fucking Cingular

[krasnoludek]

So I got home from my trips to find several outstanding bills from Cingular, my former wireless provider. Apparently my service with them had run three days into the next billing cycle before I switched to Verizon. So I'm fine with paying the late fees because even if they hadn't immediately shut down my online account the second I switched to

Comments

[justanothergeek]

Yes, Verizon is much better than Cingular both from a coverage standpoint and a customer service standpoint. I switched when I was living in Berkeley because Verizon had better coverage in the neighborhood where I lived.

I actually got $12 (deposited the check last week, in fact) from a class action lawsuit against Cingular/AT&T over the issue of how they handled fractional months when people discontinued service. Unfortunately I don't remember the details -- in fact, what I do vaguely recall was that they were sued over exactly the situation you are describing, so I must be mis-remembering some minor detail of what they had previously been doing, that was deemed illegal. Or perhaps they just rewrote the contract so that the practice is now "legit."

[krasnoludek]

well the thing is that I've been their customer since 2003. I wasn't on any contract anymore; just month to month. I do remember me (and my landlady) both getting some notice of a class action lawsuit against Cingular/AT&T about a year ago, but I think you had to opt in and it seemed like a hassle. In any case, I haven't gotten any word about it.

What was the time period you were on their plan for?

[justanothergeek]

Wow, I switched cell phone providers while I was in Berkeley so much (first I had Cingular, then to AT&T Wireless, then Cingular bought AT&T Wireless, then to Verizon...) that I'm not even sure which of these transitions is the right time period. :-)

I'm not sure if I was included in the lawsuit because I switched from Cingular to AT&T (which was maybe 2000 or so) or AT&T to Verizon (which was maybe 2002 or 2003). But I'm really bad with remembering stuff like this so I could be plus or minus two years on any of these...

[quique12]

Well, one thing Cingular has that is very good is they had a great plan for people like me that live in both the US and Mexico. They have a cheap system where every call in Canada/US/Mexico costs the same minutes out of the plan.