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Double billed for phone purchased on cricketwireless.com, then phone blacklisted

  • 23 September 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 420 views
M
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TL/DR

Beware buying a phone from the online cricket store unless you want to risk Cricket policy hell and double billing of your credit card.

Similar to @bobbyanalog I was double billed for a recent smart phone purchase with the Cricket online store.  I disputed one of the two charges allowing one of the charges to go through and paying Cricket.  About a month later my phone suddenly stopped working with no indication why.  Spent 2.5 hours with technical support on September 18th and was told among several things that if I gave Cricket another $25, Adrian the on duty supervisor said that he would make the problem go away.  Which I was having none of.  Phone began working Sunday night and all day Monday without me coughing up another $25.  Tuesday morning phone stopped connecting to the Cricket network again. 

I went to an actual Cricket store and explained the situation and he said that once a phone gets blacklisted you can call cricket and get it authorized again but due to database replication it will get blocked again the next morning around 01:00 EST.  He said that I would have to repeat this process daily for up to 10 days to get my phone “authorized”.  He also said the best thing to do was get a refund of both charges and buy another phone.

Not wanting to buy another phone and risk another double charging I called Cricket wireless support Tuesday evening and the representative confirmed what the cricket store owner said about the nightly replication and said that after a week of the daily calls to Cricket support it would stop getting blocked during the early morning database sync.

Called support today (Friday) and was told that because I did not have this phone for six months I could not get it unblocked or blacklisted due to Cricket policy.  This despite the fact that my family of four has been a Cricket customer for probably five to six years way before AT&T bought them.

I am seriously thinking about taking all four of our lines to another carrier.

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Best answer by BillyM_Cricket 23 September 2022, 20:59

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BillyM_Cricket
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@mobileuser Wow, we’re very sorry this happened to you and we want to make it right. Please send us a PM on Facebook (m.me/cricketwireless) or dm us on twitter (@cricketsupport) with the details. Also please mention you were directed from the Cricket community forum.

M
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9/24/22 Update:

Called Cricket support two more times on Friday.  On the second additional call after explaining the whole situation over again because the rep said that she had no record of the previous conversations and had to check with another department for investigation.  Came back about 5-10 minutes later and spout the same thing I have been told several times about my phone was reported stolen or lost but with a different twist this time.  The rep said that AT&T reported my phone as stolen and only they can unblock my phone which I knew was total BS as Cricket has unlocked my phone albeit only until the next morning previously. 

To remove any doubt I called AT&T and their representative was patient and actually listened to what I was saying without reading from a script.  I provided the phone number and IMEI number to the AT&T rep and she confirmed that the issue can only be resolved by Cricket as AT&T can not resolve it. 

I called Cricket back a third time and provided the same explanation again which I am getting pretty good at by now.  I succinctly told her my phone number, IMEI number, Cricket PIN and that my phone was blacklisted.  She of course had to check on al the details and was on hold for about 15 minutes this time.  when she came back she sent a security code to my phone which I verified with her and my phone was connecting again to cricket.  She said that I had to wait another three days and it will start working again. The next morning, today ...wait for it … my phone is blocked again.

@BillyM_Cricket , I intend to keep this thread going until the issue is truly resolved or Cricket blocks this community user account which at this point I would not put past Cricket given my interactions thus far.  I want others to see how this case is handled so others might benefit.  If cricket resolves the issue for at least a week I will come back and provide an update indicating such.  I will also try to contact you via FB in case you want the IMEI and such without disclosing it here in a public forum.

M
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9/25/22 Update:

Called Cricket support yesterday 9/24/22 and provided the same explanation about the double billing and my phone being blacklisted.  The Cricket rep said he would have to check with “the back office” for an investigation.  The same thing they always say.  When he came back on the line he said that my previous carrier reported the phone as stolen and had it put on the national blacklist so that I will have to do a warranty claim to get a refund and then buy another phone.  I told him that my carrier for the past eight years has been Cricket and that a previous Cricket rep already admitted that it was Cricket that blacklisted my phone.  He also said that once a phone it put on the national black it can not be taken off, again not true but I agreed at this point I wanted to return the phone as it is useless due to being blacklisted, basically bricked.  He said he would transfer me to the warranty department so I could get a refund.  Then I was hung up on without warning. 

I have had enough and disputed the “second” charge on my credit card with my bank.  I have provided my bank the documentation that I have been collecting and will let them sort it out.  I tried to work it out with Cricket but have had enough of being lied to or at the least given a different story every time I call.  I have since bought an unlocked phone from Amazon and going with another carrier.  If things works out with the new carrier I will be moving the other three lines from Cricket.

Moral of this story, do not buy a phone from the cricket wireless online store.

B
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@mobileuser I got fed up with the run around too. I contacted the FCC and was contacted back in a couple of weeks, this didn't resolve the double billing issue but the person I communicated with unblocked my phone.

 

I'm now out $417 for the double billed phone that I'm not going to use because I too was forced to purchase a new phone and switch carriers after about 3 weeks of no response from cricket.

 

I'm not sure how many people have to go through this before someone takes a serious look at legal action.

I
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Why cricket charged me two times ??? I’ve got the unlimited plan for 60 dlls and they charged me two times 😡😡🤬 

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