Qwest Installation & Repair

Dawn of Mesa AZ writes (1/19/02):
I moved into my new shop on August 5. It is now October 18, and my phones are still not working properly. I have called Qwest an average of 3 times per week (I say average because there have been weeks where I have called them several times a day). There have been 3 days where I spent more than 75% of my workday JUST dealing with Qwest on the telephone TRYING to get them to fix my phones.

I have lost LOTS and LOTS of business. I have lost customers because Qwest "accidentally" turned off my business line on what is supposed to be the busiest day of the year. My customers thought that we didn't pay our phone bill! I JUST WANT THEM TO FIX MY PHONES! THEY ARE THE ONLY PHONE COMPANY THAT SERVICES MY BUSINESS PARK!

Gary of Cheyenne, WY (10/7/02):
I am writing to complain about several questionable Qwest practices, along with a completely bogus phone bill. First, it took me over a week of pure hell to get phone service from Qwest. To start with, they denied me phone service because they said that someone else had MY Social Security Number. I had to call the local SS office and have mailed to me proof that it WAS MY number. I then had to fax a copy of my ID card and Social Security card to Qwest before they would give me phone service.

Two of three people I talked with at Qwest willingly told me the name of the person who supposedly had my SSN. His name is Chip Hayman (sp?). I noted laughter and a "party atmosphere" in the background on one of these calls. It is risky and poor business practice to use Social Security numbers, and there is even a Public Service announcement on TV against this practice.

Qwest then denied me phone service because the previous tenant here owed them money (Christian S. - $254). They suggested that I track him down. It took a phone call from my landlord to establish my phone service. My first month's bill was $214; although this was high, they did warn me that it would be. Also, a neighbor confirmed that his first bill was the same amount, so I paid the first one. The bill for the second month of the most basic phone service that I could get is $232.30.

I have NO long distance service or calls (I have a calling card for that). Qwest bills are cryptic and make no sense at all; several people who have seen it can not make any sense out of it. It lists five different dollar amounts, but calls are not itemized, so I can't figure out what calls made it go so high. It lists $42.30, $49.98, $78.08, $170.34, then, after a small list of additional charges (which do NOT add up to the total), jumps to the final amount of $232.30. It makes no explanation or justification for the final amount at all. It has been suggested that Qwest is trying to recover the money that the previous tenant owed from me. Because of the above, I now question the first bill as well.

Sophie of Phoenix (8/26/02):
Last July, I called Qwest to tell them that I was about to move to another city and that I wanted to have my phone line and DSL connection transferred. During that call, it was planned that my current phone and Internet services would be disconnected from the place I was moving out of on August 17th (a Saturday). On Thursday 15th, at 3:00 PM, both lines were already disconnected. I immediately called Qwest. I was told that I would be charged $85 for the repair. I contested this, and as a miracle the line was re-opened 30 minutes later.

During that first call it was also planned that my new phone and Internet lines would be connected in my move-in place on Monday 19th. On Tuesday the 20th, I still had no telephone and no Internet. I immediately called Qwest. I was told that I would be charged $85 for the repair. I contested again, and as a miracle, the line was connected 2 hours later.

Starting then, we received phone calls at home from people asking for the United States Post Office every 30 minutes. My husband was at home and told me that he was harrassed all day long, and that generally people called 3-4 times before to understand that we were not USPS. Wednesday the 21st, I called Qwest again to request another telephone number. I was told that it would be done in about three days, and that I would be charged $10, since I was the one requesting a change, and since the number was not in use for at least 90 days.

I discovered Thursday the 22nd that this last information is incorrect. Indeed, the telephone number that has been assigned to me is (602)-xxx-8777. However, (800)-275-8777 is the phone number of the United States Postal Service for all cities of the Arizona East Valley. The current edition of the Qwest phone book (see the blue pages page #26) contains three columns filled with the 800-275-8777 for the postal office. Actually, the alphabetic code corresponding to the last seven digits means ASK-USPS.

We even received five calls from Qwest telemarketers asking for USPS! During that time, calls concerning USPS continued, starting at 7:00 in the morning. Each time we had to tell the angry people that we were not USPS. We finally decided to unplug our telephone, so that we missed important calls and could not use the service we were paying for.

I discovered Wednesday 21st that I had Qwest extra-services that I never requested, such as caller ID, security screening, along with other undesired services. I spent 40 minutes on the phone Wednesday evening with four different Qwest employees for having these services removed. Five days later, we still have these services active. Still in the same period of time, we discovered that people who were trying to call us from outside Arizona (either from another state or from outside the country) could not reach us when our phone was plugged in. Actually, these people reached someone else's home at each call attempt, despite the fact that they were dialing our number correctly.

I called Qwest about that problem. I was told that I had a kind of filter on my telephone line, and that I should dial a certain number in order to de-activate that filter ... but when I did it, I heard an automatic voice saying me "try again, try again, try again". Thus, five days later, we still could not receive long distance calls.

Nancy of Chandler AZ (7/13/02):
We relocated from Denver to Chandler, Arizona. I called Qwest to request new service at our home one month ahead of time. I was told there was a special going on which would provide us with two lines of service, a host of features and high speed internet access. Since we wanted the DSL service, we agreed. I gave the requested e-mail address for my husband (specifically telling them it was for his home office).

