Do any of you use Cingular as your cellular provider?
My girlfriend (Sara) switched over FROM Cingular TO Verizon (which I use) about 4 months ago.Ã, She switched over because her phone rarely worked, even after 1 repair, 2 replacements, and several 'software' upgrades.Ã, It would constantly drop calls, not receive calls, skip voicemails, etc.
She kept her number, just switched providers, so anyway ...
A few weeks back she gets an notice from Cingular saying she owes them $150.00 (USD) for breaking contract with them.Ã, She basically tells them no.Ã, They didn't live up to their end of the contract, so she's not honoring it.
They threatened her with ruining her credit if she didn't pay, and taking her to court.Ã, She told them, "The contract was for the service to my phone.Ã, I rarely had that service.Ã, You didn't honor the contract, so I'm not either."
Then the guy actually told her, "The contract isn't for service."Ã, She replied, "So it's for a plastic paperweight?"Ã, What is the contract for if not for the service to the phone?Ã, Idiotic.
She ended up giving them $75.00 (USD) as 1/2 payment.
This pissed me off big time.Ã, I had told her not to give them a penny ... but she's got perfect credit and doesn't want to stain her record.Ã, I called up Cingular to give them a piece of my mind.Ã, They told me they wouldn't talk to me because my name wasn't on the account.Ã, So I said, "You're going to make me call Sara, have her call you to put my name on there, just so I can then call back?"
"Yes."
"That's rediculous."Ã, Then I hung up.
That night was when I got the toothache and kind of forgot the world for that last few weeks.
Today Sara got 2 NSF (non-sufficient funds) charges on her bank account because Cingular tried (twice) to withdraw money from her account.Ã, Which they no longer are allowed to do.
They tried to take $120 (USD) ... but when she paid 1/2 before, of 75, that would only leave $75.00 on there ... so why were they trying to take 120?
So she calls them and they tell her that there's a block on her account and that she must go into a Cingular location to take care of this.
So let me end this long thread here by saying that tomorrow Cingular is going to REALLY hear it from me!Ã, I'm going to demand they send her back the original $75.00 (USD) PLUS the $30.00 (USD) over-charges on her account.Ã, I'm going to tell them that this is for all the lost-service she had while using the phone.Ã, All the time she paid for the service she wasn't getting.Ã, AND they are going to forget about the remaining $75.00 (USD).
Anybody else have any nightmare stories about this horrible, shitty, pathetic company?
Yeah Darth, I had a Cingular Phone last year - and they kept charging me for minutes I never used.... turns out they charged me for every message anyone left in my voicemail (Which was FREE). I also had calls logged on my account seconds away from each other, which would have been impossible. Finally, I saved my records, and my Dad and his lawyer friend reviewed them, and threatened Cingular with a suit. They backed down.
Don't ever get a Cingular Phone. They suck.
Bt
I've never heard of them but Darth, that story really pisses me off :P I'd be annoyed at your girlfriend paying half too... you can't give in! I hate businesses charging you for THEIR problems... if a busines can't do for you what they're supposed to do, you shouldn't be charged and if you're still with them, you should get some kind of compensation.
Bah!
Phone companys are a bunch of facist assholes. I say you state the first ammendment "free speech" and ask them why there charging you 150 bucks to speak
Damn..
I was thinking about getting a cingular phone. Well, if any advice I can give you Darth the company will not relinquish it's charges on the basis of you just disliking the service. You do have a couple options..
1. Take it up in court.. Good bye money hello annoying time in a court room.
2. Better Business Bureau.. Might not be a bad idea to contact them. The more inquiries they recieve about a company the more likely they are to act. However, don't expect much from them except for taking your information and thanking you..
3. Dispute it through your bank. Unless she uses some podunk bank I garuntee they have a very drawn out dispute system (I work in the dispute system at Bank Of America.. if she uses BofA I may even file her claim..). They will try really hard to push you into settling the matter with the company itself. Insist that the company has one really large head up one really large ass and that you a small simple person do not have the resources to fight a huge business.
They will ask you to send in a crapload of information (any and all reciets and information you can get together about the 'case' only helps) Bank statements showing them where cingular tried to take money giving you fees and such (don't point out the fee's too much or else the cause of the letter will get confused and end up in customer serivce.. trust me. Make it a point that you are pissed about the fee's and you want them taken off just don't make it the central point.)
