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Alltel prepaid nightmare....

CalifOkie

Mar 24, 2008, 8:43 PM
Alltel thinks it is being innovative but infact they are practicing stupidity. Recently a 16 year old girl bought an alltel prepaid phone at wal-mart. Then she talked her disabled mother ( who lives only on a small monthly disability check) into using her bank debit card to purchase $10 of airtime via the online system... Well appearantly Alltel prepaid has a function in the phone that allows the user to repeat the last transaction to easily repurchase airtime.... Well the 16 year old girl ran away with her boyfriend and they are repeating that last transaction at a rate of of once or twice everyday. The mothers bank account was over $300 ( with overdraft charges) overdrawn , and the really messed up part is that she can't freeze her account...
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themps

Mar 24, 2008, 10:55 PM
This has nothing to do with Alltel. Almost every other carrier does similar.

Have her call her bank and have the card shutdown and reissued. The bank can freeze the debit card and you will still have access to the account via checks, ach debits, and in bank withdrawals.
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CalifOkie

Mar 24, 2008, 11:25 PM
That is exactly what she is trying to have done. However, as far as having nothing to do with Alltel... they were notified on the 2nd transaction that the transaction was not authorized and that no further transaction will be authorized but still they keep accepting them. You cannot sit there and tell me that do not have the ability to stop them.. They have the ability to turn the phone off. Especially when told to by the parent of the minor who is misusing their service. Man.... Do you have Alltel stamped on your forehead or something ?
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themps

Mar 25, 2008, 12:33 AM
First off. No I don't have Alltel stamped on my forhead. Second. The disabled mother does have stupid stamped on her forehead for allowing her daughter to use the card. If she is not able to make sound decision with the debit, she shouldn't have it.

You CANNOT use the repeat function from the phone itself. You have to have the card number.

You may be able to from the website, which means you would need a login and password to do so, and an internet connection.

Alltel can't stop payment on a prepaid or any other account unless that person requesting them to be stopped is the primary account holder. This is standard practice with any type of account, cell phone wise or other.

Good luck getting the money back. In order to get the ...
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themps

Mar 25, 2008, 12:34 AM
made=mad
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CalifOkie

Mar 25, 2008, 11:56 PM
Stupid ??? You are stupid for calling her stupid so quickly. To start with the mother did not give the daughter the card or even the number. She went to Alltel's secure website and made a secure one time transaction for $10 worth of airtime to her daughters cell phone number..... Alltel took it from there. The phone has been taken away from the girl and I have seen this firsthand.... All you have to do on her phone is push the prepaid button.. and listen for the offer to reuse the card number used in the last transaction and push 1 for yes.. and it is done. INSTANT CREDIT CARD FRAUD. Done by anyone who can pickup the phone. That makes an unlawful duplication of a secured transaction !!! WITHOUT CONSENT !!!
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sckoisks17

Mar 26, 2008, 10:00 AM
What "prepaid button" are you talking about? I have Alltel's prepaid service myself, and the only way I can make payments using my phone is to dial #729, press option 2, then enter an amount and my card information. I've never heard of any Alltel phone having a one-touch button for payments. I'm sorry, but it sounds like it's made up.
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themps

Mar 26, 2008, 10:27 PM
Have no idea what button you are talking about. My prepaid account doesn't have that button. In fact I'm pretty sure none do. They are the same as post paid contract phones.

Credit card fraud is not fraud if you give someone the number to use. Especially a family member. You have no chargeback rights with your bank unless you press criminal charges against her.

Alltel isn't the problem here, it's the girl.
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themps

Mar 26, 2008, 10:28 PM
Oh yeah, no I'm not stupid for calling her stupid. She should have had more control over the phones account.
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CalifOkie

Mar 24, 2008, 11:52 PM
I myself have a T-mobile account I am perfectly happy with , so I wouldn't have the "repeat last transaction" function. However my cousin has net10 prepaid, they don't have the function, my brother-in-law has a tracfone.. it doesn't have that function either.. So you say almost every carrier offers it... that's funny because I've never even heard of it before. I tend to believe since anyone using the phone can buy more time for it with a push of a button to be a good recipe for disaster... do you realize if someone stole that phone from you they could use it indefinately and you would be flipping the bill.... That is stupidity.
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Hombre07

Mar 25, 2008, 1:10 AM
I believe AT&T has this buy you must verify the last four digits of the card. And true again with AT&T you can't suspend a GoPhone anyway. Indefinitely? Really? Or just call the bank. They can shut off that card and not freeze the account. The carrier isn't at fault here.
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CalifOkie

