422 dollars?!?! What the hell is this all about?!?!

The BBQ Pit
1

When I was in Tech School, I made the mistake of getting a cellular phone from Cingular. They had what appeared to be a very good deal, and I could call Robin while I was there and not have to worry about paying murderous bills.

Well, when we finally got married and moved in together, I didn’t need to be paying 80 dollars a month for my cell phone because I just didn’t need to use it so often. So I called Cingular and took advantage of their clause where I could change my rate plan at any time. So far, so good.

Well, today I got a bill for 422 dollars and change for this last month. I’m still in awe, so I’ll type that again, just to make sure my eyes aren’t deceiving me. 422 dollars.

I do believe that my ass has been thoroughly reamed out here, and I didn’t even get the courtesy of some Astroglide to make it easy on me.

The deal is this: 250 anytime minutes, 1000 night and weekend minutes, with no roaming fees, a fairly standard Cingular deal. At Fairchild while I was there for Survival School I talked with Robin once a night for the first week and then 4 days out of the next 10, and I always kept the calls relatively short so as not to exceed my limit.

Well, all of the sudden and with no warning, they made EVERY SINGLE ONE of my calls a roaming call, at 79 cents a minute.

Does anyone else see something wrong with that? I do. It’s glaringly obvious. They either think I’m just gonna pay it like a good sucker, or they misrepresented themselves when I changed my deal. If the latter is true, I wouldn’t have done it, clearly. Further, the change in rates was not verified with me in writing, so if they didn’t tell me, they defrauded me. And this isn’t the first time they’ve done that to me, either.

The first time was when they said that wherever I moved to I could get a local number. Hell, they sell phones here in Harrisburg, so it shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Wrong. They say they have no towers here so I can’t get my number changed, so every call to this phone is to Mississippi, more or less.

I’m tired of the lying, the misrepresentation, the sheer bullshit from these people. So, what I think I’m gonna do is call them, get the bill squared away, and then call the Better Business Bureau and lodge a complaint. After that, well, we’ll see. I am not a very vengeful person. In fact, I’m quite patient. But this, my fine friends, cannot and WILL not be allowed to stand.

I implore all of you, each and every one of you, to listen to me here:

If you ever get a cellphone, DO NOT go with Cingular. For your own benefit.

[sub]Yes, I know about Cingular sucks. However, I didn’t when I got the phone. Shame on me.[/sub]

2

I completely agree. I can’t use my cell phone in Rockford when I go and visit my SO because the roaming charges are absolutely phenomenal. Interestingly enough, I can use it in Valparaiso, which is the middle of friggin’ nowhere.

Incidentally, I also have Cingular as my service. Cingular sucks. Unfortunately, my parents won’t switch the service. But, hey, they’re payin’ for it…if they wanna be stupid, that’s fine by me.

…I know that didn’t help. I just figured I could give you an “I know how you feel” thing.

3

Dude, I have not one but two cellular phones from Cingular. When I first renewed last year, the girl talked so fast that I failed to impress her that I wanted as one of my ‘goodies’ free long distance and no roaming charges. Well, yeah, you guessed it, they charged me long distance on everything that first month…60 bucks worth. I called them ready to ream them and they immediately offered to change my options and reduce my bill by the amount of 60 dollars. So, a year later, I’m still with them. Recently their service has improved (we used to get blackouts in certain areas, but no longer), and I have to say they are great here. We pay $50 including tax for 2 cell phones one Nokia, one Erickson, both initially free.

BTW, I live in California.

I know people with ATT, Verizon, Sprint and Cingular. Some swear by theirs and others have complaints. The only one that no one likes is Sprint. :rolleyes:

Give their service center a call (*611 on your cell any time day or nite) and bitch loud and clear.

4

In my area, they ( Cingular) are the best and have the best deal for what I use.

That being said, I do not think they are good at customer service. I have to stand in line to be assisted by incompetents who do not know what is going on. All the good people have left the service desks where you go in person when you get tired of beating your head on the wall over the phone. I hear these stories from a lot of folks about all the company’s.

[Advice]
Never change anything unless it is done in person and you get a copy and you SEE it done on the computer at that time. Yes, they can do it right then. Make them.
[/Advice] :: I did not say you should take it… :: sheesh ::: it is ADVICE ya know:::

It will still be a mess but you might have a little better starting place. YMMV

5

Dispute the charge, in writing, with proof of delivery.

Terminate your service.

If you want a fight, don’t pay - let them sue, you respond, under discovery, demand all writings they have showing you agreed to the terms they imposed, yadayada…

If you go that route, see a lawyer - I suspect that a letter on a legal letterhead might be enough to make them see the error of their ways.

