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Cricket Wireless review: Service refund ignored/delayed 57

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Author of the review
2:32 pm EDT
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First they said it was a "free" card with a months "free" service. It cost me $115 upfront just to sign up online. Then there was the shock of the debit on my bank account 5 days before it was due. That caused overdraft fees of over $100 by the time I figured it out. And the $55 rebate that was a the lure to join was rejected: they said they didnt get all the paperwork from me even though I KNOW I sent it in. I even waited the full 45 days before I dared cancell the account for the broadband so that I wouldnt disqualify myself. Then another shock: Cricket debited my account $40 a week after I cancelled the broadband account. Another $35 overdraft fee cause I trusted them to do their job! Phone calls and emails dont work with them. Its a month later and I still havent heard from Cricket. I went into the local store and put in a "refund request" and got a receipt. The phone numbers all route me back to sales people or automated lines that refuse to let me speak to a person on the phone about this.
It has been a nightmare. I definitely recommend you avoid using Cricket for Broadband Wireless. Now I am in dread of another month's disaster of overdraft fees and debits from my bank account. If they do I will go see my bank and then get a lawyer.
DONT TRUST CRICKET.
Even though I have used their wireless phone service for years and rarely had problems with them in the past, I see nothing but trouble with their Broadband Wireless services.
And did I mention the dead zones in our calling area that prevented me from using the Broadband card with my notebook where I wanted to?
The reason I got the card was to go for coffee at Denny's in the middle of the night with my grown son or a friend. Dead Zone!

57 comments
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Tina
San Antonio, US
Apr 21, 2009 3:54 am EDT

I have been trying to pay my bill on line for the past two weeks, before it was due, this is my first payment. Can't seem to get to the "Cricket" payment department, keep getting "on line bill pay" for every other business in the USA, except to pay MY CRICKET BILL! But after reading these complaints, I'm glad I didn't. They are correct, slow as hell, no customer service reps on 800 #, keeps going in a circle, I would also like to dump it if anyone out there can HELP!

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soufeyez
Jeffersonville, US
Apr 13, 2009 7:09 am EDT

CRICKET IS A SCAM...

SERVICE IS AT DIAL UP SPEEDS...

DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT GETTING YOUR REBATE, I SENT IN ALL THE INFORMATION AND THEY LIE AND SAY THEY NEVER RECIEVED IT.

GET THIS I SENT BOTH REBATES FOR MY PHONE AND BROADBAND, GUESS WHICH ONE THEY DIDNT LOSE OF COURSE THE 20 DOLLAR REBATE...

50 DOLLAR REBATE THEY CLAIM THEY NEVER GOT...

SCAM SCAM SCAM ALL DID I SAY SCAM...

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steve lichota
Buffalo, US
Mar 04, 2009 6:44 pm EST

cricket is B.S. no damn E-MAIL account,
real crappy customer service.
i'm going to call new york state attorney generals'
office.
"AS IF THERE GONNA LISTEN".

The man with no email!

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nytemayr2000
Merced, US
Feb 12, 2009 9:35 pm EST

Hope this helps READ BEFORE CONSIDERING SERVICE! FIRST, GET SOMEONE YOU KNOW THAT HAS A CRICKET PHONE TO HELP YOU SCOPE OUT THE POTENTIAL AREAS THAT YOU WANT TO USE SERVICE BECAUSE THERE ARE TONS OF PLACES WITHIN THEIR COVERAGE AREA THAT WILL NOT FUNCTION.

After reading all the complaints, I have taken proactive measures and hope that other people find this information since it is all on the web page.

PROMOTIONAL OFFERS: FIRST MONTH FREE IS THE FIRST 30 DAYS WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY THE EXTRA MONTHLY IN THE INITIAL SET UP WHEN ORDERING. SET UP ONLY INCLUDES 25.00 ACTIVATION. 89.00 REDUCTION FOR ONLINE PURCHASE AND SHIPPING. AROUND 115.XX TOTAL. MONTHLY IS NOT IN THE INITAL. IF IT ERE IT WOULD BE ABOUT 145.XX TOTAL.

