Cingular Wireless Fraudulent Billing Practices ripoff Nationwide

Basically sales agents promise the world the new customers.

Like no activations, which isn't true and when customers call in they want to know why. If only there could be one day, just one day that I can tell the whole truth to customers. "Don't trust sales agents, they will do whatever it takes to make a sale so they can make money. Sometimes you get someone in a bad mood and sometimes you don't. It's a war going on between agents and reps. Sometimes you may get a rep. who just doesn't care about there job and is mean and sometimes you will get a rep. that offers you credits just to get you off the phone."

When you call customer care you won't know if the person you are speaking to is a new hire or old pro. But its always better to call back more than once to make sure what you asked for is being done and done right.

Some rate plans do extend your contract and some don't. The "Promotional" plans extend your contract, those are a limited time only.

If you can try to have a rep. send you a detailed email of what is on your account. Every rep's email is firstname.lastname@cingular.com. If one refuses then call back and keep trying. If you find a person willing to help you, then you want to keep track of his/her email. That way you won't have to deal with anyone else.

To the first rebuttal employee:
I have seen you copy and paste that response many times on this site. That is the apparent answer of Cingular for every issue that has ever been encountered. Instead posting the Cingular standard response why don't you do something that might actually make a difference?

To quote you:
"Cingular has an expectation that our customers will fully read these terms of their service agreement before committing to their wireless service. These terms spell out the customers responsibilities and a billing dispute and arbitration process."

That would be a statement totally contrary to what Cingular's expectations are. Cingular has the full expectation that no one will read the terms of service agreement. I have! many times. Many of the things that Cingular wireless tries to get away with are NOT addressed in the terms of service agreement.

One example is:
The way that you have to start a new contract each time you make a change to your calling plan, or when you upgrade a phone. There is absolutely nothing in the contract terms that states this is so. Yet it is one of the MANY "hidden rules".

To the second rebuttal employee:
You may well be the first person from Cingular I have come in contact with who has any sense. You are absolutely correct in stating NOT to order over the phone or internet. With Cingular Wireless that most certainly spells TROUBLE.

I suspect that the high turnover rate with Cingular is one of the main reasons many customers are unhappy. I don't think that the CSR's with Cingular are trained in handling consumer problems, but I also don't think Cingular really cares that much about it.

I work for Cingular and ordering service online or over the phone is a bad idea.
It is always best to get service with a person face to face. You will get your documents in paper without a wait and wonder if you are being suckered by a sales person.

And all sales persons are the same. There pay check depends on your purchase. Whether you are buying a car, house, cell phone or whatever.

But don't stop there. After you buy your phone from any wireless company, you should call customer service to make sure the sales person did not add features to your account without your authorization.

Many times customers have roadside assistance, but don't own vehicles and are not old enough to drive. And the same with voice connect or voice dial.

In the call center I work in there is a major employee turn over. We are based in Louisiana and take calls from California customers mostly, which is a major culture shock. I doubt anyone there is used to being verbally abused unless they were in the military.

Also it is best to ask the representative to look through your previous bills and give you an average of Daytime minutes you have used and let you know what plan you should be on.

The only commission Cingular rep's get is for selling features like text, internet and multimedia packages. We can upgrade your phones and send you one by mail but I would suggest to not go that route. We don't get commission for upgrading customers phones and when we enter your credit card info in our system and send it, there is no know address of where it is going. The only way we will know if it has been sent to the customer or not is an email from an address we can reply to regarding the customers' account wasn't noted correctly or the credit card didn't go through or if it did the customers' account will have a note that the placement has been shipped.

All in all it is best to go with the Cash and Carry method.

I hope this helps.

Go to www.oag.state.tx.us, then click on consumer protection and file the online complaint form . This is Texas attorney general. Until we start filing alot of complaints nothing is going to change.

I read this complaint. I work with the Care team for Cingular Wireless. I shook my head. This issue is seen regularly.

My advice is the same. When activating service, you are agreeing to a service contract. As with all contracts, get it in writing. If activating online, print off your order. If over the phone, check your information that comes with the device when delivered. If at a store, ALWAYS get in writing on your agreement EVERYTHING you are supposed to receive.

Remember, dealers are not always as trained as Care reps. Dealers get maybe a couple hours on-job training and work by commission. They also change very frequently. Their infomation on available promotions may not always be accurate.

Everyone makes mistakes, though. And activation errors can occur. However, we have clear cut Terms and Conditions of your service agreement with can be found at this link:

http://cingular.com/download/Cingular%20Terms%20of%20Service.pdf

Cingular has an expectation that our customers will fully read these terms of their service agreement before committing to their woreless service. hese terms spell out the customers responsibilities and a billing dispute and arbitration process.

According to your diatribe, you did not follow the established protocols in place to dispute your billing. That may be why a resolution was never achieved and the account was referred to collections. However, not having access to your account, I cannot say for sure what was going on. My response is only in a general way.

Thanks for your time.