I have the Total 200 plan with Alltel. I purchased a Motorola Star Tac with my service in Dec of 2001. In the fall of 2002 I started getting complaints from my wife that when she called me, she got the message that either my phone was switched off or out of the service area. I never turn my phone off and have signal pretty 99% of the time.

I was at home and had 3 bars of signal and tried calling my cell phone from my home phone and got the same message, my cell phone never rang. I then called my home phone from my cell and the call went through.

I called tech support and they said my phone was deregistering from the network, that I needed to repower the phone or dial *18 when ever I noticed I wasn't recieving calls (I guess you have to have ESP to be with Alltel). I decided this wasn't the answer so I took my phone into the Alltel store in Winfield, KS. They called tech support and they recomended sending the phone in for service since it was under warranty. They give me a loaner Star Tac that had the exact same problem.

I got my original Star Tac back and still had the 'no ringing' problem occasionally. The I started to notice that Alltel was billing me for a delivered call when in actuality my phone was not receiving the call and the person calling (my wife) got the phone is off message.

I called Alltel's billing department and got to talk with Chad in the Springfield, MO office (ext 2179). Chad told me that their was no way they were charging me for calls that were not delivered. He checked on the calls I was complaining about and it showed that I had received them when I was in Salina, KS. When I informed him that I had not been in Salina, KS, he said that it showed my call went through that tower. I told him that was impossible since Salina is over 120 miles from my house and that Alltel had towers 10 miles from my house. He informed me that it happended all the time, your phone will skip a close tower for a tower farther away. I told him he was feeding me a line of crap.

I then went to the Winfield, KS Alltel store and asked for their help. They looked at the bill and said their may be a problem and called tech support who said they had a bunch of problems with Star Tac's and that I needed to get a new phone (and a nice 2 year extension on my contract). I explained how I had already sent my phone in for repairs, he reiterated that I needed to dump the Star Tac they had recommended and sold to me (Winfield, KS store).

I still haven't got any satisfaction on the charges on my bill, tnhey did reflash the software on my phone in hopes that might help.

I guess Alltel doesn't stand by the phones they sell. I'm trying to limp along on my current contract until it expires and then look elsewhere.

Mitch
Udall, Kansas
U.S.A.



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