Archived from groups: alt.cellular.cingular (More info?)
Wow! Talk about fun.
Got a new phone last month from Cingular-- a Nokia with a nice screen,
internet access, cool keys. In order to get it, I had to pay off a
past due balance of $45 and I had a current balance of over $250. I
wanted to negotiate that amount before I got the new phone so I called
the 611 number and talked to some guy who said that he couldn't do
anything for me and that his supervisor was out. I was in a hurry (I
was trying to get back to my new house), realized that I had made a
bunch of roaming calls (I was up in Maine for my Mom's 70th birthday)
and even call Sweden to find out about getting a special present and
so I just paid the balance and thought that it was a learning
experience.
At any rate, knew that I had wracked up the bill and when my
girlfriend told me that she had been using too many minutes on her
phone (from her office) so when I heard a radio ad about the new $9.99
Family Plan add-on phone with free service on all calls to Cingular
customers, I thought that it sounded great. I thought that now we can
blab to our heart's content.
When I went into the Cingular store, I used the occasion to complain
about some of the cell holes in our area. (There's one on Route 95
about a mile from my house. My calls drop every time I am driving
through that area.) My salesman told me that everybody's servce was
similarly bad (with holes) and that he was still using a Sprint phone
(personally) because of a contract he couldn't get out of and that he
had the same problem.
So while I was having the new phone set up, I knew that I had been
using the new phone for internet services, etc. and I wanted to see
how many minutes I had used, so that I could decide if I needed to up
my minutes. Howqever, they couldn't tell me my balance at the Cingular
Store or pay my bill at the office(talk about Customer Service!- the
couple behind me, who had been waiting for ten minutes, just turned
around and left (because they wanted to pay their bill). At any rate,
I had just paid my $299.99 bill so I thought that I was still okay
(with my minutes), but they asked me to call their business office
(611).
After getting the phone, I started driving to meet my girlfriend for
dinner and called the Business Office. After waiting for a while. I
found out that my balance was $561.26! Stunning, isn't it?
One of the bad things about having a new girlfriend living across a
state border is that you are subject to roaming charges any time you
visit. Also, anytime you take her to new places like Baltimore or
Maine. Also any time your mother just happens to have her 70th
birthday.
Ouch!
So I talked with the customer service rep (Monique) and she was very
nice, but only offered me $100 off my bill. I asked to speak to a
supervisor. One of the supervisors called me back after about a half
an hour and started asking me if I thought that I could use a service
and not pay for it. I told him that I thought that they should have
told me about these minutes when I was getting the new phone of August
7th and that having been a good customer for 6 years and having never
done this before, I would like him to knock at least half off the
bill. (Actually, I was hoping to knock it down to less than $100
because I had just paid them $299.99 only two weeks earlier.)
He told me that everyone knows that they don't have the technology to
tell us what our bills are until the end of the month and that the
Cingular rep had no obligation to tell me that I had already gone over
my minutes for the month (by a lot) on August 7th. I told him that it
was like the banking business and that we couldn't just go and up
someone's rate from 5% to 25% when they were upping their usage,
regardless of what it says in their contract. A number of banks had
tried that in the past and the consumer protection laws and Attorney
Generals had stepped in to protect consumers on multiple occasions.
Have to go back to work-- will continue later. I'm still hoping for a
happy ending. I talked with a much more reasonable person today. Ready
to take on the world if necessary but would much rather settle this
thing for half, etc. I don't think that it is fair but I don't want to
return my Family plan add-on phone if I don't have to. (I can walk
from Cingular at any time. My original started in 1999 and has
continued month to month ever since and I bought the phone on August
7th rather than take it as part of a contract extension.)
> >=====
> >I would rather have my ignorance than another man's
> knowledge, because I
> >have got so much more of it. --- Mark Twain
> >
> >My blog, Adventures in Matchland, is at:
> >
>
>http
/notmtwain.typepad.com/adventures_in_matchland/
>
>
Wow! Talk about fun.
