Cingular tops in customer complaints
posted Mar 29th 2005 11:10AM
We've heard complaints about every major carrier in the country (no, we're not going to call up the president of
Sprint and bitch on your behalf), but if you're looking to switch and want something a little more official to base
your decision on than that you heard that your sister's boyfriend's dad's co-worker gets crappy reception near Taco
Bell, Consumers Union (the people behind Consumer Reports) have just published a report based on FCC data
that ranks each of the major US wireless carrier in terms of customer complaints. The big winner/loser? Cingular
(combined with AT&T Wireless), which with 299.8 complaints per million customers managed to have the worst record
of the bunch. Either absorbing AT&T Wireless and its
awful track record must have really hurt their standing or Cingular must be raising the bar on the number of
complaints they'll tolerate, because Verizon Wireless had about one-fourth as many complaints per million
customers.
[Via Mobile Gadget News]
OMG, someone forgot to capitalize 'ALLTELL'... RUN FOR COVER!
i have ATT/Cingular and yeah... this seems about right. Actually, it seems a bit low on the billing complaints if you ask me.
I don't know if these complaint figures really tell anything about the companies. None of them are very high to begin with. I mean, Cingular's 300 out of a million is very low, .0003%, and the difference between Cingular and the lowest complaint rate, around 45 per mil. is just .000255%.
For what it's worth, I am guessing a lot of the Cingular/AT&T complaints have to do with the integration. I recently had trouble with my service due to some work that was done to the towers in my area. Otherwise, I've never had any service issues worth complaining about.
But kudos to the graph designer for using three very distinct colors so my monitor damaged eyes don't have to squint to see the difference! :)
#3, These are FCC consumer complaints. Each FCC complaint is much more serious than someone just bitching to customer service. People rarely file FCC complaints, so these numbers are not nearly as close as they might appear.
I had att wireless for 6 years. I lived in NJ and went to school in RI during that time. I can honestly say that, not until this year, i could never hold more than a 10 minute conversation while driving on rt 95 between the 2 states. Coverage was awful. This is a major MAJOR road. Even in NJ the coverage was crap, and I lived 30minutes from NYC.
Secondly, I originally had the bill in my mom's name (thanks mom, you rocked with those bill payments!) but i needed to change it to my name since i assumed that neverending bill. Throughout a 2 year period, i would periodically call to have the bill changed to my name. Only requirement from ATT was that my mom call and verify the name change. Seemed simple enough. wrong. Every time i called they would say i need her to "allow" the name change (and she called them to "allow" the change multiple times for me). I gave up eventually never changing the name on the account (i'm a good son and pay anyway so her credit's all good).
Another thing they jerked me around on was auto payments. I gave them the account to auto deduct from and they said all was setup. 2 months later i get a bill for $100+ saying my service will be terminated. I call and get it straigtened out, eventually. Few months later, after sucessfull auto deductions, i get another $100+ bill, service termination pending, yada yada yada. I gave up and now have verizon. At least keeping my # was no hassle.
AT&T is a known loser when it comes to customer service and satisfaction. The reason AT&T merged with Cingular is, AT&T's customers were leaving in droves after the phone number portability regs were implemented.
I've worked for three different Cell companies, including AT&T Wireless and now Cingular and ATT was the worst. Nowmerger is completing you see a lot of the AT&T Wireless people in top management places and some of the old attitudes are starting to peek through. Currently Cingular is the most aggressive at Customer support, but I'm waiting to see what happens.
In our area the have third party vendors that are very obnoxous and upper management just says, "They bring in the numbers!!"
These numbers are pretty useless unless shown per capita...
Haha, I always knew ATT/Cingular sucked. Glad to see I wasn't the only one. Along with my boycott of Cingular products, I have also done the same with HP/Bombpaq - and have been much happier for last few years!
I wonder how much the fact that Cingular/AT&T are GSM networks has to do with anything. Although, T-Mobile is GSM as well...
I wonder if everyone from Paris' address book counts as T-Mobile complaints or not?
nevermind, they are per captia, my bad
I think this all really depends on where you live. I tried Verizon here in NYC (it honestly has a really good rep here, which is why I tried it) and *every* single call I made - on three different phones - went immediately to analog. The call quality was ok in analog but it also meant that I couldn't use any of the data services either.
Sprint is too overpriced, and their new plans are confusing. I had them for a while and dropped them when my basic family plan (two phones) with *no* options topped $80 a month with taxes included.
Cingular is $65 (includes tax) for the same level of service and I'm happy enough with the quality. I'm on the real Cingular network, from before they merged, so maybe AT&T really is pulling them down, and maybe the "old" Cingular is not that good elsewhere either. But I've got no real complaints with them.
I had a service dispute with Cingular that led to my switching to Verizon a few years ago. I was really happy with Verizon, but got a great deal on an AT&T phone after the merger. The phone is cool. Too bad the service isn't. Way too many dropped calls and dead zones. When my year is up, I am going to go running back to Verizon.
Cellular One? They're #2 on this list and I didn't think they had existed as a carrier for a few years now...
Edward Tufte debunked this kinda of data analysis/presentation years ago. I'm not here to defend any of the carriers, but it's plain to see that the graph does not tell the whole story.
craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. currently have two phones - one verizon and one cingular that i'm switching to - cingular has the good phones but the service i'm not so sure about, verizon has the service but their phones suck hard. damn you cell phone companies!!!
