Cingular Wireless Rant!!!

[boomhauer]

Oh my lord. I just got off an hour long call with these thieves. Maybe some of you know about what I am going to tell you. I did not. I was never told about this.

Anyways, been a customer of theirs since 1997. My bill never goes over $75. I never use all of my anytime minutes. When I lost my job in July, I started using my phone more to talk to recruiters, etc.

I check my bill last month online to pay it - $230!!!! I couldn't believe it. So, I called up and was told I went way over my minutes. I knew I had been on the phone more, but didn't think it was that bad.

So, I figured I screwed up, and I'll pay it off and learn my lesson. Well, I just went on to pay this months bill and it says I've 54 minutes over my time allotted!!! Impossible I figure.

So, I look at the breakdown of my minutes. I come to find out, I've been charged for EVERY SINGLE call I made to my voicemail. What is that crap??? I was never told about that. Then I checked last months - Same thing, That's why I went so far over on my minutes.

I call them up. First person I speak to is nice and agrees, it's ridiculous and she transfers me to a specialist. She tells me, that's just the way it is, notihng she can do. Then I get upset - I've been a customer for 10 years, paid you close to $7,000 and you can't take these ridiculous charges which I was never even told about off. What does she do - Agrees to take a week's off and I save $30.

OK, so, you pay for voicemail service, but every time you use it, you have to pay extra??? That makes sense. That's like ordering HBO from the cable company, paying the monthly charge, but every time you watch it, having to pay extra.

Secondly, explain to me how if I have unlimited mobile to mobile minutes on the Cingular network I get charged every time I call my Cingular number from my Cingular phone?

Am I wrong or is that REALLY underhanded?

 

[mickeysaver]

We get no charges for calling voicemail, mobile to mobile on our account or to any Cingulair customer.

I was rather ticked off with these folks when we bought our home last year and went way over our minutes twice. We spent close to $500 in overages that, if they didn't have expiring roll-over minutes, we would have never been charged a dime because we rarely come close to using half of our minutes.

My current beef with them is that for a cellular network with the fewest dropped calls, why is it that I drop calls all over a major metropolitan area like Atlanta? I swear, you see a cell tower every 1/2 mile or less, but I still lose calls all over town.

It's my honey's account, well, her grandmother's to be more precise. They will not remove her 80 something year old grandma from the account without speaking to her. The last thing that anyone wants to do is talk to that woman. She is very intolerant of such stuff, so for now, the bill comes in her name......it's only been this way for 16 years.

Cingulair.....not my favorite company either. Maggie

 

[boomhauer]

I've decided, tomorrow morning I'm calling, demanding to speak to a manager and looking into this.

This is wrong. Just wrong.

 

[WonderfulDreamer2]

We just dropped Cingular on their big ole behinds this past week and went with Verizon. I'll spare you the details, but I'll go without a phone before I deal with Cingular again. Being a crook isn't the half of it.

 

[boomhauer]

The best line of the entire conversation:

I tell the woman, "Nobody ever told me I'd be charged to call my voicemail."

Her response: "Well sir, nobody knows. We don't tell them."

 

[rie'smom]

I too found out about the voice mail the hard way a couple of years ago. Since then,I've told everyone not to leave a message because I won't reply.

 

[Sherri]

Oh my lord. I just got off an hour long call with these thieves. Maybe some of you know about what I am going to tell you. I did not. I was never told about this.

Anyways, been a customer of theirs since 1997. My bill never goes over $75. I never use all of my anytime minutes. When I lost my job in July, I started using my phone more to talk to recruiters, etc.

I check my bill last month online to pay it - $230!!!! I couldn't believe it. So, I called up and was told I went way over my minutes. I knew I had been on the phone more, but didn't think it was that bad.

So, I figured I screwed up, and I'll pay it off and learn my lesson. Well, I just went on to pay this months bill and it says I've 54 minutes over my time allotted!!! Impossible I figure.

