Here's the short version of my Worldcom story... Those who have had similar experiences can mentally fill in all the gruesome details of waiting endlessly on hold only to be snapped at by rude/incompetant/powerless "customer service" peons. Anyway, I signed up w / Worldcom Wireless almost a year ago, and had to put down a $250 security deposit on signing. Upon signing, I opted for their automatic bank account debit system for paying my bill. This system never actually worked. Every month I had to spend tons of valuable time trying to get their customer service to fix the problem and to bill my account. Every month I was told the problem was fixed, but of course it never actually got fixed.
After a few months of this, I started to see some cryptic notice on my bill that seemed to suggest that they were currently upgrading their billing system, and as such my bill statement may not seem current, and not to worry, I wouldn't be charged any late fees, etc. I took this to mean that eventually they'd get their billing computer sorted out, and they'd eventually debit my account for bills owed to them, but in the meantime I wouldn't be charged any late fees. So I decided to simply leave it up to them - I don't have the time/energy to spend on the phone with those jerks every month.
After about 3 months and $265 worth of bills had piled up, my phone went dead, and I got a letter from their billing dept. Saying that since I hadn't paid my bills, my service was being discontinued! I immediately called to find out what was going on, and after battling a particularly rude and ignorant service peon, I talked to a "supervisor" who SORT OF seemed to know what she was doing, and she said she'd put in an order to debit my account for the $265. At this time, though, I was already fed up enough with Worldcom that I told her that I would be cancelling my service, and that since they breached their contract with me, and had thus rendered it legally null and void, I WOULD NOT be paying the $200.00 early cancellation fee.
Two weeks later, I got a bill for $538, broken down thus: $265 for previous bills (this is the amount I told her to debit, and it had not gone thru yet), $73 worth of new bills, and $200 for the early cancellation penalty! At this point I began a fierce campaign of writing snail mail letters, sending emails, calling on the phone, filing complaints with the FCC, CPUC, BBB, CA State Attorney General, etc. All to no avail.
Another 2 weeks went by, and FINALLY the $265 portion was debited from my account (a month after I ordered them to do this on the phone). Since I still had not resolved the $200 penalty issue, and also since I wanted to make sure I got my $250 security deposit back (which the reps had inexplicably told me I would not be getting back), I went to the internet again to try to find more effective ways of reaching the company. Someone suggested I call their investor relations line and threaten to show up at their next shareholder meeting to inform the shareholder what a lousy company they held stock in. So I did, and the woman on the line immediately put me in touch with a dept. Called "Escalations." Apparently this is a customer service dept. With more authority than the regular customer service dept. The regular customer service dept. Consistently had refused to put me in touch with any higher authority, despite my very loud an persistent demands for them to do so. Anyway, the rep that I talked to in "Escalations" seemed to be reasonably helpful. He immediately waived the $200 penalty, and told me that I would also be getting my $250 security deposit back, minus the outstanding $73 of bills that had not yet been paid. Things started to seem better now, and he even gave me his name and direct phone line.
A few days later, though, Worldcom debited my account for the full $538 amount from the previous bill! In case you're not following the math, what that means is that they took an ADDITIONAL $265 beyond the $265 that was already debited recently, AND they took the $200 penalty that I had been told was waived! Factoring in the $250 security deposit, at this point, Worldcom owed me (and still owes me) $715. MY MORTGAGE WAS DUE IN A COUPLE DAYS, AND I NEEDED THAT MONEY THAT WORLDCOM STOLE FROM ME!
Of course I called the rep back on his direct line to try to sort this out, and after a day or so he finally came back saying that their records did not show either the first $265 debit OR my original $250 security deposit! These records had somehow simply vanished into thin air! I immediately faxed them the relevant bank statements, printed out from the internet. A couple days later they told me that internet statements were not acceptable, and to fax over official bank statements. Well, I had the $250 statement, since that was almost a year ago, but the $265 statement hasn't shown up in my mail yet. So I faxed them the $250 one anyway, and decided to let them stew on that for a few days.
Having not heard from them in a week, I called my guy back yesterday, only to have the phone be answered by a typically rude Worldcom woman who said she did not know the guy I was trying to reach, and obviously I was calling the wrong extension! I argued with her that I had reached him directly at this number many times in the past couple of weeks, and I demanded an explanation. She basically said she could not help me, and HUNG UP! I called back about 15 times, and each time she simply picked up the receiver and hung it back up!!! FINALLY on one redial I actually got through to the guy's voicemail, and of course I left a pretty disgruntled message. I still have not heard back from him, which leads me to believe he either is not getting his voicemail any more, or has simply quit the company. I also tried to fax a message to him at the fax number he had given me, but it was busy for several hours and I could never get a fax through.
SO at this point I'm taking my case to small claims court. I'm filing the papers on Monday. I'll be bringing printouts of similar complaints from this website to help back up my claims. I guess we'll see what happens.
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