Cingular Cheats people out of ROLLOVER MINUTES - SCAM

When I signed with Cingular I was TOLD BY THE CINGULAR REPRESENTATIVE to choose a plan that had more minutes than I could use. Since they have rollover I could save up minutes (I WAS TOLD) and then switch to a plan with less minutes at a later time. I would be able to keep the rollover (I WAS TOLD BY A CINGULAR REP), and from there switch back and forth as necessary.
I chose a plan with more minutes than I needed and paid more than I needed in order to put this plan into effect. A few months later (and 6000 rollover minutes saved up), I called to switch to a plan with less minutes. The Cingular rep told me they had changed their policy three days previously and switching to a plan caused me to FORFEIT my rollover minutes. The minutes they seem to take such pride in saying are mine with catch phrases such as “They’re your minutes – you paid for them” and "Never throw away anything you can use to express yourself, including your unused minutes." and "They're your minutes. Don't trash 'em." Keep in mind (and this is what really makes me upset) I WAS TOLD TO DO THIS.
I was obviously upset with this situation. After several calls and talks to managers I was told that an area manager would call me to resolve my issue. I was never called. After over a week of waiting for an area manager to call me back (NEVER HAPPENED), I called them back again and they were very rude to me and told me it was impossible to resolve the situation and that it states in the contract that they can change their billing policy WITHOUT NOTICE. They also told me they couldn't change my plan without decimating my saved rollover minutes (6000 minutes) because the COMPUTER WOULDN'T LET THEM.
That’s fine, I wouldn’t have a problem with that – but understand what happened here – THEY TOLD ME TO CHOOSE A PLAN WITH MORE MINUTES AND THEN SWITCH TO A PLAN WITH LESS MINUTES (KEEPING MY ROLLOVER) AT A LATER TIME. THEY SUGGESTED IT TO ME. If they switch the policy without notice, I don’t have a problem with that. But it’s the dishonesty of tricking me into spending more money on one of their plans and then cheating me out of the value I thought I was receiving – IN FACT I WAS TOLD I WOULD RECEIVE. This is in my opinion a horribly dishonest practice.

When you signed up that was the case, and there were a ton of people doing the same thing. That is why Cingular changed the rules, to stop people from doing what you were attempting. There was no deception involved, the rep would not have known months in advance that this change was going to happen. Fair? No. Scam? No. Just about the only thing you can do is pick a new plan that fits better with your currant usage.

also by flip floping back and forth like that on a reg basis doesnt even save you money in the long run actualy it can edup costing you more it would be easier and more efficiant to just find a plan that suits your needs and stay on it

A couple of weeks ago when I talked to a manager he told me that Cingular had previously had a POLICY OF SUGGESTING to customers this very thing. “Hey Cingular customer - choose a plan with a bunch of minutes and later on you can downgrade and keep all your rollover - YAY!” I believe I was actively scammed. No matter how you slice it this is a deceptive and unethical policy on Cingular’s part. Or at the very least horribly incompetant. I expect Cingular to take responsibility for what their reps say - THE MANAGER I TALKED TO KNEW THAT REPS HAD BEEN SUGGESTING THIS. And sure the contract says they can change their policy at any time but If it said in the contract that Cingular had the right to shoot my kids, it wouldn’t make it a fair practice. I was actively sold something on the basis of a falsehood. THIS IS WRONG.

Sure the REP CAN'T SEE INTO THE FUTURE, but the higher ups at the company know what's coming down the pike, and they set the policy. They knew that reps were selling this to people - and therefore they are responsible for this deception.

And you say there is no value in the long run - WHY WOULD THEY CHANGE THE POLICY THEN? Anyway - I'm screwed right now, I'm about to lose 5300 (of the minutes Cingular loves to tell everyone - "They're your minutes - you paid for them!") minutes if I change my plan, and right now my plan is more than I can afford.

Bob459, I'm sorry to hear you've had all these problems. But to tell you the truth our supervisors (the guy you spoke with) usually know less than us representatives. Think about it for a second, our supervisors spend all their time making sure people get to work on time, adjusting schedules, fixing logins, taking escalations etc.. Us reps spend all our time working with rate plans and customers, we know more than our supervisors when it comes to actual cellular service.

Usually we dont hear about a major policy change until the day they change it (or sometimes even after) Those reps were honestly trying to help you, they had no clue that things were going to change that way. It was NOT a policy to suggest that people get a higher plan and then switch to a lower plan afterwards to get a ton of rollover minutes, this was just an Idea that someone came up with.

It didnt say anywhere in our systems that we should suggest doing so. Corporate probably wasnt even aware that us reps were offering this solution, they dont talk on the phones, they dont deal with rate plans.

No offense but you cant expect every single account to benefit from a policy change. The whole purpose of rollover minutes was to address the fact that people were complaining about loosing minutes, so we fixed it. Corporate probably didnt like how people were taking advantage of the system and changed policy to prevent that. This policy change had no effect on 99.9% of our customers. Once again I'm sorry you got the short end of the stick but it happens.

You say corporate didn't know - I say THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN (and frankly based on the responses I've gotten I BELIEVE THEY DID KNOW). This is Cingular's fault, and I expect to have my situation taken seriously by the reps and to have it resolved in such a way that I don't feel like I've been screwed. Instead I HAVE NOT BEEN TAKEN SERIOUSLY and have been given the brush off. If you go into a resteraunt and order steak and the waiter brings you chicken would you be satisfied if the waiter simply said "Guess you'll have to eat chicken, the cook made a mistake, he's kinda busy. He's right %99 of the time." I don't think so.

CINGULAR SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR WHAT IT'S REPS TOLD ME. If you feel differently then you live in Bizzaro world where up is down and wrong is right.

I'm a reasonable person, but there is a big difference between a company saying "Hey, we made a mistake and we're going to help resolve the issue" and "Hey WE made a mistake but your going to have to deal with it yourself." Then second one is what I'm hearing. AND IT'S WRONG.

Sir I'm going to have to ask you to keep this in a professional tone <---- scripting from work

But seriously,

That's why you have 30 day's to try the service. If you are aware that CIngular has the right to change the policy at any time, than why are you so upset that it actually happened? 1/2 of the customers who accumulate rollover minutes NEVER use them. Instead they are in a constant cycle of rollover accumulation, and rollover expiration. Why is everyone upset now? Shouldn't you all be upset that your Rollover minutes expired after a year of non-usage? It's the same thing. "I paid for these minutes and I want to keep them!"
We were told about this new policy exactly two weeks before they were going to implement it. Then the company held back another month. In that time frame I LET EVERYONE KNOW about the new policy, but I knew it would do no good. We are releasing information that is current to us. Do not take your frustration out on us, write Stan Sigman if you want to b1tch about it.

oh and bob how is it not wrong for you and other cust to be on a plan with too many min for a few months then drop to a super cheap plan and use up the rollover, that would be attempting to cheat cingular out of money it seams like you just pissed because cingular got wise you yalls scam , if anyone is scaming its the cust who do that

Cingular Cheats people out of ROLLOVER MINUTES - SCAM

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