20 days ago by Miss Georgia Lynn Harris
I know first-hand that Jitterbug is a rip off. I live in North Florida half of the year and Southern California the rest of the time, and my cell reception is just awful when I travel. Not to mention, I've been scammed on my bill for 6 months now with all kinds of extra charges that are not mine. My oldest son has to call and handle it for me because the Jitterbug customer service gets my stomach all in knots. They have some rude youngsters working up at this company who would just as soon spit on you than help you or solve the issue. Also, I have personal health problems and I wish Jitterbug would work so I could have the 911 handy. Jitterbug is a real disappointment and they have let my family and me down.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/jitterbug-phone-c40290.html
More upset customers adding to Jitterbug's and Great Call Inc.'s bad reputation as a provider of cell phone service seen @
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/greatcall-inc--jitterbug-c37693.html:
"Their return policy sucks. I ordered 2 phones. They billed me 1/2 @ $176.00 I returned the phones due to size. They billed me $52.38 but left the $176 on the credit card instead of remitting the $176 at the same time they added their new charge. Not quite what thei ad on return policy states. I won't quibble about the return fee, but it is a bit high. My conversation with them to return it was neither rude nor friendly." -- Ray Walker
"I agree totally that Jitterbug is a rip-off! I ended up calling and cancelling my service which I never actually recieved because they never set up my phone for me, but still charged me for it! I called 5 times to complain about not being able to use my phone, and nothing got done about it. Seemed like they just wanted to keep stringing me along. They didn't try very hard either to make me happy when i cancelled, all they did was offer to give me back my set up fee. I said no way, i'm fed up and i'm returning the phone. It's their loss, because I was so excited about getting it and all it turned out to be was a huge dissapointment and an even bigger headache!!! " -- Heather
"Yes, I also have had problems with Greatcall. They keep charging bills to my credit card that I think are way too high. They won't send me an itemized bill although I have requested it several times. I will probably cancel soon, but I hate to waste the $175 I spent on the phone." -- Lee
"Good luck trying to cancel [Jitterbug cell phone] account. I have called their customer service line to cancel, and they say they will call back. They don't. I have sent emails to their Customer Service email address. I even had my credit card company block the billing. They just keep sending bills." -- Samuel Smart
Saturday, March 29, 2008
FCC committee chair Arlene Harris Oversees Employees That Rip Off Seniors
On the Jitterbug website it is listed that Arlene Harris "has served on several committees of the FCC." I find it amazing that an FCC officer would oversee a company that deliberately overcharges and rips off senior citizens. Is this how the FCC is run? Are the ethics of the FCC the same as that of Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.? Are both entities a strictly "for profit" enterprise? Do both entities exist to squeeze as much money out of the American public as possible? I think Howard Stern would probably say so. However, I don't think most people would rest easy knowing that a member of the FCC has created an organization like Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones to deceive and overcharge senior citizens for cell service. I would hope that the FCC would reprimand Arlene Harris and Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc. for deliberately and knowingly overcharging senior citizens. It is a shame that senior citizens think that when they call Jitterbug Customer Service they are going to be told the truth about their phone bills. Instead, they have unscrupulous managers and employees making up false call records on the spot so they don't have to issue a refund to the senior customer. I would hope the FCC and FTC would take notice of these business practices. I'm sure there would be hundreds of customers and former employees who could testify to Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc. unethical and fraudulent business practices.
Jitterbug Management
Martin Cooper Founder and Member of the Board of Directors
Arlene Harris Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors,
Chief Strategy Officer
David L. Inns Chief Executive Officer and Member of
the Board of Directors
Bill Kuncz Vice President, Finance and CFO
Ray Morris Vice President, Operations, COO
John Garrison Vice President, Business Development
Bill Yates Vice President, Marketing
Olivier Morin Vice President, Sales
Martin Cooper - Founder and Member of the Board of Directors
Marty is widely recognized as a pioneer and inventor in the personal and wireless telecommunications industry. He introduced the first portable cellular radiotelephone in 1973 - a device that billions of people use globally today.
While a co-founder and Chairman of GreatCall, he continues to work full-time as Executive Chairman of ArrayComm, the world leader in Smart Antenna technology, which he founded in 1992.
Prior to Arraycomm, he co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. and led it to dominate the cellular billing industry before selling it to Cincinnati Bell (now Convergys).
