I was able to successfully get out of it even when I was on paperless billing - I requested a paper copy of the bill be sent to me. Also note, I did this in May of 07, because it did affect me.

anrima

bilbo5

flacmonkey

I started my phone call as usual, tried to tell them the original reason I wanted out. Of course they didn't budge. So I started at Step 1 (see top of article). I got to Step 5. I said to AT&T rep, "Are you familiar with what I'm talking about?" Of course, answer was "no". I said, "Then I'd better speak to your supervisor." I was put on hold. Five minutes later he came back and said that they're waving the early termination fee, I never even talked with a supervisor. Skip to Step 10!!! (The second Step 10, actually... the one that says "Revel in your canceled contract!") I've set up a cancellation date to give myself time to look for a new phone!!!

You guys rock!

Pesco

Is there anyone with a copy of the terms that could take a picture with a camera and upload them somewhere? I've found my original contract but for fun they reference the actual terms in a supplemental that I can not locate. I'll keep trying to find it but if anyone has a copy I would really appreciate it.

Kryai

I have a DIGITAL ADVTG 350 plan that includes 1050 MINUTES, mob 2 mob, unlim night and weekends for $39.99. I am now on a month to month contract.

I have been battling with cingular/att to get a comparable plan that is also MONTH TO MONTH. I have been offered 450 mins w/ 200 bonus and a free new KRZR phone for 39.99. I was told month to month is not an option.

This sucks lily white butt in my opinion.

I am looking for advice on how to get what I want from this company!!! Does anyone have any experience with this situation.

ARG. save me.

xplnlife

I am currently battling with Cingular. I have a plan with 1050 minutes, free mobile to mobile, unlimited night weekends, and is month to month. It is a DIGITAL ADVTG 350 rate plan from back in the day. It currenlty costs me $39.99

Cingular has so far offered me a plan that is $39.99 that has roll over and 450 minutes plus 200 bonus minutes (big woop) and a new KRZR phone for free. This is NOTHING in comparison to what I have now.

I also asked to remain month to month. They claim this is impossible. I am so flustered.

How can I get what I want and deserve? I would so apprecialte any advice about how to stick it to them the way they are trying to stick it to me.

please come to my rescue. I promise to update you all on my progress with my battle.

Have a splendid day

xplnlife

Not exactly relevant to what you're saying above, but any clause by any company that says you cannot sue or have a trial by jury *will* be shot down by a judge should arbitration fail and you care to sue.

BaconVonBacon

just a quick question. So around August 2006, I went to Cingular (because thats what my family has always used) and signed up for service. I already had a phone I wanted to use and therefore did not need to purchase one from them. Unsurprisingly, they still forced to me sign a two-year contract.

A little more than a month ago, I added the 500 text messages for 5 dollars a month deal to my contract. Does this mean that because I added something on to my contract and clicked the "I agree" button whilst doing it that I am now ineligible for contesting my contract with the nifty little argument listed above?

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

ji20y

sdirge

rosalee1234

falcon241073

dwj119

redbarronny

I went to Nextel to check rates and they told us we could get out of Cingular contract easily because of the text message increase. Said they signed up former cingular customers recently who had no problem cancelling on this basis. Is there anyone who did this recently? I am curious to find out if this is really the case.

I am really starting to HATE cell phones.

We are going to try to cancel this weekend and probably go with T-Mobile.

Bess :^(

sbess

darjon

I was asked, how does this effect me materially? My response: Money is the most material object on earth, and you are taking away my right to sue you in class action or by jury trial for money.

I was also told, this is the same arbritration clause that was in the original contract I signed. I then asked him, if it is the same, why were you forced to send it out to all customers again. In section 1 paragraph 3 of cingulars arbritration clause it states: "You agree that, by entering into this Agreement, you and Cingular are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action." The key word that got my contract canceled was "by entering into this agreement" I restated that about 10 times on the phone saying that I am entering into an agreement, agreement is another word for contract, so therefore, they are entering ME into a new contract without giving me the opportunity to sign. That is grounds for a lawsuit right there, If given the chance I would NOT sign on the line and termintate my contract. But since I can't sign on the line and you are making me enter into a new contract by written notice, I am giving verbal notice of denial of said contract. The man on the phone was silent for a long time. Then agreed I was correct. I have been a cingular customer for about 6 years, but somehow my contract was renewed to 2 years last August when I changed my service plan. I was able to get my contract down to 6 months, so I only have to deal with them for another 4 months. Better than nothing.