Term and conditions: yes 25 one time activation fee paid at time of having stuff sent to you, The payment is due the day you order your service, which doesn't make sense since i ordered on the 5th and due date is on the 3rd.

Call Cricket at 1-800-CRICKET IMMEDIATELY TO CANCEL AUTO BILL PAY! Whichever card you use they will debit that card unless you call. One you Manage to get through, get the name of who helped you and a confirmation of some sort, dont hang up unless they give you one make sure they note your account that you called to have this done.

REBATES: you have 30 days from the time ordered NOT SHIPPED you have to have everything filled out correctly, plus make copies of everything before sending, it does require you to have 45 days of active service before the rebate begins processing, then it takes 60 days after the 45 days so total of 105 days give or take a week. if longer, then call.

RETURNS: READ! you must not use more than 30 min which is recorded on their end and in the log, There is a 35.oo restocking fee on OPENED items. Kinda hard to get around that one since you would be excited to give it a whirl. shipping and activation fee not refunded. in the end you are lucky to get about 30 bux back if at all, plus...takes 30 days to refund anything.

AMOUNT OF DATA: Confirmed 5 Gigabytes of faster than dial up speeds, if going to youtube, or downloading music, the allotted Data goes fast. but if net cruising or casual messaging Yahoo IM or AOL, its ok. If exceeding 5 Gb, service slows to "soft cap" of a dial up speed and is subject to nt be able to load pages.

I did a lot of research on this in an attempt to understand what I was getting into. Maybe it will help you. Besides, I did the research and was ok with the results for my service requirements. Happy hunting.

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Phil
Kansas City, US
Feb 10, 2009 8:37 am EST

Purchased modem/service 01/27/09 (w/ first month free) for $113. On receipt ---$40.20 due 02/26/09. Bill received in mail invoiced 02/03/09 summary as follows:

Billed Last Month-------------0.00
Payments Received---- -28.52
Credits---------------------- 0.00
Balance Forward---------- -28.52
Fees---------------------------- 0.55
Current Charges--------- 68.56
Total Due by 03/01/09-- 40.59

===========================

Account Detail

Activation fee-------------------------------- 25.00
Monthly Service 03/02--04/[protected].00
Monthly Charges----------------------------- 65.00

Am I to understand that I'm being charged $25 a month for a one time activation that was paid for last month?

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complainantcricket
Tucson, US
Feb 08, 2009 1:42 am EST

cricket broadband is total ### pure and simple!

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Christian
Little Rock, US
Jan 31, 2009 6:47 pm EST

I got this before reading the reviews. And now I'm sorry. Everywhere people are complaining, and for good reason. It's too late for me to get a refund, so I'm keeping it for a while to see how it goes.

Technically, it works. What doesn't work is Cricket and the Quicklink software.

While I personally have never had a problem with Cricket (and I can even get a human... well, I could a year ago at least), most people do. So Cricket doesn't 'work'.

The second problem is the software. Quicklink crashes and fails to run or detect my modem 80% of the time. I have to restart the computer with the modem plugged in and then run the program before I can use the Quicklink software. I can connect without the software, but I don't get a record of my bandwidth usage or access to my text messages (and text messages on a computer is the coolest feature IMO. Nobody reads their emails, everybody reads their text messages)

Coverage where I live is pretty good though. I imagine a city of only 200, 000+ will be easy to handle for a provider like Cricket. The connection is usually around 700kbps (aka 87 kilobytes per second downloads), so it's much faster than dailup, plays Youtube, and lets me do most of the things I want to do. The cheaper low-end services from Comcast or AT&T are also around 700kbps... But at least I can carry mine around.

That's about it though. The only reason I'm keeping it and still paying for the service is because 1) It's too late to return it and 2) With reviews like these I doubt many people would be willing to buy the modem from me on eBay.

