I am so ecstatic that I am not alone in my frustration and hatred of Qwest. I don't even know where to start. It has been such a nightmare.
My problem started in Nov.'02 when I moved and no longer needed my Qwest residential service (land line) because I was moving in with my dad and he already had phone service there and has for decades.
I still wanted to keep my Qwest wireless service (2 cell phones on a shared plan). I made a simple phone call to customer service and thought everything was taken care of. Well, it didn't take long to find out that everything was SO not taken care of.
They never disconnected my land line, but that didn't stop them from activating a new residential phone line at my new home, a home that already had an exsisting active line! My next bill showed I was still being charged for my old residential service, a transfering fee to "switch" my service to my new home, as well as being billed new charges for my so-called new service! There wasn't even a phone jack in my dad's house to go with this new service!
I spent my entire lunch hour on the phone with Qwest customer service trying to sort things out. The rep seemed to totally understand and said everything would be fixed. She also said she would separate my residential account from my wireless account, to simplify future billing.
BUT... Before my next bill could come, I was already being called on my cell phone by a collections agency for Qwest, demanding payment for the "past due" bill I had. They were referring to the residential services that I was incorrectly being billed for! They hadn't been taken off my bill and had been sent to collections! This collections agency from hell called my cell phone at least once a day. They were extremely rude and threatening.
I told them what I had discussed on the phone with Qwest, and that the charges should have been reversed, but of course they didn't know anything about that, and didn't care. Well, skip ahead 3 months, countless hours spent on the phone with customer service being shuttled from one department to another still being called by the collections agency regularly. I was heading for a breakdown.
Because I work all day Monday through Friday, the only free time I had to deal with this mess was my lunch hour. I had to spend every lunch hour on the phone with Qwest. I tried emailing a couple of times, but eventually gave that up. Waiting 3 days for someone to get back to me, when a collections agency rottweiler was calling me on a daily basis, just wasn't an option.
By February I had managed, with great effort, to get Qwest to reverse part of the incorrect charges. But for some reason the collections department still showed I had a past due amount of $8.00. Thats eight dollars. The rep called me on my cell. I was driving on windy country roads with my 3 kids in the car, on our way home in the dusk. The collections guy basically said if I didn't pull over right then, get out my debit card, and pay the EIGHT DOLLARS, he would report me as a "Refusal to pay" and I would have my service turned off. WHAT THE HELL?
Skip ahead another month, more calls, more empty promises from customer service one department blaming everything on another department one rep contradicting another rep and finally my account was credited the rest of the incorrect charges and my wireless account was finally separated. I thought all would be well, and I would patiently wait out the rest of my contract and then cancel the damn phones altogether.
Unfortunately, Qwest wasn't done with me yet. When I got my first bill with just my separated wireless service on it, it was triple what it should have been. Well guess what a phone call to customer service followed, and their explanation was that since I was a "new" customer (???) they had billed me the current month plus a month in advance for my wireless service, as is customary with "new accounts" AND, they were suddenly claiming that they had never billed me for my wireless plan in December, so they tacked on an extra one!
I argued that I wasn't really a new account, that I had had this service for 2 years! They had just given me a new account number! They said that "it shouldn't matter to me anyway since they had credited my old (residential) account for the extra month, and applied it to my new (wireless) account, so it all came out even".
Uh, NO! I spread all my bills out in front of me, all in order from Nov. To March, and walked through how I had been charged for my wireless plan each month and PAID for it each month. When confronted with my simple logic, they resorted to flat-out double talk and absolute lies. They actually tried to feed me a line of reasoning so insane I can't even remember it. And they talked down to me like I was an idiot. I was physically ill at this point from the stress. I wouldn't have even bothered to see it through this far, except I didn't want my kids and me to be left without a cell phone in this unpredictable world and the evil trolls at Qwest know it! That's why they don't care!
I paid the bill in full, just to keep from losing my mind. I have about 2 1/2 months left until my contract expires I can't help but wonder this: when I tell them I want to terminate my service, are they going to send me a check for the month in advance I paid for? Or perhaps give me my last month free? No, that would make far too much sense.
My latest chapter in this horror story without end is now unfolding. I got a welcome packet from Sprint, of all places, saying Qwest had sent my account to them for long distance service. Now, I get free long distance on my wireless phones as part of my plan, so why in the world would I sign up with a separate long distance carrier?
To make it even more confusing, Sprint had only one of my cell phones referred to them (I have 2 on a shared plan). I immediately called Qwest to find out what the hell was going on, and they denied everything. They said they didn't know what I was talking about. I called Sprint back and the rep said he had the order right in front of him and it had come from Qwest.
Although he couldn't tell me why it was done in the first place, he said he would be happy to disconnect the long distance service. Time will tell if he actually did. I can't help but be suspicious and negative about everyone and everything in the customer service realm now.
I am adamant that I will never again give my business to this fraudulent, totally incompetent company. I will beg everyone I know not to patronize them. I have never ever had so many problems with a company.
How in the world do they continue to get away with this? Do we the public not have any rights? Don't our voices matter and our opinions carry weight? After seeing all these reports filed by other victims of this rip-off company, I feel a tiny glimmer of hope that someday soon Qwest will be bankrupt and exposed as the slimy vermin they are!
Jessica
Longview, Washington
U.S.A.
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