Add me to the already huge list of people who have experienced extreme frustration dealing with WorldCom Wireless. It's amazing that this outfit is still in business.
I had been with WorldCom for several years because the cell-phone company I had originally signed up with about seven years ago was taken over by them. At that time my service was through the Bell Atlantic network. I didn't really have any problems until I bought a newer cell phone and upgraded my service. Whereas before I was able to make and receive calls just about anywhere, when I upgraded to digital service through MCI WorldCom, just entering a building would prevent me from receiving service. I also had some other problems getting the service set up initially and remembered spending at least four hours on hold one Saturday trying to get it resolved. However, these were minor problems compared with what was to come.
Although I had been receiving and paying bills frequently all these years, around the beginning of last year, the bills started to become really erratic and, just as others have described, I began receiving notices that they were "enhancing" the billing system and consolidating bills, so I should ignore certain invoices until they catch up next month or whatever. Even though I had been paying bills on a frequent (if somewhat irregular) basis up to then, according to them, they were about three months behind. It was hard for me verify exactly what I had paid for and what I still owed, and of course I wasn't able to get through to customer service to find out.
On August 18 I tried to make a local cell-phone call and was put through to a Verizon recording telling me that I needed to enter my calling-card number. I tried several times to make various calls only to be connected to the same recording, or to get an out-of-service message. I thought it must have been due to some network/system problem and I called the WorldCom customer service number numerous times but was unable to get through due the "high volume of calls". When I called their marketing number and got to speak to a person, they of course didn't know anything about any system problem and advised me to check their Web site and call customer service, which I'd already tried to do. I also sent an e-mail to the two or three different addresses that I could find.
By the following Monday, my phone service was still not restored. I went in person to a WorldCom Wireless retail store (Kensington, MD). To cut a very long story short, two or three people there tried to help me get it restored, and at one point I paid about $100 with a credit card because they said I owed that much (through May) and that was why my phone had been disconnected. Another time they said that it had nothing to do with my owing the money, but the number had just "disappeared" from the system. They also tried canceling the old number and setting up a new one. Anyway, the next day, I still did not have service so I went back to the store. After spending another full hour there, I gave up and told them to cancel my service.in all fairness, the two young ladies I talked to in the store were very sympathetic, partly because they had had similar problems themselves and were ready to quit anyway.
On August 29, I get an email from WorldCom in response to my August 18 email telling me the reason I didn't have service was because I had cancelled the service. I hadn't canceled until four days AFTER I send the email complaining about the phone not working!
At the end of November I finally got through to customer service again. I had continued to receive numerous bills and collection notices for all sorts of amounts, none of them acknowledging what I had already paid. I was quite willing to pay for service between May and August 18, but I was never billed properly so I didn't know what I owed. It appeared that they didn't know that my service had been cancelled back in August and were still billing me for monthly service even though I had not received or made any calls since then. After some lengthy discussion I was told they would credit me back the amount they were charging for the period since August 18 and came up with something like $76. I told them I would send the payment when I get the itemized bill in writing.
Three weeks after that I received a bill with a printed amount of about $110 but a handwritten amount of $76 (which was approximately the amount we agreed to). However, meanwhile, I was continuing to receive bills and collection notices with varying amounts.
In late December, I received a phone message from WorldCom asking me to return the call, which I did. It was their collections department, who told me I owed $134 or something like that. When I told the agent that that was the wrong amount, she said I would have to contact customer service because that's the amount she'd been told I owe. I told her I'd already contacted customer service and asked her how I was supposed to sort out their own miscommunication, but she just repeated that I had to call customer service because she didn't have any information about my account, gave me the phone number and hung up on me.
I didn't want to send the $76 because I couldn't trust that 1) they would credit it properly to my account, and 2) this was the right amount. So I returned to the retail store, intending to make a payment directly and getting a receipt. However, the young man I spoke to there told they did not accept payments, and he was very rude. I asked him to at least call and find out what I owed - he told me that they call the same number that I do, but when I insisted he call, he managed to get through almost immediately. First he told me I owed $110 and when I said that my account had been cancelled since August, he said they told him I had only cancelled in November. He talked to them a little longer without asking for or providing me with any feedback then hung up and said triumphantly, See? That wasn't so difficult! They credited back $67.16 so you owe $43.58! I had no idea where this new figure came from, so I asked him to sign his name to it, and he refused. Neither would he give me the name of the person he talked to. He told me I could call them back myself if I wanted. Of course, when I called the number he gave me, I got the usual message saying they couldn't answer because of the high volume of calls.infuriated, I stalked out of the shop.
In January, I managed to get through to customer service once more. After they gave me the initial figure of $134 and I told them again that I had not had service since August, etc. They said I owed $43.18. So, on January 3 I wrote a check for $43.18 and sent it to them, with a copy of my cover letter to the collections department and to the Vice President of customer service. That night, and again last night (Jan 8), I received phone messages from WorldCom (collections department, probably) asking me to call them back. I can't see the point in returning their calls, can you?
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