Been dealing with this since Friday morning – what might be the biggest boiler-room-style con pulled off in years – a boutique wireless provider possibly scamming millions and leaving users with dead phones and potential ID cloning and theft. Here’s the rundown: Voce was a boutique cel plan marketed to upscale folks through Nieman Marcus department stores and Beverly Hills showrooms. The new media business world quickly picked up on the service as a perfect cellular small business package for freelancers and jetsetters alike. Articles on BoingBoing and EnGadget hyped this insider secret – the ‘designer’ phone company was great for the new media businessperson. And it was – great coverage worldwide (the phone was constantly roaming, pulling down the best signal at no roaming cost to the user), concierge service, and robust phones all for a package price with no add-ons or mark ups. On Feb. 1, all Voce customers’ phones had invalid SIM error messages and no phone service. Calls to the customer service hotline rang through or were busy; showrooms have been closed since January. No word on the status of sales desks at the Nieman Marcus locations. On the net, a growing presence of organized and pissed off users reveals the following information. Employees haven’t been paid for at least 1 month. Reported ‘new owners’ are described as unsavory characters. Voce has not paid subcontract vendors such as phone manufacturers, cable, network storage etc.. There is a very real danger that if a customer does not port their number over to a new service quickly, the manner in which Voce’s system was set up they could lock out the number, preventing you from keeping it but also opening up the possibility that not only your number but your cellular identity could easily be cloned, forged or stolen. This is serious dirty pool – not a simple bankruptcy from the way things are quickly shaping up in the wake of Friday’s news. Apparently the initial group of users for the service actually ‘bought in’ as small investors, paying up to 750.00 monthly(?) to be first. (they paid 750 to 500 initial fee) All customers who have checked in with a website set up to develop a class-action lawsuit were doubled billed for the last month of service. One First User writes that…
By our calculations if Voce had 10,000 subscribers and they double billed all of us they left with about $8,000,000.
The comments section also reveals a post from an alleged former employee…
I’m posting on behalf of former employees of Voce. We are deeply concerned about the current state of the company and the impact it is having on the customers as well as its employees.
First things first, to port out of the “Voce Hybrid” network; you should provide the following information:
Carrier name: Voce Wholesale
Bill address: 27599 Riverview Center Blvd. Bonita Springs, FL 34134
Account number: 90210000
PIN (if requested): Not applicable
(We heard from the carrier that the ports were delayed yesterday due to volume, but numbers are being released.)
Regarding the double bills, it is best to contact your credit card company immediately and request a charge back, as it is rumored that the new owners charged cards for service to be provided in February.
Finally, a quick update on what has transpired: Voce was purchased in early January by SunCal Midwest, LLC, represented by Anthony Roselli, Brian Richards and Tom Malanca. The intent of the purchase was for SunCal Midwest to maintain and grow the core Voce business, using its connections with enterprise customers. The new owners have thus far failed to meet their end of the deal, including paying employees and vendors. The prior management of Voce resigned or was shut out by the new owners after the sale. We direct all questions to the current CEO/President of Voce, Brian Richards. He can be reached at brian@voce.com
We are deeply disappointed and sorry for your inconveniences.
Many are calling for fraud charges to be filed against the three owners, and the news media are now picking up the story, so it should be interesting what happens in the next few days. Nothin’ like having to choose between riding and fending off identity theft and fraud to make Stuporbowl Sunday an extra treat.
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