Billing Issues?

Hi:

I'm new to this group. Greetings. I believe I have discovered a major
billing issue with Cingular that may affect hundreds of thousands across
the
US.

I'm on the phone with a cingular billing person now. The issue arises
when
you change plans during the month. In a nutshell, I upgraded my plan
around
February 20th. I increased from 850 to 1500 minutes and 750 text messages
to 1000.

Cingular began billing me .35 for day time calls (btw, at the end of
February I had 77 rollover minutes) and .10 for text messages! (2 of the
phone lines have 1,000 text messages per month) The billing person admits
I
should not have billed and is correcting this on 4 lines.

Maybe I'm wrong but it certainly appears that many, if not all, who change
plans during the month MAY be being billed too much.

Any comments?

Bob Lally



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---

› See More: Billing Issues?

Originally Posted by Bob L.

Hi:

I'm new to this group. Greetings. I believe I have discovered a major
billing issue with Cingular that may affect hundreds of thousands across
the
US.

I'm on the phone with a cingular billing person now. The issue arises
when
you change plans during the month. In a nutshell, I upgraded my plan
around
February 20th. I increased from 850 to 1500 minutes and 750 text messages
to 1000.

Cingular began billing me .35 for day time calls (btw, at the end of
February I had 77 rollover minutes) and .10 for text messages! (2 of the
phone lines have 1,000 text messages per month) The billing person admits
I
should not have billed and is correcting this on 4 lines.

Maybe I'm wrong but it certainly appears that many, if not all, who change
plans during the month MAY be being billed too much.

Any comments?

Bob Lally



--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
It has removed 953 spam emails to date.
Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!

First of all we advise customers as much as possible not to change rate plans in the middle of the billing cycle, but not for that reason. When customers change in the middle of the billing cycle, they receive proration charges, and it's really confusing for the customer to understand.

The cicumstance of which you are speaking is not the normal. You have not discovered a glitch in the system. Typically, even if you switch in the middle of a cycle, you won't have any errors on your bill, but there are those rare times, when you will.

In article <[email protected]>,
"Bob L." <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi:
>
> I'm new to this group. Greetings. I believe I have discovered a major
> billing issue with Cingular that may affect hundreds of thousands across
> the
> US.
>
> I'm on the phone with a cingular billing person now. The issue arises
> when
> you change plans during the month. In a nutshell, I upgraded my plan
> around
> February 20th. I increased from 850 to 1500 minutes and 750 text messages
> to 1000.
>
> Cingular began billing me .35 for day time calls (btw, at the end of
> February I had 77 rollover minutes) and .10 for text messages! (2 of the
> phone lines have 1,000 text messages per month) The billing person admits
> I
> should not have billed and is correcting this on 4 lines.
>
> Maybe I'm wrong but it certainly appears that many, if not all, who change
> plans during the month MAY be being billed too much.
>
> Any comments?
>
> Bob Lally

Sounds like another WHOOPS charge.

"Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>
> Sounds like another WHOOPS charge.

Seems you have a new word to beat to death. It only makes one wonder where
you learned it- Mommy and Daddy been talking about your conception?

"scott14661" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Bob L. Wrote:
SNIP

>
> The cicumstance of which you are speaking is not the normal. You have
> not discovered a glitch in the system. Typically, even if you switch
> in the middle of a cycle, you won't have any errors on your bill, but
> there are those rare times, when you will.
>
>
> --
> scott14661

Well I don't know about it being rare or not, but I had a similar problem
when I made changes to my plan in the middle of the billing period. I didn't
actually change the plan but rather corrected a mistake Cingular made at the
time the service was initiated. They took my old ATT number and instead of
making it the primary to the account they made it the $9.99 add-on to a
family plan. The second phone, which was an altogether new number was made
the primary for the $59 Family Plan. I called and Cingular cheerfully agreed
to make the correction, however when I got my next bill they had pro-rated
each phone AND had charged me the one month in advance all over again.

Cingular once again very cheerfully made the corrections and credited the
account for the incorrect charges. I am finding that you really have to keep
an eye on your bill for those 'rare' mistakes.

Cheers
TC

I don't think this is a problem.

As far as i know, if you change plan in mid-month, your monthly allowance is
prorated for the number of days you were on each plan. If you exceed those
minutes, then you are billed. For example, if you are billed from 1st to
30th and have 1000 minutes, and you change on the 15th, then for the first
part of the month you have only 500 minutes allowed. If you used 600 min
for the first 15 days, you would be billed for the 100 minute overage.
That's how the billing system works. Cingular will manually adjust and look
back at your total monthly usage to see if you were within total monthly
allowed minutes.

The billing software does not look at your circumstances, it just acts on
the logic that was programmed. That is the reason that Cingular only likes
to change your plan on the first day of the next billing cycle. Otherwise,
people could use their phone and run up minutes without care then change
plan on the last day of the month.

I think that rollover minutes from Cingular is a very fair way of billing
because it allows you to normalize your usage over one year. With other
carriers, if you exceed your plan minutes by 1000 in Feb but only used 1
minute in January, you get hit with an enormous Feb bill.



