Dear Sirs and/or Madames,
I am writing to tell you what a ridiculously bad experience I have had with Qwest. I am so exhausted from the battle in which I've had to engage in order to do business with you. As I type, I am realizing how insane the story is, but I am compelled to share it with you because I really don't think you (the company, by no means do I mean you personally) mean to treat people this way.
I would like to start by saying that I used to love Qwest, and I've been a customer since even before the company was called Qwest. I made the horrible mistake of bundling services. Later I moved to a new location and tried to transfer services. At that time, I learned that you couldn't provide the satellite TV to my new location. I called out three different satellite folks (two from you, and one from a local company), and they all said that because of the pines in my yard, there wouldn't be a line of sight.
At that time, the bundle became too expensive because I had to pay for the cable to be delivered by someone else. I had to cancel the services, but since I was locked into the cell phone contract, I kept them open. At that time, unbeknownst to me, you opened a separate account with only the cell phones on the bill. However, you kept billing me under the other account for everything. After about four months, I came to realize that I had been paying 300.00 or more per month for my cell phones. It took me three months, and hours on the phone, and being hung up on twice (put on hold until you actually closed for the day&twice), and I finally got the customer service people to at least credit me for the cable and internet that I had cancelled months earlier but was still being charged. Still, I could not get your customer service people to understand that there were two bills for the same time periods. I got close one time, but then the gal became stunned when she finally got it. She put me on hold to go get help from someone else and never came back.
Finally, I sent you, the QC group a formal letter, and I was contacted by a very nice woman from your department. Most nearly all of the problems were straightened out. Eventually I ended up being credited all but $50.00 which I gave up on just because I was so happy that someone finally helped to straighten out the accounts. Things went fairly well for a couple of months, but when one of my cell phone contracts expired, I chose not to renew. Again, we started with the problems in billing.
Again a new "mystery" account was opened, despite what I had been promised in December. Not knowing about it... Trusting your people in what they said I kept paying under the old cell phone... My phone was shut off at the beginning of March.
I called and said, "no, it's not past due, and I think I know what happened." The gal promised me that no, this time it was actually different, and that there was only one account, but you could see some of the charges under both phone numbers (but strangely, not all of the charges, which still has me worried). She told me that if your bill is past due for even a day, it is shut off. I looked at my hard copy records and saw that I had gone over the payment due date by a few days (not even a week), so I asked if I could see what I owed to bring it current. Our conversation went something like this.
OK, that's fine. How can I get to this account for 000-000-0000 so I can see what I need to pay?
You have to request a security code.
How do I do that?
You can't do that because your service is suspended. You can have one mailed to you in 7-10 business days.
Well, how can I get my service restored?
You have to pay this account, the ooo-ooo-oooo.
How can I pay this account when I can't access it?
I don't know. You will have to wait 7-10 days.
I would like to go ahead, and cancel.
You can't cancel a phone that is past due.
Can I speak with a supervisor?
Yes, but they can't help you. Your account is past due.
I asked her if she was serious, and she said yes.
Let me recap because with her attitude, I am sure she didn't get how insane the situation truly is, and I want to make sure I have illustrated the situation fully.
You create a billing account that I don't know about. You turn off my phone because I don't know about this account. I can't see it or access it online. I have to pay it to see it. I can't pay it because I can't see it. I can't see it because I need a code. You won't give me the code for 7-10 days. I will be even more past due than I was before, and I have no phone for another week. I can't cancel my phone because it is past due by a week. I can't use the phone because it is past due. I can't pay the phone because it is past due.
Finally I agreed to pay under the old account just so I could cancel.
Tonight's call lasted 48 minutes and I spoke with 6 people (yes, I had to give my name, address, ss number, and zip code to all six plus the automated machine). After all of that I think I might have cancelled the last phone, and I have no idea whether or not there is a duplicate bill. My contract on that phone is not up until next December, but I cannot keep this up.
I don't think it is fair that you charge me a cancellation fee. I tried, in good faith and then some, to do business with Qwest. I don't see how I could have done anything better, and I always tried to keep up my end of the bargain. I can't see that your company would purposefully want to treat people this way. I don't believe that you would expect people to beg and beg to be treated fairly just because they were locked into an account. Even if you aren't willing to forgive this cancellation fee, I hope you will look into how horrible it has been to be your customer.
Amy
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.
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