Opinionated Thought

Shady company?

Business - Corporate America

A look at Digital Landing/Acceller, third party provider of digital services
My husband and I struggle financially. It's a constant battle with our children and certain issues we face, but the point is that we learn to make sacrifices. One of those sacrifices has been cable television for 5 or 6 years. It's been one of those wants where the added monthly expense could not be justified when so many other things had to be paid and dinner had to be put on the table. But this past Christmas, we sat down with each other and said that instead of presents we would get ourselves cable finally.

Off I went to research pricing. We decided on Comcast. I remembered from the last time we had considered it that there were online promotional rewards for ordering cable like gift certificates, gas cards and grocery vouchers. I looked around and came upon DigitalLanding.com.

Digital Landing, an Accellor company, offered a $200 Amazon gift card for the purchase Double Play package including internet and ditigal cable at the rate of $66/mo. I was stoked at the monthly rate alone because at the time, Comcast was not offering this promotion and instead wanted to charge me $95/mo for cable and internet. Digital Landing also promised no set up fees and guaranteed my rate for 12 months. The $200 Amazon gift card on top of all this was the decadent icing on the cake. I signed right up.

I received an email from Digital Landing to call Comcast to confirm my order. When I contacted Comcast I was told there would be a $50 installation fee. This was when I knew there was going to be a problem. Then I asked about the rebate and was told that I would have to contact Digital Landing with any questions about that. But she answered in a way that I knew this was something frequently asked about and probably not in a happy manner.

I confirmed my order with Comcast but since all these alarms had gone off in my head during the call, I immediately starting researching Digital Landing. What I found made my heart sink. Tons and tons of complaints about scams, people ordering and still not receiving their rebate over a year later, no responses to e-mail, customer service reps unable to help anyone get their rebates, customers calling every week for several months, writing letters and sending emails and still no gift card. Just horrible stuff about this company. I just knew at this time I would never see my $200 Amazon gift card.

The email I received from Digital Landing with the rebate instructions included a form to complete and mail in along with your first two months statements from Comcast and your Order Confirmation email. I would have to wait it out before I could even submit my rebate request.

During this time, we had MANY issues with Comcast. The technician was late twice and promised to credit our bill $20 for the inconvenience. I was shocked to find that my first bill not only included the initial $50 installation fee for the modem but also separate installation fees on 7 TVs and no credit the technician promised! Who in the world even has 7 TVs in their home? I called Comcast and was able to get the majority of the fees removed. Then on my second bill, my monthly rate jumped from $66/mo to $120/mo. I called several times and nobody could figure out why it happened or how to change it. I was on the phone for almost an hour each time for about 4 calls before I was finally able to get the entire matter resolved. To their credit, my bill was ultimately lowered to about $55/mo and I also received some free premium channels.

It was time to mail in my rebate form. I made copies of everything and sent it off, even though in my heart I knew it was a long shot. About a month later I decided to send Digital Landing a quick email to check the status of my rebate but never received a response or even acknowledgement that my email was received. Another two months went by and I made no other attempt to contact Digital Landing because I had already put it to rest in my mind that it wasn't going to happen. The rebate form also indicated that it took up to 16 weeks to process which was approximately 4 months.

Then out of the blue yesterday I received an email with this subject: Fulfillment GC From Acceller. I didn't even recognize the name and opened it thinking it was probably some kind of spam.

Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for ordering Digital Services through www.digitallanding.com. It is our pleasure to send you this 200 Amazon.com® Gift Card* that can be applied towards the purchase of millions of items at Amazon.com®. Don’t delete this message! You will need the Gift Card claim code below and may want to print a copy of this message for easy reference later. Below are the instructions to redeem your Amazon Gift Certificate.

SCORE!!! I almost still can't believe it. I added the gift code to my Amazon account and it is completely valid.

Short story long, if you decide to try Digital Landing or any other third party company offering digital services, do your research. It may not be all that it's cracked up to be. Know that you are taking a risk if you are not ordering directly from the company providing the service. But keep hope alive :)