Complain about a product or service

Ameritech Pagers

Carl of Indianhead Park, IL, writes:
I called Ameritech after one of my accounts notified me that they had tried paging me several times since 1:00 AM, Saturday, Jan 20, 2001. As I am in the funeral business as a trade embalmer, I receive pages 24/7, and am expected to respond immediately. Needless to say, my account was quite dismayed at my not answering the pages, or the voice mail messages that were left for me.

I called and informed the person answering that I was quite angry at what had transpired. They informed me that all they were able to do was to tell me about their newest and latest high-tech products. I reiterated my anger and demanded to speak with someone who could address the problem rather than provide a sales pitch under the circumstances.

After about a minute, another individual answered. I explained the situation, and was told that perhaps the "polarity of the pager had changed" I was told to remove the battery, put it in backwards for 20 seconds, then reinsert correctly. When I asked how come no mention of this potential problem was ever made before, I was told that, well, maybe the equipment is old and should be replaced. I explained that the pager was only 2 years old, to which she replied well, things wear out.

I explained that I lost a call and that cost me money as well as credibility with my account, to which she replied well, there's nothing I can do about that, maybe you should get a new pager. I explained that I had just paid the pager bill for the upcoming year in advance a total of $116.15, and she told me that they could possibly credit my account for $5.00. I told her what she could do with her $5.00 and hung up.

I experienced a similar occurrence about 3 years ago, when I was conned into buying a new cell phone, because mine was "old and outdated". Again this phone was one year old. Boy are they good,I'll give them that -- deaf ear to the problems they cause, but right there with the sales pitch and hype for the new product, damn them.

The consequence was that I lost a call, a removal from a nursing home that would have paid me over $100, and almost lost the preparation of the remains. Luckily the account has been my account for over 10 years, and after the explanation, they understood. I also have a Direct Cremation Business that uses the same pager number. There is no way to tell whether or not I lost a call there. It's quite possible. If that is the case, that would have been a loss of over $755.00.

As a result of the above attempted snow job and sales pitch, I did indeed get a new pager, from Brookfield Communications. They use Page Net, and have nothing whatsoever to do with Ameritech or their latest ally, Verizon Wireless. I am quite sure that there are other individuals who have no use for those two, and it's a shame that these problems are not nipped in the bud as soon as they occur to prevent others from economic loss etc.