How to early terminate?

I have had nothing but problems with AT&T and now Cingular.

14 months ago when i established AT&T service, instead of putting me on a 1 month billing cycle that day, they had my billing cycle stop 3 days after i purchased the plan. They didn't tell me that is how they were billing. I assumed I had a month of minutes from the day I purchased till that date the following month. They pro-rated my minutes for 3 days and I ended up owing them $60 for going over my minutes during the first 3 day period. Anyways, due to an odd billing issue and without explanation of it to me, I ended up having to pay.

I called in about this issue and was treated so unbelievably rudely. Was not allowed to speak to a manager and was yelled at and hung up on. Unfortunately I didn’t catch his name. I tried again a few weeks later to remedy this after I got over the bad treatment and was told it was too late to change the bill. Poor service!

Against my own better judgment I renewed recently with cingular. I was given the wrong phone rebate by the salesperson. I spent a long time on the phone with the rebate office and eventually they instructed me to fill out a long list of information, copy the sales receipt and send all that in with original UPC from the box. I did all they asked, but 6 weeks later received a rejection notice in the mail. The letter accompanying this notice stated I did not provide the proper information including a signature and sales date. Of course I did provide this information, and it was in the returned application they sent back to me. After another lengthy conversation with an equally clueless manager from the rebate department, I finally convinced them to take my information over the phone(on my cell minutes btw) and resubmit the rebate. They told me it should be here in 8-12 weeks, I’m not holding my breath! Poor service!

I have paid my cingular bill in full each month but for the last few days have been receiving voice mails by a cingular computer system suggesting a possible interruption in service if I don’t call them. When I phoned to inquire about this issue, I was told that perhaps it was AT&T. I was originally told by the sales person that my AT&T bill would be rolled into by cingular bill. This apparently is not what happens. Also, I have not received any bills in the mail through AT&T. I find that situation odd.

During this same conversation I was told that the promised Department of Defense discount that I’m entitled to was not added to my policy, despite the fact that the sales person had assured me it would be. I furnished all the appropriate proof of DOD employment to the salesperson so as to authenticate myself as a Government employee.

The manager I spoke with after I discovered this told me absolutely nothing could be done unless I once again furnished proof of my DOD employment status. I informed him the store was a 30 minute drive, and I was tired of being inconvienced by their incompetence. He put me on hold and subsequently put me back in the queue to speak with a customer service rep where I waited another 15 minutes.

The next manager I talked to couldn’t even verify whether Cingular had a DOD or Government discount. She was also rude and spoke to me sarcastically and scornfully. When I expressed my frustration with ongoing poor customer support, and requested my service be terminated without early termination fees due to the companies negligence and possible fraudulent information about a discount program, she became even more terse and unpleasant. She informed me that I would be charged an early termination fee and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. When I asked to speak with her supervisor she said there was noone else I could speak to, and laughed that even if there were it still wouldn’t change the answer.

I have never received such poor service, inadequate help or horribly shabby treatment from any company I’ve ever dealt with. If someone had told me, before this experience, what I would have to put up with or how I’d be treated by a company I would not have believed them.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can terminate a contract with this company and not be penalized? I think I’ve been punished enough by them already.


Thanks

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Originally Posted by Disgruntled

I have had nothing but problems with AT&T and now Cingular.

14 months ago when i established AT&T service, instead of putting me on a 1 month billing cycle that day, they had my billing cycle stop 3 days after i purchased the plan. They didn't tell me that is how they were billing. I assumed I had a month of minutes from the day I purchased till that date the following month. They pro-rated my minutes for 3 days and I ended up owing them $60 for going over my minutes during the first 3 day period. Anyways, due to an odd billing issue and without explanation of it to me, I ended up having to pay.

I called in about this issue and was treated so unbelievably rudely. Was not allowed to speak to a manager and was yelled at and hung up on. Unfortunately I didn’t catch his name. I tried again a few weeks later to remedy this after I got over the bad treatment and was told it was too late to change the bill. Poor service!

