cricket. unlimited hassles
Written: Dec 15 '08 (Updated Dec 15 '08)
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Pros: none
Cons: The entire company is corrupt
The Bottom Line: If you enjoy being ripped off and your wallet pillaged this is for you.
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| iansjetta's Full Review: General Reviews of Cricket Communications Wireless... |
My name is ian and i live in utah. I "had" cricket up until about two months ago and just wanted to describe my experience with this wonderful provider "sarcasm"
My girlfriend and i decided we needed cell phones last year roughly around christmas time. We had a 6 month old little girl and both of us had to commute about 25 miles to work each day dropping off and picking up the kid. In utah we have pretty hectic snow storms so we thought it would be a good idea in case one of our vehicles got stuck or wrecked and in case we were stranded we could call the other and get help.
We decided on cricket because they were unlimited calling and texting and of course as they advertise do not require a contract.
Heres where the problems started:My girlfriend went to one of the cricket stores in our area without me and purchased her phone and service. She bought a refurbished (but warrantied for 90 days) motorola flip phone. They included the first month free of charge with the purchase of the phone and service. She was told we would only have to pay 45.99 per month. That was all fine and dandy. Next i went into the exact same store and asked for the same person she spoke with. He was a decent guy, of course tried to sell me the most expensive phone but no biggie, thats his job. I showed him my girlfriends phone and said i want the same deal as long as the phone would be warrantied for 90 days. He brought out the exact same motorola flip phone and activated it for me. I asked him if the phone was capable of using their mobile internet service as i buy/sell car parts online quite a bit and this would be useful. He assured me that absolutely it would and that this phone was a very very reliable phone however the internet would not be useful for 24 hours as it has to "sync" with the satellite or something. Ok that's cool. I can live. The next nigh i try to access the internet after the 24 hour "synchronization" period. To my dismay there is not even an option in the phone anywhere to use internet. I immediately drove back to the store and told them i did not have the internet i was paying 5 dollars extra for per month. Well they apologized and said they would be happy to change my plan as to not include the internet. Then they asked me for 15 dollars. "for what?" I asked. She explained to me that every time i changed my monthly plan there was a 15 dollar charge. I explained to her that i should not be charged this fee as i was told i would be able to use their mobile internet and purchased a phone under the false belief that it would work with said phone. She told me i would have to pay for the internet monthly then if i was not willing to pay the fee for changing the plan to not include internet. I asked what the guys name was that sold me the phone and then asked for a phone number to reach their corporate offices. She instead gave me an address (which i was fine with as its right up the street from my house) and told me to go there and see if they (the "corporate" headquarters) would change it without charging me. I drive straight to the "headquarters" and walk in. There were roughly about 35-40 people packed into this tiny little store waiting to talk to one of the eight representatives. Of course i had to take a number and wait my turn. While i was in there i witnessed about 80 % of the customers have disputes where Cricket had done something blatantly wrong but they still insisted that they were right. I even watched one of the CSR's grab a woman hard by the arm and literally push her out of the store by force over a billing issue. There is also a police officer specifically assigned to that store during service hours. What kind of cell phone company needs a police officer on duty all the time? After an hour and 45 minutes my number is called. I walk up to the desk and politely ask the gentleman how he is doing and get a response "I'd be doing better if you guys would just leave me the hell alone!". I thought he was joking so i kind of laughed about it even though it was uncalled for and unprofessional. I gave him my information and then started explaining the situation. He very rudely interrupted me halfway through and told me that i would have to have that store make the change. I explained to him that they said they couldn't and had referred me to that store. Next he stated that the only way he would change my plan without charge was if I brought in a note from the gentleman stating that he told me i would get internet on that phone and that he was wrong. Well now im getting a little frustrated but i drove back out to the store to try to get this "note" which i knew i was not going to get. I walk into the store and ask to speak to him again and am informed that he has gone home. I ask if he works the next day. The manager tells me that he does not work there and was only there filling in someone elses shift who was sick. Now im getting mad so calmly i explain to the manager what has happened and that if it is not resolved i am going to need a refund for my phone and my service cancelled. She immediately changes it for me.
