Alltel Consumer Reviews - Page 4

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA -- I have been an Alltel customer for almost a year. Service is great (no dropped calls,etc.). Customer service is HORRIBLE. I have a teenager who uses text messaging. My child has gone over on texting several times so I raised her texting from 300 to 750 per month. The month that I changed it I get a bill that shows an overage of over 1000 messages. My child has never gone over by more than 50 in a month and we only had 300. Now we have 750 and they go over by 1000!!! So I called Alltel to get a detailed bill. I wanted to make sure we weren't double billed or that there may have been some other error. I was told it was "ILLEGAL" for them to give me that information.

I have an AT&T cell phone also and they do give detailed text message billing. So I knew it wasn't illegal. When I confronted them with that they said they did not have access to that info. So I questioned that too. A text message is just like a call except it is written not verbal. Now they say it's not their policy to give detailed billing on text messages. Three different stories. They can charge whatever they want. They can say we used 4000 messages when we only used 100 and we have no way to dispute it. I want out of my contract.

I didn't like Cingular (now AT&T) but I will go back to them. This is not about whether my child went over on text messaging or not. This about a company being able to bill you and not have to prove what they bill and lying by saying it is "illegal" to give me that information.

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA -- Alltel ripped me off and tried to ruin my credit and 7 years of Alltel service is now over. It all began after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Alltel sent me a text message saying that our service was going to be free during these tough times.

That was nice. They gave me a free month and I switched to the $80 family plan and BAM! They hit me with a $1,200 bill. That's more than my rent! They said that I must pay the full bill or my service will be disconnected so I requested an itemized bill.

When I got the bill, it appears that they charged me for two individual plans and all the overtime for both plans, not to mention they charged me for the itemized bill. After endless debates with Alltel supervisors, they admit they made a mistake in the bill. And offer to reduce the bill, but it was not enough. $500 is a far cry from $80 a month, so I threw in the towel.

Now Alltel is harassing me to pay the $500.00 PLUS a $200.00 disconnection fee. I was supposed to switch to Cingular today, but Alltel's computer system is "down" and they can not switch the phone number over. While I remained loyal to Alltel for 7 years, they met me with incompetence and dishonesty.

AVON LAKE, OHIO -- I have been an Alltel (formerly GTE Wireless) customer since 1996. Recently, I attempted to "change" my plan... I phoned the customer care center and explained what services I required. I really wanted the same amount of minutes that I had and just wanted to get free long distance/roaming. Well, I ended up with my minutes reduced from 600 to 200, I did get the "free" long distance/roaming, but ended up with charges up the wazoo due to running over on the "anytime" minutes.

It took 4 1/2 weeks to get my bill re-calculated and in the process I have received 2 calls at work and a nasty-gram at home from Alltel's collection department. The customer service people have been rude and uncooperative in resolution. Why would I have increased the "services" $20.00 per month and quadruple my bill??? Where is the logic?

BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA -- I've been a customer with Alltel for quite a while and trust me it's only because there's no other cellular providers other than them that work in my area. When calling with a problem, each representative will give you incorrect info and they doesn't care about their customers at all (they just want the money). I have never seen a major company like this one, they are the worst company ever. I've had to purchase several phones, because of vast problems that I've had with the touch screen freezing up or several other issues that they never resolved.

All I keep getting is the runaround, which always lead them to telling me that there's nothing they can do for me but advise me to purchase a new phone. If I'm spending top dollar for my phones, the least Alltel can do is provide me with a new phone, instead of issuing their customers the old refurbished ones. So sick of Alltel, as soon as another company becomes available, I am done and not looking back.

My son has been reassigned by the Navy to an area that Alltel does not provide service in. When my daughter-in-law went in to cancel her phone contract of 4 months remaining, she was told to do so would cost her $200. Additionally they informed her they will be charging her monthly Roaming charges if she keeps the plan. Talk about getting screwed from every angle. Needless to say the $200 they decided to squeeze out of my children just lost them thousands of dollars through cancelled plans from family and friends who have been loyal customers for over a decade.

SYLVANIA, GEORGIA -- Last month my husband and I renewed our service contract & purchased 3 new cell phones at a discounted rate. We were told that we would get a rebate check for $50 for each of the phones since they all qualified for this offer. We decided to purchase these phones because of the great deal and because we thought that we would be able to use the rebate checks to pay the credit card that we put the phone purchases on. We never got rebate checks as promised. Instead we got 3 prepaid credit cards.

