ComplaintsforAppalachian Wireless

• Initial Complaint

  05/07/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have been a customer for 4 year and the last 2 years our phones have not been able to load right even with full service. I was told at the store that if I upgraded to newer phones that me and my wife would have better service and the problem would stop. Well, I upgraded both of our phones and the problem is just as bad or worse. When I call they say that the service is fine and to restart my phone. Now I’m stuck in a new contact for 3 years with phone that take wifi to work(which I had to upgrade my wifi at home do to this).

  

  Business response

  05/20/2024

  Please see attached.

• Initial Complaint

  05/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The date started 03/26/24. The guy working there I’m not certain of his name but I can find out who he is there is an ** ********. When u purchased both iPhone 13’s they were on sake for one penny each and all 3 people working there said my bill would $180 a month but u get a ststement for over $300plus dollars this is utter garbage I’ve tried to talk to them

  

  Business response

  05/09/2024

  Please see attached.

• Initial Complaint

  03/18/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We purchased a phone and paid the contract out on the old one. I had my bill caught all up after paying $94.13 (what the employee stated my bill was) after asking multiple times if that was all I owed and if I had another bill coming, he says no. Now here I am with a phone bill waiting to be paid of 402.92…..How does it make sense to keep replying to my questioning as “it’s just how the money was posted is why it’s all showed as a large payment” saying I owed a previous bill when I know better. I pay it every single month online. I am highly upset and switching carriers due to this reason. Their employees need to be alert and know how to describe issues if they are going to be selling phones. I even paid $40 extra that day “to get my account all caught up” so he said. The day I purchased I phone I was out a fortune. $40 to catch my account up. Once again as he said. $70 something to hook the phone up and $152 to buy the old phone out.

  

  Business response

  03/25/2024

  Please see attached.

• Initial Complaint

  02/07/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Fed Government told wireless carriers to protect customers from spam callers . Appalachian wireless has done nothing but tell customers to put their number on the do not call list which is useless . Other companies offer their users apps to stop the spam , Appalachian wireless needs to start doing something for customers instead of their own bottom line .

  

  Business response

  02/16/2024

  Please see attached.

  Customer response

  02/19/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** ******* 

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• Initial Complaint

  11/29/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have power of attorney of a family member ***** **** who is elderly with dementia. The business discontinued service on 3G phones and continued to bill ** **** until I discovered the situation. I repeatedly tried to contact business to voice my complaint but was repeatedly transferred to a voicemail, left msg but never returned phone call for a couple months. Finally talked to gentleman, voiced my complaint and ask for refund for months paid with no service but was told NO. I feel business new before discontinuing 3G service to customers that most customers that still had 3G were the elderly and would not understand the need to update phones. I am asking for refund for my family member and for an investigation to be conducted into Appalachian Wireless to see why and how many of the elderly were charged for service they never provided and why a stop billing program was not installed in their computer system. I feel they knew this would happen and intentionally never attempted to prevent the issue. Thank you

  

  Business response

  12/07/2023

  Our Customer Service Supervisor has been in contact with this customer and the issue is resolved. 

• Initial Complaint

  11/14/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Apparently Appalachian Wireless charges you for data that is being used while you are asleep, or at home using wifi. My recent bill is $387.62 when it is regularly $185. They sent me a text saying my husband and I used 100% of our data from November 7-12, 2023. 8gb in less than 5 days!! When I called them to talk to them about it, they just told me that we used it and there wasn't anything they could do about it. I told them that when it said we used the biggest part of our data that we were both home and our phones were connected to wifi, and no we do not have wifi assist on or we did not have our hotspot on. Also, it said it was used at 3 am & 5am, which we are asleep. In all the years we have used them, we have never even came close to using this much data in such a short period of time. I think it is ridiculous that they rip people off and we're just stuck paying it.