A few weeks go by without any real problems, paid my bill on time yada yada yada, until one night my girlfriend shows me that the face on the dial pad of her phone has started to crack. She is extremely careful with her phone. I mean it still looked brand spanking new minus the cracks on the face of it. Well i tell her i will talk to the store the next day and try to get a new phone. Later that night i can't find my phone so i make a quick call on her phone. I close the phone ever so gently after my call and one side of the hinge that holds the screen in breaks off. Now the screen is held on with one hinge and is flopping around. next day about 4 pieces of the face break off out of the blue. This phone is only about 1 month old and babied. I take it in after i get off work and show them the phone. They tell me that my warranty is void because it looks like someone slid the screen across a counter. I tell them that phone sits on the mantle charging when it isn't being used and when it is used she is careful with it. They tell me they cannot help me and will not warranty it because i did not purchase their $15 a month insurance on the phone. Well its a warranty not an insurance claim i explain kindly mind you. I am a very polite person when it comes to dealing with other people as i have worked in the CSR field and know what its like. Next thing i know their cop is standing beside me telling me "sir, you need to leave this store right now before i have to take you into custody". So i leave as i don't want to be arrested and drive home fuming mad. I called the customer service number and they tell me that i am not telling the truth and that if he did in fact say that i must have been out of hand. I have a spotless criminal history and rarely rarely get angry even to the point of raising my voice.
well i tape her phone together with electrical tape for the time being. The next day i make a call on my phone and close it and both of the hinges break. Just great. I tape it together just like hers and deal with it. Within two days both of the phones have fallen apart so much you have to use two hands when using them, one to hold the bottom of the phone near your mouth and the other to hold the top half to your ear. That next day i take both phones back to the corporate headquarters, wait an hour and place both phones on the desk . I tell the csr that this is not coincidence and that they sold me a faulty product. He picks up my phone, looks at it and tells me the warranty is void because i must have slid the phone across a counter or table. I tell him that is exactly what they said the other day but about the other phone and now it seems like this is their scheme to void warranties therefore making me buy a new phone. The guy tells me that there is nothing he is willing to do about the situation even thought the phones are only a month old and were both faulty within the warranty period. I ask to speak to his manager. The lady comes up and looks at both of the phones and then looks at the serial numbers. Apparantly when they were remanufactured the factory tightened the screws holding the face on so tight that the face would crack and that they have been aware of this for two months. She was nice and replaced the phones with the same ones but remanufactured properly. As i was about to leave she tells me i owe then 20 dollars for shipping fees. i tell her i should not be charged for it and shouldn't have been sold a faulty phone anyways and that they needed to absorb that cost. She finally says alright and i walk out after my third hour in the store.
The bill was not due for another month so i was happy. then 7 days after i got the phones replaced they are both disconnected. Again i go into the store and ask why. They tell me that i did not pay the shipping costs for the phones to be sent back to the factory and so it is now "past due". In a hurry and sick of being there i pay the shipping cost. They reactivate the phones and i leave.
the next due date i go in to the store and pay the bill. There is a 15 dollar fee from the last month for each phone as a reactivation fee. I tell them i will not pay it because they should not have been deactivated and that the manager said she would waive it as it was not my fault. I pay the bill and leave assuming it has been credited. This stuff goes on for about the next 6 months just like that.
Finally the last straw:I had been laid off from work due to the economy and was not working for about a month so we only had enough money to pay one phone bill. Being a prepaid service we let my girlfriends phone get deactivated and just used mine for the time until i was able to find another job. Well finally i get hired on doing phone work and eventually we get back on our feet after about a month. I called cricket to have them reactivate her phone, and ask how much we owed. We had to pay the monthly bill plus the deactivation fee which i understood. So we paid the bill and were fine for about a week until her phone got shut off again. I call them again and speak to a lady in the phillipines about it. Whatt she told me was that the payment we made went to the previous months bill, the month that the phone was off and that we owe another months payment to reactivate it. I explain to her that cricket is a prepaid service and that if we dont pay it that the phone will not be connected therefore we should not have to pay for a month that we cannot use the phone. She tells me that the service was disconnected but the "account" was still active and that we did not call to let them know when we would pay. I tell her we will not pay for a month of service when we did not get a month of service and she threatens to send me to collections. I tell her that is fine but she will need to mail me a copy of all the bills, and a copy of their license to collect debt in the state of utah. She told me that it was not her fault that i cant keep my act together and that if i cant afford something i shouldnt be buying it. Now this got me really really mad as i had been laid off from a job that i loved. I told her i was going to file a lawsuit against cricket as well as report them to the BBB and i was going to write a letter to the attorney general explaining everything that happened. She started firing off personal insults at me but i interrupted her and told her that cricket is just another company that makes money off of less fortunate people and that she is trying to take the food out of my child's mouth just because they want the money and then hung up. I went and got t mobile the very next day and just let my cricket phone get disconnected as well as called my credit card company and had them cancel the payment to cricket. I haven't heard from them since.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
iansjetta
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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