Filed Oct 11th.
I was on a 6 month payment plan for a Metrocall pager. My payment was due on the first of July for the July thru Dec time frame. At the time, I was in a dilema of whether to pay for 6 months *ahead of the service* knowing Metrocall had filed bankruptcy.
Metrocall turned off my service on July 13th for nonpayment. Fair enough, I don't expect them to provide a service with no payment.
Metrocall contacted me in the first week of August about my bill. I explained my dilema, the billing rep was nice about it, and said we could change to monthly payment plan. She said she'd get back to me, which she never did.
By the end of August, no new statement had arrived, only a repeat of the 6 month statement.
Metrocall did contact me at the end of August to ask why I had not paid my 6
month charge plus the late fee. When I explained I wanted on a monthly plan
and if she knew the charge we could pay it by credit card right then and
there, the rep put me on hold, and after about ten minutes of waiting, the
line disconnected. Metrocall made no attempt to call me back.
I have never seen an invoice for a monthly payment from Metrocall.
Then, in the middle of September, Metrocall called me again, asking why I had not payed my 6 month bill. I explained what had happened, but that I absolutely refused to pay for the month of August because Metrocall had failed to get me the invoice I needed to make the payment. The billing rep was very insistent, and started threatening to report me to the credit bureau and turn it over to a collection agency. After I re-iterated that it was nuts for me to pay for service I had not received, I thought we finally agreed to cancel the service entirely.
1) On Sept 21st, Metrocall sent an invoice, with a credit for 1/2 of the bill, and it looked like every other invoice I've ever received, covering me thru December. So, while it's not on a monthly basis, it is at least quarterly, and it looks like Metrocall had conceded my point about not requiring payment for non-service.
2) On the morning Oct 10th, I sent in my check for that invoice ($37.61), which was not due until Oct 15th.
3) On Oct 10th, in the mail afternoon, I recieved a letter from Metrocall, dated Oct 2nd, which said they had cancelled my service, and if I did not send them a check for $37.61, they would turn it over to a collection agency.
— I have not re-read the fine print on anything I may have signed on the original contract, but it is absurd that a company can get away with charging for a service it did not render. For all I know, there may be laws against this in the State of Washington, if not, there should be. I'm sending a complaint to the Attorney General's office.
Points 1), 2) and 3) above clearly indicate a deceptive manuever on the part of Metrocall, and I hope other Metrocall customers can be wary of this practice, before they get abused by Metrocall as well.
Jeff
Tacoma, Washington
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