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marebear73
Spokane, US
Jan 21, 2009 4:14 pm EST

Long Story Short - signed up for this broadband pc card in June... finally got the rebate check in January!

Only after the first submission being denied because the directions are unclear about what they want. I resent and weeks/months went by so called in to cancel my service (too expensive and not fast enough plus my new lap top dosen't have PC Card slot) After calling around to get to the right department, I talked to the rep on the phone about my no-show rebate and she said "Oh, I will have that processed right away" Another month went by and Lo and Behold a Miracle! Got the $55.00 check finally. If I hadn't bothered to ask and be a squeeky wheel, I am certain I would never of seen this check.

I don't plan on ever subscribing to Cricket again for any services and I don't recommend this to anyone but people I dislike.

: s

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TIM NEWHOUSE
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Nov 30, 2008 9:37 pm EST

THIS IZ THE WORST INTERNET SERVICE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD OF INTERNET! I GOT RIPPED OFF JUST LIKE EEEERRRYYBODY ON HERE! NO REBATE, NOBODY TO TALK TO ON THE PHONE, AND DEFFINETLY, NO HIGH SPEED INTERNET OR NOTHING CLOSE TO IT.THEY DONT EVEN HAVE A NAME FOR A SERVICE THIS SLOW! I NEED TO KNOW OF A WAY TO EXPOSE THIS SCAM NATIONALLY BEFORE THESE CORPORATE THIEVES RIPP OFF MORE PEOPLE! THIS NEEDS TO STOP IMMEADIATLY! PLUS EVERYBODY SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET A REFUND + REPERATIONZZZ FOR THIS FALSELY AAVERTISED PRODUCT! PLEASE EMAIL ME AT [BIGTIM10009@YAHOO.COM IF YOU KNOW HOW TO SUE THESE PEOPLE FOR THIS SCAM!

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Darryn
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Nov 29, 2008 5:15 am EST

The problem with your experiences may have more to do with the salesperson than the company as a whole. I have a cricket phone and broadband. I was told that the money would be deducted from the bank account about 4 days before the due date. I thought that was strange, but at least they told me that up front. With broadband, there was no guarantee about speed or was it made to do hardcore gaming. As for a refund, I'll get a full refund between 1 and 3 days IF I used the modem and software. Up to 30 days IF THE BOX ISN'T OPEN. You should get a little paper saying that. You should NEVER except what a salesperson tell you unless you can get it in writing. If it was on the web site, always save that page in case they start to deny ever having said anything like that.

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Don Roberts
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Nov 28, 2008 12:10 pm EST

CRICKET IS A BUNCH OF THIEVES!

Had this piece of junk for 3 weeks, told I could get a full refund if I cancel under 30 days if not satisfied. Not told of any "cap" and that I was in an excellent signal area. Couldn't be farther from the truth.

Ridiculously slow, almost dial-up half the time. Pages would close on their own. Connection would drop suddenly. Instructions specified you MUST click "remove hardware safely" icon in system tray prior to unplugging unit. Icon never appeared. Time to call support already.

Knew I was in trouble when tech answered and spoke in some middle eastern accent that was gibberish to me. Explained my situation. Lo-o-o-ng periods of silence while she was looking up an explanation. Repeatedly told I had to go to "Dacumas"...Where? Who? What the...? Do you mean 'Documents'? There are no settings in documents! Enunciate clearly please! Asked to speak to someone I could understand and knew what they were doing. Hung up on me!

Final straw...camel's back broken...

Called today to cancel the account, well within the 30 days. Was told there would be money deducted if over a certain amount of minutes used. Hidden fee.

Confirmation email then informed me there would be a $35 restocking fee, never told about that at sign up. Full refund my butt. Another hidden fee. Anymore surprises Cricket?

