Century Cellunet / CenturyTel / Alltel - unknowingly extened contract for cell phone, causing cancellation problems

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on November 15, 2002:

From:

RE: Century Cellunet / CenturyTel / Alltel - unknowingly extened contract for cell phone, causing cancellation problems

Century Cellunet which then became CenturyTel than became Allltel has caused us some very disturbing anxiety. Approximately 1 month ago my husband and myself decided to terminate his cell phone which was with Alltell. We knew that he had a 1 year contract and had been with them for approximately 2 years. Therefore, there should be no problem dropping them.

How wrong we were. Upon calling their 800# and listening to recordings for 25 minutes, than being transferred and on hold for another 15 minutes, we finally talked to a real person. This person informed me that my husband had agreed to extend his contract for another year. This was a bold faced lie. I asked to talk to a supervisor, Troy Shaney at 1-800-848-4577 ext. 1180. Mr. Shaney advised me that sometime in July, my husband Terry Holland, had received a call from their representatives and had agreed to extending his contract for one year in return for an extra amount of minutes.

This was ludacrist. First of all, we did not need extra minutes, for he was not using the amount that he had. However, we did receive a phone call from them sometime in July. He answered the phone and I had picked up the extension. He was asked only if he was satisfied with the service. Nothing was ever mentioned about free minutes or extending our service. Their scam is that they extend a customers service by our admitting that the service is ok. Then when we tried to cancel they wanted $200.00 to cancel, because according to them, we had verbally agreed to extend our contract.

This was NOT true. We did NOT agree to extend our contract. When I asked to hear the recording of where we had agreed, Mr. Shaney said he would try to locate it. This was Oct. 24, 2002. He told me that if he could not locate it within 1 week, that he would let us out of the contract. At the end of one week, Oct. 31st. I phoned Mr. Shaney. Mr. Shaney informed me that they could not find the recording and needed more time. He claimed he never said what he had said on the 24th about the one week. Anyway, I gave him 1 more week. On the 6th of November, it now had been two weeks. I phoned him again. Yep, No tape. He finally agreed to let us out of the contract.

We should not have had to go through all of this. This company, Alltell, is running a scam on their customers. They need to be stopped. I'm sure there are many unknowing customers of their's that are not a persistent as myself. We knew that we had not agreed to any such extended contract. Mr. Shaney and his associates tell me that such verbal contracts, if there are any, are very legal and will stand up in court. Please investigate this.

As honest, law-abiding persons, we feel that many people are probably staying with this company or paying the $200.00 to get out, just because they do not know any better. Thank you for you time. Please let us know what you find out. Our address and phone is as follows:

Mr. & Mrs. Terry Holland

Ithaca, MI 48847

Sincerely,

Brenda Holland