Cingular Wireless Consumer Reviews - Page 2

OTISVILLE, MICHIGAN -- On December 7th, 2006 I went on line to Cingular.com and ordered a refurbished Sony Ericsson phone under a GO Plan for my daughter for Christmas. They charged my credit card $31.79 for this phone. I received the phone via FedEx on December 11th, 2006. When I inspected the phone I found that the power cord was not the cord that goes with this phone, so on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006 I called Cingular and after being transferred about 4 times they gave me a phone number 1-866-391-0749 for the Cingular.com office.

When I got a customer service rep on the line I told them that the power cord they sent me was the wrong one, could they send me the correct one and in return I would put the wrong one and the same box and send it back. I was told NO! I had to send back the entire box, phone and all and then wait 10 days for a prepaid shipping label to return the phone.

I explained that this was a Christmas present for my daughter and I didn't have the luxury of time. I told him that this was their mistake and as a soon to be new customer they should try to accommodate me. He stated that this was their policy, if I wanted another phone sent immediately I would have to pay for another one; I refused, since I already paid for one. At that point I asked to speak to a manager who also was very rude and told me the same thing. In frustration I hung up. After cooling down about the situation I called back on Wednesday December 13th, 2006 and spoke with a rep by the name of **.

I explained to ** what had transpired up to this point and asked him if I sent the phone back myself today by priority mail when they receive it could they just send a replacement phone to me, with the proper cord. He said yes! I also asked him if they would credit my account for the shipping charges and he said yes! He told me to call on Monday December 18th, 2006 to see if they received my return.

So on Monday December 18th, 2006, I called back and spoke to a female rep who told me it was in the warehouse however; it had not been scanned into the system yet. I asked her if they had sent a replacement phone and she told me NO. If I wanted another phone I had to pay for one and they would credit me back for the other one in 7-10 days.

I told her that ** had told me to avoid all that. I could send the phone back for a replacement. She said that he misinformed me. I was absolutely furious now you have my phone and my money and I don't have a Christmas present for my daughter. I said some not so nice things about how this whole situation has been handled then hung up.

I called back on Thursday December 21st. and spoke with a rep named **. I asked him if a credit had been issued for the phone and my shipping charges and he had told me NO. He said I would not see the credit for 7-10 days and as far as the shipping they would credit my account. I at that point told him I do not have an account with Cingular and I wanted it to be credited back to my credit card that I used to purchase the phone.

He said he didn'€™t know if Cingular would do that. He then told me he would submit some kind of request for the ship charges and then told me he would connect me with customer care. I was transferred to a customer care down south somewhere and they had to transfer me back to a Michigan customer care center. I was then connected to a rep by the name of ** and I explained everything that happened to me and she was very sympathetic to my situation but told me she could not help me and wished me good luck.

I have never in all my years been treated so badly by a company as I have been treated by Cingular. As I write this letter I don't have the phone or the money. I have 2 days to try to find my daughter a phone for Christmas. Your company should be ashamed of yourselves for the terrible customer service you provided to a potential customer. I will never recommend any one to Cingular and this letter will be forwarded to the Consumer Agency.

SPRING HILL, FLORIDA -- Spring Hill, Florida Friday September 15, 2006. In trying to cancel my cellular phone service with Cingular so that I could obtain service with a carrier that actually provided quality service to the area in which I live, since Cingular did not work in my living room or any other place that I happened to be. I was told that I was still under contract even though I had made no changes in my contract or otherwise signed for new service from their company.

I had started out with AT&T in February 2004 in Memphis, TN and when Cingular took over AT&T in early 2005 I was among those unhappy people force to be a part of a company locked into a contract (two years originally with one year left) that I did not choose and would not have chosen because of the bad word of mouth on Cingular! When I moved to Florida in March 2005, Cingular told me that AT&T no longer existed and that Cingular would be the only company that I could deal with...

I was getting nowhere, and all I wanted to do was to change my phone # from the Memphis area to a local # in Spring Hill, after many hours on the phone with Cingular telling me that I should just keep the Memphis # even though I had become a Florida resident, they changed the #... to a Gainsville, Florida #... oh good a new long distance #, when I called to complain and at that time I didn't know that it was a Gainsville #.

