Comments on: Customer Service: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/ Live more. Spend less. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:04:26 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: David http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-14995 David Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:21:45 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-14995 I have several questions i'd like to ask you about phone calls made from a public payhone by me... hopefully you can answer these or at least give me a little insight as to what i can do. First let me tell you the situation here...my fiance lives in Sask.Canada, I work in the States as a professional tuck driver(over the road) and only get home maybe 3 times a year if i'm lucky, so we do spend a lot of time on the phone... I was a company driver but now i'm an owner operator, so the money is real tight....to make a long story short, they cut my cell phone off and I had too resort to using a pay home, so we didnt get to talk everyday as before...and i started calling first by using coins to pay for my calls ($1.00 for 4 mins) then my finance said, "to call collect next time" so i did, and we never talked for a long period at one time except once when we chatted for 27 mins. but calling every 2 or 3 days over a period of 30 days the mins add up...she got her phone bill the other day, there were 19 calls at no more than 12mins each, except the one call for 27 mins...they (the billing payphone companies, there were 4 different ones listed) charged her $762.92..I about died when she told me that....so here are the questions 1.Have you ever heard of these companies(Telus,ILD Communications, US TO/From Canada calls and Triton Global Bus Service INC.? I've searched the internet and cant find anything on them so i can contact them. Can you help me with that or tell me where i need to search? 2.Do these companies normally charge such high prices($4 to $5 dollars a min? I talked with a live operator every time when I placed a call but was never told what the rate per min would be , ortherwise I would have never made the collect calls. I think I should have been told right? 3.Is there any way I can get them to bill me and take those charges off her bill? Thank you for your time in advance, David I have several questions i’d like to ask you about phone calls made from a public payhone by me… hopefully you can answer these or at least give me a little insight as to what i can do.
First let me tell you the situation here…my fiance lives in Sask.Canada, I work in the States as a professional tuck driver(over the road) and only get home maybe 3 times a year if i’m lucky, so we do spend a lot of time on the phone… I was a company driver but now i’m an owner operator, so the money is real tight….to make a long story short, they cut my cell phone off and I had too resort to using a pay home, so we didnt get to talk everyday as before…and i started calling first by using coins to pay for my calls ($1.00 for 4 mins) then my finance said, “to call collect next time” so i did, and we never talked for a long period at one time except once when we chatted for 27 mins. but calling every 2 or 3 days over a period of 30 days the mins add up…she got her phone bill the other day, there were 19 calls at no more than 12mins each, except the one call for 27 mins…they (the billing payphone companies, there were 4 different ones listed) charged her $762.92..I about died when she told me that….so here are the questions
1.Have you ever heard of these companies(Telus,ILD Communications, US TO/From Canada calls and Triton Global Bus Service INC.? I’ve searched the internet and cant find anything on them so i can contact them. Can you help me with that or tell me where i need to search?
2.Do these companies normally charge such high prices($4 to $5 dollars a min? I talked with a live operator every time when I placed a call but was never told what the rate per min would be , ortherwise I would have never made the collect calls. I think I should have been told right?
3.Is there any way I can get them to bill me and take those charges off her bill?
Thank you for your time in advance, David

