Slightly over a year ago my X-husband went into a Cingular store and signed for a new phone and a contract on my account, without my knowledge. When my bill came in I saw the bill total and called Cingular to ask why this was together, thinking it was a mistake. They said it was authorized on my account at the store in Round Rock. They said my X had my social security so it was okay that he authorized it. Of course he knew my social security number; we were married for 20 years. I told them that I was not willing to pay that bill. They told me my only choice was to pay the contract breakage fee and shut off the x's phone but I still had to pay the bill as I was responsible. I was livid but they told me I had only those two choices; either close the account and pay the contract breakage penalty or have him, the X call in and move the account himself to a different account. The only other option would be to file fraud charges on the X.
I did not file charges and I simply paid the bills for a few months, each month calling to complain but getting nowhere. Then about 4 months ago I got a bill for over 800 dollars.
When I looked the bill over I saw where he had charged a new phone, for over three hundred dollars to my account while I was out of the country working. I had a long phone call with Cingular and the outcome was the same. I had to pay it or have my phone shut off. I had no idea he could go in again and charge more stuff after I had called and complained so much I thought they would never do that becaseu they had it on record. As it turns out, he just got on the phone and called Cingular and they charged the phone and accessories to my account. Didn't they have records on the computer of all of my calls?
Again they told me there was nothing I could do but pay it and if I wanted to shut it off I had to pay for a huge disconnect fee. So I paid the bill.
The worst is yet to come. Even though I was on the phone with Cingular, crying, I might add because of the huge bill, they never told me that he added additional services. He added internet access. I didn't find that out until the next month when there was three hundred dollars extra on the bill.
So I called them and finally the person I talked to told me I could password the account with a second, additional password so that he could no do this again. One of my many questions is why didn't they tell me this months ago when I was complaining? It's becasue they wanted to leave the option open for them to make more money.
Now today again I got another huge bill of his for 180 dollars. It seems it was more charges for the partial month, last month, between the bill and the time I shut it off.
Yes, the X should not have done this but more importantly Cingular could have told me about the passcoding that would have prevented any additional charges from occurring after the very first time I called. I have paid over 2000 dollars under duress of Cingular shutting off my phone which is important to my work. They could have seperated the bills for me jsut like the put them together for him.
I beleive I have a good record and they felt it as long as that was on my account I would make sure the bill got paid so it was just money in their pocket and they didn't have to worry becauee they had me over a barrel.
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