They told me I should have told them I lived in Spring Hill and would need a Brooksville # (I'm supposed to know that?) I told them that it was their job to know the local #'s for my area and since they had my correct billing and mailing address it should have been easy. (where is their customer service, India?)

Again I spent my time trying to correct their error. Today again I was on the phone wasting my time trying to correct their error again!! It was an error and they admitted it, but still would not give me their name or the name of their supervisor in case the problem does not get solved by the woman (Miss No Name) that assured me she would take care of it. With their track record I do not get that warm and fuzzy feeling that all is well between myself and Cingular.

If you are thinking of opening an account with Cingular think long and hard, because they will be able to ruin the experience for you and you will feel that they are doing something unethical or are trying to in some way cheat you, their valuable customer without whom they would not be in business in the first place. Although I live in Spring Hill, Florida, this complaint could have come from any state. Cingular does not seem to discriminate based on where you live, they give the same bad service to everyone.

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- I contacted Cingular customer service representatives by phone nearly a dozen times over the past six months trying to resolve the matter of the unpaid balance on my account, but to no avail. I was never happy with their phone service as I experienced dropped calls and no bars on an almost daily basis. Most often my phone did not work at all on weekends when minutes were supposedly “free”. I'm appalled that an American corporation can use their weaknesses as an advertising ploy for being their strongest asset!

It got worse with the merger between Cingular and AT&T. I use an automated bill payer through my bank to submit payments. When the January statement was sent to me, I didn't notice the account number had changed. I simply input the amount I owed into my billpayer tool and remitted payment like I always do.

In February I was surprised to see my next statement claimed I never paid January‘s bill and the amount owed was for two billing statements. I paid the new amount including the past due amount to avoid any penalty fees and planned to research and rectify the discrepancy later. I was moving into a new house in March and had already packed most of my belongings into boxes. In March, I received the next bill and it stated I was three months behind. Remembering the February statement and knowing I remitted a double payment then, I paid only the current month's fee. At this time I was in the process of moving and too busy to deal with that.

At the end of March we received a notice in the mail that our service with Cingular has been terminated. Verizon had not hooked up our new home phone yet. We were in our new house with a newborn baby trying to coordinate and switch over all of our utilities and Cingular turned off our only phone service, our only line to the outside world. Inconveniently, it was terminated at a time when we needed it most! My only option was to open a new account with a different cell phone service.

It was only later that I discovered my payments were going to the old AT&T account and not the new Cingular account. When I called customer service, the young lady I spoke to knew right away what had happened because she so had many other customers call with the same error. Many other people who use a bill paying service were still remitting payment to the old AT&T account not knowing that their account number had changed.

I was never advised of that change, and apparently neither were many others. She was able to transfer the paid funds over to the proper account. But there was a positive balance on the account now because I made a double payment in February. She apologized for the inconvenience and told me to expect a refund check within 30 days.

Four months later I still have not received my refund and I am being billed for breaking contract, when in fact it was Cingular who terminated my account for not paying my bills when I had been paying them all along! I have literally spent hours on the phone with Cingular desperately pleading my case and seeking resolution but have gotten nowhere. They maintain that I owe them a contract termination fee of $150 whether I broke the contract or they end the service, no matter what the reason.

I strongly urge anyone who has reached the end of their contract to switch to another cell phone service provider. I would also recommend anyone who has a legitimate complaint to report Cingular to the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Complaints at this web address http://www.ftc.gov/ by clicking on the “File a Complaint” tab. Also, letters of complaint can be sent to the Better Business Bureau at http://odr.bbb.org/.

BEAVERTON, OREGON -- Cingular Time Line. March 20, 2006. 12:00pm -€“ Contacted Cingular's "Customer Service 800 number and pressed the option for bill questions. Explained I wanted to cancel my cell phone coverage due to a high bill. I wanted to apply the $200.00 deposit I paid when starting service back on March 29, 2005. I order my phone online and paid the deposit via debit card on line. I have receipts and bank statements reflecting this deposit. After stating my request the representative indicated she needed to transfer me.

After about five minutes hold time I was transferred. I asked to speak this representative manager as I was not satisfied with being transferred and had already been on the phone now for almost half an hour. She indicated her manager was not available and she would need to transfer me again. I asked why I am being transferred again. The representative stated she needed to transfer as she was not the appropriate person to speak to. I stated that is what the last representative stated. She rudely stated she needed to transfer me and disconnected the call.

