Cingular/AT&T Responds To Class Action Suit
Do you feel like Cingular’s service quality has fallen significantly since their merger with AT&T? You’re not alone. A class-action lawsuit was filed in 2004 in a Seattle district court, alleging that former AT&T customers who didn’t transfer service to the big Orange experienced terrible call quality and spotty service. This may all be a bit of a moot point by now, but Cingular/AT&T issued a written rebuttal last week, maintaining that the suit was "completely without merit" and are moving for a dismissal of charges. If the case does, in fact, proceed, it could have significant ramifications for cell contracts as a whole, agreements that are notoriously limiting for consumers.
[Via tulsaworld]
In reading the posts here, there still seems to be some confusion as to how “the new AT&T” came about. In case you are confused, here’s how the name change went down. In 2004, Cingular wireless (a combined partership of SBC & BellSouth) acquired AT&T Wireless. Shortly thereafter, SBC acquired the non-wireless properties of AT&T and changed its name to AT&T. In 2006, AT&T (formerly SBC) acquired BellSouth. Since Cingular Wireless was a joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth, they decided to rebrand Cingular to the “new AT&T”. Yes, the AT&T acquisition back in 2004 WAS a combination of two different entities. However, the latest rebranding is ONLY a name change. It’s still the SAME company folks!! If you think that’s confusing, try retracing all the spin-offs and subsequent mergers since the regulatory breakup of AT&T in the 1980s!!
Cingular/AT&T is awful. My calls are dropped all the time and 80% of the time I can not receive or make calls at all in my home. This is why I was forced to get a hardline in my house after switching from Verizon.
I have complained numerous times and my I have been ignored for about 5 months. Next month I will try T-mobile. They maybe my last hope.
I have the full package internet,cell,tv and home phone for about 17 mos now,the other day my sons cell phome died so i called and orderd the cheapest one they had ok,so when i called to activate it i was told that i had to agree to a new 2 year plan i was shocked.why would i agree to that for 1 phone when my plan is done in december and i have 3 other phones,they said it was an upgrade come december i will not be renewing any of my services,when i called about this i treated very rude and hungup on!Time to find new services for everthing,plus when i emailed them about this i never got an answer good work ATT…..singed unhappy@pissed
I paid an early termination fee o;f $175.00 to pay Cingular off and move to Verizon. My experience with Cingular/new AT&T had been a nightmare. I could not make calls at all from within my home; I had to go outside to receive/make a call and even then the call was dropped with a few minutes. Still being under warranty, I returned the phone and was sent a new one. They charged me for the new phone, sending a form letter along with it saying the phone had been damaged because it had been “chewed”. This is a crock as the phone device was in perfect condition, I returned it because of the continous dropped calls.
Now I have been charged twice for the termination fee, and they claim they have no record of the duplicate payment. Today I sent a copy of my bank showing proof of the duplicate payment and hope Cingular with reimburse me.
All in all, Cingular/the new AT&T has lousy customer service and the operation is being run like the “Keystone” cops. I don’t appreciate being ripped off like this. I switched to Verizon and am happy with their service.
After a year plus, I had a problem with Cingular regarding rollover minutes.
They accepted my complaint, restored the lost rollover minutes AND added 100 min/mo to the balance of my contract for the inconvenience.
Having lived through the nightmare of dealing with Verizon, where calls were ignored, letters were ignored and billing was permanently screwed up, I am happy with Cingular service. I just hope the new IPhone customers don’t overload the network.
Ray
Interesting reading and good for you. Unless ATT/Cingular is responsive to our $500 billing problem (one month vs. our normal $38/mo charges) I would like to take action against them as well. My experience with them to date is that they are unwilling to admit the problem is a result of this stupid merger. Can I ask what attorney you used and what state you live in? I’m not looking for a monetary win; just want to set our precedent that we’re not lying.
thank you,
Michele
I currently have Verizon Wireless and am very happy with my service in the Cincinnati area. One dropped call in three years. Signal is always strong throughout the entire city. Good voice quality too. A couple of my friends have Cingular/AT&T and have nothing but problems with dropped calls and horrible call/voice quality. Whenever I talk to them on their cell phones, it sounds like they are in a tunnel and, like their voice is a monster’s voice! The tower “handoffs” are very rough. Forget about making a call during peak times! My friends have problems even connecting a call during peak times. Avoid Cingular at all costs! You pay big bucks for dropped calls, horrible voice quality, and less tower coverage. T-mobile coverage in Cincy is bad too!