  

  Business response

  11/20/2023

  We are showing the cell number with the most data used was ************.  Our system is showing this is a Galaxy S9+.  The Samsung devices have several options to assist you with monitoring data usage on your device.  First, you will want to check to ensure switch to Mobile Data is turned off.  You can do this by going to Settings>Connections>Wi-Fi>Tap More Icon (3 Dots top right)>Intelligent Wi-Fi> Switch to mobile data (toggle off).  Some additional monitoring available is setting a data warning, limiting mobile data usage, and setting your usage on your phone to start over when your bill cycle starts over.  I have included some additional information on these features below. 
  
  START BILLING CYCLE ON: similar to Reset Statistics on the iPhone, will sync the phone up to the customer’s billing cycle to better track data usage; the difference is they just set it once, and it will sync up automatically each month. (The usage won’t be 100% synced, but it will be close)
  Settings>Connections>Data Usage>Mobile Data Usage>Select Cogwheel top right >Start Billing Cycle On (Select the first day of the billing cycle according to the customer’s market)
  SET DATA WARNING: Customers can set phones to alert them when they have used a certain amount of data.
  Settings>Connections>Data Usage>Mobile Data Usage>Select Cogwheel top right >Set data warning (toggle on)>Data Warning (Select GB amount)
  LIMIT MOBILE DATA USAGE This setting automatically turns off mobile data connection when the phone reaches the GB usage you select.
  Settings>Connections>Data Usage>Mobile Data Usage>Select Cogwheel top right>Limit mobile data usage (Toggle On); below that, you will select Data Limit, then select the GB amount that, once reached, will trigger this setting to disable all mobile data.
  If you have any questions on any of these features, please call Customer Service, and they can answer any questions you have. We can do a one-time courtesy re-rate on your data usage that caused the large bill on your account.  I have assigned the re-rate to Customer Service, and the credit will be issued to the account by Friday, November 25, 2023.
  If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

• Initial Complaint

  10/02/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I canceled my service with Appalachian Wireless in Feb of 2023. The person cancelling my account over the phone said that I might get another bill but if not I was good to go as I had paid in full. I never got another bill & even tried to log into my account on their online portal just to make sure I didn't owe anything else, however my account had been deleted only 1 day after cancelling my service. Months later in July I got a letter that just said they hoped to clear up any balance that I still owed. As far as I was concerned, I didn't owe any balance, & was going to disregard the letter. I decided to call instead. I was sure my account had been paid so I decided that it would be best to just tell them that, it was probably just an error on their end. I instead reach someone insisting that I owe almost 100$ to them & she mentioned something of a pay-off fee for the phone I had financed through them & paid off. I told her I was unaware of any cancelation fees at the time of cancelling & that nobody had ever told me that this fee would apply. She said I was the second person that day with the same concern. I told her that it sounded like an issue that they were having communicating effectively with their customers. She then began telling me how the months are billed retroactively & that I owed for the month of February regardless of fees. I told her that I had paid my balance in full on the phone & that I never received a single bill to show that I owed anything else. I asked her why I never received anything & why was my online portal access revoked the next day. She said that was an issue with the online portal that they had asked to be fixed & asked me if I was a paperless customer, which I was since they offered a discount for paperless. She said that would be the problem since bills do not going out to paperless customers. I told her I didn't know what I was paying for without a bill & wouldn't pay. No bill was ever sent to me & now I'm in collections for 130$

  

  Business response

  10/30/2023

  I am in receipt of your complaint to the Better Business Bureau.  After researching your account, I found that you disconnected your account on February 28, 2023.  I found the recorded call where you called in and spoke with a representative in our Special Services Department.  The representative discussed the installments that remained on one line, and you stated you were aware of the charges.  The agent also discussed that your online account would no longer work after the disconnect.  It does appear before disconnect that you were enrolled in auto-pay and suppressed the invoice to receive a discount on your lines.  I apologize that you didn’t receive a final invoice because you requested the suppression of your invoice to receive the discount. Our collections department did reach out by phone and email once the account was assigned to their department.  
  
