Consumerist
hidden fees
Posts Tagged “
Cingular
”
In response to yesterday's post, another AT&T employee writes, "Just to clear up some confusion, AT&T may charge an administrative fee when paying your wireless bill with a representative. There is no charge to use the automated payment systems. The source for this is the tagline on my bill."
hidden fees
so long
AT&T Mobility's CEO Stan Sigman Retires After 42 Years
AT&T Mobility's CEO Stan Sigman has announced his retirement after 42 years with the company. The AP says:Sigman began his career with Southwestern Bell Telephone as a stockman in 1965. He stayed with the company as it grew from the smallest Baby Bell to the nation's largest telecommunications company through a series of aggressive acquisitions.How nice. More »
telephony
AT&T Promises Nationwide Naked DSL By The End Of The Year
Naked DSL, (DSL without the requirement to have a landline), will be available nationwide by the end of the year, according to statement made by AT&T to the Wall Street Journal. More »
victories
Cingular's Class Arbitration Waiver Ruled "Unconscionable" By 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals
Like many many companies, Cingular has a little thing in their contracts saying that if you use their service, you void your right to a class action lawsuit and instead have to go through "mandatory binding arbitration," which is basically an extra-judicial corporate court exempt from many of the basic rules and laws and procedures and rights of real court. Well, today, that clause was ruled "unconscionable" by the 9th Circuit Court Of Appeals. Therefore, lawsuits can proceed against Cingular and go to real court, not monkey court. Hooray!
Shroyer v. New Cingular Wireless Docket No. 06-55964 [PDF] (Thanks to Fred!)
your rights
Consumers Can't Sign Away Rights To Class Action Lawsuits
The Supreme Court of Washington State has ruled that consumers cannot sign away their right to participate in a class action lawsuit, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. More »
hype
iPhone Rate Plans Revealed
Apple has posted the rate plans for the iPhone and a few reader questions have been answered. More »
preventing id theft
AT&T Cold Calls You, Demands 4 Digits Of Your SSN, Disconnects Your Phone
Dustin paid the price for following Consumerist's advice and never giving personal information to people who call and claim to be from your phone company or your gas company or your bank. Someone called Dustin claiming to be AT&T and demanding that he confirm the last 4 digits of his SSN. Dustin honestly thought, as we would, that it was a meth-addict trying to get his SSN. More »
department of free advice
The New AT&T: Fixing Our Mistake Is A Courtesy To You, And We'll Only Do It Once
Whoever writes the scripts that CSRs are required to spit out has extremely poor social skills. When your company screws up someone's billing, then shuts off their phone and tries to charge them a fee, that's your mistake. Fixing it is not "a courtesy." It's also not a "one-time courtesy." More »
learn your abcs
Let's All Learn Some Cellphone Acronyms
Let's face it. Cellphones are here to stay and you need to know a little something about how they work if you're going to know which one is right for you. Over at Yahoo! they've got a list of some cell phone acronyms that you could learn, thereby increasing your knowledge of the world around you. We know most of our readers are pretty well versed in everything cellphone, but its still worth taking a look. More »
consumer alert
Watch Out For This Cellphone Scam
Be wary of people calling your cellphone claiming to be from your service provider and offering to upgrade your phone packages. They may actually be independent dealers trying to make a quick buck. More »
complaints
Cingular Charging Me $349.99 For Phone I Already Returned
Chris exchanged his messed up Blackjack with Cingular (now the new AT&T) under warranty replacement. Now Cingular (now the new AT&T) can't find the phone that he sent back and keeps trying to bill him $349.99 for it. Repeated calls to customer service are unsuccessful and provide contradictory information. More »
audio
Cingular Admits Store Salesmen Add On Features You Didn't Ask For, Just To Make More Commission
Matt's voicemail stopped working so he called up Cingular to get it fixed, and while he was there he had them check out the rest of his account to make sure everything was ok, but they found something disturbing. More »
telephony
Materially Adverse Clauses For All Major Cellphones - So You Can Escape Contract Without Termination Fee
Here's a roundup of all the contract clauses regarding "materially adverse changes" for all the major cellphone carriers. When they starting charging new fees or raise the price of a service, you can use this section to argue that you need to be let out of contract without early termination fee.... More »
prepaid calling cards
AT&T Charges Up To Eight Minutes For A One-Minute Phone Call
AT&T is charging users of its prepaid calling cards up to eight minutes per minute spent making an in-state call. The practice began in February and affects in-state calls made from every state except Illinois, Indiana, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. More »
success
FCC Chairman Orders Telecoms To Restore Access To Free Iowa-Based Conference Call Providers
The Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has issued a stern rebuke to the telecoms that blocked their subscribers from accessing free Iowa-based conference call providers. Quoth the Chairman:We actually contacted the companies that were listed in the press [reports] and said our rules prohibit you from blocking consumers' access to any of the service providers... One had stopped blocking, but we heard complaints the next week that they were restricting access, sort of narrowing the pipe. We called them back and said, no, no, you can't artificially degrade [service] either.We think you should celebrate this reversal with your friends on a free Iowa-based conference call. If the service is blocked, or in any way degraded, don't hesitate to fill out the FTC's consumer complaint form. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER More »
terms of service
Cingular Thinks It Can Sue You For Linking To Its Website
Cingular thinks it can determine who gets to link to their website, according to this snippet from their terms of service agreement. Somehow their lawyers operate under this misconception that they're in a position of being to grant, or revoke, the "right" to create a hypertextual link to their site. The likely intent is to try to set the stage so that then they could basically sue someone for linking to their website. More »
technology
