Qwest Haters Rollcall

[imported_halcy]

Just curious as to who else is stuck with Qwest as their shi11y local telco? Ooooh I hate them... their name brings flames to mind. I've had nothing but bad experiences with them over the last year, 3 to be exact... I thought I'd post a chat transcript of my most recent bad experience for everyones enjoyment...

Thank you for using Qwest.com. A Sales and Service Consultant will be with you in a moment. Currently, your estimated wait time is 0 minutes and 11 seconds.
Thank you for contacting Qwest. My name is John. How may I help you today?
David: John Qwest has been overbilling me for months now, when I transferred my service from my apartment to a new one they added on a long distance service that I never requested
John: If you would like, I can issue an order to cancel your long distance service. The order will take one business day to complete.
David: Yes, I want to get refunded the past services as well since I transferred apartments, I do not use long distance, and whoever handled that transfer changed my service without my authorization
John: Will you please verify the phone number that you are inquiring about?
David: #######
David: all i should have on there is the very basic local service, no caller id, no nothing other than a dial tone and local service
John: Just to verify that I am speaking with the responsible party on this account, please provide me with the Qwest billing account code (the last three digits of Qwest account number on your bill) or the last four digits of the account holder's Social Security number.
John: Just to verify that I am speaking with the responsible party on this account, please provide me with the Qwest billing account code (the last three digits of Qwest account number on your bill) or the last four digits of the account holder's Social Security number.
David: ###
John: When you moved, did your phone number stay the same, or did it change? If it changed, what was the previous number?
David: it stayed the same
David: i just moved down the hall and down one floor.. same building
John: This order is ready to issue and will complete by 5 p.m. on Thursday August 25. Removing the Choice Unlimited calling plan reduces your monthly rate by $20.00 plus taxes and fees. Your confirmation number for this transaction is ###. Do you have any questions?
David: Yes what about refunding me for the previous months that that service was erroneously added to my account?
David: I didn't use it, and it should never have been on my account.
John: There are no notes on your account indicating that you have asked us about these charges before today. I am unable to issue any credits.
David: Of course there aren't any notes, I didn't notice I was being overbilled today since it was on autopay
John: Enrolling in AutoPay does not take away your ability to review your bill for details of your charges. Sorry but I am unable to issue these credits.
David: And my account was supposed to be transferred between apartments intact, that is what the agent told me when they performed it
David: So it is Qwest policy to add random products to your account without customer approval?
John: I cannot recreate the situation when you ordered a transfer of service to verify exactly how Qwest Long Distance was added to your account.
David: But at the same time you won't correct the situation or take responsibility?
David: I was never asked nor did I ever authorize adding that service
David: And I thought I could put a certain amount of trust into Qwest by transferring my account as it was, so I did not watch the bill like a hawk since I was told it would be exactly as it was in my old apartment
David: Should customers have to watch their account every month to make sure no random products are added and billed without their authorization? I shouldn't think so.
David: That doesn't sound like "spirit of service" to me.
John: I reviewed notes on your account dating back to May, the time you placed an order to transfer your service. Our records indicate that you placed the order yourself, using Qwest.com's online ordering tool.
John: So the long distance calling plan would have been altered during that order you placed.
David: Correct, and I do not remember clicking a "Please add long distance button", considering that does not exist
David: Why would it be altered? That is a "transfer", not a "Transfer and alter" order
John: Actually, Qwest Long Distance already was on your account at your previous address. You just changed calling plans.
David: No, Qwest changed calling plans, I changed nor requested nothing
David: relating to long distance
John: Sorry, but the change in calling plans was made as a result of an order you placed yourself online. I am unable to issue any credits.
David: Can you show me the fine print saying "when you transfer your account your long distance plan will change"?
John: You would have received an order confirmation via e-mail.
John: Transferring service does not automatically change your long distance calling plan. This is an act you have to make yourself.
David: Feh well that is a bunch of crap.. that is about the sneakiest thing you can do, change it without even alerting the person except at the very bottom of an email in fine print
David: Transfer means, Take what you have, move it
David: not add crap on
David: without even asking, just alerting
David: I call that "spirit of ripping someone off"
David: and im sure its not an issue to you since your just in a callcenter and its not your problem... but thats pretty bad.
David: Do that to a few thousand people a month and thats really gotta help the bottom line.
David: Thanks for cancelling the service, I expect not to see any more random things added onto my account in the future.
John: Thank you for using Qwest.com. If you need further assistance, you can find a Chat button when you click here or call 1-800-244-1111. To close this chat, please just click the "X" at the top right of your chat window. After you have closed the chat, please take a few moments to provide us with your feedback.

... feh....

 

[scorpmatt]

checking in

 

[ktehmok]

Well for one: Don't chat with some help desk flunky. Dial the 244-1111 number & keep hitting 0 about 50+ times, you'll get a live operater real quick. Then escalate your issue from there. Don't take no for an answer until you've spoken & expressed your displeasure with upper management.

