Why I hate Alltel.
Written: Apr 18 '02
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Pros: You get a cell phone that seems to work fairly well.
Cons: You get the runaround with with service questions, and nothing but bills in writing.
The Bottom Line: The phone works well enough, but the charges are absurd and never explained properly.
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| Ceruleanspiral's Full Review: Alltel Mobile Phone Service in Tampa/St. Petersbur... |
I hate Alltel (and the ex for causing this). Here’s why:
First, back about a year ago, I signed up for a phone so the ex could use it. He paid for the phone, and said he’d pay the monthly bills. He just couldn’t get a cell in his own name because of credit problems. So I did it.
Then the breakup. Boo-hoo, he kept the phone, I called to cancel the service in the beginning of October. Well, I was told that since I had a contract, it would cost me $180 to cancel. I was told I had the option to suspend the phone instead, and transfer the service at a later date should I decide to buy another phone. Or I could cancel it then, and pay the fee.
Since I thought I might want to get a different phone, I suspended the service. This was after paying a $277 overdue bill, and a $50 current bill. What I was not told while taking care of this, was that I would continue to incur charges while the phone was suspended. I thought that once I re-started the service, I would re-start monthly payments.
Well I was way off. Not only did they charge me the monthly, they also somehow tacked on other fees. This was two weeks AFTER I had paid the $277 and the $50. So I had a new bill, less than a month later, for $125.
Which I foolishly paid, being unclear until several months later what the charges actually were. Because they never give you anything in writing, and you can never talk to the same person during an entire phone call. Every time I called them I had to talk to at least two departments.
So it’s the end of November, and I get another bill. This is after the $125 too. It’s a bill for TWO months worth of charges. What? Yes. One month later, I had two months of charges. And that’s not all, my normal rate of $50 a month, has gone up to around $70. But I just ignored it, figuring it was sent before the suspension information was processed.
Then I moved due to the breakup. I notified Alltel of my new address. I didn’t receive any other correspondence until February, when I got a past due bill warning me they would be turning over to collections, a $450 overdue bill.
$450 worth of charges, run up on a self-suspended UNUSED phone, in less than four months.
I knew there was something wrong. So I called the service number. I was told that they couldn’t do anything about it, and that I would have to go to the main “hub” in the city I purchased the service. I now live about an hour away from there, but was told that the hub near me now, and all the little satellite stores wouldn’t do.
I dutifully drove down to the “hub” on a free day. I spoke with the people at the desk there. I was told that they could NOT, in fact, help me, and that I would need to call the customer service line (the SAME LINE that referred me to them), and talk to someone there.
I decided to use their courtesy phone, instead of driving home first. Just in case. I was on the phone, between being on hold and transfers to other departments (three departments that day), about two and a half hours. This was in March, about two weeks before Easter.
I did not yell. I did not threaten. I did not swear. I tried to be as polite as possible, while still getting people to understand why I didn’t feel I should have that many charges. I explained how I was perfectly willing to pay the $180 to cancel as per the contract, but that I didn’t see that I should pay the rest of it on an unused phone.
I also told them to go ahead and cancel it too, even though I thought it would tack on another $180 for me to deal with. I just didn’t want to keep getting more monthly charges. The girl I talked to said she did that, then I convinced her I should maybe talk to a supervisor to see if they could help me with my problem outside of standard procedure.
As I spoke to the supervisor, I told her that I had just cancelled it. I told her I was willing to pay that new $180 charge, but asked if she could help me with the rest. Well, she said that my account didn’t SHOW a cancellation, but she would put it through. She then said she could take off the one current monthly charge, but not the rest. At that point I was down to about $360. I would have to talk to another department to talk more, but she said it was the lowest they’d go.
She also told me, when I was concerned about the final cancellation and requested it in writing, that her word as shift supervisor was “bond”. She said there wasn't anything that could, or even needed to be sent.
While I was on the phone with this supervisor, everyone who worked in the Alltel hub had walked by. They knew I was there. They saw I was upset. And one guy actually looked at me and said, “Smile! It can’t be that bad!” I swear I wanted to leap out of the chair and strangle him with the courtesy phone cord.
I glared at him, and told him it won’t be as soon as I get rid of the (less than lady-like language) phone. Heh.
He got a little huffy- frowning and telling me not to swear, but then slipped right into smiling helpful guy mode. He did have a calming effect, with a soft voice and southern accent. While I was on hold, he took my name and cell number. He said he would see what he could do, and come back. He said he knew someone in billing he could perhaps talk to.
