Crisis

I placed my account on a bridge pay agreement because (and only because of) the fact that Cricket didn't have any forgiveness programs or the ability to postpone a payment. Not only do we have a family plan of 5 we rely on, but I also switched my business accounts over as well and have been a paying customer in good standing the entire time.

Keep in mind while reading that I record all my calls personally and have the recordings to back my story.
I reached out to place my account on a bridge pay and pay half of the bill upfront and half a week later. I made my initial payment, and on the 7th day before midnight (when the payment was due) I phoned in around 10pm to request an additional 7 day extension as offered and advertised and to make a partial payment on the remaining 60 dollar balance.

I waited in the call que from before 11pm, until after 1:30am. Which at that point I had a representative pick up after the call que was no longer accepting calls so they could close and go home. The employe decided rather than quickly get me off the phone by greeting me and resolving the issue quickly. They tapped on the microphone and sighed, then disconnected the line. I redialed but to no surprise I got the standard "our office is now closed" message.

My service on all of my lines was disconnected around 2am while I was trying to email support regarding this entire issue. I figured it would be fine, I will call support first thing in the am and get it corrected.

Boy was I wrong, and here's where I got charged out the rear because of their mistakes.

I called in as soon as they opened and was in the que again for hours before talking to someone. I explained that I called in before the deadline to make sure to extend my bridge pay before the deadline, and that I would like to have my service reconnected and I would pay my partial payment still as I was to before. The rep rudely told me no, it's my fault that my bill wasn't paid on time, and boasted that just over a hundred dollars is quite easy to come up with. (amid a global pandemic and mass layoffs bankruptcies at that)

I tried to tell him I had the recording for proof that I called in and the rep hung up on me initially, preventing me from making a payment. He said I was "not truthful" and lied saying he was viewing my call log for the day prior and that I hadn't made any calls.

I finally requested to speak with his supervisor because he continued to call me a liar and speak over me, at that point he said something about how nobody there was going to give me a different answer and he couldn't let me speak to a supervisor and he then hung up on me.

I immediately redialed and was on hold for a hour or so again. Finally connected to a representative, requested a supervisor off the bat and explained the situation behind why and apologized to the rep on the phone because I was immediately asking for management. They agreed and placed me on hold for over a hour, when finally the supervisor connected I explained and he said that he was familiar and that it was my fault and I wouldn't get another answer. At that point I explained I'd like to send my recording in to that supervisors manager because I felt that the situation was being handled wrongly and I was being mistreated. Immediately they hung up.

Called in again. Waited again forever. Spoke to a very nice rep who was apologetic about the management and situation, and acknowledged that it wasn't my fault but said she would need a manager to authorize the fees to be removed to reactivate. She placed me on hold for a while and checked in and out while I was on hold to make sure there wasn't a connection issue.

She finally chimed in and said her managers meeting was over and she was available to speak to me and informed me I would be connected now. She dialed the extension and it rang for a while before stopping ringing and immediately being placed on the managers personal hold. I was on hold anticipating her to pick up at some point, for another hour or so and at the very end, the manager picked up, and you could hear the phone being disconnected again on their end.

At this point I wrote off contact general customer service and tried chat. Chat was down. Out of frustration I requested to take the call survey and explained my dissatisfaction, and again requested management reach out to me.
There was no response to the surveys.

Out of desperation because my family and business depend on my cell plan being functioning, I paid the total they asked to reconnect. My bill regularly runs me 125/month. I was forced to pay $60 in my first payment, and an additional 140 to reconnect my service due to their error. I paid 200 during a global crisis because management failed to do their job.

Without my cell access my business cannot run, my employees don't get paid, and the list goes on. So I was bent over a barrel and had to choose between rent and the phone this month as its essential to my income that my service stays active. Way to go cricket, you advertise a service offering extensions, and then do not deliver, and over charge your customers who have had good standing accounts for years. This is the only time I've ever reached out to express dissatisfaction and to request management do their job and manage their employees so that their customers can 1. Make a payment. 2. Answer inquiries 3. Pick up the phone without hanging up out of frustration with call volume. I sympathize for the workers in the centers as I have worked in call centers and managed for years, but the key to customer support is the service and it has clearly not been crickets managements priority during a pandemic. We will be taking the 5 family lines and 15 business lines back to sprint or Verizon at this point if management doesn't intervene.

If anyone else has had similar experiences, I encourage you to reach out and investigate what it takes to file a class action lawsuit, as the lawyer I've spoken with has reviewed their t/s and has found multiple points they're failing to deliver on, which is false advertising and misrepresentation at the least. Failing to deliver or under delivery, ESPECIALLY now for a essential business is wrong and it's clear over payment is theft.

Cricket nation needs to do what's right and credit their customers. The ones filling their pockets and paying their payroll. All customers should be credited for their wrongdoings and I should be refunded the excess amount above the 125 payment that I had that was due rather than the 200 I was forced to pay!

I had a similar situation. I delayed the payment for only a few days and the internet was completely cut off for us. My children cannot study without the Internet, they do their homework there. We use this site https://edubirdie.com/pay-for-homework to solve their assignments. As a result, my kids didn't do their homework and got bad grades. But that doesn't bother big companies. The main thing for them is to make a profit. It seems to me that you could have given at least a small delay in payments.

I'm sick of this company. I've already threatened to switch for several reasons. One is that $15 reconnect fee if you are one minute late on the payment. How the fuck can you get a late charge (that's what they called it back a while and it was $10) on a prepaid account. If you fill up your car with gas you get to drive it until it runs out of gas. The gas station don't charge you $15 because you ran out of gas. The reconnect fee should be illegal because it's a prepaid phone and nobody has to reconnect shit. It's all automated. Here's the kicker. Last month I tried to pay my phone right before it ran out. It wouldn't let me pay it online because I needed to update or some shit like that but it would not let me update it. I had to take it into a cricket dealer and he had to go into something and push some buttons before I could update it. Once it done that they said I had to pay that $15 because I let it go past midnight. I said it would not let me pay it. I tried to pay it but yalls fucked up system wouldn't  let me. That sob said we'll you got to pay it. He didn't even try to check and see if they screwed me. That ain't the only time they pulled something like that. Now I find out I can't check and see who my kid is calling. That's it. After 7 years I've had enough of their bs. It ain't worth it to save a few bucks if I really was saving anything after the fucking I was getting. I'll find another company before they get a dime from me. All I wanted to see was the number not the texts or conversations. I'll bet if the cops want to see the texts they'll be able to pull up every one of them and they say they don't save them. Bs.