Mar 26, 2008, 12:07 AM
The carrier is at fault here because the mother went to a secure website and made a one time purchase. Alltel took it upon themselves without consent of the cardholder to duplicate the transaction and offer it to the anyone who can push the prepaid button and listen to the offer and then push "1" for yes. NO verification of the card or anything. I couldn't believe it... Do you realize that this is the unauthorized duplication of a secured transaction. A license to commit credit card fraud sold over the counter to a 16 year old girl... Wonderful isn't it ? A girl who can't even get a credit card until she turns 18 anyway. THANK YOU ALLTEL.
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Hombre07

Mar 26, 2008, 12:10 AM
Which brings up the old question of where does corporate responsibility stop and consumer responsibility start? It's not any companies job to hold your hand.
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themps

Mar 26, 2008, 10:30 PM
Alltel doesn't store it automatically. The person who did it the first time has to designate whether or not to store the payment method.
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Thales

Mar 25, 2008, 9:26 AM
Sounds like a case of stupidity and laziness. Cancel that debit card number, TADAA! The runaway has no means of refilling from that account unless the witless grandmother gaver her the routing and account number too.

This is hardly Alltel's fault, and it is easily rectified if you want to do something other than just bitch and moan. Cancel the card, report it as lost or stolen or contact the police and press charges.

You want to talk about account security as though it is helping your case, why would Alltel cancel service for someone if their name is not on the account?

You need to get a freaking clue, sounds like you have "Retard" stamped on your forehead.

-fin
Thales
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CalifOkie

Mar 26, 2008, 1:10 AM
Oh really.... Listen here moron... have you ever tried to cancel a debit card number on a Saturday afternoon ??? It can't be done. The kid had 2 free days to thrash her mothers bank account. The mother canceled the card Monday morn and got the phone away from the girl Monday evening and gave it to me for safe keeping. I checked it out... all you have to do is push prepaid and the stupid phone tells you the last 4 digits of the debit card and asks if you want to reuse it , all you have to do is push "1" for yes. So let's rehash this... Alltel sells a phone to a child. The Mother goes online to Alltel's SECURE website and purchases $10 of airtime for the child ( a secure 1 time purchase). Then without the cardholder's consent, Alltel records ...
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themps

Mar 26, 2008, 10:36 PM
THERE WAS NO BREACH OF SECURITY.

I work for a bank. In fact I work in the fraud division of a bank. If you can't get a debit or credit card shut down any day of the week you need to leave that bank and get with another. You can report cards lost or stolen 24 hours a day at every major institution.

This is not Alltel's fault. You are getting the sob story from the mother. Who is making things up on purpose or out of ignorance to get your sympathy/emotional response and get on her side. They all do it.
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Rosser-BB-8830

Mar 28, 2008, 9:49 PM
Not true! All banks offer twenty four hour numbers to allow you to cancel debit cards, and this information is readily available on the documentation that comes with said debit card and as instructed in the documentaion you are to retain that paper work for your records. Further alltel does not offer an automatic replinishment option. You do have the option to use the card last used for the transaction but there are security measures and the adult responsible for the card had to agree to a disclaimer before preceeding with the transaction. Further it is rather immature and ascenine of you to lash out at alltel for an issue that if calmly and rationally approached can be resolved. You need to contact alltel and ask for the esn to be removed f...
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CalifOkie

Mar 26, 2008, 2:58 AM
the witless grandmother ??? It was a disabled mother, not a witless grandmother. A grandmother wasn't even mentioned. Either you are just a poor interpretor of what you read or you are an employee of Alltel customer service... which is it ?
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CalifOkie

Mar 26, 2008, 3:31 AM
After reading some of your other posts it is obvious that you are an Alltel company man. I can also see from your other posts that you like to hurl insults at anyone who doesn't share your opinions. I have only one thing to say to someone like yourself.... Are you aware that being over opinionated is a marked factor of the intellectually doomed ? You must not have any friends at all.
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the_guy

Mar 26, 2008, 12:38 PM
I don't think any of you have any friends at all... Seriously, every five minutes there is a new post going back and forth and the only thing that gets accomplished is coming with new names to call each other. Anal pore, cellular whore, seriously people, get lives. If you spent half as much time trying to actually do something to get your problem solved instead of just coming on a message board and calling people names, your problems wouldn't be so damn escalated.