  We are happy to send you any copies of contracts or invoices you may need and will also work with you to establish a payment agreement on the balance.  If you want to discuss the account further, contact our Collections Department at 800.438.2355 ext. 675.
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  08/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  WE PAY ALMOST 250.00 PER MONTH FOR 2 PHONES AND WE HAVE HAD ABSOLUTELY NO SERVICE FOR A MONTH NOW. I'M EXPECTED TO PAY MY BILL BUT I HAVE NOTHING IN RETURN. MY DAUGHTER HAD CAR TROUBLE AND COULD NOT EVEN GET A CALL OR TEXT OUT FOR HELP. WE HAVE NO BARS OR "SOS" AT ALL TIMES. WHEN I CALL 611 FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE IT WON'T EVEN GO THROUGH. WHEN I TEXT, I GET AN AUTOMATIC MESSAGE RESPONSE THAT SAYS "YOU CURRENTLY CANNOT SEND TEXT MESSAGES." THEY SENT OUT A BLANKET TEXT TO ALL CUSTOMERS SAYING CHANGE OVER TO WIFI CALLING TO BE ABLE TO CALL. NO, I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DRIVE TO MCDONALDS OR WALMART TO GET ON THEIR WIFI TO MAKE A CALL OR TEXT. I SHOULD BE ABLE TO CALL FOR HELP IF I'M SITTING IN MY HOME OR SITTING ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. THIS IS BEYOND DANGEROUS!!!! PLUS THEY ARE TAKING MONEY WITHOUT PROVIDING SERVICE!! JUST SEARCH FACEBOOK FOR "APPALACHIAN WIRELESS POSTS", YOU WILL SEE HUNDREDS OF POSTS WITH COMPLAINTS ABOUT THIS BUSINESS JUST OVER THE PAST MONTH (JULY/AUGUST 2023). THANK YOU AND I LOOK FORWARD TO A REMEDY TO THIS DANGEROUS AND FRAUDULENT SITUATION.

  

  Business response

  09/01/2023

  Please see attached.

• Initial Complaint

  08/28/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  My family and I currently have cell phone service with Appalachian Wireless and have for many years. In January of 2023 they shut down their 3G service and it was replaced with 5G service. Since the change over we no longer get service in areas we use to and as of lately can’t get service anywhere at all hardly. We were asked to bring our devices to have the SIM cards changed and we did that helped for a month or so now we are back to no service. I was told we needed to upgrade our devices my phone is a little more than a year old and I am still under contract for 2 more years. We pay Appalachian Wireless $164 a month to have to use WiFi though our internet provider to make phone calls. My family and I are not the only ones having this issue every one in our area is and some of which have newer devices than ours. In today’s economy it’s hard to go out and buy new phones when the changes were forced up on us by our provider. This has been a on going issue since January I have been polite and respectful with hopes the service would get better but it does not. I have asked if there are plans for new towers and was told yes but none would be beneficial to me. I asked about discounts do to no service I was told no discounts would be given. But enough is enough when you can’t use the service. A Appalachian wireless employee told me they have known this was coming for years and the corporate did nothing to get a start on fixing the issue. Many lawsuits have been and will be filed on this issue so fix it already. Until you do we only have service about 30% of the time so we should only be required to pay 30% of bill I live 2 mile from Appalachian tower and can’t get service at home. Ridiculous

  

  Business response

  09/01/2023

  Please see attached

• Initial Complaint

  08/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I had my data plan on my cell phone increased to unlimited and put back to its previous data plan inside of 1 billing cycle it should have changed the bill around $80 per billing cycle but they billed me an additional $160 making my bill $344 where it was $180 when I asked how they got to this they said the where prorating the bill they billed me for 6/16/23 to 8/14/23 for data and the bill was due on 8/3/23 they can't explain how they are prorating the bill to me because they are billing me for the next month even though I told them to change it from unlimited on 7/15/23 the last day of the billing cycle they increased it in. I expect to be billed again for the 7/16/23 to 8/14/23 cycle for my data plan. They are calling it prorating but they are just billing for the next month and billing for it again on the next billing cycle I know this will be hard to understand reading I can better explain it on the phone I would like advice on what kind of action I can take if for nothing else to dissolve our agreement they said there going to prorate my next bill because I changed the data plan back to the Lower amount this bill was almost double I'm afraid to see the next

  

  Business response

  08/11/2023

  Please see attached.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