I obtained and was approved for lifeline cell service with assurance wireless at the end of july, beginning of august. On september 10th, I received a notice from the california lifeline program indicating a request to change providers from assurance to nexus. The letter also stated that if I did not request the change, I was to contact Assurance Wireless at 888-321-5880 and ask to switch it back. I then received a notice from Assurance wireless on Sept 13 indicating my service was going to be terminated.
I then contacted Assurance wireless on September 15th indicating I did not want my service terminated or switched, I explained to customer care that the switch was unauthorized and per California Lifelines instructions, I am requesting the service be switched back.
On September 17, OurTeamAssurance responded as follows but ignored my request to have the service switched back:
“After reviewing our records, we confirmed that your Assurance Wireless service was not approved because you have been transferred to another carrier. We definitely suggest that you contact the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) Group at 866-706-2187. Once you get in contact with them, will be receiving the correct information about it.”
On September 18, OurTeamAssurance repeated the above response and again ignored my request to have the service switched back per California Lifeline Instructions.
On September 19, OurTeamAssurance again repeated the above response but then added that I now needed to re-apply with assurance if I wanted my service back.
On September 20, I provided documentation to OurTeamAssurance (see attached letter nexus. Pdf) indicating lifeline account associated with nexus is now terminated.
On September 20 I faxed new application and documentation to Assurance Wireless
On September 23, OurTeamAssurance confirmed that my fax and documentation was received. And that it would take a couple of weeks to process.
On September 24, OurTeamAssurance sent the following email:
“We reviewed our records and we noticed that your application has been denied because you have been transferred to another carrier. You will be receiving a letter in the mail indicating the denial reason along with another application to apply for the service. If you still want Assurance Wireless service, please fill out and return the application.”
It was at this point that I also began requesting to speak with a supervisor only to be completely ignored.
Clearly my first concern is to get my service back with the same phone and phone number
Secondly, Id like to know the policy on switching services as California lifeline indicates all I needed to do was call Assurance and request a switch back but Assurance would not do this, nor would they talk about it.
Thirdly, When a customer requests to speak with a supervisor and have their issue escalated, What is Assurances policy on this. My request was completely ignored and continues to be ignored. It was only through my internet research was I able to locate the email address [email protected]. A Person from Assurance Media Relations forwarded my request to the corporate executive offices.
Lastly, How is it possible for a corporation that is as large as this one, that is affiliated with Virgin Mobile and Sprint, that has a government contract, is able to simply ignore customer inquiries and requests and get away with it? There does not appear to be any accountability, checks or balances, or any type of oversight. It is only because of my persistence, background and experience was I able to get around customer care as they do not make it easy and information on the internet is extremely limited. However due to the government contract they carry, there are avenues one can take, it just requires more time, unfortunately for Assurance, the more they ignore my issues, the more persistent I become.
So, I have currently filed complaints with OSAC, the public utilities commission, California lifeline and the FCC. I have 2 responses from the FCC, 1 from the utilities commission who are awaiting respsonses from assurance/virgin mobile and 1 from california lifeline. As I said, it does take 30-60 days however, if you include virgin mobile and sprint, their appears to be more of an urgency.
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