"

Old Jun 27, 2010, 2:35 pm
  #1  
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Boingo Mobile - Unreliable and Horrible "Customer Service"

I think I'm fair in posting this because on two recent trips Boingo Mobile did not work where it was supposed to and their support was a joke.

BTW, this is using the Iphone/Ipod Touch client.

First was a trip to Madrid earlier this year. It was supposed to work on two major networks, one of which was Telefonica which was all over Madrid, the second was in all of the Starbucks. Neither worked, I got the "not a Boingo Network" message.

Emailed customer service, took days for a response. The response made no sense, then I called them. No one was in the mobile department because ti was a 3-day weekend, and then I was home so it didn't matter. Finally spoke with someone on the phone when I got back tot the US (of course it was too late then), who confirmed that no one had logged in at the locations I had specified for quite some time. They credited me a month, but of course what I wanted was responsive customer service that would deal with the problem.

Recently was in Sydney. I got the same message "not a Boingo message" at various locations. Sent an email listing those locations, over 24 hours later telling me that there had been log-ins at the location (singular) and telling me to download the latest software.

Of course, I already had the latest software, installed, I responded telling them that, asking which location of the many I was talking about had a log-in, and inquiring as to whether the login was with the mobile product.

More than 24 hours later I received another response which didn't answer any of my questions, and telling me that I should call from the location as they could troubleshoot better. I had already told them it was expensive to make an overseas cell call from the location, and asked what troubleshooting they could do if I was at the location. They basically responded saying reinstall the software (which I had told them I had already done) and make sure my login info is entered correctly (I had already told them it worked at other locations so what I had entered was not an issue).

So, in summary (this is kind of long-winded). Boingo frequently does not work where they say it will. If you email customer service, they will take over a day to get back to you, and they will respond with non-helpful information. No matter what you tell them, they will assume that there is some problem with what you are doing, and no matter what you say they will not check out and see if the location is working. They will respond with fairly generic answers and not pay attention to what you actually said.

On the other hand, perhaps $7.95 per month is worth it for a 50/50 chance that you will be able to use their service (I am serious when I say that, it worked like a charm at AMS.)
BigFlyer is offline  
Old Jun 27, 2010, 6:34 pm
  #2  
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So sorry to hear about your negative experience with Boingo.

I just came across your review of Boingo Mobile and wanted to respond, if you don't mind. I sincerely regret that you had a frustrating experience with us recently. That is certainly not representative of the excellent customer experience we strive to provide, and I'd like to try to make things right.

Unfortunately, I don't have quite enough information to investigate further. Would you please email me at lsanyal at boingo dot com with your username? I'd like to take a look at your account, determine what happened, and get to the bottom of this.

Warm Regards,
Lauren Sanyal
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Old Jun 28, 2010, 12:06 pm
  #3  
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A little late, my trip is long over.

I did not post until the second incident. These two events I described are not flukes. In each incident there were numerous emails, where response time was between a little over 24 hours to days. In fact, my most recent email regarding the Sydney trip has gone over a week without a response.

The problem is clearly systemic. For starters there needs to be 24/7 mobile support (or at least 7 days a week) and reasonably prompt response to emails so that the problems can be rectified before the trip is over.


Originally Posted by laurensanyal
I just came across your review of Boingo Mobile and wanted to respond, if you don't mind. I sincerely regret that you had a frustrating experience with us recently. That is certainly not representative of the excellent customer experience we strive to provide, and I'd like to try to make things right.

Unfortunately, I don't have quite enough information to investigate further. Would you please email me at lsanyal at boingo dot com with your username? I'd like to take a look at your account, determine what happened, and get to the bottom of this.

Warm Regards,
Lauren Sanyal
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Old Jun 28, 2010, 4:52 pm
  #4  
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But since the Boing person is responding, perhaps you could PM her in hopes that they'll do something about it for future travelers & even maybe yourself on future trips . Complaining here lets you vent, but giving someone at Boing who's willing to look into it w/ what sounds more than just the standard we'll check into it might be more fruitful. I'm just sayin...

Cheers.
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Old Jun 28, 2010, 5:07 pm
  #5  
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I suppose because last time this happened, I tweeted someone from Boingo who then contacted me with language very similar to what was written below by the Boingo rep, and they have not changed their mode of operating.

But, you are right, I will PM my details as it can't hurt.


Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
But since the Boing person is responding, perhaps you could PM her in hopes that they'll do something about it for future travelers & even maybe yourself on future trips . Complaining here lets you vent, but giving someone at Boing who's willing to look into it w/ what sounds more than just the standard we'll check into it might be more fruitful. I'm just sayin...

Cheers.
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Old Jun 28, 2010, 5:32 pm
  #6  
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So sorry to hear that. Even though your trip is over, I'd still like to make this right for you. If you'd like my help, simply email me, and I'll get to the bottom of what happened.

I sincerely regret that it took us so long to get back to you. We typically respond to email by the next business day at the latest, so I'm puzzled by the response time you mentioned.