Against my own better judgment I renewed recently with cingular. I was given the wrong phone rebate by the salesperson. I spent a long time on the phone with the rebate office and eventually they instructed me to fill out a long list of information, copy the sales receipt and send all that in with original UPC from the box. I did all they asked, but 6 weeks later received a rejection notice in the mail. The letter accompanying this notice stated I did not provide the proper information including a signature and sales date. Of course I did provide this information, and it was in the returned application they sent back to me. After another lengthy conversation with an equally clueless manager from the rebate department, I finally convinced them to take my information over the phone(on my cell minutes btw) and resubmit the rebate. They told me it should be here in 8-12 weeks, I’m not holding my breath! Poor service!

I have paid my cingular bill in full each month but for the last few days have been receiving voice mails by a cingular computer system suggesting a possible interruption in service if I don’t call them. When I phoned to inquire about this issue, I was told that perhaps it was AT&T. I was originally told by the sales person that my AT&T bill would be rolled into by cingular bill. This apparently is not what happens. Also, I have not received any bills in the mail through AT&T. I find that situation odd.

During this same conversation I was told that the promised Department of Defense discount that I’m entitled to was not added to my policy, despite the fact that the sales person had assured me it would be. I furnished all the appropriate proof of DOD employment to the salesperson so as to authenticate myself as a Government employee.

The manager I spoke with after I discovered this told me absolutely nothing could be done unless I once again furnished proof of my DOD employment status. I informed him the store was a 30 minute drive, and I was tired of being inconvienced by their incompetence. He put me on hold and subsequently put me back in the queue to speak with a customer service rep where I waited another 15 minutes.

The next manager I talked to couldn’t even verify whether Cingular had a DOD or Government discount. She was also rude and spoke to me sarcastically and scornfully. When I expressed my frustration with ongoing poor customer support, and requested my service be terminated without early termination fees due to the companies negligence and possible fraudulent information about a discount program, she became even more terse and unpleasant. She informed me that I would be charged an early termination fee and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. When I asked to speak with her supervisor she said there was noone else I could speak to, and laughed that even if there were it still wouldn’t change the answer.

I have never received such poor service, inadequate help or horribly shabby treatment from any company I’ve ever dealt with. If someone had told me, before this experience, what I would have to put up with or how I’d be treated by a company I would not have believed them.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I can terminate a contract with this company and not be penalized? I think I’ve been punished enough by them already.


Thanks

As a Cingular employee, let me first apologize for all you've been through. That right there is about as nice as this is going to get. Everything else you probably won't like.

It seems as though you are bitter about the way you were treated with AT&T Wireless. The first circumstance you mention has absolutely nothing to do with your current complaint. Cingular did not own or have anything to do with AT&T at that time, they were separate companies. I guess I'm not sure why you decided to include that in this complaint, unless it's just for extra sympathy.

As for your complaint about Cingular. Your complaint should be with the actual store and salesperson of whom you did your business with. It seems as though you had a really bad salesperson or one with no knowledge of Cingular. Unfortunately every company has bad reps. You could switch to Verizon tomorrow and be screwed over by a rep. You could have went into a completely different store with a different rep, and had no problems whatsover. Again, unfortunately you got a terrible one. One rep does not represent a company.

And to comment on your conversation with Cingular, based on your complaint it sounds as though you were kind of rude to the person on the phone. You have no right to be rude or nasty to someone who did not cause your situation. It would be like you walking into my store and getting nasty with me for a problem that I had NOTHING to do with. And trust me I get customers like that all the time.

If you pitch enough fit, they may cancel it without penalty, but don't get your hopes up. In order for them to waive an Early termination fee, it has to go through a high level adjustment. That means when you call in to request it's removal, the rep on the phone has to submit a form since the amount to be waived is really high. The form goes to people higher in the company and they have the final say in whether or actually waive it or reject it. FYI, I've requested it for customers 3 times for various reasons, and only one time has a high leel adjustment been approved.

Let us know how it turns out.

I have to disagree with you on most of what you said. I'm sorry to criticize your company; I know workers have a vested interest in their employers so I understand your defensiveness.

Yes I am bitter about AT&T's treatment, but it's debatable whether you have "nothing to do" with it. Your company inherits all the problems caused by the old company... and I haven't seen anything yet that makes me think the customer service at Cingular is any better. Your sympathy remark was puzzling, I'm not looking for sympathy nor do I care what anyone thinks. I'm merely looking for an expeditious way out of this bad situation.

