
bridget of Long Beach, CA on Sept. 5, 2009
My complaint is about the complete disconnect between Qwest's Customer Service, Billing Department, and whomever is responsible for their AutoPay. I've had Qwest for 2 years and was happy with them for a year and a half. Then, I made the mistake of switching to AutoPay. Right from the beginning, I had problems. Each month, the fee of 39.99 that I paid for wireless services would be deducted from my checking account at the beginning of the month. No problem.
THEN at the middle of the month, I would get a bill from Qwest after they had already been paid from my account. This bill would always detail random charges from MSN and would come to 55.11. Each month, I would have to call Qwest, spend about 30 minutes on the phone, and have them remove the charges.
They always admitted the charges were not correct and stopped my account from being charged again for no reason. This was good. But, still, it was annoying to have to waste time doing this each month, have the person tell me the problem would never happen again, and then lo and behold it would happen the next month and I would be calling again.
Since I didn't get charged, I put up with the inconvenience. Here's where the real problems with autopay began...I moved. To Southern California. There's no Qwest there (thank God). I terminated my wireless service in June, making sure that my last autopayment would be 39.99 for the service I received from June 22 (the day I canceled) to July 22. The man I spoke with ASSURED me there would be no other charges. I bought my modem. I always paid my bill. There was no termination fee. He told me all these things and, after I told him about my monthly trouble with autopay, he told me he would make sure I would only be charged the 39.99.
Well, July comes around, they auto-deduct the 39.99 like they are supposed to, and I assume I'm done with Qwest. My internet stops working on July 22 exactly, and I'm pretty pleased that it seems like they were true to their word. Then, on August 15th, I received a bill from Qwest stating I owe 55.11 again. The bill is dated August 3, but I have mail forwarding from Seattle so it took that long to reach me.
I call Qwest that day, am completely polite, explain my situation, and the lady I spoke with assures me that the charges are a "mixup" and "because your account has been closed, the charges could not go through." I told her about my problems with autopay the last four months, and she assures me that I do not owe anything, the error is from Qwest Billing, and she will see to it nothing gets deducted from my account.
Then, on August 18th, Qwest tries to grab 26.50 from my old Seattle bank account, which I had kept open with about .50 before I decided what to do with it. My bank rejects Qwest's attempt because I have insufficient funds. Then, my bank charges me a 25.00 overdraft fee. I call Qwest the next day furious. I demand they put the 25.00 back into my account. They tell me they cannot do that, but admit that it is their error. They tell me that after an account closes, sometimes it takes a while for billing to catch up, and that 26.50 would eventually be credited back to my account. But not today, when I need to bring my account back to positive.
I get put on hold. A lot. No one seems to be able to help me. Then, a nice male Qwest rep agrees to conference with my bank in Seattle, my bank tells me that they cannot refund the $25 fee because it was not a bank error. Fair enough. Qwest tells me they cannot credit back the account until it clears in billing, which may take weeks, even though it is MY MONEY Qwest essentially STOLE from my account, by making an unauthorized transaction because of their error, weeks after I had canceled service with them.
We hang up with my bank. I demand to talk to a superior. At this point, I've been on the phone with Qwest for 50 minutes. I wait some more. Even though this is Qwest's error and I have been civil and understanding, the supervisor I speak with is very rude and acts like I am wrong. She reiterates that there is no way to credit back the account today, then tells me that since Qwest's first attempt did not go through, the autopay will try to go through again tomorrow.
She is powerless to stop this. I need to take it up with the autopay robot. For my troubles, she finally (begrudgingly) agrees to mail me a check from Qwest for the 26.50. Then, I can close out my bank account today to prevent Qwest's autopay robot from trying to take even more money from me that I DON'T ACTUALLY OWE. The only problem with mailing the check is that it will take an extra 2 weeks or so to reach me, because it will go to my old Seattle address and then be forwarded.
There is no way, despite talking to several different Qwest departments, to have the check sent to my new Long Beach address to speed up this process, because I have closed my account and "am no longer a customer." HA! Again, Qwest employees are at the mercy of software they apparently cannot change or control.
So I have to go to a shared branch that recognizes my bank down in Southern California, pay the 25.00 I owe because of Qwest to settle the account, close the account so Qwest can't grab more, and open another one. A week later, I got a letter from Qwest saying they would be crediting the $26.50 back to the account...that I closed. I called Qwest and the woman I spoke to assured me there would be a check arriving for the same amount. I am STILL waiting for this check. It's been over 3 weeks.