I called back and spoke to another representative and explained I wanted to cancel my cellular phone service and file a complaint regarding the previous encounter. He stated he would go forth in the cancellation which would occur 04/01/2006 and I asked again about utilizing my $200.00 deposit. He stated he could not help me and would need to transfer the call. I stated I did not have time, by this time I had been on the phone for nearly and hour and needed to get back to work.

5:10pm -“ Contacted Cingular spoke to ** in customer service, explained I spoke with a representative who assisted me in canceling my service, but I needed to speak to someone about applying my $200.00 deposit. He took a few moments had to place me on hold and came back on the line indicating he had taken care of applying the deposit.

And I would receive a FINAL BILL reflecting the usage of my deposit towards the $150 early termination fee and the application of the remaining $50 toward the bill. I stated upon receiving the FINAL BILL reflecting these adjustments I would remit payment immediately. ** stated I would see the bill approximately 7-10 business days after the billing cycle ending April 1, 2006.

April 17, 2006 - 3:00 pm spoke to Cingular representative named **. I explained the above mentioned conversations and interactions and stated I was still waiting for a FINAL BILL. He stated by the notes on the account it appears I should receive the bill in the next couple days. I asked what type assurance I can receive aside from our verbal conversation as I do not want this account to become delinquent. I will remit payment as soon as I receive the FINAL BILL. He again assured me the FINAL BILL should arrive shortly.

May 8, 2006 - I receive a bill in the mail. The total is $436.96 and does not break down the utilization of the $200.00 deposit, nor does it indicate FINAL BILL. May 10, 2006 - I contact Cingular and speak to a ** in receivables. She states she sees the notes about canceling the service back on March 20, 2006 but does not see where a $200.00 deposit was ever paid. Again I explain I have bank statements/receipt from Cingular regarding the deposit. I indicate I have already spoken to several people and have been assured my account was being taken care of.

I asked to speak to her manager. She said she would need to transfer me to customer service as account receivable would not be the appropriate department to speak to. She states she will announce the call and explain what it is regarding. I am transferred to a man named **. I immediately ask to be transferred to his manager and explain I have been dealing with this situation since March 20, and so far I have not been assisted with representatives who answer the phone. He asked to get more information and again I explain my "€œmission". He states he WILL help me. I relent and as one more ditch effort give him the ability to help me.

He places me on hold for a couple minutes and comes back stating he has been working with the accounts receivable manager. I stop him and state the representative who transferred me to him was in accounts receivable. He states he'€™s not sure why I was transferred. This epitomized my encounters with Cingular. He stated my FINAL BILL will be for $236.69 after applying the $200.00 deposit. I stated as soon as I receive a bill reflecting the $236.96 due I will immediately remit payment. I again state that I have been assured numerous times by several Cingular representatives this would be taken care of.

I need someone to contact me when the account has been adjusted appropriately. He stated he will monitor the account activity and will contact me Thursday May 11, 2006 or Friday May 12, 2006. I am ecstatic he is taking ownership and will follow up with me. I get home and check my mail to find a bill from a collection agency regarding my Cingular bill. I attempt to contact Cingular at approximately 8 pm but disconnected due to a high volume of calls and extended wait I could not wait. This leads me to file a complaint with the FCC and will seek legal council in the event this account stays in collections.

May 11, 2006 - 10:30 am: To my astonishment I receive a call from ** at Cingular who promised to contact me and update me with the status of my account. He states he is still monitoring the account and has not seen the activity we discussed with the application of my deposit. Stated he will contact me by May 15, 2006 to follow up.

May 16, 2006 - 1:12pm Have not received call back from ** -€“ Contacted Cingular representative ** answers the call I ask to be transferred to her manager. ** states she is looking at the account and wants to relay to her manager what this is regarding. I indicated that I have gone through this numerous times and I just need to speak to a manager. She asks if it is regarding my deposit being applied to the account as she sees notes regarding previous interactions regarding that issue. States she does not see where it has been applied and will locate a manager for me to speak to.

** comes back on the line and indicated her manager would not be able to do anything she would need me to speak to the receivables manager. I stated that is what ** indicated he was doing. She said she would like to submit a case as it appears a "œcase"€ has not been opened yet. Stated the deposit may have been applied by another department and she would research where it was received. I stated that I have been dealing with this since March 20, 2006 almost two months and I just need a manager at this point. I indicated I would be filing a complaint with the FCC and obtaining a lawyer if a resolution is not met immediately.