Additionally, we have also extended our mobile support hours, so our Level 1 support is available 24/7 to assist you with your Boingo Mobile questions.

I hope this helps! Again, please don't hesitate to email me if you'd like me to investigate further. This certainly sounds like an out-of-the-ordinary Boingo experience, and I sincerely hope we can make it up to you.

Warm Regards,
Lauren Sanyal
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Old Jun 28, 2010, 7:01 pm
  #7  
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Welcome to Flyertalk Lauren. It is always good to see people from travel related companies here, talking with the traveling public.
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Old Jun 30, 2010, 10:47 pm
  #8  
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I had a similar experience in Paris last year but realized (too late) a glitch that can be very misleading. Using an iPhone, I would click for a Boingo connection and, within about 10 seconds, get a message that Boingo was "not available" in that area. Quite by accident, I discovered that sometimes about 30 seconds later, I would then get a "You are connected to Boingo" message. I discovered this late in my visit so I wonder how many times I was mislead by the "not available" message. There must be a better way.
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Old Jul 6, 2010, 6:26 am
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I have a completely different experience. I'm just back from the World Cup and using the iphone app, I was able to get logged onto the internet in loads of places in South Africa and it only cost me 3.50 for a one month's subscription.

I was in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban & Joburg and had no issues finding hotspots there, I just looked up where they were beforehand.

At the end of the month I couldn't cancel by phone, but it was done quickly by email and I didnt have any problems. I would certainly be using them again the next time I go abroad. 3.50 for a month is a damn sight cheaper than o2's ridiculous 6 per MB roaming charges.
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Old Jul 6, 2010, 8:04 am
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Boingo has been great for me... never a problem finding or connecting to hotspots!
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Old Jul 6, 2010, 12:16 pm
  #11  
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My original post involved using the iphone/ipod touch client outside the US. Which client were you using and where? I have had no trouble within the US.




Originally Posted by turnpike17
Boingo has been great for me... never a problem finding or connecting to hotspots!
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Old Aug 8, 2010, 8:53 pm
  #12  
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Update

Original poster here, giving an update. As can be seen early in the thread, I posted my complaints about a trip to Spain earlier in the year (February) and a June trip to Sydney. The Boingo rep posted here and asked me to PM my user ID so she could check into it, which I did on June 29th. The same day the Boingo rep responded that she would look into it right away.

The only substantive response I received was on July 9, 2010, and that response was only about the Madrid problems I was having in February. The response was:

Unfortunately, all Starbucks locations in Madrid have been recently marked "Not Active", so they will not appear in the location search - we're working with BT Openzone to determine why. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Additionally, upon detailed investigation, we are able to see *some* successful Boingo Mobile logins at Telefonica locations (in hotels) over the past 30 days.

However, we are also seeing some peculiar behavior with our Telefonica locations in Spain. The error message you received "Invalid username/password" indicates an authentication failure, however this does not appear in our logs. Therefore, your username and password are being denied by the operator, not Boingo, and we're working to figure out why.

We also see that you successfully connected a few times in June, which indicates that this issue is not isolated to your account.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions! We’re working with Telefonica and BT Openzone to get to the bottom of this.



Haven't heard from them since. So, it seems that the problem I reported re Madrid in February is still a problem in July, don't know what if anything they did with my complaint since February.

And, I have still gotten zero response regarding the Australia problem in June, despite the Boingo rep coming on here and saying it would be taken care of.

So, my conclusion re Boingo Mobile remains the same. If you happen to be in a place where it is working, that's great. But, there are many places where it is supposed to work where it does not, and there is essentially no customer service response to get it working. Certainly nothing that would get it working while you are still there.

Last edited by BigFlyer; Aug 9, 2010 at 8:51 am
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Old Aug 9, 2010, 3:40 am
  #13  
 
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To be fair to Boingo, their service involves dealing with lots of partner organisations, as well as with each hotspot, while charging pretty low prices. I've had issues with hotspots where the router had simply been plugged out!

No solution like that is ever going to work 100% of the time.
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Old Aug 15, 2010, 5:57 am
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Love it...

I just traveled England and France and set up Boingo @ Heathrow. Loved it... Saved a ton on Roaming. We had several MacBooks and iPhone 4's using it. At one time my family had 4 devices going at one time. Brilliant... The best use was on the Thames Clipper in England... My kids kept up with the school work and international friends on facebook.

As reported above I did have some minor connection issues at a few places but think the is not Boingos sole problem but rather the local provider. On a positive note from time to time it would pop up and say Boingo available here at several cafes and we could send photos and chat with family around the world for a very small price!

Once I returned to the States I called customer service and downgraded from the Global service to the Unlimited service. I don't think you can do that online.
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Old Jul 25, 2011, 1:48 pm
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Thumbs down Boingo is confused

At least half a dozen calls in past few months complaining about not accessing. Today, when I cancelled with difficulty, I found out why: my account, he said, was "corrupted".
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