I think it's because the Verizon customers have no idea how to complain about their service.
Verizon techs always tell me the static comes free of charge!
murky waters here...
to add on to comment #6 - the demographic aspects of each carrier mean alot when considering the source of this data. what carrier's clientele is more likely to file the formal and valid FCC complaint?
again, CR seems to lick - oops! - > LIKE < Verizon Wireless as the better of all carriers, even to print it quite plainly at the end of the article.
it has always been my understanding that VZW Customer Service would give their customer the world after enough hoops had been jumped through. i'm sure that heads off many FCC complaints...
Cingular will always get the highest number of complaints, regardless of what they do/don't do. they seem to consider every customer the same as the next, not one better than another. which on a whole, isn't so bad, except that the base level of concern for the customer is set very low below the bar...
and what does "ALL" mean? what do those complaints comprise of?
If this survey was rating daycare providers, I might put some stock into it but quantifying the overall "worth" of a provider on number of complaints is pointless.
As a true cellphone hoe, I've been with nearly every major (US) carrier. Yeah, sometimes they suck. Sometimes they're great. Right now, my friends and I are all on T-Mobile. I know for a fact that all of us get good reception in our respective apartments (in Chicago). We all hang out together and text each other and call each other. I have no complaints at the moment. My service throughout the city is nearly flawless. However, I recently overheard overheard my friend decrying T-Mobile as being terrible. After questioning her, she couldn't come up with one valid reason why she was unhappy with her service.
My mom has Verizon. I never have a problem getting through to her. I never have a problem hearing her when she's on her cell. She has her phone through a corporate account and pretty much doesn't have to worry about typical customer service issues. All this and she tells everyone they're the worst! I'm like Mom, what are you talking about? The only negative point she can ever articulate is how she can't figure out how to switch back to the first caller after answering the other line. Arghh...
The only true way to test a network is the same way we test everything else objectively: through controlled experiments. Get a phone from each carrier, stand at point X,Y, make a call at X o'clock, evaluate signal strength, etc.
This lists the number of FCC complaints so it is valid. I' filed a complaint against ATT with the FCC which finally got them to actually resolve the billing issue. To file a complaint you just can't say 'I don't care for them' or 'somtimes I get static'.
Most of the time these are by people who can't get the carrier to resolve the issue or who continue to have major problems. These numbers represent the numbers of real users who have had enough and taken the extra time and effort to make a formal complaint.
im guessing 75% of those complaint Cingular/AT&T had were because of AT&T. It sucked ass whenever i had it, but i've had cingular for the past 6 months and its badass, sprint was by far the worst service i've ever had.
Yep, Cingular tried to steal $75 of some text messages I was suppose to get for free. But I managed to get them back when I filed a complaint. Then I was suppose to get a rebate and never did.
Post #3... 300/1,000,000 = .0003 or .03%. If you did your math right, its a much larger number. 3 out of 10,000 is pretty big for FCC complaints.
All this talk about cell phones makes me dizzy. I fondly recall the simple yester-days of telegrams and rotary telephones.
I've used Verizon (5yrs), Nextel(4yrs), and now Cingular for 3 years...no comparison. Cingular deals with my problems quicker and more courteously, I have less dropped calls, and the prices including $19.99 unlimited wireless EDGE internet is awesome. I don't know where these figures come from. They don't reflect my experience.
I've used Verizon (5yrs), Nextel(4yrs), and now Cingular for 3 years...no comparison. Cingular deals with my problems quicker and more courteously, I have less dropped calls, and the prices including $19.99 unlimited wireless EDGE internet is awesome. I don't know where these figures come from. They don't reflect my experience.
AT&T and Cingular are horrible. They have an orang system and Blue system, one AT&T and the other Cingular. They are 2 separate enitity although the're supposed to be 1 company.
If you want to merge an account from AT&T to Cingular, get ready to enter hell. I sepent a total of 12 hours talking to unproffesional people. And still can't do a simple migration.
I had cingular for less than a week, the phone they gave me (for 99.00) fried sitting on my desk and they refused to replace it free of charge so i exercised my right to cancel with no fees within the 14 days( 7 days actually, the phone fried the 4th day) also the service was marginal where i needed the phone to work. Now the really great part, i got the phone in January and after 3 months i get a collections call saying i owe over 500 bucks, seems they recycled the number when i got it and i am being billed for a non payment from the person who had it before. NOW i cant get cingular to do anything and the collector will not stop harrassing me , so i guess a super sound in the phone will be my next move along with a BBB and FCC complaint. Any suggestions are welcomed to glhempel@hotmail.com and put cingular help in the RE box
thanks
Gary
I got a phone from Cingular in January and in 4 days the phone overheated and fried itself on my desk. I returned it to the place I got it and they refused to take it back, I called customer support and they again refused. While I had them on the line I told them to cancel my account and I would return the phones. This was done as when I tried 10 min later the phone had no service. I returned the phones and thought all was well. Now I have a collection agency harassing me after 9pm saying I owe over 500 dollars on the account and my last payment was before Decembers billing cycle. This is all the info I have been able to get from them. NOW they say it is too late to dispute a bill I have repeatedly told them I didn't owe I can only assume they are trying to collect from me non payment from the previous owner of that phone number..
