Cingular Sued by Users it Inherited

[BarTopDancer]

Click here (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-cingular7jul07,1,1278602.story?ctrack=1&cset=true)

Former AT&T Wireless customers accused Cingular Wireless in a lawsuit Thursday of misleading them about the benefits of combining the two companies and overcharging them for upgrading service.

Despite a "massive marketing campaign" that promised the transition to Cingular's system would be seamless, the customers alleged that Cingular had been dismantling the AT&T network since the two united 21 months ago.

Cingular forces AT&T customers to pay $18 for a new handset chip and $18 to move to Cingular's network — or $175 to terminate service early, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

If you would like to be a part of the class action lawsuit go to www.consumerwatchdog.org.

[Matterhorn Fan]

Ah, Cingular . . . they have the fewest dropped calls because the connections sticks around even when you cannot hear the person you're talking to.

Evil, I say.

[Andrew]

I was going to send you this article but I see you found it. Have you decided on a new carrier?

[BarTopDancer]

I was going to send you this article but I see you found it. Have you decided on a new carrier?

Not yet. One of my friends works for Verizon Wirelss and I'm going to see if I can get a hook-up. My contract isn't up until October though so I have a lil while.

[Not Afraid]

My Cingular contract is up August 19th. I've already gt a new carrier and phone. They are gone gone gone.

[BarTopDancer]

My Cingular contract is up August 19th. I've already gt a new carrier and phone. They are gone gone gone.

Were you able to port your number?

Right now it would cost me more to leave then to stay. And that's pretty much why I'm staying. Well that and I'd lose my number.

[Not Afraid]

I haven't asked to port my number yet. I didn't want to get dinged for early contract cancellation so my old number is forwarded to a temporary number. When I cancel, they will port my number. Or, at least I HOPE they will.

Why should I have doubts?

[BarTopDancer]

Why should I have doubts?

I've heard of trouble porting with early termination but you're waiting for your contract to run out. T-Mobile sounds like a good company to give you a temp number.

[Not Afraid]

So far, I'm loving T-Mobil. I have gone back to the store with dumb blond questions and they are so helpful!

[Morrigoon]

So, if I dropped Cingular, reported them to the P.U.C. and several months later they dropped the $175 early termination fee because of my filed complaint... do I not get to participate in the lawsuit?

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I haven't asked to port my number yet. I didn't want to get dinged for early contract cancellation so my old number is forwarded to a temporary number. When I cancel, they will port my number. Or, at least I HOPE they will.

Why should I have doubts?

Two thoughts occurred to me while reading this...

If your number were to change unexpectedly, all hell would break loose. For one thing, how would anyone be able to find anyone at Disneyland? I could see something like this eventually bringing the whole nation down in utter chaos.

And make sure that address book is backed up. We don't want to be losing Leo's number (if he hasn't changed it already). ;)

[Betty]

Verizon? Don't get me started on Verizon. They are my current company I'm hating with a passion. Blech.

[BarTopDancer]

So, if I dropped Cingular, reported them to the P.U.C. and several months later they dropped the $175 early termination fee because of my filed complaint... do I not get to participate in the lawsuit?

Somehow I think the $175 that you did not pay (or was refunded) will be more than anyone else will see as a payout from the lawsuit.

I suggest you contact the group via the second link in my OP with your concern.

[Alex]

I've had no problem with Sprint over the last three years.

But I'm curious how it would have been possible for people to notice a degradation in service provided by AT&T. It was pretty horrible (both in coverage and customer service) when we were with them before Sprint.

[BarTopDancer]

Alex - Before the merger my experience with AT&T service (reception and customer) was amazing. Soon after the areas I used to be able to make calls in were having problems. Dropped calls were the norm rather than the exception. My home, and a mile around it which had full service now had none. I called and they said it was the towers but they wern't going to fix them and I needed to get a Cingular contract if I wanted any further action. This became a regular occurance when dealing with Cingular. Even when calling the number that was provided for AT&T customers. The towers were fixed after I filed a complaint with the BBB.

I'm not sure if you remember my issues with Cingular in the past (I think the thread is somewhere on the Pad) but I was certainly not going to sign a contract with them again, especialy after they said it was the only way to get customer service.

[€uroMeinke]

I've had no problem with Sprint over the last three years.

But I'm curious how it would have been possible for people to notice a degradation in service provided by AT&T. It was pretty horrible (both in coverage and customer service) when we were with them before Sprint.

In So Cal AT&T coverage was pretty good as they essentially were what once was LA Cellular - Basicly AT&T got into the market buying local providers, so you got what they had. Thier move to GMS also created coverage issues in several areas. The problem wiath all these companies is that they all have regions they perform quite well in, and others they suck in, so selecting a Company is more about finding a match for your lifestyle than anything else.

[Alex]

Yeah, my experience is that the relationship between a person and their cell company is much similar to the one between a person and their bank. Everybody seems to think theirs is either the best in all the world or the suckiest in all the world.

I wasn't so much responding to BTD's experience as the general one of the entire class of AT&T customers. According to the article linked, in Southern California Cingular sold off its own network after the purchase and continued to use the AT&T network which I would think means that it was Cingular customers that found themselves suddenly on AT&T equipment and not the other way around.

[€uroMeinke]

I wasn't so much responding to BTD's experience as the general one of the entire class of AT&T customers. According to the article linked, in Southern California Cingular sold off its own network after the purchase and continued to use the AT&T network which I would think means that it was Cingular customers that found themselves suddenly on AT&T equipment and not the other way around.

I think as part of the deal, Cingular sold off some of it's towers (I know T-Mobile bought a bunch to enter the market here) but I think the service service agreement between the companies still allowed for sharing the bandwidth, since both are GSM - it may be that they stopped supporting certain GSM bands, or since Cingular is GSM, they stopped supporting AT&T's other (TDMA?) service.

[Alex]

I don't know what those initials mean so I am certainly not qualified to argue for or against the suit. Mostly I was trying to make an ironic comment since my experience with AT&T had been so bad.

But then I go weeks without using my phone as anything more than a very expensive watch.

[jdramj]

My experience with Cingular is wonderful so far. I just started with them in December. We merged accounts with my in laws to one family plan, and they had AT&T, that had been renamed Cingular, but equipment wise was still AT&T. They did have to change out their phones do to the network switch, but they took it as an opportunity to upgrade their phones and didn't have any issues doing so.

My Cingular guy who merged everything and set us up with phones was very knowledgable and nice. We had one small glitch with caller ID that they resolved quickly once we reported it. We have had no dropped call issues.

I guess it really is about where you are and what you need.

[jdramj]

I don't know what those initials mean ....

Global System for Mobile communications

or

(TDMA?)


Time Division Multiple Access

I think anyways.......

[Alex]

I don't know what those expanded initials mean.

[katiesue]

GSM is what most of the rest of the planet - outside of the US uses. If you plan to travel abroad you need GSM.

TDMA is what verizon uses but outside of the us it's not widely used.

It's a sort of beta vs vhs kind of thing. Many technologies came out at once.