Below is a letter I wrote to Worldcom Wireless. That was just the beginning of my nightmare. I phoned their customer service tonight again for about the 30th time. This time they informed me that had been billed for nights and weekends after 4 months into the plan and then after six months they billed me for "optional features", $20 a month.
When I bought this plan over a year ago the sales person told me that the total charge would be $26.99 a month for one year, and that the "optional features were free, also I was given a 1000 minutes and 90 extra free minutes. I did not even use these in a years time.
When I explained to customer service that the sales person had totally misrepresented the plan to me, I got no relief or assistance. Also, since I did not get any bills for over six months I had no way of knowing what they were doing and when the bill came it was only a consolidation of all the prior months, so I still did not know they were sticking it to me. This has been one huge nightmare. Now they have turned this whole mess over to collections. I have gotten absolutely no help or consideration from WorldCom and they created this nightmare for me. Calls and letters are getting me no where. I cancelled the service but now I am stuck with this huge bill and I didn't even use this phone 50 times in the entire year. This company is a rip off and their sales staff totally misrepresented the plan to me. I will never, never, do business with WorldCom again, and I will tell this story to as many people as possible.
Their practices are criminal and a true disservice to the public. I received no communication from them other than 2 bills in one year and collections letters in December. I was never notified that my contract had expired and all these new charges would be added. All my calls to customer service fell on deaf ears. This is absolutely the worst company I have ever dealt with, and since it was my first cellular phone experience, that too has been a major disappointment!
Letter:
December 14
WorldCom Wireless
P.O. Box 5211
New York, NY 10087-5211
I am writing this letter in regards to my bill. This is a follow-up I sent to you via your website tonight. I have recently received my second bill from you. Although over the past eleven months I have called several times to request a bill I just recently received one. I cannot pay the amount due all at one time and called your customer service line to explain this fact when I received this bill. I was told that I could send a partial payment and that is what I did. I sent $75.00 to your payment address and will send another payment at the end of the month. I realize that you have had big problems with your billing, however, I do not feel that I should be penalized or put under a financial hardship due to your billing problems.
Tonight at 8:27 P.M. I cancelled my service for the following reasons. I have from the very beginning called your customer service number to get a bill. The first time I called they could not find my account. The second time I called they could not find my account. A supervisor set that up. The third time I called requesting a bill, they found my account by could not find a bill. Finally, after over six months I got my first bill. I immediately called, explained that I could not pay the balance all at once and I was told by your customer service representative to send a check which I did for $50. I also had a dispute at that time about optional features which they kept charging me for and they were suppose to be part of my plan. They next, second bill, came in October. This bill showed a balance of $222.13. It also had a charge on there for $20.00 for "optional features" for the month of August, and I have been told that these charges were billed for all subsequent months. I am asking that those charge be removed for each month as the "optional features" were to be included in my plan. Also, I was not told that this charge would also be added on when the year contract expired, nor did I receive any notification that my contract had expired and this "optional feature" charge would become part of my bill making my monthly payments $26.99 plus the $20.00 "optional feature" charge. This would make my monthly charge $46.99 which is way above anything that I thought I would be paying. My understanding is that the monthly charge would be a total of $26.99 pluse the price of calls after I used all my free minutes, which I never did as I never used the phone that much at all. I called in November and explained that Worldcom had placed me in real financial hardship by not billing monthly as agreed in the contract and I would have to make partial payments until the balance was paid off. The customer service representative told me that was acceptable. On 12/7 I mailed another check for $75.00 which had not been posted as of this date.
I am very, very, upset and displeased with your billing practices. I pay all my bills faithfully each month and on time. I do this because I have established a budget that I can handle. Your inability to bill monthly has caused great distress and financial hardship for me. A situation that I did not create but I am having to suffer the consequences. The customer service is shameful. Not the representatives but the fact that many, many, calls have to be made for a connection to even take place. It is my sincere hope that you will pass this letter on to management and they will take steps to make the billing situation and customer service availability more pleasant for future customers.
My first cellular phone experience has not been a pleasant one. I made so many calls requesting bills just to avoid the situation that exists now, a large balance. Your company should have given credit to those of us for the months not billed for prior to you getting your billing situation in order, or at the very least a partial credit and some instructions to your collections people that as long as there was communication from the customer and payments being sent that dunning calls should not be made. It is just bad customer relations techniques. Now I am getting the calls from your collection department as if I created this nightmare. I am just totally angry, frustrated and certainly not going to use WorldCom again. I will continue to make payments until the balance is paid off. I am requesting that you send me notification in writing that my service was cancelled as of this date and see that I am not billed for any time or services past this date.
It is truly unfortunate that this could have not been a better experience for me, and in all good conscience I will not be able to tell anyone else this was a pleasant business experience. I did all the work to try and get a bill and resolve billing issues but the communication on the WorldCom end left much to be desired.
Again, I want to reemphasize this a written record of my request to be notified that this letter was received and that my service was cancelled of tonight. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt that I will not incur future problems about the terms I have set forth to pay the balance. Monthly billing on your part, as promised by your sales staff when I accepted this cellular program, would have avoided this unpleasant situation that now exists. I do hope that management will be able to establish a better system for future customers.
Please make sure that your collections department is aware of this situation and I would appreciate no more calls from them as I have stated that I will pay the balance in installments until paid off. Also, please pass this letter on to a company officer. Someone dropped the ball and now an unhappy, ex-customer is having to deal with this billing disaster.
I expect a written confirmation from you as soon as possible addressing the requests concerning adjustments to my bill and that my service was cancelled as of this date. I do not want to have to spend anymore time on this situation or want any negative impact to my credit due to this most unfortunate and mismanaged billing situation.
Sincerely
Nancy
Germantown, MD
0 comments