Cingular Wireless ripoff stolen SIM card unauthorized calls $15,000.00 bill Atlanta, Georgia

MY LAST LETTER TO CINGULAR, OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
08/08/2006
Rebuttalwrongdoing with this complaint.
First, I have never called or asked anyone to activate International Roaming. You must call customer care prior to your trip (800-335-4685) and ask that they activate international roaming on your account if you have not already done so or you will not be able to use your phone.

Second my phone was 3 band device (850/1800/1900) and Bosnian network is 900 so it is impossible to use the phone in that country.

Third on July 24,2006 I sent to Kathy Bryant Apostile Certificate and all documents of the fraud that was committed and Cingular recieved and signed for documents but cannot find them. I resent the same document on August 8,2006 they should have received it today.

Fourth,Mrs.Kathy Bryant told me that every call is made by my phone and mentioned IMEI number that she said came from my phone because of that number and that number can in fact be cloned very easily.

the IMEI's only purpose is for Warrenty Exchanges and Insurance Claims, other then that it serves no purpose on what is in the system. The sim card internally is the one that recieves all the data, sms, mms, e-mail, because it is the internal device with the wireless number stored in it. The IMEI on the device never becomes a relevant factor however. So for any further confusion, the sim card is the most important factor of the phone and not the IMEI, which brings in the purpose of having to have a SIM Card in the phone to be able to even turn it on. Phones are not linked to cingular accounts only sim cards are directly linked. There is an IMEI number for the phone but they are not how cingular tracks the account.

All information about IMEI, SIM Card, International Roaming are from Cingular web site technical support. Thank you for your time.
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RESPONSE : I last spoke with Mr. Dzanic on 8-14-06 and advised him that a credit request had been submitted. I also advised him that it culd take up to 14 days before I receive a response.

LETTER : (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
On Thursday August 24, 2006 I spoke to Kathy Bryant and she informed me that all of my charges have been dropped. And I now have a $0.00 Balance on my Cingular account. And I expect to receive a letter confirming all information pertaining to the charges on my Cingular account.

Case Closed RESOLVED

Cingular woud be willing to work with you.Their policy is that up till the point of reporting it stolen you are responsible for any and all charges.That being said, they can credit you for up 7 days back from when you reported it.

You say your wife had no intent on using her cingular service while there.If that was so, then why did she take it with her? For emergency purposes? If that is the case then she woud have known it would work, otherwise then there would no real purpose for it to be taken there at all.

Ok so I understand your whole story and it is such a shame someone would actually steal your sim card and use up all those minutes making you be stuck with these charges....but when you get down to the whole point...why would Cinular be responsible to suck up all those charges for roaming in bosnia...obviously its a lot of money and they are not the ones who used it there..they are not the ones who told you to bring the phone in the first place there....So Cingular should stop being blamed...the people to blame would either be A. the repair store in which your wife took her phone B. The criminals who took the sim card. The repair store should not have let anyone near their equipment they are repairing except for the repair person. Also, when doing a repair on the phone the sim card is not needed or any other accessories...so the sim card should have been removed, back of the phone and battery. In your report you state that they did find who stole the sim card and used it. Why dont you bring them to court!? I mean they should be the ones who pay for this damage......if you dont bring them to court then I am sorry but you would have to pay for the bill because again that would not be your service providers fault...and they were right they have 52 million customers....its not like they get a report that says ok Mr. Joe has 7,000 dollars worth of charges lets call him........its not their responsibility.

There were no calls made between November and April 19, 2006. The $6000.00 Charges were from April 19 to May 15th. Then from May 15th to June 9, 2006 the bill was $9000.00. During November to April I received my normal billing cycles of $75.00. When the bill for the April 15th - May 15th came on May 22, 2006 I was in Bosnia so I was not aware of the calling activities until I returned to the United States on June 15,2006. My bill was itemized with all the calls and I did not recognize any of the numbers dialed. When I called a Cingular representative I asked why they did not contact me with this unusual activities and they told me they cannot follow 52 million customers(sarcasticlly).

Your wife went to Bosnia in Nov 2005 and had phone problems, took the phone to a local phone place where they stole her SIM card. You went to Bosnia in May of 2006. Returned in June of 2006 to find a phone bill of $6000. Either you didn't look at any phone bills, you had the second phone, between Nov and June or the $6000 bill was for the month of May. You state the next phone bill, June, was $15,000. That leads me to believe the May phone bill was $6000. I find it kind of odd that no phone calls were made between Nov and May but that's just me. I do think it's kind of strange that cingular's gonna let a phone bill get to $6000 or $15,000. I guarantee loss prevention/security would have stepped in before anyone's bill gets that high. I've heard of them stepping in at $750 or $1000.

Your wife went to Bosnia in Nov 2005 and had phone problems, took the phone to a local phone place where they stole her SIM card. You went to Bosnia in May of 2006. Returned in June of 2006 to find a phone bill of $6000. Either you didn't look at any phone bills, you had the second phone, between Nov and June or the $6000 bill was for the month of May. You state the next phone bill, June, was $15,000. That leads me to believe the May phone bill was $6000. I find it kind of odd that no phone calls were made between Nov and May but that's just me. I do think it's kind of strange that cingular's gonna let a phone bill get to $6000 or $15,000. I guarantee loss prevention/security would have stepped in before anyone's bill gets that high. I've heard of them stepping in at $750 or $1000.

Your wife went to Bosnia in Nov 2005 and had phone problems, took the phone to a local phone place where they stole her SIM card. You went to Bosnia in May of 2006. Returned in June of 2006 to find a phone bill of $6000. Either you didn't look at any phone bills, you had the second phone, between Nov and June or the $6000 bill was for the month of May. You state the next phone bill, June, was $15,000. That leads me to believe the May phone bill was $6000. I find it kind of odd that no phone calls were made between Nov and May but that's just me. I do think it's kind of strange that cingular's gonna let a phone bill get to $6000 or $15,000. I guarantee loss prevention/security would have stepped in before anyone's bill gets that high. I've heard of them stepping in at $750 or $1000.

My wife never intended to use the Cingular phone in Bosnia. She had another phone from a Bosnian Cell phone company. We never called each other using the Cingular plan due to the high calling cost. The cell phone which is a Sony works on a GSM Network 850 1800/1900, Bosnian network is 900 so it is impossible to use that phone there.

If your bill shows each call made, you could probably dispute most of them (if not all) individually -- "I never made that call" -- based on where you were at the time.
Also if the phone numbers relate to the criminal activity, it could be shown that you couldn't make them.

On the international roaming issue, I have a question. If you never authorized international roaming, how was your wife supposed to be able to use the phone?