Complaint Review: MCI Residential Service - Atlanta Georgia

When I first moved to Atlanta, GA..MCI was the company to be employed with because it was fast money and if you can lie and sound believeable, your'e hired! I remember filling out this long application via computer...It took an hour just to get that done...then I ended up having 3 more interviews under intense questioning about why I would like to work there....Anyway I was hired and I quickly found out that this company was all for the money . They gave us Visa credit cards that you could not put any money on with a very high interest rate. It was a reward card...Sure ..it was a way to tax your bonuses and get more write-offs for themselves...Plus the multi-line scam thing was the way all of the sales executives made their money..if you were working there you could not turn in a deal unless it was multi-line. cell number, fax number internet line.. whatever....I was not too happy with the pressure and resigned on April 15th the day Ebbers came out with the investigation deal with Worldcom...I was so glad I left...It was a mess. The Building was nice ...10foot fresh water tank in the lobby, BIG screen TV's everywhere..But too much monitoring,,when they should have been monitoring themselves....Watch out for these Telecom Companies....

ALMOST WENT THERE... I am not happy with my local phone service and had heard that MCI is now offering service in my area. I went to good ol' Google to get in touch with MCI and it brought up MCI's web address and this one right below it...boy am I glad I clicked here first! I may not like the service much, or the price, but I don't think Verizon is the bunch of crooks I learned here that MCI is! Thanks for saving me the heartache of doing business with MCI!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder their corporate scandal is even larger than Enron's!

ALMOST WENT THERE... I am not happy with my local phone service and had heard that MCI is now offering service in my area. I went to good ol' Google to get in touch with MCI and it brought up MCI's web address and this one right below it...boy am I glad I clicked here first! I may not like the service much, or the price, but I don't think Verizon is the bunch of crooks I learned here that MCI is! Thanks for saving me the heartache of doing business with MCI!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder their corporate scandal is even larger than Enron's!

ALMOST WENT THERE... I am not happy with my local phone service and had heard that MCI is now offering service in my area. I went to good ol' Google to get in touch with MCI and it brought up MCI's web address and this one right below it...boy am I glad I clicked here first! I may not like the service much, or the price, but I don't think Verizon is the bunch of crooks I learned here that MCI is! Thanks for saving me the heartache of doing business with MCI!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder their corporate scandal is even larger than Enron's!

ALMOST WENT THERE... I am not happy with my local phone service and had heard that MCI is now offering service in my area. I went to good ol' Google to get in touch with MCI and it brought up MCI's web address and this one right below it...boy am I glad I clicked here first! I may not like the service much, or the price, but I don't think Verizon is the bunch of crooks I learned here that MCI is! Thanks for saving me the heartache of doing business with MCI!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder their corporate scandal is even larger than Enron's!

When I moved to Atlanta from NY I needed a job and MCI was hiring literally by the busloads. Lots of poor,black people one step away from drug dealers and prostitues from College Park and Riverdale,GA. Single mothers chasing deadbeat dads. I was no better. We were all hustlers. You had to lie to make money. Other wise you sat there making $8 an hour and that didn't cover gas,lunch and daycare. A popular trick to "slam" was by using an out of state cell phone. Just pick an account and add as many lines on it you want..REAL customer phone numbers. Use the cell phone as the contact number to verify and when the 3rd party verifier called just answer say YES to all questions. VOILA!! You now have a multi-line sale with all the trimmings including toll-free,international calling and everything else. We got paid bonuses based on the number of lines we added. The problem is now some poor sap will get the bill and have Hell trying to fix it. You could also do this scam by having a friend verify the order for you by using their number as a call back number. People were making THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS a month doing this. They were even winning awards and going to "Club". The supervisors and some managers knew and would tell you not to get caught. They would tell us in advance when we were being monitered so we knew when to act right. Of course all the dirt we did didn't last long and we were all eventually caught but it was fun and we made money while it lasted. But we still didnt make as much as Bernie Ebers who was our insperation.

When I moved to Atlanta from NY I needed a job and MCI was hiring literally by the busloads. Lots of poor,black people one step away from drug dealers and prostitues from College Park and Riverdale,GA. Single mothers chasing deadbeat dads. I was no better. We were all hustlers. You had to lie to make money. Other wise you sat there making $8 an hour and that didn't cover gas,lunch and daycare. A popular trick to "slam" was by using an out of state cell phone. Just pick an account and add as many lines on it you want..REAL customer phone numbers. Use the cell phone as the contact number to verify and when the 3rd party verifier called just answer say YES to all questions. VOILA!! You now have a multi-line sale with all the trimmings including toll-free,international calling and everything else. We got paid bonuses based on the number of lines we added. The problem is now some poor sap will get the bill and have Hell trying to fix it. You could also do this scam by having a friend verify the order for you by using their number as a call back number. People were making THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS a month doing this. They were even winning awards and going to "Club". The supervisors and some managers knew and would tell you not to get caught. They would tell us in advance when we were being monitered so we knew when to act right. Of course all the dirt we did didn't last long and we were all eventually caught but it was fun and we made money while it lasted. But we still didnt make as much as Bernie Ebers who was our insperation.

