Alltel Consumer Reviews - Page 2

CHANDLER, ARIZONA -- I've been an Alltel customer for years on end. My problems with this company and their lack of cooperation seems endless. I've had problems in the past with roaming charges showing up on my bill. When I pointed out that I had not been in those areas of my state making calls, I was told the signal will jump to the next closest tower if the one in my area is not available. I chased them for 3 months trying to receive credits that I was promised but was unable to make any progress.

NOW, I activated a second line on my account and tried to cancel the other because it was used for a business that I had recently sold. I was told I would be charged a $200 cancellation fee for the original line unless I waited until June. So I paid $50 per month for 3 months on a line I wasn't using. When June came, I called to cancel and was told that I needed to cancel on the exact day of the month I signed up on 12 years prior which I had missed by 3 days. Since I missed that day, my contract on that line was automatically renewed for 2 more years. They refused to help and gave me the # of an office Manager.

I called and left 7 messages over 3 weeks and never received a return call to this day. I tried to cancel the second line as a result and was told I would have to pay $200 to cancel that one also. So now I'm up to $400 in cancellation fees if I cancel or change companies within 2 years!! While trying to straighten this out, I was told that since I bought a new Razor phone with a rebate, I HAD to sign up for a new more expensive service plan or face being charged outrages prices by the minute rather than continuing on my Unlimited Plan because my new phone was not compatible with my old plan??

I went into a location in Chandler AZ and found an employee that told me "off the record" that I was being lied to by the Rep. because he was probably seeking a commission and not to worry about it. I called again in August to once again try to cancel the second line I wasn't using and was told there was nothing he could do and to continue to try to call the Manager that wouldn't return my calls! THEN, he started in with the same story of how I needed to sign up for a new more expensive plan because my new phone wasn't compatible!!!

I explained I was never told any of this when I bought the phone, he offered a half-assed apology, refused to cancel my other line without a $200 fee and continued to try to get me to agree to convert to a more expensive plan!

I'm done! I'll be cancelling it all when I get back into town. This company needs a good old fashioned class action lawsuit!! It should be illegal to be lied to, given misinformation and to renew contracts without consent, explanation, notification or signatures. Now, I have to choose between being raped financially or destroying my credit. I'm warning everyone I cannot to use this company!!! THEY NEED TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!

MELBOURNE -- They make errors and blame the customer. They are keyboard warriors. Don't trust their business to run your most important numbers, they are unprofessional to the highest degree. I had new customers email me and ask who are the unprofessional people answering my phone calls? Very embarrassing, no refund, no credit, just excuses. See us you did me a great favor my business will now excel.

I purchased a 2-year contract with Alltel from one of their reps who was standing under an Alltel sign at a Wal-Mart in the Pacific Northwest. I told him I was moving in 2 weeks to the West coast and although I was being assigned an area code - there, where I purchased the phone and service - that I'd need a local area code and number upon arriving on the West coast. He said fine. No problem.

Once on the West Coast I called to get my number changed. Was told, "Alltel doesn't have area codes were you are." I told 3 separate customer service people the same story. That I was promised a local number. No one would help me. I said, "OK, then I want to cancel the contract." Alltel said, "OK, that will be a $200 penalty." So I tried to call corporate and some woman at that number said that corporate NO LONGER accepts calls from consumers (Really.).

So I emailed corporate and, of course, got no response. Yesterday the cell phone died. I've had it all of a month. So I called Alltel and they suggested they cancel my service and that I track down the minimum wage guy from Wal-Mart who sold me this bogus plan to begin with. See where I'm going with this? Currently I have no phone service and it is left to me to get the Wal-Mart/Alltel guy to confirm that he not only promised me what he probably KNEW he couldn't give me... but I have to get this guy to refund my $200. We all know that isn't going to happen.

I am outraged. One of my least favorite Alltel conversations was when a phone customer service rep told me that Alltel has NO control over what these Alltel reps say. NO CONTROL??? I know I'm going to be billed immediately for the $200 and I'm stuck with their very dead cell phone. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ALLTEL.

NORTH CAROLINA -- 4 years ago I was with Cingular, and while I had no problems with the service, the customer service was horrendous. So I switched to Alltel who I've been with for the past 4 years. It was a bit more expensive, but I was willing to pay for it in exchange for better customer service. That all changed recently. 6 months ago I learned that they offered free voicemail in their plans, and I called and asked that I stop paying for my voicemail (a $5 monthly fee). They said fine, and dropped it from that bill. Lately I noticed my bill steadily going up, and called to dispute some charges.