She stated she completed the case and wanted a number where I could be reached when there is resolution to the case. I ask again to speak to a manager. She asks me to hold and once again the call is, whoops disconnected. I immediately dial back and Representative ** answers the phone I ask to be transferred to the Receivables manager she states she needs to get some information about what this is regarding. I indicate it has been documented in my account what this is regarding and I need to be transferred to a manager immediately that I am not releasing any further information until I am speaking to the receivables manager.

I am transferred to a **. I ask if she is a manager she says no and states she will get a manager on the line. Gus gets on the phone. I ask what his last name is as I am documenting every thing. He says his last name is Anderson as well and he is a senior representative. I ask if he is a manager, he says no however he is able to assist me. I state NO, I have spoken to numerous representatives who have indicated they can assist me but to date nothing has been resolved and I would like to speak to his manager. He says he needs to place me on hold for a moment while he locates a manager.

I put my phone timer on and about 4 min and 38 seconds later he gets back on the line and says his entire managerial staff members are in a meeting. He states a case has been placed and we need time to review this concern and will get back to me. I stated this has been referred to collections, and if the collection agency is not notified by May 24th this bill will be turned over to collections. He says they should have a resolution in my case by May 25th and will respond by May 25th. I ask him how that will help as the bill will be turned over to collections ONE day prior.

He stated again a case has been documented to find my $200.00 and he will contact me when a resolution is met. I state this is ridiculous and completely non-compliant with appropriate business practice. I as stated time and time before want to speak to a manager. He repeats no one is available. I ask where he is located. He stated he is in the Portland Call Center. I state I am not satisfied with our conversation and I want to speak to his manager. He starts talking and without letting him finish I say again. I DEMAND YOUR MANAGER IMMEDIATELY, and again, approximately seven times while he continues to try to get me off the phone.

Finally he says a manager has presented out of the meeting and is available to speak to me. He states his name is ** team manager in the Portland Management Center. I go over the past several attempts to rectify and keep my account in good standing. After listening to my concerns he indicates he sees where the $200.00 deposit was applied and it was actually applied on my first billing cycle and would not be available to utilize at this time. I am appalled. I ask why has taken almost two months of time and energy to get a simple answer such as this. He states he does not know and can understand my frustration.

I state I appreciate his acknowledgment. I ask him I can make payment arrangements as I am now faced with a $436.96 bill. I state had I been told from the beginning I would not be able to utilize my deposit I would never have cancelled the service. $150.00 of the $436.96 is due to terminating the service early. I ask him if I can make payment arrangements. He states the latest he can extend payment would be June 9th. This now gives me less than a month to pay this off even though I have been attempting resolution for almost two months.

I state I would like him to do a conference call with NCO Financial the company my account was "€œreported to collections."€ He completes the conference call and indicates payment arrangements have been made and the report needs to be deactivated. I thank him for doing his job and we disconnect. This concludes my determination. Cingular Wireless is the worst company and network available. In my opinion, I would avoid using this company at all cost.

VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA -- What happened with Cingular is: I bought that BlackBerry and the lady told me she would put it on my bill. I call back for 4 days to get a tracking number and they kept saying we don't have it yet. Sooo I decide to pay my bill $450.00 in advance because I know I am going to get charged for the blackberry.

I call back again to get my tracking number and the lady told me my credit card declined. I told her they told me there were putting it on my bill SO THEY TRIED TO CHARGED MY CREDIT CARD ON FILE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Luckily that was my Capital One card I canceled about a month ago and if it was my check card I would have been PISSED.

Soooo I get over it and I'm like I would like to order a blackberry. She told me I couldn't have it at that price without signing a new contract. I told the lady that is the price the lady quoted me and she knew I wasn't renewing my contact and I already have one. I said ** it, not in those words, and told her to charge me full price.

She then said I would have to give her my credit card number. I'€™M LIKE ** I HAVE A $450.00 CREDIT ON MY BILL. She then says that she could not take it off of my bill. I asked to speak to a manager and she comes back 3 times, after putting me on hold 10 minutes each time, and says that she has a new idea. I still demanded to talk to a manager.

