MetroCall Paging Inc., Apex (near Raleigh), NC - price quoted by phone rep. not honored - ongoing billing problems

# 5 for September 26, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on September 25, 2003:

From:

RE: MetroCall Paging Inc., Apex (near Raleigh), NC - price quoted by phone rep. not honored - ongoing billing problems

Signed up for an unlimited paging plan at $40.95 per month in June. On 7/24/03 I had trouble with the service which cost me a great deal of money and grief. I called their svc ctr (after getting their bill) on 8/14/03 and spoke with Javon at x 4329. I told her I was displeased and considering canceling my acct. She offered me the same plan, only billed quarterly, at much better rate and faxed me over a new invoice. Cool.

Got a new invoice via the mail the next month with very different info than had been faxed. Called 9/9/03 and spoke with Raine at x 4691. Was told they could not honor pricing quoted, and faxed, by CSR Javon. Offered new plan with no guarantee they could honor that one next month if I got another bad bill. Let vm for original sales rep several times but he never called back. Spoke with Raine on 9/23 and faxed copy of invoice Javon had sent. Raine then agreed to honor pricing.

Tried to confirm our plan with her and she said that at the honored price, they could not offer us unlimited pages, but rather only 100 per month. Said they don't even offer unlimited plans. Faxed her original quote from sales rep. Spoke with Raine again 09/25 and was told the original quote was no longer honorable since it has been 30 days since it was issued. I think something else isn't honorable Raine. Told her we had signed up under that plan within 30 days.

She claimed we had changed our plan when we accepted the lower price from Javon. Told her we were offered the same plan we were on, at a lower price at billed quarterly, in order to keep our business. She asked if we had proof of that. I said no, to which she said that by accepting the price, we accepted a different plan. I told her that unless Javon had told us about the change verbally, or (even better) sent us something to that effect, changing our plan without notification to, or permission by, the customer constitutes fraud. She disagreed.

She offered us the discounted pricing with 100 pages per month included, but would not offer the original plan we were on since it was past the 30 day "promotional period." We sometimes run 100 pages in a day, so we could not continue to do business with them. Cancelled our account. Would consider reopening it if they would conduct their business honorably and non-fraudulently.