So, I look at the breakdown of my minutes. I come to find out, I've been charged for EVERY SINGLE call I made to my voicemail. What is that crap??? I was never told about that. Then I checked last months - Same thing, That's why I went so far over on my minutes.

I call them up. First person I speak to is nice and agrees, it's ridiculous and she transfers me to a specialist. She tells me, that's just the way it is, notihng she can do. Then I get upset - I've been a customer for 10 years, paid you close to $7,000 and you can't take these ridiculous charges which I was never even told about off. What does she do - Agrees to take a week's off and I save $30.

OK, so, you pay for voicemail service, but every time you use it, you have to pay extra??? That makes sense. That's like ordering HBO from the cable company, paying the monthly charge, but every time you watch it, having to pay extra.

Secondly, explain to me how if I have unlimited mobile to mobile minutes on the Cingular network I get charged every time I call my Cingular number from my Cingular phone?

Am I wrong or is that REALLY underhanded?

We have had our fair share of cingular problems, but I must say they always have been good about fixing them.

 

[JimFitz]

Is being charged for calling voicemail a cingular only thing, or do all companies do this?

 

[illini]

I swear one day I asked specifically about calling voice mail and they said no charge for that it was considered mobile to mobile.

 

[Syrreal]

I wonder if it's a regional thing b/c I don't get charged for calling my vm. The only times we get charged at all if if we have to call out of the country or have to call from out of the country.

 

[Dznypal]

we had cingular about 5 years ago--at the time we bought a card that had minutes and your programed it in the phone this was fine and suited our needs for a cell phone--the minutes never expired


so cingular changed and you only had a month to use your minutes or they expired ( you paid for them yet if you didnt use them you lose them!!!))

so when I went to complaine I was told that as long as you buy a new card before the minutes expired you wont lose them thats fine and all but if didnt use 20 minutes in a month they would keep building

when I told her that she said Id just have to talk more !!!

right after that we got on a family plan with DD and new Son-IL

we have 4 phones, the "kids" have text messaging, we alos paid $5 for the account for no roaming and our free nites start at 7 instead of 9

all for $100 a month!!

so far we've been real happy with them

 

[boomhauer]

This is what I don't understand:

In other words, on my plan, I have 450 anytime minutes, 5000 night and weekend minutes, and unlimited mobile to mobile.

However, everytime I call my voicemail, even if on the weekend or at night, it still is counted as an anytime minute. That makes NO sense.

 

[fabumouse]

I've been warned by Verizon that I pay to get my voicemail - but as it takes me hardly any time, I've never noticed any costs.

However - Cingular was a NIGHTMARE with my husband's account - which was a corporate (read - big bills paid by the company every month with no complaint) account, any time we needed any help. Can't change the phone number - even with the Portability Act. Chronic misbilling - and at the end, -would not quit billing us even though the account had been closed.

Good luck~!

 

[nightowlky]

I found out about 2 years ago that Cingular considers a call to Voicemail as a regular call. It goes against your minutes if it's prime-time.

 

[boomhauer]

I found out about 2 years ago that Cingular considers a call to Voicemail as a regular call. It goes against your minutes if it's prime-time.

Actually, it goes against your minutes at ANY time. I just scrolled through the online rules and found this:

Important Voicemail Message

Airtime applies to voicemail message retrieval from
your wireless phone. Mobile to mobile calling does
not apply to voicemail retrieval. A new Return Call
feature in voicemail allows you to return calls from
voicemail. Airtime and any applicable roaming, toll
charges apply when returning calls from voicemail.
Mobile to mobile does not apply.



I'm gonna have a war with management with Cingular tomorrow over this. It DOES say something on their website, but NOWHERE in my contract is this mentioned. What if I never checked online? How would I know?

To me, this goes against the typical "well that's the rule policy." There are times that companies need to do the right thing by their customers and give them a break. I'm no more important than anyone else to Cingular, but I've been a faithful customer for 10 years, I always pay my bill on time. I got my wife to sign up and use Cingular. I'll make it short and sweet for them. I went over my bill and there are 216 minutes of voicemail usage, which amounts to about $91. If they agree to take that $91 off as a one time only showing of good faith, no problem. If they refuse, then I'll drop them on their **** and be signed up with Verizon by days end.

