Cricket Billing and Telemarketing Fraud Dallas Texas

Ive seen this happen so many times. Unfortunately, the reps who do these promotions dont explain everything completely correctly.

First of all, Crickets systems put out a number of customers who may have recently disconnected their service. Next, one of their outbound sales team calls a customer on the list (usually a postcard is sent telling the customer that theyre eligible for this program).

What the person didnt inform you of is that you WILL receive a bill for that month of free service that is provided to you. What happens is that the promotion activates a new Cricket account (as if youre a new customer) and usually gives you back the phone number you had. When this is done, the billing system *automatically* kicks out a bill to the customer.

To explain the meaning of free month of serviceit means that it is a 30-day trial, and IF the customer was to cancel the account within 30 days, they would owe nothing for that month of service, hence its free. However, IF the customer does NOT cancel the service within 30 days, then they will owe ONLY the first month of service. Thats how the program really works (last I knewI havent worked there since early 2005. Maybe they changed the rules?). The sales rep probably told you that if you dont want to keep the service to just not pay the bill that comes to you. You received a bill for 2 months of service because once the new account is created, a bill cycle date is automatically set. Once the day after the due date passes, a new bill is sent to the customer automatically that includes balances paid and not paid through the bill cycling date.

You cant get a response from their computer answering system in locating your account because it only recognizes active customers. I understand that you were trying to tell them that you didnt need the service at the time that you consented to have the phone reactivated, but the problem is you *consented* to do so. The fee to pay a telemarketing firm they are employing to commit this fraud that you are referring to as Insurance Corperation of Hanover andAsurion Insurance Company are actually phone insurance companies. For $4.95 a month, they insure your phone from being lost, stolen, or damaged, and you pay a deductible should one of those things happen to the phone. Therefore, they arent telemarketing firms at all (also as denoted by the names of the companies).

Is their billing fraudulent? Not exactly, as Ive explained above. There are no telemarketing fees included in the billing, and the 2 months of service are accurate according to the way their billing system prints out bills. Any balance not paid by the due date will automatically be added to the next monthly billing. If anything is owed, it would only be the first month of service.

The best way to get in contact with someone at their customer service number would be to use someone elses Cricket phone. When you get on the line, the system will recognize that persons account (dont enter your own account information). At the menu prompt, push option 2, then the last option to get to a representative. Ask to speak with someone that handles disconnected accounts (should be the lead representative team). Tell them your account information (last 4 of SS# usually), and they should be able to pull up your account.

Hopefully you can get this resolved rather quickly...