Anyone with an inside connection to Cingular in here?

I'm not going to spend too much time on this, because even though I'm
not a customer, Cingular has already annoyed me on this issue.

I have been receiving somebody else's Cingular bills at my address.
They are not addressed to my name, but they are addressed to a company
(?!?) at my specific address AND apartment number.

I'd like to give Cingular a call to let them know that somebody's
clearly not getting their bills, however calling their 1-800 number
leaves me with NO WAY to get through to a human being willing to talk.

I need to give account information, which I can't verify.. The few
times I've gotten through, they start asking for verification info, and
say they can't talk to me and have been quite rude. This has, by the
way, left me with a thrilling view of Cingular's customer service
before I've even had the chance to become a customer.

Oh well. So much for trying to resolve somebody else's problem. If
these bills aren't in my name, I imagine there's no way Cingular can
come after me for them, can they? I mean they are addressed to a
corporation (which is weird) at my specific address, however I've never
been a Cingular customer.

Are there any CS reps on here who could perhaps clear this up for me
and the other party who clearly doesn't know their address is correct
(or doesn't want to pay their bills?)

If not, I imagine the only recourse is the trash can and setting
Cingular on ignore. I can't wait until the collections folks start in.

---

› See More: Anyone with an inside connection to Cingular in here?

I just wanted to add.. My only real annoyance here is that I
wholeheartedly believe that every CS line should give you the option to
talk to a human being, and that human being, if ever reached, should be
willing to listen and at least try and help out -- not just shut you
down because it's "not their department". I've had no experience with
the company as a whole -- I just think that they shouldn't be curt and
rude to someone uninvolved to someone who's trying to correct their /
one of their customer's errors that could result in Cingular not
getting paid or the customer's service being cut off.

How about you open the bill and call the phone numbers that show up on the
bill? That way you could talk to and advise the customer whose bill is
being sent to your home.


"tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I'm not going to spend too much time on this, because even though I'm
> not a customer, Cingular has already annoyed me on this issue.
>
> I have been receiving somebody else's Cingular bills at my address.
> They are not addressed to my name, but they are addressed to a company
> (?!?) at my specific address AND apartment number.
>
> I'd like to give Cingular a call to let them know that somebody's
> clearly not getting their bills, however calling their 1-800 number
> leaves me with NO WAY to get through to a human being willing to talk.
>
> I need to give account information, which I can't verify.. The few
> times I've gotten through, they start asking for verification info, and
> say they can't talk to me and have been quite rude. This has, by the
> way, left me with a thrilling view of Cingular's customer service
> before I've even had the chance to become a customer.
>
> Oh well. So much for trying to resolve somebody else's problem. If
> these bills aren't in my name, I imagine there's no way Cingular can
> come after me for them, can they? I mean they are addressed to a
> corporation (which is weird) at my specific address, however I've never
> been a Cingular customer.
>
> Are there any CS reps on here who could perhaps clear this up for me
> and the other party who clearly doesn't know their address is correct
> (or doesn't want to pay their bills?)
>
> If not, I imagine the only recourse is the trash can and setting
> Cingular on ignore. I can't wait until the collections folks start in.
>

I've tried twice and left messages, to no avail. This is what makes me
think it's someone perhaps trying to avoid paying?? Maybe they think
I'm a collections agent or something? I imagine they saw my number the
first time I called and left a message, after which I left a message
simply saying "You need to update your address with Cingular, I've been
receiving your bills."

I don't really want to give out my contact info to this unknown party,
so I left it at that, but another bill came (this was yesterday.)

Tried calling twice, nothing. I can keep trying, I guess.. ?!?

I've tried twice and left messages, to no avail. This is what makes me
think it's someone perhaps trying to avoid paying?? Maybe they think
I'm a collections agent or something? I imagine they saw my number the
first time I called and left a message, after which I left a message
simply saying "You need to update your address with Cingular, I've been
receiving your bills."

I don't really want to give out my contact info to this unknown party,
so I left it at that, but another bill came (this was yesterday.)

