I purchased phone service from this company. Went down to the state of Mississippi to stay with family members after my wife passed away on 9/11/01. I left in December and stayed till Feburary 02. A neice and nephew was taking care of my NJ home in my absence.
I left my Voice Stream Phone home due to being informed there was no service in the area was going to be at. After making a payment on January 11 for $72.00 I was notified via telephone that my neice had moved out and took the phone with her without my permission.
My nephew back here in New Jersey on my instructions contacted her and informed her to return the phone back to the house. She stated that she would be there in a couple of days to return it. Upon hearing that I contacted Voice Stream Customer care to have the phone suspended before the bill could get out of hand. I was told that I could not have the phone suspened without paying a $200.00 fee.
This unknown male failed to give me his name or rep number and also made no notes on his computer on my request to suspend the service till either the phone was returned or I returned from Mississippi.
I was told that could not be done. I then called back a week later after I was informed that the phone was not returned. I was informed that I could not suspend the service at this time but no mention of the $200.00 fee this time. Then I called again on te 27th of January to be told that there was nothing that could be done to interup the service. I then was informed that a bill arrived at my NJ address for 547.00 for calls made on the phone past the alloted minutes of the plan.
Then and only then did a female customer care rep inform that the phone could be suspended. This rep was the First rep that wanted to get this resolved and contacted a
supervisor AMY who looked over the account and told me that I was no told or given proper information on options available to me to suspend the service. She then made an adjustment to the bill going back to the 27th of January. She would shut the phone off till I returned and either came in with another phone and purchased a new Sim Card for it or recovered the missing phone.
Then Amy informed me that they were going to turn the phone back on and contact there fraud department to see if they could track the location of the missing phone. I asked Amy if you turn that phone on again who is responsible for any futher charges incurred on it. She informed me that they were. That the bill was not my responsibillity. The fraud dept. Would contact me on the results. Any futher action that wasrequired of me upon my return to my home. Then I was sent a bill for 1100.00 for charges made on the phone after they turned it back on. I call them up again I was abused by the customer care party who answered on February 11. I expained about the phone being taken without my permission and the adjustment to the bill by the supervisor Amy. I was then told another supervisor was reading it over and reversed the adjustment because he didn't like the way she wrote it up.
I then asked was this supervisor in charge of Amy. The rep then told me no he was not and he just seen it laying on a desk and read it over did not like the way she wrote it up and he reversed it till she writes it up better. Whe I asked how can that be? The rep became sarcastic & abusive I started to lose my cool on this So I thought it best to hang up and cool down a bit prior to calling back.
After cooling down I called back and this rep wanted to know the first day I called in to report the missing. I told them that it was the 13th of January they told me that they had no records of any such calls prior to that. I informed them that I am a customer and have no controll over their employee's or if the followed their proper proto call on leaving notes on any conversations. The rep became hostile it didn't matter the adustmet was reversed and I was responsibe for all the charges. Then informed me that their fraud office sent it back saying that it was a dispute between me and who stole the phone from my home. Some of these conversations were one to two sometimes close to three hours with no resolve to the problem. Then after numerous calls there again the bill was adjusted giving me a total due of $62.03. At which I responded to a Store in Freehold NJ to pay.
At the store they contacted the billing department on which the rep was abusive and very un professional. That the manager of the store asker me to be sure I got her name and rep ID number after he could hear me talking the and hear her attitude and unprofessionalism toward me while standing next to me. She then hung up me. So the manager recalled again only to get the very same rep. Where I informed here that I had this pay off figure from another supervisor for the $62.03 and I wanted to just add another payment of $200.00 to terminate the service totally and be done with them and their unproffesional rudness.
She then proceeded to insult me futher by offering me a new phone or a months free service not to terminate. Which I declinded both. I then was transfered to another rep who told me that I had a $600.00 adjustment pending. That if I was to terminate that they would reverse it and bill me the full amount. I asked them when would I know for sure if this adustment is finalized he said in a week the longest and that he would call me back. Well never heard from him or any other rep's but did receive a bill for 1300 dollars again. Then I called again to be informed that the phone was still on. I asked who authorized it to be turned on. They turned me over to a combative supervisor. Who seemed to mellowout to the point of listening to me when I informed I was not calling to fight with him but wanted his help in resolving this and with his computer could he acess or trace whom turned the phone on and when. Ater holding on hold for 20 minutes he came back on the line and told me he was embarassed becaues he can only find notations on my calls which I had that phone turned off three different times since speaking to the supervisor Amy but nothing or any tye of trace on how or whom restored the phone to serviceat all. Then hung up without saying anything else or even informing me was going to terminate the call. So I called back to get a totally different rep and have to go through this whole thing from the begining again.
