Expert: John Hall - 4/4/2007

Question
I was a Quest Wireless customer from 07/03 to 03/07/2007. I started with two cell phones in 06/03 and then added an additional line in October 2005. I contacted Quest Wireless in 02/07 and was told by their wireless customer support person that the original two phones were out of contract and the third would be by 02/26/07. I contacted Quest Customer support on 04/03/07 to pay current bill that has two land lines and the wireless phones and was informed that I now owe early contract termination fees. The conversation included a conference legal person without my knowledge and then the call terminated.

Quest has been unable to provide good service nor resolution of any wireless issues nor good problem resolution.

Today I was informed that Quest has sent out a current bill of 800.00 and something bill that includes billing in advance for the month of 04/07 and 600.00 in termination fees. I was also informed that no notes were added to my account for the conversations that included inquiring and notification of termination of contract. I paid them $227.24 which 166.77 is Aprils Quest Wireless charges. I  was told that I received a credit of 600.00 for the phones in June of 05 that was provided in a contract that I never received.

To have to pay early contract termination fees when their own customer service tech told me otherwise is another example of incompetence and BAD customer service.
What can I do to resolve this issue other than a compliant to the attorney general

Answer
Hello Pat:  I am not going to be much help to you here, other than to save you some time.  As you are finding out, dealing with the customer service people for the various cell phone ocmpanies is as exasperating as it is pointless.  You can literally argue with them on the phone for days and days, and even if you get someone with some common sense, the next time you call it may be like you didn't even talk to anyone the last time you called.  

Personally, I have just quit dealing with them at all.  I just refuse to go to the hassle.  I don't think that, at worst, having this one negative thing on my credit is going to be all that bad anyway.

If you relaly wanted to spend the time and money to force them to be reasonable, you could always bring a small claims case in your particular state.  You just might get lucky and get a judge that has run up against the same wall in his or her own personal life and you might get a judgment resolving this in the way you want, but short of that, these guys are just not worth the trouble.

I wish I could have been of more help, but I really don't think that if Perry Mason or Johnny Cochrane were alive, they could do much better.  At this point in time, customer service has just not kept up with the technology.