One Communications

I signed up with One Communications telephone company on 11/05/07 with an explicit condition that i am not limited to a contract. I signed a form without any type of commitment. They filled out the form afterwards with their own handwriting committing me to a 3 year contract with an astronomical fee if I break the contract. I am having major problems with my phone service and have no service from them whatsoever. They made me pay for a third line that never worked and now that I want to close that third line they are charging me a crazy and unreasonable amount. I only want to get rid of them and they tied me up without my knowledge. Please help me fight this with them and just get me rid of them.

Over the past year and a half, our phones have gone down 4 times, with outages lasting up to a week or more. We are constantly in contact with One Communications to resolve this issue with Verizon (who maintains our equipment). We have been told by Verizon techs that our equipment is old and faulty, but that Verizon will not replace it no matter how many problems we have. During this most recent outage (which began last Friday, 4/10 and has continued through today, 4/16), at least 5 Verizon people have been here to look at the problem. One of them assured me that all of our equipment looked fine and that it was normal for a phone system to go out 4 times in a year and a half.

The next three that came to look have told me our equipment isn't working - in complete opposition to what we have been told before. I have been in contact with One Communications at least 5 times every day since this started last Friday but the problem is still not resolved. We would like resolution of this issue now. If we need new equipment, we think it is reasonable to expect One Communications and Verizon to work together to make that happen so that in 6 months I do not have to go through this entire scenario yet again.

On another note, when the phones went out, I asked that One Communications forward the phones to my cell phone so that I would not miss any calls. I was told on Monday that our primary number had been accidentally taken by another company and that One Communications had to get it back. Today (Thursday) I called to find out why it was still not forwarded and was told that it could take days to get numbers back and that they still could not forward the phones. Twenty minutes later, I spoke to someone who expressed disbelief at what I had been told about our primary number and he was able to forward the phone immediately. He said that the person I spoke to before didn't know what he was talking about.

Because One Communication was unable or unwilling to forward our primary phone line for two days, I have missed countless calls from customers and business associates. Now the phones are forwarded to my cell phone which means no more than one person can speak on the phone at a time. Every time I get a phone call, I must leave my desk and go outside where the reception is better. I also expect a very large bill this month from my cell phone provider. I would say that at least 25% of my workdays during this outage (and outages in the past) are spent trying to deal with this which is a huge waste of my time. To be without a working phone for weeks at a time when we pay our bills promptly every month is simply unacceptable.

In 2005 a representative from Conversant came into our office here at American Marble & Stone Works Inc.. We made the choice to switch over to this company. My boss asked this representative if we did not like the service would be able to switch without any problems and he assured us so. We have been experiencing difficulties with this service so we decided to switch over to another company. Recently we received a bill in the mail from One Communications (which was Conversant)for about $1000.00 in fees. I contacted the company to discuss this and the representative no longer works for the company. They said that it was stated in my contrat about cancellation which I did not have a copy of. A copy of this contract was faxed to me. As I came across the last page it had a signature with my boss's name. This page was never signed by my boss and was forged. I explained the situation to One Communications and they refuse to do anything about this.

I was told to contact you by Middlesex Community College Law Center. I am a business out of Lowell Ma.-- Antiquities & More. I deal in Antiques therefore am very dependent on my phone for business and internet service (lot's of ebay). I signed a 3 year contract with One Communications for my telecommunications service. Well, I recently had to relocate my store because of crime in my area. When I called One Communications they told me over the phone it would be 6-8 weeks for my phone and could take up to 6 months for my DSL-- because service wasn't avail in my new area. I also received it in writing thru an email...

I was disappointed because they now had my business # I had for 5 years--and if I should have to change service I would lose my yellow page add, all past business references, 1000's or 10,000's of dollars worth of business. ... but I could not wait that long for service, I would be out of business by the time my computer was running. I need my computer to check pricing online etc...

One would think it to be an unreasonable request to ask of any business... Needless to say to my surprise I have received a $1953.86 early termination fee...

I was shocked and felt it could only be a misunderstanding. I have called customer service with One Communications and spoke with Alexa, Rich, & Rob-- to no avail. They explained to me it was not that they could not provide me service it was that I had to wait until service could be provided, therefore (no matter how long the wait) when I decided I could not wait for my phone service or DSL to operate my business and chose to go thru Verizon I terminated my contract-- which makes me responsible to pay termination fee's. I feel that where they could not provide me service in a reasonable amount of time it should be common knowledge I would have the right to go to someone who could provide me service! How could any business that was dependant on their phone and internet service wait that long?

I have also reviewed my contract with One Communications I signed a service agreement that said "Terms & Conditions Herein" which I assumed was on that page I was signing since there was nothing else. They last week sent me a copy of "Terms & Conditions", I had never even seen..... When I told them I never signed or ever even saw the terms & conditions, they said I should had asked to see it!! I feel this is a deceitful tactic, and I would had never, ever signed to the Terms & Conditions they sent me... I spoke with the Chairmans office Cindy (888)***-****.. and pleaded with her that I can't afford this bill and it is unfair. She laughed at me and said, well you signed the agreement to 3 years no matter what...so tell whomever you want and pay the bill. Whether they can provide service or not?How many other business's have they used deceitful tactics and taken for money.. There is also an automatic renewal so people who assume their contract is up and terminate will get killed on an early termination fee's. I can't afford to pay this after having to relocate my store and am desperate for relief...
Thanks,
Elaine ****
**** St.
Lowell, Ma.

(978)***-****

Mail is delayed by four to six hours going through this server but not through other services (Google for example). We are told that "engineers are working on the problem" but this company has given us terrible service - lost emails, etc.