MCI, Verizon The Neighborhood, MCI, Excessive charges; abusive, rude employees; fraudulent statements, prohibited contact with inmates; Atlanta Georgia Chicago Illinois Denver Colorado Worthington Springs Florida Nationwide

MCI was the designated and only provider for inmate services at the prison in Missouri where my loved one is incarcerated. They blocked phone calls for as long as a week at a time, charged an extremely high amount for the phone calls, did not provide uninterrupted service and provided poor customer service, as demonstrated by the following:

Employees who handled inquirys were often rude, antagonistic, hung up on me, or were near illiterate.

MCI has an automated system that will call your number to let you know that your account balance is getting low, then when you call back, you will be unable to get through to make a payment, you will be put on hold listening to their music, and may not be able to get through to make a payment for days (another automated system).

Upon setting up the initial account, I was told that the fee would be 7 cents per minute, later, I was told it would be 14 cents a minute. What they really charged was
15 cents per minute, with a $1 access fee for each call. In other words, a one minute call would cost $1.l5.

I would call various MCI numbers when the block was on in an attempt to remove the block but to no avail. They would say,...it will be clear in 24 hours...and another day would go by and another and another, til finally I hadn't spoken to my loved one for over a week. This particular occasion was because they were "setting up the account" although that was done before service was initiated.

Thre have been numerous lawsuits against MCI, with rulings against MCI. At least one I know of included excessive fees. The attorney general of Missouri, Jay Nixon, filed one for
"No Call List" disrespect on the part of MCI.

I have been hoping that I would receive notice in the mail of a class action suit against MCI but have not received any at this time. I certainly would not hesitate to file a suit, if an attorney would be willing to represent me and accept this class action suite. I know others would love to get on board.

Although MCI is quick and will repeatedly call for collections, they are extremely slow to take care of their own obligations to their customers.

It seems to me that if they have a exclusive contract with a state to provide services, those services should be provided without interruption. Worse case scenario...an inmate may be on death row and unable to call home the day before his death, thanks to MCI.

Their repoire is the reverse of what good business should be, that is, they do not treat customers with the respect that humans are due.

Regarding The Neighborhood, I presently have a bill which MCI has been calling me about which was in the amount of approximately $150. When I got the bill, I thought, "now, what are they up to..." The bill turned out to be for residential service (I switched from AT&T to MCI because they said it would cost less, and I thought it might help them get their billing straight so they wouldn't put a block on my line).

What I found is that the bill is consistently approximately $20 per month higher than AT&T was/is. (I have since switched back to AT&T.) I believe there are charges for bogus taxes on these bills, but do not know what is legal and what is not, there are so many. I know that in one of the lawsuits against MCI, they were charging bogus fees under the heading of some sort of tax and were ordered to stop. If they did it once, why wouldn't they do it again?

This bill has been turned over to an attorney representing MCI for collection, although I don't believe I owe them the money and had already made arrangements with MCI to pay $15 per month to stop their annoying phone calls and prevent harm to my credit.

I have made these payments now for 2 consecuitive months.

This letter cannot express the anger, frustration, and emotional disraught felt as a result of this so-called communication leader. I will never, ever do business with MCI/Verizon/The Neighborhood or a known affiliate again, nor will I recommend them.

If an attorney is out there reading this and would be willing to look at this case and perhaps accept it on a contingency, please do not hesitate to contact me. I believe that most of the families of inmates in the correctional facilities share my discontent.

The facility where my loved one remains incarcerated did switch to another provider. I am thankful for that.

Mary
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
U.S.A.

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