N
NDflatlander
Active member
I was holding off on posting this, but today has been the last straw. Either through my parents or myself I've had a cell phone through Cellular One, now Alltel since 1998. I have a couple phones through my plan for the farm and my parents also have a couple. I've been disputing and error in my bill since Dec. 26th and have now been on the phone with Alltel 8 times in the last 15 days. When I recieved my bill it was about $50 higher than usual so after putting it off I finally called and got the charges removed (so I thought) and paid the remaining balance of the bill on time as usual.
I was paying bills on Sun. morning and remembered that I should probably check to make sure that my bill was credited the amount they promised. The bill still remained, so I called Alltel again to make sure that it would be taken care of. After a discussion with a representative that went smoothly I was assured that the credit would post in about 24 hours.
To give them time I again checked the bill on Weds. morning before work and to my suprise the bill hadn't been credited. Another phone call made and I was told that it would be corrected and would post in a day or two. No big deal, it'll be taken care of, it's in their account notes so I was happy with that. During that afternoon I received 3 automated "collection" phone calls from Alltel saying that I have a past due account and my phones would be shut off until they collected that money. Another phone call to Alltel was supposed to have everything taken care of.
Move on to Thurs., that was the day my new billing statement was supposed to come out online. I checked online to have received a late charge for non-payment of the bill that I hadn't even incurred. 2 more phone calls gets me to removing the charges and a huge credit of $10 to my account.
This morning I again have received "collection" phone calls stating that if I don't pay my outstanding balance they will shut off my service. I again called and explained the situation to customer service and was shuffled around for about 30 minutes until I was handed off to a lady that supposedly stopped the "collection" calls. I then talked with a customer service manager to explain how much money, time, and inconvenience this has caused me and asked what Alltel would do to retain me as a customer. His explanation was that by removing the charges that were their mistake was already a huge benefit to me and that that I would essentially be asking for them to give me free money. After telling him that I plan on filing complaints with with whatever agencies I could, more than likely the ND PSC and the FCC, he told me that he didn't need to take my threats and hung up on me.
I will concede that I probably wasn't the nicest guy in the world after the 3rd phone call, but I made it clear to them my frustration and even apologized before I started to lose my temper. After being told many different stories and having to deal with it for 15 days I think anyone would have a temper. If I had to guess I have made 8 calls and spent sometime between 2.5 and 3 hours dealing with this thing. It would have been cheaper for me to pay it.
Based on my experience with Alltel it would be my recommendation not to sign a contract with them. Use a different carrier. Rant over.
I was paying bills on Sun. morning and remembered that I should probably check to make sure that my bill was credited the amount they promised. The bill still remained, so I called Alltel again to make sure that it would be taken care of. After a discussion with a representative that went smoothly I was assured that the credit would post in about 24 hours.
To give them time I again checked the bill on Weds. morning before work and to my suprise the bill hadn't been credited. Another phone call made and I was told that it would be corrected and would post in a day or two. No big deal, it'll be taken care of, it's in their account notes so I was happy with that. During that afternoon I received 3 automated "collection" phone calls from Alltel saying that I have a past due account and my phones would be shut off until they collected that money. Another phone call to Alltel was supposed to have everything taken care of.
Move on to Thurs., that was the day my new billing statement was supposed to come out online. I checked online to have received a late charge for non-payment of the bill that I hadn't even incurred. 2 more phone calls gets me to removing the charges and a huge credit of $10 to my account.
This morning I again have received "collection" phone calls stating that if I don't pay my outstanding balance they will shut off my service. I again called and explained the situation to customer service and was shuffled around for about 30 minutes until I was handed off to a lady that supposedly stopped the "collection" calls. I then talked with a customer service manager to explain how much money, time, and inconvenience this has caused me and asked what Alltel would do to retain me as a customer. His explanation was that by removing the charges that were their mistake was already a huge benefit to me and that that I would essentially be asking for them to give me free money. After telling him that I plan on filing complaints with with whatever agencies I could, more than likely the ND PSC and the FCC, he told me that he didn't need to take my threats and hung up on me.
I will concede that I probably wasn't the nicest guy in the world after the 3rd phone call, but I made it clear to them my frustration and even apologized before I started to lose my temper. After being told many different stories and having to deal with it for 15 days I think anyone would have a temper. If I had to guess I have made 8 calls and spent sometime between 2.5 and 3 hours dealing with this thing. It would have been cheaper for me to pay it.
Based on my experience with Alltel it would be my recommendation not to sign a contract with them. Use a different carrier. Rant over.