Some responsibility has to be put on the people to know the tech w/ gsm and handling the phones. I have Cingular/AT&T and yeah few problems, called cust service, they fixed the error. Price plans are great and one coverage for nation is important where I travel. Public has to take control and remember it is a cell phone, if you want solid service go back to the wire land phones, Cell service is not a guarantee connection.
We had ATT for a year and were really pretty happy with the service. Right when ATT/Cingular merged we started having problems. We had a bill for $ 500.00 Bogus charges are added every month. They can't explain what the charges are for or how they got there. Check your bill - if you don't call and dispute they are $ 30 - 40 richer every month for services not used. I just got off the phone to make a payment and they were requiring me to pay the next bill or my service will be suspended. I have not even received my next bill yet. They gave me a 7 day extension before they cut off my service - How nice of them!! Maybe before the seven days are up I will receive my bill!! Quite possibly the absolute most unprofessional and worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. We cannot wait until our contract is up so we can switch carriers!! DONT
sign up with Cingular Wireless unless you want bad customer service, dropped calls, and bogus charges.
This petition is meant to request that the United States Congress intervene on behalf of Cingular customers who are being billed erroneously. Not many people actually take the time to review their statements showing their call details on a regular basis. In my review of my statement I noticed that I was being charged over $20 to $30 per month minimum for calls to my voicemail from my cellular phone that I was not making. Cingular will not research these charges in depth. It was determined that if even just 1 million of Cingulars reported 50 million customers are being over charged by $20 then $20,000,000 per month are being stolen from customers without them even being aware of it. Cingular customers should take the time to review their statements regularly and stop or reduce using their cell phones to check their voicemail. I am confident that I am not the only person that is being charged for voicemail calls that were not made. Cingular is also over charging customers in regular billing rates monthly. These charges for some customers are causing over draft fees and over limit fees. Cingular should be held accountable to repay all of those charges for their accounting errors. I contacted an attorney and advised Cingular I intended to file legal suit against them for a minimum of $100,000 if they did not refund the fees my account incurred due to their accounting errors. Cingular contacted me within 24 hours to refund my fees after I informed them of my intentions. I am seeking individuals who are willing to help me get the United States Congress and Courts to require accurate billing from Cingular Wireless. In order to assist I am asking that each person review their statements regularly and sign this petition as well as contact the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and file a complaint with them. The FCC has had many complaints and settled a recent lawsuit with Cingular over their practices. Please do not allow the money you work for to continue to be stolen from you! You may also send people to this link.
http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/overcharges/
Thank You,
I recently contacted Cingular to request they replace a phone that was only 6 months old and Defective. The Key Lock feature would Jam and lock me out of using the phone. Finally, the key actually fell off. Cingular told me it was Damaged and not defective, and refused to replace it. I had just renewed another 2 year contract (after being with this company for about 5 years), but I chose to pay the $175 penalty to cancel my contract. All I can say is this company's Customer Service and Products are CRAP.
Same experience here. Cingular/ AT&T has terrible customer service;(details on the link above)
$700 bill. My son bought a cingular plan and told them he was moving to Canada. They sold him a nationwide plan instead of a North America plan. We went to Canada and there was no indication we were roaming. Also the website only gives charges for the previous statement so you cannot see what your current charges are, therefore we could not check how much we were being charged for our current calls. Then his phone stopped working so he could not contact cingular (there is no cingular store in Vancouver). Everytime someone called to reach him even though the phone didn't work, it cost a dollar. For the few days he could use it and didn't know he was roaming, he was charged 80 cents a minute. We were shocked to get a $700 bill. Cingular customer service has a thick candy shell of robots that spews the party line and won't let you through to a supervisor. They say they don't indicate on their phone that you are roaming and don't care. They couldn't care less about their pitfalls and rip offs.
$700 bill. My son bought a cingular plan and told them he was moving to Canada. They sold him a nationwide plan instead of a North America plan. We went to Canada and there was no indication we were roaming. Also the website only gives charges for the previous statement so you cannot see what your current charges are, therefore we could not check how much we were being charged for our current calls. Then his phone stopped working so he could not contact cingular (there is no cingular store in Vancouver). Everytime someone called to reach him even though the phone didn't work, it cost a dollar. For the few days he could use it and didn't know he was roaming, he was charged 80 cents a minute. We were shocked to get a $700 bill. Cingular customer service has a thick candy shell of robots that spews the party line and won't let you through to a supervisor. They say they don't indicate on their phone that you are roaming and don't care. They couldn't care less about their pitfalls and rip offs.
