Complaint Review: MCI WorldCom Wireless

My feud with Worldcom (more like World-CONJOB) Wireless began when they didn't bill me for 6 months and then started sending bills every 3 weeks to "get caught up on their records".

Obviously this didn't work. They would bill me before they processed the payment from the previous bill. So on the new bill I would have the current charge, previous charge and an undeserved late fee that I was kindly asked to ignore because they were just trying to "get caught up on their records".

Problem was, the bills sent didn't even make enough sense to simply be the previous charge, current charge, and late fee. I could find no RATIONAL or mathematical method used to derived what they said I owed. So I simply paid what I calculated I owed (essentially the current charges and not any past charges or late fees).

This incompetant billing approach didn't like this system apparently because by the 3rd bill I was being charged for the entire previous 2 bills -and for those of you keeping track this means that on the 3rd bill I was charged "current charges", late fees, the entire second bill, and the entire first bill. This means that they charged me 3 times for the "current charges" of the first bill and still hadn't credited my payment for that bill.

After a couple months of this insanity I turned the entire mess over to my husband. He tried calling to get it straightened out. Unfortunately no one at WorldCom would talk to him because even though I had called months before to change the account to my married name and have him put on the account, they had no record of such a change.

Taking back the reins, I tried calling them again. Twice I was sent through a literally 20 minute long maze of menus and holds that ended with a "cheerful" voice telling me to call back later because of "unusually high call volume", which was followed by the click of my being disconnected from the system.

Magically the 3rd time I got the magic pathway that led to an actual person. This "wonderful" assistant assured me that they wouldn't hold any of the billing issues against me and that I should ignore any threats coming from the billing department. They also gladly changed my name on the account and added my husband.

However, I was informed if I needed any specific details on billing, I had to call a separate number. Of course the separate number only lead to more menus and the eventual disconnect. In frustration I gave up.

A few days later my husband called up. However, the person he spoke with wouldn't give him any information because they still didn't have his name or my married name on the account. Fortunately I was around to authorize that they could speak with him.

This second customer rep. also promised to add my husband's name to the account. He promptly told us the amount that was actually due (which matched our calculations), and asked us to kindly forgive and disregard the incorrect bills and threats from the billing department.

Then, we received a letter dated November 30th stating that due to "severe lateness" they were "cancelling" and "discontinuing" our account. Which at that point, while it was insulting, was also a relief because we were DONE with them.

So we called again to confirm the true amount owed to finalize their cancelling of our account, noting that again, they still didn't have my husband's name on the account. The cancellation was confirmed. The amount was confirmed. We sent them a final payment.

And it is now 3 months later and they are still trying to bill us a monthly fee. The phone definite doesn't work. There is no service. My maiden name is still not on the account. My husband's name is not on the account.

I JUST called and the rep I spoke with told me that they didn't cancel the service, they just suspended it. I had to tell her 3 times that the word "cancelled" was in the notice we received dated Nov. 30th and that yes we did call and confirm it.

I even tried to let her off the hook because immediately when she answered my call I asked for a manager. Many times I asked for a manager. She would not comply.

Their solution. They now "officially" closed the account (so they say) and are going to credit the current bill. Of course because their system is so incompetant they told me to expect at least 1-2 more bills in the mail. And for each of those I'm going to have to waste my time and call them up and explain the situation again to get the d**n things credited again.

I closed my call with this happy fact: I am not going to report them to the FCC and the Better Business Bureau, and every single consumer and regulatory group I can find. They've given me a new mission in life. Enough is enough. If what their doing isn't illegal, it definitely is breach some code of ethics.

Rebecca
Bensalem, Pennsylvania

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