Complaint Review: Cingular Wireless - Ocala Florida

My fiance has been a loyal Cingular customer for several years, without any noticeable problems in service or billing. Last November, as we both found ourselves spending more and more time on the highway, she decided adding a second line would be a good idea so that we could stay in contact when one (or both) of us were out of town. This fell under the "Add an Additional Line for $9.99/mo." offer, and aside from a few hidden fees, there were no MAJOR discrepancies noticed on the bill.

Our bill was projected to run about $85 per month at the time with the minutes allotted in the respective plan, the M2M, and 7p-7a N/W. (Both phones carried the same features.) It ended up at about $120 or so for a while. (No major cause for concern.) When my fiance got a job in Georgia, we both found ourselves spending a lot more time on the road, plus the majority of people we needed to call were still back home in Alabama, so we added the fabulous Nationwide plan, to alleviate long distance and roaming, etc.

This is where the ongoing dispute begins.... the next bill we get is suprisingly and conveniently lacking in any kind of bill summary; the alphanumeric abbreviated codes are there, as is a simple one line total for usage. The total? OVER ELEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. Obviously, there is a mistake, so my fiance calls customer service and is "helped" by a customer service rep, who promises to look into the bill and call her back. Days pass with no response. My fiance calls back, repeatedly, spends countless hours on their 611 line, and never really gets any results.

Finally there's a credit, but the balance is still WAY high and we don't have ANY information about what calls they supposedly believe we made. In the mean time, she realizes that ALL of her accrued rollover minutes (about 800 mins, I believe) are gone. The next month, our bill contains a detailed account summary. (Isn't that what we were supposed to be getting every month anyway? We never cancelled detailed billing... who in their right mind would?) Now we have several hundred dollars remaining from the last month, and this month's bill is about five times what it should be. Close inspection of the calls reveals that on the added line, the summary of minutes used only contains incoming calls; on the right side of the page is a column of "0.00", and at the bottom, a grand total of over $400. Zero plus zero plus zero equals 400 now... a mathematical miracle by any standards.

More phone calls, more hours taken out of the day to help a huge company figure out how to add. Month #3 continues the trend, with slight improvements-- now there are OUTgoing calls listed. Among the charged calls are numerous M2M calls (charged full daytime rate) and Nt/Wkd calls... all of which should have been included in the respective options that we had on our plans. At this point, Cingular wants all that money, except they can't seem to figure out exactly how much they want. In early May, a CSR tells my fiance we'll have to pay the charges or our service will be disrupted. After explaining the fiasco, my fiance is told that we have until June 5 to resolve the billing dispute, or service will be disconnected.

On May 24, I get an early morning call informing me that my grandfather is dying, so I get in the car and embark on the hour-and-a-half drive to my grandparents' house. This is when I realize that Cingular has disconnected my service..... I arrive at my destination to find that I am simply too late. I have given up on trying to repair my consumer relationship with Cingular. In the mean time, Cingular expects an ever-changing amount of money. Isn't it odd that a communications company would have such severe problems with intra-departmental communication? I am adamantly seeking information on any class action suit being pursued by victims of Cingular wireless.

Atlanta, Georgia

Ryan

Douglasville, Georgia
U.S.A.

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