I have been with AT&T since 1999. They have been AWESOME until this merger. I have had nothing but problems every month. In FEB I was going to add my parents to my line of service & WOW!! did the troubles get worse! They told me I needed to go through a whole buch of crappy steps to transfer my folks(they are also AT&T) because they wanted to keep their # on the one phone they had. So, we sent everything back & charged us for the phones which were supposed to be free! (My mom also had said at the time send them back, we are going to have nothing but problems......and boy, did she hit the $ on that!) They tried to bill me for $120, then it was $550 something. After hours on the phone, they finally got it right. Now, I got a bill from a collection agency stating I owe $154 something. These reps need to pull their heads outta their asses! 1 lady told me I never paid for the service & that was from FEB.(Less than a week of service costs $154? I don't think so!!!) I emailed & they stated I owed nothing. Today, my phone is off. The 1 lady said my service has been cancelled since March? There is alot more to my story. I finally today cancelled the service & now am stuck with $175 early cancell fee? It seems worth it!! No more hassles? I will be contacting the Attorney General & the BBB about this! They breeched my contract months ago when they took away all my benefits that I had with AT&T. So, why should I have to pay? Also, see that they have been overbilling me too!! I also plan to call the news stations & see if this is worth a story. I am sick of these big corporations shitting on the little people! I hope people who are reading these will take action & not just complain! We need to do something about this!
I used to be AT&T but after Cingular bought them, Cingular seems to use Hitler type customer service. Cingular must also be hurting for cash, they go right to collection agencies if you are late more than a day or two. I received a bill twice what AT&T was when Cingular took over. I just gladly paid the $150 fee for early termination to be rid of them, early termination fee after using AT &T for 4 years?? We live in a free society??
I migrated to Cingular in 3/05 after 3 good years with ATT. I spent 58 hours on the phone over the next 2 monthts trying to get problems solved. Finally I got through to the "presidents" office in Atlanta. I got help but they even disclosed the problems they have with the people on their system. Every bill brings a new adventure in mistakes and more of my time. They will not let you out of your contract, even when they have made your life miserable.
I literally just got off of the phone with T-Mobile customer service. Well, if you want to call it customer service. I spoke with Rachel who was so apathetic it was almost like speaking to a wall. Actually, I think I was speaking with a wall. To make a long story short, I had switched from T-Mobile to another Cellular company, simply because we could never successfully hold a conversation on our cell phones, ANYWHERE, at ANYTIME. Now, seriously, I'm not kidding. For several months we dealt with this, until finally I just couldn't swallow paying for a service I wasn't getting. These people are crooks from the word go. I have been with several wireless services, and I don't care about great customer service, just give me great cell service, don't overcharge me on my bill (like Sprint does), and I'll never HAVE to call in to speak with customer service. T-Mobile are the biggest crooks in the cell phone industry. Bar none! I can not advise readers that are previewing this article, to please avoid T-Mobile for your own good. Really, they will take your money and when you can't make a call, literally start spitting the contract you agreed too back in your face. These people hire the lowest forms of life known to man. Moronic low life's that will work for these idiots for whatever pennies they throw at them. Is that an insult? No, that's FACT! The first impression is they literally give away the store. Beware! Why would you give away the store if you don't have too. They will be the nicest people to you on the initial sign on, but God help you if you have bad service (which you will). Suggestion, get the name and id# of the person you speak with. Not that this will help any, because they don't care. As much as they give away the store, they simply just don't care. Someone has got to start regulating these companies. When we switched we were charged $200 per account. So we have to pay $400 just to switch companies. Is it me, or is there something wrong with this? Sooner or later it's going to creep up to $500 per account for early withdrawal. Then what? STAY AWAY FROM T-MOBILE!!!!!! They will take your money and laugh in your face like Rachel did to me! And she enjoyed it! Sickening! That woman needs to be fired! I would post her ID# here, but unlike T-Mobile, I have a heart.
I just had an agonizing experience with TMobile "customer service" today, as the climax of a 9-month long ordeal.
I had an unlocked Treo600 first, then had to ask TMobile for a replacement. They sent me a locked one. Then I started seeing $3, $5, $10 charges for downloads every month. No, I've never downloaded anyt of those and there's no way others would've done it on my phone. So I called, and I called. In May, some nice guy agreed to file for an investigation and give me a refund.
Great. It stopped for the next month.
Then it started again.
Today's phone conv with TMobile "customer service" people was SO BAD I don't even want to describe it here. Suffice it to say that it was shocking, the worst I've had with any customer service.
I have reason to believe the downloads are initiated by TMobile. With this and today's insult by their people, needless to say, TMobile just scored one more on that graph.
People, take a look around the world. EVERY ASPECT about cellphone in this country sucks, big time.
Do we ever really have a choice?
This is sad and outrageous.
My cingular prepaid service was cut off.
I was suprised since, I have over $150.00 in credit on two lines.
So, I called customer service.
They told me that my " roll over " at the end of the month had expired, and to input more money.
I told them that I did not want to renew since I had more credit on my account than I needed. ( I don't use the phone alot ).
They said, that I would not be able to retrieve my remaining credit.
I asked for a refund. They refused.
I asked to return my phones and a refund, they refused.
So, technaically they withdrew money from my account on the
scale of $150. and refused to refund me or reopen my service.
Thank you Cingular.
You really are crooks. For me, the $150 are stolen money.
My dad, once told me. " A satisfied customer will bring ten customer referals to your business. A dissatisfied customer will take away 20 customers.
I plan on telling everyone I meet, of what Cingular is up to.
Zak
My cingular prepaid service was cut off.
I was suprised since, I have over $150.00 in credit on two lines.
So, I called customer service.
They told me that my " roll over " at the end of the month had expired, and to input more money.
I told them that I did not want to renew since I had more credit on my account than I needed. ( I don't use the phone alot ).
They said, that I would not be able to retrieve my remaining credit.
