2 separate but related issues:

1) For the past 3 or more months, the MCI online account management site has been broken. As an online payment customer, this means I have not had access to my billing or any other information for at least 3 months, because I have a paperless account. Repeated calls to MCI customer service have invariably gone like this: "I'm sorry ma'am, we are aware the website is broken and are working on it." How can a website be broken for 3 months without the company striving to do something about it quickly - especially concerning customer access to their own accounts????

I was instructed by the floor manager to call customer service regarding the web issue. Can I get help retrieving information? No. Can you tell me any more information about repair estimates? No. I had to call 6 or 7 different times (on hold for long amounts of time) to finally figure out that in order to see my bill, I had to cancel online payments and receive paper statements.

2) Meanwhile, in April I had received a letter of *credit* from MCI and assurances from 4 or 5 agents that despite the snafus with my account access I was fine because my credit was so big. "Don't worry, " they said (this is a literal quote) - "you have a large enough credit that you won't have to worry about the next couple of bills." I expressed concern that I'd still like to see my account information. Nothing was sent detailing the account UNTIL:

Coming home from a trip (May 2), I find a paper bill AND letter threatening cancellation. Calling MCI was extremely frustrating; there was an "error" that could not be explained to me. No accountability, no offers to work on finding out where the errors were, just a statement of "your bill is due by this date". Since I didn't have time to mail in a check before the cancellation date, I had to pay over the phone. Oh yeah, that's an extra $3.50. The inconsistent statements, the incredible difficulty in receiving answers about obvious errors and issues, and the seeming lack of concern on their part for anything but receiving my money was the last straw.

I would recommend strongly that customers avoid signing up with MCI if they want any sort of consistent or clear access to their account, records, or any sort of accountability from their long distance carrier. As soon as I find a new carrier, I'm bailing.