Hopefully that will help anyone who is still trying to get out of their contract. Also... Ask which location you have. I have found Salt Lake City, and Nevada CSR's are very difficult to deal with, whereas the eastern and Mid-Western locations are much more willing to listen and negotiate. Good Luck!

Shellfishy

I will be sending and calling the Corp Execs about this.

Any help would be great.

mytime34

I am in the process of calling back again.

mytime34

In my case, with NEXTEL, I cancelled one number (formerly had four) by simply refusing to pay the bill. The penalty was $250, so I subtracted that from each payment of the other number and wrote to headquarters that I would not pay for what I cancelled, no matter what their rules were.

In a three months and phone calls to me at home I refused to answer, the penalty was deleted by NEXTEL. I still use the other number, three years later, but refuse to sign up for another year.

marvin

marvinlzinn

9macks

After spending a decent amount of time on the phone with the CSR, her supervisor came on the line (note that I did not ask to speak to a supervisor). He repeated what I outlined in the paragraph above. I spoke with him for a while and continued to get the party line. So I asked to speak with his supervisor. He told me there was no one else I could speak with.

Finally, I asked to receive a statement in writing that the change to the arbitration clause does not apply to my contract. The supervisor said he would be happy to provide such a statement and that it will be in the mail by next week. I'm sure he doesn't have the authority to make such claims, so I'm not really sure what (if anything) he's sending me.

SirWillae

"YOU AND CINGULAR AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING. "

so what is the claim this script makes?

gokartsrus1

dowlingbi

then she offered me additional features to my service.

What bastards!!!

lotsta88

Uhh, guess what droppedD Verizon has increased they're txt messaging fee to 15 cents ; )

Oh and I used the latest increase to break my contract and now I have Cingular...

Hahahaha gotta love that.

shiver11

At first everything seemed to be going well. They offered to cancel my contract for free. Great. That's exactly what I wanted. By then they told my I had to send all 4 phones on the account back to Cingular, and I would no longer be allowed to use their service.

I told the lady that I just wanted to cancel the contract, not the service. She told me it was impossible. I asked her if I could just cancel the contract and continue using Cingular on a month-to-month basis. Once again, she said I could not do it. I asked her how other people are able to pay month-to-month. She said that the customer is only allowed to go month-to-month once they "fulfill" a contract, and my cancellation was by no means fulfillment.

Now that they say the contract and service are interconnected and I cannot keep one without the other, I need a new rebuttals. Has anyone else had this problem? Or more importantly, has anyone else managed to get around this problem? So far it seems like a brick wall to me.

Clark3934

You've just got to be persistant, they aren't gonna do it just because you ask nicely the first time.

foughtandwon

My teen whined about me no longer buying her phone service (she wasn't obeying the rules, no ringtones purchases, only 10 text messages/day, etc so I cancelled after the 1-year contract was up.) Now she is paying for it herself, and magically -- hardly any text messages, no ringtones, reasonable number of minutes used, etc.

My family's cellular charges now total about 1/2 what they used to be.

gorndog

Now I feel better. They're looking out for the consumer by depriving them of their right to a class-action lawsuit when Cingular screws them.

Y'know, the more I think about this early termination fee scam, the more I see opportunities to apply it in daily life. Got fired? Charge your boss an early termination fee. Girlfriend dump ya? Same. Kid get expelled from school? Bill the principal. Readers unsubscribed from your blog feed? Ka-CHING!

I love this idea.

MikeWas

armishanks

bigbadman

Ben Popken

Roosh

synergy

Since the clause was included on EVERY contract, every single customer would be able to add themselves into the class action suit.

Kromem

pdxguy

Perhaps if enough people do it, Cingular will get the message. Send a certified letter to:

General Counsel
Cingular Wireless LLC
5565 Glenridge Connector, 20th FL
Atlanta GA 30342

Form can be downloaded from:
www.cingular.com/arbitration-forms

armishanks

Pssssst...