"Bob L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi:
>
> I'm new to this group. Greetings. I believe I have discovered a major
> billing issue with Cingular that may affect hundreds of thousands across
> the
> US.
>
> I'm on the phone with a cingular billing person now. The issue arises
> when
> you change plans during the month. In a nutshell, I upgraded my plan
> around
> February 20th. I increased from 850 to 1500 minutes and 750 text messages
> to 1000.
>
> Cingular began billing me .35 for day time calls (btw, at the end of
> February I had 77 rollover minutes) and .10 for text messages! (2 of the
> phone lines have 1,000 text messages per month) The billing person admits
> I
> should not have billed and is correcting this on 4 lines.
>
> Maybe I'm wrong but it certainly appears that many, if not all, who change
> plans during the month MAY be being billed too much.
>
> Any comments?
>
> Bob Lally
>
>
>
> --
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
> It has removed 953 spam emails to date.
> Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
> Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!
>
>

Hi:

Please do not misunderstand. We first signed up with cingular 12/24 with
4
lines. I have changed our plan on several occasions adding additional
features, changing features as specials appear, etc. In all cases the
customer service has been outstanding.

I am not displeased with Cingular but only the billing problems that have
occurred since 12/24.

I fully understand rollover minutes and the advantage. The problem with
the
billing is I had 77 rollover minutes for the month of February rolled over
to March. Since this is the case, why would Cingular BILL me $.35 for
daytime calls for a 5-6 day period? I'm talking about a $309 bill for 1
month that should be about $150.

The logic is followed quite well - but the billing logic is flawed. I can
get this fixed easily enough - how many others will not notice an
additional
$10-$20 accidentally billed?

Bob


"Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I don't think this is a problem.
>
> As far as i know, if you change plan in mid-month, your monthly
allowance
is
> prorated for the number of days you were on each plan. If you exceed
those
> minutes, then you are billed. For example, if you are billed from 1st
to
> 30th and have 1000 minutes, and you change on the 15th, then for the
first
> part of the month you have only 500 minutes allowed. If you used 600
min
> for the first 15 days, you would be billed for the 100 minute overage.
> That's how the billing system works. Cingular will manually adjust and
look
> back at your total monthly usage to see if you were within total monthly
> allowed minutes.
>
> The billing software does not look at your circumstances, it just acts
on
> the logic that was programmed. That is the reason that Cingular only
likes
> to change your plan on the first day of the next billing cycle.
Otherwise,
> people could use their phone and run up minutes without care then change
> plan on the last day of the month.
>
> I think that rollover minutes from Cingular is a very fair way of
billing
> because it allows you to normalize your usage over one year. With
other
> carriers, if you exceed your plan minutes by 1000 in Feb but only used 1
> minute in January, you get hit with an enormous Feb bill.
>
>
>
> "Bob L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Hi:
> >
> > I'm new to this group. Greetings. I believe I have discovered a
major
> > billing issue with Cingular that may affect hundreds of thousands
across
> > the
> > US.
> >
> > I'm on the phone with a cingular billing person now. The issue arises
> > when
> > you change plans during the month. In a nutshell, I upgraded my plan
> > around
> > February 20th. I increased from 850 to 1500 minutes and 750 text
messages
> > to 1000.
> >
> > Cingular began billing me .35 for day time calls (btw, at the end of
> > February I had 77 rollover minutes) and .10 for text messages! (2 of
the
> > phone lines have 1,000 text messages per month) The billing person
admits
> > I
> > should not have billed and is correcting this on 4 lines.
> >
> > Maybe I'm wrong but it certainly appears that many, if not all, who
change
> > plans during the month MAY be being billed too much.
> >
> > Any comments?
> >
> > Bob Lally
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
> > It has removed 953 spam emails to date.
> > Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
> > Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!
> >
> >
>
>


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>
> The logic is followed quite well - but the billing logic is flawed. I can
> get this fixed easily enough - how many others will not notice an
> additional
> $10-$20 accidentally billed?
>

That's the reason Cingular normally will normally not change plans in the
middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).

Adding features is usually not a program.

Correction. I'm typing too fast.
--------

That's the reason Cingular will normally not change plans in the
middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).

Adding features is usually not a problem.


"Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >
>> The logic is followed quite well - but the billing logic is flawed. I
>> can
>> get this fixed easily enough - how many others will not notice an
>> additional
>> $10-$20 accidentally billed?
>>
>
> That's the reason Cingular normally will normally not change plans in the
> middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).
>
> Adding features is usually not a program.
>
>
>
>

Now, I wish I had waited! I did get them to remove $60 in billing errors
though.

Thanks.

Bob


"Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Correction. I'm typing too fast.
> --------
>
> That's the reason Cingular will normally not change plans in the
> middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).
>
> Adding features is usually not a problem.
>
>
> "Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > >
> >> The logic is followed quite well - but the billing logic is flawed.
I
> >> can
> >> get this fixed easily enough - how many others will not notice an
> >> additional
> >> $10-$20 accidentally billed?
> >>
> >
> > That's the reason Cingular normally will normally not change plans in
the
> > middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).
> >
> > Adding features is usually not a program.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>


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There's a NEW invention that WILL allow Cingular to change plans in the
middle of a Billing period without billing errors.

