catches to MCI`s online phone service

From: "Peter Palma" <rpalma@msai.mea.com>
Subject: catches to MCI`s online phone service
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 10:12:01 -0400

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If you're talking about signing up for MCI's online
billed phone service, here are the catches I found:

Extremely high in state rates ($.25 to $.40 /minute)

They won't send you an  invoice in the mail, they
only place one on their website for you to view.

Their website was often down or wouldn't display
correctly so I could read the invoice.

They sign you up for services (with fees) you don't request
(in one case one I specifically declined).

When I complained, they said they'd remove the fee and cancel
the service but didn't.

There's no phone number to contact them directly.
All their "customer service" is handled by email.

When I had complaints, it took them an average of
a week to get back to me by email. Their typical
first response was, "we can't find your account,
please send us your account number and phone number
again."

In summary, they were incompetent, very frustrating
to deal with, and the rates weren't THAT good.

Obviously the service is new and may improve, but nothing
they said or did gave me the impression they were trying
to correct their mistakes.

On the other hand, a month after switching to MCI, I got a $60
check in the mail from AT&T to switch back, and they gave me
a $.10 rate for 6 months with no fee.


Hope it helps,


Pete



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