HELIO cell phone service

[charliezangel]

DH and I are planning on switching to Helio this weekend. We found an excellent deal on 2 of their best phones and their plans seem great. Here's a rundown of what you get

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/charliezangel/helio.jpg

Does anyone use this service?? I don't know anyone in RL who does, so i was just wondering if anyone has good or bad experiences they would like to share.

TIA

[SingleWhiteFemale]

If I remember correctly, Helio uses Sprint's network/buys airtime from them. I rately run into a person who was happy with their coverage by Spirnt. Hoever, I do believe Helio is planning to (or currently is in the process of) expanding its network, I believe to also use that of TMobile.

[charliezangel]

I know this was a long time ago, but I just thought I'd deliver a little PSA to anyone who is interested in this service...

DH and I did end up signing up for Helio in January. We LOVED the phones, they took amazing picture and video, great internet access. The service was also pretty good. I rarely dropped calls and almost always had access to the internet.

So, my complaint is this...We received our first bill and it was for over $300!!! I called to find out why because I could not understand the bill they sent us. They told me it was just the first month's bill and they are high because they include set up fees and 1.5 months payments. So fine, i paid that and went along my way. Until I get the next bill and it is $1700!!!!!! OMG, i thought i was going to die. I called them up and asked what the deal was. Well, aparently, when we signed up for the service, the person who set us up had put us on the wrong plans. I was supposed to have a 2500 plan, he put me on 1000. DH was supposed to have 1000, he put him on 500. We do not have a home phone and both of us used our cell phones for work purposes. So, being as we had drasticly less minutes than we though, we went WAY over our minutes. Well, I had a serious talk with a supervisor in the billing department. They said that if we paid $500, they would credit the rest and change our plans to what they should be. I should have fought this harder, but i really didn't have the time or energy, so i said ok. They set it up so I could pay $300 that day and $200 the following Friday. When the following Friday came, I called them to make the $200 payment as scheduled. At that time, i inquired about the arrangement I had made with the previous rep about the balance being credited after $500 was paid. She said that was still going to happen. She took my debit card information and tried to run the card. For 15 minutes i waited on the line while she kept saying they were having"difficulties" with the system. Eventually, she told me to just call back later. I asked her if the card had been charged. She assured me it had not and everything would be fine, just call back later. Well, i have worked in the credit card processing industry and I have seen some serious horor stories where a merchant doesn't think the card went through, and it holds and authorization like 15 times. I called my bank and sure enough there 3 HOLDS on the card. Helio claimed they had not been paid by the bank and the bank said they could not release anything until helio dropped the auth.

In the middle of all this, I had other bills due that I could not pay now because there was $600 being held up. This went on for over a week. I continued to call helio and check with my bank. My phone was turned off 3 times because they said i hadn't paid my bill. I kept having it turned back on until this was cleared up. FINALLY, the bank dropped 2 of the auths and showed 1 charge. I faxed this information to Helio and they restored the service to my phone. Everything was fine, until I got the next bill and it was for $2100!!! I called again and was told at that time that they had no information in the notes about my credit and they had never receieved a payment from me (they were showing my account over 100 days past due). I finally spoke to someone who agreed to credit the account $1100. DH and I worked out a payment plan for the rest of the balance assuming they credited the account. a week later, the services was turned off. We contacted helio again and were tolda t this time that there were no notes of a payment arrangement and that there were notes regarding the credit. We spoke to a manager who put the credit through again and restored service with a payment. 1 week later, the phone is off again. This time we are told the credit was not authorized. I finally decided I was done with this company.

I recieved another bill from them showing over $2000 balance and a , get this, $100 credit to the account. They are out of their minds. We have not paid them another dime and have switched our service to another carrier. I am writing to the better business bureau, the state attorney general and the department of consumer affairs.