Cingular Wireless Consumer Reviews - Page 5

WESTERVILLE, OHIO -- I was very proud of my 12-year-old son. He worked hard cleaning up dog doo and cleaning my office on the weekends to save up to buy his own cell phone and minutes. He found the deal on a refurbished phone he wanted with a GoPhone plan from Cingular. I put $25.00 on my credit card for him for minutes (he paid me in advance) and I made sure he knew how proud I was that he earned everything himself, and could see the value and return on his hard work. The phone came quickly and was very nice, with great reception.

Within 3 days there were charges of over $15.00 on the phone from a ton of text messages, and charges for ringtones/games. He came to me crying that he didn't do any of these downloads, and no one knows his text address. My wife called Cingular and was told that his phone number was re-cycled from someone else, and that that person before must have signed up for those services and those were his messages. They did credit back for the ringtone charge but said it was really our responsibility as were the text messages.

While this is shocking to a 12-year-old that a company can do this, it seems illegal to me that they can sell you something with non-disclosed liabilities. I'm now teaching him how to complain to the FCC and to a local reporter friend (she believes if there is enough people that the "6 On Your Side" guy will be interested). In the end, if he learns not to take it from a big bully company and that he can fight back, it will be a lesson well learned.

MISSOURI -- I had Cingular - at one time AT&T who were great to work with - for over 3 years until late December of 2005. I had tried the year before to get a new phone and keep my number - was more than willing to sign a new contract. They wanted everything from me 2 credit cards, my SS card, my DL and a credit check - despite my being an existing customer with a perfect history with the company - bills paid promptly every month. I refused to deal with all that, tore up the new paperwork - which was NOT signed and walked away from them.

Kept the phone and service with them with almost daily problems with them, dropped calls, etc. I was told it was because my phone was not supported by the network any longer and my calls would be "roaming" due to that. I explained I had tried to get a new phone and what I was being put through. In December of 2005 I switched companies. I called Cingular to cancel my service with them and request a refund of the credit on my account of 128.73. It has taken 5 phone calls and STILL NO REFUND. I was told every time that I called that a check request was entered.

After 90 days and no refund and another invoice with a credit due me I called and spoke with a supervisor. I am being told that it will take 4 to 6 weeks for them to cut my check. They want me to forget about this, but no way. I will tell anyone and everyone how miserable this company is to deal with.

I list this post as informative, because I have been a Cingular Wireless customer for 3 years now, and I really would like to see that no one else makes the mistake of locking into a contract with this company. First of all, don't buy into any 'free month of service' gimmicks or 'free phone' deals from this company, because you get what you pay for.
The service is horrible anywhere outside of a major city, and even then it's not even that great.

As if the service wasn't bad enough, the customer service is probably just about the worst experience I've ever had with any call center in my entire life. They change all of their policy as soon as you sign the contract. Please pay attention to these bad reviews, they are very legitimate.

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA -- I purchased a local calling plan for the Carolinas which does cover parts of Georgia. I knew I would be spending 6 weekends in Atlanta, so I checked coverage map for service. The map was unclear and also stated plainly that it may not be accurate. When I got to Atlanta my phone did not indicate it was roaming, so I assumed all was okay. A month later I get a bill for $632.00 for roaming charges. When I called customer service they informed me that the phone only indicates roaming if using another provider's tower. That seems rather pointless, since the charge is the same if you are roaming on Cingular's tower.

After several calls, they offered the standard 50% reduction, leaving me with a $342.00 bill. Subsequent research has shown that there is actually no way to know for sure if you are roaming or not on Cingular. Having a roaming indicator which does not necessarily indicate if you are roaming seems somewhat misleading. I would never have made these calls from my wireless if I had thought I was paying for roaming charges.

MASSACHUSETTS -- Was told by the company that my phone will not work outside my home area, even though when I bought the phone I was informed it was a national phone. I feel I was lied to by the company because their explanation why it won't work is flawed. I also have trouble IN my home area so that causes more doubts. I am now stuck with 8 more months to a contract for a useless product. I cannot receive calls 90% of the time but I can dial out 90% of the time. This does me no good as I need to be reached on this phone when I am away from home.

