My husband and I purchased Nextel phones and service in Nov. Of 2004. My mother-in-law purchased her phone and service at the same time. When my husband placed the order for our phones there was no credit check. When I looked over what my husband had already ordered I realized he had ordered something wrong.
I called to change what he had ordered and they told me I was not on the account. My husband had to call and have them add me on to the account because he works out of town in places that have no phone service, and I would be the one calling if we ever had a problem. After we got that worked out I called them back to change what he had messed up. I did not add anything to the service just took off something we didn't want in the first place. After I got it worked out I asked her what our total was going to be and it was going to be $400.00 more than the original because they sent our order through a different part of Nextel, one who does require a credit check. I still didn't understand why there was a $200.00 fee for each phone when our credit was really good. Our credit was actually better than his mother's and she wasn't required to pay anything extra. I spent 3 hours talking to many different people trying to find out what the problem was. Most of the people I spoke to were very hard to understand.
After 3 hours of not getting anywhere I was in tears so I called my husband who called Nextel from his motel room. They finally let him talk to a manager when he told them forget it he would get service elsewhere. The manager authorized no $400.00 fee if we would allow them to take the payments directly out of our account. The manager also authorized two free car chargers because my husband spent 2 1/2 hours talking to them.
We thought everything was fine until we got our phones. They had messed something up with our order and when I tried to activate them and they told me I wasn't on the account. My husband had to again call and have them put me on the account.
We moved into our new home two months after we got our service. When we got moved in we realized we had no phone service anywhere around our home. When we purchased our phones we were told that new towers were going up everyday in our area. I called to ask if they had an idea of how long it might be before we got service in our area and the woman said she had no idea.
Eight months after we moved into our new home we still had no service near our home. I am a stay-at-home mom so I am at home most of the time. We were paying $65.00 for me to have a phone in case of emergencies, that I may have only used 10 minutes a month. We decided to cancel my phone because we had a two year contract with them. My husband had a work cell so I used his personal phone if I left the house. When I called to cancel my phone the woman AGAIN said I wasn't on the account so my husband called and authorized it AGAIN. She tried to talk me out of it and I told her I only used about 10 minutes a month and we pay for 300 and she said "oh now I'm sure you use more than that" in a very rude tone. I told her to pull it up and look because we don't have service near our home and once again I was told "oh well towers are going up in your area everyday". I told her no thanks to just cancel it and she told me it would be cheaper to ride out my contract than to cancel it (which is sad at $65.00 a month) but I laughed and said no thanks since my mother-in-law is paying the fee for me. She finally cancelled it.
Now over a year later my husband's contract is finally up. We still have no service near our home so they must build those towers really slow. We decided to get Cingular phones. My husband called on the 6th the day before our payment comes out and cancelled his phone. When he called today on the 13th to find out why they hadn't cancelled it we were told that our service is from the 23rd to the 23rd so we were already into a new month. So we will still have service until then that I can't use because of no towers.
Nextel has been the most difficult company I have ever worked with. Their employees have no clue what they are talking about. They try to make you feel stupid and out talk you. Out of the probably 40 different people I talked to I only remember one woman who was nice. I started crying because I couldn't figure out why buying cell phones was so hard and she apologized that I was having a hard time and told me she would do whatever she could to help me. One person out of 40 in CUSTOMER SERVICE who tried to help me.
On a positve note we just got our Cingular phones, we had no trouble ordering them and the customer service people were very nice. We also have phone service IN our home which means I can actually use my phone. If you are trying to decide what company to go to, for your own sanity stay away from Nextel.
Kalyn
St. Albans, West Virginia
U.S.A.
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