Qwest: The Lost Art of Customer Service!
Written: Oct 08 '01 (Updated Oct 16 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lower long distance bill
Cons: disorganized, lack knowledge of customer service
The Bottom Line: Choosing Qwest, is like jumping out of a plane without a backup parachute. If your first chute works, you may be fine. If not ... you're screwed !
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| EveryWillow's Full Review: General Reviews of Qwest Customer Service |
My roommate and I have been friends since college. While there, she found out about Qwest when it was a seemly (too good to be true) pyramid scheme.
I advised her against investing any money in it until she did more research, and tried the service. Luckily, school ate up her funds, and Qwest was put on hold.
When we moved into our own place after school, we got Qwest Long Distance.
At first things were great. Whenever we visited our respective parents, we had a calling card that billed us as if we'd made a long distance call from home.
....Stuck at the airport, or the Port Authority - I no longer had to call my parents collect, or hunt for a quarter.
But then we moved !
We duly informed Qwest of our new address. But 1 month, then 2 months passed; no bill.
We called to inquire about what was going on. We were told nothing was wrong - Qwest was just in the midst of reorganizing it's network, and **EVERYONE'S** bill was delayed.
2 months later(4 mnths after the move), my roomie pop's into our old apartment building to visit a friend and finds out our phone bill has been collecting on the counter under the mailboxes. Qwest had been sending our mail to our old address!
The bill's envelope was opened. And when she looked inside, Qwest had ALL OUR INFORMATION ON THE BILLING PAGE!
Our phone-number and pin (for the calling card) our password for customer service, EVERYTHING NECESSARY FOR SOMEONE TO CHARGE CALLS TO OUR ACCOUNT. More over, the bill total was $150.
Not a lot of money to some, but considering our long distance never went over 40$ before, and I called my parents in NYC almost every day. That was saying something.
We both called Qwest, explained the situation and asked for an itemized bill. Qwest customer service appologized for the mix-up, claimed they'd check our current bill against our previous calling patterns, and deduct any call we stated wasn't our responsibility.
Too good to be true ? Yes !
The itemized bill never came. Instead, Qwest's computers finally recognized our new address and started sending us our bill again. One of the new bills listed a 2 hr phone call to Canada that neither of us made.
A month later, I picked up the phone to call my mother, and couldn't get through. A quick investigation revealed Qwest had cut off our long distance without notification. (Maybe the notice went to a different address...who knows)
The Qwest operator informed me, I would no longer be able to use Qwest service until I payed my bill. Once again I explained the situation and asked for an itemized bill. I even explained what the word **itemized** meant. And I took the the names of everyone I spoke to.
The operator claimed our long distance would be back on before the end of the day. It wasn't.
I called back, spoke to another customer service person and was told my complaint wasn't even listed in my account files; And this operator had no idea who I'd spoken to previously. I was also told, that it wasn't Quest's responsibility to deal with contested calls. I could pay my bill, and change my pin. But that was all that could be done.
By now, of course, I was tired of dealing with bored and surly telephone operators, who thought they were guardians to the Garden of Eden, instead of the first level of public relations for a consumer based company.
I asked to speak to a manager.
For the next week. Every manager in Qwest's Corporation, was in a meeting. Every supervsior, every department head, EVERYONE, was in a meeting.
I tried going to Qwest's website and calling their headquaters longdistance (using a 10-10 number). There was no one available to deal with me; no one who even had the authority to give me their last name.
And those I did speak to, suddenly didn't know that phone companies do and can send itemized, phone call, by phone call bills.
As of this date, Qwest still hasn't sent an itemized bill, or appologized for anything, not even to claim it was all a misunderstanding.
Even after sending in a written complaint, my roommate and I have had no further communications other than a notice advising us that Qwest will send our bill to a collection agency unless we pay now!...
And of course...the managers who find the time to write & sign these notices, still can't step out of their meetings to take our return phone calls.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
EveryWillow
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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