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How To File A Complaint Against A Cell Phone Carrier

Cell PhoneIt’s common to have a disagreement with your cellphone carrier at some point, but you can usually work through these issues together. However, if you’ve contacted customer service, and you still aren’t having any luck finding a resolution to the problem, there are other ways to deal with your dispute. The Better Business Bureau, complaint websites, state attorney’s office and other social media outlets are excellent resources for voicing your complaint and getting someone to finally listen and take action.

The Better Business Bureau

The Better Business Bureau is dedicated to listening to your complaint and helping you find a positive outcome with the company in question. Their Internet site is useful for filing a report online and registering your complaint or for doing some investigative work by checking out a company before you actually do business together. The Better Business Bureau forwards your complaint to the company and gives them 14 days to respond. Over 75 percent of the complaints registered with the BBB get resolved.

Gripevine.com

Gripevine.com was founded by Dave Carroll and Richard Hue who were passionate about improving the customer service experience. The company provides a neutral and fair backdrop where customers and companies can come together to work out their issues. Consumers that have had a bad experience with a particular company can come to Gripevine and tell their story. The site is easy to navigate around, and they have tools that notify the particular company of customer complaints. If the company fails to respond to your complaint, you have the option to invite friends, family and other followers to share in your story. The more people you get to follow your complaint, the more motivated the company may be to find a solution to your problem.

Social Media

Most well-known businesses have a strong presence on the various social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Try posting a comment about your complaint where a dedicated team member from the company is supervising the remarks. This can often get you far as long as you’re respectful and your grievance has legs to stand on.

Federal Communications Commission

You can register your complaint with the FCC in regards to your cellphone carrier through its online complaint board. The FCC will forward your dispute to the actual provider and give them 30 days to respond to your problem. It’s important to be thorough with your contact information and reason for the disagreement.

State Attorney General Offices

The state attorney’s office handles complaints in regards to fraud and disputes over contracts. They have even gone so far as to file a lawsuit against specific cellphone companies. The end result of the lawsuits amounted to either a customer refund or reforming their customer agreement policies.

Besides taking legal action or emailing a major media outlet, you will probably find a positive end result by contacting any of the numerous complaint sites. Most companies want to make things right with the customer, so they can gain the trust and business of other consumers.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daryl_mitchell/3560636199/

Written By

Katie Hewatt is a consumer advocate and contributing author for Gripevine, a customer complaints website founded by Dave Carroll and Richard Hue with the idea in mind to improve the customer service experience. Gripevine is a great avenue to plant your complaint and have it resolved by the company in question. Gripevine is also an excellent source to review a company's quality of customer service before you do business with them. If you have a dispute against a cell phone carrier try using Gripevine to get your dispute resolved by the company.

6 Comments

6 Comments

  1. Dr. Mobi

    October 6, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    In today’s world where there are so many mobile subscribers and Network providers do not have enough time to satisfy each of them, I personally use the Power of Twitter to get in touch with the customer support people of my Mobile Network provider. They reply to my queries on priority basis!

  2. Nawaz

    October 7, 2012 at 4:04 am

    Social Media are the best places to launch the complaints. Your will sure get response from there.

  3. Amy Cheung

    October 7, 2012 at 6:16 am

    Wow – these are useful tips. If enough of us take action against cell phone carriers that have shady practices, they may clean up their act a little.

    If I may add another tip: If a cell carrier unjustly charges you for a service you never subscribed for, and the funds have already been transferred from your credit card, you can actually call up your credit card company to do a chargeback. I haven’t done this for cell phone related services yet, but in the past I have successfully gotten my money back for something I bought online that was never delivered. It’s worth a shot.

    One thing to keep in mind when dealing with customer service reps is that they’re just trying to do their job to make ends meet, and not the ones in charge of the company, and as such they’re not the people that are trying to rip you off. Although it’s important to talk in a firm, no-nonsense tone, there’s really no need to yell or shout to these poor people. Being nice but firm with these customer service reps has gotten me what I wanted in the past. There were several instances where my friends were having trouble disputing something or other with customer service reps and got nowhere, but when I made another call on their behalf got things sorted out. I attribute my success to the tone of voice I use. 🙂

    Thanks again for the useful article!

    Amy

  4. Alex

    October 8, 2012 at 7:06 am

    These mobile carriers need to be taught a lesson sometimes because they create nuisance. Sorting out the issue with them should obviously be the first objective but they never solve it or even try. They are a pain seriously. Thanks for these options you have provided that I would take up in order to complaint about them.

  5. Emilia

    October 8, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    I’ve exposed several complaints through social networking platforms after failing miserably at soliciting an acceptable answer from my mobile carrier. After all, these concerns must be brought to their attention so they may consider improving their services to avoid being inconvenienced by their dissatisfied customers. Thanks!

  6. Billie Schmidt

    May 25, 2021 at 11:00 pm

    I had all my min. and accumulated time wiped off my phone. My carrier is Net 10. I have talked to at least 12 people from Net10 inc. 2 in Miami, one,Ericka, said I would have a printout from the 1st of this year to show the activity within 24 to 72 hours.I have heard nothing.Each person puts me on hold while “they check my acct” and after a 5 minute wait they tell me My acct. has no min. and my service will end on the 25th.(even with auto pay)When they come back on the line they act like they didn’t hear a word I said. At one point they offered 7,528 min. at this point I want everything I PAID FOR.

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