Since I'm signed to do online account managing, they would not send me a copy of my calls unless I paid $5. I did, the bill never arrived via the mail, and they refused to refund my money. 2 months ago I was in the mood to see how I could lower my bill so I tried to log into their website. It was down, so I called to speak to a rep. Lo and behold, my voicemail charge had been reinstated on my phone. I asked that be taken off and also asked if there were any cheaper plans for the minutes I had. I was told no. I found out yesterday that they offer a plan with MORE minutes for $10 less a month, and have been offering that plan for over 6 months.

I was blatantly lied to. I promptly cancelled my service with them, and I urge all of you to not sign up with them. Their "circle of friends" ad is misleading, as it doesn't state that you need a plan of $60 or higher to be eligible (My plan was $50, but I've been paying a $68 bill for the last 8 months). Also, today I met an ex-Alltel rep who told me that they are instructed to do whatever it takes to save the company money and milk their customers for all they're worth. I will NEVER return to you Alltel... I'm glad your little lies cost you the next 50 years of my business.

TENNESSEE -- This has happened to me twice and has also happened to all Alltel users that I know. I mailed a payment to Alltel on July 13, 2005. The due date was July 25, 2005. The disconnection date was August 2, 2005. My payment was not posted by Alltel until August 3, 2005. Where was my payment for 20 days? Had I been like most people and not called to follow up on the receipt of my payment, I could have been disconnected. I believe a reconnection fee is really high. Does this happen to everyone, or just me and my family and friends?

I believe that Alltel purposely holds payments until after the disconnection date to make more money from people. I called and asked to speak with someone in their accounts receivable dept. and I was rudely informed by one of their hateful agents that, "We do not just have people sitting in a room all day receiving payments." ISN'T THAT OBVIOUS!!! I was also rudely informed that the fact that it took 20 days for my payment to be posted was my fault.

I was only allowed to make a complaint to a person in the billing dept. or a person in the financial services dept. A phone agent, someone that talks to 200 people per day and does not have the least bit of concern for me. I was refused a manager, or anyone higher than a highly underpaid phone support person that cares nothing about Alltel and how its customers feel. I told them I would disconnect my service as soon as I come up with $200.00 to get out of my contract.

I was left under the impression that their phone agents were just like, "Oh well... not a problem for me, I still get paid". Apparently, my business is not appreciated by the company even though I have been a customer since 1998. Maybe Cingular or Verizon will treat me better, who knows? Oh not to mention if you switch bill plans in the middle of the month, THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF WITH WHAT THEY CALL PRORATIONS! There should be some prorations, but do the math, theirs are double even triple!

My husband was with Alltel for years and never had a problem. When we got married, I was added to his plan. They were running a deal on a data card, no start up fees, no cost, $40 a month. We added it to our plan for my brother. They charged me $81 at the store the day I bought it! They called me up 30 minutes later and told me to come back in they made a mistake and will refund me. The manager said that instead of me coming back, they can just get a credit to our bill. It took almost 3 months of my nagging to get anything back, and we still ended up paying $25 out of pocket.

The manager was extremely rude and more interested in helping the "young pretty" crowd than the normal people. For the next 6 months, none of our bills were correct. Every single one of them had something wrong and while they were fixing one bill, our phones were shut off! Apparently they didn't note the account they were crediting us and the bill was late, so they shut us down forcing us to pay reactivation fees.

Cancelling was a nightmare as well. When they switched over to AT&T we took the chance to get out of there. We were billed over $80 for a partial month of service on just the data card (we switched our phones to Sprint a few weeks prior to this). We had to pay AT&T a bill and Alltel, almost $140.

When I called Alltel to find out what was going on, the manager stated "I can guarantee you no one said that to you." She called me a liar! Instead of helping me try to figure out what was wrong she was accusing me of lying and making up stories. She wouldn't help us at all. I finally paid all the bills and will NEVER work with them again. If anyone tells me they are going to sign up for them, I will force them to walk the other way.

This problem started over a month ago. After verifying with Alltel that a spare KRZR phone was compatible with the Alltel Family Finder service, I activated the phone for my 11-year-old. The application would not download and trouble tickets were opened. To date, no response from those trouble tickets has been received. After a couple of weeks the local Alltel manager suggested the best solution was to buy a new phone with a new contract. I downloaded the application while in the store. Now, the Alltel Family Finder website gives an error message stating it doesn't recognize my phone number or Alltel account number. More trouble tickets are opened and escalated.