During a 29 year career at Motorola he did his most prominent work. He was a Division Manager and Corporate Director of Research and Development where he created a number of major businesses including cellular systems and devices, high-capacity paging, trunked mobile radio systems (known as SMRS - the technology used by Nextel), quartz crystals, liquid crystal displays, and various mobile and portable two-way radio product lines. Portable cell phones alone have had cumulative sales for Motorola of billions of dollars. In addition to his leadership in technology, he helped guide the strategic and regulatory policy at Motorola that disrupted AT&T's plans to monopolize the emerging cellular industry.
Marty holds nine patents in the communications field. He has received numerous awards and now serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce Spectrum Advisory Committee, which advises the Executive Branch and the President on Radio Spectrum Policy.
Arlene Harris - Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Strategy Officer
Arlene Harris has over 35 years as an entrepreneur starting and building and helping as board member and investor in a number of successful companies in wireless related businesses.
Arlene founded GreatCall and launched Jitterbug in 2006 in partnership with Samsung with the mission of providing simplicity in the cellular phone experience. Earlier she founded SOS Wireless Communication to commercialize low usage safety focused cellular phone service. Test marketing proved the need but supply side difficulties halted the growth of the company. 4000+ SOS customers are now customers of GreatCall.
In 1986, she started Subscriber Computing (SCI), a California based billing/customer services software company. SCI built the first cellular switch provisioning and mediation systems that lead to the first communications prepaid system in history. SCI was sold to Corsair in 1997; then became part of Lightbridge (LTBG). In the interim, she invented a cellular pay phone system - the world's first program controlled cellular end to end system management systems were built by SCI. This was the first niche cellular reseller (nka MVNO) in history - the business opportunity was licensed to GTE, now Verizon in 1988.
In 1983, she joined cellular technology pioneer Marty Cooper to found Cellular Business Systems, Inc which became the largest independent billing company in the emerging cellular industry. CBSI was sold to Cincinnati Bell (NKA Convergys) in 1986.
Ms. Harris was first exposed to wireless when she helped operators connect telephone calls on a mobile telephone switchboard at the age of 5 at ICS (aka Metrocall), her family's business in LA. With her guidance, primarily in systems, ICS became the largest paging company in a single area in the world and was sold to Metromedia in 1983.
Besides service on several boards and as advisor to many companies over the years, Ms. Harris holds several issued and has several current patent filings relating to wireless communications. She has served on several committees of the FCC and TIA, and PCIA. She received the PCIA FoundationÃs Year 2000 distinguished Chairman's award and is a Fellow in the Radio Club of America.
David L. Inns - Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors
David joined GreatCall in August 2006 as President and Chief Operating Officer. He has 20 years of experience in telecom services including General Management, Systems Development, Sales, Marketing and Distribution. Most recently he served as Vice President of Consumer Markets at Bell Mobility, one of the largest wireless carriers in Canada, where he managed the $1.7 billion P&L for the consumer portion of the business. Prior to that, David ran the $4 billion P&L for the Wireline business at Bell Canada. Mr. Inns also held other senior positions at Bell Canada including running the channel and distribution strategy for all of Bell Canada's Internet, TV, telephone, and cellular products. Prior to joining Bell Canada, David was a partner at DiamondCluster International, an elite global consulting firm that specialized in understanding and improving the economics of wireless carriers around the world. David was also the CEO and co-founder of RentalRiver, an internet business that was focused on rolling up the $8 billion rental equipment industry. David holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Field, from the University of Western Ontario. David is a licensed professional engineer.
Bill Kuncz - Vice President Finance, CFO
Bill joined GreatCall in December 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration. Bill has over 20 years of financial management experience across multiple technologies and business models. Most recently he served as CFO, Vice President and Secretary of Vertical Circuits, Inc, a global supplier of semiconductor and electronic products and services to worldwide commercial, aerospace and military customers, where he managed all aspects of the company's financial, legal and administrative functions. Prior to that, he co-founded Serra Park Dental, Inc, a network of 11 Dental practices, serving as its CFO, and as a Director, until selling the Dental Practice Consolidator to a publicly traded management firm. Mr. Kuncz also held senior positions in financial and operations management at Sierra Semiconductor Corporation, a publicly traded semiconductor manufacturer. Prior to joining Sierra Semiconductor, he held investment management positions at Paine Webber and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Kuncz holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Michigan.
Ray Morris - Vice President, Operations, COO
Ray Morris has been involved in the wireless industry for 20 years, and brings to GreatCall his expertise in strategic technology planning and optimization, very large program implementations, enterprise operations optimization and call center technologies. Over the last 17 years, Ray has consulted for the world's leading wireless companies including AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, Orange PLC, Saudi Telecom, HK Telecom, Telus, NTT Communications and others. Previously, Ray served as CIO for the 3rd largest B2B internet services provider in the world where he was responsible for 16 data centers, the product development and system development teams, and Customer Care centers for both domestic and international operations. His accomplishments included a 45% reduction in operating costs while measured productivity rose over 60%. Prior to that, Ray worked as VP of Product Management for an international provider of wireless traffic mediation and network optimization solutions, during which time the company became the number 1 provider of mediation software in the world.
