Boingo Wireless
Reviews and Complaints

Recently I made the mistake of upgrading from Boingo's Blazing speed to Extreme ($20 more) and guess what? My speeds are as slow as ever. I should have known better considering that Boingo has consistently let me down over the past few years but I guess I'm just a fool. Boingo has one of the absolute worst records of any internet provider and their negative image isn't going to change any time soon.

I cant play multiplayer on Switch using Boingo. I keep getting a error code 2618 0513 when I try to play multiplayer. Boingo keeps shutting down everytime it feels like it and im paying monthly. Now I have to wait to play online again and wait for another company to call me from boingo today to observe my issue. Another day with unsatysfying internet from a consumer.

Boingo have charged me 70$ for one day's internet usage in Oslo. I was not told I would be charged this at subscription nor during connectivity process. Customer services have refused to give me a refund and do not accept liability despite misinforming their customers, and also have ignored emails since the first one I sent.
Do not fall for the scam that is Boingo and don't bother subscribing until their reputation improves. They are a huge company now and there is no excuse for such bad service.

Hi there,

Please let me know how I can submit a formal complaint?

I created to accounts in February which both has been cancelled

1.one was under amranete
2.one under nelu

Having had both cancelled I was charge 13 dollars for nelu's account which your incompetent staff is unable to admit the human error.

It was cancelled and I received a marketing email addressed to nelu saying that you guys are hoping that he will be using boingo again.

If that account want cancelled WHY DID HE RECEIVED THAT EMAIL.

I am asking nicely one more time a manager someone with customer service esperience not a teenager to deal with this and.

1 cancel that account as per my instruction
2.refund 13 dollars.

Thans

About ten months ago, in March of 2016, I connected to the internet at an airport using Boingo Wireless. I have not used it since, but the company keeps charging me ten dollars a month despite my lack of usage. They keep draining my debit card, and I would like to put an end to this. I can't remember my username and password for Boingo, but I would like to speak to someone who would help me discontinue my account so I am no longer charged money that I can no longer afford to lose for no good reason.

I was travelling back from JFK and needed to Skype my parents, because the airport does not have free wifi, i had to purchase some, which i thought was a one off payment, not a SUBSCRIPTION!

$9.95 has been taken out my account for the Subscription even though i have not bee using the services. I am In the UK and no where near JFK New York.

I am very unhappy with there business model because i can guarantee its not just happened to me.

I would like a full refund of that amount stated because i have not been using any service that requires me to pay.

regards

Sam Evans

These crooks charged my daughter and she's never even heard of them. doing a search took me no time to find several complaints, so we wont bother calling the BOGUS [protected] that wont get us any where. Calling the bank and reporting them to them.

charged 10/15

Bank is in agreement with us - and will be issuing a new card - these people need to be shut down!

These folks are ridiculous. having huge difficulty cancelling a subscription that I did not really sign up for. websites were down, been on hold for over 20 mins. websites give the following errors... We're unable to process your request. Our network is not currently responding. Please contact us at [protected]@boingo.com or call us... from North America: 1.800.880.4117, the UK: 00.800.8804.1170, Japan: 010.880.8804.41170 (Prefix for Softbank: 0061, KDD: 001, or NTT: 0033), or from locations outside of North America, UK, and Japan: 00.800.2646.4646. We need to start a class action suit against them.

Hello,

As I noticed on several sites, I experience the same trouble to stop my subscription of Boingo.
I get only automatic replies but no confirmation of cancellation.
For my first visit to the US, this is a very unpleasant experience. I don't understand that such companies are allowed in the US. Are there no organizations here who protect consumers from this?
Who can help me to get rid of my subscription? Thank you in advance.

Koen

DO NOT USE THEM NEVER EVER !
I have used once Boingo Wireless while I was stuck in an airport to get online. After a few months I realize I was charge on my card every month something about 5£. They made me subrscribe for a monthly plan i didn't even know it. So I called them. It stopped. A couple of months later its start again I don't even know why they keep charging me. So they kept my card details and just take money from me like that. This is just so WRONG.
Sorry for my bad english.

On the Boingo web page soliciting that you purchase their mobile services they state the following:

"Use 1-hour credits for only $1.99 USD at Boingo hotspots worldwide."

The above is blatant deception on their part. They do not warn you that if you disconnect from their service you forfeit any unused time if you do not reconnect within the one hour period that their "timer" starts counting down. They keep their timer counting down even after you have disconnect from their services to deplete the time you paid for. In other words; if you purchase an hour of time, connect with them and use only 10 minutes and then disconnect and reconnect 20 minutes later instead of having 50 minutes left of usage you will only have 30 minutes. If you reconnect later than 1 hour after initial connection you will find you have no time left at all.