I asked for a refund. They refused.
I asked to return my phones and a refund, they refused.
So, technaically they withdrew money from my account on the
scale of $150. and refused to refund me or reopen my service.
Thank you Cingular.
You really are crooks. For me, the $150 are stolen money.
My dad, once told me. " A satisfied customer will bring ten customer referals to your business. A dissatisfied customer will take away 20 customers.
I plan on telling everyone I meet, of what Cingular is up to.
Zak
My cingular prepaid service was cut off.
I was suprised since, I have over $150.00 in credit on two lines.
So, I called customer service.
They told me that my " roll over " at the end of the month had expired, and to input more money.
I told them that I did not want to renew since I had more credit on my account than I needed. ( I don't use the phone alot ).
They said, that I would not be able to retrieve my remaining credit.
I asked for a refund. They refused.
I asked to return my phones and a refund, they refused.
So, technaically they withdrew money from my account on the
scale of $150. and refused to refund me or reopen my service.
Thank you Cingular.
You really are crooks. For me, the $150 are stolen money.
My dad, once told me. " A satisfied customer will bring ten customer referals to your business. A dissatisfied customer will take away 20 customers.
I plan on telling everyone I meet, of what Cingular is up to.
Zak
Had t-mobile for 5 years before swapping for a razr @ cingular. Regretted it ever since. Bad billing, wrong for the 2nd time in 3 months.
The reason, the lady who oversees the customer service operations is actually the mistress to the CEO of the company.
Cingular is by far the WORST cell company ever! I had a 1 year contract with them. Night and weekends for free. Without my knowledge, they changed the terms of the contract and removed the night and weekend minutes. I was on the old ATT network. After terminating my service on August 5, 2005, got a bill for the entire month of August.
I have repeatedly ask for my money back with to no avail.
Dude Compaq makes the best computers ever..........well before Hp bought them
Verizon Wireless, is the best . Cingular stole my money!
Creditor: Cingular Wireless Westregion
Balance: $416.41
This letter is to inform you that I totally dispute these said charges which come from Cingular Wireless. I signed up with Cingular & then I was experiencing areas in Northern California where I could not get a signal. These Areas are called DEAD ZONES. I also experienced time after time Dropped Calls. I could not cope with this cituation anymore because my customers begain complaining. I then started complaining to Cingular about their lousy service. It got to the point that I could not handle it anymore. So I then called to cancell my phone. I got them to wave the $150.00 early termination fee & they told me that I was cancelled. I thought I was finished with Cingular. At this point I never used their phone anymore.
Then after almost 2 1/2 years later I was shocked to receive this letter stating that I owed this money. I then called Cingular & they now reverse what they had told me nearly 2 1/2 years ago. They insist that I never cancelled their service. Instead, they left my phone active & kept billing me monthly charges until their computer automatically cancelled my account for, they say, no payment. I didn't receive a bill from them concerning these charges so I assumed that my cancellatioin was finalized. Then about 2 1/2 years later this collection letter arrives.
I tried to compromise with them but with no positive result. I am willing to pay the $150.00 early termination fee but am not willing to pay the monthly charges charged to my account after I had cancelled. If they check, they will find that there was absoilutely no calls made or received by this phone after I had cancelled.
I want to resolve this matter at once. My credit score is at risk. This is an unjust situation. the cingular people are stubern They do not want to settle this matter. They have given this over to a collection agency who will report negative things about me to the credit bureaus.
Sumation: I had Cingular service but because of lousy service I cancelled. I say that they waved the early termination fee. They say that I never cancelled & kept billing me monthly charges. I say that I neve4r saw a bill until this collection letter arriver almost 2 1/2 years after I thought I had cancelled. I offered to pay Cingular & or the Collection agency the $150.00 early termination fee but both parties refused to accept this offer.
All I wish is to have Cingular accept the $150 Early termination fee I am offering & have their collection agency back off & notify the credit bureaus that I have paid my bill.
Iam concerned that any company can bill cingular wireless with my phone number in hand and make charges without my authorization in writing!!! I've recently become aware that one of my three lines has been charged for downloads(ringtones,games,i.e.)not authorized or received by anyone. Cingular simply passes the charges to the consumer. I am told that I can view what company is billing me through Media Net(a Cingular feature). But to register to Media Net, I need to accept their policy of non responsibility on their part for any errors on Cingular's part. NO!!! I don't want to register on Media Net and later be accused of authorizing anything on MediaNet. Cingular did credit my account the first time I notice the billing(8/03/2005) for the amount of $15.77.I was told to contact Jamster,M Qubed, and M Block to cancel subscriptions and attempt to obtain a refund of charges. All vendors I contacted claimed that they cancelled their services only to show up again on the next months bill.
Cingular reps tell me that I cannot put a block to avoid third party charges although I have had a block on all 3 of my phones to not accept any other media. We do not get these downloads, we only pay for them. I did not sign a contract with Cincular to bill me for a number that was entered into a computer. According to Cingular, you must enter a phone number in the website to activate these charges. LOTS of people have my number! Any number could be entered on these websites and the accompanying sucker must pay them according to Cingular.
I cancelled my account today...all three accounts and have agreed to accept the 150 early term (which will be cheaper in the long run.
What can be done to avoid these 3rd party charges??? Something needs to be done!
