Altec Telecoms - Charges beyond the "grave"

To many of you who do not know it, Altec Telecoms *WAS* a Greek VOIP provider that went bankrupt a couple of months ago.
I was using their service, a pre-paid one, and i was paying using PayPal for a DID line plus the costs of the calls i was making.
When it wend bankrupt, services to customers terminated and i had something in the range of 30 Euros pre-paid to them, which i pressumed that had gone to the "never-never land"
Then i started receiving these emails
To those of you that the first part looks...Greek, don't worry it is :)

English text follows


Αγαπητέ / αγαπητή SKORONEOS,

Με το μήνυμα αυτό σας ενημερώνουμε ότι η ισχύς του i-CallIn αριθμού 2116875170 που έχετε δεσμεύσει, θα λήξει την 13/12/2008, οπότε και θα αφαιρέσουμε το ποσό των 1 € από το υπόλοιπό σας για να ανανεώσουμε την ισχύ του για τον επόμενο μήνα.

Σε περίπτωση που το υπόλοιπο του λογαριασμού σας δεν επαρκεί, ο αριθμός θα απενεργοποιηθεί (δηλαδή δεν θα μπορείτε να δέχεστε κλήσεις σε αυτόν) αλλά δεν θα αποδεσμευθεί. Θα εξακολουθήσει να είναι δεσμευμένος για εσάς για τους επόμενους 6 μήνες.

Εναλλακτικά, μπορείτε να ενεργοποιήσετε / ανανεώσετε το i-Call Unlimited για ένα μήνα επιλέγοντας αυτόν τον αριθμό, οπότε θα ανανεώσουμε την ισχύ του για ένα μήνα εντελώς δωρεάν! Περισσότερα για το i-Call Unlimited διαβάστε στο site του i-Call (http://www.i-call.gr/unlimited.aspx).

Σας ευχαριστούμε!


Dear SKORONEOS,

With this message we are informing you that your i-CallIn number 2116875170 will expire on 13/12/2008. On that date, we will deduct from your account's "wallet" the amount of 1 € to renew this number for the next month.

In case your account's balance is insufficient, the number will be deactivated (you will not be able to receive calls on it), but it will not be released from you. It will continue to be reserved for you for the next 6 months.

Alternatively, you can activate / renew i-Call Unlimited and select this number, in which case we will renew the number for an additional month free of charge! Read more about i-Call Unlimited at the i-Call site (http://www.i-call.gr/unlimited.aspx).

Thank you!

A charge notification from a bankrupt company, that has shutdown operations !!!???? WOW !

Well it looks like Altec Telecoms is now in a "zombi" state, as the people who worked there have "taken over" the installations in order to "protect the company assets until the bankruptcy court comes out with a decision" i.e get some money as compensation.

The weird think is that although i can not connect to their sip.server, they still have internet connection and can send emails and also their TDM lines are working, so when you call the DID assigned to you get directed to the voicemail...

I thank God, i decided to go with the pre-pay plan and pay with Paypal and not with a contract/monthly credit card charge, as i believe i would have seen charges been applied to the credit-card and then go though the pains of contacting the bank for canceling them....

My .2 euro cent advice to Altec Telecom customers paying with credit card... check your credit card statments.