Long shot request - Cellular One Talkwatch -> Alltel

This is a real longshot, but I figure I'll give it a try. I'll keep the story as short as possible as well.

I was originally a Cellular One customer, but now am an Alltel customer since the merger. When I signed up under Cell One, I had a $5 "TalkWATCH" starter fee tacked on because my credit wasn't good enough (basically non-existant).

When Alltel merged (Feb or March), I got a letter from Alltel saying "Thank you for being a customer blah blah, we're going to wave the $5 TalkWATCH fee." and something to the effect that it'd be automatic and I don't need to call in or anything for it to happen.

Well, apparently no one at Alltel's customer service has heard of the letter, I kept getting charged that extra $5/month, and now can't get a credit because they basically claim I'm lying...

So, does anyone here happen to have a copy of that letter, know someone who does, or know somewhere for more info on it?

The biggest thing that ticks me off is that when I signed up with Cell One, the girl told me (among other wrong things, that's another story) that the fee could be removed after 6 months, I'd just have to call. Well, I called after 6 months, and Cell One's customer service basically said no, she lied, it's actually 9 months... But Alltel merged before the 9 months, so I still couldn't get it removed...

So yeah, does anyone by any odd chance have a copy of that letter??? Thanks in advance for any info whatsoever.

 

Hey, thank you for being the first Alltel person to have apparently ever heard of the letter. 5 people + 3 supervisors at the call center have no idea one even exists...

But anyways, I remember the letter saying they were going to automatically wave the fee (as in I wouldn't have to pay it anymore). Considering it was past the 6 months the sales girl told me when I signed up, and past the 9 months the Cell One people told me, it should have gotten waved anyways...

But of course, nothing happened with it, and when I called into Alltel, they never heard of it, and said I'd have to call Cell One about it, and of course Cell One doesn't even have me in their system, because I'm no longer a Cell One customer... So I kept going around in circles. And of course it's been 4 months and one move to a new location later, so I don't have the letter in my possession (especially considering it said I wouldn't have to do anything...).

And without the letter...no credit to my account.

 

Yes, I know that already though. When I signed up, the girl in the store told me it was after 6 months that it'd be removed. That was wrong (as well as a few other things she told me...) apparently, because when I called in after 6 months, the call center told me it was 9 months you had to wait.

9 months would have been April for me, but as you know, Alltel merged with Cell One before April. It was in early late Feb/early March when I got the letter saying that the TalkWATCH would be waved from my account (so I thought, yay, a month early).

It didn't get waved though. When I called in (in April, after I got my first new Alltel bill, and also after the 9 month period) to Alltel, no one had heard of that letter, but the person I talked to was nice and said she'd take down my info and have a sup. look into it or something and gave me a $5 credit for that month. Great, I thought, problem solved.

Got my next bill, and it still had it on there, so I called in, and, well, I already explained the rest of that in my previous posts

So, you know, whether or not that letter even existed really isn't a big deal, since it should have gotten waived after the 9 months anyways (April). But they keep telling me "no, we won't credit you" and "you have to call Cell One". They said the only way they could credit me is if I somehow found the letter and brought it in to the local store...regardless of the fact that TalkWATCH should have been taken off in April anyways...

So yeah, I've made 4-5 frustrating calls to Alltel to no avail. And it's very frustrating since when I call in, I asked to be transfered to the financial restitution department or whatever it's called, because I tell the first person I talk to they can't help me, but they never transfer me thru right away...So I have to explain all this to the first rep, then have them tell me they can't help me, get transferred, and have to explain everything all over again...

I've spent about 7-8 hours on the phone just trying to get my $15 (it's more about the principal of it now than the actual money...).

The one minor solace is the fact that I've probably wasted more of Alltel's money calling in repeatedly and spending hours of their employees' time listening to my story over and over. Not only that, as soon as I come back from my vacation (I need the nationwide coverage right now), I'm switching to their lowest $ plan they have, so they'll be losing that money on top of things...

So yeah, great move Alltel, your service is OK, but your customer support blows...

Sorry these posts are so long.

 

There it is! That's the exact letter I got.

Is there any documentation as to which customers that letter got sent out to? After talking to Alltel's customer service about 5-6 times now, I'm pretty positive they're not going to accept a forum post as proof that I got that letter (especially since no one there seems to know the letter exists).

Was there ever any notes made on people's accounts, or do you have any kind of internal memo type things saying who the letter got sent to?

I know when I worked in a call center for a cable company, we had an online knowledge base that contained old promos and such. Basically I just need a way to prove that letter got sent out to me.

Thank you a ton already though! Glad to know at least someone at Alltel knows what's going on

 

As stated above, I don't have the letter anymore, or if I do, I'd have no idea where it is. I'm 95% sure I threw it away, since like you read above, it said I didn't have to do anything, it would all be automatic. In the off chance I kept it, it most likely got thrown away in the 4-5 months since I got it, especially since I just moved into a new apartment about 1.5 months ago.

Now that I know at least someone at Alltel knows the letter existed, I need something that says it was sent out to me, or to all customers in a certain area, or to all Western Wireless customers or what not.

 

Ok, I had mentioned I already got a $5 credit back in April, and I found out what it was for. I was looking through my emails from Cell 1/Alltel, and when it switched over to Alltel, they were giving a $5 credit to sign up for online billing. It wasn't from a rep giving me credit for TalkWATCH

 

Ok, many thanks to MOTOhooligan and alltelwirelesstech for all your help. I know for sure I got the same letter alltelwirelesstech posted up, but MOTOhooligan looked into my account, and I guess I'm a Level 2 person or something, so I got the letter in error, which is fine now that I know that. Just ticks me off that I had to call in 6 times and finally post on an unofficial forum just to find the answer though

Anyways, you guys are awesome, and at least restored some of my faith in Alltel's customer service people. Luckily this has been my only issue I've needed to contact Alltel about, but if I do end up with more, sadly I'll probably end up coming to you guys rather than calling in :lmao:

Once again, many thanks to you guys for at least putting my mind at rest with this issue. Have a few, well, a few cyber beers on me