Well, I must say that after reading these comments, I see what cingular has been trying to do to me as well. After signing a new contract with At&t less than a year ago, I am having problems recieving calls or voicemail for hours or even a day(s) at a time. After going into the store and calling about 7 times I keep getting the same ole' jargon about how there is nothing they can do, be we can cancel our old contract and we can sign a new two year contract and only then will they replace the 8 month old phones, because there are problems with the towers (but they will continue to bill you even though the service is far from adequate enough to charge). Now given the fact they gave me new phones less than a year ago, it's amazing that they didn't say at the time of renewal that I wouldn't be able to use them in 9 months later, if so I would have continued looking for another carrier. I have spent so many hours on the phone playing ring around the rosie with reps who act as if this is a brand new situation for them, then is was quickly revealed to me that they really don't seem to care about anything but getting new contracts. This is crazy considering the fact that they want to charge me the cancellation fees for both phones on my account even though I am not able to dial out or sometimes recieve call. First, they said they phone needed to be reprogrammed, then when they tried to call it themselves they couldn't get through and said they could not even detect the phone.
This merger has been hell on wheels and they are moving 150mph.
They give NO OPTIONS - NO ADEQUATE RESOLUTIONS and still expect that you would want to sign up with them...Unfortunately the only way I was going to be able to use my phones which I use for business/income, I have to get new phones or go through another painfully elementary and circular conversation....Talk about your corporate Pirates and theives......
I hope this has been of some help to someone.
FILE COMPLAINTS WITH THE FCC, on line and the FTC, onl line also. I was forced into a new 2 yr contract when my AT&T phone fell apart. Even though I had the insurance they said, well there are no AT&T phones available, so you must buy new phones for all of your lines. I spent 300.00 on phones for our family plan. I have now been double billed.
I would be overjoyed at finding a class action lawsuit which is how I found this site, looking for one. If anyone knows of one to sign up put it on here PLEASE! I got a call from the corporate office today 9-16-05 trying to appease me with a 133.00 credit. That still leaves me out of over 350.00. I will take the credit and keep looking for class action law suite. ALl the comments about their rudeness, ripping us off, we NEED a great class action, this is wrong!
Their ad campaign should be get another carrier or it's ALL OVER. I routinely lose about 5 calls per week. It's just hideous and I'm switching.
I have one of the "alleged" flagship phones, the Nokia 8890, and had o.k. service with it for some time when I first acquired it, (the service).
It has since gone to Sh*!, and when I use the automatic service mode (for increased coverage), it will almost CONSISTENTLY drop calls before they are even connected!
I'd just about bet that somehow, I am charged for those "attempted" calls too!
When I select the (non auto mode) for Cingular only, it seems to work better, but can NEVER transfer towers without either dropping a call, or scrambling info!
seems that if the signal is weak, it sucks, if it is "pegged" out at full tilt, IT SUCKS!!!!!!
DAMN THEM TO HELL!
Git' er' DONE!!!!!
I switched cellphone service to Cingular on 9/25/2005 and recieved two copies of Welcome kit on 10/21/05 (That was the first letter received from Cingular ever) and 10/24/05, respectively. On 10/25/05, I received a notice from Cingular stating that my payment of $ 135.12 had not been received and all lines was subject to immediate interuption.
I called Cingular today (10/26/05) and the customer representative Ms. Robinson answered the phone. When I notify her that I had never received the bill from Cingular and the amount showing in the 10/25 notice for me to pay was very different from that stated in the welcome kit. She was totally not cooperative or courtesy. When I asked how I could posssibly pay a bill without receiving it. She just denied completely but she said they sent me the bill on 9/25/05 the very day I open an account with them. When I tried to obtain their FAX number and suggested to fax to her the pages of their welcome kit showing the amount of the monthly charges on the pages. She refused, but asked to me to go to the dealer where I obtained service with.
In addition, I also want to complain about their service of display minutes I used. I never have an exact idea about how many minutes I actually used.
I've had 2 AT&T phones for several years. Prepaid because I'm not a heavy user and $.12/minute was and still is the best prepaid plan out there (better than many monthly plans). Well now my AT&T TDMA phones are no longer manufactured, so I'm going to have to replace them as they start failing. And I'll have to give up my fantastic old rate plan. I was still willing to give Cingular a try, but according to customer service, they won't allow me to transfer my funds from my old phone to a new cingular phone. And my wife (who rarely uses her phone) still has about $100 balance. I'm sure plenty of other people are in the same boat as me.
i was a former cingular customer for 4yrs. i first started out on tdma / analog which was acutally pretty good service. then it came time to renew for 2 more years and i got a GSM phone. my oh my did my cingular nightmare start. gsm has got to be the worst technology ever. especially for rural areas or anywhere that isnt within eye-sight of a large city. to make a long story short it took complaints to the fcc and bbb to finally get rid of cingular. i am now with ALLTEL and fianlly know what its like to have quality cellular service. in my area, alltel cant be beat.
JUST TO LET EVERYONE KNOW... ( INCASE YOU ALREADY DIDNT KNOW) NOT TO TAKE UP FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS OR ANYTHING, BUT THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE MORE COMPLAINTS JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE A BIGGER COMPANY. SINCE WILL TELL YOU THAT. AND YES CINGULAR DOES PICK UP IN RURAL AREAS. I LIVE IN ONE, AND I PICK UP SERVICE FINE.