Tried calling twice, nothing. I can keep trying, I guess.. ?!?

Maybe you could take the bills to a cingular store.

In article <[email protected]>,
"tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I'm not going to spend too much time on this, because even though I'm
> not a customer, Cingular has already annoyed me on this issue.
>
> I have been receiving somebody else's Cingular bills at my address.
> They are not addressed to my name, but they are addressed to a company
> (?!?) at my specific address AND apartment number.
>
> I'd like to give Cingular a call to let them know that somebody's
> clearly not getting their bills, however calling their 1-800 number
> leaves me with NO WAY to get through to a human being willing to talk.
>
> I need to give account information, which I can't verify.. The few
> times I've gotten through, they start asking for verification info, and
> say they can't talk to me and have been quite rude. This has, by the
> way, left me with a thrilling view of Cingular's customer service
> before I've even had the chance to become a customer.
>
> Oh well. So much for trying to resolve somebody else's problem. If
> these bills aren't in my name, I imagine there's no way Cingular can
> come after me for them, can they? I mean they are addressed to a
> corporation (which is weird) at my specific address, however I've never
> been a Cingular customer.
>

Mark them "No such person at this address, Return To Sender"
in Magic Marker, and drop in a mailbox.

> Are there any CS reps on here who could perhaps clear this up for me
> and the other party who clearly doesn't know their address is correct
> (or doesn't want to pay their bills?)
>
> If not, I imagine the only recourse is the trash can and setting
> Cingular on ignore. I can't wait until the collections folks start in.

In article <[email protected]>,
"tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I just wanted to add.. My only real annoyance here is that I
> wholeheartedly believe that every CS line should give you the option to
> talk to a human being, and that human being, if ever reached, should be
> willing to listen and at least try and help out -- not just shut you
> down because it's "not their department".

It's a side effect of the CSRs being given "Handle Times".




> I've had no experience with
> the company as a whole -- I just think that they shouldn't be curt and
> rude to someone uninvolved to someone who's trying to correct their /
> one of their customer's errors that could result in Cingular not
> getting paid or the customer's service being cut off.

"Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > I just wanted to add.. My only real annoyance here is that I
> > wholeheartedly believe that every CS line should give you the option to
> > talk to a human being, and that human being, if ever reached, should be
> > willing to listen and at least try and help out -- not just shut you
> > down because it's "not their department".
>
> It's a side effect of the CSRs being given "Handle Times".

Nope- wrong. Try again. There is no data to support the claim of handle
time restrictions at Cingular.

"tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote:

>I'm not going to spend too much time on this, because even though I'm
>not a customer, Cingular has already annoyed me on this issue.
>
>I have been receiving somebody else's Cingular bills at my address.
>They are not addressed to my name, but they are addressed to a company
>(?!?) at my specific address AND apartment number.
>
<snip>
You should have the Post Office return the mail.

--
Jim Rusling
Partially Retired
Mustang, OK
http://www.rusling.org

"tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...


> I'd like to give Cingular a call to let them know that somebody's
> clearly not getting their bills, however calling their 1-800 number
> leaves me with NO WAY to get through to a human being willing to talk.

Sure there is, keep telling the robot that you want to speak to a human.
Alternatly press about 40 "0" (zero's) and it will eventually tell you that
it is having a problem understanding you and is transfering you to an
attendant. Although it may ask for account information, just keep
hitting )'s and you will eventually be put in the cue.

Tell them the problem and in the future, write on incoming bills - "Return
to Sender - Company unknown". Or do like I did once, go to the post office
and using the address information on the envelope write out a change of
address for the "Company" and send it right back to the return address on
the envelope. Then you don't have to deal with it any more.

Sounds like trying to be a nice guy is sometimes difficult in todays modern
automatic attendant world!

"SS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> In article <[email protected]>,
>> "tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> > I just wanted to add.. My only real annoyance here is that I
>> > wholeheartedly believe that every CS line should give you the option to
>> > talk to a human being, and that human being, if ever reached, should be
>> > willing to listen and at least try and help out -- not just shut you
>> > down because it's "not their department".
>>
>> It's a side effect of the CSRs being given "Handle Times".
>
> Nope- wrong. Try again. There is no data to support the claim of handle
> time restrictions at Cingular.

