ALLTELL/ALTELL Wireless; RipOff billing and consumer *uninformation have been the reason we will have no Christmas this year. I bought my first cell phone from Altell, our ONLY service provider in our home area. That's when all the problems began.
I was not informed, when this phone was stolen, that I would have to ask to have it disconected and service halted. I also did not know that in addition to my contractual disconnect fee they would charge me an additional $125!
My first phone was stolen. My hisband and I called ALTELL to notify them and discontinue service. We thought this was all we needed to do. I then get my bill and discover several large charges for srvices that I had not contracted for, along with my caller ID and regular billing.
I called ALTELL back to inform them that they had billed me for a phone that I had reported stolen just 2 weeks prior. I was informed that that service was still active and I would have to go to the office in my area to have it disconnected.
I then went to my local ALTELL office and had the service disconected. To this point I had NEVER signed ANYTHING! I had no contract in hand and I was informed that the disconect fee would be $225, NOT the $175 which was in my so called agreement/contract. I then agreed to pay this amount on my phone bill at the cost to me of $26.73 a month, (including service charges and taxes) just to be rid of it.
After all of the billing was settled, I purchased another phone to replace the one that was stolen. I was not given any information other than I should purchase insurance to get the cell phone replaced incase of loss, theft or dissatisfaction. I purchased the insurance.
I began using the phone only to find in a few days it did not hold a charge. I then took it back to the local Altell office to have it replaced. I was told that I can get a new phone and a second phone with a new package deal. What I WASN'T told was that this is a NEW line and an additional charge to me. I had been under the assumption that this was a replacement for the phone I had just returned. WRONG! I recieved my next billing with the third phone charge, the $26.73 thinking I was being charged for the stolen phone, when in actuality it was a charge for the nonworking phone I had returned. The stolen phone had been paid off already.
It wasn't until today that we found out about the erronious charge for a non existant phone. I revieved my Altell Wireless bill only to read a collection threat because we owed on a phone that should have been payed off. I then began the nightmare of trying to call Altell to get this straighteded out. I was informed that I was paying for the previos phone, which I returned because the Altell office in Helena Georgia did NOT inform me that they had to disconnect the old phone service, as per my request*
Now I am paying for a phone I haven't used and that I returned to Altell in Helena Georgia. I called to speak to the billing department and was turned over to customer service when I was informed of the extra phone charge. It took me another three hours of calling, calling back waiting an hour total on hold. I was then told I would have to talk to my local office to have the service diconnected and my money refunded. WRONG AGAIN! I was told by my local office that they would ONLY refund THREE months of the charges I had been paying for 16 months. I was then hung up on, after I asked to speak to a manager.
I went back to calling Altell Wireless' main number and finally got a woman who understood the problem. She told me she would have her supervisor call me back to get this all sorted out, I have still not recieved that phone call.
To date, Altell has ripped me off for over $350 for two phones I do not even own. Unfortunatly they r the only service in my area or I would have run a long time ago to the next available service! DO NOT USE ALTELL WIRELESS, you'll be in for a nightmare and a very rude awakening!
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