Mon 17 Sep 2007
Having recently dealt with Apple in buying the iPhone and having to continually deal with Helio to give me my money back, I thought I’d compare and contrast the experiences I’ve had with them.
Helio hasn’t refunded the money they owe me when I’ve been asking for it for the last nine months. Apple gave me back $100 that they didn’t even owe me, and the refund took about two minutes.
Helio’s customer service representatives are either dumb, misinformed, or powerless to help when confronted with a problem. Apple’s customer service representatives are knowledgeable, intelligent, and generally do the right thing (such as when they completely overhauled my old PowerBook when I sent it in for the final repair).
Helio and Apple both try to appeal to the hip and young crowd, but Helio does it with slogans and cute phrases over the phone, such as “How can we make your day better?” and “If you’re holding [on the phone], you must not be happy.” Apple does it with superior design, superior service, and simplicity.
I spent about an hour on the phone today with Helio, today being about a day later than they said I should have my refund. Since I last blogged about it they pushed it off in August, saying that the approval process should take no more than two weeks from that date, pushed it off again at the end of August, and now pushed it off again in mid-September. Not only that, but they’re now saying 59 business days, not just days. The last person I spoke to said that I could expect the refund 59 business days from today. This is simply amazing. This company has so much contempt for their customers, it is unbelievable. They now tell me that I should wait until December 10th to receive the refund, or over a whole year since I cancelled my account.
While cell phone carriers may suck in general, Helio raises the bar on horrible so much that it’s hard to compete with without going out of business (which I predict Helio will do within a year). Anyone interested in getting a class-action suit together?
September 19th, 2007 at 05.04
Tells me all I ned to know about even thinking about getting service from Helio…..Thanks
September 21st, 2007 at 11.33
stretch
November 7th, 2007 at 15.15
I looked into class actions. Apparently in the fine print of the Terms and Conditions, by simply signing the contract and clicking the “I Agree” box - we waived our our right.
Damn, Damn-Damn-Damn.
Wheres a lawyer when you need to find a loop-hole.
February 24th, 2008 at 19.02
u can’t compare apple with helio–you’re comparing apples and oranges here. Of course Apple would be better (they’d better be!) because they are an international multi-billion dollar company. that’s different than Helio, a much smaller start-up sort.
But that’s still rather disturbing news about Helio. their customer service seems to be better now as time went on…i’ve had helio since may 07 and luckily haven’t had much problems with customer service.
March 13th, 2008 at 20.01
I own my own company and the service I got with helio was totally uncalled for, I lost so many customers. Now I was trying to port out of helio, it took a week. My helio phone which is my business number 720-298-5314 was totally cut off by helio. Now no customers, current or prospective can get a hold of me at all. I have a cricket phone, but hmmm I cannot change the phone book or the internet phone numbers or the number in my advertisement in magazines. The customer service reps are clueless,they did not even know the corporate office phone number. I found it and called and they were no help. My service originated at cricket, so they were willing to take my number into cricket, but have now totally screwed me taking it back out to cricket again. Not only is this going to hurt my business, it could shut it down for a while. Class action suit??? I am all for it. Try 720-629-6800 or 720-298-5314
May 13th, 2008 at 00.55
i had the exact kind of treatment from helio. they would not refund my money and it took me forever for them just to shut off my service. they are the most retarted people i have ever dealt with, worst customer service, worst everything. i finally had to go through the BBB(better business bureau) to get my refund. in all i had helio service for 15 days, but i was dealing with them for 7 months.