I have had a family talk plan through Cingular for years and we have been happy with it. Now that it is the “new AT&T”, we can’t get coverage in places we could before. We all get a ton of dropped calls, failed calls, etc. I have some time left on my contract but I feel that the contract was broken on the side of the company, not with me.
I want to be able to change my mobile company smoothly if AT&T can’t produce the coverage they promise!
I want to know if anyone is having a terrible time getting a REBATE from AT&T on Internet Services. This is the second time they have offered me a rebate and not come across.
HELP
MS
Johnny Cingular, you are quite blind to what’s going on here. I came across this website because I had noticed a negative difference in service. I have been with Cingular for nearly two years and had my girlfriend switch from Nextel to a family plan with me. We both have noticed how poor the service has gotten. We both received our BB Pearls in December of 2006 and were very happy with it. No dropped calls, strong signal, and overall good coverage with a few a deadspots that we knew of. NOW, I have two signal bars in areas where it used to full. Is that a function of the phone or the SIM card? I don’t think so. Mind you, I’m an Engineer so I don’t jump on things and assume what the cause of the problem is as quickly as others might. We problem solve.
Bottom line, there is an issue here. I’m not happy with the service now but I’m holding out hope that we’re just going through a transition period here. Up until recently, I’ve been very happy with Cingular and I only hope that they will return back to where they were before.
If letters to the “New AT&T” will help I will venture into doing that or even enter into the class action suit against them.
cingular wants all former at&t consumers to switch to their new plans (which have much higher rates) and denies us the ability to upgrade to new phones which other cingular customers can do on a yearly basis. this is absurd since the consumer should not care about whether at&t has merged with cingular, if cingular changes their name to at&t, or any other internal affairs of cingular. we signed up for a certain rate plan and a certain quality of service which we did not get.
I have been Cingular customer since 1997 and have never had a technical issue until AT&T took over.
In the last few months I have had dropped calls, problems receiving phone calls and delayed time in dialing out. In the past 5 months I have had two different cell phones, both which have the same problem.
Now that I’ve eliminated the easy cop out excuse of it being a particular phone, I’ve come to believe it is the result of AT&T taking over Cingular.
I hope the issue with AT&T gets resolved soon, else I will take my business to another cellular company
My Husband is on the same $99.00 unlimited plan. His service is on the gsm network. The number of dropped calls and the reception is getting worse and worse. He finally had someone at AT&T tell him the truth. That they are locking them out of cell towers as they want him to drop the plan. Anyone with the plan is being locked out of 9 out of 10 towers.
I would love to find a lawyer that is would take this one. This should be against the law. My husband signed a contract and now they are not giving him the service he signed up for.
AT&T is and has been horrible for a long time in my opinion, but they aren’t the only bad ones in my area. My service area encompasses New Orleans metro, MS and FL gulf coast and interstate 55 to NE AR and Memphis TN metro.
For work, we started with Suncom that had dropped calls and no service in a lot of areas and when At&T bought them it was no different. We switched to Verizon a few years ago and it isn’t much better in my service areas. It’s difficult to have dropped calls if you don’t have service.
For home,I had Nextel for years and it worked good for the most part. It started costing me a small fortune because they couldn’t control net alerts my two teenage daughters constantly received. Cingular offered good family plans and I signed up with them two years ago. I live on the fringe of most service providers and Cingular actually worked good at my house. With the exception of my bills being screwed up in their favor the first few months, the service has been great. I rarely had dropped calls or no service in almost everywhere I traveled.
Since AT&T took over, I have constantly had dropped calls and no service in areas where it never happened before. I inquired about this to a lot of friends and family and they are having the same problems. My antenna strength will look good, but the calls don’t go through.
The service now seems like the same AT&T I had a work about eight years ago. Something has to give. I shudder at the thoughts if I decide to upgrade a phone through AT&T.
The first week I had cingular I must of had 50 dropped calls. I would of had more,but cingular was unable to place most of the calls I tried to make. I get the call failed message, or the try your call later recording, or the phone returns to the start menu or the sound quality is so bad you can’t understand what the other person is saying. I’m a pilot and I can count on the phone NOT working in LA,SJU,NY when the does work the quality is terrible. I have 4 phones and none of them work. The phones always have 4 bars. Is there a law suit I can join. I want out of cingular !! Quentin
I just moved to an AT&T area and had to switch providers. AT&T offered me a “Free” wireless phone (Cingular) with my new service. I just got my bill, my free wireless phone cost me $250.00 in equipment costs. And yes, the phone does not work in serveral locations on my property.
Note to self…pay more attention to the idiot your talking to on the phone for 30 minutes, they may say something important 5 minutes after you’ve have stopped listening!
