ALLTEL ripoff, misrepresentation of service, fraudulent billing, taking advantage of young servicemen Atlanta Georgia

My nephew was in USMC training school at Pensacola NAS and wanted a cell phone to keep in contact with driends and family. ALLTEL sold him their Total Freedom 350 package which advertises the ability to call from anywhere to anywhere within the U.S. with unlimited nights and weekends and 350 anytime minutes. It sounded perfect.

It worked fine for the first month. Then he was transfered to Cherry Point, NC. As soon as he arrived in NC every subsequent call he made, regardless of time of day, was charged to his anytime minutes. His next bill was $833!!

However, 10 days before his billing cycle was to end, ALLTEL gave him a cryptic phone call saying he would be billed in excess of $500 and then they turned off his phone service. It was after this that he received the bill for $833.

He called Customer Service and they said, more or less, that he owed them $833, like it or not. After heated discussions, ALLTEL agreed to waive the $833 if my nephew would sign up for their Total Freedom 2000 package, which costs $199.95 per month.

Against my advice, he did this, thinking he would cancel the service after the first month and eat their $200 early termination fee, thus paying $400 of a bill I thought he shouldn't have owed them at all. He agreed to allow ALLTEL to draw the payment from his checking account.

The next month a bill was received showing a $200 draft being subtracted from the $833 and a $629 credit. He was then billed $199.95 for 13 days of phone service and $199.95 for the next months service, plus taxes and fees. The total of $403 to be paid upon receipt. He is afraid if he cancels now they will draft another $200 as another early termination fee, thus insuring they get $800 from him.

He is going to raise Hell again, but I do not know how this will turn out.

Fred
Friendswood, Texas
U.S.A.