Cingular Wireless

I hope you can offer some advice, because I don’t know where else to turn (except to find a good lawyer). I live in Georgia and work in Florida, and live on my own while we wait for our home to sell. I moved here in May and as you can imagine, after 16 years of marriage, it was very hard living alone and sleeping alone. I have Cingular service as does my husband, and I heard several times on their commercials that Cingular customers could talk to each other “for free.” One day in mid summer I believe, I suggested that we “stay connected” during the night so I would feel more like I wasn’t alone. It worked and we did this for about a month, staying connected from about 11 p.m. to 4 or 5 a.m. At the same time, I paid my bill online and set the system to stop sending me paper statements. In all of the turmoil of working in Florida, driving home to Georgia twice a month and managing two households, I forgot about my Cingular bill and didn’t pay it nor did I check my account. One Friday night, my service was cut off and I learned that I have an approximately $6,000 phone balance. Since then, I’ve been working with Cingular to get this mistake straightened out (apparently their ads were not accurate and you need mobile to mobile plans to be able to incur zero minutes). My claim has been denied three times now and my phone service is once again cut off. In the meantime, I’ve paid them approximately $400—almost a year’s service fees for “good faith.”

I’ve had this service since August 04. I’m a $45 a month customer who rarely uses her phone...except for a few long distance calls, etc. Cingular, I feel, should be able to see my service pattern and realize that this was a terrible misunderstanding caused by their ads.

By the way, when this first happened, I went to a Cingular store and they and the service rep on the phone, assured me this problem would be fixed immediately. Four months later, it hasn’t.

Please advise. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. I’ve searched for print and video copies of their spring ads to no avail. They no longer run those ads, in this area at least.

Lisa Beyer

113 Harbour Point NW

Milledgeville, GA 31061

407-531-5605