RUN AWAY!!! RUN AWAAAYYY!!!
Written: Oct 17 '01 (Updated Feb 13 '02)
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Pros: No Bill!
Cons: Everything!
The Bottom Line: This company is infested with problems that rot it from within, and they will cause you nightmares. Their antics can't possibly stand up in a court of law. AVOID!!!
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| Pyanfar's Full Review: General Reviews of MCI Worldcom Customer Service |
I got this great deal in the mail last year - a spiffy-looking new phone, FREE! Activation, FREE! Nationwide long-distance! No roaming! First month, FREE! 180 anytime minutes, FREE! Only $29.95 a month! Detailed billing! Phone tracks minutes used! What a great deal!
I should have known. I called and they told me, "We've had an overwhelming response to this offer, so the phone isn't going to be exactly like the one in the picture."
They had to transfer me a couple of times before someone would sign me up, and then it was harder than getting my first mortgage. I spent almost half an hour getting financially probed.
All done, the MCI rep promised me that my phone would arrive in 10 days and my first month would be pro-rated. I would also have 75 minutes completely free to get to know the phone. How neat! It would also be ready-to-use right out of the box.
One month and two frustrated phone calls later, my phone arrives. Large, exciting letters spell out for me that my phone is READY TO GO! Just start using it!.
Not!
I used my 75 free minutes trying to get through to MCI and get the phone activated. I could use the phone's internal network to talk to MCI, but nothing else. Each time, they told me they could flip a switch but I wouldn't know if it worked for 48 hours. 5 days later (now outside the 1-month return period), my third call gets the phone activated. In seconds. What went wrong the first two times, I don't know, but if only this story could end here.
I could tell you the whole thing in gross detail, but I think I'll just hit the highlights:
a spiffy-looking new phone, FREE!
No, but an almost-as-spiffy bait-and-switch phone. Don't get me wrong, the phone was right for my needs. But it wasn't what was promised, which is what we call "bait-and-switch."
Activation, FREE!
Frustrating, inaccurate, and guaranteed to burn up your minutes, your time, and your temper, but otherwise free.
Nationwide Long-distance! No roaming!
I was okay in Frankfort and Lexington and Louisville, but once I went anywhere else it quit working. I was shocked when I drove all the way to Philadelphia, PA and not once did the phone work! I had no signal anywhere along my 12-hour drive until I was actually in the thick of Philadelphia (and then it died in the outskirts). Ditto my trip to Dallas, TX, 15 hours in the other direction. And a 3-hour trip north to Columbus, OH.
I guess that's one way to make sure I don't roam.
First month, FREE! 180 anytime minutes, FREE! Only $29.95 a month! Detailed billing! Phone tracks minutes used!
Ah, now here we get into the thick of things. This, folks, is why I say, RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAAAAYYY!!!:
I would like to say there was no monthly charge, but since my first month actually was all of a few days long, it was hard to tell. Harder still because of the biggest and most important problem of all: MCI-Worldcom has yet to send me an actual bill.
Oh, I've had plenty of "fake" bills...counterfeit statements that say, "DO NOT PAY THIS BILL". At first I tried to get through to MCI-Worldcom via their website, but no dice. Their customer service number wasn't correct at the time, either, and I had to follow it to the new number, where I sat on hold for a half hour on two separate occasions before giving up. I tried the in-phone connections to customer service, but refused to burn up my minutes trying to fix their problem.
I know it sounds nuts - no bill? Why worry? Well, I had good reason to: the primary reason I bought the phone was that I was trying to do a job search, and I had to have some privacy and be able to be reached at any time during the day. I had no other way to get to a private phone where I worked. So I spent most of this period sweating bullets, thinking that at any moment my phone would simply quit working and my golden-parachute boss-to-be would get a message that says, "We're sorry, but the number you have reached belongs to a useless deadbeat whose credit we are now ruining. If you feel you have reached this number in error, remember that he also won't be available for any job interviews while he is fending off legal action."
I wanted to do the right thing, and I agonized. When I did get one bill, it was for...[drumroll]...eleven dollars. The statement was for a ten-day period and not an actual month. Now I knew I was in big trouble. Knowing I would eventually have to battle MCI, I decided it would be best if I made a gesture of good faith on my part and paid the bill. I then got a $97 one that alleged to cover November and December together. The details on the statement were inaccurate, and the "free" calls when I added them up cut off lower than 180 minutes, so I tried calling again. No dice, so I sent in a payment with a long letter demanding an answer. I was ignored completely. Trying to use the phone's "usage tracking", I discovered that it tracks all minutes, ever used. I can't find any way to get a monthly tally or a breakdown, just a grand total from the moment the phone was turned on.
Months later, I received a letter from MCI-Worldcom. It announced that I would soon be receiving 3 bills, but to only pay the third one. Great. That's pretty detailed. Worse yet, there was absolutely NO contact information anywhere - no return address, no phone number, no web address even. You'd think a company as big as MCI-Worldcom would know how to put together basic letterhead. A second communique repeating the same thing came with no contact info either. I then received the three bills over the course of a month. Each had a little note that said, "DO NOT PAY THIS BILL." Well, if MCI knew that this was a bad bill, had the ability to stop the presses and drop in this little slip of paper, why did they even bother wasting all that money to mail these bogus bills in the first place?
