Complaint Review: Bellsouth - duluth Georgia

Don't ever, EVER buy any products from Bellsouth!! I purchased a 900 mhz caller ID cordless phone with all kinds of bells and whistles for $119.00 and some odd cents. When I started to use it, I realized quickly the phone had a very serious defect with the microphone part that you speak into on the handset. It was extremely sensitive. It had a lot of very loud, screechy feedback, normal breathing into the phone sounded like you're in a windtunnel, and moving your hand while holding the phone was hugely amplified and it blasted out your ear (and gave me a serious headache!!). You couldn't hear the person on the phone for all this noise.

I called the Bellsouth Customer Service center to report the problem. First they told me to take out the battery and resinert it after a few hours and the phone would "reset" itself. That didn't work, so I called them again, and after being bounced around from this rep to that rep, finally the one of the reps connected me to the Fulfillment Center in Duluth, GA.

When I explained the problem to the tech, I opted to send the handset back, because obviously it was a lemon, and to have them send me a new one. he explained to me that all the phones were like that. So I told him I no longer wanted to phone and to tell me what I needed to do to send it back and get a refund on my phone bill. He was quiet, so I thought I had been hung up on, so I said "Hello??!?!?!?" a couple of times, and finally he answered me and he was extremely rude to me for the rest of the phone call.

I had to ask him several times to give me the return shipment information, and at one point he said that he could hear me perfectly on the phone. (I wasn't talking to him with the cordless, anyway!!) He finally gave me the information, but read it off really fast, like a jerk, not giving me time to write it down. Finally, I told him that he was doing that on purpose because he knew I was trying to write it down, and he seemed very impatient with me. I reminded him that I had to ask him for the return shipment information several times.

I got the impression it was a matter of life or death for him to relinquish this information, since, after all, gee whiz, Bellsouth lost a $120 sale!! Back up a few years--we had purchased a caller ID cordless phone from the same company, Bellsouth, about 6 or 7 years ago, and this one, too, was a piece of garbage. The battery had a very serious drain problem, and the battery was not available in any store ANYWHERE. You had to send off for it.

Returning that one was not an easy feat, either. I had hoped that maybe Bellsouth had improved on their products, so I decided to give them another try. Mistake, mistake!! And to top it all off, I am responsible for the return shipment of this current phone, shipping insurance, & postage and handling, out of my own pocket.

When the tech told me this and I protested, he told me in a very nasty tone of voice that when I initially ordered the phone, the call was tape recorded and I was told that I would be responsible for any charges. I told him I didn't remember being told that (because it never happened)and I asked him if he had the tape handy, I'd like to hear it. He said he didn't. So, buyer beware--don't ever order anything from Bellsouth.

V.

new orleans, Louisiana