Complaint Review: Great Call

I was fooled by the slick ads for the Jitterbug phone in the AARP magazine, and by the salesperson when I called the company a couple of months ago to inquire about their plan. The biggest selling point for the phone was it's size (6") and it's supposedly ease of use. It does have big buttons, which is convenient for a senior citizen, but it's also heavy & bulky. And it wasn't any easier to "swipe" to answer a phone call. I missed many calls trying to get it to connect!

This was the 3rd cell phone company I'd been with in 10 years, so I usually am a loyal customer once I choose a provider and their customer service isn't sent to an overseas country to handle. About 25 days after I received the phone and had used it daily (normal calls, texts & Facebook), I looked at my data usage, and it seemed to me high, but there were no numbers (amount of data used), just a chart. I had signed up for a low data plan (as advised by Great Call salesperson) because I (at the time) had wifi at work. I also have it at home, so they said as long as the phone was connected to either wifi, my data usage would remain low, and probably never go over the limit (I think it was 1.5 GB). My monthly charges were to be $37.70, which was less than I had been paying with my last company. The big difference was the notification of my data usage: my old company slowed down my phone when I ran out of data, or got close to running out. Then you knew you had to deal with it like that or purchase additional data. This only happened a time or two, because I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook watching videos, etc. I did let my grandson play a video game on my Jitterbug phone, but only a couple of times, and not for hours on end. I was confident after talking to Great Call that I'd never exhaust my data usage because the phone would always be connected to my wifi - and it was.

So when I called customer service at Great Call (spoke with Gloria), I was shocked to hear not only had I gone over my data limit (NO NOTICES OR WARNINGS FROM GREAT CALL), but I had gone over to the amount of $387+ !!!! I was panicked - how in the world did this happen? Why didn't they send me notice? How was I going to pay it? I'm a senior citizen on fixed income - that amount of money is a small fortune to me. Gloria assured me she would "take care of it". After holding for awhile, she came back on the line and said they would have to raise my monthly payment to $62.69 to cover the overage, but I would have to pay $82.69 first. She was going to add one GB to my plan as a "one-time only" service for $20. Normally the one GB charge is $40, she said.  So I accepted these terms - what choice did I have? After I told her I had let my grandson play a game on the phone, this was her reasoning for all the overage charges - even though in the back of my mind I didn't buy this. He would've had to been playing videos 24 hours a day, every day to rack up this much data use. Sometime after this call, I called again to check on the second month's data use, just so I could keep an eye on it, not ever thinking what I would be told was this: I HAD GONE OVER MY DATA USAGE AGAIN - not as much as the first month, but she (female I spoke with) could "sell" me one GB of data for $40, just for insurance against it happening again. Again, what choice did I have? So I "bought" the one GB for $40 (added to my 2nd month's bill). I JUST FELT THERE HAD TO BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE PHONE - AND ONE EMPLOYEE AT GREAT CALL SAID IT WAS POSSIBLE when I called them to cancel my plan. (See below). She (Penny) said they would test the phone when it was returned & determine if it was a "lemon" or not.

I knew that my 30 days would be up soon (for returning the phone), so I decided I couldn't afford to keep the phone, or the plan, and called Great Call on the 29th or 30th day - spoke with Penny. She (of course) tried to talk me out of cancelling my account & sending the phone back but said since I called within the 30 days to cancel, I could send it back. I got the address from her (a post office box) and she told me I WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SHIPPING COSTS. I thought it would be worth it ($13+) to get rid of the albatross it had become. I packaged the phone with all the original equipment that came with it (including a free cover & car charger) and mailed it back by USPS on 5-23. The company received it on 5-25, according to tracking with USPS. Penny told me once they received it, my refund could take as long as 21 business days to receive. It's been 17 (business) days as of today's date. I called Great Call yesterday just to get a status because last week when I called (6/8, spoke with Lynell),  they said they couldn't find where the phone had even been received in the warehouse return center! This time (6/13, spoke with Misty),  they "found" that it was received (after I told them I had tracked it) but my refund is still pending and she had no idea when it would be issued. All she wanted to do was argue with me: I was wrong about the company and the phone - there was NO WAY that they could add data usage arbitrarially to anyone's plan. I told her my grandson didn't touch the phone after those 2 times, so how could I possibly have overages the second month, when I don't use the phone that much?? And the reason I know (and can prove this?) is because of my NEW phone - I bought a 5 GB plan. I've used .556 MB's so far this month, and the month is up in 2 days !!

I don't know why this happened to me or if the phone was a "lemon", but I know I paid $205 for the phone and I need my money refunded. I hope no one else will be fooled by this company. I've already told my family & friends about my terrible experience and will tell anyone else. Everything I have stated in this complaint is true.