These boards are for people to share information and get assistance if needed, but instead of just saying the issue, everyone just bitches and says, "Alltel sucks!! Let me go to Verizon and in three months I'll say they suck too!!" And people trying to give assistance on these ...
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CalifOkie

Mar 27, 2008, 8:15 PM
The guy is 100% accurate and telling it like it is.... My hat is off too him.
But on the otherhand if this board contained only shared info and assistance, then it would propably read like the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Whether you like what these guys have to say or not you have to admit that the posts can be amusing and colorful also that without them things could get pretty dull. I see, nothing wrong with a little spice. Also judging by what I have read, the info and assistance is readily available when needed and they seem to be a pretty knowledgable bunch as a whole. Any veteran cyber surfer knows not to take it personal. The issue you speak of is in no way isolated to this forum. It is in every forum on the net. Infact I believe the sp...
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Thales

Mar 28, 2008, 12:50 PM
You are a piece of work, CalifOkie. You just wigged out several times during the course of this thread, now you want to wade around like a calm mediator? The fact of the matter is that this particular case is NOT ALLTEL'S FAULT. Get it into your skull. I know for a fact that you can cancel a card any day of the week, not only that but if I report it stolen the charges will be reversed.

In fact, I lost my wallet last month with my debit card inside, I called Wachovia Sunday evening and had it canceled. $35 charge at a convenience store showed up that had been charged earlier that day. BAM! Card was cancelled, I had a new one that following Wednesday, two weeks later they reversed the charge. Simple.

In the time that it took this...
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CalifOkie

Mar 29, 2008, 5:56 PM
Man, I don't know who you are or where you are at but I can assure you where I am... That's a small town in Okla. The debit card in question was issued from a huge 6 bank network. The only phone numbers given with these cards are the bank's phone number and 1-800 for assistance in finding the nearest atm to your location. They are not affiliated with any big national bank chain. The instruction with these cards say if lost or stolen
contact the issuing bank immediately. Then when you call that number you get a recording saying to call back during regular business hours.
Now I just got thru giving you people on this site a little praise and appreciation, then you come back at me with junk. I am sorry Mr Know-it-all but in this case yo...
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Thales

Mar 31, 2008, 11:41 AM
I think you need to take your own advice, junior. Read the thread. Did I say that customers weren't able ot refill without a debit card? Nope.

As for me knowing it all, it's true, I don't know it all. However, being in the industry grants me a measure of insight not usually given to the brain-dead whiners that can be counted among your ilk.

Some corrections for you;
- This is a thread, not a string, DUHR, it says it right above where you reply.
- The phone does not have the glitches in it. The phone itself does not HOUSE the IVR software that allows you to refill without re-entering the debit card. That would be within the *GASP* IVR! So, in fact, you are wrong again.

As a closing note, you are wrong, posting on this fo...
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mitchell1

Mar 29, 2008, 12:27 PM
CalifOkie: which model of phone is it. and were is button at for payment.
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CalifOkie

Mar 29, 2008, 6:09 PM
I have no idea what model # . The button was the select button after after navigating thru menu, contacts to prepaid. At that point when you pushed "select" the phone glitched and went straight to offering a transaction from history of the account. It wasn't supposed to do that and it was reprogrammed by Alltel to correct the problem. All
I know is that phone is a cranberry colored (reddish) LG folding camera phone that is about a month old now.
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johnnaglasgow

Mar 26, 2008, 3:40 PM
I have never heard of such a button on the prepaid phones and I sell Alltel prepaid phones every day for customers who don't qualify for service or have to place a high deposit.
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johnnaglasgow

Mar 26, 2008, 3:48 PM
Ahhh! The moment of truth. I just so happened to have a prepaid customer walk in to replenish her minutes and I asked if I can see her phone. Despite the fact that it was in her car, I explained to her what is going on in the forum and she happily went and grabbed it. After about 5 minutes of both her and I searching I can tell you, "there is no such thing as a prepaid button." Unless it has something do to with the "phone in a box" that they sell at Walmart which if it is in fact an Alltel phone is just the same as any phone I would sell you in my store. πŸ™‚
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Hombre07

Mar 26, 2008, 10:50 PM
It's not a button as much as an option in the automated system. I don't have any way of checking but I know other carriers have this option. "To use the debit card you used on your last purchase, press 1" kinda thing.
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themps

Mar 26, 2008, 10:58 PM
Yeah, and when I call the automated system here is what happens.

:too add money press 1.

:please enter a whole dollar amount you want to add. (then it says you want to add X dollars)

πŸ˜›lease enter or say your card number.


