West Asset Management - Qwest Communications Misrepresentation of terms and costs and harrassment by collection agency Qwest Communications Denver, CO West Asset Management Nationwide
In end of February I contacted Qwest about DSL service. I was told it would be about $40 per month for DSL service total with modem, with discounts for first three months to cover installation. I set up for online billing. A few days later I made change in service and they changed my billing number.
I waited for several weeks and did not get a statement online so I called and was told not to worry about it that I would be getting one. Three weeks later I get disconnection notice for a bill over three times what they originally told me. I called them and was told that the bill was correct and that I had to pay many different charges than was originally explained to me and that some months later I would get rebate credits. This was NOT the original explanation to me. I told them to cancel my account.
A few days later I start getting calls from West Asset Management and I told them I was not going to pay what I did not owe and that the whole thing had been misrepresented to me. I also told them to stop calling me. Since then I have received 4 more calls from them and each time I tell them the bill is not legitimate and to stop calling me.
Qwest Communications did not represent things accurately when I signed up and I did not receive a written explanation until after the service was connected and I was according to them obligated for a two year contract. They did not mention that fact up front. Now they want to charge me over ten times what I should have been billed for on the first bill. And now I am being harassed every few days by their collection agency West Asset Management even though I have told them repeatedly not to call me anymore.
Qwest Communications is apparently continuing their fraudulent practices they were charged with as Pacific Northwest and Frontier.
I have also filed complaints with the Washington State Utilities Commission and the FCC and the FTC and nothing happens. Guess the monopolistic corporations get a pass when it comes to fraud.
Donald
Spokane Valley, Washington
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Anonymous
Littleton,Colorado,
U.S.A.
Pricing
#2UPDATE Employee
Thu, July 23, 2009
Sorry that it seems that things may have been not what was anticipated. Qwest is one of the most highly advertised companies, so at least the pricing isn't exactly hidden. You said you made a "change in service." Perhaps that change of service didn't keep your original price plan. When the account number changed, that could only be due transfering service to a new address, changing the name in the account or adding a phone line.
The bill cycle is based on the account number. Charges are billed in advanced...so if you had one account number bill you from the 4th to the 3rd of each month for axample, the new account may bill you in advance from the 29th to the 28th of each month. If something like that occured during one billing cycle, your charges would reflect: equipment/activation costs, prorated costs that occured before the start of the original bill cycle up to the end of the new bill cycle, and whatever new charges for the change of service. So that bill could reasonable include roughly 3 months worth of service.
The only thing that may be incorrect on that bill may be that some of the charges billed in advance did not include the normal promotional discounts that is reflected on one month of those charges. 1.5mb DSL for example has a base price of 49.99. It becomes $40 with the promotional discounts. There should be a promotional discount for each of those months. If one month does not include it, that can be easily fixed with a call, since that can happen in cases of changing an account number.
Qwest spends about $150 for every customer they connect to the internet, so this pricing is quite reasonable.