6

Being a Cingular customer myself, and having dealt with their “customer service” before, I have to (partially) agree with happyheathen- call the service center- they messed up, most likely due to being inept (has anyone noticed the severe and rising problem with CSR’s not being able to listen to what a customer is saying/asking anymore?), not necessarily out of a plan to screw you.

They’ll fix it, and credit your account with the difference.

Be warned: be polite and take down names of everyone you speak with before beginning to register your complaint!

I switched from a higher rate plan to the same one you’ve attempted to switch to, with no problems, and no unexpected charges.

Where I MIGHT disagree with happy… is in cancelling your service altogether. Have you fulfilled your initial contract period (2 years, I think)? If not, then you have most likely signed a contract that allows them to charge something ridiculous like $150 for early termination. So if you call up all angry and threatening to cancel, it’s quite possible that you will be met with little help in correcting your current bill, and they’ll gladly cancel you and tack on another fee on top.

Just take a deep breath- you won’t have to pay this- I know how much it sucks to have a large bill like this hanging out there unresolved, but if you make all your calls to them right now, it will be taken care of.

Don’t go the route of letting them sue you (at least until you’ve exhausted all other options)- it MIGHT affect your credit, and at the very least, you’re going to have deal with the headache of convincing everyone involved that you’re in the right.

Good luck

-j

7

I missed the part about the phone number problem- I don’t really know what to say to you about that, other than to try to get out of the contract without paying the fee, due to their inability to provide you the service you need in your area.

8

As someone who used to work in the cell phone industry, let me assure you that I have heard these kind of stories about every provider out there. The trick is to choose the best plan for you, and keep a close watch on your bill. (I will honestly say that at the company I worked for, I could choose customer’s accounts at random and find billing errors on probably 75% of them. Most went unnoticed, I fixed what I could but the turnover rate is so high at these places that no one is properly trained, and the accounts were not set up right.) Also, plans change so rapidly it is hard even for the salespeople to keep up and know the important details about each one. I’m not excusing them, I ‘m just saying that switching companies may or may not improve your situation. I am extremely thorough when I look at any companies’ plans or billing system now.

That said, do call and explain your situation, you should be able to get a credit. At the company I worked for at least, if we did not provide service in your area or a customer moved to a place we could not provide service, they could get out of their contract without penalty. It was probably simply a mistake of the sales rep not understanding what area you were in, and not recommending the right plan to you. Believe me, we did not recommend bad plans to people on purpose to get more money out of them, we knew they would be calling back upset, and we didn’t want that. I doubt this was intentional. The person you dealt with was probably just an idiot who was never trained right. Makes you feel better, huh? :wink:

As far as them not providing the change in writing, did you call them and ask for a new plan? We were allowed to change plans at any time over the phone without signing anything. It caused all kinds of problems like the one you describe, because customers were not told all the details or did not understand, or were not able to get a map showing the coverage area clearly. If you call and explain, try to remain calm. The customer service people are used to getting complaints like this, believe me, and usually have some discretion over who to credit. Ask to talk to a supervisor if you have to, but don’t get abusive. Actually, you probably will have to talk to a supervisor to get a credit this big, most reps have a limit. If they see you have a good history with them, they will be more likely to credit you. People who call every month demanding credits don’t get them, but customers like you who are obviously on the wrong plan are more likely to get a credit. Keep talking to people until you get someone who can help you.

If you do switch companies, I think the best way to pick one is ask around, in your area. Like people have pointed out, one company may be great in one area, and suck in another. Most should give you a trial period when you can cancel without penalty.

For the record, I have a cell phone with AT&T and like them. Their customer service seems adequately informed, and when I did call with a question that the rep didn’t know the answer to, she found the answer for me, and then put a notice on my account that she had told me this, and if my bill was wrong I could get a credit. (AT&T is not the company I worked for.)

9

My reaction would be a registered letter, outlining what the program you signed up for was represented as, then attaching the bill, and saying:

"You have two choices:

A. Reduce this bill to $22 (or whatever is appropriate) on the basis of what the program was represented to me to cost and what services I incurred this month; or

B. Send me another bill for this amount, which I will pay, and then immediately institute suit against you, engaging an attorney on a contingent basis, on the misrepresentation performed by your salesperson, for the full amount of service that I signed up for, plus my expenses in engaging the attorney, plus a requested $20,000 in punitive damages to penalize you for this bait-and-switch billing routine.

Take your pick."

10

I actually like Sprint PCS. My Sprint phone has a feature that was shown to me when I bought by the Sprint sales woman. It sets the phone so it won’t work if I’m out of the Sprint network so I can’t get roaming charges. If I’m out of network the call won’t go through. I could reset it if I really needed to make a call but there have never been any suprise roaming charges.