Nowhere on their web page does it advise you in advance to making a purchase that you will lose minutes if you disconnect from their service before a full hour of continuous usage. It must be obvious to everyone that they are purposely omitting this information so as to screw their thousands of customers.

In addition, you will note that at airports that offer Boingo service, free WIFI or less costly WIFI connections are not offered by vendors who lease space for their store fronts at the airport. Presumable Boingo has entered into contractual agreements with various airports to prevent competitive WIFI service from being offered.

I would be interested in joining in on any class action lawsuit against Boingo and the other entities (such as iTunes, and various airports) through which Boingo market their deceptive service.

Be advised that, should you cancel your boingo account, you will be billed to the end of your billing cycle, which is the day of the month you first opened your account. I opened an account March 7th, then was traveling in September so went to the unlimited plan for a couple weeks, and cancelled the unlimited plan. That 3+ weeks was billed at $17.01 -- that is 70% above the "$9.95 per month" rate they quote.

Don't do it. seems innocent enough. $7.95 to use your iphone in an airport you are stuck in because of some 'weather.' Signup is easy, heck there's even an app for that.

Instructions are dead simple and...i can't get online. rats. guess i'll use my laptop, whatev's.

Next month, not only did i get CHARGED for not being able to use the mobile Wifi, but the same charge showed up 3 more times for a total of 4 identical charges.

Of course i didn't discover this until 3 months had passed. Yea i got busy and wasn't checking my statement. BAD move.

Called them up: WTF is this?

"You need a 2nd tier support person." 20 minutes later i get him
"You must have tried to sign on 4 times"

um...come to think of it, yes i had trouble getting the system to validate my signup. so that means they were signing me up each time, even though it wasn't coming through on my phone as a completed transaction. And i was supposed to know that, how? And if YOU CAN SEE THAT why would your billing dept. keep billing me for the aborted attempts. argh.
He ARGUED WITH ME even though he could also see that not one of the accounts had been used. I eventually gave in and settled for being charged 3 months for an account i couldn't use in exchange for Boingo refunding me for overcharging me 3 more times per month.

Grrrr. Okay, well that's what customer service has become now.

Next month: SAME 4 CHARGES ON MY BILL.

5 minutes for first agent. we both wait on the line chatting about the holidays for another 10 while she waits for 2nd tier agent. Nice person
Finally get someone who knows what she's doing on the other end of the phone, also a very nice person. Takes care of cancelling the 3 extra charges for 3 mos and all the charges that took place after i cancelled my account. Gave me a freaking confirmation number.

Still don't trust them, gonna call my bank and see if i can blacklist Boingo from charging me in perpetuity.

Save yourself the trouble !

I signed on to Boingo while on a layover in Chicago O'Hare airport, for what I thought was a one-time $6.95 fee for 24-hours use. After a few minutes online, I lost the signal, so signed on again. Two days later, Boingo hit my credit card for another $6.95, and when I called to complain, they told the 24 hours had to be "contiguous, " in other words, signing off for any reason starts the clock ticking again with a new $6.95 fee. I've taken all of their software off my laptop, and after reading some of the other reviews, will monitor that credit card carefully. A dishonest, misleading way to do business!

I attempted to sign up to Boingo wireless at Heathrow airport. The connection to sign up was terrible but I only needed to send one email for work so I persisted and some how managed to create two accounts. I never was able to get an internet connection so I assumed the accounts were never created. After getting my first bill I contacted them to refund the money and close the account. 3 months later I notice they have been billing me almost $50 a month.

With the help of my credit card company I have hopefully gotten them to refund all but one charge for $24.

I signed up for Boingo Mobile service prior to taking a trip overseas. I verified before leaving that Boingo had hotspots (thousands of them) in the destination country. Upon arrival, and for the entire trip, I was unable to connect to any "Boingo compatible" hotspots. I exchanged e-mails with Boingo support and submitted error reports on several non-working hotspots. The issue was never resolved and the service was useless to me on my trip. Upon returning I called Boingo to request a refund for my month's service fee, and the gentleman flatly refused. "We are not able to refund the first month's fee." was his comment. Not sure what "unable" is supposed to mean, since refunds are a normal part of business. "Unwilling" is probably the more correct word. Apparently the 55 or so minutes I spent in Chicago testing the service was sufficient in Boingo's eyes to warrant the full month's charge, even though the service was useless to me for the rest of the month while I was abroad. Horrible, horrible company. Will not do business with them again.

