VOIPO overbills customers and denies refunds

VOIPO LLC was a US-based telecommunications company founded in May 2006 that provided Voice over Internet Protocol services.

Background

VOIPO sold two-year prepaid calling plans, with renewals charged automatically to the card on file. Crunchbase lists the company's chief executive as Timothy Dick.

Multiple billings within short time-frame

From around October 2024, customers on the two-year prepaid plan reported being billed multiple times over a short period, including charges for billing cycles years in advance. A review from 24 October 2024 reported "unauthorized charges (20 total)" on the customer's account. A Reddit poster wrote that VOIPO "hit the card twice a month this last December and January", and that after the charges the account showed service paid "through 2043".

VOIPO's response

In the same Reddit thread, a Reddit user stated that they'd received the following response from VOIPO support: "We've reviewed the billing on this account and it appears some renewals may have been processed earlier than they should have--I'm very sorry for any alarm or inconvenience caused." VOIPO also replied to complaints on Trustpilot, asking customers to contact the company directly; one Reddit user confirmed that "Tim replied to you directly on TrustPilot and asked you to contact him". Some customers reported receiving refunds after these contacts, while others reported being told a refund would take up to 30 days and never receiving it. A March 2025 review reported further "fraudulent charges" and said the overcharges from October 2024 "already exceed" the amount in dispute.

On 31 July 2025, VOIPO initially announced it was ceasing operations "effective August 6th, 2025 at 11:59PM EST", citing "challenging market conditions, significant financial losses, and a key vendor disrupting our ability to process credit cards or issue refunds". The date was later pushed back to 8 August, with an updated statement that they were "continuing to negotiate with our carriers for more time." According to a post from its X account on 8 August, VOIPO stated the following:

Update: We were again able to negotiate more time with our carrier partners and service will be active until Monday. They will also honor transfer requests in progress by then so you won't lose your phone number.[...]

The last post on X was 21 August, with VOIPO urging customers to transfer their numbers by 25 August and recommending another service. Judging from captures by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, the company website went down sometime between 10 October 2025 and 13 February 2026.

Consumer response

Customers called the charges fraudulent in reviews and on Reddit, with several stating they were billed more than $1,000 over a short period. A May 2025 review reported "waiting 2+ months for refund of auto-charges to prepay", extending the account "up into 2043". Common themes in the complaints include not noticing the charges initially because of auto-pay, customer service opening refund tickets that were never fulfilled, and having to dispute the charges with the credit card provider; some customers reported that too much time had passed for a charge-back. After the shutdown announcement, a February 2026 review stated that "just before Voipo abruptly got out of business" the company "repeatedly charged me multiple times for renew subscriptions, without my authorization", concluding: "in fact, they stole my money."