I also recently switched from the horrible Sprint syndrome! However I am finding out AT&T is no better! When will the Congress step in and fine these companies for being fraudulent, lying thieving rats!!!!! It really sucks you pay outrageous money for a service that is not fully provided and becasue we the little people don’t have millions in the bank we can’t do anything about it!
I WAS SO LOYAL CINGULAR EVEN PAID MY BILL WHEN IS WAS OVER,NOW ATT HAS MY BILL SO HIGH ITS WRONG $230 A MONTH,AND IT USE TO BE AROUND A HUNDRED DOLLAR. I TIRED OF EVERY MONTH TURNING RED IN MY FACE. I WANT MY MONEY BACK,OR BEST WALK AWAY NO OWEING ATT ANYTHING. I LIVED IN FL WHEN I SIGNED THE CONTRACT,AND CHANGED MY NUMBER WHEN I MOVED TTO TENNEESSEE.THEY SOLD ME NO CHARGE TO CHANGE TRHE TEL#,18 MONTH LKATER I FIND A OUT I WAD CHARGED$180 FOR BREAKING A CONTACT,BUT I NEVER SIGNBED A CONTRACT, WHEN I CALL 611 THE BLOCKER I CALL I ANWSER ALL THERE QUESTION BUT NEVER ANSWER ANY OF MINE BUT HANG UP. I CALL 611 AGAIN TO REPORT TO A SUPEVISOR,AND TELL THEM TO LISTEN TO THE RECORDING THEY TELL ME THE LOST TO RECORDING THIS A PULPLIC UTILITY FOR THE PEOPOLE THEY NEED A CIVAL LAW SUIT,AND I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO.i SUFFER BAD CREDIT I NEED IT REVERSE OR ATT PAY ME $500 TO SIGN A CONTACT WITH VERIZON. I REALLY WANT ALL MY MONRY BACK THAT WAS ADDED TO MY BILL SIONCA ATT TOOK OVER. NO CREDIT BUREAU SHOULD TAKE ANY REPORT ATT MAKES STICK BECAUSE THEY FABERCATE THE BILL. LET IT BE KNOW ATT DETROYS CREDIT WHICH HURTS YOUR CREDIT SO WHEN YOU BUY A CAR, HOUSE YOU END UP PAY MORE FOR IT THIS IS NOT FDAIR NO WAY TO DO BUSSINESS IT ISD TIMT FOR ATT TO LOSE ALL THTERE ACCOUNTS TO A FIAR COMPANY WADE MASSEY
Since Cingular became the new AT&T with the fewest dropped calls, I have had every phone call I make dropped. Sometimes it will drop 5-6 times during one conversation. I get to the point of saying, “if I lose you again, please don’t call me back and I won’t call you back.” I can sit in one place, not moving except to talk on the phone, I have full bars showing coverage. I dial the phone and it does nothing, no ringing, nothing but the phone shows that the call is active. I can sit in that same place and the call will be dropped time and time again. This doesn’t happen just some times, now every call I make has problems. I’ve tried calling into the customer service number but I can’t keep the call long enough on my cell phone to get help. I travel a good bit and many places I could get coverage at before, now will not have coverage at all. I am sick of paying for this “no service” I’m getting.
Cingular is horrible! Over the past five years, they’ve allowed bogus cell phone accounts to be opened in my name with just my security number and I have had to go through hell to clear my name with credit companies and collection agencies. I am sure it is an inside job, when i talked to a Cingular rep in the local mall, he said some reps open the accounts for friends who pretend to me an innocent victim like me, and their friend racks up charges and accessories and the sales reps gets all kinds of commissions, even if later the bill isn’t paid because of fraud.
I wish Cingular would stop letting people open bogus accounts in my name! There ought to be a class action lawsuit.
How did they steal my SS#? When I was in college, my school used to send paperwork with my SS# printed at the top. I didn’t think it was a big deal until we found out bums were going through the garbage cans in the back. Get a shredder people! At least some colleges are smart and just put last four digits on all papers.
I, too, have had a huge problem getting my rebate from Cingular/At&T. I just got my rebate card (after 6 months and 15 phone calls) and it got denied. (Yes, I have activated it..) Is the above mentioned law firm handling the class action lawsuit regarding the rebates? Thanks so much for any information.
There should be more class action lawsuits filed against Cingular/ATT&T for breach of contract and false and misleading advertising.
Like many others, my whole family has experienced crappy connections, dropped calls, FEWER bars, inability to call or recieve calls from their homes. Their claims are totally fraduent. They have engqaged in bait-and-switch tactics withj regards to their add-on packages, such as internet and digital voice phone.
