My nightmare started at Best Buy in Tucson when I bought a PC with a $400 rebate for buying the PC. I contracted for 3 years to use MSN as an Internet provider in return. I felt that was ok because I needed the service and it might as well be with MSN as anyone else.
The service was fine for several months but MSN changed modem banks or something and the long and short of it is that the connection and speed deteriorated to an unacceptable level.
If I got on at all, it was a very slow connection rate and it dropped off frequently. Not sure if it was a bad phone line or MSN, I signed on for several free internet connections and found that I did not have the slow service I experienced with MSN.
Whenever I called MSN with the problem, I was told they would investigate. They never got back to me or kept me informed. My tickets would be closed without a word. Finally I was told months later that there was nothing they could or would do. I had connection and really I was lucky, since that was not guaranteed with the contract I signed!
Things got better though when I moved to Tempe last year. I finally got a fairly good connection speed consistently. Meanwhile, DSL became available through a joint MSN/Quest venture.
I did some thinking about it and waited for things to settle down before I signed on.in August, I decided to take the plunge and called to set up the service. I was told it would take a month. No problem. This is a college town and I expected things to be slow as school started.
I called in Sept. To see when I could expect service, as I still had not received my modem. I was told they would investigate. A call was left on my answering machine in October telling me that my service would start in a week. That did not happen. I received a letter of apology in October from MSN promising that things would be resolved shortly.
Since I did not hear anything more after that, I called Quest in November to see what was going on. The representative said she would investigate and call me back to let me know what was going on. She did not do that but INSTEAD, signed me up for DSL through Quest.
I found this out three weeks later when I called them because a modem was delivered to my doorstep and I was not sure of what was going on. Come to find out, I now had two accounts... One with Quest, and my old dial-in with MSN. It took over a month to straighten this out with Quest. I had to return the modem and then reapply to get DSL.
We are now into January. I am still without the DSL ordered in August, and not very confident of getting a connection. Nonetheless, because of the online ads that I saw promising fast connections as well as a promo that waived the $99 set-up fee, I decided to try again.
Because of how confusing the website that showed the promotion I was not sure that I signed-up correctly so I followed it up by a phone call to MSN customer service. I told the agent that I what I had tried to do, and that I wanted to be sure that I was signing up for the special promotion that waved the $99 set-up fee. I told her that I had been having problems since August and that I was an existing customer trying to get DSL.
The customer service representative said she would help me with it and there would not be any more problems. After she checked things out, I was told that I had correctly signed up for the promotion and I was asked if I understood that I would need to have a one-year contract to qualify for that promotion that waved the $99 set-up fee. I told her that was fine with me since I still had a year to go with MSN on my original plan. I was also told that both contracts would be met by my signing up for DSL. So we finished the order together and the representative assured me that I everything was fine and that I was signed-up under that promotion.
During the month or so that I waited for my modem to arrive, and for the new DSL service to start, I stayed in touch with customer service to verify the status of my DSL request, and to make sure no other errors were made. I asked every time I called whether or not they could see that I was signed up under the fee waver promotion. On at least THREE occasions, by three different customer agents, I was told that I was indeed signed under that promotion and that I would not be charged the $99 set-up fee. If at anytime I had been told anything different, I would have canceled the order.
I was shocked and angered when I looked at my bank statement to see a charge $148.95 by MSN for their service instead of the monthly $49.95 that I was told to expect. I called up MSN and asked them why I was being charged that amount. I was told it was for the set-up fee plus one month of service. I explained to them that I signed up on a promotion that waved the set-up fee and the customer service agent said that she did not see that in my account and would research it. Today when I called back I was told that I should have read the fine print when I signed up online and that I did not qualify for the promotion because I was an existing customer. This is contrary to what I had been told when I signed up for DSL. When I tried to tell the customer service agent today that I had called in and that this was done by phone, he would not listen to me.
Another point I would like to make is that even though I may want to discontinue my DSL service, I won't be allowed to. They will hold me to the one-year contract even though they say I am not entitled to the promotion they promised. I know, because I have tried to terminate my service with them before and would have had to pay hundreds of dollars to them to terminate the contract.
I DID NOT authorize the $99 set-up free and I strongly contest this charge. It was levied against my account in a deceitful manner. It is my hope that by taking the time I have to post this experience here, others may be more careful with their interactions with MSN.
Marguerite
Tempe, Arizona
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