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Man says name was forged on cellphone contract
By Karl Henkel
BOARDMAN
When Nate Reed visited a cellphone kiosk in June, he thought he found a great deal on a cellphone.
Instead, he’s faced a great deal of annoyance.
Reed said his signature was forged, he has spent countless hours trying to rectify the problem and has been overcharged for an unwanted service.
What Reed didn’t know is that he wasn’t the only shopper with a complaint about The Cellular Connection kiosk.
Township detectives and Verizon Wireless are investigating multiple incidents of unaccounted-for inventory at the former Cellular Connection kiosk inside hhgregg, 441 Boardman-Poland Road.
The Cellular Connection is a subsidiary of Moorehead Communications Inc. and is a separate entity from hhgregg. Since the complaints, all hhgregg stores have taken over cellphone sales and service inside each store.
“Everyone inside an hhgregg store is now an hhgregg employee,” said Jeff Pearson, marketing vice president of hhgregg, who said the decision was not a knock against The Cellular Connection.
Detective Greg Stepuk told The Vindicator that after Reed’s forgery claim, documented July 18, a Verizon investigation began to uncover cases of unaccounted-for cellphones.
As for Reed’s story, he says he was shown a contract for Verizon service that did not include a contract length and excluded an early termination fee.
A month later, he received a copy of his agreement that showed a $35 activation fee, a 24-month contract and a $350 early-termination fee.
A sales representative, according to a police report, told Reed that “Verizon ‘most likely’ realized that the contract ... had errors on it ...”
The rep said Verizon may have “‘fixed’ the contract and attempted to photocopy Reed’s signature on the ‘fixed’ contract.”
Reed said he believes the contract is invalid, and he wants to be refunded the $553.50 he’s had to pay, but he’s been given the run-around by Verizon and Scott Moorehead, president and CEO of The Cellular Connection, regarding a possible refund.
“We recognize that there were errors made by both parties — the employee and customer — and that the situation should have been handled better,” said Moorehead. “We have reached out to the customer in an attempt to rectify and resolve this issue.
“Unfortunately, a middle ground has not been accepted.”
A Verizon representative did not respond to a request to comment.