When I moved to Atlanta from NY I needed a job and MCI was hiring literally by the busloads. Lots of poor,black people one step away from drug dealers and prostitues from College Park and Riverdale,GA. Single mothers chasing deadbeat dads. I was no better. We were all hustlers. You had to lie to make money. Other wise you sat there making $8 an hour and that didn't cover gas,lunch and daycare. A popular trick to "slam" was by using an out of state cell phone. Just pick an account and add as many lines on it you want..REAL customer phone numbers. Use the cell phone as the contact number to verify and when the 3rd party verifier called just answer say YES to all questions. VOILA!! You now have a multi-line sale with all the trimmings including toll-free,international calling and everything else. We got paid bonuses based on the number of lines we added. The problem is now some poor sap will get the bill and have Hell trying to fix it. You could also do this scam by having a friend verify the order for you by using their number as a call back number. People were making THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS a month doing this. They were even winning awards and going to "Club". The supervisors and some managers knew and would tell you not to get caught. They would tell us in advance when we were being monitered so we knew when to act right. Of course all the dirt we did didn't last long and we were all eventually caught but it was fun and we made money while it lasted. But we still didnt make as much as Bernie Ebers who was our insperation.

When I moved to Atlanta from NY I needed a job and MCI was hiring literally by the busloads. Lots of poor,black people one step away from drug dealers and prostitues from College Park and Riverdale,GA. Single mothers chasing deadbeat dads. I was no better. We were all hustlers. You had to lie to make money. Other wise you sat there making $8 an hour and that didn't cover gas,lunch and daycare. A popular trick to "slam" was by using an out of state cell phone. Just pick an account and add as many lines on it you want..REAL customer phone numbers. Use the cell phone as the contact number to verify and when the 3rd party verifier called just answer say YES to all questions. VOILA!! You now have a multi-line sale with all the trimmings including toll-free,international calling and everything else. We got paid bonuses based on the number of lines we added. The problem is now some poor sap will get the bill and have Hell trying to fix it. You could also do this scam by having a friend verify the order for you by using their number as a call back number. People were making THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS a month doing this. They were even winning awards and going to "Club". The supervisors and some managers knew and would tell you not to get caught. They would tell us in advance when we were being monitered so we knew when to act right. Of course all the dirt we did didn't last long and we were all eventually caught but it was fun and we made money while it lasted. But we still didnt make as much as Bernie Ebers who was our insperation.

Because I was trying to get hired with MCI because I wanted to work at a place where I had the weekends off! Yes you are told that you can make $500 - $1000 a week and given lots of bonuses! I was told that it is a "career of a lifetime". When I was on the call center floor, it was the typical telemarketing place. Loud, alley gossiping women while supervisors are yelling across the room to SELL, SELL SELL and as they monitor your calls! Now this MCI, you make $10/hr + commission and bonuses! But at the same time, this place has a HIGH employee turn over rate! They ae ALWAYS re-hiring! I don't want to waste time at a place where since the customer decides my bonues/commission and I have LIE to sell to keep my job. It's obvioulsy unstable too!

I suspected a lot of what you just said about a lot of companies. Also, it is important that I let people know that MCI is setting up local service in many areas, such as this one. When they did that they went on a vigorous telemarketing campaign to try to crowd out our local service providers. Everone was just bombarded day and night with promises of lower bills. What they double charged us for was the entire month's bill local and long distance. It is best to just not deal with any telemarketer, especially if you don't call them, they call you.

Myrna, I used to work as a telemarketer for MCI. Our old team rallying cry was if you ain't lyin you ain't tryin. Its amazing you got your money back. What they were doing with you was simply a telemarketing scam. I would have told you the same thing about the only way to get your money back was to sign back up. Thats the oldest trick in the book. The reality was that they were probibly giving long distance credit to ANYONE who signed up, and pawned it off as they are doing the right thing. MCI also alows telemarketers to personally dial the numbers. Most telemarketing companies rely on automated dialers. What this means if I work at mci, and you give me an attitude, I might write your number down, and call you back 50 times. Then after I get my chuckles I will probably pass your number around to my buddies and say shes really irate call this one for a good laugh. MCI relies mainly on bonus. They scam the workers into believing that they can make $1,000 a week on $8.00 an hour part time. Their bonus structure is good making it seem possible. What I realise is that the only thing standing between me and a good paycheck is you the consumer. One thing I used to do was hold on to a number that was really rude to me before I hit my quota, and after I did, I would call that person back and say I don't need your sale anymore anyway ha! and hang up. To see the horror stories of another telemarketing company I worked for search for Access Direct Telemarketing. It was posted on 8/29. I am also going to try to list tips for consumers on this site, as someone who worked for these companies, and has the goods. Check it out.