It's call a COMPUTER.

Cingular needs to rattle some cages of however wrote the software of
their billing systems.





In article <[email protected]>,
"Bob L." <[email protected]> wrote:

> Now, I wish I had waited! I did get them to remove $60 in billing errors
> though.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Bob
>
>
> "Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Correction. I'm typing too fast.
> > --------
> >
> > That's the reason Cingular will normally not change plans in the
> > middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).
> >
> > Adding features is usually not a problem.
> >
> >
> > "Richie" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > >
> > >> The logic is followed quite well - but the billing logic is flawed.
> I
> > >> can
> > >> get this fixed easily enough - how many others will not notice an
> > >> additional
> > >> $10-$20 accidentally billed?
> > >>
> > >
> > > That's the reason Cingular normally will normally not change plans in
> the
> > > middle of a billing cycle (unless you insist).
> > >
> > > Adding features is usually not a program.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
> It has removed 1087 spam emails to date.
> Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
> Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!

I just changed plans two months ago and I got a $396.00 bill from Cingular
and I went nuts. I called and they blew me off, made up some hokey excuse it
takes an entire billing cycle for the change to go in to effect. (Flat out
lie) I had the rep's name from the call where I was told it would go into
the next immediate billing cycle and they (Cingular) said they are not
responsible for the rep's mistake and they can't prove he said it. I
replied "you record the ****ing calls, play it back" to which retort-
"well, we don't record all sir.) I got screwed. **** them I'm going to
Verizon this company makes Enron look like a joke.... It should all explode
in the folks at Cingular's face soon. So much for the $84.00 1500 min plan.
****ing liars....

Rob


"Bob L." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hi:
>
> I'm new to this group. Greetings. I believe I have discovered a major
> billing issue with Cingular that may affect hundreds of thousands across
> the
> US.
>
> I'm on the phone with a cingular billing person now. The issue arises
> when
> you change plans during the month. In a nutshell, I upgraded my plan
> around
> February 20th. I increased from 850 to 1500 minutes and 750 text messages
> to 1000.
>
> Cingular began billing me .35 for day time calls (btw, at the end of
> February I had 77 rollover minutes) and .10 for text messages! (2 of the
> phone lines have 1,000 text messages per month) The billing person admits
> I
> should not have billed and is correcting this on 4 lines.
>
> Maybe I'm wrong but it certainly appears that many, if not all, who change
> plans during the month MAY be being billed too much.
>
> Any comments?
>
> Bob Lally
>
>
>
> --
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users.
> It has removed 953 spam emails to date.
> Paying users do not have this message in their emails.
> Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now!
>
>

"RDF" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
<snip>
> and they (Cingular) said they are not responsible for the
> rep's mistake and they can't prove he said it. I replied
> "you record the ****ing calls, play it back" to which
> retort- "well, we don't record all sir.) I got screwed.
<snip>
They may not record all calls, but I certainly intend to
from now on, at least anytime there's any possibility of
my plan being changed. I'll ask the rep, of course, but
when they record them how can they possibly object?

Good point. I should buy one of the adapters for my phone and plug it in to
the pc and save it as an mp3 or .wav file. (Tape recorders too old) This
whole thing really pisses me off. I'm going to Verison today in search of a
better deal. This is strike three for them.


"L David Matheny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> "RDF" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> <snip>
>> and they (Cingular) said they are not responsible for the
>> rep's mistake and they can't prove he said it. I replied
>> "you record the ****ing calls, play it back" to which
>> retort- "well, we don't record all sir.) I got screwed.
> <snip>
> They may not record all calls, but I certainly intend to
> from now on, at least anytime there's any possibility of
> my plan being changed. I'll ask the rep, of course, but
> when they record them how can they possibly object?
>
>

"RDF" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Good point. I should buy one of the adapters for my phone and plug it in
> to the pc and save it as an mp3 or .wav file. (Tape recorders too old)
> This whole thing really pisses me off. I'm going to Verison today in
> search of a better deal. This is strike three for them.
>
>
> "L David Matheny" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> "RDF" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>> <snip>
>>> and they (Cingular) said they are not responsible for the
>>> rep's mistake and they can't prove he said it. I replied
>>> "you record the ****ing calls, play it back" to which
>>> retort- "well, we don't record all sir.) I got screwed.
>> <snip>
>> They may not record all calls, but I certainly intend to
>> from now on, at least anytime there's any possibility of
>> my plan being changed. I'll ask the rep, of course, but
>> when they record them how can they possibly object?


This company has provided me with the worst consumer experience of my life
and I'm no kid. Since coming over from ATT, I've had nothing but billing
screw ups and headaches. My first bill on my $49 plan was something like
$400. The best I could get it down was $150. I paid it just to put an end to
the phone calls, then they tell me they have no record of the payment. I'm
holding the freakin' cancelled check in my hand and they insist they never
got paid. Right now, my position with Cingular is it's their problem to find
it and leave me the Hell alone. I'll be more than happy to go to Verizon if
they cut of my service. The only thing making me hesitate is that GSM has
the advantage on the high tech phones.