| Author |
Message |
larrymadill
Posts: 13 |
 
Sun May 20, 2007 7:51 pm |
I've been with Cingular for almost six years now, and I currently have one of their older Rollover plans (1000 anytime / 5000 night and weekend minutes). Its been fine for as long as I've had it.
But this month I got socked with a pretty high bill. $700. I've normally been paying in the range of $80 to $99 a month. Needless to say I was shocked.
Long story short. My bill says I was over my minutes by almost 900 minutes. Which I might have been since I have been using my mobile a lot for work.
But when I combed through my bill this month I noticed that a lot of my phone calls I was making on the weekends seemed to be going against my Anytime minutes Total and not towards my Night and Weekends Total. I also noticed that calls that were M2M to other Cingular phones were also going against my Anytime Total when I thought that M2M calling was "free".
Since I got that bill I've been keeping a hawkeye on my current minutes through Cingular's website, and I've noticed this again. For instance I made roughly 60 minutes worth of phone calls between Saturday and today (Sunday), and those are showing up against my Anytime Minutes and not against my Night and Weekend Minutes. In fact, my Anytime minutes show 700 minutes used with no Night and Weekend minutes used. Same goes for M2M minutes. A three minute call to another Cingular phone, for instance, was tallied into my Anytime minutes.
I just noticed it this month because of the ridiculously high bill, but who knows how long its been going on.
Anyone else have this problem? Is it a Cingular screw up or something on my part? Or is it possible because I have an "older" plan that this is causing some problems?
I don't want to go through the hassle of switching providers, and Cingular been fine up until now.
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Malibu21
Posts: 1002
Phone Model:
V3xx Lightly Modded, V6 Maxx Tweaked nicely.
Service Provider:
The New AT&T |
Mon May 21, 2007 2:00 am |
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thats odd, I'd call cingular or go into a store and have them look up the bill and show them, they should be able to fix it.
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BigRUSS
Posts: 2126
Phone Model:
two cans ( del monte) and some string,
Service Provider:
RussCo |
Mon May 21, 2007 11:51 am |
the plan your discribing dosnt seem to have m2m, its only "free" if you have it in your plan, also the nw min that are going tward your daytimemin could be caused by the fact that you may have already uesed all of your NW min so now its going to start useing the next min in line witch are your DT min
what is the actual code thats on you bill that shos your plan?
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TextWhore
Posts: 78
Phone Model:
LG-VX8600, Blackberry Curve
Service Provider:
Verizon Wireless, Cingular |
Mon May 21, 2007 11:56 am |
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I agree with BigRuss. I would talk to a rep and have them confirm the details of your plan with you.
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larrymadill
Posts: 13 |
Mon May 21, 2007 2:11 pm |
I called Cingular CS today. Apparently whats been going on is that when I added the 5000 N/W minutes in August of 2006 (that I pay an additional $9.99 for) my night and week minutes were never assessed properly against my bill.
So all this time I have been burning my rollover minutes when I should've been burning my night and weekend minutes, and paying small overages every month ($20 or $30) because I was too blind to triple check my bill until I got socked this month.
The CS Rep was actually pretty nice about the situation and seemed surprised that I didn't fly off at the handle, instead told her I just wanted to get it fixed. She filled a "Commitment" to the "Commitment Department" and they'll handle the credit. Which, my guess is, will be pretty substantial.
So no horror story, yet. Just your general, mid-level American corporate incompetence.
I'll re-post when I know more. I should hear about a credit in about three days.
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Texas Hold'em
Posts: 217 |
Mon May 21, 2007 2:18 pm |
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Good to hear. I have Cingular and love the service, however I have had to keep a close eye on my bill because I do see charges that are incorrect. Mostly MMS messages.
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elmo01
Posts: 2206
Phone Model:
Samsung SPH-M510
Service Provider:
Bell Canada |
Tue May 22, 2007 11:21 am |
Larry.
from what you are describing you have a very early rollover plan.you get 1000 peak minutes.you bolt on as a feature N&W 9.99 and for MtM its 9.99 for 1000 or 19.99 for 5000 MTM.
so. were you ** paying** for the MtM feature?
this rate plan was designed to combat an old ATTwireless plan (I used to do customer care for ATTWS before the merger ) I am very familiar with this type of plan. essentially you are getting the peak airtime if a 59.99 plan (plus a little bit) and no other types of promos free (just like the att plan of that era) you "bolted on" features as required. if you didnt ask for them you didnt get them. there probabaly was no "mid-level American corporate incompetence" here. most likely you exceeded your N&W minutes.when that happens your airtime starts coming out of your rollover.when that is depleted it comes out of your peak minutes.after that its airtime overage.
it would make more sense to me that you increased your useage gradually and it did not become apparent until the last bill given your normal monthly expenditure of $80 to $99 /month
the commitment scenario will most likely pan out as follows.
1 time courtesy credit for misinfo/ misunderstanding for the overage with no plan changes. any further overages your responsibility (you will be educated on exactly what your rate plan and features include)
or
you will be offered rate plan change to appropriate level (sounds like current 59.99 plan) with credit for overage and contract extention
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larrymadill
Posts: 13 |
Tue May 22, 2007 12:32 pm |
| elmo01 wrote: |
there probabaly was no "mid-level American corporate incompetence" here.
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Actuallly, yes, there was.
CS Rep admitted that my Night and Weekend minutes were not properly assessed to my account since September of 2006 and that there had been a billing mistake by Cingular and that I would be getting some credit back on my account.
The CS Rep double checked my bills and I double checked my bills. Minutes on my bills clearly marked "NW" were all listed with the Rate code of RM10 (for Roll Over Minutes 1000). This went for months from September until now whether I was over my 1000 minutes and months I wasn't. Everything came out of my 1000 Rollover minutes from the beginning of each billing cycle to the end of the billing cycle.
For whatever reason the rate code for 5000 Night and Weekend simply disappears from my bill after August '06 even though they continue to bill me 9.99 a month for 5000 Night and Weekend minutes.
So somewhere along the way there was a computer hiccup, or a human screw up that Cingular, very nicely and without a lot of drama, fessed up to. Which I found pleasantly surprising because I've been kind of dreading the super-conglomerate that is the "New Ma' Bell" and instead found their CS pretty decent and helpful so far.
Don't know what you are trying to prove by putting this back on me; read my post again: I called CS seeking a simple answer, they made a mistake, they fessed up to it, end story. I didn't even have to pressure them for that answer.
So, yeah, this is a case of mid-level American corporate incompetence, and a also a story of American complacency because I was too busy to check my bills each month.
Oh, and I never asked about MtM minutes. Whether I have them or not; reviewing my bills after I first posted I didn't think I did (even though the M2M Rate Code does pop up randomly on my bills from time to time). And the N/W flub was a bigger one anyway. Don't need more minutes, I just need the minutes I have properly posted to my account.
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elmo01
Posts: 2206
Phone Model:
Samsung SPH-M510
Service Provider:
Bell Canada |
Tue May 22, 2007 3:14 pm |
good luck. I was only giving you the options and answers.
the rep that handled you call only pushed it off to research.thus avoiding the issue.in that grey area of being procedurally correct and lazy
your account is going to be scrutinized over the next few days by a research team to look at what was changed and when , why and by whom, I was trying to prepare you for a less than desireable response. as long as nothing is picked up your home free
you can ignore my post or take the info as intended. It appears you didnt recieve the complete sympathetic ear you desired, after all this is a discussion forum
ps the rate code is RM1000 not RM10
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Shalalala
Posts: 661 |
Tue May 22, 2007 4:13 pm |
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Yeah, HLA will definetly credit any mischarge
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