Cingular Wireless - Digital Edge 75 plan from Southwestern Bell, Dallas, TX

# 20 for January 18, 2002

Complaints.com received the following e-message on January 17, 2002:

From: Jessie chai [Email User]

Cingular Wireless - Digital Edge 75 plan from Southwestern Bell, Dallas, TX

January 16, 2002 Dear Sir/Madam, I signed up for the “Digital Edge 75” plan with Southwestern Bell in Dallas, Texas on 07/08/00. The

plan covers 75 minutes of calling anywhere, anytime for $25 per month, with no roaming charges. On 02/09/01, I moved from Dallas, Texas to Springfield, Missouri. I intended to change my phone

number (phone region), so I talked to the Cingular service center at the Battlefield Mall in Springfield.

The Cingular employee told me that I would have to sign another 2-year contract with Cingular’s plan in

order to waive the $150 penalty for breaking the current contract.

First of all, none of Cingular’s listed plans were desirable. Furthermore, based on the features of my “Digital Edge 75” plan, it was not necessary for me to change the phone number since I could call anywhere anytime with no roaming charges. I was totally satisfied with the original plan and service at that time. Beginning with the March 2001 statement, billing and service started to get out of hand on the Cingular

system. I began to notice numerous inaccuracies in the billing. For example, due to relocation, I

updated my address with Cingular over the phone in February 2001. I received a billing statement with a

new heading – Cingular Wireless, to my new address on 03/16/01. After that, I did not receive a single

billing statement until I called the customer representative regarding this issue on 07/16/01.

During this call, I discovered that Cingular still had my old address.

After updating my address for the second time, the representative assured me that the bill would be sent to me the next morning. After 2 weeks, I had still received no bill. During that time, my phone service was disconnected. On 07/30/01, I talked to the Cingular customer representative again regarding the billing issue. She verified my address, which turned out to be correct. She speculated that the billing statement that I requested on 07/16/01 might have been sent to my old address. As I still had no current statement, I requested that a billing statement be sent to my new address. Upon this request, she said that would necessitate an extra $5 charge. Calling the Cingular representatives resulted in either waiting on line for an excessive amount of time

and a feeling of complete helplessness. Therefore, out of desperation, I logged onto the “Talk to Us”

section of the Cingular web site (www.cingular-interactive.com). I saw the following: “Cingular Wireless will respond to your question within 48 hours,” so I emailed my feedback and also requested a copy of my bill. To this day, I have received no response at all. Displaying my strong desire to settle this issue, I went to two of Cingular’s branches in Springfield on

08/06/01 and attempted to pay the bill in person. Unfortunately, the Cingular customer service

representative was not able to pull my record because my phone service was registered in a different region.

She suggested that I either drive 7 hours back to Dallas and pay the bill or call another customer

service number (1-877-525-9213) to settle this issue. On the same evening (08/06/01), I called the number and talked to 3 different representatives. The first

one promised me that she would send the billing statement to my new address and activate my phone

service. After I requested that the late fee be eliminated, she transferred me to another customer representative.

I explained my situation to the second customer representative and she put me on hold. After holding for 20 minutes, my call was transferred back to the waiting circulation. When I got the third representative, she said she would activate my phone service until 08/21/01. She said she couldn’t adjust my bill except by transferring me to yet another customer representative. After almost an hour of speaking with 3 representatives without resolving the original issues, I was too tired and frustrated to go through the same cycle again. Going to the service center and talking to the representatives via phone seemed to be a waste of

time, so I decided to write a formal letter to the Customer Service Manager on 08/07/01. The address of

the Customer Service is shown on Cingular’s web site as follows: Cingular Wireless, Glenridge Highlands

Two, 5565 Glenridge Connector, Suite 1401, Atlanta, Georgia 30342. I informed the manager of my

dissatisfaction with their billing service and the ineffectiveness of several customer representatives I talked to over the phone. I expected some response within 2 weeks, but again I have yet to receive any response at all. In mid-August 2001, I finally received my billing statement through the mail. However, the billing

information was incorrect. The billing period was changed from the 8th of the month to the 1st of the

month; their record on my phone usage was incorrect; the dates of the itemized calls overlapped. They also

added some “routing” minutes (“lag time”) and late fees. I was extremely upset and unable to deal with

the issue anymore.

My friend helped me to call the representative and adjust the billing. Part of the late fees was removed, but I still had to pay the “disconnected” time as well as the phone usage that should be counted in the next month. The representative told my friend that the “routing” minutes couldn’t be eliminated because my current address is not in the same registered region. For this reason, I had to limit my usage up to 65 minutes per month since I had no intention to sign another 2-year contract with Cingular. Each new statement from Cingular yields more billing inaccuracies. The following month’s statement was, again, misrepresented. I was still very confused with their billing periods and itemized charges. With my painful prior experiences, I felt I had to end my relationship with Cingular. My next course of action was to pay the $159.96 penalty for breaking the contract. This is very unfair because I would have kept the original plan if the billing and service had not been so poor. Also, I found that, unless I contract with Cingular, I have no use for my Motorola ST7700 phone for which I paid $200. To justify the issue, I consulted with the local attorney for advice. Therefore, I called Cingular on

12/04/01 and extended my due date for another two weeks. The Cingular customer representative, Regene

(sp?), granted me the extension and then I received a revised final bill, which the due date becomes

01/07/02.

As it turned out, my advice from the attorney was to pay the bill because the amount

involved was only $159.96 compared with the attorney’s fee of $150 per hour. To keep my good credit record,

I finally sent the payment of $159.96 to Cingular Wireless on 1/1/02. On 01/16/02, I received a letter from a collection agency (Financial Asset Management Systems, Inc.) on

behalf of Cingular Wireless. They requested that I send a payment of $188.75 to their address. I called

Cingular and verified my account balance, which is $0.00. I also talked to the customer representative,

Daniel. He explained that my payment was posted on 01/08/02, a day after the due date; thus, my account

had been turned over to the collection agency. He stated that I needed to call the collection agency and

take care of the $28.79 collection fee. Breaking down emotionally, I took up my last dignity and called the collection agency. The representative,

Carmen, was somewhat helpful. She explained that only Cingular can dismiss my account from their list, and then I would not be responsible for the $28.79 collection fee. As a result, she suggested that I

contact Cingular again and discuss the issue. I then talked to another Cingular customer representative, Jennifer, who was very helpful. Since

my balance is $0.00, she asked me to hold so she could talk to the collection department. After 15 minutes,

she said the Cingular collection department acknowledged my zero balance and will notify the

collection agency.

From all my experience, it is obvious that most of Cingular’s customer

representatives are not similarly knowledgeable and well informed of their company procedures. I believe

the first representative, Daniel, could have resolved my issue. Instead, I had to spend a great deal of

time and go through different representatives and even different companies. Doing some research through the Internet, I found that other customers had encountered similar problems with Cingular. For example, Deborah in Nashua, NJ; she signed up for the “Digital Edge USA 550” for $70 per

month and experienced similar problems as mine. Lori, who lives in Moriarty, NM, has detailed documentation of her dissatisfaction with phone calls made to the representatives. Apparently, this is a very serious problem as it borders on, if not actually crosses into, deceptive and misleading practices. With your understanding of the situation, I believe the Better Business Bureau would be able to carry out

some measures to condemn Cingular’s deceptive practices. With your effort, similar problems will

certainly be eliminated in the future. If you would like to speak with me regarding this issue, please

email me at Email User or call at (417)882-5787. Thank you for your time and cooperation regarding this issue. Sincerely, Jessie Chai

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Jessie Chai

Email User