Could It Be Any Worse?
Written: Jan 21 '02
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Pros: NONE WHAT SO EVER
Cons: They Will LIE They Will Cheat They Will Treat The Customer Like Cr*p
The Bottom Line: DO NOT Use MCI Worldcom For ANY Reason
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| mtbat's Full Review: General Reviews of MCI Worldcom Customer Service |
Do you like stress? Do you love headaches? Do you love banging your head against the wall in total and utter frustration? If so, then MCI Worldcom Wireless is most definitely the company for you. Their service is spotty; their customer care is non-existent. If you need assistance, they won’t help you. The only thing that MCI Worldcom is good at is taking your money.
It has been a YEAR since I’ve had an MCI Worldcom cell phone. But I’m still dealing with bills and problems. It’s a fairly long and complex story, one that makes me shutter a story that gives me nightmares.
It started three years ago; I wanted a cell phone. One of my coworkers had just picked up a phone from the MCI Worldcom booth that was set up near the college bookstore. She talked me into going down and checking out the phones. Let me add, I wanted a cell phone, my husband-at that time didn’t think I needed one, didn’t want the extra expense.
At the MCI Worldcom booth, I was told I could get a cell phone-they would “loan” me the phone, but I had to fill out a credit check-which at that time I didn’t pass. The woman at the booth was, however, more than willing to run my HUSBANDS name through and Lo and behold he came up as approved-so I got my cell phone (note-my first clue to the problems with MCI Worldcom should have been their willingness to cheat the system and lie). I was told a variety of things about the service, most of which turned out to be lies. I chose an Analog style phone that gave me a “wide” service area. 60 minutes a month for only $29.95 plus a $3.50 “insurance” fee-if I lost or broke the phone. I agreed to a year contract. Plus a few bucks for equipment rental. (Okay I was an idiot-I’d never had a cell phone before!)
Despite my husband’s initial misgivings, it quickly became apparent that having a cell-phone was a good thing. When my car broke down-I was able to call him. When he needed to reach me at work or in school, he could. But things were not wonderful. I’d been told my first incoming minute was free-guess what? It wasn’t. When I was billed for this, I called customer service, and after a long, long wait I was informed that that was in error. Keeping my time at fewer than 60 was nearly impossible since minutes were rounded up.
Service: at best it was spotty. In certain areas, where I should have had service, I didn’t. It was normal for phone calls to be suddenly cut off for no reason-and no it wasn’t the phone-it was the service. When I’d try and call to get more information, I was giving the run around, told outrageous reasons for lack of service.
I dealt with it. I had a year, I did the year. Then I did something really stupid. I agreed to one more year-of 30minutes at $19.95(plus all the extra fees) with a $2 off a month for re- agreeing to another year. Any minutes above my 30 would cost .32cents a minute-not cheap. I had more problems with the phone. I used it ONLY for emergency situations or if someone needed to reach me. I started looking forward to the end of my contract, especially when I began to realize exactly how badly I’d been screwed over. Anyone who has a cell phone knows that almost any other cell phone service provider will practically hand you unlimited minutes for very little more than what I was paying.
With only a few short months to go, I received a phone call offering me a pager connected to my MCI Worldcom phone. The telemarketer could barely speak English, I told him-send me INFORMATION on the pager. HE sent me the pager. I called and told them I didn’t WANT the D*mned Pager. I finally, after over an HOUR got a person who said-they’d cancel the pager service and send me an envelope to send the pager back to them. The tech told me to Take out the batteries from the pager before shipping it back . Um, okay-if it can’t be shipped back with batteries then why the H*ll did you send it WITH batteries in it to begin with. I didn’t want to open the package to take out the pager and take out the batteries, I didn’t want to be told-“you opened it you bought it”. So I didn’t take the batteries out before sending it anywhere! I don’t know if they ever got the pager back-I’ve never been able to get a straight answer about that out of anyone.
With the end of my contract looming, I waited for MCI Worldcom to contact me. I’d all ready purchased a phone through ATT&T Cellular They didn’t contact me. So finally I called them, knowing that my contract/service plan should be about at it’s end. I was on hold for at least a half an hour, I was switched to several different people and finally was told OH your contract is over, it’s now month to month. I told them to cancel my service NOW.
Then I got the “final” bill. I found that, I was being charged for the pager. I called Customer Service. The first time I called I got an automated voice telling me that my Estimated Wait would be 180 minutes yes, that’s right my estimated wait would be 180 minutes-THREE HOURS. I did wait for about 5 minutes, and then I hung up. I called back the next day and was told Your Estimated Wait will be 60 minutes. I hung up. The next day Your Estimated Wait will be 30 minutes. Knowing I had to deal with this sooner or latter. I waited. And waited. And waited. For the next 45 minutes I held the phone a foot away from my ear to prevent my going deaf from the horrible music that was blasting from my phone.
When I finally got a live person, I was told I had to speak with someone else and transferred. By this time I was pretty steamed. I’d spent over an hour on hold with horrible music (a really nasty cross between Jazz and Musak –I like Jazz-this was not good Jazz) BLASTING in my ear. I know darned well they turn up the volume on the music to discourage people from waiting on hold for customer service.
When I talked to the 2ed person, I got them to agree to cancel the charges and the bill. I was told-You might get another bill, if you do just call again. I didn’t get a bill the next month, so I figured it was all over with.
Not.
SIX MONTHS LATER I got another bill-for the pager, for service and equipment rental for the 6 months. I went through the whole customer service calling, bad music playing routine and got them to cancel the bill. And was told again that I might get one more bill.
THREE MONTHS LATTER guess what I got in the mail? A bill for $12.95 for the pager and service. I called AGAIN. I had my hearing damaged by the loud music AGAIN. I got them to cancel the bill AGAIN and I was told I * Might* get one more bill. And if I did just call back again.
That was three months ago, I haven’t received a new bill-which might have something to do with what I told the last person I would do with that bill if they sent me another one-in fact, I’m surprised no-one showed up at my door to investigate the threats I made against MCI Worldcom that day, I was not at my best. I’m hoping that my horror story with MCI Worldcom is finally at an end. I have not had an MCI Worldcom phone in over a year but I am STILL dealing with them.
We have also used the MCI Worldcom home phone long distance plan. Like the cell plan-it sucks. You pay $5 a month to make long distance calls, your “cheap” times are invariably at bad and inconvenient times. No, I wouldn’t recommend the home phone long distance either.
I would NOT recommend MCI Worldcom to anyone for any reason. Not in this lifetime, not in any future lifetimes. They have their customer service set up to discourage you from contacting them. They will leave you on hold, blast bad music in your ears, send you equipment you did not order and treat you like Cr*p. if it were possible to give MCI Worldcom less than one start-I’d do it. They don’t deserve one star. Their service is bad, they are overpriced and they lie constantly about your coverage.
I now have a AT&T cell phone plan. I own the phone-with discounts and rebates through AT&T.Com I got the phone for free. I pay-with all taxes and fees $35.95 a month for 120 minutes of time-free long distance. With MCI Worldcom I’d have to pay long distance charges. I also get 200 free nights and weekend minutes after 8pm on weeknights anytime weekends for the first year. So for the same amount I was paying for 30 minutes I now get 320 minutes of time with AT&T.
Please, if you are considering MCI Worldcom for your cellular or home phone service-DON’T DO IT-RUN, RUN AWAY WHILE YOU STILL CAN!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 29.99month
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Epinions.com ID:
mtbat
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 229
Trusted by: 127 members
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