Complaint Review: MCI Long Distance - Dallas Texas

Problem:

On or about February 19, 2009, I recieved a "FINAL NOTICE" letter from MCI, dated Feb. 14, 2009. (NOTE: This "FINAL NOTICE" letter is the first and only notice, bill or statement I recieved regarding this matter.)

This letter stated that I owed MCI $65.77.

I had cancelled my MCI long-distance service on or about April 29, 2008, switching to Verizon for my long-distance needs.

On or about Feb 23, 2009, I called MCI customer service and spoke with Romee. I was hoping to find out why, 10 months after cancelling my service, I now owed MCI $65.77.

It was at this point that I was told that my account was going to be turned over to a collection agency in 30 days from the date of the "FINAL NOTICE" if the outstanding balance was not paid. (NOTE:The fact that this matter was to be turned over to a collection agency is not stated in the "FINAL NOTICE" letter anywhere.) In fact, the only consequence listed in the "FINAL NOTICE" letter for not paying the balance states that, "you will be blocked from using MCI lines."

In short, Romee was unable to clarify why I owed MCI this money. Romee transferred me to MCI's Financial Services Division, at which point I spoke with Pauvia. This discussion lasted 1/2 hour. I believe it was Pauvia who first mentioned that somehow my account had been confused with another account. Pauvia was unable to be more specific. Pauvia then transferred me to Jan, who I believe, was also in the Financial Services Division.

Jan informed me that MCI has mistakenly sent me a "refund" of $65.77 in December of 2008, and the balance that I owed was for the refund.

I didn't recall recieving a refund check from MCI at any time. I want to be clear on this point; I am not accusing MCI of NOT sending me this refund. I am simply stating that I don't remember recieving this refund.

While on hold with Jan, I accessed my bank account online to see if there was any record of deposits in the amount of $65.77 at any time in December of 2008. I could find no deposits in this amount. I informed Jan of this, and she admitted that she could find no evidence that MCI had actually sent a check to me. She informed me that more research was going to be required, and that a supervisor would be contacting me in three days, which would have been Feb. 26th. I gave Jan my cell phone number as a contact number for this call. This phone call lasted 15 minutes.

As of March 3rd, I had still not recieved a phone call from anyone at MCI. On Monday, March 2nd, I called MCI Financial Services Division and spoke with Monroe. I summarized the discussion I had with Jan, and informed Monroe that I had not recieved a phone call from anyone at MCI. I explained to Monroe that I did not remember recieving a refund check, but was hoping that MCI could provide some evidence that I had recieved a check and had deposited a check.

Monroe then transferred me to Customer Service, at which point I spoke with Zack. After summarizing, (AGAIN), the issue, Zack informed me that Monroe should never have transferred me to customer service because this issue was not something that customer service could help me with. Zack then transferred me back to the Financial Services Division, where I spoke with Wilna.

I once again had to summarize the entire episode, and expressed my frustration at the lack of anyone being able to resolve this matter.

According to Wilna's records the mistaken refund check was sent out on Nov. 19th, not December. Again, while on hold with Wilna, I accessed my bank accounts online for the entire month of November and could find no evidence of depositing a check for this amount.

Wilna then transferred me to the "DPR Dept.", where she hoped they could resolve whether a check had been sent to me and endorsed by me.

I spoke with Ashley; again having to relate the whole story once again.

By the way, Ashley did not seem aware of a "DPR Dept.". Ashley placed me on hold to find out why I had never recieved a call from a supervisor as promised by Jan.

After being on hold for several minutes, Lisa comes on the line.

Lisa is from the Financial Services Dept. and wants to know if I would like to pay the balance of $65.77!!!! Once again, I have to explain everything. I finally find out from Lisa that another MCI customer had sent a payment of $65.77, and this payment was accidentally credited to my account, (which, as stated above, I had closed in April of 2008). Since my account wasn't active, MCI supposedly sent me a refund check. When they discovered they had mistakenly sent me a refund, they now wanted that money back.

A side note; I could barely understand anything Lisa said. She spoke quickly and with a very strong southern(?) accent. It was VERY difficult to interpret what she was saying. However, I do believe she was trying to be helpful.

Lisa then stated that she was going to transfer me BACK to customer service.

This entire telephone conversation on March 2, speaking with, Monroe, Zack, Wilna, Ashley and Lisa had already taken over an hour. I had already been told by Zack in customer service that they couldn't help me, so I know Lisa transferring me back to that department was going to do no good. However, because I could barely understand Lisa, and I had already been on the phone for an hour, I wasn't going to argue. Out of frustration and the fact that this was all occuring while I was at work, I simply hung up.

I then decided that this amount of money was not worth compromising my credit score by being turned over to collection, I called MCI Financial Services to pay the bill. I did this reluctantly, because I assumed once MCI recieved payment, they would be even less inclined to resolve the issue.

Because I was paying over the phone, using a credit card, I was also charged a $3.50 service fee in addition to the balance on the MCI bill. This is because MCI uses a third party to take payment over the phone.

Update: I copied and pasted the above to an e-mail to MCI customer service on March, 2. As of March 6, I have not recieved a reply to that e-mail, and have never recieved the phone call from a supervisor.

Consequences:

I have possibly given MCI close to $70.00 that I didn't owe them.

After speaking with no less than 8 people and spending at least 1.5 hours on the phone while at work, the issue is still not resolved, and no one at MCI seems able or willing to help.

As individuals, I think they all did what they were able, but as you can see, the results are disappointing and have left me very frustrated and angry.

Kevin

Everett, Washington

U.S.A.

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