Unicel’s switch to new billing software continues to rankle a small number of the company’s Central Oregon cellular service customers, months after the system was implemented.

The cell phone service provider implemented the new system last year to simplify billing procedures for Unicel customers, but one customer says he is still experiencing problems, including nonrecording of payments.

John Hufford, a La Pine resident, said his phone has been disconnected monthly since January due to problems with Unicel’s billing database.

”I went (to one of Unicel’s offices in Bend) and asked them: ‘What’s going on now?’” Hufford said.

”They said I haven’t paid. Well, yes, I have.”

Local dealers said they have dealt with numerous customers who have had problems with Unicel’s billing system since January, although none could provide numbers.

Miriam Svobodny, public relations manager for Unicel, said her company is working with customers like Hufford to resolve problems.

Unicel tried to minimize the impact of the new billing system for consumers by installing certain checks and balances to prevent mistakes, but some problems are inevitable, she added.

”With any transition of this magnitude, there will always be some glitches,” Svobodny said. ”We love to hear from our customers (regarding problems) because it gives us an opportunity to get it right. There may be something that we need to be aware of and we welcome that.”

Central Oregon Unicel dealers said the problems were mostly reported earlier in the year, during the initial stages of the new system’s implementation.

Bob Serrano, owner of Cellular Unlimited LLC in Redmond and Madras, said the issues arose mostly in Jefferson County, where a signal tower operated by Cingular mistakenly marked some customers’ phones as roaming.

”It’s one of those things that potentially could have been (discovered by Unicel),” Serrano said. ”But I think they were caught by surprise.”

He added that the problem has been fixed, and complaints have slowed to isolated incidents since earlier this year.

”It has made me a happier dealer,” Serrano said.

Complaints about cell phone service providers are not uncommon, said Katie Young, director of marketing and communications at the Better Business Bureau of Oregon and Western Washington.

Young said that the Pacific Northwest region – including Oregon, Alaska, and western Washington state – received 9,703 complaints about all cell phone companies last year.

Nationally, the BBB received 31,325 complaints about cell phone services in 2005, although the bureau’s coverage isn’t consistent throughout the United States, Young noted.

”Telephone companies are number one on our top 20 list of industries receiving the most complaints,” she said, adding that billing problems comprise two-thirds of all cell phone service-related complaints nationwide.

The BBB registered 14 complaints against Unicel in Bend in the last 36 months, with only two regarding billing issues.

As of Tuesday, all 14 complaints had been resolved or closed, and Unicel has a satisfactory standing with the BBB, according to Young.

The BBB tracks other Central Oregon cell phone service providers as well, including T-Mobile USA, which received 12,666 complaints nationally in the last 36 months for its coverage area population of 268 million. No complaint tally for Central Oregon was available.

Unicel, with a coverage area population of 6.4 million, received 82 complaints in the same period, although BBB officials said the numbers could be skewed because not all of Unicel’s rural markets are covered by its bureaus.

A T-Mobile spokesman noted that the company received the highest ranking among telecommunications companies in the country for customer service from J.D. Power and Associates in May. He added that the company takes customer satisfaction very seriously, but declined to comment on specific issues.

BBB’s Young said consumers can minimize their problems by researching different phone plans and asking around before making a purchase. She also said customers should review the contract carefully before signing.

But she added that increasing complaints about cell phone providers stem from one fundamental fact – Americans are increasingly dependent on their cell phones.

”I think that it’s just the large volume of cell phone users that generate the large volume of complaints,” Young said. ”This is a highly technical industry, and a lot of things could go wrong and do go wrong.”

Info

Those with cell phone service problems can contact the BBB at 503-226-3981 or at www.thebbb.org. Consumers also can contact the Federal Communications Commission at www.fcc.gov.