EUROPE HAS BEEN ON GSM FOR YEARS AND CINGULAR GOING TO GSM WAS ONE OF THE SMARTEST MOVES IN A CELLULAR COMPANY. IN THE FUTURE AS THE COVERAGE GROWS, IT WILL BE CLEARER, CHEAPER, AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO TRAVEL WITH YOUR PHONES ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
JUST ONE QUESTION??? WHAT DID YOU PEOPLE DO 20 YEARS AGO WHEN THERE WERE NO SUCH THING AS CELL PHONES????????????? ALSO REMEMBER THIS... IT'S WIRELESS, IT'S NEVER PROMISED!!! ITS ALL UP IN THE AIR!
we in the the cellular business know that gsm works great "where it works". where it works is the problem. coverage is too limited for it to even compare to cdma. gsm, due to its technology, simply cannot cover the same sq. miles as cdma, just as cdma cannot cover the large sq. miles as analog. lets say gsm phones had analog backup, then i think complaints would be much less, as some signal is better than no signal, especially when you really want to make a call.
as for the rural areas, that is much debateable. i also live in a rural area. eastern kentucky rural. i live in the heart of the appalachian mountains, mile high mountains all around me. 40 miles from the neartest large city. granted, cingular tdma/analog worked pretty good, even here. but the gsm simply cannot and does not work as good. it all depends on 1 thing. location, location, location. but for anyone that travels nationwide with a gsm phone, they will tell you. coverage is great next to the cities, and spotty at best once you get off the beaten path.
as far as wireless being promised, we sign a contract for service. cingular is supposed to provide us service, being we pay for it. they should not sell service where it doesnt work. walmart, here in south williamson, ky. sells cingular gsm service, yet there is no coverage whatsoever. not for 30+ miles in any direction. that should not be allowed. that does nothing but make the complaints go up.
as far as 20yrs ago, well at that time i didnt have the service or know of its existance to acutally have a desire / need for it. just like saying what did people do before email or internet. times change and so does our needs. just as it has since moses talked to the burning bush.
I think that is kind of funny that the guy above me does not pick up in eastern, ky. that just so happens to be where I live. I understand that it does not work in all areas, but like I said that is wireless service.
I also am a employee with a wireless company. And incase you didn't already know, Cingular tried the GSM/TDMA phones for 2 years. That just cannot work. You cannot be switching from tower to tower. Your signal will be bouncing everywhere and you will get more dropped calls than ever.
As for GSM not being great in your eyes, I am sorry to hear that and maybe you will change your mind in a few years because you never hear a complaint in Europe and they have had the GSM technology for 15-20 years. Maybe when we have it for 15-20 years, people will understand.
Think of this... No wireless company can control the weather, accidents, or anything to make wireless not work. And when you do sign that contract, it states it is not avaliable in all areas. WITH ANY COMPANY!
NO COMPANY CAN CONTROL WHERE YOU WILL BE OR TRAVEL TO...
Cingular sucks because they have no customer service. I waited six months for a refund on a mis-advertised product and probably would have never recieved the refund if I didn't spend hours and hours hunting it down in the administrative maze and nightmare of Cingular.
Cingular treated me like crap. I complained to the Better Business Bureaus and Cingular had the audacity to say they couldn't get a hold of me. Yeah, like I was calling them every other day to get my refund and they could never track me down. One phrase says it all- liars and cheats.
im not saying they can control the weather. and if you are indeed in eastern kentucky, you must not be in my area. what gets me is, i am listed in the cingular coverage area. yet they simply do not have gsm coverage in a large part of this area. like i said, 30+ miles in any direction of the place where they sell it. cingular has promised towers from south williamson on u.s. 119 all the way north to southridge, wv. for 2yrs now they have promised service, next month, next month. next month has yet to get here. they even have cingular stores in the radio shacks in logan, wv and walmart in south williamson. yet no service anywhere to be found. that is the biggest ripoff i have ever seen. now, as i said before tdma worked fine here. i was able to pick up from the at&t towers and roam from them, even though i was "in cingular coverage area". when i was "forced" to change to gsm, i was completely without service. even though cingular says im covered. lets not even talk about gait fiasco. what a nightmare that was.
which now brings me to my bbb and fcc complaints. cingular finally admitted via letter to me and the bbb that they cannot provide me with service in my area at this time, and there were no plans in the near future to service this area. i was released from my contracts with no penalties.
appalachian wireless by far is the best in eastern kentucky. i have alltel, which roams from appalachian towers. i have never, in the year ive had alltel, been without service. anywhere i have been. im sorry, i cannot say that about cingular.
it really does all depend on where you live and where you use your phone the most. alltel dont have service everywhere, neither does cingular, verizon or anyone else. its all about your location.
by the way, what part of the neighborhood you from? :-)
My Cingular (Orange) nightmare continues even after I thought I had cancelled.
