POORLY TRAINED STAFF AND EXORBITANT "RE-STOCKING FEE"
I went to Wireless Zone today in order to purchase and activate a wireless hotspot. After sitting down with a customer representative, I was informed that a monthly unlimited plan for a hot spot would cost $10, $20 or $80 per month -- after asking what the distinction between those three plans was, I was informed that the more expensive ones got "a few megabits more" and were "a bit faster." I told the representative I had no problem with a slightly slower connection, and that I would like to get the unlimited plan for $10/month. She accepted my credit card and told me that I would be charged $105 for the hotspot, and that that price would come with the two-year plan.
When I signed the tablet to agree to the contract terms, I saw that I was being charged $27/month -- I proceeded to ask why the monthly plan cost more than the $10/month originally promised. She informed me that there was a monthly $17 insurance fee that I only had to pay once and could immediately cancel. She then took the jetpack out of its box, programmed it and handed it back to me so that we could finalize the transaction.
It was then that I noticed that the brand new jetpack, which had been taken out of the box no more than five minutes ago, said it had "1.0 GB" for the next month. I proceeded to ask why it said that, and the representative informed me, "Oh, it's still unlimited, it's just one gigabit." While this did not seem like an adequate explanation, her confident reassurance was assertive enough to end the conversation. I accepted her explanation, until another, more senior representative joined the conversation, and informed me that my plan options were as follows:
"You can pay $15 for 1 Gigabyte per month, or $80 for unlimited."
Having signed the contract under VERY DIFFERENT TERMS, I said that these plans were outside of my budget, and that I would like to return the item, which I had bought no more than 15 minutes before. I was told that I could return it, but I would have to pay a $50 re-stocking fee. After a long argument, in which I was accused of deceiving the customer representative instead of being treated with understanding and respect, I requested that the senior representative contact her manager, who informed her that under no condition was the $50 re-stocking fee to be waived.
Meanwhile, after initially saying that she would take the blame for the mistake and find a way to waive the re-stocking fee, the less senior representative -- who presumably has been working at the store for no more than a week -- made an about-face and began adamantly denying any responsibility for her mistakes.
The item was placed back in its box in mint condition and on the shelf, and I was charged a $50 re-stocking fee for something I had bought 30 minutes before. I expressed how outrageous this was, but I was once again informed that nothing could be done, thanks to company policy and an intransigent manager.
IN SHORT: Customer representatives are not properly trained, will give you incorrect, exorbitantly under-priced quotes, and then once you are informed of the true rates AFTER you have signed a contract, you will have no choice but to comply with the expensive rates or pay a $50 RESTOCKING FEE.
By the end of this consultation, I left the store two hours later, having paid $50 for NOTHING. read more