One finally comes on the phone and he tries to resolve it and makes these promises that in the end were not kept. Such as renewing my unlimited minutes for another 2 years and I would get the cheap phone price. So they decided they would credit my card back: NOW I HAVE TO WAIT 7 DAYS TO GET MY MONEY BACK.
I had more money from selling stuff on eBay so I decide to order the blackberry still. I call to order and they TELL ME I CANNOT HAVE THE BLACKBERRY ON MY UNLIMITED MINUTES PLAN. I talk to two more rude ** managers and like 100 customer service reps who have no clue how to do their job.

I then call my local Cingular (they are a lot better and know about former SunCom customers). I asked them if it was possible to keep my plan and have a blackberry data plan. They said yes and they have plenty of people that have it the way I want my account. The only thing is they didn't have any blackberry 8700c in stock and they didn't know when they were getting any. I finally gave up and got a T-Mobile sidekick. THE END! Cingular has the worst customer service ever. When I first signed up with them my bill was over $1,000.00 a month for 6 months until their dumb ** found out how to fix it. They make me sick.

DALLAS, TEXAS -- I had Cingular Wireless about three years ago. I only had the account for a short time (about 4 months.) During that time, they charged me outrageous billings ($300-$400 each) on a $59.99/month plan. If 15 people had been on my phone I might understand these crazy charges, but it was JUST ME and there was just no way that I, by myself, made $400 dollars worth of phone calls in one month, let alone every month for three months. Of course, the plan that I had done not 'allow' Cingular Wireless to provide me with a "detail" of these inane bills... but if I wanted one, Cingular Wireless wanted to charge me $5.00 EVERY TIME I NEEDED A DETAILED BILLING.

In other words, they could not prove that I was making these calls, and yet when I asked them to, they still wanted to charge me MORE money. I finally had to break down and pay the freakin' $5.00 to get MY OWN BILL. When I got it, it was like 40 pages long... NOT ONE OF THESE CALLS WERE MINE. They obviously had my # confused with someone else's.

When I called them back to complain and prove that I did not make any of the calls, I finally got a hold of one of their agents that looked at the account, and said, "Oh I see that we have made a terrible mistake. We are going to send you a refund of $209.34 because that is how much you overpaid for two months' worth of errors." I said thank you very much and hung up. Miraculously, the check for my refund, did finally come.

However in the meantime, Cingular Wireless CONTINUED to charge me erroneously, for two more months. I called them to tell them I refused to pay the bills until they provided me with detail at NO CHARGE since I had already PROVEN that they were screwing up my account! Did they ever send me the detailed billings? Well, here's what they did. They sent me detailed billings of the FIRST TWO MONTHS that they had ALREADY REFUNDED ME FOR. Over and over and over. Like three times!

Every time I got the same bills over and over, I kept calling them and explaining to them that they were sending the WRONG BILLS, and the customer service (haha) reps always said something like, "Well if you want the RIGHT ones, we'll STILL have to charge you $5.00 EACH." I never paid them another dime and got service with another company within a week. I threw the phone away (literally) and wrote Cingular a letter stating that until they could prove that these continued errors were theirs, they would not get another dime of my money and the phone was gone, the account closed.

Well of course in the manner of Cingular that we've all become accustomed to, Cingular continued to bill me for months, and THEN tacked on a cancellation fee on top of all the other erroneous charges. They continue to send me threatening letters stating that they are going to take me to court. Well BRING IT! I still have a copy of my REFUND CHECK from 2003 from you FREAKS!

METRO DENVER, COLORADO -- I just cancelled my account with Cingular Wireless because of their legendary anti-customer no-service. My story goes back about 3 years now. I started my account with AT&T through a promotion from my office. Things went along fine for the first year right until I wanted to upgrade my phone and increase my plan minutes. I missed the 'grace period' by about 12 days and my 'contract' was automatically renewed for another year.

I tried to live with it but my bills kept growing almost monthly, so after about 5 months of ridiculous billings I called and complained because I wanted to get a better deal as my phone usage had gone way up, so they relented and moved me to a local plan with more minutes for a 40.00 monthly increase on my original base price and another two years contract, but no phone upgrade. Again I tried to make that work although my ancient analog phone line kept dropping calls and the phone didn't work at all at my home, the overage charges stopped but my average bill was around 125.00.

