My wife and I have been happy AT&T wireless customers for years. Then in here comes Cingular merging with AT&T, promising that the service would not change. These were all complete and total lies.
Shortly after the merger, our service with AT&T grew worse, more dropped calls, poor reception, fewer phones to choose from each year. Finally after speaking with a sales rep in Simi Valley, CA, we decided to switch to Cingular from AT&T. Even though the two are technically the same company, a different contract was supposedly necessary to upgrade our phones.
We were PROMISED several times that our contract terms, price, fees, etc... Would not change - that they would be identical to AT&T. We purchased our new phones and went on our merry way.
Then after a month we got our first bill, it was 3 times our normal cell phone bill. We disputed the bill and found that Cingular had indeed changed our pricing terms. They agreed to remedy that on the phone, we took the reps name, time, day, etc... And hoped they would resolve it soon.
Second month rolls around - now the bill is even more out of control, approximately $1000 more than usual because of the fraudulent contract. Again we're on the phone, and they seem to have no idea what we're talking about. Our original salesman in the mall in Simi has gone out of business and can't be found anywhere. This is becoming a nightmare. Again we take down the rep's info.
Finally three months later, the bill has ballooned to over $1700 and THEY are complaining about us not paying our bill. We remind them that the bill is in error, the contract is in error and this is currently in dispute. The call - on hold - speak to my supervisor - wait for 20 minutes - transfer - get hung up on cycle begins repeatedly. We waste approximately 40 hours on the phone trying to resolve this peacefully with Cingular to no avail.
Finally, with the matter still in dispute, we get hit with a $525 termination fee, a $175 fee for each of our three phones. Only problem is, is that we didn't terminate the contract - they did. They insist that we terminated, yet we didn't, not in writing or verbally - anywhere, yet they refuse to drop the fees. These fees push the grand total to Cingular over the $2000 mark and they are still charging calls made to the account supposedly made after they terminated the contract.
Finally we file complaints with the BBB and the FCC regarding Cingular - we have yet to hear from either of them probably due to case loads with this service.
To anyone even remotely thinking about signing up with Cingular, a small piece of very expensive advice - D O N ' T!!! These guys lie constantly and will rob you blind. We were told our service would be restored if we payed a minimum $355. We paid it and were transferred to another service rep who THEN told us that wouldn't restore our service and they needed an additional $500. We finally got fed up and bought Trac Phones temporarily until this gets resolved.
Finally last week we caught the news about the class action lawsuit and we quickly contacted the watchdog firm and put our name in the hat. Also don't buy the bunk about a restriction against class action suits based on your contract - that little sneaky waiver was shot down in two separate court actions. The class action suits will stand up and we're looking forward to some justice...
Again - DO NOT - Repeat, DO NOT use Cingular, they cannot be trusted...
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