Cricket Nightmare in Eugene, OR
Written: Apr 01 '03
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Pros: Are you kidding?
Cons: The worst possible service on the planet!
The Bottom Line: Bad sound quality, terrible customer service, imaginary charges, and they could care less. You've been warned!
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| mysticmomma's Full Review: General Reviews of Cricket Communications Wireless... |
My name is Catherine and this is my horror story. I do apologize in advance for the length however I wanted to be very accurate about all that has taken place. It’s all true although I do not find the situation funny ! I will attempt in inject some humor into this to make your reading of this drama a little easier. Thank You for your time and I hope I truly hope for your safety you are not a Cricket customer what ever you do don’t fall asleep reading this THEY JUST MIGHT GET YOU TOO!
On or about the 6th of November 2002, I purchased a Cricket cell phone from Staples on west 11th in Eugene at the time of purchase I was told by the sales person that my first month of service would be free in fact it was printed on the box sleeve of the phone purchase. This is relevant only because it should have sent alarm bells off as to the type of future service I would later receive from Cricket comfortable wireless,
After activation I was told by the Csr at Cricket that they would not honor this promotion as they had stopped the promotion 2 weeks prior to the purchase of my phone.
Only after a lot of arguing and many phone calls over the course of a week Dennis at the Springfield office finally agreed to honor the promotion Please note: I was told I could not return the phone after opening the package and going through the activation process, that is the only reason I went ahead from day one and continued with Cricket as my service provider. Had I known the extent of their misleading information and adds I would have counted myself lucky that I was only out the $100.00 I had paid for the phone, and nixed the idea of becoming a Cricket customer. In addition at the time of activation after all the required information was given in order to activate my account the Cricket csr explained the Cricket talk plan to me, I told him this was the plan that I wanted, the csr then told me that I had to keep this plan for 1 year I said this was fine, he did not tell me I had to stay with Cricket for a year and that I was entering into a contract in any way shape or form with Cricket! after all they stress that they do not have contracts in their ads. In fact what I thought this meant was simply I could not change plans for 1 year for example this meant to me and made sense that if a better plan with more services was offered at a later date I would not be able to change plans and or go to a cheaper plan at a later date it is not unusual for service providers to require their customers to stay with a plan for a certain amount of time before switching, I have had similar plans through service providers.
THE NIGHTMARE BEGINS
Now follows a summary of monthly events that have taken place since then. And believe me it gets even worse if you can believe it. After the initial problems at the time of activation things went ok! I paid the activation fee as by now the issue regarding 1st months service had been resolved by Dennis at the Springfield Cricket office. Then along comes my bill for Januarys service this reflected Decembers payments and Credits and the charges that were due. On January 6th I paid my bill by phone first I attempted to use the automated system but it was down so I went through customer service the csr that handled this payment was named Mina at first I was told I had to pay a fee for going through customer service to pay my bill but then I argued the point that as the automated system was not working that I shouldn’t have to pay for going through customer service after a lot of argument it was agreed that I would not be charged I then proceeded to pay the $46.81 due on my account Mina then gave me the following transaction number 018657.
THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES I thought everything was fine until around the 12th of January I no longer had phone service I attempted to reach customer service repeatedly and was not able to get through as my phone had been shut off for non-payment and when this happens! Cricket as I later found out will not let you talk to a human until the account has been paid! the problem here was I had paid and still my service was shut off for non-payment so I called the local Cricket office explained what had happened to the young lady answering the phone and she referred me back to customer service again and for about another hour tried to work this through, you see the Csr at the local office did not tell me that I would not be able to reach a person unless my account had been paid, after another call to the main office again explaining again that I had paid my bill the csr finally out of frustration because; as she put it was to busy to deal with me and my issue’s turned my phone on so I would be able to talk to someone at the customer service accounting dept. Note: I did call and confirm through customer service at our bank that Cricket had indeed debited my account for $46.81 on January 7th. I finally was able to after a full three hours of attempts thanks to the Springfield office csr turning my phone back on after not telling during my 1st call that I would not be able to get through to talk to a living breathing individual, I explained what had happened gave the csr the confirmation number given to me by Mina on the 6th and explained that I had confirmed payment with my bank that Cricket had indeed debited my account on the 7th of January the csr was adament that I had not made payment finally I just hung up and called the main office and demanded to speak to Dennis after a lot of pushing on my part the Csr at the Springfield store put me through to Dennis voice mail, he called me back I explained what had happened he researched the account and determined that I had in fact made the payment on January 6th and that for some reason Cricket simply had not posted the payment and he promised to resolve the problem immediately I was very angry and told him I felt I was do some sort of compensation for what had taken place and all the hours and insults I had to go through Dennis told me he would take care of it and that was the end of it or so I thought!