I called them early this year and asked them to take a look at my rate plan and see if there was anything that could be done to improve my situation, and to see if they could give me an upgraded phone or a discount on buying one. They only would offer me a new digital phone that I would have to buy at 130.00 and then I would have to agree to another two year contract to get a better rate plan. I decided to try to finish my current contract, so I could switch carriers.

Then I travelled to Las Vegas in April and Phoenix in July of this year and was assessed roaming charges for making calls to my home state from these cities, I didn't argue the bill for the Vegas calls but when the billing came in for the Phoenix calls I really raised the roof - you see originally (3 years ago) Phoenix was included in my calling area. Well when I changed my rate plan apparently my calling area changed, a new map was never sent to me nor could I access a map online for my rate plan - they no longer offer the rate plan I am on so they don't publish information about it on their website. I asked for a map in August, it was never sent.

I argued with their customer service department to no avail - I was told at least 22 times to refer to my service agreement in one phone call. Well last weekend I went to my local mall and shopped the various competitors and was quoted rate plans, free phones, better coverage area etc. and then gave Cingular one more chance to make things right with me.

After explaining the entire history to them and explaining that at least 3 of their competitors not only can do better but wanted to do better, I was informed that my credit with them wasn't good enough to inspire them to match a competitor's offer, granted with the massive bills (including roaming charges) I have been trying to pay. I have been behind for about the last 5 months. I spoke with 3 representatives over a 1 hour phone call to make sure they didn't want to perform any customer satisfaction then I cancelled my service, I am 4 months shy of my contract renewal date so I will probably have to pay some exorbitant cancellation fee but all in all it's worth it.

I signed on with my new carrier, received a free phone the same day and they even threw in a free car charger just because they were so happy to have me. I talked to a friend last night on my new cell phone from my couch in my living room which was great and so much more comfortable than having to sit on the sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house with my head pointing to the east to keep one bar going, like on my old phone.

I also look forward to encouraging my employer to change carriers (aprox 100 company owned and 350 personally owned Cingular customers) as I just volunteered to be on the committee for expense reduction for next year. Cingular is just about to find out the power of one voice.

Absolutely AWFUL customer service. I purchased phone online from Cingular website for $29.99. SIM card sent w/ phone didn't work when activated. Called to get situation fixed and was told a new SIM card could be shipped for free in a week or I could pay $15 for overnight FedEx shipping. I was not happy about paying for their mistake, but I needed my phone for work purposes, so I charged the $15 to a credit card and had them send it overnight.

When it hadn't arrived a few days later, I called FedEx, and found out it was in transit, but that I was lied to - they don't offer overnight shipping. It took almost a week to receive the card. Called back when I finally received SIM card, set up service on a prepaid basis. Plan included 400 daytime and unlimited night and weekend minutes for $49.99 plus tax. It also comes with an option to add money to account in $15 or $25 increments before monthly recharge date if you are running low on minutes. I asked specifically if I needed to be signed up for automated billing in order to use that service. They said no.

About 2 weeks later I was running low on minutes, and called to add $15 to my account. I was bounced between 4 different representatives to get to the right department, then had to talk to a fifth person within that department. I spend 43 minutes on hold for this. They told me I could not add money, but they couldn't tell me why, so I spent 21 minutes on hold waiting for a manager. She was incredibly rude, couldn't answer my questions, and finally hung up on me.

I called back, had to do the same thing all over again, spent a total of 1 hour and 38 minutes on hold and talked to six more people to find out I couldn't add money because I was not on automatic billing (I had been lied to). So I requested to be signed up for that, but they said I would have to pay for another full month ($49.99) to do it, and the minutes would only be good until the next scheduled recharge date. Was incredibly unhappy for being lied to and asked for a credit or other comparable solution. They refused and would not let me speak to a higher manager.

So I was almost out of $ on my account, and quit using daytime minutes completely, but my balance was still going down. I called to ask why and was told I was charged by the minute for voicemails that other people left for me. This is not stated ANYWHERE in their fine print or on the website. I requested a refund or credit since their charges were not in writing, and they refused, and again would not let me speak with a manager and hung up on me.