I have talked to the company once on the phone (2 weeks ago) and have emailed them twice since then asking for help in resolving the problem. I told them I would be willing to keep them as a provider if they would make my plan work for me. They told me on the phone that I could *BUY* a new phone (like I didn't do that once???) for the service. They have yet to answer either of my two recent emails or any that I have sent in the past. Very uncooperative to deal with.

I am considering sending a third email informing them of my decision to report them to the Better Business Bureau. Due to the lack of any sort of response from the company, I have decided to go elsewhere for cellular service and I will make sure everyone around me does the same.

MORENO VALLEY, CALIFORNIA -- After being with Cingular for over 6 months all of a sudden my husband and I noticed that we weren't receiving our bills in the mail (causing us to be late). So after this happened about 5 times in a row I called them about it. The lady said that I had signed up for email billing. I told that I did not nor did my husband. She then went on to say that I must have since it was activated. Basically calling me a liar. After arguing with her for almost half an hour we were set up to start receiving regular bills via snail mail again. Needless to say before hanging up I found out when our contract was up. What the hell ever happened to the customer is always right!!!!

BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA -- I neglected to pay my Cingular/AT&T bill, that is my fault and I accept it. The ironic part is that I was going to pay my bill online yesterday but needed to add my bank account which I didn't have the account number with me, so I put it off until later last night. Then my phone gets cut off last night. Again, this was my fault, so I proceeded to go online this morning to pay my bill like I intended to do yesterday, but I cannot get online to manage my account because it was canceled!!

How idiotic, I am willing to pay instantly online to get my service back but I can't. I've canceled a credit card and was still able to get online to view my previous statements. Again, I know this was my fault, but I should still be able to get online to pay my bill!

Cellular phone companies are leasing public radio frequencies and acting like they OWN them. WE OWN THEM and it is time to get them REGULATED. First off, the company will not respond to you. So, send them and all listed below your complaint. Make sure that EVERYONE gets the list of CC: recipients at the bottom of their copy. When government agencies know that other agencies are also working on a problem NO ONE IGNORES IT.

Then send copies to: Your State Attorney General, The United States Attorney General, The FCC and The FTC Consumer Protection, Your Senator and Congressman, Your Governor and The President, Your local TV Stations. I have used this technique on several occasions.

LAKE HAVASU CITY, ARIZONA -- I am absolutely disgusted with the service I've gotten since day one. I have dropped calls on virtually every call made or received. When I'm not dropped the person I'm speaking to can hardly hear me. Most of my city has no signal which makes it quite useless. Even my charger broke after just three months. (Amazingly I never had one break the whole 6 years or so with Sprint!) The customer service is frustrating! They changed my phone once as a "courtesy" but can only do it once they say.

Obviously it's the service because changing the phone did nothing to improve anything. I might think for a moment this is an isolated incident, but I know it's not. We have three phones on the plan and all three are horrible, not just mine. I am just amazed that a company with such horrible service/signal strength, etc. can stay in business. Of the 4 people that I know that have this service, every single of them is simply waiting out their contract so they can dump it. What does that tell you?

I refuse to wait another year and a half. I do not see how I can be bound to contract that is not fulfilling their end of the bargain. I pay for service, not dropped calls, static and no signal. There should be at least a 30 day period to opt out of these contracts so you can make sure the company is any good! I am so disgusted and angry I could explode. Had I known any of this before, OBVIOUSLY I would have never gone to them for cellular service. Until I am allowed out of this contract, it is my mission to tell as many people as possible how horrible they are.

ATHENS, TEXAS -- Due to the overcharging and deceitfulness of customer service, I now want to let others know how Cingular treats their consumers. We bought our phones one week before the end of Nov. 2004, the woman that set up our account did not in any way inform us that we would be billed for a full month regardless of when the service starts, so our first bill was for a full month instead of 4 days! Next the phones were sending and receiving texts 4 or 5 times with the same message along with the messages showing up days later.

After contacting Cingular about the problem, they informed us there was a 'glitch in the system' and that we would not be charged for texts for the month 'Dec'. One of our phones would automatically call the house. This to was reported and said that we would not be charged! Since all of this, the bills have been coming in and we are being charged for everything that Cingular said we would not have to pay!! In Jan. we are still being charged for texting even though we do not use it anymore??? Go figure!!! And yes we too are waiting on return phone calls from CINGULAR WIRELESS WHO BY THE WAY FINDS NOTHING WRONG WITH THEIR SYSTEM?!