Even your semi-critical comments fly in the face of a good customer service attitude. Even if there is a perceived wrong by a customer, a company should do anything in their power (within reason) to satisfy that customer. In my case where I have been demonstrably failed and misinformed, on top of having a number of managers be overtly rude... your company should ask how high when I say jump.

You mention that my complaint should be against the salesperson or store, I do blame them also. Remember, your sales force is the public face of your company. Gross incompetence reflects poorly on the organization.

As for me being unpleasant, I was not. I expressed my frustration with the numerous problems I've encountered and stated in no uncertain terms my expectations of Cingular to resolve them. I didn't raise my voice, belittle them, make sarcastic or derisive comments.... in fact this is what was done to me. Again, I have never been treated so poorly by any individual or company in my life; not even close!

I have been yelled at, denied access to supervisors, hung up on, criticized, put on hold for more than 20 minutes and routed back to the waiting queue, and not once been told 'yes' to any of my requests. At least in my case it is not an isolated incident.

I'm a little tired of the strong arm tactics. If your company thinks they can mistreat its' customers because we are under contract, I would rethink that strategy. Remember a contract is a two way agreement and a simple dial tone does not satisfy your part of the agreement. In return for my money I expect a nominal level of customer support.

Btw, another manager; Loretta Anderson from the little rock call center promised she would get back to me today about the DOD discount issue. Guess what, no call. I would have been more surprised if she had called to be honest. How many chances does a company have to get even one small thing right?

As for the final issue of terminating the contract, recall I was told of a DOD discount prior to signing the contract. If such a discount is not applied, or doesn't exist at all then there is a legal term for this situation: Fraud.

ps. instead of faulting a customer as your Cingular ilk readily engage in... Maybe you ought to take some accountability and remedy his problem. That is good business. Thanks for your response though.

"As a Cingular employee, let me first apologize for all you've been through. That right there is about as nice as this is going to get. Everything else you probably won't like."

God I just signed up with Cingular. I sure hope I don't have to deal with anyone like Scott.

my first though is that Im staying away from cingular !!! WOW WHAT AWRECK THEY PUT YOU THROUGH..my suggsestion to you to term your contract is to report your phone stolen!! there what can they really say? hey your phones stolen so you still have to pay? MY Second thought is that maybe your letting them get away with too much ..next time you talk to them record the phone call and play it back to a lawyer or the B.b.b of your state!! man youve been through alot I know that feeling you must want to be-head someone by now!!! calm down call from somewere you can spend lots of time on the phone and dont speak to anyone but a manager and explane everything that youve been through and maybe someone will pity you if all else fails smash your phone through a cingular store window...!!!!! good luck tell me how it turns out for you

Iv'e had more issues with their customer service since I wrote the previous narrative. The manager from the little rock call center finally did get back to me and told me that I did qualify for a discount but it was at a lower percentage than I was promised at the store. She assured me about 10 times that she would personally see that the discount would be applied to my policy retroactively back to the day the contract was signed.

I called a few weeks later about excessive dropped calls. While on with customer support I asked if the discount was applied and was told NO! The manager from the little rock call center apparently didn't even document my issue in her system. I was not happy but I wasn't surprised either.

Finally after dozens of calls, hours of my time, TONS of stress and endless rude and/or unhelpfull people I finally talked with someone who was pleasant and helpfull. She arranged for the discount and it was actually put on the policy this time.

I am stuck with these guys till my contract runs out. When it does i'm done with cingular forever. This is why competition in a market place is a good thing!

I will be submitting a complaint to the BBB. They have an online form that makes submitting complaints easy. I don't know what good it will do, but if my bad experience prevents a few others from similiar grief I will at least be consoled.

whoa, whoa, whoa, simma down now! haha, anyway, scott, be easy man, dont get all anti-everything-thats-not-cingular on the forum now, you know as well as i do (an indirect cingular dealer) that cingular's customer service is crap, and that they were ranked #1, yes thats #1, for most customer complaints and worst customer service. Hey, they are #1 at something at least right? And dont take these situations so personally just because you work for them. Anyway, back to the original situation, Disgruntled, it can be done but i cannot say why only because come tomorrow there wont be a cingular once people know how to do it (like that one huh, scott?). I would say complaining to Customer Care and only speaking to managers, filing complaints with the BBB and the FCC would also score you huge points. I can say that ive had a higher success rate than Scott only because i sell t-mobile as well and, well....some customers would rather have that than Cingular, so I must do what i must to make the customer happy. So, good luck with your battle, and let us know who wins, I'm rootin for you man! And if you need help again, we got your back!!