After 9 straight months of double billing problems, 2 hours per month on the phone and hordes of clueless support folks telling me it would never happen again I finally got help. The answer the Blue team came up with was a port to Orange. Ok, so I tried. Blue couldn't port one of my numbers, so I had to let the number go and sign up for new service with Orange. Off I went, happy to be rid of billing problems, soprry to see my old number go. Then the first Orange bill came in the mail. It was screwed up. Month after month, it had the same issues; Plan had been reset, double billing the anchor account, not merging family plan phones together, you get the idea. So I finally decided to bail. I ate the early termination fees gladly just to be rid of the monthly calls with unprofessional and under trained staff, a wholly incompetent billing management system and over a year of headaches.
Thinking I was done (I even took my wife to dinner to celebrate the break), I started getting collection calls. Turns out, one of the departments never got the memo for one of the other departments that the lines had been cancelled so they sent my account to a collection agency to get the payments for a phone that had been cancelled months ago.
The lesson for me here is to never-ever trust what anyone at Cingular has to say. Never trust what anyone at Cingular does. And if I have to deal with them, always triple check everything only do that thing with a supervisor.
Ive been with Verizon for 3 months now. Not one single problem.
i happen to work for cingular and cingular is a great company. A word to the wise folks the cell phone industry is the mostly highly competitive industry there is. as far as the third party vendor i'd suggest you start reading the fine print before you have these alleged "free" ringtones sent to your phones. wise up dumb asses nothing is free. also read the bill we send you every month, read your contract be aware of all services and when 12 year old junior runs up your bill getting free ringtones from 10 different vendors and goes over minutes by 9000 minutes thats your problem not cingulars.
John, employee no. JK6066, refused to honor the cingular warranty. I own 3 motorolla v180 cell phones. Since the purchase of those devices, they have been defective. All three phones shut themselves off and cannot be restarted without first removing the battery. My warranty from cingular promises that the company will replace defective devices. John recognized that all three cell phones are defective and must be replaced. John violated my warranty by claiming that the warranty's "like kind" provision prevents cingular from replacing the defective motorolla v180 cell phones. Instead, according to john, cingular can only send me three motorolla v180 phones to replace the v180's I already own. That suggestion is ridiculous and clearly violates my rights under the cingular warranty. The motorolla v180 is a piece of junk. That junk status is documented on the internet, just run "motorolla v180" on phonescoop.com. Moreover, all three of my v180 have identical problems. Additionally, my mother's v180 has the same material defects as do my phones and as noted on phonescoop.com and other web sites. Finally, I am entitled to a $30.00 rebate for each v180. To date, I have not received my $90.00 in rebates.
I am also a victim of the cingular and att merger. I have been with att 5 years with no problems. Now I have cingular and I need a new phone I am being told constanly you have to sign a new 2 year contract and also sign up for a new rate plan even though my phone is having severe problems. I have a att plan 1000 minutes free nights and weekend for 29.99 have had that plan for 5 years now who can compare to that no one. I understand that wireless services will change frequently but it seems as if cingular is not concerned with att customers, who by the way are your new customers.
I was blatantly lied to by a Cingular Solutions representative when I complained that since AT&T had merged with Cingular, AT&T customers had received NO service, only a new address to mail their checks to. We are denied all Cingular promotions, special plans, etc. and are told we must get NEW phones to have the same services as pre-existing Cingular customers and are treated as stepchildren. They would not give me a phone comparable to the fantastic Nokia 6800 which has a keyboard and built-in camera and video,purchased in good faith from AT&T. I told them I was just waiting for my contract to be up, so could go with another company. I was then contacted by a guy in SOLUTIONS who promised to send me a Samsung D307 and told it had ALL the features of the Nokia 6800, in exchange for getting a new 2 yr plan with Cingular. I specifically asked if it had keyboard, camera, and video and he responded that, yes, it did. Based on his information, I agreed on a new contract with Cingular. Afterwards,I looked up the phone on the internet and it does NOT have either a camera or video capacity. So, I was blatantly lied to by Cingular's Solutions rep. I refuse to be an AT&T step-child one minute longer than necessary. I immediately cancelled the 'new' two-yr contract and will not accept the new phone when it arrives. I see a real ethics problems here!!!!!! I will drop this company the day my old AT&T contract expires, even if it means paying for another phone from a new company, as a matter of principal.
We are also ex AT@T customers and again step childen as far as Cingular is concerned! How many customers do they have to lose before they get it!
We wish to order the Razr - Cingular wants me to sign up for two years - not going to happen! If not we have to pay $300.00 for a phone they sell for $90.00 with a two year contract. This phone is available on the web for $225.00 (unlocked).This is restrictive and defies the spirit of the merger. Please someone start a class action only then will they get it. I will not be renewing with Cingular, nor my spouse nor my family members. I teach customer service and to hear one of their own employees call us the poor maligned customers "dumb asses" appears to be part of their problem!
Cingular Customers Beware! when bills started coming in high I investigated my bills to find that I was being charged for calls between 7 and 9 PM. I have a signed contract that clearly states that I am on the 7 PM to 7 AM free minutes plan. When I called customer service i was switched back and forth to different representitives. Finally after days of calling and waiting for a supervisor, she told me that I wasn't on that plan. I sent a copy of the contract and then she said that I should have been on the 7 to 7 plan but I waited too long to find the error and my phone service will be cut off if I didn't pay a surprise bill of nearly 1200.00. my phone service was cut off and I was charged $150 for each of three phones as a penalty. The case is in the process of closing with cingular having to credit more than $800 to my account. I had to open another account with a other provider.