The following are two emails I sent to the president, CEO, VPs, and legal counsel for Cingular on July 21 and July 22. You can get the email addresses at http://www.cingular.com/about/meet_us
Dear Cingular Executives:
As I write this email, I am on hold with Cingular waiting for a "financial specialist." I bought the prepay plan because I was planning to move out of the country and did not want to be in a contract I could not use.
This morning I called Cingular and asked that my account not be debited until I return from Mexico. I was informed by the Customer Service Representative in Alabama that the phone would work in the state of Mexico. She said with a prepay plan that there are no roaming charges. I told her it was my understanding that one must have a Mexican service to use while in Mexico. I tried to explain that Mexico is a country not a state. During this discussion she also said the phone would work in the state of Canada.
To make things the worst possible, she cut the phone off. I called back while at the doctor's office to get the phone back on. You have my $70 plus dollars.
Finally the nurse at the doctor's office had to wait on the phone for me while the next Customer Service rep was trying to straighten it out. He got the phone back and said I have a $40 credit. I know that it was over $70 because I checked the day before and I never use the phone. I later discovered that my money shows up on the computer but it will not be activated until I pay another $39.99 to reactivated the account. What's wrong with this picture?
I have to pay you more money to be able to use the money that belongs to me because you turned my account off without any authority to do so.
I am disabled. I have a minimum of 9 herniated discs. I explained to the male CS rep that I was driving alone through Mexico and if I have car trouble it could be dangerous without a phone.
I had car trouble while in Texas. Luckily I was in a parking lot and some men helped me but if I had been on the highway with a dead alternator I could have been in serious trouble.
If your people screw up, why must the customer pay extra to get his/her service reconnected? Why was my service disconnected at all?
I will be in the state of Mexico tomorrow and my phone better be working. Please have your legal department explain to you the Deceptive Trade laws in Texas. This might also be considered outright theft under the Texas penal code. I will send you the Codes if you need them. If the phone is not working when I leave to cross the border at 8AM, I will file suit. I will send you a certified letter making the demand.
You will probably never read it. I will sue for treble damages, plus any and all other damages you have caused me. The suit will probably not be worth $5000 but it will cost you over $10,000 to defend it. How do you defend it? I asked not to have my account debited and you turn my phone off demanding that I pay more money to be able to use the money you already have.
I think this will be an easy suit to win. Maybe I can get more than $5000 especially if I have any problems on a Mexican road. Read the papers. The Mexican roads are very dangerous especially for an attractive blond female (me) who tries to travel safely by having a cell phone with her.
You need to fire the woman I spoke to this morning. She is a vindictive moron. Please give her a map and explain to her that Canada and Mexico are not states. She probably thinks that Europe is a state.
Pamela D.
Dear Cingular Executives:
This morning I finally got the phone back on at 8:30. Since I was told the phone works in the state of Mexico I expect that that promise is kept. You might want to put a map on the wall of the CS area with a big red line drawn around the US explaining that anything outside the red line is not a US state.
I am including a link to a web site that I should have visited before I chose your service. I know that Texas has regulations about ripoffs like Cingular and I will ask my congressman to look into US regulations.
Trust me, I am disabled, mad about it, read extremely well, get my point across extremely well and I have nothing better to do than go after companies like Cingular. I might be a mosquito on you but as a mosquito I carry every illness a mosquito can carry.
I am your worse nightmare. I will not get a web page to complain. I will email the US Congress and Texas Legislators until Cingular is punished or operating like a normal business and not like the pirate it is now.
Http://usacomplaints.com/reports/ripoff149959.htm
Again, I expect this phone to work throughout Mexico and I want all of my money applied back to my account. The amount lacking is around $30. I think I can easily prove that I had over $70 on the accountn when your CS rep turned it off but only around $40 has been applied. Sad that stealing $30 from a disabled person is so important to Cingular.
Pam
Cc: Stanley T. Sigman
Ralph de la Vega
Joaquin R. Carbonell III
Edgar L. Reynolds
Kathleen L. Dowling
Pamela
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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