]]> By: deb http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-13870 deb Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:13:35 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-13870 Just spoke with my phone company too.. my son had called me collect from another service a few times as of dec 14th, he also tried to call me from a public payphone after I had left to pick him up. So i know nobody was home, except my answering machine. (Now mind you i had this happen once before an didnt understand charges made last year, when 3 calls were made but never excepted by me, but evidently was by my machine?? And I was charged $37. at the time I did not dispute because of the emergency at hand. Wish i had.) Just to add to the story this call on 12/14 at 3am was not excepted by a human. So I called my phone co, they were good an did promise to reverse or should I say filed a dispute to ZPDI, whom I followed up with myself with a phone number given by my phone co. Long story short they did promise to reverse the charges as I INSISTED nobody was home, an yes as I informed her NO body was home. I soon asked as i realized she didnt really understand english very well, when i asked her where she was located, she asked a co worker an came back with "San Antonio Tx" ok? Her heavy accent told me othewise. So she was finally convinced I was telling the truth, and agreed to reverse the 26.40 for 3 minuted (minimum charge i assume?). So just before we hung up I confirmed her name as Beth an asked her. So you are located in the United States? She responded rather confussed, but said she was in Manilla? Great!! MORAL OF THE STORY .. Make a collect call even semi local an pay some company our phone companies use from oversea's prepare to be screwed. As I read these posts, companies such as quest, verizon an im sure others are useing these same unscrupilious companiesl?? ps: same thing has happend to me with one of our US Airlines, foreign help an wrongfull charges.. what the heck, thanks for allowing me to rant, just hung up with these bone heads, just ticks me off.. take care deb Just spoke with my phone company too.. my son had called me collect from another service a few times as of dec 14th, he also tried to call me from a public payphone after I had left to pick him up. So i know nobody was home, except my answering machine. (Now mind you i had this happen once before an didnt understand charges made last year, when 3 calls were made but never excepted by me, but evidently was by my machine?? And I was charged $37. at the time I did not dispute because of the emergency at hand. Wish i had.)
Just to add to the story this call on 12/14 at 3am was not excepted by a human. So I called my phone co, they were good an did promise to reverse or should I say filed a dispute to ZPDI, whom I followed up with myself with a phone number given by my phone co.
Long story short they did promise to reverse the charges as I INSISTED nobody was home, an yes as I informed her NO body was home.
I soon asked as i realized she didnt really understand english very well, when i asked her where she was located, she asked a co worker an came back with “San Antonio Tx” ok? Her heavy accent told me othewise.
So she was finally convinced I was telling the truth, and agreed to reverse the 26.40 for 3 minuted (minimum charge i assume?). So just before we hung up I confirmed her name as Beth an asked her. So you are located in the United States? She responded rather confussed, but said she was in Manilla? Great!!
MORAL OF THE STORY .. Make a collect call even semi local an pay some company our phone companies use from oversea’s prepare to be screwed.
As I read these posts, companies such as quest, verizon an im sure others are useing these same unscrupilious companiesl??

ps: same thing has happend to me with one of our US Airlines, foreign help an wrongfull charges.. what the heck, thanks for allowing me to rant, just hung up with these bone heads, just ticks me off..
take care
deb

]]> By: Sunday Money Roundup - Tour Guide Edition. | My Two Dollars http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7596 Sunday Money Roundup - Tour Guide Edition. | My Two Dollars Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:03:11 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7596 [...] Frugal had a customer service incident that would have given me a [...] [...] Frugal had a customer service incident that would have given me a [...]

]]> By: AlliBaba1234 http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7556 AlliBaba1234 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:19:59 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7556 This is nothing compared to CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS. Never. Ever. EVER deal with them. EVER. EVER. They are the Devil. They will clearly overcharge you and refuse to credit you, lie to you about deals, deny conversations you had with reps, deny offering you certain promotions, deny responsibility for anything and everything, pass you from rep to rep and eventually just hang up on you, make you talk to reps who can't understand English (they understand the words, but nothing complicated, and EVERYTHING with Charter quickly becomes complicated), mute you while you're talking, tell you they'll call back and never do it, keep charging you for disconnected services, etc. They. Are. Awful. And they just keep stealing from people and getting away with it. From what I hear BBB is useless against them. I haven't tried the FCC, but I only lost $20 and I'm just too mad to fight for that. It's not worth my time to put together and defend a case. I know people who have lost $250 and have never seen it again. Living frugally does NOT include Charter. This is nothing compared to CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS. Never. Ever. EVER deal with them. EVER. EVER.

They are the Devil. They will clearly overcharge you and refuse to credit you, lie to you about deals, deny conversations you had with reps, deny offering you certain promotions, deny responsibility for anything and everything, pass you from rep to rep and eventually just hang up on you, make you talk to reps who can’t understand English (they understand the words, but nothing complicated, and EVERYTHING with Charter quickly becomes complicated), mute you while you’re talking, tell you they’ll call back and never do it, keep charging you for disconnected services, etc. They. Are. Awful. And they just keep stealing from people and getting away with it.

From what I hear BBB is useless against them. I haven’t tried the FCC, but I only lost $20 and I’m just too mad to fight for that. It’s not worth my time to put together and defend a case. I know people who have lost $250 and have never seen it again.

Living frugally does NOT include Charter.

