I was an AT&T customer for seven years, and wanted to consolidate my, my wife's and mother-in-law's service. I had to choose between TMobile and Cingular (post-merger). This was in June. I took a long time to research and think over this decision. I chose Cingular because of the rollover minutes. My reasoning was this: I can get a plan larger than we'll probably need, bank some rollover minutes, then switch to a lower plan. I spoke to three CSRs by phone and another in the store when I went to get the equipment, sign up for service, and port my wife's number from TMobile. All though this was the way to go, that the minutes would apply when we estabilished our usage pattern and went to a lesser plan.
Now that it's December, we have banked 3,595 minutes (using about 700 minutes a month and paying for 1400). The slogan was "They're your minutes - you paid for them". I decided to switch to the 700 minute plan. Unbeknownst to me, the policy regarding applying rollover minutes to the new plan changed in September. I (and I assume all of Cingular's customers) were not notified that the minutes that we paid for might be taken away. The policy is that only 700 minutes (or the number of anytime minutes included in the new plan) would be applied to the new service. So I would have to forfeit 2,900 of the airtime I had (over-) paid for. The company is intransigent. They used many fallacious arguments to explain that I was no longer entitled to "my" minutes. I won't go into them here, but none held any water.
I have decided to unilaterally change my policy about paying an early termination fee when I switch (right after I unlock our phones). I refuse to do business with a company that steals from me. I switched to the 700 minute plan and retained all of my minutes after wasting an hour hashing this over with a CSR. They expect me to understand that I can't switch again and retain all of my minutes. They explained that they can't make an adjustment every time I switch plans. They also explained numerous times that they can't notify all of their customers every time a policy changes. They didn't (wouldn't/couldn't) explain why they can notify me by Email each month when my billing cycle ends, but they can't notify their customers in advance of a policy change that affects the customers plan or finances.
Next time I change I won't retain any of my rollover minutes, because I will be changing to a competitor. It's sad, but it's time...
Bill
Scottsdale, Arizona
U.S.A.
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