I am so done with Alltel
myjaxon February 24th, 2009
Seriously, they have done nothing but screw me over these last few months. Prior to getting the new phone number, I had been with Alltel going on 10 years and never had the problems I’ve been experiencing lately.
In November, when my razr had a heart attack and stopped working, I called them to see if we couldn’t switch service to the blackberry we had laying around so we could wait until after Christmas to get me a new phone. They said sure, no problem and we went ahead with the switch. Before I agreed for them to do that, I made sure and asked (multiple times) that we wouldn’t have to add the data package (since it’s an additional $50 a month) since I don’t use my phone for anything other than being a phone. They still said sure, no problem, you don’t need the data package with the blackberry if you don’t want it. Great, so we had them make the switch.
Fast forward to January when Jesse and I took a closer look at my charges ($100 for the last 2 months) and realized that I wasn’t going over my minutes (which is what I thought I was doing) and found out that we were indeed getting charged for the data package and my phone had been doing system updates every day for 10 minutes. I call Alltel again and asked what’s up? I found out that I can’t have a blackberry without the data package, it’s mandatory. I will admit, we had heard this prior when Jesse initially bought the blackberry in 2006, that’s why we asked multiple times in November if we needed it or not. When I asked why the guy in November told me I could do it, she had no clue. I was pissed. If I had known this, I wouldn’t have had them switch the phone over and I told her that. Of course, this all came up right after I had spent the entire afternoon trying to get into my account via their website.
Yeah, did I mention that clusterf*ck? Ever since they upgraded their system sometime last fall, I had not been able to get into my account. Every time I went to log in, I would get an error saying my password wasn’t correct and then get locked out of the system. It would take me four different calls to four different departments to get it unlocked and allow me access. The first time this happened, I was okay with it; however, after the second, third, and fourth time, I started getting annoyed.
Unfortunately for the lady who I had talked to in early January about my account, I had just finished dealing with this and was in no mood for oops, his bad, but that’s the way it was. Needless to say, we canceled the phone on the spot. Thankfully, the person I finally ended up talking to was really helpful. They said they would adjust the account as much as they could and send me a final bill.
Fast forward to today and Jesse getting a call on his blackberry saying that I had until tomorrow to contact Alltel regarding said final bill. I haven’t received one at this point and I thought they needed some clarification as to where to send it. I go to their website to find the customer center number and find out that I since there isn’t service in my area, I get redirected to Verizon (Alltel just merged with Verizon). I talk with a guy at Verizon and he works helps me get connected with Alltel. Once I’m with Alltel, I get switched to three different departments before they finally tell me we can’t send you a bill, you don’t have an active account, would you like to pay it now? No I don’t want to pay it now. I’m not going to pay for something when I haven’t received a bill for it. They keep saying we can’t print out a new bill for you because there isn’t an account to charge for it. Are you telling me, that if I was a customer and I hadn’t received a bill, you would charge my account for it!? WTF. I’m pissed (yet again). I ask to talk with a supervisor because I find it ludicrous that there is no way to print off a bill for a customer who wants to pay it but doesn’t want to pay without seeing a bill first. I mean, is that an unreasonable request? I finally asked the supervisor who I need to talk with to tell them I’m not paying the bill since they refuse to send me a bill and she had the audacity to tell me she was trying to help me. The best part about it all, they were able to print one out because she asked if there was a fax number they could send it to. I don’t have a fax number and told her that and all she could say was that’s the best we can do. Seriously? I figured, if they could fax it, why not email it, right? I told her that she could email me a copy and that would work, but I’m sorry, we don’t have that capability. Are you seriously telling me that you can fax a bill, but you can’t email one? A fax requires you to print something off; email doesn’t. Finally, she said she would try and email something, but she couldn’t guarantee anything. I told her fine, try and email it, but I’m not going to pay for a service when that service can’t send me a bill for it. I also told her that if I didn’t have a bill by tomorrow, then I would be calling the Michigan Better Business Bureau and filing a formal compliant (that they were trying to charge me without sending me a bill first).
Guess what, not 10 minutes after hanging up with her, she miraculous was able to email me a copy of my bill. Oh my god, they found a way to print off a bill and it didn’t take them 24 hours to do it!
Seriously, I am done with Alltel.
