January 18, 2008 

I hate Helio customer service

Me: “I have $150 in charges that shouldn’t be there and I need to find out why this keeps happening”
Them: …long pause… “So you want to know where they’re coming from?”

Of course I want to know! Seriously WTF?
On December 4th I paid November’s bill (Nov 3 – Dec 4). On December 14th I paid for December’s early because there was some shuffling of accounts. I get my bill today and it reads $190,when I really only owe $70. So I call them, get someone who seems to notice the problem, but then get disconnected after 15 minutes on hold (my fault).

So I call back, and I get someone who sounds like they’re still in high school and are failing every course dealing with logic and common sense. Now she tries telling me that payment on December 17th was for the previous month (November), and I’m telling her that no, it isn’t!

Speaking very slowly and deliberately, I ask her if she can see the payment I made on December 4th and state that payment covered November. Then I proceed to December 17th and confirm the second payment and state that one covered December. It’s at this point I really think I lost her as she put me back on hold and I’ve been waiting ever since.

  • http://www.heliobuy.com James Carville

    Their customer service is improving, but in the meantime you should definately consider getting service from their dealers that have direct tier 2 support from Helio. Customers of these premium dealers that market mainly to businesses get access to tier 2 support that really surpasses what you would ever expect from wireless support. I bought three lines from http://www.heliobusiness.com and even though I bought using my social instead of a EIN number, I still receive dedicated rep at Helio that really take care of my needs. I completely bypass their 800 number and get to talk to corporate direct which is very refreshing. I believe Invicta Wireless is the only provider that is working with Helio’s Business Channel.

  • http://www.rationalcreature.com amy

    How hard is it for Helio to understand that even if you did overpay for November’s bill, you should still have credit coming to you from somewhere? I hate bad customer service types.

    Did you get everything fixed?

  • Jason

    I’m currently 9 months of my 2-year contract, and i can’t wait for them to be bought out so that i can cancel with out early termination fee. Their customer service is hands down the worst of any company i have ever dealth with. I’m convinced it’s 5 guys in a double wide trailer down in oklahoma. Each time i call i get some country-boy sounding person who doesn’t know hardly anything about their phones.

    I LITERALLY had to explain features of the phone to the rep becaue he was arguing that such a feature did not exist when i was already using it.

    Another time i had a CS rep ask for my PASSWORD so that he could log into my account and see what i’m seeing. AREY YOU FREAKIN KIDDING ME?!

    I asked 6 times to speak to a supervisor. I kept being placed on hold only for the same rep to pick up and tell me that a supervisor would just say the same thing that he had just told me

  • Alop

    I almost jumped for joy when I got the email about Virgin Mobile taking over Helio… Then I dropped back down when I read the contract will be enforced… Hopefully Virgin won’t suck so hard. I just had to explain to Helio that I indeed pay for this months service… I have the statement showing payment cleared, yet I still get a call from them saying I am late.

    I wish my Ocean would just work on someone else’s service.

    Better yet, I wish it didn’t cost $175 to terminate my contract.

  • Laura

    Customer Service? What customer service? I have been through 2 devices. I think it should be a sign if one of your FAQ’s regards how to deal with a replacement device. It isn’t referring to upgrades. The first Ocean I had stopped connecting with the web. Apparently it was connecting, but I could no longer see it on the screen. After getting angry at being told the same thing over and over again for 3 months, they issued a new device. That one just died after only 6 months. Replacement devices are only guaranteed for 90 days, the original device was only warranteed for a year. By my math that means that after receiving the second device it meant my overall guarantee was for 15 months, but under a contract for 24 months.

    Helio should also be upfront about the fact that you will be required to have a landline in order to use their company. They have to power down the device for everything and won’t, without a significant fight, give you the information to perform the fix on your own. Considering the fact that it is becoming more and more common for people to use their cell as their sole phone this is not good for business. I can go into a Verizon Wireless, Sprint or other store for this kind of thing, but Helio doesn’t have that option so it seems to me they should be thinking outside of the box, but they don’t. For what it is worth, Sprint’s customer service will provide me the instructions for the fix over the phone voluntarily without any fight at all or even my request, and I can go into a Sprint store with extreme ease.

    The battery stopped charging on my second Helio. I called to see what could be done, 6 months is a short life span for the battery and they are not cheap to replace, plus the cost of shipping to get it there by the next day…I mean it’s a 6 month old battery. Afterall, I know that I had the first device for 8 months before it went bad but at least the battery was still okay. They kept putting me on hold despite the fact that the problem I had was a dying battery. They told me I needed to take the battery out, clean it with an eraser, let it sit for 4 hours and then call them. In 3 hours they would be closed and my battery was dying. I didn’t expect it to magically start charging in 4 hours, if it was going to work it would have worked immedately. In 4 hours my battery would be dead and I would have to actually wait for 12 until they opened again. I asked if I should send out smoke signals as it is the only phone I have and I’m not going to go to work and use the phone to deal with this. It isn’t why I’m there and it isn’t why the phones are there. I was able to call with the last of my battery in the morning and got a guy who despite my explanation of why I was calling wanted to argue with me and tell me to the same thing all over again, put me on hold. My phone died while he was finally in the middle of telling me that they would send me a new device but if they determined upon getting mine back that it was the battery they would charge me 400 dollars for the device. My phone died so I don’t actually know if they’ve sent the device. I also don’t know how challenging it would have been to simply send a replacement battery if the suspicion was that it was the problem. But I do know that if they sent it they will send it to my old address due to the fact that despite the number of times I have given them my new address they do not change it in their system. Everything goes to Illinois first, and then to Washington.

    I went to Sprint later that day and got a phone there. 175 dollars is cheaper than the cost of replacing the device at full cost, when they are now charging 129 for it and I only paid 200 to begin with, not to mention the headaches from trying to deal with their ‘customer service’. I refuse to be fined because they sell defective devices. When I sent them an email notifying them that my phone was now dead and that I could no longer call they responded saying they were sorry to hear, and gave me a phone number to call and notified me that if I had not called in the next 72 hours they would assume everything was resolved.

  • Manal Assad

    Helio’s customer service is the worst one I ever experiend in my life. something wrong with my phone for almost a week and I can’s make phone calls. i have been tring to get a hold of their customer service and it’s always busy. their chat area offlin. I even e-mailed them several times but no hope at all. I just hated their services and their extra charges every month without knowing from where it’s coming when I have unlimited plan.

  • http://N/A James Harris

    I HATE HELIO. I had my helio for about a month when all of a sudden it just crapped out on me, no problem, i understand. So I send my phone in to get a new phone, oh guess what… THE REPLACEMENT HELIO SHOWED UP DOA. I called customer service & stayed on hold for a good 30 minutes. When I finally got a rep on the phone they were rude & impolite, worst of all it seemed like I was doing THEM a favor by calling them! They said I already received my replacement phone & would not send me another one w/o charging me a ridiculous price. Absolutely unprofessional… I would not recommend this service to my worst enemy!! I don’t have a blog or a website, but if anybody would like to hear more about my horrific experience w/ this 3rd rate blackberry please feel free to email me at jaxharri@salesibm.com.

    PS…. I HAVE VERIZON NOW & THEY ARE EXCELLENT!!