Cricket Communications, Misleading Information Kansas City Missouri
I purchased a Cricket sell phone and not once did anyone mention, Cricket will still charge you even if you are not using the phone and it is off. My phone was not on for a whole month of May 2007. On June 1, 2007 I went to turn my phone back on, I was told that my bill was 63.25 and not once did any one of the workers who helped me mention that I would have to pay an additional bill for June 2007.
Here it is June 5, 2007 and my phone is cut off. I called them to get an understanding and spoke with a lady by the name of Brandy who was a smart a*s, and very rude. She stated that I still have to pay a bill for June and I wanted to know why I wasnt told this when I went to pay to get my billed turned back on. I wish I would have continued to go to school because I would be sueing the hell out of this place. They better hope the next individual is as nice and cooperative as I was, because now adays people are not taking this nonsense from these businesses or anyone else for that matter.
We are low income people just trying to make a living and are constantly getting messed over and we have no voice to speak for us and no responsible leaders to take and stand and say enough is enough. We may not have as much money as anyone to throw around but we are still individuals trying to survive. You wonder why there is so much violence and yes I am pissed becasue I don't like anyone playing with my money. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to speak my mind, now let's just hope the president and vice president will not just read this but make a change because like I said the next individual may not be as kind.
Belinda
Kansas City, Missouri
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
M
Advance,North Carolina,
U.S.A.
Not totally Cricket's fault...and little encouragement...
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, June 06, 2007
I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with Cricket. The representative definitely had no reason to be a "smart *&*" with you...and that was out-of-line. Cricket doesn't take kindly to that. Be assured that when the call is listened to, she'll be reprimanded. However, I can explain what happened to you.
First, if your phone "was off for a whole month", what was that due to? Did you suspend service on it due to a broken phone? If you did not suspend your service, then the only other reason why it would be "off for a whole month" would be due to not paying your bill on-time.
Customers think that if they just don't pay their bill and their phone gets turned off that Cricket will let them "skip a month". However, you have found out that that doesn't happen with Cricket. They simply suspend your service due to non-payment....and they continue to bill you until a payment turns the phone back on. Unfortunately, you don't get that month back, AND you are still responsible for the bill. Cricket is a pre-paid service, so if you pay your bill 2 weeks late, you will STILL have another bill due 2 weeks later. Cricket does NOT give credit for "time without service" due to non-payment.
I'm going to be honest with you. I know how it is paying bills. My wife and I have been there. We had to struggle through almost getting evicted twice, and having less than $20 to eat on per week for us and our 2 kids....all because the government said "you make too much money for us to help you". We had food stamps (the EBT card) for a while, and then they even took that away. For about 6 months, we didn't know how we were going to make it....all while we were attending school. During this time, we had also overdrafted our checking account by $800!! We used our credit cards since we didn't have any cash. We FINALLY paid those off about a year ago (about $5000 worth) by using our Federal and State Tax Refund check. We basically had to learn to cut down ALL of our bills to the minimum that we needed to just SURVIVE without any extras. That meant no cable TV, using the Internet only at school, and working a LOT.
My suggestion to you is to sit down and figure out if you can really afford cell phone service by taking a good look at what your income is and seeing if you can pay ALL of your bills first, THEN seeing what you have left over after the bills are paid. If your bills exceed your income, then you need to cut down on your bills. If you're having to get "payday loans" to pay your bills, you're doing nothing but digging yourself in a hole because you're paying $20-30 for every $100-200 you "borrow" for a week or two. That's money you could be using to pay bills. Trust me, I know what you're going through...
If you are not in school, go back to school. I am actually STILL in school, and have been since 1998...and I'm not quitting until I finish a degree. I had to drop out because of lack of financial aid from school, and I was 10 credit hours from a bachelor's degree!! I went back last year after sitting out for 2 years. If you can just get into school, the government CAN help you while you attend school, ESPECIALLY if you have children. The biggest thing the government helped with were childcare (we had 2 children) and food. We only had to pay $250/month for childcare for 2 kids, and they gave us about $400-500 for food stamps to eat on.
I HIGHLY recommend attending a community college and finishing a degree in a field with high job demand, like nursing. You can get financial help from the government. I grew up in Kansas City all my life before moving to Oklahoma to attend college. There are LOTS of good quality community colleges in KC, as well as a couple of universities as well. Believe in yourself that you CAN do it!!!