The Pandemic Soul

I have, up until this point, been an avid fan of Alltel “America’s largest wireless network.” Many people don’t know the company, mostly because they operate only outside of major metropolitan areas. However, they do have huge coverage areas, and are a great deal for people outside of cities. Moreover, their customer service hits the mark about 90% of the time as prompt, courteous, and helpful. And to boot, their “My Circle” allows for a generous 10-number set, to which all calls are free.

I converted to Alltel from Sprint, whose service I liked but could not longer get when I moved out of Little Rock, AR and into a very small town. This was when I was still living with my parents, right after I had graduated from college, and they were moving into a new home. Thus, because I literally did not even have roaming service at the new house, Sprint allowed me to cancel my contract even though I still had more than nine months left. Alltel had good service in the area (I knew this because both parents used them), so I signed up.

A few months ago, I bought a new phone because my last one had died, and I went ahead and signed a two year contract to lower the price. I never thought I’d be moving out of the state (at least, not so soon), so I didn’t think it would be a problem. However, in April of this year, I moved from Little Rock to Los Angeles.

Alltel, however, has only two stores in the entire state of California, neither of which is remotely near where I live. This was my primary concern, but I figured that within a few months I would just do the same thing with Alltel as I had done with Sprint, and get my contract canceled so that I would have access to local support in the case of an issue.

No such luck. Upon contacting Alltel, I explained my situation to them, only to have them tell me that there was absolutely no way I would be let out of my contract early. I explained that this is my only phone, and I could not be in a situation where my phone was broken, and I did not have access to a few phone for the time that it took for them to send me a new one. Still, no dice.

Annoyed, I asked if I could go ahead and change my number to a local one, since I was clearly going to be locked-in for a while. Upon giving the rep my zip code, I was told that they do not own any local area codes, due to the fact that they don’t sell service in Southern California.

More exasperated, I ended the call to try and figure out what to do next. A few weeks passed, in which time I realized that I was not, in fact, even getting Alltel 411 — I was using, guess who!, Sprint! I was aware that I was on roaming, but I find this turn of events quite ironic.

Thus, I am paying Alltel, but have no local phone number, no Alltel 411, no local retail stores to trade my phones when under warranty if an issue occurs, and no way of getting out of this contract.

I called back to speak with another rep, and was again told there was nothing they could do. I even spoke with a manager, next, who explained that there was nothing they could do. I had signed a contract, and my phone was still usable, so I was stuck.

This week, my fears were confirmed as my phone no longer could be charged. With the dying wheezes of my Alltel phone, I had to call customer service, only to have them tell me to call the phone insurance company because my phone was now out of warranty — even though this phone was replaced less than nine months ago when the original phone (on which I signed the contract) broke. So I called the insurance company, placed a claim, paid $75 ($60 for the claim, and $15 for expedited shipping so that I wouldn’t be without a phone for a half-a-week), and today received my new phone.

Alltel: where is the customer service in all this? I’m paying you to be a broker for Sprint. You are not providing service to me. You are not providing a local phone number to me. You are not providing me with 411 services. And you have no local locations from where I can trade phones in the event of breakage. Why am I obligated to your contract?