I personally think that Freddy Kruger would be more reasonable to deal with. Later on in the month my husband told me that the $46.81 payment had been credited back to our account and at the time I assumed that Dennis had done this due to all the hours and insults I had to deal with! The when I called to make payment on February 6th, this is what happened and it just gets better and better. On the 6th of February I made my payment by Crickets automated system at the time of payment it reflected a balance of $93.46 I assumed that the reason for this was that the credit on the January payment had not been credited to my account still thinking that Dennis has refunded my January payment so I went ahead made my February payment so I would not be charged again a reactivation fee, and then I called customer service and spoke to Shawn, I explained what had happened and that I thought Dennis had refunded the payment and he told me that I had never paid my bill on the 6th of January and that they had not received payment and that I was making up a story to get out of paying my bill I then asked to speak to a supervisor Ben came on and we argued about my having made payment in January and the fact that Dennis had refunded the payment and he said I was making this up to get out of paying as I was arguing with Ben, (my husband used our land line to call our bank he confirmed that the payment had in fact been debited from our account on January 7th as had been confirmed before in January he further explained to the bank representative that Cricket was denying having debited the account for $46.81and that they claimed to not have received payment the bank researched the account further and found that Cricket had debited then Credited the account on January 7th both transactions occurred on the same day at this point I realized that the credit back was not because Dennis had refunded the January payment and in fact that Mina must have goofed something up) I explained this to Ben he told me again that I had never made payment I asked that he look back on my account he said he did not have to do that, I then told Ben that I would not pay them anything more to go ahead and turn my service off that they were the most (please excuse the following: that they were the most f***** up bunch of a******* and that I didn’t want to continue service with a*******.) It should also be noted that prior to my next call I had in fact gone to the Cricket store to resolve this matter the day after the above conversation it didn’t do any good. So I then put another call into Dennis left a message on his voice mail and did not get a call back . Then I called the corporate office and left message and I did get a return call, all calls were basically the same a tiring, fruitless effort on my part to deal logically and legally with a company that is operated by a bunch of crooks who aren‘t even smart enough not to be so obvious in there attempts to rob the public. In addition one of there csr’s from the corporate office called at a later date and when I told him I had my bank statement to prove that I had made the January payment and that I would be more than happy to fax it to him with all the pertinent information to do with Cricket showing, but that all other information that did not pertain to transactions between my self and Cricket blacked out he demanded that I not black out anything I pointed out to him that all he needed to see was the balance on the day the debited my account and the debit by Cricket itself then later the credit by Cricket he refused to accept it without every bit of information being available to him. I did how ever provide a blacked out copy to Dennis, when I finally managed to get through to him, I told him simply what had taken place and that I was so peeved at this point that I would not pay Cricket another cent that the csr’s were idiots Cricket did not know the meaning of customer service and I was sick of hassles every month and spending hours and days on the phone fighting with Cricket getting nailed with reactivation fee’s repeatedly even thought I had always paid on time etc. Dennis agreed to waive the reactivation fee’s, that was really big of him considering Id never paid late in the first place ! And that after subtracting all the late fee’s that in fact had been charged to my account I would only have to pay $16.80 on the February bill I did so feeling that Dennis had met me half way and that was acceptable I also made it clear that I would not deal with customer service anymore and that I would make my payments in the Springfield store ad clearly Cricket customer service was unable to handle a simple payment, the only other option was to use the automated system and take my chances..
THE NIGHTMARE CONTINUES I swear this company makes Michael Myers look like a saint. March came along and due to the fact that I was ill that week rather than going down to the office to make a payment I decided to use the automated system, by using my land line as I was having trouble receiving and making calls on my cell when I inquired as to why this was happening via a phone call to the Springfield store I was told something along the lines that the towers were pointing the wrong direction for phones used in my area and they were trying to fix the problem and this was why I would lose contact with whoever I was talking to when I used my Cricket.
My attempt to make payment through the automated system I was unsuccessful as all it would do was give an inaccurate balance saying I owed more than I did and then every time I tried to get through to a speaking individual to find out what the heck was going on now it routed me back to the account information system. I finally gave up and went to the Springfield store to make payment I had to stand in line for 45minutes and this allowed me to hear a lot of Cricket customers complain about the same issues that I had experienced with Cricket I was amazed to find out that I was not their only victim.
I think it interesting to note that one customer was trying to get the $15.00 late fee/reactivation fee taken off as they had paid by check through the mail and had sent the payment out 10days prior to the due date and still they were charged a late fee the csr’s response was that it this is a direct quote (it doe’s not matter when Cricket receives the check, that they Cricket go by when the payment posts to the account and cricket will not post payments till the actual check has cleared the bank and if your check clears the bank after the due date on your bill you owe a late fee/reactivation fee.) Other customers were complaining that they should not have to pay the 3 or 4 dollar fee charged to make payment in the office as the their attempts to do so by the automated system failed as the system was down I also heard csr‘s threatening people with collections if they would not keep Cricket as their service provider.