As well make a well thought out and structured letter explaining exactly what happend. Try to spell check it.. doesn't hurt. As well any forms they send you asking you to fill info out (for the love of all the grows) fill the damned things out. Yes! Even your account number.. don't be scared. You may feel like you are filling out the same crap multiple times (and you will) but just do it.. trust me it makes things way easier.. and makes your claim process faster.
In the end.. someone will review all the information and if they decide that yeah you got screwed over.. your banks big mean scary lawyers will go and bitch slap the company and force them to leave you the hell alone and give you you're money back. If the company still refuses it will move up into arbitration and that is when shit is hitting the fan.. I doubt it will go that far.
Yeah.. you're bank will go bitch slap people for you.. pretty neat huh?.. Be nice to the associate you deal with (they hold your money on the line.. remember) and just follow the steps and slam all should go well.
Pretty obvious which step I think you should take.
Cingular gave me one of the little shit model phones that cost like $30 or something new and an estimated $2 each for them.. it had problems excessive enough to merit replacement three times, each time I had to go to the office, explain the problem, have them inspect it to be sure I didn't mess it up, then get the new one and wait for it to be programmed.
Well, the really shitty thing is that they give you a refurbished phone, which is someone elses broken phone that they tried to fix. They just kept failing on me. The last one I had failed within a day (no kidding) and then when they inspected that one she told me I spilled water on it (I was curtly told, "You didn't know but we can tell that." because she had already asked me if I spilled water on it) and that I would have to pay for a new one. I asked to see the service record, because I'd only had the phone for a day. She told me, "We don't keep service records on our phones." I try not to get mad at her, because she's just an employee and not the root of all evil, but then I say, "Well it looks to me like your service facility didn't fix it and I got a phone that works temporarily so that I'll have to buy a new one." To which she replied, "I'm sorry sir, but there is no alternative."
That's when I got pissed.. "You're telling me that you've given me the third faulty phone in a row and just because your service facility keeps passing on shitty phones, I'm going to have to pay for it? You're going to give me a new phone, and not just a different one, but a new one, and a different model than this one which obviously has fatal flaws in its design."
After about 20 minutes more of arguing, consulting her manager, and me getting more impatient and disgusted, I got a Sony phone instead of a Nokia, and it has worked fine since. Cingular is cheap and their service picks up more than any other wireless companies around here, but damn, their customer service is just shit.
Are these just nightmare stories or just stuff saying that Cingular and SBC sucks because it happened for real?
Quote from: Edwinxie on Thu 01/07/2004 06:15:54
Are these just nightmare stories or just stuff saying that Cingular and SBC sucks because it happened for real?
Both? Cingular doesn't always suck, but when they screw up it's always a hassle to get the problem fixed, and with the knowledge their average employees have, it happens often and with a vengence. I know others with constant problems with billing (like being charged for FREE voicemail or billed roaming charges from a distant tower when they made a call within half of a mile of a Cingular tower with a decent signal).
Honestly, I don't know that others would be better. It's the same contract and the others around here have worse reception.
Cingular sucks! I had to have my phone replaced four times, then they tried to get me to pay for a "new" one....After that I dropped 'em and said that I would not pay the fee for breaking the contract...I said every bad word you could say atleast 20 times each, which didn't make my parents-yes I live with them..Im only 16-too happy. To top it off, We went to our bank's online site and found out that they tried to take $260 from my account! We ended up going to court with them, where they had to pay us $260 (Can't remember why though)- 've never used there service since
Fortunately, I pay by billing rather than giving them access to my bank account (BoA here too, huzzah).
My friend had a sprint phone and it started giving him problems, the service was only so-so. So he called them up, and he got the latest model phone, with a free upgrade of minutes. Just goes to show you, not all cell phone companies are bastards. Some realise, that when you're customers are people, it pays to be nice to them. Becuase they'll tell everyone they know if they get bad service. See above posts for proof of such.
-MillsJROSS
In the UK we have a thing called the "Direct Debit Guarantee" which controls how compnaies are allowed to take money from your account. If they break it, the bank has to give you the money back, even if they can't get the money from the company...
