Complaint Review: MCI - Telecom

On 3/1/2004 I decided to change my local phone company to MCI. I called MCI to get local service through their company. I specifically asked for LOCAL service ONLY. I was offered $19.99 a month with the first full month service for 50% off. I was happy with Telecom's long distance price of .03 per minute. So, I reiterated that I wanted to keep my long distance and only utilize their local services.

On 3/5/2004 I picked up the phone to make a long distance call and my long distance had been cut off. So, I figured the person I spoke with from MCI must have misunderstood me. I went to their website and e-mailed customer service to tell them a mistake had been made and I wanted MCI to restore my long distance service immediately.

On 3/6/2004 I received a response from MCI customer service asking me to contact them via phone at 888-483-3995, which I called. This is when the circus began. I was given another number to call.

I called the number 800-444-5500 (A Telecom phone number) and was immediately transferred to a woman named Vicki (with MCI). I told her what the issue was and was transferred to Justin a CSR who transferred me to the Reactivation Department where I spoke with Mr. Genung who told me he could not reactivate my long distance and transferred me to Justin, the CSR. Justin then transferred me to a manager/supervisor named Steve who said he would call me back on Monday since it was starting to get later and everyone had gone for the day. He gave me the number 800-205-3654, which I found out later, was NOT his number but an MCI recording.

So, on 3/8/2004 I had called the 800 number that Steve the manager had given me and was not happy with the recording I was getting. So, I called the MCI 800 number and got a CSR named Jeremy, who I had to go through the issue with, yet again. He then transferred me to an MCI supervisor named Chrystal, who I had to explain the issue to. She then transferred me to Ms. Robinson, who lost her sound for about 2 minutes, I could hear her but she couldn't hear me, it was finally fixed and I had to go through the story AGAIN.

She then transferred me to Cassandra from Telecom, who I could barely hear. She could not help me after going through the story with her so she transferred me to yet another MCI CSR named Jigs. I went through the story with Jigs who transferred me to an MCI supervisor named Pat. After hearing my issue, she immediately said she needed to go and would call me right back. She was rude and inconsiderate and she never did call me back. I waited for about an hour or so and tried getting back in touch with "Pat" the supervisor but apparently no one knows who the supervisors are or where they can find them once you are disconnected from their company phone.

So, I was forwarded to Mr. Hester from MCI Blocking. He could not take off the block that was put on my phone (WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION) and gave me two phone numbers to call, 888-414-0898 (MCI BLOCKING) and 888-205-3688 (MCI Customer Service). I called the last number and got Sukh an MCI CSR who, after hearing my issue, transferred me to yet another MCI supervisor, Haley. Apparently ALL MCI supervisors were in a big meeting and could not be bothered.

I persisted and she went into the system with the help of another MCI employee and removed the block immediately and told me that I could have any long distance that I wanted now, to just give them a call. She also reluctantly promised me a $25 credit that she would send me in the form of a certificate from MCI for all the trouble I had gone through. She seemed rushed and acted as if I were too bothersome for her to deal with.

So, I called Telecom at 800-777-2321 and talked to a CSR but did not get the name. Explained my situation and was told I could not have MCI as my local and Telecom as my long distance because Telecom is a subsidiary of MCI. I asked to be transferred to a Telecom supervisor, which I was, his name was Chris. He told me that there was no way I could have Telecom as my long distance as long as I had MCI as my local service.

He transferred me to an MCI CSR....at this point, I was almost in tears. The MCI CSR could not help me but then transferred me to yet another MCI supervisor named David. I broke down after going through HOURS of explaining and hearing that I could not have my long distance carrier as Telecom. David was the only one who gave me any kind of hope that I could get Telecom back at the price they initially gave me. He also gave me a deal of $10 a month for 300 minutes and .05 a minute after the 300 minutes. Which was still higher than what I had to pay with Telecom but I took it. He also put in a system request to change a code in their systems so that customers could have Telecom long distance with MCI local. I was then transferred to a Telecom CSR named Lace, who I explained my situation to.

NO ONE should EVER have to deal with something like this. I was the customer. I am the reason they are even getting a paycheck yet all they did (both companies) was transfer me from person to person and company to company. These people brought me to to tears after two days on the phone for HOURS explaining over and over and over again what I needed them to do for me.

And in the end, I NEVER received my $25 credit. I only received a $10 credit AND my bill was almost $50. I was supposed to get 50% taken off AND the $25 credit, but I didn't receive anything from them but a headache.
I decided I didn't want to ever have to deal with either company again so I called AT&T and although they are a bit higher I have received EXCELLENT customer service. Especially after explaining to them what MCI / Telecom did to me. I also asked MCI to put me on their DO NOT CALL list and to never contact me again to sign up for service.

I believe that MCI and Telecom employees are, for the most part, undertrained and their supervisors (except for David) are all spineless and have no idea what they are doing. If they did I would not have had to go through FIVE supervisors SEVENTEEN CSR's before finally getting someone that actually knew what to do in my situation. I feel sorry that David has to work with such idiots. He's the only one that had any idea what to do. But as a whole, I do not respect MCI or Telecom and will never use their services again.

Nina
Moreno Valley, California
U.S.A.

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