Well, in all fairness I have to report that I got the check from MCI today Aug. 28, 2004. It was for the amount they overcharged me. I still will do no more business with this co. In fact I called Customer Service and reported that I want no more telemarketers to call our house. So, now I can wash my hands of them. As far as the $30.00 rebate check goes, I had forgotten about it anyway, I only was reminded of it when that girl thought I was talking about it instead of the money they double- dipped from my checking account. I ignore rebate offers and even pass on sales that depend on them anymore anyway because they rarely get to you. I have to share what a fellow told me at work last night, this is cute. "MCI's rebates are like UFO's. Everybody has heard of them. A few people claim to have seen them (mostly MCI reps). Some gullible people believe in them. But so far there is no positive proof that they actually exist."

Ok, the lawyer says that I should make sure that I have exhausted every avenue before having him send them a letter. So I make another call to customer service. Long, long, long wait again. Finally I get an accented voice - I know I've reached India, who do they think they are kidding. Now, every time I talk to these people I find something else to get mad about. Yes I was overcharged - $58.31 says the Rani. Then says she I am owed a $30.00 Rebate check. I had forgotten the rebate the girl telemarketer promised me. I said oh yeah, hey what happened to that? She says it was mailed to you on June 19th. I said I never got it. She says it was mailed I say I never got it - back and forth back and forth, that could have gone on all night, so I say look never mind, apparently that was just another MCI lie, what about my $58.31? She says she isn't authorized to send me a check. She can only sign me back up and I can get it back in credits. I start talking about lawyers and lawsuits and she switches me over to Financial. That woman tells me I will get a check from MCI. I ask when I can expect to see it and she says 4 to 6 weeks. So, I am going to give this another 6 weeks, but since the rebate check never made it to my mailbox I don't hold much faith that the refund check will either.

I hope your pre-paid legal service can flush this bowl of toiletrous turds down the drain and into the sewer where they belong !!! Don't give up !!!! By the way...A special "hello" to Karen in NYC. I do hope you are still reading RipOff Reports. BEWARE OF MCI !!!

So, on the advice of a lawyer I tried one more time to make contact by phone with MCI. After a long wait on the line I got a woman in India who could barely speak english. I kept having to have her repeat what she was saying and I kept having to repeat things to her. Finally, I got the gist of what she was saying. That MCI was not going to refund the money they overcharged me because I was no longer a customer. That I would have to sign back on with them and they were prepared to give this back to me in credits off future bills plus enough extra credits that I would have no phone bill for three full months. I said no! I just wanted a check for what they owed me. She said they could not do that. I told her that I had already got advice from a lawyer and was prepared to take it to small claims court. She then connected me to their financial department. After a heated discussion that woman told me that according to the records I had also been shorted a $30.00 rebate I didn't even know about. Then she told me that they could not send that now that I had left MCI that they could only refund $58.00. I said I felt they owed me the $30.00 just for the fact that they had caused an overdraft of $30.00 on my account. She then in a very high and mighty way said that MCI has a policy against refunding NSF fees. I said fine then when can I expect a check for $58.00. She says in 4 to 6 weeks. I said it has already been 2 months. She said they will try to get the check to me sooner but can't promise anything. Folks - this is the kind of company they are. Tell your friends - tell your nieghbors - tell your family - DO NOT FALL FOR THEIR SALES PITCH - PUT YOUR NUMBERS ON THE DO NOT CALL LIST AND REPORT THEM TO THE FTC IF THEY VIOLATE IT!!! I can't stress that enough.

MCI has started calling again almost daily! We yell at them to stop calling our house that we don't want there crappy service and we still haven't gotten that refund check for the money they overcharged us. Today while I was gone my husband said another one called wanting to know why we cancelled our service. He told the jerk that it was none of his @#!*% business. This yahoo then got pushy and insulting to him. This is rediculous. We can't get our money but we can't get rid of the harrassing telemarketers either. Just now I went to the FTC website and reported them.

It has been yet another two weeks and what response do I get from MCI? Crickets chirping. Still no check from this gang of thieves. But, I have been doing a lot of thinking and I am telling everyone the steps I am taking in this for the benifit of anyone else out there who might have this same problem with MCI. After all, if they did it to me they will or have done it to others. So, here is what I am going to do now. I no longer want to speak with them on the phone, because they can promise me anything, like telling me they will send me a check for the money they stole from me. I think I need to get something more in writing than what I have. So I may write a letter hoping they will respond. I don't know for sure yet because, I have been subscribing to Pre-Paid Legal Services for three years it is time I got something from those lawyers. Tomorrow, being Monday, I am calling for advice. I will let everyone know what the lawyer tells me.

As regards my problem with MCI, understand they admit they overcharged me and that they owe me a refund, it is just that when I try to get any information as to why it has been weeks going into months and yet no refund, I get, "it takes 90 days or more, sometimes," these things take time" "have patience". I wish I had David's problem a little. If somehow I would get a bill for $2.95 too small to turn over for collections and too small to report to credit bureaus, I would send them a letter saying, "I intend to pay this bill but it will be 90 days or more before I can send the check. Please have patience, these things take time."