We could not pay our credit cards with these cards and to make matters worse, the instructions that came with the card said that we would be charged fees if these cards were not used within 90 days. This is what I call a total rip off! They lied to us! I wouldn't trust this company with a 10-foot pole!

404 BROCK DRIVE, P.O. BOX 3427, ILLINOIS -- About 2 1/2 years ago I went online to look for a wireless phone, many different brands popped up, I looked at quite a few. One was Alltel. I looked at the Alltel website, and filled out their request for information section. I don't recall but only a couple of e-mails from the company, but about 10 days later, I received a phone in the mail? The paperwork inside said to activate this phone go online, or call this number. Or, if you do not want this phone, please repackage the phone and send it to such & such address.

Since I had purchased another phone from a different company just a few days prior, I repacked the phone, filled out the 'no thank you' card inside the box, and fastened it the outside of the box as instructed, and sent it back to the company. Sounds great aay!! Well, about a year ago, I have started receiving these OUTRAGEOUS bill requests from Alltel?? They want a total of $327.27 for the phone and service that I supposedly used??? Where do these companies come off destroying people's credit???

To no avail, I contacted the company several times, and they say, they never received the phone, and I defaulted on some calling plan that they put into place??? Needless to say, I have heard many, many similar accounts from family and friends about this company. To this day, all I can do is just suck it up, and suffer with this Behemoth Bill on my back, and Bad Credit!! Life is so fair. What's even worse is these collection companies they send this false information to, have not a clue.

PALATINE, ILLINOIS -- We really like our Alltel phones and internet connection. We have experienced none of the problems listed here in this forum. We have had only a couple of dropped calls and they were in the mountains. We travel half of the year and our cell phones are our only phones. We have a simple plan of shared 500 minutes with nights, weekends and internet connection time free. We use one of our phones for internet connection through a tether cord.

OUR ONLY COMPLAINT IS THIS: we just purchased a new computer with Windows 7 in it. When we called Alltel to get the software for our phone to connect to the internet through Windows 7, we were told there is none and there are no plans to develop any. We love our connection through the tether cord and are afraid that Verizon/Alltel is using this Windows update as an excuse to discontinue the tether cord and force us to use the internet card, which costs twice as much for the same service.

We certainly hope the representative was mistaken as we really enjoy our internet access through the cell phone tether, but may have to go to using campground WiFi if there is to be no update to Windows 7 compatibility. Thank you.

I have never in my life dealt with more inept people... I have had my wireless card for 2 years... didn't get the best service with it however, it worked... Then on Aug 18th it quit working... ironically right after my 2 year contract was up. I could use it if I brought it closer to a tower. However in my home it just stopped so we called to have the service disconnected..it is now Sept 2nd and they want to shut off my cell phones because I refuse to pay for the wireless card that won't work not to mention that we no longer get any bars at our house with the phone either.

I have gotten the run around, false promises, No one who can speak a lick of English and they will ruin my credit because I won't pay for the service that I am not getting. I don't want to shut off the phones. I just want the wireless card turned off!! I have spent countless hours of my time trying to get them to disconnect but to no avail and I am no longer in contract with them! I have been in tears over this and still the wireless card is not disconnected... and for being a PHONE company is really surprising that they do not have a corporate number unless of course their offices lost all of their bars and can no longer make or receive phone calls due to lack of service!!

TUCSON, ARIZONA -- I have been a customer of Alltel since 2000. I actually am very happy with the phone service since I have never had a drop call and in all of my travels, I can actually talk to anyone I call from wherever I am. My problem is the Customer Service Reps at any - and I do mean any - of the various locations. Having to deal with them almost makes me want to stop all cell phone service! I am now under the impression that Alltel trains these clerks to be rude, sneaky, and underhanded. When I asked the clerk if Alltel trained him to screw people, he got very offensive and even more nasty. This is not a one time event, this happens each and every time I go.

One more thing, be sure to check your online account for any "errored" upgrades. I had not purchased a new phone since 2007 and they had recorded an upgrade in Feb 2009. When I pointed it out to the clerk, he said it was 'recorded in error'. Convenient, huh???