This cricket knows how to roam.

Cricket Broadband Internet is the service from a wireless company that burst into the Vegas market about six weeks ago, bombarding us with promises of wireless Internet access for $40 per month. The website says “you have the freedom to connect to the Internet from anywhere at any time” and “from virtually anywhere” — you know, like AT&T or Verizon does — which, it turns out, translates to anywhere within your home calling area because they don’t offer roaming. I’m sorry, but what year is this?!

After being sold a wireless card that is not supported in the Las Vegas market (yet the website let me put it in my shopping cart on June 19), and being told by an sales associate that I would have service in the Salem/Portland, Ore. area during my upcoming vacation (which was the whole point of this pointless exercise), I found out this simply isn’t true.

After numerous futile attempts to activate the card on my own, I made repeated calls to customer service at 800-CRICKET only to be informed that “all operators were busy helping other callers” therefore I was being transferred to an automated system. And then each of my calls was promptly disconnected.

Before I ever spoke to a representative, I received an return authorization number via e-mail. I guess someone was able to anticipate my unhappiness — very likely the local store at Tropicana Avenue and Maryland Parkway where I ended up leaving a voice message in a vain effort to speak to a human about the trouble I was having.

Now that I’ve been lied to and sold the wrong item, I plan to fight the $35 restocking charge (since I opened the package and attempted to use the service I paid for. If I’m really lucky I might be also be able to make them reimburse me for the shipping costs, but I’m not counting on it.

Maybe it’s growing pains for an expanding company, but for me it’s the most terrible customer service I have ever encountered.