While he was finding his friend in billing, I was talking to the supervisor. She was the one that told me that the $125 was because my phone had been stopped for non-payment, and then charged again for reactivation. She also confirmed that this was showing two WEEKS after I paid the original $277 bill, the $50, and suspended service myself. She still claimed not to see why that was a false charge, and how I should be credited for it. Since they're two different departments after all. The billing and the one that does cancellations I mean.
After finishing with the phone supervisor, I went to find the guy and see what he had to say. Well, first I went into the bathroom to cry because I had been there for three hours (half hour before the phone people). Then I went to find him. I’m sure I looked great for business.
He told me that he got it down to $250. Which for me was way better than $360, but not what I wanted. It also didn’t include that day’s $180 cancellation. I told him the whole story from the beginning, about the breakup and overdue bill. About all the payments I had made, and rules I wasn’t informed of. I guess he felt bad for me, so he said he’d try again for me. Just to make sure he couldn’t help more.
The person he spoke to had gone to lunch or something. So he said I could go home, and he’d call me there with what information he found out later that day. This was around three, maybe three-thirty in the afternoon. They close at seven, so I figured that would be easy to do. I thanked him, apologized for swearing, and left with his card.
When I got home I noticed he was the sales manager from the “hub”. Not just a regular sales guy. That gave me a bit of hope, thinking he could help me better than someone with less authority. Well, too bad didn't call me back that night.
I waited a couple days, and then called the number on his card. It was voicemail, so I left a message. He didn’t call me back, so I called again the next day. Again I got his voicemail and left a message. The next day he finally called me with some “great news”. He called his contact and got my whole bill, cancellation included because of those extra fees I paid, down to $140.
So I drove all the way down there again, on good Friday, to pay this bill. I was so ready to have it just done with. I took a check for $140, with “Final Bill” in the memo, to pay this thing. When I got there, I saw that all that was left was the $144.04, and the $180 cancellation. He told me that he would just tack the $4.04 onto the $180 to be credited for me.
He said he had thought the $180 had been returned already, but must have gotten overlooked in the credits. He told me that since it was good Friday, billing was closed. That meant he couldn’t get anyone to credit me that day, but it would be done the following Monday for sure. I was also given a receipt that says, “current charges… $0.00”.
Since I’m all about getting stuff in writing, I drove down again on Monday to get a print screen from them showing my credited $180, my zero balance, and my completed cancellation on one page. The sales manager wasn’t there then, so I talked to another woman.
When the guy who was also there looked up my account it didn't come up right away. He had to hunt all strange for it, because it wasn't "active". I was taking that as a good sign. I'm thinking now she just didn't know how to work it. She showed the $140 credit, and the credit for all EXCEPT the $184.04. She couldn’t help with billing, the manager wasn’t there, and the people on the phone just ran me around in circles with various versions of “no, leave us alone you deadbeat non-payer”. The sales woman at the "hub", who was also nice to me, took my name and number.
She also confirmed that it looked like my account had ALREADY been charged $180 a while back for cancellation, and that was INCLUDED in the original $450, even though I was still getting current charges since being charged that $180, and not cancelled at all. She said she’d give the message to the manager, and that he would take care of it the next day when he came in.
Then, like an idiot, I didn’t follow up right away. What do I get in the mail today? A BILL! What does the bill have? My cancellation fee of $180, the leftover $4.04, and ANOTHER current use charge! I’m not sure if this $180 was the new cancellation fee after having the original one paid. Or if it’s the same one that wasn’t credited properly. I can never get straight answers.
I called as soon as I read the bill. The girl said she couldn’t help me, but she’d get a supervisor or someone else to call me back within a half hour.
Forty-five minutes later I called back and talked to someone else. She also said she couldn’t do anything about the $180, but she said she removed the new current charge. She told me that my account showed as cancelled on March 14th. She also said it looked like it was AFTER my contract had run out.
Hmm. So the $180 is an EARLY cancellation fee, it may or may not be an old charge from when my phone wasn’t cancelled, and my account shows as cancelled AFTER my contract has expired? But I can’t get any more runaround answers tonight, because the department I need to talk to is CLOSED. I’ll have to call and discuss my contract expiration and old early cancellation fee for services never cancelled some more tomorrow.
I’m about ready to throw up my hands and let them put it on my credit so I can just contest the damn thing with the $0.00 charges receipt and the “Final Bill” check that they cashed. I’m thinking it may be easier that way, but it looks like I’m SO CLOSE!
Sigh.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): unresolved
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Epinions.com ID:
Ceruleanspiral
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Member: Echo
Location: Florida
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 2 members
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