I discovered using Google that a California company named WaveMarket is the third party responsible for the Alltel Family Finder application. I've attempted to use WaveMarket's help forum but have not received a reply. The forum appears to be abandoned and is littered with spam messages for various drugs.

I've followed up with Alltel several times but they claim there is nothing more they can do until WaveMarket's Alltel Family Finder engineers answer the trouble tickets. The WaveMarket website lists the corporate officers. The WaveMarket CEO has a Facebook account found through google. He replied promptly and has passed my contact information to someone within the company.

EDIT/UPDATE: I did hear back from WaveMarket as promised. They are aware that the KRZR is not compatible with this service and should be removed from the compatible list. They are also aware that some Alltel Family Finder customers are not able to register for the service. As Alltel has been bought and sold again, it will not likely be fixed for these customers. Happy with WaveMarket's response but Alltel is a lost cause with its customers in limbo until AT&T or Verizon pick them up.

After years of service with Alltel and the past couple of years' not happy ones we are planning to move over to AT&T. We have been overcharged for our service for over a year that we know of and we are looking into all the past bills. A little over a month ago we upgraded to 3 smartphones (we have 7 lines one is an internet card). When we got the smartphones we were informed that the bill would be lower than what we were paying, oh yea, this is when we found out that the air card was less a month than I had been paying.

After a couple of hrs trying to get the account set up correct we left thinking wow that is great. The bill was less than it had been in a while. That is until the bill came in TWICE as much as it had been. So, I take the bill to the Alltel store and wait a couple of hrs and finally the representative was really nice and about a hr. or so later she had the bill all straight (or so we thought). I came home with instruction to bring my payment into the office so that it would be entered into the system correctly. This we did and everything was OK. A week later I receive another bill. I took this to the store and again waited a couple of hrs to get this fixed.

Everything was supposed to be fixed again and I paid the bill while I was there. A week later my phone is shut off. I called customer service again and they tell me that all that money has been applied to three of the lines and that I have a credit but I would have to pay the amount due which is what the entire bill is supposed to be before service will be back on. So, again I call the store and talk to the representative who has been helping me all along, she goes to her supervisor and in less than 30 min my phone is back on. Then last night my phone got cut off again.

Why can't these people get this right? They expect me to come up with another payment and let them credit my account with the extra money. I work hard for my money I cannot afford to just let them hold my money. I have placed a call to the store and I am waiting for a return.

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS -- IF YOU ARE MISTAKENLY THINKING OF GOING WITH ALLTEL, FOUR WORDS FOR YOU--NO WAY IN H_LL!! In April our daughter's cell phone was lost/stolen at her Prom. We tried calling Alltel, there was nothing in the voice menu about lost/stolen phones and their 'customer service' was closed at that time of night. After looking on the internet, I called the Alltel phone insurance number and filed a claim. During the call I asked several times if the phone can be disabled so no one could use it, activate it, or run any unusual charges on it. I was assured several times that would be the case.

Several days later we received the replacement phone. When the May bill came out it was over three times what it should have been and had a lot of extra charges on it (GPS and ringtones). We called Alltel and were told these charges began the day after we had been assured by Alltel personnel that it wouldn't be possible. We were told by the CSR (customer service rep) that she couldn't do anything about it only a supervisor. I called back and after a heated discussion (we didn't understand why we should have to pay when they could access the tape of the call to their incompetent or untruthful insurance person) she agreed to reverse the charges.

She gave us a corrected balance to be paid which was still a little high but we were tired of having to explain and ask everything at least three times because of the mix of their personnel's language issues (all our calls except one went to people with English as a distant second at best-language) or denseness. I paid the balance given. Today, a couple weeks later, our service is suspended because of the excessive unpaid balance.

Morals of the story: Alltel's personnel seem to be perfectly comfortable lying and giving false, bad, and misleading information. Apparently whatever it takes to get you off the phone NOTHING TO DO WITH DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM. It seems as though Alltel's call center is either located in a country and staffed with people with poor English skills or just staffed with people with poor English skills. Bad news.

The customer service and business practices of Alltel is so horrid that you should not use their service even if it were the only game in town!!! Just imagine how thrilled my wife is that I talked her into switching from AT&T (bad phone service but great customer service) to Alltel with their nightmare customer service!