Wired’s August issue features some advice on cancelling your cellphone service, but how good is it?
cellphones
Cingular Sics Debt Collectors On Innocent Customer
By 7.26.06
An AT&T customer, Chris upgraded his plan after the merger with Cinuglar. A week later, Cingular sent him a bill for $300, an “early termination fee.” Welcome to the neighborhood, indeed.
Cingular Switches to Rebates By Debit Card
By 7.26.06
Cingular has decided it prefers you spend your rebate than save it, so now they’re going to make you.
T-Mobile Forbids You From Recording Customer Service Calls
By 7.25.06
We can record you but you can’t record us, T-mobile told reader Jeff today.
FCC Investigates Calls From a Stranger
By 7.22.06
The second of two blows dealt this week to the Miami telemarketers autodialing people’s cellphones and trying to scam them. It seems the FCC is actually looking into the matter. All it took was a few months, Verizon to file an injunction, and a few gajillion consumer complaints, like those by reader Chris.
Cingular Boasts 267% Profit
By 7.21.06
Amidst a looming lawsuit over its lack of service to newly incorporated AT&T customers, as well as our revelation that Cingular will no longer try to retain its most unprofitable consumers:
Spanish Tele-Scammer’s Pinata Busted by Verizon
By 7.20.06
Back in April, we were obsessed by a Miami telemarketing company scamming people, in Spanish, on their cellphones, using a robotic autodialer. After pounding the e-pavement, our efforts to angle in on the bastiches fizzled, since we were neither a telephone company processing the calls, nor an aggrieved recipient, we couldn’t do much about it, except advise people to report it to the police. Just last week we received a few complaints.
How Cingular Avoids Giving Discounts to Worthless Customers
By 7.19.06
A snip from a recent memo that teaches Cingular retention specialists how to avoid giving discounts to customers they deem unprofitable.
Cingular Distills Customer Value Into Thermometer Form
By 7.19.06
A customer service source inside Cingular sends us some interesting internal documents and says the cellphone company has a new policy that’s got the headset set in a bind. He reports that Cingular will, “no longer discount equipment for customers that are not profitable for us, no mater where they stand contractually. I have received several calls from customers attempting to upgrade, only to have to inform them that although yes, they are out of contract, we will not offer them discounted equipment. “
Cingular Customer Denied Access To Billing Records
By 7.11.06
If you’re looking to join the newly minted class action against Cingular, you might want to turn that shredder off. A customer was seeking to replace the billing records he had shredded, in order to prepare to join the suit, and called up the cellphone company.
UPDATE: Sprint Loves To Give Out Your Billing Address
By 7.10.06
After getting blogo-lambasted for a gaping security hole that allowed anyone to call up and snag your name and home address by punching in your Sprint cellphone number into an automated system, Sprint has closed that selfsame privacy aperture.
HOWTO: Join The Cingular Lawsuit
By 7.10.06
If you were an AT&T customer as of October 26, 2004 and, following the switchover to Cingular
Cingular Lowers Bar On AT&T Customer’s Necks
By 7.10.06
Cingular duped and overcharged AT&T customers ported over following their merger, contends a lawsuit filed last Thursday.
Ask The Consumerists: Defeat T-Mobile’s Fascist Billing Unlogic?
By 7.6.06
A seasoned traveler and journalist, Mike knows how to juggle his cellphones and avoid usurious charges while abroad. Before he leaves for international locales, he records a message on his phone instructing people to only call him on a second, pay-as-you-go mobile. Somehow he still ends up getting dinged.
Can You Hear Me Whisper Now?
By 7.5.06
n marquee boldface, a revised Verizon customer agreement arrived in customer’s email boxes last night, screamed that contract language was changed as part of settling a class-action lawsuit and that, “UNLESS YOU TELL US THAT YOU PREFER YOUR EXISTING CONTRACT LANGUAGE, HOWEVER, THIS NEW CUSTOMER AGREEMENT WILL REPLACE YOUR EXISTING CONTRACT LANGUAGE.”
Verizon To Loosen Grip on Fees, Balls
By 6.29.06
Saying goodbye need only be as proportionally painful as the depth of the relationship, Verizon Wireless announced Wednesday. Starting this fall, the termination fee charged on its two-year contracts will be pro-rated. This is a further goodwill gesture in addition to Verizon’s lower cancellation fee, $175 versus a standard $200 or even $250.