But Phillipe likes to try to start ****!

> "SS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > "Jack Zwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> >> In article <[email protected]>,
> >> "tcp100" <[email protected]> wrote:
> >>
> >> > I just wanted to add.. My only real annoyance here is that I
> >> > wholeheartedly believe that every CS line should give you the option to
> >> > talk to a human being, and that human being, if ever reached, should be
> >> > willing to listen and at least try and help out -- not just shut you
> >> > down because it's "not their department".
> >>
> >> It's a side effect of the CSRs being given "Handle Times".
> >
> > Nope- wrong. Try again. There is no data to support the claim of handle
> > time restrictions at Cingular.

Then you spin the failure of CSRs to help the gentleman, without
resorting to personal attacks of childish explitives.

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

>
> Then you spin the failure of CSRs to help the gentleman, without
> resorting to personal attacks of childish explitives.

No spin needed. To fulfill the poster's request that he no longer receive
the bill in his mailbox, Cingular would have no option but to either remove
the address from the account or suppress the printing of the bill
altogether. Both of these would be considered changes to the account.
Thanks to bored lawmakers, Cingular is required by law to not discuss any
proprietary customer information with anyone not associated with the
account- if you don't believe me, search for the CPNI (Customer Proprietary
Netwrok Information) regulations passed about 2 or 3 years ago. This is
also the reason we all go through backflips with the providers, answering
the same questions time after time to discuss our account with them. If you
read the regulations and associated commentaries on them, you will see that
a customer's address is one of those pieces of information that cannot be
discussed.

And Jack- if you have a problem with that, here's a scenario for you to
consider. Imagine one of your hundreds of Usenet fans finally figuring out
who you are. Once that's done, finding an address is child's play. A quick
call to all of your service providers with a story about needing to stop
receiving your bills because they live at your address and suddenly your
mail volume decrases drastically, until replaced with past due notices. Are
you now saying that they should just take the poster at his word and blindly
make the change to the account?

"SS" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news[email protected]...
>
SNIP

> No spin needed. To fulfill the poster's request that he no longer receive
> the bill in his mailbox, Cingular would have no option but to either
> remove
> the address from the account or suppress the printing of the bill
> altogether. Both of these would be considered changes to the account.
> Thanks to bored lawmakers, Cingular is required by law to not discuss any
> proprietary customer information with anyone not associated with the
> account- if you don't believe me, search for the CPNI (Customer
> Proprietary
> Netwrok Information) regulations passed about 2 or 3 years ago. This is
> also the reason we all go through backflips with the providers, answering
> the same questions time after time to discuss our account with them. If
> you
> read the regulations and associated commentaries on them, you will see
> that
> a customer's address is one of those pieces of information that cannot be
> discussed.
>
> And Jack- if you have a problem with that, here's a scenario for you to
> consider. Imagine one of your hundreds of Usenet fans finally figuring
> out
> who you are. Once that's done, finding an address is child's play. A
> quick
> call to all of your service providers with a story about needing to stop
> receiving your bills because they live at your address and suddenly your
> mail volume decrases drastically, until replaced with past due notices.
> Are
> you now saying that they should just take the poster at his word and
> blindly
> make the change to the account?
>

The solution is rather simple. Cingular can call the owner of the account on
his/her cell phone and verify the billing address. No unauthorized changes
to the account would be necessary. The poster can also "Return to Sender",
the bill which should at some point trigger someone at Cingular to verify
the billing address. There is no reason that a Cingular Customer Service rep
couldn't make a note in the account and have someone follow up on it without
sharing any information about the account to the OP at all.

By the way. All someone needs is the last 4 digits of you Social Security
number and they can do whatever the heck they want to you cellular account.
How hard do you think getting THAT information would be? (Hint: anyone that
works in HR at your employer has that information).

TC