Hawaiian Telcom

[Adri]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

Has anyone else been getting odd bills from Hawaiian Telcom recently (last month and this month for me)? Last month's bill showed enough credit so I didn't have to pay last month and still had $6 more in credit (and I didn't double pay). This month's bill shows the $6 credit being applied but Hawaiian Telcom back chanrged me for something from April of last year to this month so my bill is almost double my normal monthly bill but nothing on the bill indicates that they think my account is overdue.

[Keith H.]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

Has anyone else been getting odd bills from Hawaiian Telcom recently (last month and this month for me)? Last month's bill showed enough credit so I didn't have to pay last month and still had $6 more in credit (and I didn't double pay). This month's bill shows the $6 credit being applied but Hawaiian Telcom back chanrged me for something from April of last year to this month so my bill is almost double my normal monthly bill but nothing on the bill indicates that they think my account is overdue.

I got a "final notice" a few months back that scared the heck out of me until I realized I had paid consistently up to that point. Took to the HT store where they said it was a mistake. Whew! But I pity the poor C/S folks who had to answer that question ad nauseam all day.

[tutusue]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

Yep! There's been a problem for a couple of months. Last month my bill was triple the normal amount. This month, about $8. more than normal. Htel told me to give it 2-3 months to get it straightened out. I asked them how many people were affected the same way 'cuz 2-3 months with that kind of overbilling can net Htel a hefty amount in interest earnings!

[Karen]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

Okay, hawaiian Telcom was the topic of discussion at a recent Girl Scout meeting. Seems people are way over charged, and way undercharged! How's it going with any of you that are still with them?

Seems one household that has bare bones, as she says they dropped call waiting, conference, caller ID, all of the good stuff and have only the basic phone, and they got bills for five a month, eight, then credited back more than five the third month, then billed two and three dollars for a couple of mos...actually being credited back some of that eight, and last month I kid you not....73 cents or something like that!

GOOD GRIEF....no wonder they have money problems! how can any human looking at their bills miss seeing that the most basic service must be at least.....a dozen dollars?? then some tax, etc??

Shaking my head still, in disbelief.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

Oh boy!
I've sure been lucky with the internet connection and my bills...
All's good here.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

I haven't had a problem but then I haven't really been watching my bills. I know they've suffered a lot with the vendor they had that was doing the billing.

[tutusue]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

Due to my move I terminated my office phone service beginning 6/14 AND changed my address to where they could send the final bill. I just received a bill for service beginning 6/14 thru 7/13!!! It was sent to the office (old!) address! And, because it's automatically deducted from my checking account I can't just ignore it as the Haw Tel rep told me to do! I'll now have to monitor that situation as it'll probably take a few months to clear it up!

[anapuni808]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

You CAN dispute the charge with your bank. Once you do that, the bank will have you probably sign a form stating why you are disputing it. Then THEY will contact Hawn Tel and request the funds back. At least this is what happened when I had a similar problem.

[tutusue]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

You CAN dispute the charge with your bank. Once you do that, the bank will have you probably sign a form stating why you are disputing it. Then THEY will contact Hawn Tel and request the funds back. At least this is what happened when I had a similar problem.

Thanks, Fran. Good info. I'm actually keeping the old number and it's morphing into a new service...which didn't show on the bill, either! I'll give Haw Tel a couple of months to get on track as I do like casting their commercials. Great ad agency! Fun jobs!

[pzarquon]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

There were massive layoffs. Then Ron Mizutani left. Now, CEO Mike Ruley has been sent packing. Considering his paycheck was among the biggest in the state, that's certainly one way to cut costs.

[Random]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

So in short, I'm happy to see HawTel fight back against Oceanic. It well within their right to do so.

I agree. Now, it's up to Oceanic to respond. How are they going to continue to service their phone customers during power outage? Can't they feed a little power through their cable, include a RJ-111 converter to use any one of the Princess model corded telephone?

[Adri]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

and their billing system is still messed up. I cancelled an extra phone line in August, which their customer service people acknowledge, and kept getting billed for it. Every month I'd call and they'd say the person I spoke with in the prior month forgot to do something or did something wrong so it wasn't properly reflected in my records but the person I was speaking with would make sure it was fixed. But I still wasted/continue to waste time every month talking to them about the billing because they're showing an amount past due and I don't want it to affect my credit history since Hawaiian Telcom admits that I don't owe them that amount even if it appears on my billing. In November, the person I spoke with finally said that they couldn't fix it, that billing was a separate department so that customer service would put in a request to the billing department but the billing department was so backlogged that they wouldn't be able to fix my bill until January so to just ignore the bills and pay what I think is correct to pay until they get my billing fixed in January. Well, I just got another Hawaiian TelCom bill and it's still not right.

[Konaguy]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

I agree. Now, it's up to Oceanic to respond. How are they going to continue to service their phone customers during power outage? Can't they feed a little power through their cable, include a RJ-111 converter to use any one of the Princess model corded telephone?

Hawaiian Telcom has backup generators at their Central offices which provide backup power in the event of a power outage. The cable headends have backup power. But the individual neighborhood nodes do not have backup power. If Oceanic wants to provide genuine carrier grade service, each node would have to have backup power.

[Honoruru]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

They hired a replacement to Mike Ruley. Stephen Cooper, a turnaround expert.

[Random]

Re: Hawaiian Telcom

The cable headends have backup power. But the individual neighborhood nodes do not have backup power. If Oceanic wants to provide genuine carrier grade service, each node would have to have backup power.

Well, will Oceanic remedy that in case of future power outages?