OK, in order to correct it we have to start from scratch and lose our e-mail address. Too much headache. Next, we discover that my husband is sending out e-mails that show up under my name. Qwest screws up the account setup. Both Qwest and MSN say there is no fix other than to set up a whole new account. However, they do not recycle e-mail addresses, so we'll lose those as well as being without service for 3 weeks. Next, we receive a package addressed to a man we have never heard of, at our address referencing our second telephone number (fax line and supposed to be DSL). Turns out it is the modem for DSL service on our second line. It will be billed to us, although the user name is someone else and the e-mail is something we never requested. Again, they have completely botched this order - I spent 3 straight hours on Friday, July 12, as well as numerous calls to Qwest and MSN.

Elizabeth of Hagerman ID (5/6/02):
We have had two outrageous experiences with Qwest. The first ocurred as we were preparing to move ten miles away to a new home. We requested that the last four digits of our new phone number be the same, and after checking, they said that would be fine. So we started telling everybody- work, family, friends, etc. our new number and the hook-up date Qwest gave us. Well, the time for our phone to be connected in our new home came and went. We called daily and there was always an apology and an assurance that "tomorrow" it would be hooked up.

The problem was, they finally explained days later, our new address did not exist. After we and our landlord convinced them that it most certainly did, then it was that someone else was still living there and their phone was still connected. I assured them that this was not the case. They said it would take more than me saying that to convince them of it. So after a lot of people made pointless phone calls to verify it, they went back through the whole process again, saying our address did not exist. Finally, after a lot of screaming and documenting and grief on our part, there was a dial tone on our phone. We were so relieved.

However, when we tried to call our number from another phone, there was an annoying message saying that our number was not in service. They had given us a different phone number than the one we had previously requested and that they had O.K.'d for us weeks before. Now they said that number was not available for residential service. Apparently the original person didn't know what he was doing, or was it the next guy? I think it could have been both. Anyway, it was a pain trying to find out exactly what our new number really was.

Well, we finally got over that pain in the neck and then were shocked at an even deeper level by Qwest. We received a threatening letter from a collection agency saying that we hadn't paid a $600 bill we owed to Qwest for cellular service. Well, first of all, we have never owned a cell phone of any kind. Secondly, they didn't even have our correct address or phone number on the bill. Thirdly, we never received any prior warning about this bogus bill until it had been sent to collections and damaged our credit. Qwest was - as usual- confused and befuddled and rude at every level. They verified that we never had cellular service with them, but weren't going to fix the problem they had created with our credit. That was going to be up to us.

Well, after some serious threatening, we got them to agree to call the collection agency and explain their mistake. But until it is all taken care of we will have that scar on our credit. What is their problem. Why are they so messed up?

Jenny of Phoenix writes:
In August of 2000 we decided to take advantage of Qwest's offer of digital telephone service, high speed internet service, as well as digital cable for the television. At the same time that I ordered these services over the phone, I purchased a "military technology" digital telephone for my home. The salesperson (Tom) said that it was more secure than regular cordless phones and would cost about $20 a month on my phone bill.

The installation of the digital services was supposed to take place on September 4th. This was a holiday so I stayed home to meet the installer while my family went to the lake. They never came. I called the 800 number and was on hold for SEVENTY (70) MINUTES!! (Your call is important to us, please stay on the line for the next available operator...) Finally I hung up and called the next day only to find out that they were actually closed and that they had forgotten to change the outgoing message to notify callers that no one was there!

Later that week I was informed that the services that we ordered were no longer available in our area because they were sold out and the salesperson that I spoke with didn't know. In the meantine I received the phone that I ordered and it was a huge piece of junk! When using the phone, if I moved my hand on the handset even a little bit it created so much static that I couldn't hear anything. I also found out from the invoice that I was being charged a huge finance fee which I was never made aware of at the time of the sale. As stated on the invoice, I requested a return label. I finally received one about a month later and returned the phone. Qwest received the phone in October and it is now February 2001. JUST IN THE LAST MONTH I received credit for the phone. In the meantine I was still being charged for it even though Qwest could verify that it had been received and was sitting in their warehouse!

Additionally, I cancelled my service with Qwest and signed up with another company altogether. Additionally (as if it wasn't already bad enough) Qwest representatives stated to me that the only outstanding charge was for At&T long distance but I was given three different amounts. I called AT&T directly and was given the correct amount and mailed them a check. I sent a letter to Qwest stating that I had settled my bill with AT&T but still received statements showing an amount due! I received a letter from Qwest in January that they were going to send me to collections because I still owed them money! When I called (which was about 15 times) I always asked to speak to a supervisor and was told over and over that "since I was no longer a customer of Qwest I COULD NOT speak to a supervisor." I asked if there was an office that I could go to and speak to someone in person and was told that they do not have any such offices, that they only conduct business by phone.

Finally, I had to call the Corporation Commission and file a formal complaint. They were required to respond to my complaint within a certain period of time and "Mary" from their executive office called and apologized, saying that the company has grown so quickly that they cannot keep up, and cannot provide good customer service. Supposedly the bill was settled, however I have yet to receive the requested confirmation letter. The damages that I suffered in the end were the result of my anger about this whole situation. It got to the point that I couldn't even talk about it without getting absolutely furious. Now that it's over I don't feel any better, the representative from Qwest that called apologized, but what does that do for the hours and hours that I spent on the phone trying to get this straightened out and how close my credit came to being damaged by something that wasn't my fault?

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