John Garrison - Vice President, Business Development
John joined GreatCall in January 2007 as Vice President of Business Development. He has an extensive human network built over the past 25 years from his executive management roles within the wireless, consumer electronics, and internet retail industries. Most recently he was Executive Vice President of Samsung's multi-billion dollar Digital Consumer Electronics Division, where he led the company to top U.S. market positions in several digital television categories. In this capacity, John developed relationships with the leadership teams of major US retailers and service providers. Prior to Samsung, John was a founding member of Amazon.comÃs Wireless Store development team, negotiating partnership agreements with the major U.S. wireless carriers for distribution of their services. Mr. Garrison also served as AT&T Wireless Senior Vice President for National Retail Operations, responsible for retail, handset acquisition, and distribution. Before AT&T Wireless, John was a VP/General Manager for Sony Corporation, and held various national sales and marketing positions with the firm. He holds a BS in Financial Management from the University of Delaware.
Bill Yates - Vice President, Marketing
Bill joined GreatCall in August, 2007 as Vice President, Marketing. Bill has extensive experience in telecom services including Marketing, Operations and Mergers and Acquisitions. Most recently, he served as Director of Marketing for Bell Mobility - one of Canada's largest wireless carriers - where he managed the national acquisition marketing efforts for all of the Bell Mobility brands (Bell Mobility, Solo Mobile and President's Choice Mobile) in both the Consumer and Business markets. Prior to that, Bill served as the Managing Director, Solo Mobile, in its startup stage where he led and developed the brand to become a successful competitor in the Canadian market. Bill also led the development and startup of President's Choice Mobile, Canada's first white-labeled wireless carrier. Prior to these successes in the startup environment, Mr. Yates served as Director of Channel Marketing, Bell Canada, where he was responsible for developing and implementing the channel and distribution strategies for Bell Canada's Internet, TV, and cellular products. Prior to joining Bell Canada, Mr. Yates held various management positions within the Vehicle Operations department of the Ford Motor Company. Bill holds an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University
Olivier Morin - Vice President, Sales
Olivier joined Great Call in December 2006 as Vice President of Sales. Olivier has been a Sales and Service leader for over 15 years, bringing to GreatCall his telecom expertise in call center, retail, vendor management, large scale CRM solution implementation, winback strategy and sales training development. Previously, Olivier was a Senior Channel Marketing Director for Bell Canada responsible for driving $300M new revenue in the consumer portion of the business for all of the Internet, TV, telephone, and cellular products. Prior to that Olivier was an international director at SBC assigned to the Canadian $6B investment with BCE where his expertise yielded a $100M increased revenue over a spend of 2 years implementing world class call flows and introducing global selling strategies. Prior to that, he led the top consumer sales and service call centers for SBC Pacific Bell. He holds a BS in Business Management from the University of Redlands, and he is a certified StrengthsFinder coach from the University of Gallup.
Arlene Harris Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors,
Chief Strategy Officer
David L. Inns Chief Executive Officer and Member of
the Board of Directors
Bill Kuncz Vice President, Finance and CFO
Ray Morris Vice President, Operations, COO
John Garrison Vice President, Business Development
Bill Yates Vice President, Marketing
Olivier Morin Vice President, Sales
Martin Cooper - Founder and Member of the Board of Directors
Marty is widely recognized as a pioneer and inventor in the personal and wireless telecommunications industry. He introduced the first portable cellular radiotelephone in 1973 - a device that billions of people use globally today.
While a co-founder and Chairman of GreatCall, he continues to work full-time as Executive Chairman of ArrayComm, the world leader in Smart Antenna technology, which he founded in 1992.
Prior to Arraycomm, he co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. and led it to dominate the cellular billing industry before selling it to Cincinnati Bell (now Convergys).
During a 29 year career at Motorola he did his most prominent work. He was a Division Manager and Corporate Director of Research and Development where he created a number of major businesses including cellular systems and devices, high-capacity paging, trunked mobile radio systems (known as SMRS - the technology used by Nextel), quartz crystals, liquid crystal displays, and various mobile and portable two-way radio product lines. Portable cell phones alone have had cumulative sales for Motorola of billions of dollars. In addition to his leadership in technology, he helped guide the strategic and regulatory policy at Motorola that disrupted AT&T's plans to monopolize the emerging cellular industry.
