Cricket Communications
Defective phones, bank account ripoffs, horrible customer service

I have had my cricket phone for over 3 years. I have never had a problem with cricket up until recently. My cell phone was stolen and about 4 months ago my daughters phone was also stolen. I had my daughters service suspended until i was able to buy her a new phone. I called automated service to advise on such, I was helped out by a very nice woman who advised me that because ive been a loyal customer and never been late with a payment that she would help me.
So to help me out, this very nice woman told me that both accounts would be credited dollar for dollar on the price of the phones. Ex: if my phone was $130, i would be credited $130 on my account. That was for both lines. She also explained that if i went in to the store and the new phone was $130, I would just pay the taxes and walk out the door.
Well, needless to say, I went to go buy the phone and was told that I had to pay full price for the phones and then cricket would just credit my next bill. That was my first problem with cricket It would have made more since for me to pay the $85 through my insurance and get a brand new phone and not have to pay $179 which is the price of the phone that was stolen. I kept the credit on my daughters phone and went to the Monroeville office to purchase my phone thru insurance.
I waited in line for about 45 minutes. I chose to get the Samsung siren and change my phone number. $85 for the phone and $15 for the number change. Total was $100. I gave the lady $50 cash and $50 on my card. Being as though the store was busy, the rep was not paying attention and swiped my bank card for $100. This amount was automatically placed on hold through my bank. This happend on Saturday 11/10/07. I noticed the hold on my account by Monday November 13th. I called the office to notify them of their error. I also have the receipt with that swipe. I was told that the rep who took the transaction noticed the error and "edited" the transaction back to $50. (No one bothered to call me that night to tell me of the error! I had to call them) Although it was edited, the original $100 was considered a pending transaction thru my bank and would not be released back onto my account for 6 days. Due to the rep swiping my card and putting my available funds on hold, it caused my account to overdraft 9 times. (small transactions that overdrafted @ $34 per transaction). On Monday the 13th, my phone went totally blank with a white screen. It would not charge or show anything on it. I had to go back to the Monroeville store and have them exchange the phone for ANOTHER new one. This one of course has minor problems that I just dont have the energy to confront them with yet. They luckily did replace it with no problems! (2nd issue) Anyway, I went to the Cricket store with my bank statement showing that this was their error and BRANDY (the supposed store manager) was very prompt in saying that there was NOTHING that they could do and because the transaction was edited, it was not their fault that my bank placed it on hold. Well, quite frankly, how is my bank responsible? They were not the ones who initiated the transaction, nor were they notified that the $100 was swiped in error and was supposed to be voided. That was my third issue with Cricket. I then referrred to calling the automated line and spoke with a lead rep on November 17th. She was very understanding and advised me there was no reason why i should not get a refund. She gave me the number to send in my supporting documents which i sent in 4 times to the same number. She also took the "claim" to be submitted to corporate. I was told that total process should take about 24-48 hours. That next week was Thanksgiving so i wasnt expecting much. On the 23rd i started calling the automated line to check the status of the refund. Since then, I have not been able to get through to a live rep. Today is November 30th. I have had to call a cricket office ive never been to before to get some answers. Needless to say, I am still being told that my account is "still being reviewed" and even once it is, they more than likely would not be responsible. All my documents including the receipts, my bank statements and a letter are proving that this is their error. No one has called me, asked me any questions or even verified that my supporting documents were received. I have deposited over $500 in my bank account and they have taken every cent to cover the overdraft fees and other transactions that I had that were supposed to be covered if the fees did not go through. I DO NOT HAVE MO NEY TO JUST THROW AWAY TO THE WIND! I am at my wits end with this whole matter and will not hesitate to go Federal with this. I think the cricket corporation should be ashamed that websites such as this one can hold 183 accounts of bad service, rip offs, bad phones and not do a thing about it except have some nitwit who is getting paid by cricket to get on this website and try to give cricket a good name by saying they are an ex employee with good advice. How can a company be known for such bad customer service. I am a customer service rep for a pharmaceutical company and their reputation would NEVER allow such complaints to go on the internet without doing something about satisfying their customers/patients!

Tina
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.

Company: Cricket Communications
Country: USA
State: Pennsylvania
City: Monroeville
Phone: 4126354562
Site: www.mycricket.com

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