Nextel Complaint - Nextel - A Huge Rip Off - Cell Phone Service

Cell Phone Service - Complaint

Review by Jacoquline on 2007-06-12

My hubby and I had an account with Nextel and had problems with them since day one. They screwed up the intial order, overcharged us on almost every bill, and shut our service off more than once without our knowledge. Today we received a call from a collection agency stating that we owe Nextel a whopping $450 for the account we had with them. The account was paid off in full in Sept. 2006, but yet the account was turned over to collections for non-payment. This is the first time either of us had heard anything from Nextel since I paid off the account. This was the first phone call we received from the collection agency too. We called Nextel customer service to find out what is going on. We should have saved our breath. We were transferred serveral times to different reps, none of which had any idea what was going on. We finally talked with one rep 'Matt', the only rep who would give a first name mind you, and 'Matt' said that the account is no longer in the system. So he transferred us to their finance department to see if someone there could find the account. After waiting on hold for almost 30 min. we finally talked to a rep who said that Nextel terminated the service on June 7, 2006 yet they still billed us through August 7th and we would have to pay a $400 termination fee for Nextel terminating the service and for taxes and late fees on the account. The rep also said that Nextel has sent billing statements to us for six months with no response so the account was turned over to a collection agency. We never received anything in the mail about this account or received one phone call about it, until today. When we asked the rep when the statements were sent, the rep had no response other than the account was sent to collections for non-payment. Nextel claims the first collection agency sent out notices for 6 months with no response, so the account was turned over to a second collection ageny who also claims to have sent collection notices for another 6 months and that agency turned the account over to a third collection agency who has the account now. How could this be? I'm not a expert, but how does Aug. 2006 til June 2007 add up to be 18 months in Nextel's calendar? Nextel shut the service off without any notification in June and when we called customer service about it back in June, the rep said Nextel had every right to terminate service at any time without customer autorization or notification. Then the idiot rep asked if we would like the service reactivated for a whopping fee and probably locked into another contract agreement. We told the rep no, absolutly not. We were not paying to reactivate the service when we didn't ask for it to be shut off in the first place. Now almost a year later Nextel wants this whopping fee from us and has turned the account over to collections. Now our credit is ruined and even if we pay the fee, this will still be on the credit report. I think Nextel has extremely poor business practices, by terminating phone service at will, then expecting the customer to pay for it and lock themselves into another contract. I have wrote to both the BBB and Attorney General about Netxel. I'll be surprised if they do anything about it. Stay away from Nextel and Sprint!