Saturday night I was playing around and signed into Cingular's website. It showed what I currently owed, and listed all four phone numbers, each with a charge listed next to it. I used the Contact Us (#4) form to contact them and asked what the charges were. I got a nice e-mail back today explaining the charges, but it wasn't enough information to be helpful. So I called Cingular (#5) and the woman who looked at my bill said that they were number change charges and because the mistake wasn't Cingular's, there wasn't anything they could do about it. So I asked to speak to a manager.
I was transferred and got the voicemail of someone. So I explained everything again and am now waiting for the promised call back.
Everyone I've talked to at Cingular (with maybe the exception of #5) has been super-polite and helpful, but it's kind of annoying to feel like I've been ripped off for $62+taxes on phones we've had less than a week is a little frustrating. Hopefully the woman whose voicemail I got will
understand and do right.
6 comments:
Ooh, when you noticed that the area codes weren't right, the first thing you needed to do was call Wirefly. It says in all their ToS that ANY changes to your contract could result in problems (including loss of rebates and then other fees). Changing the phone number on your plan through Cingular instead of doing it through Wirefly causes them to lose their commission. I'd recommend calling Wirefly right away to let them know what happened so they can make note of the change and touch base with Cingular so you're not penalized.
Good luck!
Wow. Crud. Thanks for your great (and quick) response, Anonymous one.
I called Wirefly (unpublished direct customer service number: 1-888-843-2485 say "I don't know" when asked for your customer number to avoid being put permanently on hold... feel free to publish on gethuman.com) and they gave me a dealer code and asked me to call Cingular.
I called Cingular (#6) and they said there was a different dealer code on the account and that it was the one that was there from the beginning.
So I called Wirefly back. I told them and they didn't ask for the other dealer code, but asked for the new phone numbers and entered them into their computers and said I was all set.
I hope that's it.
Not to get Stingyular to call me back and credit back the extra activation/number change fees so I can be happy with them again.
I called Cingular (#7) immediately asked to be transferred to a supervisor. My new hero Cheryl McMillan asked me why and so I went through the story and she said that I was given bad information by #5 and she looked at my account and discovered that I had actually been charged for each of the four lines and that none of those should have been there. She couldn't explain it but I theorized that maybe #3 had added the charges instead of subtracting them and she wondered aloud of maybe that was it.
So she reduced my bill from $250 to $100 and so I'm pretty happy about that. Of course, at the moment every call I attempt to make says "Call Failed" even though I have 5 bars, but hopefully that will soon pass.
Maybe It's Me
#8 (Martin) says there's an outage in the area that's been going on since 4 PM EST. About the time my phone dropped my call and stopped showing bars.
Cingular is just wowing me all over the place. At least their CSRs are nice. (Of course, I said that about AT&T back when they screwed me. Yeah, I know Cingular is the new AT&T.)
Ok, so the Motorola RAZR v3i is apparently defective. This seems to match my experience: http://forums.mobiledia.com/topic49703.html
#6 - Last night - Cingular is closed
#7 - This morning - Cingular is not yet open for the day
#8 - Wirefly (Lori) "Call Motorola and confirm phone is defective."
#9 - Motorola (Lori) "They said to call us? That doesn't make any sense." (They are also somewhat clueless and can't find their own authorized stores. Same problem with their website. Lori found on Yahoo! no problem.)
#10 - Cingular Local Store (me) "If you've tried the SIM Card swap, go ahead and call Cingular's toll-free number and ask for a network diagnostic test."
#11 - Cingular (Lori) They did the test, and then "Wirefly said what? Let's call them." 30 minute on-hold conference call. Wirefly: "Please visit Amazon.com/returns"
#12 - Amazon (from # on their website) (Lori) "Wirefly said what? Let's call them." Wirefly wisely closed up shop and went home for the night. "Please call us back at Amazon tomorrow and we'll get on the phone with Wirefly again tomorrow."
Lori's assessment: Wirefly is either completely and hopelessly inept or flat-out crooks.
Ok, so the Motorola RAZR v3i is apparently defective. This seems to match my experience: http://forums.mobiledia.com/topic49703.html
#6 - Last night - Cingular is closed
#7 - This morning - Cingular is not yet open for the day
#8 - Wirefly (Lori) "Call Motorola and confirm phone is defective."
#9 - Motorola (Lori) "They said to call us? That doesn't make any sense." (They are also somewhat clueless and can't find their own authorized stores. Same problem with their website. Lori found on Yahoo! no problem.)
#10 - Cingular Local Store (me) "If you've tried the SIM Card swap, go ahead and call Cingular's toll-free number and ask for a network diagnostic test."
#11 - Cingular (Lori) They did the test, and then "Wirefly said what? Let's call them." 30 minute on-hold conference call. Wirefly: "Please visit Amazon.com/returns"
#12 - Amazon (from # on their website) (Lori) "Wirefly said what? Let's call them." Wirefly wisely closed up shop and went home for the night. "Please call us back at Amazon tomorrow and we'll get on the phone with Wirefly again tomorrow."
Lori's assessment: Wirefly is either completely and hopelessly inept or flat-out crooks.
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