Nextel - phone problems, customer service problems, billing package misinformation

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on June 11, 2002:

From: Sheila [Email User]

RE: Nextel - phone problems, customer service problems, billing package misinformation We have been wrongly charged for Customer Care calls made with the pre-programmed 1800 number on our cell phone and for minutes used after 8pm when we were previously told that these were included in “offpeak”

minutes. We wish to cancel our phone and feel we should not be subjected to the cancellation fee due to

the following reasons: 1. We never received basic wireless web on our phone as promised.

2. The phone kept randomly deleting phone numbers we had stored in our phonebook.

3. Important incoming calls did not get through to us, although we were in our calling area and not using the

phone.

4. We are running a small business and have already invested and lost a lot of money because we had faith

in our new number which we find out does not work.

5. We were told all minutes after 8pm would be considered “offpeak/nights and weekend” minutes, but

we have been charged for all calls made between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. starting on April 29th.

6. We were not informed that “offpeak/nights and weekend” minutes would change from 8pm to 9pm.

7. Customer “Care” refused to assist us when we called, giving us the runaround instead.

8. The customer care manager, Marcia, was notably rude, argumentative and stubborn.

9. The Customer Care 1-800 number was preprogrammed into our phone. We were not informed to use 611 until it was too late. There is no point in our paying for a cell phone service that continues to be problematic and has already wasted so much of our time and money. We have not been provided the service that we were lead to believe would follow the signing of a Nextel Subscriber Agreement. We bought our Nextel I-50 phone with a “Free Incoming 500, Unlimited N/W” plan on April 9, 2002 from Corey Taylor at the Retail Nextel Office on 330 Commerce, Irvine. We asked him specific questions at this time before deciding to sign the contract. Corey told us that the Service included night/weekend minutes, which started AFTER 8pm.

We never received any courtesy notice indicating that the service changed from 8pm to 9pm. Corey also told us that we would receive basic wireless web on our phone, and that this would be activated within 72 hours after activation of our phone. This feature was never activated, despite several attempts to resolve the issue. A few weeks after purchasing the phone, we went back to the Retail Office in Irvine and spoke to Dewayne Cezares about our phone issues. He directed us to call Customer Care so that they could troubleshoot our phone. Daniel then wasted a lot of time waiting on hold over several attempts to get through to CustomEr Care before finally reaching, Deedra. Daniel told Deedra about incoming calls not getting through to our cell phone. Deedra tried To dismiss the claim by saying that since he was calling from the cell phone, she could not troubleshoot our phone.

She also insisted that the automated message specifically stated that there would be no troubleshooting of cell phones that were currently in use, when in fact, after hours of wait, listening to the same automated message, Daniel knew that there was no such statement.

Deedra then told us to turn off the cell phone so that she could troubleshoot the phone and post notes to the account. As for the phone deleting random phonebook numbers, Deedra said that we would have to go exchange it for a new phone at the retail office. Nextel representative Justin called to check up on us a few days later. Daniel told him the problems with our phone persisted and about the previous conversation with Deedra. Justin told Daniel that there were no notes in the account and that Deedra had not done any troubleshooting as she claimed she would do. Justin was apologetic and told us to call Customer Care yet again so that they could fix our problems.

Justin also informed us that we should not use the pre-programmed 1-800 Customer Care number because we were being charged for those minutes. Instead, he told us to use “611,” but not to worry because Customer Care would refund all of our previous calls using the 1-800 number since we were never informed of this fact. We received our first Nextel Bill on Saturday, May 11, 2002. We highlighted all of the errors on our bill and quickly called Customer Care. After finally getting through to Customer Care, Ryan (ref #70299412) took the call from Daniel. Daniel told him about the previous conversations with other Customer Service representatives and the wrongful charges posted to our bill. A group of these charges were for phone calls made from 8pm-9pm.

We had been told by Corey Taylor that all of our calls after 8pm would be free. Ryan told us that all existing customers were told that the “offpeak” minutes were changing from 8-9 p.m., however we never received such a call. Ryan concluded that he could not do anything about this and that we would have to go take it up with the place of purchase. We also told him about the wireless web not being activated, and Ryan said he could not do anything about this either because his system was down, something we had been told previously by other representatives. We went into the Retail Office of Nextel in Irvine again to straighten out our cell phone issues on May 14, 2002. We went straight to the manager, Dewayne Cezares, to explain the situation. He acted courteously, but in a manner that he wanted to get rid of us. He told us that the phone could not be returned because on our receipt it says the phone must be returned within 30 days or 30 minutes otherwise it is useless to them. He did not take into consideration that the phone was just as useless to us because it was deleting random numbers and not getting incoming calls. Dewayne continued the runaround, telling us that he could not deal with billing issues. He told us to call Customer Care yet again. We refused to keep running around and asked if there was someone we could speak to face to face. Dewayne laughed at us and said we could if we wanted to go to Reston, Virginia! We did not find this funny. He then suggested that we use the phone in the lobby to call Customer Care, acting like they would be more than happy to straighten out our bill and cancel our service. Dewayne lead us to the lobby and called Customer Care. He was on hold for several minutes. He then passed the phone to Daniel to wait on hold while he went back to his office. After Ann (“Annette”) picked up the phone, Dewayne came back to explain the situation to her. He was chuckling and acting light-hearted. When he handed the phone to Daniel, Ann immediately became defensive and argumentative. Ann refused to waive the $200 fee plus the wrong phone charges, repeatedly accusing us of using too many minutes. She did not take into account that half of those minutes were wrong charges. Ann did not want to listen to our side at all. Instead of arguing with her, Daniel asked to speak to her manager. The Customer Care manager, Marcia (ref#7039532, extension x254298749) was the most stubborn and defensive lady we have dealt with thus far. Marcia only wanted to argue instead of listen. Daniel and Sheila were ready to reach a compromise and pay for the first month’s corrected bill, but the way Marcia conducted herself made us feel very offended. Marcia came on the line and abruptly stated, “I talked with the other representative and she brought me up to speed.” There was no greeting or polite remarks one would expect from a Customer CARE representative speaking with a CUSTOMER. She came on the line with her mind made up: we were the enemies. She did not ask Daniel for our side of the story at all. As Daniel told her all of our phone issues to make sure that she had the whole story, Marcia kept rebutting him. When Daniel told her about the phonebook deleting numbers, she automatically assumed that he was referring to the “phone history” and would not listen. When he told her about not receiving incoming calls, she said that it was not Nextel’s fault because there was NO guarantee that all calls would be received!! He tried to reason with her, giving her a simple example: If you had cable TV service and it did not work for