I visited the Cricket Wireless store in Monroeville at approximately 7 P.M. On a Monday night and purchased the Broadband USB modem at a cost of $109.00 initially. Added to that was a "Prorated Service and Fees" charge which was $28.00 and was said to be the $25.00 activation fee. Already something has gone awry, but this is not the real problem. Add to that $7.63 in tax and it comes to a grand total of $144.63. Which I paid with my debit card.
The next day I was unsatisfied with the service and returned the modem at approximately 5:30 P.M. That afternoon.in processing the refund the employee, Mel, issued a refund to my card in the amount of $144.63. After doing so, Mel informed me that he had made a mistake, and that the refund amount was not to have included the $28.00 ($25.00?) activation fee. Mel then decided the best way to correct this mistake was to issue another charge to my card in the amount of $28.00. I informed Mel that this would not do because the refund would take a couple of days and the charge would come out immediately, leaving my account $28.00 less than what it should have ever been.
Mel assured me that this would not happen, and also assured me that the refund would be there the next afternoon. Apparently, simply to keep from having to explain to his boss that he had screwed up, while sacrificing the money and time of this customer. Wednesday afternoon, of course the charge, is posted to the account but the refund is not. Now my account is $28.00 less than what it should be.
Upon finding this out I called 1800cricket to make my case to them. When I called Michelle promptly informed me that because the modem was returned within 24 hours, I was entitled to the full refund, and the additional charge was never even necessary let alone warranted. She informed me that there was nothing she could do that I would have to visit the store. Which I did.
Upon entering the store I found an already very irate gentlemen yelling at a woman at a counter, there were threats of calling the police when the man threatened that "there will be trouble", but in the end the man left the store on his own, although highly upset. After a short wait I was then called to Brandi's counter, the woman who had just been in this confrontation with the previous customer.
I started explaining the situation to Brandi, who in response said that the had to recoup the $28 and continuously repeated the chain of events to me. I explained to Brandi that this mistake by their employee could cause my account to be overdrawn, and that the corporate office's stance is that it was to be a full refund anyway. Brandi was not interested in hearing this. I offered as a solution that they refunded me the $28 in cash and I would take it and put it back into my account to cover any charges that may come out. Brandi said they were certainly not going to do that, the most I could do is incur the charges and bring the bank statements with charges I incur for them to review.
At this point Mel, who happened to be sitting next to her, interjected and started telling me in a rather unpleasant tone of voice (no one was pleasant at this point, but no one was yelling) that I was wrong and that he told me that it 'might not' go through and denying half of what he had told me the night before, again in an attempt to save himself. I told Mel that I was not talking to him and didn't want to talk to him, after all he was the cause of this problem. Mel then threatened on more than one occasion to physically remove me from the store even though I was not yelling, and was FAR less upset than the customer before me.
Brandi told Mel 'don't even bother talking to him', at which point I realized that explaining the possible ramifications of his actions was futile and decided it was pointless to try to continue seeking a resolution at that time. I left, and while doing so informed the clients in the waiting room that there have been two consecutive unhappy customers, that they could expect to be next, and left.
Now I am back on the phone trying to lodge a complaint with corporate, although I have initially been told because they are privately owned stores there is nothing that they can do.
So in the end it seems, at least so far, that Cricket Wireless stores are 'rogue' entities and that there is very little that their employees must answer for. As Brandi told me 'Well sir, our books had to match at the end of the day", apparently my bank account matching at the end of the day was FAR less important.
This is a statement to the attitude Cricket Wireless takes towards their customers. Avoid this place like the Plague.
Dave
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
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