Problem date: 02/07 time: 9:00am -12:00 pm MST
I Googled Apple’s technical support phone number on the internet. The first phone number I found was 877-923-8468. I assumed this was Apple, the company, and proceeded to make the phone call. I was directed through their operating system (their operating system was very legitimate sounding, too) and selected the option for iphone. The person on the phone did not pick up and inform me of the company's name, he only told me his name. He asked for my name and my phone number. He then asked me information about my phone's serial number. He navigated me through my phone to find the serial number (something that I thought only someone who worked for Apple would know how to do). He then put me on hold for 5 min. And came back and told me that my phone was diagnosed and had a virus that could potentially corrupt all my other home computers/devices. I was told that my phone was out of warranty and I couldn't proceed to technical support until I paid for reinstating my warranty package (which I assumed was my Apple warranty). The warranty packages were $99.99 for 3 months and $250.00 for a year of coverage. I then began complaining about how much I disliked Apple and how I disliked that Apple was supposed to protect me from virus' and didn't. I continued complaining about Apple. I went on complaining for about 2 min. And was never once corrected that I was not speaking with an Apple representative. I asked if I could take my phone to the Apple store and have it checked for virus' there. He said I would have to pay more money there and I would have to wait in line. I reluctantly gave him my credit card information. He proceeded with the transaction and transferred me to technical support. I was on hold for close to an hour before someone picked up and said “Oh sorry, I walked by the phone and saw that it was on hold.” I had to explain everything again about getting a virus and how I needed to know how to fix it. They put me on hold again to further investigate the problem. Eventually, they just hung up on me. I called back a few times and each time I had to speak with a different person and tell them of my dilemma. They kept hanging up on me.in the meantime, I got a hold of a friend who works for Apple. He informed me that the number I had dialed was not an Apple number and that Apple would not charge that much for warranty packages. I called the company back and asked to speak to their billing department to explain that I was unaware that this company was not Apple and I would like a refund not only for falsely representing a business but for not providing me with any services. The man I spoke with was very rude and basically explained that I should’ve known when I dialed the number that I was not speaking to Apple and that instead, I was speaking to “Techzilla”. The billing department would not allow me to get a refund because I had talked to tech support. I did not ever receive technical support. Like I said, I only ever received people hanging up on me. Even now, knowing that I got scammed I regoogled the site and it’s called Apple. MyTechHelp.com. I felt cheated, scammed, and lied to. This should be made illegal. They are stealing and lying to people. I was just too unaware to catch all the signs because I was preoccupied with the fact that my phone had a virus.
0 comments