How I got scammed out of $75 and a free 30-day trial from Vidgo

For live TV streaming, don’t go Vidgo

Consumer alert: Are you a cable TV cord-cutter looking for a reliable and affordable live TV streaming service? After getting scammed out of $75 and a free 30-day trial, I can safely say: avoid Vidgo at all costs.

Warning consumers about companies with poor service and predatory practices is not what I do here at The Cranky Creative. But I am doing it today because this shitty company has surely earned it.

Here’s the short version if you’re in a hurry:

I signed up to receive a free 30-day trial from Vidgo on February 10. What I got instead was a three-day subscription (February 11 to 13) and a charge on my credit card for $74.99.

Bullllll shittt.

Here’s the full story if you have a moment longer:

Since cutting the cord on cable TV years ago, I have tried a number of live TV streaming services: Sling TV, YouTube TV, fuboTV, Philo, and the now-defunct PS Vue. Until recently, we’d used Sling but decided to cancel because we no longer watch as much TV as we used to.

(In a sign of the times, canceling Sling was also a pain in the ass, as — get this — Sling does not provide a way for customers to cancel its service online.)

Then I received (via my Sony “smart” TV) an offer for a free 30-day trial of the premium package at Vidgo. With the Super Bowl approaching, and knowing I wanted to live-blog all of the commercials during the big game, I thought sure, why not, I’ll give it a try.

But it’s 2023, don’t you know, and if something isn’t broken, it’s actively trying to screw you.



Upon redeeming my “free trial” on February 10, my credit card was charged $74.99 (the con-artists at Vidgo gave me a “deal” by taking $5 off the normal price of $79.99 a month) and I received a THREE-DAY TRIAL set to expire on February 13.

I didn’t actually realize this until today, February 22, when I logged into my Vidgo account and received a message that I had no active plan.

I went to my email and pulled up the invoice they’d sent me. Sure enough, no free 30-day trial. Just a $75 charge for three days of streaming.

What the fark?

Vidgo customer service is a no-go

Naturally, I wanted to talk to someone. Phone numbers for companies are notoriously hard to find these days, but I found one on Google and called. The line disconnected immediately.

I tried again. A second disconnection.

I have now dialed four different customer service numbers taken from Vidgo invoices and company web pages. All of them go to an endless-loop recording that says “press 2 to leave a message or press the pound key to ‘go back to the queue'” (I don’t know what that means as it never did anything for me).

All told, I have left two voice messages and sent an email using an email address I found somewhere on a Vidgo email.

I have not received a response, and frankly, I don’t expect one. The company has flat-out failed to make good on any of its promises and its “customer service” contacts lead directly into the abyss. If I hadn’t been able to open the app and watch less than an hour of live TV on February 11, I would have no reason at all to believe that Vidgo or its service are even real.

Needless to say, I am not happy. I’ve already put this charge into dispute with my credit card company and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. (Yeah, I know. Like the government is going to help.) We’ll see how it goes.

So consider this your warning: steer clear of Vidgo. It’s really a shame that this kind of crap is more and more becoming the standard for everything. But customer service and accountability have been going downhill for a while now, and unfortunately, I see no signs they’ll get better anytime soon.

I will update this post if Vidgo responds, but I’m not holding my breath.

Edit 1: Believe it or not, the Better Business Bureau has been responsive. Not only did they send me a confirmation of my filed complaint, but they have already let me know that they have contacted Vidgo in an attempt to resolve the matter. Now Vidgo must respond or have its BBB rating lowered — we’ll see what they choose to do.

Edit 2: Kudos to the BBB. They’ve sent another update. Vidgo says that the promo code was not applied (duh) and they’ve issued a refund which I should see in three to five days. All well and good, but I’m still confused as to why I was charged $75 for a three-day trial; why the company’s reps cannot be reached by phone and no one will return a customer’s calls; why I received a response from Vidgo (a terse, two-line email) only after the BBB chewed their ass; and where did my free trial go. With a product and service this bad, it’s no wonder Vidgo has a BBB consumer rating of 1.27 stars out of 5. Give yourselves three uppercuts to the throat and go out of business, Vidgo. I promise no one will miss you.

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8 comments

  1. Oh my, Rob, I won’t go into all the details but I have had a similar battle with DirectTV Stream. These scammers force you to “chat” with a representative to cancel. They apparently require three no’s before they relent, and then, and here’s the kicker, the bum didn’t actually cancel me and they charged me $75. It got worse from there as my credit card didn’t support me on the dispute, even though I had a screen capture of the chat. Thanks for the tip on the BBB. I’ll go there next. It’s not the money, it’s the principle at this point for me. The “anything to make a buck” culture is now in full flower.

      1. It worked! Filed my complaint and got a refund from DirecTV the next day along with an apology email and call from the someone in the president’s office responsible for customer service. Count me amazed.

        1. Excellent, Chris! Well done. And WOW, that escalated quickly. An apology email and a call from someone in the president’s office? Talk about gratifying.

          Thanks for letting us know.

          And everyone — be sure to follow The Cranky Creative for more tips, tricks, and ways to beat the bad guys! 😛

  2. I was having a volume problem on my 55″ Sony HDTV, so I called the Sony phone number app I found showing on my TV and I got a scammer saying I could get a 100 dollar gift card for free by sending $6.95… I told them NO THANKS and they told me they would transfer me to the correct department and then they hung up! I then called the Sony phone number on my TV manual and quickly got thru and they fixed the problem! They said they never heard of the first number! I then called the FTC and filed a report to let them know of this scam! I hate Scammers almost as much as I hate seeing Liberty Mutual TV commercials!

    1. Wow, Gary. That’s how I received this Vidgo “free trial” offer — through my Sony TV. It sounds like Sony has a serious problem with vetting the information and products recommended through its TV operating systems. This is totally unacceptable and personally, I have seen enough. We were a Samsung household until we bought our 85″ Sony in 2019, and I think that was the last Sony TV I will ever buy.

      Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m going to reach out to Sony to give them a piece of my mind as well.

  3. YIkes. What a mess. Thanks for the info. We went with Roku and only pay for one TV app – “Frndly.” At $109 for a year, with MeTV, GAF, and others, it felt like the bargain. Sadly they aren’t immune to terrible commercials.

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