]]> By: Y http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7551 Y Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:28:44 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7551 ...to a general answering machine. I was told to leave a message and I would get a call back which I thought was outrageous from a phone company, so I called again and asked the representative (the same rep I got the first time) to forward me to his supervisor. That did the trick and I was able to get the charges taken off that way. When I read your post my memories of this incident came back to me so I knew exactly what you went through, especially the anger at the way some customer service departments treat their customers, namely customers who they know they've screwed. You handled your situation great! Kudos! …to a general answering machine. I was told to leave a message and I would get a call back which I thought was outrageous from a phone company, so I called again and asked the representative (the same rep I got the first time) to forward me to his supervisor. That did the trick and I was able to get the charges taken off that way.

When I read your post my memories of this incident came back to me so I knew exactly what you went through, especially the anger at the way some customer service departments treat their customers, namely customers who they know they’ve screwed. You handled your situation great! Kudos!

]]> By: Y http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7549 Y Sat, 19 Apr 2008 02:14:00 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7549 It sounds like you were slammed by a third party. I've had that happen to my home phone number, and to my job phone number. You don't need me to tell you how frustrating it is to get those charges taken off. I'm a Bookkeeper so I once got a phone bill at work with a mysterious charge. It was for $20 for a 1 minute call to a 1-900 number at a time of day when no one is in the office. I called the phone company who told me to call the actual third party company that charged us. When I did that I got representative who listened to my story and then said they would patch me through to the appropriate office. What they did was send me It sounds like you were slammed by a third party. I’ve had that happen to my home phone number, and to my job phone number. You don’t need me to tell you how frustrating it is to get those charges taken off. I’m a Bookkeeper so I once got a phone bill at work with a mysterious charge. It was for $20 for a 1 minute call to a 1-900 number at a time of day when no one is in the office. I called the phone company who told me to call the actual third party company that charged us. When I did that I got representative who listened to my story and then said they would patch me through to the appropriate office. What they did was send me

]]> By: Mchael http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7527 Mchael Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:58:22 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7527 What an awful situation to be in. I'm happy you handled it the way you did. Sadly this kind of stuff continues to happen all around us. My inclination would be to file an complaint for investigation with the PUC and the Attorney General's Office. I'd bang my drum loudly about this and even take it to an action news reporter (TV and/or paper) so they can expose it to the public. Nothing-and I mean NOTHING-is more effective than a load of bad press. Gotta love your site! Thanks for sharing! I grew up from scratch in Talent in the 60s through the 80s. What a great place that town was back in the day. I can't believe how much it's grown since! I'm in northern CA now. What an awful situation to be in. I’m happy you handled it the way you did. Sadly this kind of stuff continues to happen all around us. My inclination would be to file an complaint for investigation with the PUC and the Attorney General’s Office. I’d bang my drum loudly about this and even take it to an action news reporter (TV and/or paper) so they can expose it to the public. Nothing-and I mean NOTHING-is more effective than a load of bad press.

Gotta love your site! Thanks for sharing!

I grew up from scratch in Talent in the 60s through the 80s. What a great place that town was back in the day. I can’t believe how much it’s grown since! I’m in northern CA now.

]]> By: hank http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7501 hank Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:14:16 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7501 I've had people hang up on me in customer service complaints too; it drives me crazy! I know that the customer service folks don't make a lot, and can always "claim" that the call dropped... yes, very frustrating! The best way around it is to not get too upset with them UNTIL you get what you want... Then it is up to your discretion. :) I’ve had people hang up on me in customer service complaints too; it drives me crazy! I know that the customer service folks don’t make a lot, and can always “claim” that the call dropped… yes, very frustrating!

The best way around it is to not get too upset with them UNTIL you get what you want… Then it is up to your discretion. :)

]]> By: Susan http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7497 Susan Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:01:29 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7497 Look at you in that picture there, Ms Hottie. ;) Is this company legit? How rude and unprofessional of that customer service guy to hang up on you!! And good for you not letting that company bully you!!! They sound pretty low. Look at you in that picture there, Ms Hottie. ;)

Is this company legit? How rude and unprofessional of that customer service guy to hang up on you!! And good for you not letting that company bully you!!! They sound pretty low.

]]> By: Patty http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/17/bad-customer-service/comment-page-1/#comment-7495 Patty Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:06:37 +0000 http://beingfrugal.net/?p=658#comment-7495 I think filing a complaint with the FCC is in order here. It sounds like something phishy is going on to me. I think filing a complaint with the FCC is in order here. It sounds like something phishy is going on to me.

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