Caveat Emptor is right!
Written: Apr 27 '01
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Pros: none
Cons: terrible customer service, worse billing system
The Bottom Line: I've tried them all and Worldcom is truly the worst of the worst!
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| mattquinlan's Full Review: General Reviews of MCI Worldcom Customer Service |
As a travelling consultant I have been relocating every 9-12 months for the past 5 years. Because of this I have learned a thing or two about cellular phones and cellular providers. I've had Alltell, Intelos, MCI Worldcom Wireless, and Sprint as providers and by FAR the worst was MCI Worldcom.
I had moved to Manhattan and needed to find a new cellphone carrier. So I dropped into a little electronics shop on the corner of Greenwich & Franklin and told the salesman what I was looking for (1200 minutes, no roaming, no long distance). The guy pushed me away from Bell Atlantic Mobile and towards MCI Woldcom Wireless. They both had the exact same plans ($165/month) but he made a better commission off of the Worldcom contract. He even said that they actually share the same network so there would be no difference in quality (apparently he meant the quality of the calls, not of the customer service or billing). So I signed up... hook, line, and sinker.
The story from here is long and complicated but the final result was the following email I sent to their customer service department when I finally got SOOOO fed up that I paid the outrageous amounts they claimed I owed them just to stop the collection notices and get rid of their service!
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actual email sent to MCI Worldcom wireless (below)
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After a year of poor service by MCI wireless I have finally fulfilled my contractual obligation (1 year) and have cancelled my service (as of 9/22/2000). The phone was great, the reception was great, the customer service was poor, and the invoicing was absolutely HORRIBLE! The customer service reps were generally nice but rarely helpful (their knowledge was limited and the inability for me to ever speak to the same person twice made it unbearably painful to work through problems which required multiple calls). I have literally spent over 20 hours on the phone (either holding or talking) with customer service over the past 12 months (I'm really not exaggerating this... 20 hours!).
The problem with customer service:
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The toll free number given on our invoices (800-254-8991) is totally inadequate to deal with the volume of calls you receive. Since I have placed over 30 calls to this number I believe that I can speak authoritatively on this point. I typically spend between 1 and 20 minutes just trying to get through without getting a busy signal (I don't mean a "please wait while we assist other customers" message but an actual busy signal!). Then I wade through the phone tree (which I've now memorized) and sit on hold for between 15 and 60 minutes waiting for a customer service representative to pick up. Typically this representative has the goal of getting me off the line as quickly as possible (regardless of whether my question or problem has been resolved). I am often tranferred without warning by the rep to other departments who can not help me and tell me to call the 800 number again (waiting to get past the busy signal and waiting for the rep again to whom I have to re-explain the whole problem over). I do not know if the customer service reps are evaluated according to the volume of calls they take but they seem to be incented to get rid of the caller as quickly as possible and this is FRUSTRATING to the caller. I now have to start every conversation with "Before we begin I need to ask you to do something for me. PLEASE! Do NOT transfer me to another line unless you ask me if it's OK and I reply with a yes. Quite often I am transferred to the wrong person/department only because you have not listened to the entire problem and made assumptions about who I need to speak with. Thank you." This should NOT be necessary.... but it is today. Even this I could deal with if the reps actually put accurate notes into my profile whenever I called explaining the situation. But this rarely happens because I have to explain the problem over and over and over again each time I call because the previous rep simply handed me off to some department who couldn't help me or worse yet to a dead extension. The reason they can get away with this behavior is the anonymity provided by this system. When a customer has a really difficult problem he/she should be able to contact the same representative or supervisor about the particular case/issue. Many problems require multiple calls and if there is no accountability the rep simply does not care whether the customer is served or not. There are tools out there that allow the customer to receive a case number whenever a problem is reported. The customer can use that case number to refer to when the next rep answers the phone. The rep can then read about the problem and identify any other reps who have worked on this case and contact them for more information if necessary. PLEASE look into something like this. If this is in place, you should give that case number to the customer. WE ARE GETTING LOST IN THE SHUFFLE!
To show you that I am not just blowing smoke here is a list of all of the numbers I have been using to solve my problems with MCI over the past year:
800-649-8281 (eventually answers but not helpful)
800-254-8991 (never answers) workflow #7377
800-950-5555 (vendor customer service)
800-539-2000 (vendor customer service)
800-228-6271 (east coast MCI wireless)
800-507-9545 (USA collections)
800-507-9556 (NYC customer service)
888 656-6417 technical support
312 470-6661 John
312-525-5933 gary (tech supervisor)
312-470-3258 Stacey
The problem with Billing:
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Over the past 12 months I have been sent inaccurate invoices multiple times (the first 3 months of service I was billed incorrectly at $199 for Monthly Access, check the notes and you will see it). Each time I have gone through the painful process of calling 800.254.8991 only to get a busy signal most of the time and to wait on hold for almost an hour when I do get through. Nine months into my contract I moved to Atlanta and spent 22 calls and 11.5 hours trying to get my phone to work correctly and get billed correctly. Finally I got ahold of Stacey at 312-470-3258 and she was responsive and willing to help. After 8 phone conversations with Stacey we were finally able to get my phone working correctly in Atlanta with a local Atlanta number (thank you Stacey!). Throughout this moving ordeal I had to give my new Atlanta address to customer service EVERY time I called. Every time they would enter it into a computer and the next time I called it would not be there and I would give them the new address again. Sure enough my bill for billing period 7/3-8/2 went to my old address in Jersey City NJ rather than to Atlanta. By the time it was forwarded to me in Atlanta it was almost past due. Unfortunately it was also inaccurate. I called customer service on 8/30 at 9:43am and told the rep that my bill did not foot (I have attached a copy of the bill to this document for your perusal. See the file named mci- 1.exe.) meaning that the minutes listed on the detail pages did not add up to the totals listed on the summary page. I was told that the bill would be corrected and a new one sent out to me immediately. Two weeks (9/15 at 2:46 pm) later I called back and explained that I still had not received an accurate bill. The rep told me that he would print & send the bill while I was on the phone to be sure it went out. The bill was sent but it was still inaccurate. I called back upon recieving this bill and asked that an accurate bill be sent to me outlining ALL of the charges that MCI is requesting payment for. I cannot pay for something for which I do not have an accurate detailed invoice. What I recieved is a 'friendly' one page reminder entitled "Perhaps you forgot" (also attached to this email). Now I am coming to you for help. All of my other attempts have been futile because of the lack of communication and the policy that reps cannot fax invoices to customers. This email provides written communication and evidence that I am making every effort to make good on this debit if I can be provided a valid invoice with ALL DETAILED CHARGES LISTED. According to my calculations (provided in the excel spreadsheet attached)the invoice lists 68 airtime minutes and 48 roaming minutes for the invoicecovering 7/3-8/2. However, the summary page (page 4) shows 477 peak minutes used. The same thing happens on the invoice covering 8/3-9/2. The invoice lists 17 airtime minutes and 77 roaming minutes. However the summary page shows465 peak minutes used. Also, all late charges are to be removed as the customer service reps promised me throughout this ordeal. Please reply to this message via email so that I have a record of these communications if they are brought into question.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Matthew Quinlan
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): incalculable
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Epinions.com ID:
mattquinlan
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Member: Matthew Quinlan
Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
I code, therefore I am.
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