Complaint Review: Alltel.com

my husband and i signed a two year contract with alltel because our son and a lot of our friends and our grandchildren have alltel, and we thought we could talk to them for free{on our agreed upon contract with alltel} because alltel promises free mobile to mobile if you are talking to an alltel number. we had never owned cell phones before, except for a verizon pay as you go my husband had for two years{with absolutely no trouble i might add}.we went into our local alltel store in port charlotte, fl on april 29th, 2007 with the intention of signing up for new cell phone service. the guy that waited on us,{drew burch} rushed us through the whole procedure, after we explained to him that we wanted cell phones, now, instead of land lines for our home in florida, and our cabin in michigan. we also told drew that we were going to buy our son's dell laptop when we got to michigan, and that we would buy wireless internet service for the laptop when we got to michigan and purchased it from our son. drew gave us the bum's rush and told us we wouldn't be able to add that service later, that if we wanted wireless internet service through alltel, we would have to purchase an air card and another line for the computer right then. so, new to the cell phone game, we believed him, and purchased them, but not before telling him that we weren't going to leave for michigan,

until the 25th of may, not within the "15 day" exchange period that alltel allows on new phones or cancellations. drew said not to worrry,that alltel was nation wide, and it would not be a problem, if the air card would not work with our computer. at this time i also asked drew about the nationwide calling plan that we had signed up for, with 1000 anytime minutes, nights andweekends, and unlimited mobile to mobile, explaining that my husband traveled extensively, and i would be concerned about "roaming ccharges", since the phone would be based out of port charlotte, fl and we would need service in california, alaska, and our cabin in michigan, florida, and wherever we traveled, drew informed me that it didn't matter where we called from, because it was tower to tower, and there would be no "roaming", he did say that there was a very small area in the united states, that did not have cell towers, but the cell phone would not work in those areas anyway, so don't worry about roaming. i felt like i had asked all the questions, i needed to, so we went on our way. we arrived michigan on may 28th, got our computer from our son and tried to hook up to the internet. of course it didn't work. for the next three months i talked to customer service at alltel, trying to get some kind of service about the non working air card. i called the store in fl. where i bought it and was told that "drew no longer works here, and there is nothing we can do to help you".

all this time i continued to pay 59.00b plus taxes per month for a 3rd phone line that never had 1 minute of use. {this was for the wireless internet aircard} i went to the alltel store in gaylord, mi. 4 different times, finally on the 26th of june, i demanded to see the store mgr. {her name is carrie} she told me that she would need to keep both my computer , and the air card for a few days, and that she would order a new air card, after determining, that the air card was faulty. she assured me that she would solve, the problem and was very nice. finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i thought i had found some one to help me, and thanked her profusely, saying my whole goal was to have wireless internet. during this time period, my husband was on business in alaska, so the job of figuring out this problem was mine. on june 28th, i went back to the gaylord, mi. alltel store, and was told by a new associate named travis, that carrie could not make the new air card work, and that there was something wrong with my computer, but if i wanted to sell the computer that travis would be interested in it. i said no, and demanded to see carrie who was staying in the office, so she didn't have to talk with me again. she finally came out and said that i should go to dell's web site and look up how to install a program that was missing on my computer, and then the air card would work, i said i wasn't going to do that, because since she had kept my computer, i had spoken to my niece, who had the same trouble with an alltel air card on a dell computer, and she had returned it and gotten her money back. carrie finally authorized travis to refund my 187.00 for the alltel aircard. but not for the 177.00 that i had paid for 3 months@59.00 plus tax for the 3rd phone line. travis said that would have to be authorized by the company,and might take a while to process.finally, in july that credit came through, and i thought that things were straightened out. but in august , my bill came, and it was for 411.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i almost passed out, it seems that every mobile to mobile that my husband dialed out was a "roaming" charge at 1.00 a minute, and 2.00 each time he checked his voice mail. well of course, i called the so-called "customer service" , and spoke to a lady named audra, who agreed with me, and said that she would credit the charges back, because of our nation wide 1000 anytime minutes, and unlimited mobile to mobile {these were all mobile to mobile on the alltel network} no "roaming" for me, my son, or my granddaughter to call my husband mobile to mobile, just when he called us. after countless more trips to the alltel in gaylord, mi, and many more calls to customer service, i was informed that i could go ahead and contact the better business bureau, or whatever avenue i chose to pursue, but i would be paying for all the "roaming" since alltel didn't have any towers in alaska. how then, i asked was it that we could talk to my husband? the answer was that he should watch his phone, and only make calls when his phone showed "r" in the bar at the top. i also noticed that i was now being charged an additional 19.99 plus tax, plus a partial month charge for all axcess on my phone number.

when i went in to the gaylord, mi store to pay my bill in july, i had asked the associate whose name was alicia, what all axcess was, and she explained it to me, and asked if i wanted to add it at that time, i said no, i just wanted to get everything else, straightened out, and didn't want to add any more confusion. well, she slammed me for all axcess, without my permission, and added it anyway.

my nephew, who works for nextel, told me that the associates have a quota to meet, or they lose their jobs. i was livid, and made them remove the all axcess, and credit my account. i also told them i expected at least an apology, and maybe a monetary credit also. when my next bill came, i had been credited the "roaming" charges from alaska, and even had a credit of 18.00.

my next bill showed that i owed 74.55, which with my calculations was the differnce of my monthly 79.99 plus taxes, minus the 18.00 credit. this months bill says that alltel has made another adjustment to my account, recharging me for the "roaming" charges for 193.88 plus misc. taxes of 23.40 for a total of 217.28 past due, and needs to be paid immediately. my next letter is to theattornery generals for the states of michigan, arkansas, and florida, as well as to the better business bureau, and to consumeraffairs.com.

at no time since the start of our contract with alltel, have we ever come close to using the 1000 anytime minutes, the new "re-adjustment" for 217.28 was processed om 09-05-07.

Mical
north port, Florida
U.S.A.

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