----

It needs a whole card number to do it.
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themps

Mar 26, 2008, 10:59 PM
ooops i guess -πŸ˜› is a smiley face


it should just be "Please".
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CalifOkie

Mar 27, 2008, 2:09 AM
Ok now... a few things have been cleared up now. First of all... my mistake... The phone was not purchased at Wal-mart. It was purchased by the minor at an Alltel store (sounds much better, doesn't it ?) The prepaid button I am referring to is a loosely used terminology for the select button, after you have pushed menu, then scrolled to contacts, pushed select again, then scrolled down to prepaid.... At that point right there.. the select button is the prepaid button because once you push it you are immediately connected to the automated prepaid system... It's alot easier to say that's all. As this has all unfolded it undetermined rather the phone was very well manipulated by someone who really knew what he was doing or merely just a very s...
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CalifOkie

Mar 27, 2008, 2:56 AM
Oh yes... You guys might be interested to know that the boyfriend picked out the thin foldup cranberry colored LG camera phone and told the girl to buy it. I really don't know if he was just lucky enough to pick one with a glitch, knew how to trigger the glitch, or maybe he just knew it very well. All I know is the guy is 18 years old, a high school drop out but obviously knows his way around a cellphone. I would give you a number off the phone but it doesn't have any. you might want to check it out to see if anything is different on that phone from the others. Maybe the guy is some kind of young super hacker who just liked the color... who knows ?
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mitchell1

Mar 29, 2008, 12:37 PM
did the grandmother set up account online. if so there is a way to have system store card number. so if it was saved there then it is possible to reuse card over phone call.
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CalifOkie

Mar 29, 2008, 6:19 PM
No she just entered the phone number and purchased airtime for it without making an account.
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themps

Mar 30, 2008, 12:21 AM
You have to have an account to login to in order to add money. They don't let you just give them the number and amount you want to put in and add minutes as a third party. An account was created online in order to process the transaction.
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CalifOkie

Mar 30, 2008, 12:03 PM
No you do not have to sign in to the site to purchase airtime. All you have to do is enter the prepaid phone number, you then get a screen where you put in how much airtime you want to purchase, the card number and security code (off the back of the card), the name of who the card is issued to (your basic credit card purchase screen). submit and wait for your confirmation. No user sign-in, No option of rather or not to save the account information. It doesn't care who owns the phone, all it in interested in is who is buying the airtime. It does also have the little links to assure you that your transaction is secure and encrypted, so no one else can view it or have access to it.
You know I am getting tired of this.. I am a third pa...
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themps

Mar 30, 2008, 12:10 PM
I have a prepaid account that I use for testing phones and as back up.

They did just change there online service it used to be that you have to have an account to do it.

But I just checked it out and I was wrong about this particular part. You don't have to login to add money with this new setup. You do still have to put in all the card info though.
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mitchell1

Mar 30, 2008, 8:57 AM
CalifOkie: didnt you say in your original post that the mother set up time on line. if so there is were the problem is.she didnt uncheck the keep card on record button. then when you call to make a payment,the card is on record to use,with out having to put it in again to use. there is were the problem is. but it is overall the mothers fault for getting the daughter a phone.
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silvabullit

Mar 30, 2008, 11:35 AM
you cant argue rationally with someone who thinks irrationally

califokie - its the womans fault period
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CalifOkie

Mar 30, 2008, 1:10 PM
look, you guys need to learn your own system. I know the woman personally and she is not an idiot.
Alltel's prepaid site is setup so you simply enter the phone number and a credit card for a one time purchase. If you don't believe me check it out for yourselves...
Goto www.alltelu.com... step 2, click on "refill your account"..... step 3, in the "pay online" paragraph click on the link "alltel.com/myprepaid ... step 4 , enter the prepaid phone number on the left side of the screen and click continue... step 5, enter the amount you want purchase and continue... step 6 , enter credit card information and submit it... step 7 , wait for your confirmation. TRY IT .... No user id is needed, also there is no option to save the card number nor a...
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themps

Mar 30, 2008, 5:34 PM
Again....this has nothing to do with Alltel, just keep that in mind. This is an open forum with random people from all walks of life. I would keep your opinion of Alltel limited to your actual dealings with them. Not this internet forum.
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Thales

Mar 31, 2008, 3:59 PM
" I am not and have never been an Alltel customer and now thanks to you guys... I will never be an Alltel customer."

Promise?

-fin
Thales
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chainmail311

Apr 2, 2008, 7:13 PM
Hahhahahhaaa....lesson: don't let your damn kid use your credit card/debit card.
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