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Qwest Billing and Credit



Karen of West Jordan UT (8/28/02):
I am going to have my phone service shut off because some people used my phone to accept a lot of collect calls from someone in jail. I called the Qwest people and they say I still have to pay the charges and the people who owe me money are not about to pay. The charges are not mine and I did not authourize them.

My phone service is going to be terminated and Qwest will not work out a payment arrangement with me, even though I was told I have a good payment record. I will lose a lot of business opportunities as well as my son has the need of the internet for his school work. He is an honor student in 9th grade and we cannot do without our phone. I am expected to pay a bill I do not owe and I am extremely upset as my children who are 10 and 14 need a phone as do I. I just need an extension and Qwest will not give me one.

Jonathan of Vancouver WA (6/10/02):
I cancelled my service with Qwest local and Sprint long distance. I received a final bill two months later for $49.15. I called Sprint as the charges were for them, not Qwest. Sprint told me there were no charges. I called Qwest and they (Jeff) said okay. This weekend I got a call from a collection agency. I called Sprint back, still no charge. I called Qwest, two different people, one was Mary, a supervisor who argued and shouted at me and said it was my obligation to pay them.

I called Sprint back, they checked and said they sent a refund to Qwest but it was returned because my account was closed with Qwest. So because Qwest are inept and cannot except a valid payment they refered it to collections. I have paid the collection ($49.15) to hopefully stop it going on my credit report, Sprint said they would try and send me a check. Qwest don't even have a complaints dept.

Ralph of Salt Lake City (5/10/02):
This is in regard to a telephone service that I had canceled. I called Qwest on December 6, 2001 and told them to cancel my telephone after December 6, 2001. We moved on December 8 and no longer had access to that telephone. My work sent me to England, and I was there from the 13th of December until the 14th of April 2002. When I returned I opened my mail and was surprised to find that a. Qwest had not canceled the service on 8 December like I asked. b. I was billed until 8 April 2002. c. Qwest had terminated me for non payment.

What I owe is 6 days in December 2001. I call their customer service number and I explained to four different people over the space of 2 hours. None were helpful or even willing to listen to what I had to say. I do not like feeling as if I were a liar and a cheat. None offered to help. So I wrote them a letter and included a check for $91.57 which would have paid the telephone bill through January 2002. I felt this was fair.

Since then I have received two bills for $193.00 a week a part last part of April, first week in May. Yesterday I got a call from a collection agency demanding payment of $74.00 for Qwest. When I return to Utah in June, I will penalized for being delinquent on this bill and I will have to pay a deposit for continued service.

Michael of Pacific WA (4/10/02):
At the beginning of February 2002 I requested a telephone be hooked up at the new address we were moving to. On February 23rd 2002. We were not told up front that we did not qualify for access to long distance service without a deposit at that time. When the phone was on and activated which took about a week after the 23rd (this is an unrelated line problem that I will address if I need to later) we realized that we did not have long distance services.

My wife then called to speak to a representative about this and at that time was told we did not "qualify" for long distance because we had not been a Qwest customer in the last 2 years (as we lived out of their service area. The representative then stated that it would cost a $100 deposit to just have access to a long distance line than later in the conversation he stated $75. Needless to say I felt as if he was bargining with me. I asked why do we have to pay a deposit anyway, that is when I was told a credit report was ran on my wife's social security number and it was determined that we did not qualify for access at that time. I was very angry and disconnected the call. ...

I then received my April 1st 2002 phone bill and there was a charge on the bill of $2.00 that showed up in the section "Optional Services" -- this is a charge that is a monthly charge. The name of the charge is "Toll restriction services Individual & key lines." When I called to inquire about what this is the representative stated that this is a charge that will be charged every month in leau of choosing to pay the deposit for access to a long distance line. I was apalled. Not only have I been denied acess to a long distance line, I am being charged for them blocking the account EVERY MONTH!

Patrick of Tempe, AZ, writes:
Qwest recently took over the previous telephone provider, named US West, and began changing the charges for many of its services, including some that were expected and others that were total surprises. First, they sent out a letter to notify the customers of rate increases, which not only took effect the following month, but they also charged retroactively for the previous time that Qwest had been the service provider.

Then, after never having paid for a particular directory assistance number - (602) 555-1212 - they charged me for a huge quantity of these calls last month. This was totally without warning. I could not find any listing for that particular number in reference to charges being incurred for its use, nor could the customer service representative direct me to such information. Additionally, I had previously paid a special surcharge to block all additional charges from my phoneline (to avoid this type of situation), and I still have this huge bill.

I know that I incurred at least $15 in charges for the directory assistance calls, but the other amounts probably add up to at least anoth $10 or so. I have also called the phone company twice, yielding no results other than waiting on hold for long periods of time. I made one call to the state's corporation commission which was never returned. I am disgusted with the amount of abuse that these guys are allowed to commit without penalties.

Actually Qwest is US West. Same company, different name. Oh, and there are plenty of new charges too, now that local telephone service is largely deregulated.

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July 9 2008

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