Finally I get up in line hand over my card to pay the account and I am told I owe $61.81 in addition to being charged the handing fee for coming into the store first I asked why there was a fee and the csr said to keep people from coming into the store to pay and I pointed out like so many before me that the system was down so I could not pay by phone, she said to bad as I was more concerned with why I owed $61.00 rather that the $46.81 I let the matter of the fee drop. I then asked why I owed $61.81as I knew that Dennis had credited the late fee’s for January and February that were going to be assessed to me on my next bill for April and that the previous late fee had been credited so I had no late fee’s. The csr then said that I owed this late fee from all the way back in December, I had my paper work and my payment history with me as I feared the worst so I showed the receipt for payment back on December 6th and she said that it did not matter that I made the payment on the 6th of December that payment had not posted till the 9th and therefore I owed the late fee/reactivation fee. I said I did not and I and that they could not charge me a late fee when in fact I had paid on time, the csr stated that they could charge whatever they want I asked for Dennis and was told that I could not talk to Dennis till I paid my account if full. That was it the final straw I told the csr that I wanted to discontinue service she told me I couldn’t that I had signed a contract with Cricket for 1 year and I denied that she told me tuff that I’d be billed for 1 year of service I said I would not pay that she said they’d send me to collections I told her to stick it up her a** smashed my phone into a billion pieces and told her to consider that my disconnect notice.
Just my opinion but it seems as though Cricket takes advantage of the fact that a large percentage of people cannot afford to get regular cell phone services because like me they can’t afford it due to bad credit or whatever. And that Cricket operates their company on the belief that they can falsely charge fee’s when they shouldn’t and badger and ignore the customers that don’t want to pay the false fee’s they have been assessed, and then they resort to intimidation practices by threatening people calling. them names in order to force people to stay with them regardless of what they do.
You’d think the Cricket Nightmare would end guess again, this company is worse than a bunch of blood sucking leaches they just don’t go away I mean my god they make FRIDAY THE 13TH LOOK LIKE A TRIP TO THE BEACH!
Even if there had been a contract between Cricket and myself and I do not believe there was, then they broke this imaginary contract first. However I do not believe there was a contract and in my opinion they are victimizing people like myself who can’t afford better service. Lets get them out of Oregon as they clearly have no respect or intention of operating a honest business and they are making a big profit by charging false charges to their customers. As I observed and latter read about online through various web sites this is how they operate in every state and sadly there are a lot of people that just give up and pay the false charges and or put up with Cricket not honoring their own promotions, calling them names giving the run around etc. In our society it is not unusual for people to accept being cheated because they don’t have any other options and or they are afraid of the threats Cricket makes not realizing that there are options available to them. So please take notice and help get this company out of Oregon and stop allowing them to prey on the poor and desperate that just can’t help themselves. Now get this my most recent monthly bill (which by the way in their adds they specifically say there are no monthly bills.) is for the grand total of $197.00 I called to ask what specifically I was being charged for this is what I was told by csr Becky $47.00 is for the March bill I terminated service both at the Cricket Store on March 7th then called and spoke to Shiela at customer service the same day and terminated service all this took place on March 7th this is a prepaid service had I paid on March 7th then that would have paid for service to April 7th as my service started on the 7th of November my new month of service would begin the 7th of each month, as I terminated on the 7th of March how can they justify charging me for March a month they didn’t provide service in addition to Charging $150.00 for terminating service on March 7th. So bottom line Shiela says I have to pay for March’s service which I did not receive and the early termination fee according to a contract that only exists in Cricket policies. Obviously they are to stupid to realize that they cant charge me for March as they are a prepaid service and I didn’t receive service in March in addition to being to stupid to realize that they even if there had been a contract for 1 years service still would not be able to charge me a termination fee as they are the ones who continued to break their own imaginary contract. According to contract law a contract must benefit both parties and if one of the parties on said imaginary contract breaks the contract then it is null and void.
My claim is simple there was no contract and even if there was an implied , written, verbal or otherwise they would have broken it many times over by charging me false charges, providing the worst possible customer service, verbally abusing me by calling me a liar. Some how I don’t see this nightmare ending so after my letter to you , I will e-mail this to every newspaper in every city that Cricket is in and I will find an attorney to file a class action suit after I run an add in every paper where Cricket has service, in order to get more people in on the law suit it won’t be hard at all check out the I hate Cricket web site! That’s just a start on the number of people that have had it with them.
FREDDY, JASON, MICHEAL HELP THEY’VE GOT ME AND I CAN’T GET AWAY!
Sincerely
Catherine
Please note: that I have tried to be accurate in all statements in the above letter however there were so many conversations with Cricket people and so many hours wasted and a lot of frustration at the time that I could have made errors with regards to order of events and dates.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 100.00
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Epinions.com ID:
mysticmomma
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Reviews written: 1
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