Nextel Deposit Scam false promises Internet

Statement: Because of a billing system transition, a $500 credit-card deposit has been lost. In calling them, they have no idea it was even paid.

Response: Having worked for Nextel for nearly 2 years, I was around during the billing system transition during Spring of 2002. Even to this day, Nextel still has access to all records on file in the old billing systems.

We do not utilize these systems to make changes or report account info anymore, but do still have access to view all account info dating back to the creation of an account opened before the transition. Some newer CCR's (cust care rep) do not have access to these systems as they do not have login id's and passcodes, but more tenured reps like myself still do, even though we rarely use this access anymore.

A question comes to my mind: was the Deposit made at the store where the account was first set up? If so it is possible that the store would have records of the deposit if the customer doesn't still have their original receipt(some stores actually hold the deposits themselves and these do not reach Nextel in any form, nor do Nextels billing systems have records, as these records are maintained by the stores).

A second question might be: was the deposit released to the account? After 12 months the cust can get the deposit back, but they need to formally request it before the deposit is released to the account. If request is not made then, when the deposit is released, it pays for any remaining balance currently on the acc't at time of release (ever notice anything on the front page of monthly statement saying, "Credit Balance, Do Not Pay"?)

Finally, was Nextel Customer Finance contacted to issue a payment dispute? In the case of misdirected or misapplied payments, customer finance can put in a dispute for the customer, and billing research would then do an investigation into the issue. Most issues are resolved within 10 business days or less.

Nextel does realize that it is not good business to have unhappy customers, and if they operated like a rip-off organization, they would not have been in business for over 10 years, especially since many of its customers are major corporations which are listed in the Fortune 500.

If phone calls do not resolve the issue, go to Nextel.com and write a very detailed description of the issue so that someone can make a better assessment to get you the help you need (CCR's usually are not in a position to handle payment research, and would need to transfer caller to cust finance)