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Cingular/AT Complaint - AT&T Unscrupulous Business Practices on Cingular Cell Phone Clients - Cell Phone Service
Cell Phone Service - Complaint
In 2004 I used Cingular as my cell phone carrier. I had a rate plan on my contract that cost me $40 a month.
The service was spotty, but I was told that once the company merged with AT&T they would have improved coverage, and my problems would be over.
I wish... My problems were just beginning.
One month I went over my minutes and called the customer service reps to increase my minutes for that month, something Cingular did cheerfully if I exceeded my minutes and let them know about it.
With Cingular, if I needed to bump my minutes up for the month, they allowed me to return to the original terms the following month without incident. I could pay the next increment of $65 for that month.
However, I was now an AT&T customer. So I was very wary, and pointedly asked if I would be able to get the original minutes back once the month was adjusted up. I was told there would be no problem.
When I called AT&T back the following month to return to my original $40 rate plan, the representative told me that my rate plan was a promotion that they no longer offered. I countered that they had made me a verbal authorization, that the rate plan was part of my contract and that they had to fulfill the terms of the agreement.
After much back and forth, I became frustrated and demanded they restore my $40 plan, and said flatly that I refused to pay more than $40.
When the bill came the next month, I learned my new rate plan offered 100 minutes for $40, and the other 2900 minutes were billed to me at 45 cents a minute. Mind you, this was for local calls, not national.
The bill rang in at $1350!! For the same amount of minutes I had been under for my original contract. I tried to work it out with customer service, to no avail. I said I would send them my usual $40. Period.
Next month, they canceled my service and I switched to T-Mobile, happily...
The bills kept coming, and they tacked a $200 early termination fee on. Now they wanted $1500.
I called again and explained that there was no value inherent in a month's local calls being billed at $1500. I also said they were really exercising poor judgment, as they had me paying $40 a month consistently, and now they would get zero.
Years have gone by... Now they've sold my paper on to a collection agency, who are suing me for $1700.
This is to be sure a nuisance suit, and AT&T can afford to harass their customers who keep them in business. Meanwhile, I subscribe to AT&T for my home line, DSL and digital cable, and am realizing just how deep AT&T's corporate greed goes!
The service was spotty, but I was told that once the company merged with AT&T they would have improved coverage, and my problems would be over.
I wish... My problems were just beginning.
One month I went over my minutes and called the customer service reps to increase my minutes for that month, something Cingular did cheerfully if I exceeded my minutes and let them know about it.
With Cingular, if I needed to bump my minutes up for the month, they allowed me to return to the original terms the following month without incident. I could pay the next increment of $65 for that month.
However, I was now an AT&T customer. So I was very wary, and pointedly asked if I would be able to get the original minutes back once the month was adjusted up. I was told there would be no problem.
When I called AT&T back the following month to return to my original $40 rate plan, the representative told me that my rate plan was a promotion that they no longer offered. I countered that they had made me a verbal authorization, that the rate plan was part of my contract and that they had to fulfill the terms of the agreement.
After much back and forth, I became frustrated and demanded they restore my $40 plan, and said flatly that I refused to pay more than $40.
When the bill came the next month, I learned my new rate plan offered 100 minutes for $40, and the other 2900 minutes were billed to me at 45 cents a minute. Mind you, this was for local calls, not national.
The bill rang in at $1350!! For the same amount of minutes I had been under for my original contract. I tried to work it out with customer service, to no avail. I said I would send them my usual $40. Period.
Next month, they canceled my service and I switched to T-Mobile, happily...
The bills kept coming, and they tacked a $200 early termination fee on. Now they wanted $1500.
I called again and explained that there was no value inherent in a month's local calls being billed at $1500. I also said they were really exercising poor judgment, as they had me paying $40 a month consistently, and now they would get zero.
Years have gone by... Now they've sold my paper on to a collection agency, who are suing me for $1700.
This is to be sure a nuisance suit, and AT&T can afford to harass their customers who keep them in business. Meanwhile, I subscribe to AT&T for my home line, DSL and digital cable, and am realizing just how deep AT&T's corporate greed goes!
Comments:
Posted by PassingBy on 2009-07-13:
Cingular acquired AT&T Wireless in 2004. The current AT&T Communications is not the same company. Agreed that the service coverage would improve but only if you had obtained a newer phone. Bet they didn't tell you that. But why are you complaining 5 years after the fact?
Posted by jktshff1 on 2009-07-13:
Cause it's just now catching up.
Not trying to bash or anything
"I became frustrated and demanded they restore my $40 plan"
It's up to you to read the fine print and understand the terms and conditions of the contract. They just did what you asked. Yes, it could have been handle differently, but it seems you were abusing the company, going over minutes and then requesting something different.
Not trying to bash or anything
"I became frustrated and demanded they restore my $40 plan"
It's up to you to read the fine print and understand the terms and conditions of the contract. They just did what you asked. Yes, it could have been handle differently, but it seems you were abusing the company, going over minutes and then requesting something different.
Posted by madconsumer on 2009-07-13:
i am on a 40$ plan, i have 400 any time minutes, and unlimited nights and weekends. free roaming.
if you change your plan to often, they see this as a pattern, and will not allow it any further. any time i have needed to increase my plant for a single month, i ghad to do it 'before' the next billing cycle. never post fact or mid cycle.
if you change your plan to often, they see this as a pattern, and will not allow it any further. any time i have needed to increase my plant for a single month, i ghad to do it 'before' the next billing cycle. never post fact or mid cycle.
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