Originally Posted by want_proof

my first though is that Im staying away from cingular !!! WOW WHAT AWRECK THEY PUT YOU THROUGH..my suggsestion to you to term your contract is to report your phone stolen!! there what can they really say? hey your phones stolen so you still have to pay? MY Second thought is that maybe your letting them get away with too much ..next time you talk to them record the phone call and play it back to a lawyer or the B.b.b of your state!! man youve been through alot I know that feeling you must want to be-head someone by now!!! calm down call from somewere you can spend lots of time on the phone and dont speak to anyone but a manager and explane everything that youve been through and maybe someone will pity you if all else fails smash your phone through a cingular store window...!!!!! good luck tell me how it turns out for you

Well, the second thought would work better than the first, because cingular will still charge you monthly even if your phone is lost, stolen, broken, etc. You can suspend your account, but they will extend your contract for every month you suspend it, so that won't work. And if you think about it, they would rather just send you a cheap ass phone for free than cancel out your contract because your conract brings more revenue for them, whereas a phone doesnt really mean a thing for them. But the BBB and the FCC are definitely the way to get cingular to let Disgruntled go.

call cingulars save team they are high enough to help

I had a problem with Cingular customer service. My husband was going to be out of town. I wanted to call him on his cell, but we didn't have Nationwide calling. I was told by the CS rep that if he called me there would be a charge, but that if I called him from my calling area there would not be. So that's what I did. When I got my bill, I could readily see that her info was incorrect. I called Cingular to discuss this and was met with condescending attitude. After many calls, much rudeness, and plenty of frustration, I finally went to our state attorney general's department website. They had a form which I printed, completed, and mailed back to them. I went into every bit of detail (took an extra sheet to get it all down!). Within a few weeks, I had a phone call from the Cingular president's office. A very nice person called to tell me that I was being refunded the charges for those nationwide calls that were charged to my account and the issue was settled. So I suggest you contact you state attorney general's office/website.

...Unfortunately every company has bad reps. You could switch to Verizon tomorrow and be screwed over by a rep. You could have went into a completely different store with a different rep, and had no problems whatsover. Again, unfortunately you got a terrible one. One rep does not represent a company.

Actually, a rep DOES represent a company. That's why they're called representatives. This is an argument I see many times on these boards. Unfortunately, there are always bad representatives, that is why companies should care about who they hire to represent the business.

I understand the position of many of the members here, but let's give this argument a rest please. Reps can be bad at a great company, but they ultimately give customers a bad taste in their mouths towards the company in general. Ever have a bad sandwich at a restaurant and say their food sucks? Well how many other people thought it was good? Same principle.

Originally Posted by Disgruntled

....Even your semi-critical comments fly in the face of a good customer service attitude. Even if there is a perceived wrong by a customer, a company should do anything in their power (within reason) to satisfy that customer. In my case where I have been demonstrably failed and misinformed, on top of having a number of managers be overtly rude... your company should ask how high when I say jump.....

When I read this, I couldn't believe it. I now understand a little bit more of the phone operators' views. Why are you as a customer entitled to actions/service befitting a slave? It's not the army, they do not need to ask "how high." In fact, in a situation where there "is a perceived wrong by a customer" you should be doing everything which is in your power to cooperate and try to solve the problem.

Originally Posted by Disgruntled

As for me being unpleasant, I was not.[/COLOR] I expressed my frustration with the numerous problems I've encountered and stated in no uncertain terms my expectations of Cingular to resolve them. I didn't raise my voice, belittle them, make sarcastic or derisive comments.... in fact this is what was done to me. [COLOR=Red]Again, I have never been treated so poorly by any individual or company in my life; not even close!

I have a hard time believing this statement. In one breath you claim they should accomodate your every whim, then act like you were pleasant with them. I assume it was more like you were quite frustrated, and perhaps abusive towards a rep. not responsible for your situation. And given a role reversal, you would be upset as well with a customer chewing you out for something you had no control over.

I can understand frustration with a company's customer service, but c'mon. If it was really as bad as you say, they usually record the conversations. File a complaint.