Cingular Wireless

Cingular Wireless

March 7, 2006

I called Cingular Wireless to make a payment and get my cell phone reconnected on March 3, 2006. I used the same credit card that I always use to make my payment and was told that my card was denied due to insufficient funds. I checked the balance of my card to find that my balance was short by the amount of $76.23. I spent the next 3 days after that trying to find where the missing money was. I called my credit card company on March 5, 2006 to find that the missing funds was due to a transaction withdrawal being made by Cingular wirelss on March 3, 2006. I was angry that they denied my card, but still withdrew a monthly payment and did not restore my service. I called Cingular to figure out the problem and was ran into circles by their automated service. Since I was not trying to make a payment at that time, I had a hard time reaching a representative. Once I finally reached a representative, they could not help me and refused to link me to a supervisor. I was then connected to another representative who told me that suypervisors are not available to speak to the "common public" however, he would be willing to help me. I explained the situation to him and was told that I gave him an incorrect credit card number so my credit card company withdrew the amount of the monthly payment from my card "as a security measure". I called my credit card company back and was told that this was not true and they would never withdraw funds from my balance as a security measure and that this was a problem that needed to be taken up with Cingular. I called Cingular back, and after being required to jump through loopholes to reach a representative again,a man named John, he was extremely rude. I was told that the first person I spoke to did not even note my account so I was forced to tell my story all over again.The customer service rep informed me that withholding my payment is a standard safety measure and I would have to wait up to 10 business days before my amount could be refunded.He then told me that I would have to contact my credit card company to have them fax over a statement of the transaction number (even though I had already provided it.) I explained to John that I should not have to be going through all of this for something that was not my fault. I am a single mother and this 76.00 was all the money that I had. He then replied to me rudely "What do you expect me to do?" I told him "refund my money tonight." He said that was not possible. I told him that they withdrew this money 3 days ago and I either want my money or my phone turned back on. He refused to comply with either suggestion. I then suggested that they comensate me with a few days of free service, seeing that if they would not have taken the money from my card in the first place, then I could have went to another company and had phone service 3 days ago. He told me "Don't you think you are requesting just a litte too much from us?" I asked him to call my credit card company on 3 way so we could straighten this matter out. While we were on hold with the credit card company, he hung up on me. The next day (march 7th) My money appeared on my card, minus $4.00 that I was charged for a fee for faxing over a transaction number that he refused to just accept from me. (I wondered why it didn't take 10 days like he once told me.) I felt extremely disrespected and inconvenienced and I also felt as if me being a customer did not matter to them. I am extremely upset about all of this. Because of Cingular, I now have no phone service, and because of all of the waiting and the extra fees being removed due to their customer service mistake, I cannot get new service for at least another 2 weeks because I cannot afford it.

Sincerely,

Love

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