Marty holds nine patents in the communications field. He has received numerous awards and now serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce Spectrum Advisory Committee, which advises the Executive Branch and the President on Radio Spectrum Policy.
Arlene Harris - Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Strategy Officer
Arlene Harris has over 35 years as an entrepreneur starting and building and helping as board member and investor in a number of successful companies in wireless related businesses.
Arlene founded GreatCall and launched Jitterbug in 2006 in partnership with Samsung with the mission of providing simplicity in the cellular phone experience. Earlier she founded SOS Wireless Communication to commercialize low usage safety focused cellular phone service. Test marketing proved the need but supply side difficulties halted the growth of the company. 4000+ SOS customers are now customers of GreatCall.
In 1986, she started Subscriber Computing (SCI), a California based billing/customer services software company. SCI built the first cellular switch provisioning and mediation systems that lead to the first communications prepaid system in history. SCI was sold to Corsair in 1997; then became part of Lightbridge (LTBG). In the interim, she invented a cellular pay phone system - the world's first program controlled cellular end to end system management systems were built by SCI. This was the first niche cellular reseller (nka MVNO) in history - the business opportunity was licensed to GTE, now Verizon in 1988.
In 1983, she joined cellular technology pioneer Marty Cooper to found Cellular Business Systems, Inc which became the largest independent billing company in the emerging cellular industry. CBSI was sold to Cincinnati Bell (NKA Convergys) in 1986.
Ms. Harris was first exposed to wireless when she helped operators connect telephone calls on a mobile telephone switchboard at the age of 5 at ICS (aka Metrocall), her family's business in LA. With her guidance, primarily in systems, ICS became the largest paging company in a single area in the world and was sold to Metromedia in 1983.
Besides service on several boards and as advisor to many companies over the years, Ms. Harris holds several issued and has several current patent filings relating to wireless communications. She has served on several committees of the FCC and TIA, and PCIA. She received the PCIA FoundationÃs Year 2000 distinguished Chairman's award and is a Fellow in the Radio Club of America.
David L. Inns - Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors
David joined GreatCall in August 2006 as President and Chief Operating Officer. He has 20 years of experience in telecom services including General Management, Systems Development, Sales, Marketing and Distribution. Most recently he served as Vice President of Consumer Markets at Bell Mobility, one of the largest wireless carriers in Canada, where he managed the $1.7 billion P&L for the consumer portion of the business. Prior to that, David ran the $4 billion P&L for the Wireline business at Bell Canada. Mr. Inns also held other senior positions at Bell Canada including running the channel and distribution strategy for all of Bell Canada's Internet, TV, telephone, and cellular products. Prior to joining Bell Canada, David was a partner at DiamondCluster International, an elite global consulting firm that specialized in understanding and improving the economics of wireless carriers around the world. David was also the CEO and co-founder of RentalRiver, an internet business that was focused on rolling up the $8 billion rental equipment industry. David holds an MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Field, from the University of Western Ontario. David is a licensed professional engineer.
Bill Kuncz - Vice President Finance, CFO
Bill joined GreatCall in December 2006 as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance and Administration. Bill has over 20 years of financial management experience across multiple technologies and business models. Most recently he served as CFO, Vice President and Secretary of Vertical Circuits, Inc, a global supplier of semiconductor and electronic products and services to worldwide commercial, aerospace and military customers, where he managed all aspects of the company's financial, legal and administrative functions. Prior to that, he co-founded Serra Park Dental, Inc, a network of 11 Dental practices, serving as its CFO, and as a Director, until selling the Dental Practice Consolidator to a publicly traded management firm. Mr. Kuncz also held senior positions in financial and operations management at Sierra Semiconductor Corporation, a publicly traded semiconductor manufacturer. Prior to joining Sierra Semiconductor, he held investment management positions at Paine Webber and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Kuncz holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Michigan.
Ray Morris - Vice President, Operations, COO
Ray Morris has been involved in the wireless industry for 20 years, and brings to GreatCall his expertise in strategic technology planning and optimization, very large program implementations, enterprise operations optimization and call center technologies. Over the last 17 years, Ray has consulted for the world's leading wireless companies including AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, Orange PLC, Saudi Telecom, HK Telecom, Telus, NTT Communications and others. Previously, Ray served as CIO for the 3rd largest B2B internet services provider in the world where he was responsible for 16 data centers, the product development and system development teams, and Customer Care centers for both domestic and international operations. His accomplishments included a 45% reduction in operating costs while measured productivity rose over 60%. Prior to that, Ray worked as VP of Product Management for an international provider of wireless traffic mediation and network optimization solutions, during which time the company became the number 1 provider of mediation software in the world.
