Cingular Sued In California For Bad Service, High Termination Fees
Watch out wireless carriers! You've made the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in California mad. They're letting off a little steam by suing Cingular in California for false advertising and unfair business practices. You can probably guess the charges. The false advertising is for advertising a mobile phone that works... and then many customers get home and discover it doesn't work particularly well. Then, they have very high termination fees, effectively forcing their customers to stick with them. However, it's not just Cingular they're going after. They say this is "just the tip of the iceberg", and they're planning on going after others as well. Hell hath no fury like consumer activists scorned. While this sounds a bit like grandstanding by this activist group, they do have a point. From the consumers' point of view, the wireless carriers have been notoriously bad in responding to complaints of bad service. The termination fees make sense for the carriers to try to cut down on churn - but not making exceptions for cases of bad service simply goes too far and turns customers into enemies (the kind of enemies who drool about jumping ship when number portability is allowed).Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Same Bahamas international roaming issue as Cather
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ruining my credit-help!
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Screwed out of $500 credit
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promising one thing and doing another
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cingular billing unfair no customer care
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Cingular & SunCom
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fraud
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cingular suncom merger in Virginia
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Cingular not fulfilling AT&T contracts
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Thanks for this forum
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Do not upgrade or combine into Family plan
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how do I join, find a class action suit
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whats the correct policy?
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Bait & Switch on a Massive Scale
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cingular
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Same Bahamas international roaming issue as Cather
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1448.00 bill 11/2004
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Cingular CROOKS
I assume Cingular cells thousands of phones (not for very long if they continue this proactice...) through Best Buy. They have no proper procedures in place for returned phones and it becomes the responsibility of the customer to prove that he/she has returned the phone. They treat (ex-)customers like criminals in doubting if the phones were returned.
I have returned every call they made and still they sent it to the collection agency!
I will NEVER buy anything from Cingular even if they pay me to do it.
CROOKS!!!!
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attorney answered funding questioned
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Bad service from cingular
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I want to join
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How do I join lawsuit
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why this happens
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phone upgrades
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You ARE ALL IDIOTS
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LEARN TO READ!
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Retard
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Re: Retard
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That's right
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Cingular is going away SOON!!!
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Cingular Service
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Tell Everyone About Cingular's Terrible Practices
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cingular must go
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Down with Cingular!
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Cinguloar bills even if you don't do business
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My plan was 500 anytime minutes with free nights and weekends as well as free Cingular to Cingular.
They applied my 500 anytime minutes to all calls made at the beginning of the billing cycle regardless of if they were made during the free times or conditions.
Subsequently this resulted in my being charged the high per minute rate towards the end of the billing cycle because they claimed I exceed the limit of the plan.
Almost a year into service with them my phone was constantly being shut off and I was told I owed ever increasing amounts. They claimed I was over $400 dollars in arrears.
Finally I sat down one day and went through the last year of statements and discovered what had happened.
To their credit they did give me the next 7 months for free.
After that I switched carriers.
People should be aware that the catalyst for this kind of ongoing rip off is a complicated statement/billing called estimated charges.
After recently signing up for AT&T(formerly Cingular) cable and internet I notice the same type of thing happening.
Every month I go online to pay my bill and notice that it says 'current charges'
and 'amount to be payed'.
The second being the amount expected and the first being a number more than double that.
For the life of me I couldn't figure that out till I meticulously wrote down each payment, went over each of the six months I have been using the service.
Finally I realized that there is a $129.00 charge notation on the very day my service was installed as well as the expected charge of $129.00 I payed the first month after service began.
But... and here is the thing. I was told $129.00 would be the cost of installation and first month of service. As it was and I paid.
But it four months later that suddenly that additional $129.00 noted the day my service was installed started appearing on my account statement as 'current charges'.
Only it isn't.
Because after several more hours of my time I discover what it actually is is something they call 'estimated charges'.
Sound complicated?
I think so.
Wonder if any other consumers are confused by this system. Wonder even more what is the purpose of this system.
Actually correct that. I really don't wonder.
Thats my story.
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