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Nextel - Sales Practices

Nextel • "Flexible contracts" • Cancellation difficulties • Billing disputes • "Free trial" • Sales practices • Insurance • Business customers --- News • NYC Sues Wireless Phone Companies for Deceptive Advertising • Consumer Group Sues Nextel, Cingular • Class Action Suit Filed

Uma of N. Lauderdale FL (8/18/03):
My husband and I have had Nextel phones for a few years. When we first signed up, it was fine. However, we starting seeing our phone bill being "nickel & dimed" for everything. We eventually signed up for another service and promptly called Nextel to quit. After explaining the situation and giving them an idea of what we wanted to pay each month - they agreed to give us credit for some of the questionable charges from previous months and put us on a plan that would meet our monthly expense limit.

Well, that plan we were put on only lasted a month and then the charges became beyond ridiculous. My husband called again, explained the situation. Nextel then changed our plan to a "1200" plan whereby we would receive 1200 minutes between the two of us. Only, it wasn't 1200 minutes as the rep told us, it was 800 and it didn't include such things as the two-way radio, which our previous plan did. We were paying over $200 each in phone charges, which was $240 more than what they told us we would be paying.

We called again and were switched to a plan that would meet our needs. Surprisingly - we were in the same boat again. My husband decided to take a different approach and separate our minutes (no more shared plans). The plan he was put on was reasonable and within our budget, but mine was not put on the same plan. When we called to have this switched to a similar plan that would be within my needs - they switched me to a plan that reduced the total number of minutes I could use the phone, eliminated "free" incoming calls and eliminated free weekends.

My phone bill was over $300 in one month, yet my minute usage was comparable to my husband - whose bill was approximately $70. We called to have my plan changed for a fourth time. This time, both my husband and myself contacted Nextel and asked very specifically why I was changed to a plan that cost me more money and if a plan that was similar to my husband's was in existence at the time that originally switched my plan (3rd time). After hemming and hawing, the rep finally admitted that such a plan did exist and that the rep had changed me to a plan that hadn't suited my needs.

This rep proceeded to give me some credit for the overages and switched me to a plan "that very day" that was comparable to my husbands. This was a month ago. We then came to find out that the plan I was switched to that day was actually done a month later (so I incurred another month of ridiculous charges - my husband had 20 minutes less than I did and my bll was $200 more than his). Not only was this change done later, but this "new plan" did not include voice mail, call waiting or any of the other items we had on the original plan, yet the rep did not tell us this. I was very upset and could not have been more specific with this rep than I was about previous reps changing my plan to something that cost me ridiculous amounts of money.

These reps work on commission. Everytime they switch your plan - they receive commission. They operate on the mentality that when the dummy consumer figures out that they've been "had" - they don't have to deal with the problem. This is a consistent, deceptive practice in which they are deliberately switching consumer plans to programs that cost the consumer more money. The plans that we requested were currently in existence during the time that we contacted them and contained provisions that were reasonable (we weren't asking for the moon), but they deliberately and routinely put us into plans that did not fit our needs.

They claimed plans that were "1200" plans contained that amount of minutes, but subsequent phone calls showed that these plans usually had 400 less minutes than what we were told. No intelligent consumer calls a company up a requests a billing change that will cost them more money - yet with Nextel, this is a consistent practice. I have been overcharged approximately $150 per month for several months.