I am still unsettled with Cingular Wireless and have turned my bill over to my attorney for handling. After having another wireless phone carrier for over a year with no problems I decided to switch to Cingular Wireless after being told by the representative at my local Cingular dealer what a great deal their family plan was.
First bill I received after using the phone two times was for $250, I showed it to a friend of mine who is a business owner and doctor in town and he said take it back to the dealer and tell him to straighten it out. So off I went to ask the dealer how I could have a $250 bill with several pages of roaming calls when I had hardly picked up the phone. He went on to say alot of customers had been in complaining for the same reason and it was a billing error at the home office and he took a copy of my bill and corrected the errors.
Then I received one This was in December in then I had four months of regular bills - average of $65 a month but then I moved out of my town for a new job just a hour away and my April bill jumped to $309.57 with all kinds of roaming charges all over it. I went to my local dealer in the town I was in and they said "Oh you moved out of your area so now you need to change your number or you will be roaming" - I was SUPPOSE to be on a nationwide calling plan - no roaming charges-but
I went ahead and went to my original dealer in my hometown and asked if I had to do this and he said NO. He said it would be fine and leave it the way it is. I sat down and tried to figure out how my bill could have jumped from $71.12 to $309.57, so I analyzed the bill for a total of two evenings after work totalling 8 hours. I am a business graduate and have worked in finance for several years, so am quite capable of figuring out financial data. It was obvious to me there were tons of calls on my phone (most to the same few numbers but listed tons of times) and some to numbers I had not called including 911 and 800 numbers. I figured out the phone had all these overbilled calls so I sent the payment for the ones I thought I had made and tried to dispute the rest. I called customer service and was talked to dirt - even by the supervisor of the department.
Went to my representative and he failed to resolve matter after saying he would when I talked to him on the phone from work. They cut off my phone several times, then sent me another bill after being told by supervisor of department "You think that one was bad wait until you see your next bill" well the next one was for $800. This bill had tons of 911 calls on it many 800 calls, pages and pages of calls I did not make, even a couple made during the time my phone was disconnected, but still no one would resolve the matter.
I wrote the president of Cingular Wireless, along with the Illinois Attorney General, FCC and my US senators office to which Cingular replied with lies and denial of all claims even though it is in black and white and I have copies of it all and so does my lawyer. They charged me a fee on both phones to shut them off even though all the problems were THEIR fault - and now the bill is at a total of $1437.94. I have received several harrassing calls from collection agencies they sent my bill too and have documented all times and phone numbers from calls as well as noting and having witnesses who where there when they called me AFTER I had told them "Do not contact me again by phone at my home or at work".
It is against the law to continue contacting someone after they have requested you to stop and I have now set all of this information on my attorneys desk. They have been instructed to contact him if they have a question with this bill. I would advise anyone else who is having this same issue to do the same.
Joanna
Salem, Illinois
U.S.A.
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