This rep read me back the notes the supervisor left not mentioning any on our conversation what was said. Only that I was in formed to get a police report on the the theft of the phone from my home when I was away. Only he forgot to verbably tell me that himself only put it into his notes on the computer for the company to see. When you call the customer care they always inform you that the conversations are being recorded or monitored for training purposes. I certainally hope so.
If a company exective was to play them and compare them to the notes left by their personal on the computers. I would hope there would be some big changes in te personal or the training of the customer care personal. They tell you to contact the second level customer care which I don't understand for a Phone company there is no phone number available. The want you to fax them or write them a letter. I can see that after to make contact with a rep from there who will tell what exactly they need to resolve this That you one rep working with the case not 30 or more different ones where you have to keep starting over & over each time like a broken record. Thru out this ordeal that is ready to give me a heart attack over.
I had in the early part of this ordeal my neices name on the account as an authorized user. Till the phone was taken and not returned. I had her name remover from the account three occassions only to find out it mysteriously reappeared again on it. And the phone would mysteriously turn on again without my authorization after I turn it off. That there are no trace or notations on how she was put back on the account or the service was turned on. Especially with a bill as high as this and me calling all the time to make sure that the service is still off.
Now the bill has risen to $1467.35 all after I had turned off the service. The amounts prior to that were paid in full as quoted by their company personal on which I rightfully owed. The party with the phone went into a store to pay the bill in full. Then a Rep Ken from the phoneless 2nd level customer care phoned me at my home to inquire if I minded if they paid the bill in full. I told him to get the money from them if they wanted to pay. They have the phone and that the phone was removed from home without my permission. Then Ken asked me to put her name on the account so the bill could be sent directly to her. Which I refused to authorize or returning that phone to active service. Till the responsible party either paid the bill and returned the phone back to me. So I was sure even if the phone was mysteriously turn back on again there would be no futher charge incurred.
Well, informed as usual that I would be called back by Ken on the out come. Still have not heard from him as of this date 5//11/ 02. Upon not hearing from him I called back to check on the statius. I was informed by the rep who read me Ken's notes on Which he admitted blowing for the company by telling her the the phone was not going to be turned on before getting the balance owed from them. Upon hearing that they left the store without making any payment at all. This company turns on the phone service with out your authoriztion than wants you to to pay for it. The training of the supervisory personal and rude demeanor they exhibit toward the customer surely reflects down to the subonates when dealing with customers.in my opinion leads one to wonder strongly about whether the right people are in the supervisory postions what training they they receive in handling customers problems.
There customer care can threaten you with legal action on you dispute of the billing. On the other hand if the customer mentions legal action back that is against their rules and they have to end the call. Or like I mentioned prior they announce they are recording the calls upon calling them.
You ask them if you can record the call of this session so as everyone will be on the same level the tapes should match their notes on the computer entries. They tell you it is against their rules for you to record them and they have to end the call.
While they run you around & around on the first time you called in to get assistence from them.insisting that you called later than you did.in my particular case they told me I called in later than I originally did. Then during the coversation they have no record of any notes from the customer care party you spoke with so you never called in.in my case I asked the rep to check my account on the date I said I called in and he found that it was accessed on that date. I asker for the reps name & ID number who accessed my account on that date. I was promply refused that information. I could her the rep saying some thing and He told me that he was emailing him on which he stated he received no responce. Then told me voice stream has 7,000, 000 customers there would be no way to check that out. I responded to the rep out of 7,000, 000 Voice customers why would a customer care rep pick my account out to access on a day & time to me that I told you I first called in on. The response was he left no notes at all on the call.
I informed him I have no control over the customer care reps especially what they either put or don't put in the computers as notes. They try and give you the impression that it is your fault that there customer care personal are not doing right by the customer or the company with their actions, attitude, rude treatment of the people they rely upon for their job security, with out us, the customer they can close up. Try and pay their bills from the unemployment line.
This is a long winded complaint that fails to cove all my encounters with this company trying to resolve this problem. Especially after giving me the wrong information and not explaining my options to me Art
Brick, New Mexico
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