I strongly suggest that everyone send a letter of complaint to the CEO and send a copy to their local congreeeman. Also, send a letter to the FCC, the government agency who regulates the telephone industries.
Maybe, someone should create a blog with a petition that users can sign.
We need to document all of the instances of crappy service to support our legal claims.
Maybe, we could pool our resouirces and buy some ad space to spread the message that AT&T lies through their teeth and provides crappy services.
Wher in the hell am i going to get my equipment rebate????????
I thought it was me until I asked some co-worker about their service and lo and behold, they also noticed a decrease in service such as dropped calls and calls going directly to voice mail. If I know that ATT was about to merge with Cingular I woulnd never have bought the Cingular phone. I moved from Verizon because of the international calling available when I travel that Verizon did not offer and yes, the pricing plan is better with Cingular but what good is it is the service blows just like the old ATT service I once had. I did persue the poor signal, calls going directly to VM, and signal strengths going from 4 bars to none in minutes. The response was “we didn’t change anything”. I guess they have a standard reply since they must get so many of the same complaints. The webs sites I have checked out (incliding Cingulars BB)all confirm the obvious difficulties they are having. I asked how the bars could drop so dramatically and the techy said the cell strength will drop as more callers are using a particular cell. I never realized that but I guess it makes sense. They did some kind of monitoring of my phone for 24 hours and didn’t find anything wrong but the service is definately heading downward. I still have 18 months to go and really can’t afford to lose anymore calls. It’s so serious I am looking for a separate phone to use when I can’t receive a call or get one out which is getting more frequent. Anyway, my rant is over and good luck to you all.
Jim D NYC
It seems there are different views or versions of which company has the poorest track record between the two in quality & service, being cingular & AT&T, I read that original AT&T customers saying their prior service with AT&T, dropped in quality & performance when it originally merged with Cingular, and the same is being said with Cingular customers as myself, I notice the quality has dropped as well as my calls, more then ever before. So it seems between these two companies we keep getting tossed to and fro, back and forth, worn down like a stone, glass or shell on the beach, as the details colors or sharpness to the objects mentioned get worn down and fade away, losing it’s fine luster as in quality, performance & customer service. Like a seashell, I hear hissing, echoes of my own voice as I am talking to others which makes it difficult to hear the other person, other peoples conversations cutting in, I can only imagine mine doing the same with others, there goes our privacy–ooops! And other sound that sound like R2 D2 sound bites, and holding on to call where both callers are in a stable enviroment gets dropped as if you were moving about and finding a weak signal pocket area, where it didn’t occur before, as i.e. home to home, business to business, or home to business and visa versa. I don’t know or haven’t invesigated further on what the contract says about such take over, as from a customers view point, I want to call it a hostile take over, as these transitions seem to always be unfriendly to the customer/consumer that has been taken over, as in previous AT&T customers, and now Cingular customers, this is getting messy, My girlfriend, who is an original AT&T customer herself, was forced to switch in the merger without a say, she was also forced to purchase new phones, because the now former company,(now being Cingular,) said her phones ( her son’s and her cell phone) were not compatible, so they forced her to buy new phones, voiding the existing AT&T contract she signed on with, or at least meeting the customers needs to transition smoothly over to Cingular, the same is now occuring with Cingular customers, I don’t know what is said in the contract when such a merger occurs, but there should be a grace period of opting out of your existing contract with either company, the companies making it clear to the customer/consumer, by contacting them through what ever means possible, there personal texting service, e-mail, written statement or phone call, especially depending on the elderly or physically chellenged and/or impaired, as many in older age do not know how to use those other types of communication, some depend on pure verbal communication, or written statements, via U.S. mail, depending on there impairment. This should be a clear and open opportunity to the customer/consumer to stay or close there existing conrtract, as the older or existing customers lose or are not entitled to the new perks being offered to lure future customers to the present company, as has been past practice. I say, just as there is a hostile take over in companies, merger or the selling of a company, the contracts are subjected to being open, changed, bargained and/or ratified or broken altogether, the companies getting the better end of these situations or deals, usually. But this is not our employer, this is a service in which we made an educated purchase for what ever reason being, as in service, price comparisons, business, family or leisure in call service etc., in which we the customer/consumer should have more rights and power in such matters, not to just accept an, AS IS SERVICE, that is forced upon us when such changes occur and have to be forced to take it in our ears & down our throats to give us that sour feeling in our stomachs. that we’re being wronged & manipulated. when such matters arise or take place, making us vulnerable, slaved victims, as they con and corner us in a service we have come so dependant on for every important and not so important call or situation, SAY NO TO EXPLOITATION! Demand our rights & take the power to the consumer…BACK!