Post 929

by billso on Friday, 4 June 2004

Tech: Yahoo! News — Com­plaints Over Cell Phone Ser­vice Abound: “Con­sumers com­plain of fre­quently dropped calls, lousy cus­tomer ser­vice and exor­bi­tant penal­ties for exit­ing a con­tract. Then there are the fees — Ver­i­zon Wire­less plans to col­lec­tively charge cus­tomers more than $173 mil­lion a year in fees for num­ber porta­bil­ity alone.

The com­plaints range from mun­dane to dramatic.

After Julie McMurry’s hus­band died last sum­mer, Ver­i­zon Wire­less told the Enum­claw, Wash. woman that she would have to pay an early ter­mi­na­tion fee on his cell phone con­tract. ‘I said, ‘This isn’t an arbi­trary thing, I’d be glad to fax you a copy of the death cer­tifi­cate. The man’s dead.”

The Ver­i­zon rep said McMurry could either pay the fee or give the phone to another fam­ily member.

She called Carl Hilliard, pres­i­dent of the Wire­less Con­sumers Alliance. “I just hap­pened to be in a meet­ing with Ver­i­zon Wireless’s attor­ney and men­tioned it to him,” Hilliard said. “It was reversed.“

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