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From: beh@bu-pub.bu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Yet Another MCI Switchover
Message-ID: <61565@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 29 Jul 90 04:25:45 GMT
Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu
Organization: TELECOM Digest
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Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu


About two months ago, I received a call from your typical friendly MCI
telemarketer, pitching their MCI Plus plan.  After listening to quite
a bit of plugging, and having to explain my current Sprint Plus plan,
(ok, I'll admit it) I managed to get confused and agreed to the MCI
plan, forgetting about the Sprint volume-based discount.

After I finished waking up, I called MCI Customer Service and spoke
with someone who assured me that she'd hold my number and try to kill
the service order every couple days, and that all I had to do to
refuse the service was not sign or return any of the confirmatory
stuff they mailed.  Considering what I've read of MCI's changeover
trouble in the past, that made sense, so I threw out all of their
mailings, and forgot about it - after calling New Jersey Bell to ask
them to flag my record to not change Dial-1 LD without my approval.

Well, this month, my phone bill shows billing to MCI for three weeks...

First call to NJB:
  Local Bell Customer Service:  "It looks like MCI shouldn't have switched 
          you, I'll refund the switchover fee.  Call MCI and ask them to
          refund their fees."  [Didn't ask why it changed over when the
          record was allegedly flagged...]

Second call to MCI:
  Generic MCI Customer Service:  "She told you WHAT?"
    [insert 20 minutes explaining Sprint Plus, and why NO!, I really
      wouldn't rather have your wonderful MCI service...]
    [insert 10 minutes assuring her that the previous MCI-critter
      assured me it wouldn't be a problem...]
    "Well, I'll refund the charges for the month...  The bill total was
      $nnn, correct?"
    
I was quite amazed at this point that they'd write-down the entire
month.  I was expecting maybe their service fee, but definitely NOT
the whole thing.  Could they really be this paranoid about people
screaming "improper changeover", or are they simply messed up enough
that it's easier to write the calls off than figure out what happened?

By the way, the MCI Customer Service person apologized that she wasn't
able to credit my NJB account directly, but would have to go through
her supervisor to take care of it ... I'm half looking forward to,
half dreading my next phone bill to see if all this worked or not.


Bruce Howells,   beh@bu-pub.bu.edu   |   engnbsc@buacca (BITNet)