They really have unacceptable attitude.
When I checked my credit card bill this morning, and I found some odd charging by Boingo, I just login my account and gather all the billing history and login history...(find the attached photo please) I was just too shock to believe that I was charged more than 110 GBP for less than 8 hours wireless connection. And they even charged me without any of my connection and charged by the plan I never selected!
So I send out the mail to the customer support, the message as following.

---
Dear Boingo Supporting Team,

Please find attached spreadsheet I've gather from my account information.
I don't really understand what happened to my account.

Item 1 is no problem, I firstly purchased 1 hr plan in Heathrow.
But what happened to item 2? I've already left Heathrow to Amsterdam, why I still counted almost 13 hrs wifi usage?

Item 3 and 4 are also odd to me, I used with both laptop and iPhone for only less than one hour.
Why it counted me 4 ~ 5 hours? And what is the "premium" type mean? I didn't even purchase that!
If it's due to roaming, I didn't see any information on login page, no single word! Why?

Item 5 ~ 6 and item 8 ~ 10 are just too over and ridiculous.
In both Belgian Railway and Global Reach Hotspot, no single item was login for more than 1 hr.
And the double login was due to your weak wifi signal!
How come I should be double or even triple charged, and again, what do you mean by "premium" type?
I didn't purchased that kind of plan, and no one, no any other information showed to me that I was purchasing that?

Item 11 is the same issue, what is premium type?
And the same premium type, why some of them was counted GBP9.95, some of them becomes GBP11.95, and even a GBP29.85?
I don't get it at all!

Besides, the mechanism of billing and receipt sending are kind of strange.
I got prompt receipt message ONLY for item 1, my first purchase.
None of the rest providing me a prompt receipt message... didn't let me aware of I've been charged.
Firstly, no warning or other information shown on login page.
Secondly, no billing receipt after login... how could the user get aware of those details of charging?

Further more, don't you think you should warn before each of charge?
Instead of charge directly from the saved credit card information. No one runs service like that!
Even iTunes App Store would confirm purchase before any of the purchasing click.

Please tell me what happened in those login and crazy bill, and give me a reasonable explanation.
Thank you.

Best regards,
Pres

---

I got a reply after the automatic reply, seems from Indian supporting team.

"Please call our Tier 2 support in order to get this issue resolved. The number is [protected]. This matter needs to be address by the Tier 2 speciallist. Thank you!"

It is just unbelievable, why I should call back again with this extra burden of myself (I'm not in the free-call area, it would another international phone call!)
Didn't I state clear enough what I suffered? Why should I call directly on my own? Can't they just forward my e-mail to someone who can help? Isn't that why e-mail and internet for? I just don't get it!
And further more, why this customer service agent keep emphasizing "Tier 2" in that brief enough reply? Right, we are definitely not really important customers, I can understand I am definitely the tier 2 for them...
Then, just be it! We are tier 2! let this bull-### company take care ONLY for their tier 1...
DON'T EVER USE booooooooingo AGAIN!

Purchased one-time BOINGO wifi access at the Regan National Airport in Washington DC. First, it makes you download and install their software in order to connect to the internet. In the description they state it's not necessary to do so, but HIGHLY encouraged. I tried using Boingo without installing their software - no luck. But $$ paid, so I give in and install it. Next, it kicks you our hourly - you have to re-login in every hour. I worked for 3hours and exactly after each hour it kicks you our. Which normally wouldn't be an issue (even though it's quite annouying), but I was using VPN connection to my work and every time they'd kick me out I had to go through a lot of troubles restoring VPN connection and re-logging everywhere...

Bottom line - stay away, stick to T-mobile and AT&T wireless.

Once Boingo gets your credit card, they keep charging it no matter how many times you request them to cancel the service -- in fact they do cancel the service and then just keep charging -- then they can't find a record of you to stop the charges. They give you the run-around -- if you can get through.

BOINGO wireless keeps charging me every single day I used it twice in 2 different airports but now i m not using it anymore i dont have the software on my pc I m staying in syria now and there s no boingo hotspots here though it keeps charging me i m so pissed off i wonder why no one can stop this company from stealing people's credit cards lets unite and file complains about this company till we get our money back i already lost about 20 $ today i didnt even use it i sent them to cancel my account hope they will cancel it soon dont ever think about using this service..