John Garrison - Vice President, Business Development
John joined GreatCall in January 2007 as Vice President of Business Development. He has an extensive human network built over the past 25 years from his executive management roles within the wireless, consumer electronics, and internet retail industries. Most recently he was Executive Vice President of Samsung's multi-billion dollar Digital Consumer Electronics Division, where he led the company to top U.S. market positions in several digital television categories. In this capacity, John developed relationships with the leadership teams of major US retailers and service providers. Prior to Samsung, John was a founding member of Amazon.comÃs Wireless Store development team, negotiating partnership agreements with the major U.S. wireless carriers for distribution of their services. Mr. Garrison also served as AT&T Wireless Senior Vice President for National Retail Operations, responsible for retail, handset acquisition, and distribution. Before AT&T Wireless, John was a VP/General Manager for Sony Corporation, and held various national sales and marketing positions with the firm. He holds a BS in Financial Management from the University of Delaware.
Bill Yates - Vice President, Marketing
Bill joined GreatCall in August, 2007 as Vice President, Marketing. Bill has extensive experience in telecom services including Marketing, Operations and Mergers and Acquisitions. Most recently, he served as Director of Marketing for Bell Mobility - one of Canada's largest wireless carriers - where he managed the national acquisition marketing efforts for all of the Bell Mobility brands (Bell Mobility, Solo Mobile and President's Choice Mobile) in both the Consumer and Business markets. Prior to that, Bill served as the Managing Director, Solo Mobile, in its startup stage where he led and developed the brand to become a successful competitor in the Canadian market. Bill also led the development and startup of President's Choice Mobile, Canada's first white-labeled wireless carrier. Prior to these successes in the startup environment, Mr. Yates served as Director of Channel Marketing, Bell Canada, where he was responsible for developing and implementing the channel and distribution strategies for Bell Canada's Internet, TV, and cellular products. Prior to joining Bell Canada, Mr. Yates held various management positions within the Vehicle Operations department of the Ford Motor Company. Bill holds an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University
Olivier Morin - Vice President, Sales
Olivier joined Great Call in December 2006 as Vice President of Sales. Olivier has been a Sales and Service leader for over 15 years, bringing to GreatCall his telecom expertise in call center, retail, vendor management, large scale CRM solution implementation, winback strategy and sales training development. Previously, Olivier was a Senior Channel Marketing Director for Bell Canada responsible for driving $300M new revenue in the consumer portion of the business for all of the Internet, TV, telephone, and cellular products. Prior to that Olivier was an international director at SBC assigned to the Canadian $6B investment with BCE where his expertise yielded a $100M increased revenue over a spend of 2 years implementing world class call flows and introducing global selling strategies. Prior to that, he led the top consumer sales and service call centers for SBC Pacific Bell. He holds a BS in Business Management from the University of Redlands, and he is a certified StrengthsFinder coach from the University of Gallup.
More complaints about Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/greatcall-inc-jitterbug-c37693.html
30 days ago by Lee
Yes, I also have had problems with Greatcall {DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones]. [Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones] keep charging bills to my credit card that I think are way too high. [Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.] won't send me an itemized bill although I have requested it several times. I will probably cancel [my Jitterbug Cell Phone] soon, but I hate to waste the $175 I spent on the [Jitterbug Cell Phone].
5 days ago by Samuel Stuart
Good luck trying to cancel your account [with Jitterbug Cell Phones DBA Great Call Inc.] I have called [the Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phone] customer service line to cancel, and they say they will call back. They don't. I have sent emails to [Jitterbug] Customer Service email address. I even had my credit card company block [Jitterbug/Great Call Inc.] billing. [Jitterbug/Great Call Inc.] just keep sending bills.
30 days ago by Lee
Yes, I also have had problems with Greatcall {DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones]. [Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phones] keep charging bills to my credit card that I think are way too high. [Jitterbug DBA Great Call Inc.] won't send me an itemized bill although I have requested it several times. I will probably cancel [my Jitterbug Cell Phone] soon, but I hate to waste the $175 I spent on the [Jitterbug Cell Phone].
5 days ago by Samuel Stuart
Good luck trying to cancel your account [with Jitterbug Cell Phones DBA Great Call Inc.] I have called [the Great Call Inc. DBA Jitterbug Cell Phone] customer service line to cancel, and they say they will call back. They don't. I have sent emails to [Jitterbug] Customer Service email address. I even had my credit card company block [Jitterbug/Great Call Inc.] billing. [Jitterbug/Great Call Inc.] just keep sending bills.
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