I had cellular phone service with Cingular and six months after my contract expired i needed a new phone. Naturally i went to Cingular and at the time they seemed to present better deals to new customers and a friend told me about letstalk.
I ordered a phone through them which happened to have service with Cingular. So i called Cingular to ask them about it since i was a little skeptical. Cingular informed me that it was legitimate, i had to sign a completely different contract and as a result i lost all my rollover minutes (about 2000), had to open a new online account etc.
I asked Cingular since they were going to take the old number back could i keep it (so i dont have to ask all me contacts to update their addressbooks). They said this was not usually done and some story about putting it in a pool for 3 months. I begged and talked my way up the supervisor list until i finally got it done for this one time only. They clearly stated that this was not an upgrade of my existing line and i made sure. I even had to keep both accounts open (and paid for both services) for a period of about ten days while the old account was being closed since i kept the new one.
I filed the letstalk rebate and on it made a note of the number change (there is a field on the form stating if you dont like the number given contact cingular). Six months later i receive my rebate and about a month after that i get charged $150 for violating my contract. I call them and they tell me i upgraded my old phone and so did not keep the contract they sent me.
I called Cingular and according to them i did not upgrade but signed a completely different contract. The only contract i have with Cingular had the same account number and information as the one i received form letstalk.
Pretty much letstalk says if you sign a new contract, lose all the accumulated benefits of your old contract, but change whatever phone number was on the contract (which they encourage you to do when you dont like what they give you) it is still an upgrade of an old contract. Even if Cingular says it is not. Pretty amazing.
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