Thought it was a good time to save a couple of bucks, and tried these ###s after my Millenicom (Sprint) card went dead due to some contract problem. Which bummed me out. Millenicom is a 100% USA based business, techs that speak clear and precise English, great speed connections. Lesson learned! Went back to Millenicom.com and now have a Verizon based unit that is 3 to 4 times faster than Cricket. True you get what you pay for.

MORAL: LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE AND DO NOT GO CRICKET!

NEXT STOP-BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU

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Shanda
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Nov 06, 2008 10:03 am EST

I purchased cricket broadband service for thinking I was getting
lighting fast internet but in this case very untrue. I've only had it for a week and i want to cancel my service but I can't get a refund. This sucks! Cricket needs to work on their service .

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cybervigilante
Apache Junction, US
Nov 01, 2008 8:36 pm EDT

Worst broadband service in America. It's impossible to watch YouTube, even on low quality. It plays for two seconds, then buffers for ten seconds. Even low graphics web pages take a long time to load, and don't always load completely. Total lie about the speed. The customer service is Abominable. I was on the phone four days in a row and never got a human being. I'm quitting this crappy service - dialup is better. Don't get Cricket broadband - you'll be sorry. It's a ripoff and a con. And you get stuck with their expensive modem when you quit.

Seriously, this broadband is Horrible - don't get it or you'll be sorry. And they are Totally unresponsive to the customer. You can't get in touch. You can't get an explanation. If they would be honest and talk to the customers and say they were expanding their service and it would soon be faster, I might be patient. But since they've sent their customer service to an overseas boiler room that never answers the phone, so they could save money on paying American wages, who knows what's happening with their crappy service?

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ronald blanton
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Oct 20, 2008 5:28 pm EDT

Seems like you made your mistake by using your bank account. Using such and credit cards is a good way to get messed over. Be careful in the future. Guared your bank account and credit cards.

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Rich
,
Oct 13, 2008 12:27 am EDT

I have had no trouble with the phone and pay cash for my bills.
But the broadband internet is a nightmare to use.
It works only part of the time and you never know when that time is.
It is midnight in St.Louis and after 4 hours of so of slow surfing...very slow,
and much cursing, it is working good now...too bad I have to go to bed,
might have been fun.

DO NOT PURCHASE THE CRICKET BROADBAND!

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Frank Choate
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Oct 10, 2008 2:06 pm EDT

I ordered a broadband device, was told to get the rebate form over the internet, when I got the form it had out dated dates, I called Cricket and was told to just cross off the dates, and send it in anyway. I also did not have a barcode on the box, so was told to photocopy the info on the back of the broadband device, I did every thing and got information back that my rebate form was outdated so even though I sent every thing in they denied my $50 rebate... hopefully this is not a common practice of Cricket?

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Jeff
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Oct 06, 2008 11:21 pm EDT

First of all, I am sorry you had "Dead Zones" I am on AT&T and have one of these at my sons school where I spend 20 minutesa day wishing my phone worked. It is too bad these carriers have to deal with those pesky laws of physics. as far as your service is concerned, the free month of service began the moment you started your service. You only paid for the card, not the card and a month of service. So lets cool down a bit a think rationally. I imagine, like all other carriers, Cricket offered an incentive to offset the very real cost of the equipment you purchased. It probably said you had so purchase or activate by a certain date and remain on paid service for a certain period of time as well. I am sure you kept copies of your paperwork and can read all the details. I am also sure that you kept a record of exactly what information you mailed, to whom you mailed it, and when. Now, you did mention you cancelled the service. I presume, since you mention you also have Cricket voice service, that you added this service to your existing account. Therefore, it would follow that you were billed for voice and prorated data service together through your next bill date minus a free month of service. If you did not allow for the proper funds to be available in your account when your payment was processed I have no sympathy for you. Responsible people understand when they issue authority for a debit they should already have the those debits funded. Timing is irrelevant. I would submit this: Cricket is at fault for poor coverage. You are at fault for the rest.
Respectfully
Jeff

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