IDT - I have been bottling up my rage at IDT for several months, because each time I see one of their misleading commercials, I think of all the other people who had an experience similar to mine. I voluntarily changed my local and long distance service,

IDT - I have been bottling up my rage at IDT for several months, because each time I see one of their misleading commercials, I think of all the other people who had an experience similar to mine. I voluntarily changed my local and long distance service, believing the "everything for $39.95" sales pitch

&#160 I have been bottling up my rage at IDT for several months, because each time I see one of their misleading commercials, I think of all the other people who had an experience similar to mine. I voluntarily changed my local and long distance service, believing the "everything for $39.95" sales pitch. Here is what happened.

I ordered service switched on two phone accounts. When I got my first bill, I realized only one of the orders was completed (a fact which turned out to be a blessing). The IDT bill was much higher than the previous carrier's charges -- actually $30 more per month after all the "extra" charges. I paid the bill thinking I would wait for the next one to see if the current bill included startup charges and would be lower.

The following month I got a double bill, and I began to get shutoff notices from IDT because my first payment was obviously lost. I attempted to call the number provided for billing issues several times over two days, and the wait time on hold averaged more than one and one half hours. One of those days, I spent a total of THREE AND ONE HALF HOURS on hold (I hung up in frustration on one call after one and one half hours. I called back, and was on hold for another two hours. - - - - I swear I am not exaggerating.

When I finally got an operator, I was obviously upset, at which time an extremely rude operator hung up on me. I attempted to call back the next day, at a different time of day, and waited on hold for an operator for over two hours, only to get the same operator. When I requested another representative, she again hung up on me. I paid the double bill and immediately called my previous local/long distance carrier and asked to be switched back, which I was told would be handled by them, effective within a few days.

I continued to get bills from IDT, even though I had, I thought, cancelled my account with them. I also wasn't receiving a bill from my new carrier. It was then I discovered the final insult: IDT had not released my account,months after I changed carriers! By the time I found out I was involuntarily still their customer they had already found my first payment and, of course, kept it.

I wrote a letter of complaint to their customer relations manager, but never heard anything back. I guess you can understand why I cringe when I see their TV and print ads.

Nancy S

Nancy S &#160 Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: //