Cell Phone Plans – No Contract
Millions of people use cell phones every day. Many of them settle for paying for expensive phones and plans with mediocre service. Many others are not. Many have experienced something similar to what you are about to read about in this article. Please note that this is a true story.
A few years ago my wife was offered a “deal” on a cell phone package. In all honesty, it was a pretty good deal, as far as cell phone plans go. She accepted the offer and we received our phones and all was well. Until we got the first bill.
They charged us significantly more than what they told us it would be. Naturally, I called “customer service” (and I use that term simply as a vague title, because it wasn’t really such a thing) from this particular no-name company, which happens to be one of the major carriers here in the United States, just to be informed that the gentleman who made us the offer was not “authorized” to make us such a deal. Since the fault was from the company representative, they would be happy to cancel our contract without penalty. So they said…
We canceled the contract and returned the phones. The next month the bill was almost a thousand dollars! Another call to the phone company. Turns out they weren’t charging us to cancel the contract. They were charging us a few hundred dollars each for the phones they had sent us. The same phones that we had returned to them. After some digging, they found our old phones in their storage room. Our account was credited by the person on the other end of the line. Or so we thought.
The next month, same bill, same amount. Another call This person reviewed the notes associated with our account and admitted that he saw the problem. She would take care of it with a few keystrokes.
Everything was fine. Until the following month when the same invoice appeared again.
As it turned out, she was not authorized to correct our bill. Neither did her supervisor. Even though they admitted it was the phone company’s fault. Even though they could see in front of them, that the phones were in her storage room collecting dust. Even though they acknowledged that the bill was wrong. They knew it was wrong. They could see that it was wrong. They said it was wrong. Aim nobody he had the authority to fix it.
Eventually it went to a collection agency because I refused to pay until it was corrected. The collection agency called and we went over the story, one more time. They had the notes from the phone company and they asked me to send them a letter explaining what happened. I never heard from the collection agency again.
A few years later, another major operator (also unnamed) bought the company over the bookkeeping issue. He just so happened to have our cell phone plan with this conglomerate at the time of purchase. (We had been customers for several years at the time of the transaction.) Because our “due account” was still on the old company’s books, we received a bill that included the old amount “due” to the old company. company. Needless to say, the invoice is still “owed” and we are no longer part of that company.
I’m sure my few dollars a month won’t affect the stability or growth of that particular company, but that’s when I became a fan of no-contract cell phone plans. It is absolutely ridiculous that they can get away with the things they do to people, simply because they are big corporations. It is nothing more than a scam designed to intimidate people who don’t know any better into paying them huge amounts of money that they have done nothing to earn.
Do not misunderstand. I don’t mind paying for services I use or have used. What offends me is being taken advantage of by entities that earn more in a month than I will probably earn in my lifetime. Cell Phone Plans – No Contract. That’s the way to go my friend!