I've done this numerous times. There's a lot of construction going on in my area and they are blaming their crappy service and outtages on the construction. I just tell them: "That's not my problem buddy, I'm paying you for phone service. Fix it" It's that simple, it's your money. Be a prick about it.

Nix the chat thing & speak to a real person, have all your answered to their excuses prepared, and if your issue isn't resolved in that phone call, keep calling back every day.

 

[tm37]

I ditched qwest for hickorytech about 3 years ago.

I have never been happier.

My cousin works for qwest and his boss told him that they should not consort with any non qwest users. Two weeks later they took all the qwest wireless phones away from the techs and got them sprint because qwest coverage sucks

He said he is no longer allowed to talk to himself.

 

[jonnyGURU]

LOL!!!!

YOU DON'T KNOW VERIZON!!!!!

I WORK in telco. I feel blessed whenever I have to deal with Qwest, SBC, Bell South, etc.

You don't know HELL until you've dealt with Verizon. EVEN IF they're only providing the last mile!!

 

[UsandThem]

They are not that bad.

I have only had to call in the last four out of five months to fix my bill because they were trying to overcharge me $45.00-$95.00 every month during those months.

Not to mention everytime I have tried one of their services, they mess up the bill more and try to charge me "hookup fees" when the CSR tells me there are absolutly none.

I would highly recommend them

The funny thing is, one of their big wig CEO's is the brother of a guy I worked with for two years. I just never had enough nerve to say how much Qwest sucks.

 

[EatSpam]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
LOL!!!!

YOU DON'T KNOW VERIZON!!!!!

I WORK in telco. I feel blessed whenever I have to deal with Qwest, SBC, Bell South, etc.

You don't know HELL until you've dealt with Verizon. EVEN IF they're only providing the last mile!!

I have Verizon in Central Illinois...its been great. My DSL has never been out and is always fast. Service was switched on promptly.

 

[jjessico]

I used qwest for 1.5yrs in the Mpls/St. Paul area and didn't really have any problems with them. The actiontec modems are crap, so do yourself a favor and get a Cisco 678 or something else. The only problem I had was that I called to cancel my service and they kept it in service for 3 months. When I found out I called them up and they cancelled the line and then refunded me the fees for those months. All in all I must say that I was just fine with the service they gave me.

On the business side I've worked with a lot of different T1s/leased lines and Qwest was usually fairly decent on those too.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: jonnyGURU
LOL!!!!

YOU DON'T KNOW VERIZON!!!!!

I WORK in telco. I feel blessed whenever I have to deal with Qwest, SBC, Bell South, etc.

You don't know HELL until you've dealt with Verizon. EVEN IF they're only providing the last mile!!

The difference, though, is which Verizon are we talking about. There are several Verizon companies, operating under the same umbrella, even though they are vastly different, IMHO. I'm part of the exGTE network, in SouthEastern Ohio. Whenever I have trouble (which is, admittedly, more than I would like), I give them a call. I think that your success or failure in dealing with Verizon is which operator your call happens to be passed to. I spent several hours on the phone with several people at Verizon (in different departments), getting absolutely nowhere. They would always say something along the lines of "I'm sorry, I can't help you, blah blah blah, that's not part of our network." I'd just hang up and try again.

On the fourth or fifth try, my call was answered by someone that sounded like an older lady with a very southern accent. "Thank you for calling GTE, how may I help you?" I was shocked that there was still someone in their call center that even knew what GTE was, let alone was still answering the phones as a GTE rep. It took no more than 10 minutes on the phone with her than she said "Yes sir, I see that this is not the first time you've had this problem. I'll place a service ticket in for you - the truck should be there sometime tomorrow morning. You don't have any attack dogs or anything like that, do you?" I laughed, said no, and first thing the next morning, there was a service guy at my door, asking what I needed help with (because the helpful GTE lady put on the ticket to just talk to me ). I told him that it might be in his company's best interest to go check on the physical condition of a few above-ground lines. The service guys in this area are awesome - they'll actually listen to what you say. We're in a rural enough environment that they'll also give you their number and tell you to just give them a ring if something's up, and they could probably take care of it faster than they could if corporate tells them to do something.

On the other hand, I've had *HORRIBLE* problems with Sprint's Local Lines Department - they owned the T1s at one of my previous offices. I called them about an issue I was having with a few analog pots circuits - not the T1s. The tech on the phone with me filed a service ticket for me, and said that a tech would be out to troubleshoot the line. Great.

A few hours later, our WAN connectivity dies altogether... I run down to the demarc, and all of the T1s indicated that they were inoperative. :| I called them back, and told them that they had better increase our priority to "extremely urgent"... about that time a tech that didn't know the difference between cat5 and pots cable came in, and said that he thought he'd fixed our problem. A couple of hours later, I was finally able to convince him to reverse whatever it was that he had done. <sigh> I hated Sprint. That's why we had SBC pull fiber down to that office for us.

I know that there are horror stories about every telco out there. Unfortunately, I think that customer service went to crap when the Bell System dissolved in '84.