Go Shbaz and Bass! ^_^ Go consumers sticking up for themselves!
I have Cingular, except that here it has an extremely strong signal since they rule this area of the American South. I used to have AT&T Wireless (formerly Suncom when I signed up) and the signal wasn't that good, plus I had the cheapest phone.
It really pisses me off when one can't mess with these huge imperial corporations. They just tear you apart. My friend had his Wallet stolen once, and like in the next few days he owed like $80 to Blockbuster, who was supposed to be recording clients with their security cameras but it turned out that they didn't even record the time when all that stuff was checked ot by the guy who stole my friends wallet. All in all, since the local business is meaningless to the bigger empire, blockbuster sent him a letter telling him to pay. He was eventually suckered in into paying some it, even though it wasn't even his fault.
Darth,
If there's one thing I've learned from my mother-in-law, it's that complaining WORKS. Just keep it up, and if someone at the company is giving you crap, ask to speak to their superior. If that person gives you crap, ask to speak to their superior. Keep repeating until you get results. Don't back down until the problem is FIXED.
Is there someone in your family or your girlfriend's family with a law background, who can review the "contract"?
I've worked for two phonecompanies and I feel that I can safely say that when the price is low, the first thing they cut back on is support. I have worked as customer support for the cheapest company in Norway, and it was a frustrating job. I sat there with no information, no power and almost no breaks, trying to help people who had problems with our service.
I now work at a bigger company (I'm not proud of it, but it pays the bills) and though service is higher, a lot of things still go wrong. Recently the company I work for sold a subscription to a person six das after that person had died from cancer!
I seriously believe this is as close to crime as you can legally get. :-\
Wow! Thanks for all the horror stories guys! It's good to know Cingular is crappy all around (in most cases).
Slypher - Thanks for the helpful advice! I am having Sara call her bank to see about that!
I don't back down to this kind of corporate bullying until there's
absolutely no other option. I'll keep bitchin'/getting noisy with them until they give me what I want. I just hope I don't get somebody like me on the other end of the line ... cause I don't back down to people like me ;)
In the end ... I don't really want to take them to court over so small an ammount of money when the court costs would probably be a lot more than I'm going to court for!
Quote from: Migs on Thu 01/07/2004 16:52:38Is there someone in your family or your girlfriend's family with a law background, who can review the "contract"?
Sara works for one of the biggest law firms in South Florida ;D
I think the bottom line is this:
They told her she owed them $150
She paid them (against my better judgement) $75
They tried to take $120 from her bank account (twice and without permission)
So they did something illegal as far as I'm concerned.
We'll find out soon enough ... 'cause I'm flaming mad about this and I'm looking forward to venting that frustration on them. Not to mention my insomnia is back with a vengence and I haven't slept in 3 days ... oooooh they're in trouble now ;)
Thanks guys!
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Thu 01/07/2004 19:27:04
I don't really want to take them to court over so small an ammount of money when the court costs would probably be a lot more than I'm going to court for!
Four words: no win, no fee ;D
Quote from: Darth Mandarb on Thu 01/07/2004 19:27:04Sara works for one of the biggest law firms in South Florida ;D
I think the bottom line is this:
They told her she owed them $150
She paid them (against my better judgement) $75
They tried to take $120 from her bank account (twice and without permission)
So they did something illegal as far as I'm concerned.
Unless there's something else important you haven't mentioned, their only claim to anything remotely supporting their cause in this entire incident is that there's a contract which supposedly restricts them from refunding the money. It sounds like nonsense to me, but if you can prove conclusively it is, indeed, nonsense and that Cingular is making a huge mistake, the money is guaranteed back in your girlfriend's pocket.
This might not happen in this case, but it has worked when I've complained to various restaurants: If you talk to the right people, you might even get an extra gift in their attempt to retain you as a customer, without any obligation on your part.
If you do go to court, you can demand they pay your court fees, too. Hopefully things won't get this far.
Hehehe... My gf and I went to- I think it was Sizzler- anyway, they charged us $65 for two ten-dollar really undercooked meals..She went straight to the manager, who gave us our money back and 7 free dinners--Still haven't gone back ;)