Complaint Review: Cingular Wireless

CINGULAR NOT HONORING FREE NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS, OVER CHARGING FOR GOING OVER PLAN MINUTES: I have been extremely unhappy with Cingular Wireless. I first signed up with a 300 Minute plan w/extra 200 free minutes as part of the package for like $39.00/mo. I slightly went over the minutes the second month and was billed about $150.00, which is ridiculous gouging for going a little over your minutes!! I then switched to the 500 minutes per month plan for about $50.00/Month w/Free Nights And Weekends since I knew that about 80 percent of my usage was during nights and weekends. The Cingular representative even looked at my bill and verified "Yeah, you'd be much better off with this plan because you are most of your minutes are coming from nights and weekends". I get the plan and was careful not to go over. About two months ago I went over just a little and was charged $70.00 and then like $90.00. I couldn't afford to pay one of the bills and before I knew it had a $170.00 bill!!. Most of my usage is nights, late and on weekends when I call people so I know I'm being ripped off somehow. Cingular charges excessively for going over your minutes and does not seem to be honoring the "Free Nights And Weekends". This is why I got this plan and it feels like it's worthless.

EXCESSIVE NO SIGNAL, BUSY SIGNAL, "SYSTEM BUSY" ERRORS: I find that there is often no signal or a "System Busy" message. This seems to happen excessively even in places that should have good reception or other Cell phone company users have great reception. Once myself and my girlfriend were in an emergency situation (main reason for having the phone), and were almost killed (Seriously) . My girlfriend dials 911 and get's a "System Busy" message when we were in a location in the city where the signal should be fine. WE COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED, WE ALMOST WERE!! My friends with Sprint PCS, Nextel or AT&T phones never have signal problems like this or have been billed like this. Cingular is unfair and overcharges for going over the minutes, does not seem to fully honor "Free Nights and Weekends", however you don't see them trying to be fair and give their customer's discounts for the service being down or recieving "System Busy" messages so excessively at times.

Brandon
Fremont, California