My husband signed up for an annual contract with service provided by AT&T and billing by Worldcom in December, after previously having service with Verizon. We believed that we could trust such a large and well-known company as MCI/Worldcom, and the competitive plans and good deals on equipment were hard to resist. We were not aware of the customer service and billing problems.

Even though our contract began in December, we didn't receive our first invoice until March. It contained long distance charges for calls to our own home, which is in the local calling area. When we called Customer Service, they couldn't even figure out where our home is located (Rockland County, a suburb of the New York City metro area). Instead of trying to determine the cause of this problem, they just said they would instead offer us free long distance. While we were on the phone with them, I also made the payment by phone with a debit card. Since I have online banking, I can view the detailed transactions on my account, and this payment was listed as paid.

We received the next invoice, and it did not reflect any payments made. I thought this was simply an oversight on the part of the billing department. Two weeks later, we received a past due notice regarding the same payment I had made at least a month earlier. I called the Collections Department, and they confirmed that my payment had been received on the same date as indicated on my bank statement. The rep even went so far as to admit that the billing department was very far behind, and we need only be concerned with the payments that Collections has on record.

I promptly made my current payment by phone, and saw it listed on my bank statement again. The next statement arrived last week, and once again, it did not reflect my payment. Now, I just received another past due notice threatening interruption of service if this payment is not made IMMEDIATELY. Once again, I spoke to a Collections rep, and she confirmed that my payment was received on the date my bank statement indicated. She also admitted that the billing department is still behind, and I expressed my concern over the recurring past due notices. She basically told me to disregard what these notices say, because her department shows that all my payments have been made.

After reading other opinions about Worldcom on this website, I plan on keeping a log of the results of all communications with Worldcom in order to protect our credit rating. I hope that we will never need to use it, but I am not comfortable with their poor service. It seems that they are too big to really care about anyone, and that is a shame. They are so big because of their customers, and they seem to overlook that fact.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 29.99