Cingular Accused of Deceiving Customers

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060707/ap_on_bi_ge/cingular_lawsuit' target='_blank'>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060707/ap_on_bi_ge/cingular_lawsuit</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>Cingular Wireless Corp. promised to provide uninterrupted service to AT&amp;T Wireless customers when it acquired that company in 2004, but instead it nickel-and-dimed them and degraded their reception in an effort to persuade them to sign new contracts, a federal lawsuit said Thursday.</i>"<br /><br />This is a very interesting article. I do find it funny that they fail to mention that this is in regards to the old TDMA network until the end of the article though. While Cingular is the nations largest cellular carrier, it obviously is not with out fault. Just some interesting things I would like to point out though. The contract cancellation charge was just recently moved to $175. If you had a contract before that you had the standard $150 cancellation fee. Also Cingular stopped charging customers the "migration fee" about 6-7 months ago :).

[Pete Paxton]

Cingular may have been nabbed in this situation but I think all 4 of the major providers have done similar practices in one way or another. Can you imagine a world where we could pick any phone carrier and not have any contracts to deal with? And can you imagine if we could pick any phone at any time to use? We've all been like sheep when it comes to the cell phone thing. I can add or cancel my cable internet any time I want. If I want to switch to dsl, I can do so at any time. The whole contract thing is so lucrative for the phone companies and such a scam for all of us. Some companies charge $40 for 400 minutes. Like it's going to cost them more to give 600 minutes? It's ridiculous. What if everyone suddenly refused to use cell phones until contracts and early termination fees were dropped, and all phones remained unlocked. Oh well, it's a pipe dream.

[seaflipper]

"Cingular Wireless Corp. promised to provide uninterrupted service to AT&amp;T Wireless customers when it acquired that company in 2004, but instead it nickel-and-dimed them and degraded their reception in an effort to persuade them to sign new contracts, a federal lawsuit said Thursday."

This is a very interesting article. I do find it funny that they fail to mention that this is in regards to the old TDMA network until the end of the article though. While Cingular is the nations largest cellular carrier, it obviously is not with out fault. Just some interesting things I would like to point out though. The contract cancellation charge was just recently moved to $175. If you had a contract before that you had the standard $150 cancellation fee. Also Cingular stopped charging customers the "migration fee" about 6-7 months ago :).

I ported my wife about a month after the change over, we were chared the $18 or $36 activation fee, but no early cancellation fee.

I think the $175 early termination fee is what AT&amp;T Wireless charged at the time and that is what some people got dinked on - but it was only on accident. Any good salesperson who knew what was going on wasn't going to charge you that when you went from AT&amp;T to Cingular...

[gmontielh]

With Cingular I have the following experiences:

1. When the SMT 5600 was available I got it but not before canceling my still existing contract with AT&amp;T with 1 more year to run. No cancellation fee (great!) but got downgraded from unlimited minutes to 2000 minutes for the same rate (ugh!) as I was no longer an AT&amp;T customer. Also, despite being 3years we AT&amp;T I had to wait 3 months to get the international long distance and roaming discount already existing from day 1 in my AT&amp;T contract. Sales rep indicated that my previous record with AT&amp;T was of no use for them therefore they will treat like any other new customer (yikes! where do they get these guys from?).

2. Months later their 8125 comes out and I decided to get one. I remember with AT&amp;T you could buy a new phone at the discounted price if you got into a new contract. No cancelation fees applied. With Cingular either you bought the phone a full price or get it discounted under a new contract but payin $150 cancellation fee. As the difference was (coincidentaly !?) $150 I decided to get it and keep current contract.

3. To add to aggravation several timesafter purchasing the 8125 I had to call their customer service (very helpful by the way) as somebody in Cingular must be having fun with my international long distance and roaming as the keep changing the rate in contravention with the contractual agreements. I hope by the time of this writing I don't have to go through the process again o correcting the billing. Solution from them since the number of calls were entensive was to split the cost. Split the cost??? Don't these people have computers to calculate what he correct rate is? C'mon give me a break!

4. Reception in the US is bad. But not as bad as other carriers. Reception abroad is excellent (and I am not talking Europe...) but the carrier is not Cingular of course. Their commercial about being the carrier with fewer drop calls based on personal experience I would say it's truthful. But somehow I makes me uneasy as a Cingular customer they so publicly admit this and use it as a marketing tool.

5. Unless something more competitive Dollar per Dollar is more competitive than Cingular for the quality of the service I get and the rates they have internationaly (I travel abroad a lot on business) I believe I will continue being their customer at least until my ciurrent contract is up.

[Rocco Augusto]

I ported my wife about a month after the change over, we were chared the $18 or $36 activation fee, but no early cancellation fee.

I think the $175 early termination fee is what AT&amp;T Wireless charged at the time and that is what some people got dinked on - but it was only on accident. Any good salesperson who knew what was going on wasn't going to charge you that when you went from AT&amp;T to Cingular...

they shouldn't have charged you a fee. all fees are suppose to be waived for existing AT&amp;T customers. if you had the migration done in a store i would go back and talk to that sales rep

[Rocco Augusto]

2. ...With Cingular either you bought the phone a full price or get it discounted under a new contract but payin $150 cancellation fee. As the difference was (coincidentaly !?) $150 I decided to get it and keep current contract.

they shouldn't have even offered you the option of terminating your old contract and starting a new contract. its what we call churning and we fire people all day long for it :)