On June 30, I contact MCI to have our local and long-distance service (The Neighborhood by MCI) switched to our new address effective August 1. I had been told previously by MCI representatives that it could take as long as three weeks to switch the services, hence my very early call.
On July 3, I picked up my phone to make a call and discovered the line was dead. I called MCI. They informed me the line had been turned off - a month early! They acknowledged that all their records for my move request indicated the phone should be turned off on July 31. Apparently, they said, someone forgot to type the numeral '1' behind the '3' when putting in the work order. This was a particular problem for us, since we were advertising an apartment for rent in several newspapers that weekend and the phone was now disconnected.
At this point, the MCI representative I spoke to promised the phone would be turned back on Monday, July 7. It could be done no sooner, she said, because of the July 4th holiday. This initial phone call lasted approximately 90 minutes, including repeated holds while the representative tried to find out what happened and what could be done about it. MCI agreed to give me a $100 credit to cover the cost of the newspaper ads that had been rendered useless by their incompetence.
On Monday, July 7, I still had no dial tone. I called again (from my office phone). This second call lasted approximately another 90 minutes and went through three people. I was told the phone would be on by the next day. I was also offered further credits to compensate me for my incovenience.
On Tuesday, July 8, when the phone was still not on, I called again. This time I spoke with a man who said that because Qwest owned the local lines, and that MCI simply paid for the use of those lines, it was up to Qwest to reconnect the line. He then transfered me to Qwest. The Qwest representative, obviously not interested in assisting an MCI customer, refused to even discuss the account with me. After totally losing my temper with this idiot, I called MCI again.
Yet another story emerged from this fourth call to MCI. This time, yet another representative told me that in order to reconnect the phone, they had to cancel the original move order (which was telling them to turn the phone off effective July 3) and initiate a new work order. This would take 24 to 48 hours to move through their computer system, he said. This man swore he would call me the next day to confirm that this process was moving forward.
On Wednesday, July 9, when this last representative still hadn't called back, I called MCI yet again. This time, I went through three representatives and two supervisors to get yet ANOTHER story. I was told that because the whole process was so hopelessly fouled up at this point, that it would take another SIX WEEKS!!! Before I could get my phone back on.
At this point, I totally lost it. I told the supervisor to cancel the account and send me a check for the credits. He agreed to cancel, but said the company policy was not to issue checks. He said the credit would be waiting for me should I ever use MCI again. As if that would EVER happen.
I immediately called Qwest and switched my local phone service back to them, my long-distance to AT&T. Of course, I was not able to keep my old home phone number, so I have had the further incovenience of up-dating information EVERYWHERE you need to give a home phone number - my mother's nursing home, the doctor's office, credit card companies, banks, etc.
MCI's incompetence and idiocy cost me more than 10 hours of my time (I bill my clients at $100-plus an hour), $100 in useless newspaper ads, and untold aggravation. Yet they still refuse to issue me a check for my credit, which is in excess of $100.
If you have MCI, I warn you that you too could easily be a victim of their bureaucracy and total lack of caring for their customers. I will never, ever give them a penny of business again.
Evelyn
Eden Praire, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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