It gets worse.
I called customer service, almost on a whim this time, and got through. Their software was down, but I spoke to a customer representative who was pretty friendly. I promised not to tell you what this person said, but the gist of it is that even employess loyal to their company realize that this is a major shaft job. I managed to get a remediation number. This was a step above customer service that involved their corporate office.
Their corporate office was a wonderful breath of fresh air, but also an eye-opener. Apparently, MCI's entire billing system is completely and totally hosed. I would love to know which overpriced contractor managed to get paid to ruin this system, but the idea was that MCI was going to migrate from the old system to the new, and somehow both got so completely fouled up that, depending who you talk to, "some" to "all" customers are incapable of being billed.
I was able to do what I originally tried to do in November: get my account expanded to more minutes and clear up the two previous payments so they can get paid properly. But I still haven't received a bill that makes sense. Two more just came in, one with a "Don't pay" notice and another with a "You owe us, pay this now" notice. Have I mentioned that all their bills have no due date, just "Payment Due Upon Receipt"? Wonder if I'm late paying any of them? Calling the corporate number again gets me a busy signal from 7AM - 5:30 PM.
I've tried to get the phone shut off, but either no one answers the phone or their system is down and no one can help me. Have I mentioned that there is only one working 800# out of the four I've been given? The rest are either disconnected or refer you to other numbers that may/may not work. Not good for a phone company to be unable to use its own phones, let alone its own computers.
Now that I've reached the close of my obligatory contract, I keep thinking that the one thing I need most is a good lawyer. Any takers? I've tried everything I can to keep up my end of the contract, but I've just received two more bills, one that's for over a thousand dollars but claims to be one month's base fee, less than one page of detailed call info, and all the calls are marked "Free"...wonder where the other $900-odd dollars comes from?
I've done a lot of research recently, and come to the conclusion that all cellular providers have really bad problems and/or dishonestly screwy practices ("VoiceStream" even got in trouble for the fine print to its fine print!), but I have to say that this one is without a doubt the worst of them all.
UPDATE: I ended up filing a complaint with the BBB. I tried to use the most likely office that represented the head of the MCI hydra, but the BBB has been bounced around several times. I decided I'd wait a bit before pursuing to see if it settled in on BBB office. I keep getting letters from the BBB stating, "Your case will now be handled by our office in _____".
Next, I notified my local Public Service Commission ("PSC"). My father told me MCI had slammed him (signed him up with them without his permission and started sending him bills) and the PSC had helped him straighen it out. I also sent MCI a registered, certified letter which they received. In it, I said, "This is what I truly do owe you, and until you can provide proof to the contrary, you can take it or leave it." I never got an answer, but the PSC rep called back and said, "MCI tells me they sent you a letter and you never responded." He then gave me a number I had already called and said, "That's all they told me to do, that you must talk to them here in order to get anything resolved." Hurrah.
I called this number, and the people I spoke to refused to help me. Not out of spite, just that they were unable to do anything but take money from me - they couldn't resolve a dispute, discuss my bill, or make changes. I then got bounced around to a few numbers and, on some sort of suicidal whim, decided to call the main number for Customer Service again.
This time around, I got lucky - they hadn't cut everyone off with a "No one can help you, call back later" message, but all the low-level techs were preoccupied, and I got a high-level technician. He and I pored over all the details and he fixed my bill in the system. He then sent me exact statements and told me a corrected bill would arrive in the mail soon.
Two weeks now, and the only bill I received was for an even larger amount than before! To make matters worse, I was called by a "dispute resolution" rep who apparently can also not resolve anything. MCI uses telemarketer tactics: a computer calls you, then hangs up when you answer. Then it waits, calls again in 20 minutes or so, and hangs up. Then it waits and calls you and connects you to the MCI rep. I was trying to get my daughter to bed, and these people have called me as late as 10:00 PM!
Beware of their callers' tactics: he told me that if I did not pay my bill right there over the phone it would be turned into a collection agency. 9:00 at night and I was supposed to magically give him over US$1,300! I told him right then and there that I wasn't stupid - I knew if I paid him US$1,000,000 it would still just "disappear" and I'd be harrassed without end. After a chat with him, I learned that they weren't really going to turn me in to a collector, MCI wasn't actually able to verify my bill, and I was one of over a hundred people with this exact same problem that just this one person had been forced to call...that day. If this is his job, and he's one of many people doing just this, and this is how many people he has to talk to, well, you do the math.
One last note: I finally managed to get the phone shut off. I had stopped using it in the middle of October (the 17th, to be exact). I even managed to get the cutoff backdated. But even then they couldn't go farther than November because they claimed my phone had been used after that!
What more can I say? Avoid MCI at all costs and in all ways. I used to use 10-10-220 on my home phone, but now that I know they own it, I've stopped. Any related company or enterprise no longer gets my business. We as consumers have to stand up to these overwrought juggernauts or they will crush us all by their sheer weight.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): unknown
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Epinions.com ID:
Pyanfar
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Location: Frankfort, KY
Reviews written: 168
Trusted by: 78 members
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