11

Let me just suggest that a phone call might clear your situation up quicker than a letter ( although documentation of some kind is a good idea). We were threatened with lawsuits every day by irate customers, so they’re probably not going to be impressed by this. Not saying you don’t have a valid reason to be upset, you deserve a credit. But in my experience, threatening lawsuits just makes them dig their heels in more. Believe me, they cover their asses when it comes to lawsuits, it’s easier to get a rep who wants to keep things happy than to deal with their legal dept.

12

You switched to the Cingular Prefered Nation plan… from the Cingular National plan. Yea a huge diffrence there, but I had them explain this one to me before I changed over as well. With the CPN there ARE romaning charges if you go out of the coverage area, thankfully this coverage are covers most of the country with small pockets in more rural areas without coverage. The CN plan however, you could go anywhere in the US and not pay roaming assuming you got a signal. It’s all about the corporate spin…:stuck_out_tongue:

13

Whoa. This boggles the mind. No, really. I’m floored.

Sweetie, if you don’t mind, I’m taking the liberty of bringing this to the attention of Aaron’s Uncle Jeremy, J.D. for the purpose of writing a letter to Cingular.

Robin

14

$422. Wow.

Mr. Pundit and I have the T-mobile Family Plan now. It gives us 800 shared “anytime” minutes, unlimited weekends (NOT nights) and (here’s what makes it great for us) unlimited mobile to mobile minutes. So we can call each other unlimited, as well as anyone else who happens to have T-mobile.

Cost is $75/mo. with taxes.

Good luck fighting Cingular. I’m putting money that they’ll credit you for the erroneous charges.

15

I called those guys and very patiently explained my situation. To my surprise, they were exceptionally helpful and polite. And while they did remedy the situation, they still kinda jacked me up a little bit.

First, they cut the bill, so now it is approximately 1/4 of the total bill, actually a little more. They also changed my plan to something I can use anywhere (incidentally, NPavelka, you were 100% correct. :)) And so, with next month on the new plan, the bill was basically cut in half. Which is OK, but not great, and not worth losing my patience over. None of us will go hungry and the bills will still get paid, so I can swallow it and get it out of my hair.

However… they still cannot change my number due to my location, so it’s still a Mississippi number. That, incidentally, was what was killing my bill.

So, what I think I’m gonna do, is go for another month or two, pay the bill, and then take the $150 hit for early cancellation, because this situation is kinda untenable as is, and it will not improve. Right now, though, that cancellation fee would hurt, so I have to put it off.

And the part that really sucks… the plan they put me on was the 500 minutes flat. The one I had was 500 minutes and free nights and weekends. They can’t put me back on that one, but since I virtually never exceed 500 minutes anyway, I feel reasonably secure that I won’t be screwed again.

I never should have changed the plan, and for a few bucks of savings I got a headache. Next time, my fine friends, I think I’ll be a little more careful in my dealings. But all’s well that ends well, I guess.

Let that be an object lesson to you all. :slight_smile:

16

Airman when Ivylad was in the Navy and we had to break our lease because he was transferred, we were not penalized. I believe it’s a federal law.

Can you do something similar with your phone?

17

I dunno. I probably should have asked, but I was more concerned with resolving this bill.

Thanks for putting the bug in my ear, though. I’ll look into it.

18

Airman,

I feel your pain. Customer service with cellular phone companies has never impressed me.

My sad story:

My wife got a cell phone, and when she got a new job, she got a cell phone through her new company. (No problem yet). She cancelled her phone, and we paid the cancellation fee, which was part of the contract. (Still no problem). However, with a quirk in the billing cycle, my wife actually paid the next month’s bill, even though she no longer had the service. Verizon acknowledged this by sending us a monthly credit statement. For 8 months. Countless phonecalls could not wrestle the money from Verizon, even though they acknowledged that yes, they owed us money, and it “should be released by finance very soon” and sent to us. Finally, my wife got a “CSR” on the phone that told her that it was her (my wife’s) responsibility to find the cancelled check and send it in as proof of over payment, even though they showed a credit on their records.

WTF?? Needless to say, it was the last straw. A final, ugly phone call to Verizon seemed to pop the zit. We got our check. But what a pain in the ass.

19

I hate this kind of stuff. Max, your post reminded me why I hate this kind of stuff - these companies are so hard to deal with that they almost force people to be nasty to them. I think I am a resonable person and I hate being nasty about things, but sometimes it seems I have no choice if I want to get stuff done. :frowning:

20

I may be the only guy in America who doesn’t have a cell phone. Every time I decide I need one, I start in on all these plans, my head begins to ache and I decide I don’t need one after all. I guess I’m stuborn, but if I can have a phone in my house for a flat monthly fee, why can’t I have a cell phone on the same basis?