So I was fed up and I called to find out how to return the phone and get a refund so I could switch carriers. I have only had service for 3 weeks, but remember that week I spent waiting for the SIM card? Because of that I have had the phone for exactly 30 days and therefore they will not issue a refund. I have had horrible service, many rude representatives, and absolutely no resolution regardless of how many times I complain.

SUFFERN, NEW YORK -- I opened my account in February of 2005. I ordered two phones, two phones lines and two car chargers. I received four of everything, two of each in the first package, and two of each in the second package. A customer representative told me on 2/10/05 that a call tag would be issued and the phones could be returned at no charge.

On 2/15/05 I called customer service again to find that the call tags had not been issued and no notes were made on the account, billing for both accounts had begun. I was told again that one account would be closed with no charges and a call tag would be issued to return the extra package of equipment. On 2/26/05 I called again and spoke to **. She informed me that no notes had been made on either account and no call tag was in the mail. I shipped the phones back to Cingular that week, received a credit for the shipping, but continued to be billed for an account that was supposed to be closed.

Meanwhile, on the account I was using, roaming charges were appearing on my bill when they were supposed to be included in the plan. The plan that was recommended to me started out costing me $300 a month. When first purchasing the plan I stated that my husband would be traveling to Canada and we would need to use the phones in the US and Canada. I was advised to purchase a family plan with roaming, long distance and roll over minutes included. Little did I know that the roaming and long distance were not effective for calls in Canada.

On 3/19/05 I spoke with **, first about the account, which was never activated and supposedly closed. I was informed that the balance of the "closed account" was past due and put into collections. After 40 minutes on the phone ** assured me he closed the account and the balance was waived. My second issue with ** that night was the roaming charges on my bills. The first line of the account never left the Rockland County area and should not be acquiring roaming charges.

He told me that other customers were having this problem; competitor'€™s towers were picking up Cingular customers. He told me that the problem would probably be resolved internally by the next billing cycle and to turn my phone off for at least ten minutes a day to allow the signal to reset.

Toward the end of April I received a mailing for Cingular World Basics. I called on 5/1/05 and spoke to **** asking what I could do to lower the charges for calls to and from Canada. At that point she recommended adding the World Basics to my plan, apologizing that there was nothing Cingular could do about the calls being made from Canada. Because I was a new customer she could not add the plan right away, she informed me that I would receive an email or text message when/if I was approved and the World Basics plan activated. I received nothing. On 5/15/05 I waited on hold for 45 minutes and hung up.

6/1/05- I spoke with **. He told me I had been miss informed about the roaming charges on my account and the only way to investigate them was to open a case and submit my bills from January to present for review. I was told that while the review was in process I would not be able to obtain any information or updates as to the status. I would be contacted by either phone, email or text message when the review was complete.

At that time the charges would be explained and corrected if need be. I asked ** if I should be paying the entire amount of the account. I was advised not to pay the amount in question; "€œmake payments for the basic plan, but wait to see what the amount is when the credits come through from the investigation, you will still receive past due statements but your service will not be interrupted because the account is in review."€ He also informed me that my other account was in collections and a payment was required, (this was the "closed account."€)

After explaining the situation to ** I was transferred to **. SHE WAS ONE OF THE ONLY TWO CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVES WHO EXPLAINED WHAT WAS WRONG AND ACTUALLY FIXED WHAT SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO FIX. It took her another half an hour, but she finally closed the extra account, 5 months after 3 other people had "closed" it.

6/14/05 - ** informed me that the account was still under review and she would not be able to inquire as to its status. I asked her what to do about payments and past due statements, if I should pay the amount in question or not. She advised me to pay the total for the plan and taxes only, not to pay the amount in question and ignore the past due statements as they are computerized and sent out even though the account is in review. I submitted a payment with ** that day for the amount of the plan and taxes.

7/18/05 - Still no notification about the review on my account: I spoke with ** - the account review was completed on 7/14/05. They decided the charges were correct and over $1,000 is due. She stated, "€œThey are not required to notify me of the completion or decision."€ I asked her to have someone contact me to explain the situation if she could not. She said she would submit the account again for review and make a note for someone to notify me when the review was complete.

