Complain about a product or service

Qwest Long Distance

Qwest • Install & Repair • Billing & Credit • Qwest Wireless • Qwest Long Distance • Qwest DSL -- • Qwest Pays Big Refunds in Arizona • Minnesota Fines Qwest $26 Million • States Sue Qwest • Feds OK Qwest for Long-Distance

Crystal of Van Meter IA (4/4/05):
I signed up for long distance with no monthly fee, now they are charging me $2.00 per month per line. They claim to have sent a letter telling this increase, however, with all the junk mail we receive daily I cannot say if this was received or not. I think an upcoming increase should be stated on the actual bill.

Thelma of Stafford VA (6/2/02):
They promised me long distance for 4.9 cents per minute and a $50 rebate for switching. I never got the rebate and they charged $.20 per minute. My long distance charges for 6 weeks were nearly $300 instead of the $75 - $50 rebate = $25, that I was led to believe. It also upset me and my husband that we were cheated.

Janet of Homestead FL writes (6/15/01):
I had a contract with Quest for long distance services for nearly 2 years. I was given the rates of 10 cents for UK and 7 cents for USA. So far everything was right. Since 1 April I received a bill charging more than $1.00 a minute. I thought it was a mistake. We received the bill for May and the same thing.

We reported to Bell South (domestic carriers). They said they are going to check and the person's name is Perry. She said it is unusal. She rang Qwest and She was told that we had changed the plan. That is a lie as we never rang Qwest to change the services. I rang Qwest and they told me that Bell South had changed the service plan. We rang Perry from Bell South. She said the best thing would be to have a conference call Qwest representitive kept us on hold and after 15 minutes the line got disconnected. We did the same thing again and Qwest kept us on the hold for 3 hours.

Bell South told me it was not their fault and if We did not pay then the service will be discontinued so we paid the bill. We rang the Qwest and they said I can enroll in the new plan and then they will give me the credit.

Dave of Bronx, NY (3/31/01):
I signed up for a 30-cent international calling plan and quit a few days later when I decided there were no savings. When we made one call in this period we were charged $2.74 a minute! Calls to Customer Service were answered with, "Can't do anything for you."

Outrageous phone bill -- one call for $104.12!

Sylviane of Eureka CA (2/12/01):
I am a suscriber to Qwest International phone plan. I call France and Canada a lot. I uncovered that my November 2000 to 2/10/2001 phone bill was unusually high. I calculated that on a phone call from France I was charged at 95 cents a minute versus the 13 cents I was supposed to pay.

I contacted Qwest and was informed that the plan was no longer available since October 2000. They could sign me up for a new plan at 22 cents a minute for France and 10 cents a minute for Canada as of today with a monthly fee. I complained that the fees were outrageous and no notice was sent to me about the changes. The response I got was, "Sorry."

Sanjay of Edison NJ (11/17/00):
I have been overbilled by Qwest Communications for calls that I have made. This call was made on Aug 26th 12:12am. Typically calls to India being expensive, I do not speak for more than 20 minutes or so, and that is consistent with all the calls that I have ever made. Qwest had billed me for 4 hours and 40 minutes. I have been billed $150 for this call.

There is absolutely no way that such a call could have been made. I have logged complaints with Qwest and they refuse to acknowledge the error and have asked me to pay for it. I have made payments to subsequent bills but I have not paid this bill. Qwest has also disconnected my line. I cannot imagine how such a call could have made.

Qwest says that its possible that I did not hang up. I think that's not possible at all. Even if I gave them the benefit of doubt, the party in India would have hung up. That being the case the line should have dropped. It is impossible that both parties would have not hung up. For a fact i did not speak for 4:40 hrs. The only possibility is that the line did not drop. Then this is carrier error. Why should i be billed for the technical malfunction?

Sanjay should file a complaint with his state Public Utilities Commission and with the Federal Communications Commission.

Jeff of Ellis KS (4/4/00):
At the beginning of January we switched our long distance carrier to Qwest. They never mentioned the $4 a month charge. We didn't make a big deal of it and just paid it. February also had just the $4 charge on it plus our long distance charges. Well, come March, I had a charge for $11 and another for $18. Knowing they never mentioned the charges when I signed up for their service, I called them and asked them what the charges were for.

The billing representative said that if we don't have over $20 in long-distance charges we will have those charges on our bill. I told him that the previous two bills didn't have those charges on them and my long-distance bill was not over $20. He said it must have been an oversight. I might have believed that, but I switched my business phone at the same time. It also didn't have the charges on there in January and February, but did in March.

I believe Qwest is on a quest to rip off their customers. Needless to say, I cancelled my account.

Willie of Jersey City NJ (5/16/01):
I moved into a new apartment, and had my phone service connected and Qwest as my long distance carrier. There was a problem with my telephone line (it was crossed). When I was on the line, my line was interrupted by another party who took over my line. I could not receive or place a call until the other party hung up. I had my local carrier (Verizon) come and correct the problem.

When I finally received my first phone bill, it was for $595 covering 1 1/2 month of service. Apparantly, when the other party interrupted my call, it was as if I was still on the phone and I was being billed for the time that they were on the line. When I brought this to Qwest's attention, they said that they needed my Local Carrier to confirm this during that time period. I've done this several times and have spent hours on the phone with both my Local Carrier and Qwest to resolve the issue.

However, Qwest's Customer Service and Fraud Dept. have given me the run around and all kinds of excuses and no help to resolve the issue. It is just about 1 year since the whole incident occured and they have not called nor written me to discuss this matter at all. This is a very sizable amount of money, which they have sent to a Collections Agency seeking payment.

My work is very time intensive and I do not have a lot of time to spend on personal calls. I have spent several hours on the phone speaking with Qwest's Representatives and Supervisors and the issue has not come to any conclusion. I find it strange that they do not want to settle this matter ASAP.

Willie needs to stop wasting time on the phone. He should write a very clear and detailed description of what happened and mail it via certified mail, return-receipt-requested, to Qwest with a copy to Verizon. He should state in the letter that the company is wrongfully charging him for service used by another party and state that he anticipates Qwest's timely action in voiding the charge. If this doesn't work, Willie can send copies of the letter to the Federal Communications Commission and his state Public Utilities Commission asking for their assistance.