Alltel Complaint - Alltel customer service sucks - pager/cell phones

Posted by NeveragainAmazon on 2005-02-02:

I have had Alltel cell phone service for three years now, and have never had a problem with their customer service. As a matter of fact, I was even notified when someone tried to order a phone under my name. Sorry about your plight, but I will continue to be an Alltel consumer.

Posted by Tom34655 on 2005-07-22:

You need to take your complaint to the Florida State Attorney Generals office. They did something very similiar to me, and through the Florida State Attorneyy I found they have had over 486 complaints filed with them about this kind of corrupt business pratice. You are so right ALLTEL does suck

Posted by bygeorge on 2006-01-29:

Lately, I have been very disappointed with Alltel, particularly in regards to customer service--if that's what they insist on calling it.

I've had an account with them for more than 18 months now, but in December, while I was in the home territory of the store I'd bought the phone and contract from, it stopped working right.

I waited in line at the booth for a half hour, only to be told they'd phased out the phone; didn't have new batteries for it, but that they'd had a tower go down in the area, so that surely was the problem. I was told to dial *228 to "reprogram the towers." I was also told at some point that everytime a tower goes down "they fly people out" to fix it.

It didn't--the phone beeped in and out of service, despite being in a service area, all weekend; and it did it when I returned home for the weekend, so I turned it off. When I tried to turn it on, there wasn't enough battery power and I had to charge it up first.

The next day, when I called customer "service" the man on the phone made me go through the entire story before rudely telling me I had the wrong department and transferring me to a busy signal. I had to call again, go through the entire automated menu and wait on hold for a long time. At last, a woman (in fairness, she was nice) told me that, yes, Alltel had towers go down. She suggested a new battery, just in case, but said the phone might (suddenly!) be bad.

The next night, there was an emergency, but my phone would not work, so I had to borrow someone's landline. My next call to Alltel ended in me being told I was "stuck" on the tower from another cell company, so they "reprogrammed" me onto the network and said the phone was switching, at random, from digital (when it would work) and analogue when it wouldn't. The new fix was to dial *18, which worked with mixed success.

I called the original store and was told that their digitial towers had gone down and to try a new battery, by which time the towers should be repaired. She also said she could set up a time for them to look at my phone.

I called later to do that, and the *same* person told me "oh, we don't do that; you just come in." When I asked if the digital tower had been repaired, I was told "we don't even know when a digital tower goes down" and referred to the main help line.

When I called that, I was told I'd received "bad information" the previous times I'd called. When I next visited the store (I live 200 miles from the nearest Alltel store, btw, having moved since beginning my contract, but *never* experienced any problems with service up until the December date, nearly a year after the move, when I was in the original area!), I was told it was the phone and that I "should have" had insurance, even though, after 18 months at a rate of $4 per month, it's more than a new phone would cost; that the warranty had expired, and then I was treated to the sarcastic, condescending attitude of the 20-something dude behind the counter, who so helpfully didn't even know an address to where I could send correspondence.

I don't believe the phone is the problem. But, even if it is, nothing excuses the contradictory information, attitude and runaround I received from Alltel across the board. I may well need a new phone, but I'm not going to buy it from Alltel.

Posted by Concern citizen on 2007-02-28:

I agree that Alltel customer service sucks. Instead of making an effort to research your questions, some reps will simply interpret the answers based on their personal understanding of the policy. Then you get conflicting stories and don't know what's what in your plan.

Of course, I HAVE had positive Alltel customer service experiences. But the bad ones made a stronger impression.

My bet is that the company probably feeds its employees all this happy froth, but only gives them the power to deliver at a minimal level. I bet the dysfunction starts deeper within the company.

Though it cost me time and money, I got rid of my Alltel phone and switched to T-Mobile. I finally have the flexibility I thought I had with Alltel.

Consumer Reports ranked either T-Mobile or Verizon as one of the top wireless providers. There's another report--the name escapes me! Those two companies did well in that one, too.

I am very relieved to have left Alltel.

Posted by fred96002001 on 2008-09-13:

see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBV_6ndgLl4

phone cuts out every 22 seconds i have filed a complaint with the BBB.org 2 times now they refuse to fix the problem phone is still cutting out all the time. i have called the fcc.gov and filed a complaint there it is unfair i have to pay for a service and can not talk on the phone more them 22 seconds. i hate knowing i had to call 911 because i would be out of luck phone would cut off after 22secends. no one seems to care and no one will fix this problem the reps at the 800 number hang up all the time. this phone company is just not worth dealing with.