7/19/05 - My service is disconnected with no notification or warning. I called customer service and spoke with **. She was blunt and refused to listen to anything I had to say. She repeated over and over that a payment of over $480 was due; until payment was made my account could not be reinstated. I asked to be transferred to a manager and ** refused. I had to say on the line and listen to her tell me that a manager could not do anything for me and I was wasting my time; this went on for 10 minutes before she finally transferred me to **. Molly had nothing say except pay the account. At this point I had been on the phone for an hour and a half, I was angry, embarrassed, frustrated and belittled; ** was of no help so I hung up.

I calmed myself down and called back 20 minutes later - I was on hold for 25 minutes, then the customer service representative could not access information for the region I was in. He transferred me to a closed telephone line, which disconnected me. I spent a total of 4 hours on the phone this night to try to resolve my situation. The last customer service representative I reached said the service for my region was closed and no further information would be accessible this night.

7/20/05 This morning I spoke to **, (WHO WAS THE SECOND REPRESENTATIVE THAT ACTUALLY TOOK HER TIME AND TALKED TO ME NOT DOWN AT ME). She explained what the account review was, what happened during the review, what the decision was and FINALLY what that decision meant. She told me she would transfer me to billing where I would be able to work out a payment plan and have my service reinstated this day with a waived re-connection fee. I was transferred to ** who told me I was misinformed; I could not have a payment arrangement, and service would not resume until the entire amount is paid.

Again I asked to be transferred to someone in the financial department, as ** said only they could make this decision. She told me they do not take outside calls, I asked her to contact them about my situation, she said it would do no good, the only thing she could do was transfer me to her supervisor. I asked her to transfer me to someone who could close my account; her response was "œwhy?" I was transferred to **, who told me that as long as my account was past due it was as good as cancelled. She clearly stated that no other charges would amount from month to month; "this is the same as the account being closed, you won't get any more charges."

After spending over 15 hours on the phone with customer service representatives; receiving conflicting information, not receiving information about plans which would of benefited my situation with my husband in Canada and being told should not expect to be informed or contacted when charges regarding my account have been decided - I would like to make a final arrangement with Cingular to take care of the ridiculous charges accumulated on my account. I would like to deal with someone who can give me accurate information in a civil manor not making me feel like I am unintelligent. I feel I have been dealt with very dishonestly.

NEWTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA -- I have never had to work so hard for the privilege of giving a company money for poor service. My bill has a charge for what they call "DirectBill Charges." The bill does not list what these charges are for. The bill sates "To view detail go to www.cingular.com/db."

When I log into this site it prompts me for a log in. This page is a very long list of things that I may buy from Cingular (remember that I am trying to find out the detail on my bill, not add to it). I scroll up and down the site searching for anything that says Bill Detail or billing or Customer service or - nothing. I select Contact us. They have a phone number. I call and go through several menu options (non of which say talk to a representative). I final "0" out and wait on hold for a while only to find that they don't have customer service on Sunday.

I go back to the website and search on the contact us page and find something that says email. I think to myself - good, I will just email my issue to them. I select this and find that it is a service to email anyone (but not them). They don't provide an email address for customer service. I suspect that if I were to use this email service it would probably appear on my bill next month as a DirectBill charge (is this their way of generating more revenue).

I go back to contact us and find a pick for billing information. I select it. I scan the quick links - nothing about explaining your bill. I see that there is a pick called "Additional charges on your bill." Now I think that I am actually getting somewhere. I select it. It prompts me for a zip code and tells me about the regulatory fees. What about the other additional charges?

I return to so called Customer Service and then select the next best option: "Introduction to your bill." I get a movie. The movie shows me a picture of the bill I have in my hand. It has a menu item that says "Problem with your bill?" I select it and takes me to the phone number for the customer service that isn't available on Sundays -€“ been there done that. I try common questions about DirectBill - they have two - what is my limit and how can I buy something. Useless.

Next I try "My Account". It has options for viewing and paying my bill. Maybe this will help me find out what the charges are for. I notice that I need to login. Remember that the bill told me to go to a different log in screen for details of my bill. The login for "My Account" is different than for DirectBill. I login with my new login.

I navigate to "My Bill" to see if I can find the detail for this item. The online version of the bill does not provide any additional information about the charge. I see a pick for customer service. I select it. I am back to the previous page of customer service that got me here in the first place.

Two logins one phone call and an hour later I have no more information than I did by just looking at the bill. I would be happy if someone would actually let me communicate with a person at Cingular and explain the bill. What a concept.