The letter I sent to Legal (attached to the stock notice form they provide) follows:

My Cingular Wireless bill covering the period from 11/29/2006-12/28/2006 included a new dispute resolution clause. While this updated arbitration clause is generally very fair, it requires that I explicitly waive my right to participate in class action suits, which I am utterly unwilling to do. (Further, the updated arbitration agreement appears to be more likely to be widely enforceable than the old one, which has been disregarded in class-action cases in several jurisdictions and which thus would not have been as likely in practice to impact my rights).

I contacted Cingular's customer service, and was initially connected with Michelle Bryant. I asked that I be allowed to opt out of the updated arbitration clause, and that (failing that) my account be closed without penalty. Michelle initially held that the arbitration clause was separate from the contract as a whole and that a change to the clause did not constitute a contract change; however, after further validation, she acknowledged that the arbitration clause was effectively a part of the contract, and thus that a unilateral contract change had occurred.

I was then transferred to Customer Relations representative Gracie Anaya. Gracie again informed me that I could not opt of the arbitration clause, but denied that modifying it constituted a contract change for purposes of waiving the termination fee. She directed me to the arbitration procedure which I am currently following. To avoid implicitly agreeing to the updated clause, I then closed my account with Cingular.

Since Cingular has made what is effectively a unilateral contract change (as, as Michelle informed me, it is not possible to accept a Cingular contract without agreeing to the arbitration clause), and not provided any way for customers with preexisting contracts to opt out of this change, I request one of the following two forms of relief:

Cingular reinstates my contract under the old arbitration clause under the same terms which would otherwise have been in place, and compensates me for reasonable costs incurred in obtaining month-to-month cell phone service elsewhere during the period in which this dispute was in process, to the extent that those costs exceed what I would have paid when continuing my preexisting contract with Cingular. (This will likely include only costs for new phone hardware not locked to Cingular's service).

...or...

Cingular waives the termination fee which was necessarily incurred in the process of rejecting the updated arbitration clause, or refunds said fee (and associated taxes &c.) should it already have been paid.

Charles Duffy

FLConsumer

Maybe this is sophistry, but I would be inclined to say "I have (or know people who have) materially benefited from class action lawsuits against Cingular in the past. I have not materially benefited from arbitration nor do I see how Cingular can prove that I can without some immediate material benefit. You are adversely affecting me by removing a past source of revenue with a future source that has no provable source of revenue."

Another angle might be to hire an attorney and use their new arbitration provision to dispute the change in contract terms. After all, my read is they pay all attorney and filing fees unless the Demand is "frivolous or brought for an improper purpose".

robdew

(Makes me glad as hell I got away from Cingular years ago--!)

Mary Marsala with Fries

Koston

Michael Lehet

AlteredBeast

pfblueprint

Ben Popken

Baz

unchilangoblanco

If they do the former, it's so they can confidently screw you of *just* enough money to make it not worthwhile to sue them to do the right thing. Class action status gives the same economies of scale to consumers that companies have, thus evening the playing field.

If they do the latter, it's because they know that, in the cold light of day, they know that what they're doing is wrong and the average person will call them on it.

Trai_Dep

jut

If you read the clause, that whole deal is only if it's *materially adverse* changes to the contract (and if it is, even if they do give you notice, you have 14 days to cancel). Their claim being that only means things like, they raise their rates for services. Apparently not including text messages.
Gr.

I suppose they could change the arbitration clause to "your right to jury trial is now replaced by a contest of juggling, judged by a midget in a dress," and they would still stick by their guns on it not being "materially adverse."

droppedD

Love
Conedude13

conedude13

Isn't the point they have to give you 14 days notice, and they don't?

BTW, the original post makes these seem easy as pie...like the rep will go "oops, you caught us! Clever customer! Allllllright, you win."

AlteredBeast

This is fucking ridiculous. I'm not really interested in spending several days wrestling with various CSRs and corporate officers... I'm just gonna try to offload my remaining 5 or 6 months of Cingular contract to some poor sucker who wants in for an iPhone.

All I want is a cell phone that will work inside my house and not charge me 15 cents for a text message. Is that too much to ask? Verizon and TMobile can manage it.... why can't cingular?

droppedD

We'll see what happens now.

droppedD

rubberpants

ajlak_68

jook

I'd be interested in hearing how it plays out (either by way of audio, or a text summary).

AlteredBeast

droppedD

Yoni K

Meg Marco

AlteredBeast