Got a new phone last month from Cingular-- a Nokia with a nice screen,
internet access, cool keys. In order to get it, I had to pay off a
past due balance of $45 and I had a current balance of over $250. I
wanted to negotiate that amount before I got the new phone so I called
the 611 number and talked to some guy who said that he couldn't do
anything for me and that his supervisor was out. I was in a hurry (I
was trying to get back to my new house), realized that I had made a
bunch of roaming calls (I was up in Maine for my Mom's 70th birthday)
and even call Sweden to find out about getting a special present and
so I just paid the balance and thought that it was a learning
experience.
At any rate, knew that I had wracked up the bill and when my
girlfriend told me that she had been using too many minutes on her
phone (from her office) so when I heard a radio ad about the new $9.99
Family Plan add-on phone with free service on all calls to Cingular
customers, I thought that it sounded great. I thought that now we can
blab to our heart's content.
When I went into the Cingular store, I used the occasion to complain
about some of the cell holes in our area. (There's one on Route 95
about a mile from my house. My calls drop every time I am driving
through that area.) My salesman told me that everybody's servce was
similarly bad (with holes) and that he was still using a Sprint phone
(personally) because of a contract he couldn't get out of and that he
had the same problem.
So while I was having the new phone set up, I knew that I had been
using the new phone for internet services, etc. and I wanted to see
how many minutes I had used, so that I could decide if I needed to up
my minutes. Howqever, they couldn't tell me my balance at the Cingular
Store or pay my bill at the office(talk about Customer Service!- the
couple behind me, who had been waiting for ten minutes, just turned
around and left (because they wanted to pay their bill). At any rate,
I had just paid my $299.99 bill so I thought that I was still okay
(with my minutes), but they asked me to call their business office
(611).
After getting the phone, I started driving to meet my girlfriend for
dinner and called the Business Office. After waiting for a while. I
found out that my balance was $561.26! Stunning, isn't it?
One of the bad things about having a new girlfriend living across a
state border is that you are subject to roaming charges any time you
visit. Also, anytime you take her to new places like Baltimore or
Maine. Also any time your mother just happens to have her 70th
birthday.
Ouch!
So I talked with the customer service rep (Monique) and she was very
nice, but only offered me $100 off my bill. I asked to speak to a
supervisor. One of the supervisors called me back after about a half
an hour and started asking me if I thought that I could use a service
and not pay for it. I told him that I thought that they should have
told me about these minutes when I was getting the new phone of August
7th and that having been a good customer for 6 years and having never
done this before, I would like him to knock at least half off the
bill. (Actually, I was hoping to knock it down to less than $100
because I had just paid them $299.99 only two weeks earlier.)
He told me that everyone knows that they don't have the technology to
tell us what our bills are until the end of the month and that the
Cingular rep had no obligation to tell me that I had already gone over
my minutes for the month (by a lot) on August 7th. I told him that it
was like the banking business and that we couldn't just go and up
someone's rate from 5% to 25% when they were upping their usage,
regardless of what it says in their contract. A number of banks had
tried that in the past and the consumer protection laws and Attorney
Generals had stepped in to protect consumers on multiple occasions.
Have to go back to work-- will continue later. I'm still hoping for a
happy ending. I talked with a much more reasonable person today. Ready
to take on the world if necessary but would much rather settle this
thing for half, etc. I don't think that it is fair but I don't want to
return my Family plan add-on phone if I don't have to. (I can walk
from Cingular at any time. My original started in 1999 and has
continued month to month ever since and I bought the phone on August
7th rather than take it as part of a contract extension.)
> >=====
> >I would rather have my ignorance than another man's
> knowledge, because I
> >have got so much more of it. --- Mark Twain
> >
> >My blog, Adventures in Matchland, is at:
> >
>
>http
/notmtwain.typepad.com/adventures_in_matchland/>
>
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