So, simple decision - Lose $91 one time, or lose over $100 a month permanently.

 

[KristaTX]

I never had a problem going over my minutes and don't know if they were charging me for voicemails, but I had numerous other annnoyances with Cingular (as many other former AT&T wireless customers had after the switcharooo to Cingular). I got fed up with their website, their customer service, and the whole thing where Cingular, AT&T, and SBC are the same company (only not really - even the customer service people seemed equally confused as they transferred my telephone calls around to each other ).

Now I am a happy T-Mobile customer . So far I have not had a single problem with the phone service or the customer service. And their website is great. Plus, I got more minutes than Cingular offered at the same rate. Check into them and see if they have good service where you live, and if they offer a better deal. I got a Razr for like $29 at Costco when I signed up, and they waived the activation fee (which I had to call about later when I got my bill, but which T-Mobile also happily and immediately reimbursed me for).

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

With T-Mobile, the only times you are charged for voicemail is if you are already over your allotted minutes (anytime you access voicemail after you go over the allotment you start racking up charges) and if you are roaming.

I can understand the way T-Mobile does it because I'm sure there are people that would take the plan with the smallest amount of minutes and just not answer the phone and pick up messages left to them for free. Only thing they would ever use their minutes on would be outgoing calls.

 

[boomhauer]

Well, it's not just Cingular. This is from Verizon's website:

Airtime and other charges will be incurred when using Voice Mail from your wireless phone. IN Calling minutes do not apply to Voice Mail retrievals; you will be charged to maintain your connection to Voice Mail. Verizon Wireless is not liable for missed messages, or deletions of messages from your Voice Mailbox, even if you have saved them.


What a scam. Seriously, who the heck would check their voicemail from anything other then their cellphone? I guess actually I will from now on. That is nothing more than an underhanded, cheating way of screwing people over. There is NO reason for that charge and no reasoning they try and come up with could possibly make sense.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Well, it's not just Cingular. This is from Verizon's website:

Airtime and other charges will be incurred when using Voice Mail from your wireless phone. IN Calling minutes do not apply to Voice Mail retrievals; you will be charged to maintain your connection to Voice Mail. Verizon Wireless is not liable for missed messages, or deletions of messages from your Voice Mailbox, even if you have saved them.


What a scam. Seriously, who the heck would check their voicemail from anything other then their cellphone? I guess actually I will from now on. That is nothing more than an underhanded, cheating way of screwing people over. There is NO reason for that charge and no reasoning they try and come up with could possibly make sense.

Go with T-Mobile and just make sure you have enough minutes in your plan to cover your normal calling and you won't pay for voicemail access.

Plus in the 4 months we have had T-Mobile we have only had 2 calls drop. When we had Sprint we would have 3-4 a day.

 

[aquinas]

The reason is that you are making a call and is no different than a regular phone call. It is not that the companies are trying to steal from you or cheat you.

You are not going to like this but it is a consumer's responsibility to understand any products and/or services that they sign up for. On the flip side the company offering their products and/or services should be upfront with any and all information. It sounds like the sales rep that sold you the phone wasnt as upfront with you.

It does not benefit cell companies to try and "cheat" or mislead their customers. Churn (whenever a customer leaves) is a major concern within the industry that costs millions. Sales reps are usually trained to put someone in the best plan for them because they dont want to undersell and then have a customer get pissed off because they werent sold the right plan.

I think you are on the right track. Call customer service again and make sure you speak to a manager. Dont get mad at the customer service reps because they are only doing as they have been told. Also, do you have company owned CIngular stores in your area? If you do not get satisfaction with customer service try going to a store. MAKE SURE its a company owned store and not an agent. if you are not sure call and ask. Go to the store and ask to see the manager. they can escalate it up to an area manager.

I know you are upset but realize that you are to blame also. Stay calm with the people within Cingular and they will probably take care of you.