Ooma Forums

When I joined Costco, I got the promotion of $100 Prepaid Account. I have used them since March 2010. I still have more than $80 last month. When I got the Promotion $100, I never see Ooma states about the usage of such promotion will be expired after 180 days whether you use it or not.

Recently, the $80 is disappeared from my account without a notice. I sent the question through email to Ooma support, and I got the reply from Ooma support. Quoted from Ooma support: ""This Promotional minutes in your prepaid account do expire 180 days after they are added"

If the users on this forum sees such a quote or policy of such "Promotion will be expired after 180 days whether you use it or not", please post the link. I swear that I never see such a fine print when I got the $100 promotion when I bought Ooma device from Costco.

I am planning to complain with my state consumer affair and state attorney.

I really appreciate any inputs.

At least as of 9/1/09 the credit expiration has been set to 6 months; previously it was 3 months.

Dennis P wrote:Our relationships with our customers are of the utmost importance to us and we recognize that clarity regarding our programs and promotions are very important to building trust. In response to your posting, we have ensured that the expiration date is now clearly posted on the Costco.com site. We apologize for not making the expiration date more clear and hopefully, we have remedied this.

"Note: Promotional minutes in your prepaid account do expire 180 days after they are added."

Some threads on this forum about this topic:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2378&start=10#p16448
viewtopic.php?t=5072

Hi lbmofo,

Thanks for the links. After reading the links, I still stand that I never see such a fine print regarding "promotion expiration" in Costco as well as in Ooma web site when joining Ooma.

If there is such a restriction on the expiration date of "international call" promotion, I think that Ooma must let Omma its customers know when the usage of such "International call" promotion expires (e.g. Ooma let you know that the expiration of Premier service trial expiration, but not the with "International call" promotion).

It is not about money, I don't make many international calls.

Anyway, I am going to file complain with CA consume affair and I will let you know the results.

A few friends of mine joining Ooma when I joined Ooma, and they haven't used their Promotional Prepaid Account. My friends would be very surprised when they hear my stories.

ooam_user, I see where you are coming from. However, on the flip side, is this.... if you never saw any fine print about the prepaid credit, how can you assume that it would never expire? Especially when the money isn't yours? I mean there are lots of prepaid calling cards that expire in 180 days (and you pay for them!!!).

If somone gives you a "promotional credit," wouldn't you check if and when it expires & not assume anything (unless you didn't care; by your posts, you don't seem to be in that camp)? Even if you missed the fine print on costco.com, you could have come to ooma.com, gone to support and searched for "prepaid" to get your answer. If you added your own money into prepaid account, that never expires, never a maintenance fee either.

Lbmofo, your position is unreasonable. The promotional offer, like all promotional offers, is intended to persuade people to spend money. Any limitations, if not clearly stated, constitute deceptive marketing at best, and fraud at worst.

Offer + acceptance + consideration constitutes what is known as a contract. Someone -- it's not clear whether it was Ooma or Costco or both -- offered Ooma + prepaid account (the offer) at some price; Ooam_user agreed to this (the acceptance), and paid the stated price (the consideration). That created a contract, on which Ooam_user performed as agreed.

Neither Costco nor Ooma, nor both acting in concert, can unilaterally change that contract without agreement by Ooam_user; that's all. Attempting to do so is breach of contract.

That's Business Law 101, a high-school course usually.

My assumption: what Dennis said is true "we have ensured that the expiration date is now clearly posted on the Costco.com site" or any other retailers that might have sold Ooma devices with these credits. If the buyer never saw it, then I wouldn't blame the retailer or Ooma. If the expiration was never called out anywhere, then, the retailer/Ooma is to blame.

Mine disappeared as well. I had about $50 left.

I didn't notice the fine print either.

Dawn

I had the same issue, I got it in March 2010, and I found yesterday my prepaid account only had $0.75, I only used around $25. I never saw an expiration statement or being told by Costco.

I contacted both Costco and ooma. Below are their responses. Costco asked me to contact customer service, but provided ooma's customer service number. While ooma said it is from coscto promoption and it should expire in 180 days. However I wonder where this 180 days expiration came from? I had about $75 left, it seemed they just ripped my money off with their "from-nowhere" 180-day expiration policy.

Anyone has the same issue. I will contact them, and if necessary to file a complaint to BBB.org.

(1) From Costco:

***********************************
Dear XXXXXXXX,

We appreciate you taking the time to email Costco Wholesale.
Please contact Customer Service at 888-711-6662.
Thank you,
XXX
Costco Wholesale Corporation
**********************************

Ironically, the number Costco provided was ooma's Customer Service number.

(2) Then from ooma:
*************************************
Dear XXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting Ooma Customer Support.

I apologize for this inconvenience. Let me help you with this concern.

The promotional prepaid funds which is from Cost Co expires 180 days after they are added (the date when you activated your device). However, the prepaid minutes you added does not expire and you'll never be charged monthly fees to have the money in your account.

You may visit this link for more information: https://www.ooma.com/app/support/pay-you-go-calling.

We had a recent update with our systems and our engineering department corrected those promotional minutes form Cost Co. Those promotional minutes should've been remove on your account earlier since you activated your account last 2010-04-XX.

If you have further questions or require additional clarification, please write me back ...

Thank you for choosing Ooma!

Sincerely,

XXXXXX

Ooma Customer Care Specialist
http://ooma.custhelp.com/
support@oomacare.com
********************************************

Interesting! ooma might removed many posts I captured yesterday on 180 days expiration discussion.