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]
I am being called by a collection company 5 years after the fact when att merged with cingular I was an ATT
I have the world’s greatest telephone plan that the original AT&T company offered between 2000-2001 (unlimited ANYTIME minutes for $99). Cingular/the new AT&T have made every effort to get me to drop this plan for the past few years. Some of their reps have even mentioned that I will never see this plan again in my lifetime (which is why I have a hard time dropping it). The only problem is I’m not able to purchase a phone from their stores and I cannot use the Blackberry service. Can someone please point me in the right direction? AT&T is either low on cash or their customer service/retention policies really suck.
I have just got off the telephone with ATT. They misrepresented their cable,phone,internet package. I took the package and what a mess. First of all the rep. that sold the package said they would do a debit in about 2 months. They tried to in 1 month. I asked a friend to help by using her bank for 2 payments one on 7/27 and another on 8/24 ( I do not have a bank account). I gave the account number to ATT and the dates authorized to access the money. They didn’t do that, they did not access the payments and in turn shut off my phone and cable, and internet. I cancel the service and what happens yesterday the debited my friends account for $340.00. This was not authorized and my friend can not afford to have this money taken from her account. The person I called and talked to was extremely rude. I’m planning on filing complaints, and the bank is fighting the debit also. I’m disabled and for one I can not afford this both financially and emotionally. The bank even states that they have alot of problems with ATT and their practices. Be warned anc make sure to tell others No to ATT go with Comcast.
This is a copy of a letter I sent to the FCC(Federal Communications Commision)I have a grandfather contract and they are forcing me out of the company. I have purchased several unlocked phones over the years, to avoid a contract change. Recently I decided to get a smart phone or PDA, I contacted att prior to buying this type of phone, and asked if I upgraded, it would change my plan . The answer was no. upgrades do not change plans.(meanwile they did advertise this while I was on hold) I went ahead and ordered a Samsung blackjack for myself and a Motorola v365 for my husband. When my phone arrived I wanted to turn the internet service on. I spoke with ****** .,I was told they cant because my sim card and plan were to old, and I would have to convert to a new plan. I am stuck with close to $500.00 in phones. He was very combative with me and I told him this several times through out the conversation. He did not stop. I asked him for his supervisor’s name and he would not give me any names. I had to ask him in several different methods to get his supervisor’s name. The first name was ********* I asked to speak with him. I was told he is busy. I asked if I could leave my number, he said no he dose not call customers. So then I asked for his immediate supervisor he said he did not have one I asked him for the person who is one over him not fifteen pegs up but just one. He gave me ******* same thing I could not speak with him or leave a message. I can not believe a cell phone company can get away with this. What happened to the customer is always right .They say there is nothing they can do. My husband called today and in so many ways was told they would no one will help us . They must have made a notation on my file that I was an irate customer. Look at my bill for the past 5 years not one late payment or check my calls to customer service not one complaint from me or the company. If you can not help me can you provide me with a name and phone number or address of the approiate contacts.
i used to be an old cingular customer but after they merged with at&t i’ve felt like my service has gotten worse and for the past 2mths, a couple of weeks after i finally upgraded my SIM card from the old orange cingular SIM card to the new blue at&t SIM card i have been getting almost no bars at home and even in my backyard and front porch (which isn’t even in a building-at&t apparently cannot guarantee service inside buildings)… so after 2mths of not being able to make or recieve calls at home unless i walk out of the house and stand on the street….which doesn’t exactly mean i get reception all the time.
So i called at&t and was told to wipe my SIM card twice… but it didn’t work and was finallly transferred to tech support who told me that about 2 months ago AT&T stop allowing its users to roam off the nearby t-mobile towers and because AT&T doesn’t have any towers nearby the service i’m getting right now (emergency calls only and if i’m lucky one or two bars for a couple of seconds a day at home) is all i’m going to have until there are enough complaints in my area for at&t to reverse their decision and pay t-mobile to allow users to roam off their towers… and apparently this has been happening alot in california. I feel so cheated paying for a service i’m not gettng and there’s no way for me to improve it since it’s a network problem.
I feel if they where going to merger we the customers of both ATT & of Cingular should have the right to cancell are contracts with the company we are with. I get no service at my dad’s yes he lives in a rural area but my friend gets service on her phone there so, I should also. My phone it self sucks to say the least so that might be part of the problem. I don’t know what exactly is the problem but I am sick of all this. I can’t wait for my contract to end which isnt until Sept 2008,
(
We are still with the former AT&T plan. The big Orange and the New Blue have tortured us over this. I have literally spent HOURS on the phone trying to resolve service problems, but customer service is horrible. Their only recommended solution to ANY service problem is to upgrade to a new $$$ plan. When we refused to change plans, they have repeatedly tried to get us to switch by lying to us. One actullay telling us they were upgrading our equipment to resolve the service problems, assuring us that there would be no committment and nor any other changes whatsoever to our plan, then after the equipment is shipped, another telling us we were “missinformed”, that there is always a commitment with any upgrade, even while admitting that the notes in our account clearly indicated that “per supervisor no further committment to be added to these lines.” I am so sick of their lies!
I think since at&t/cingular mergered that service has worsen. I never had a dropped call until they merged. NEVER………….now i get dropped calls too many to count in a day. I don’t understand it. They tell me their working on towers and this and that, but still i’m having problems.
I have been with cingular for almost 10 years now. Honestly, everything was great never had problems with any dropped calls. I am from Los Angeles. Problem started when cingular became ATT. Now, I don’t have any signal inside my house where I used to have. I dunno what to do. I have a friend who is t-mobile and has the same thing.
Enough with the complaining!
Where is the team of lawyers??
Somebody post some attorney’s names so we can organize a class action law suit. If we all let this go by, we deserve to suffer. So STOP Whining and get busy. All of us together and united can get results.
In the meanwhile:
One option that has helped me is to sign up to a SKYPE phone. I now use it in my home. It is attached to my computer. You need a PC headset and have free video chat (very cool) with a webcam. You can get different plans, too. I have a domestic calling plan which allows unlimited outgoing calls to anyone or any phone for 30 bucks a year! There are also plans which assign a telephone number (anywhere in the world) for incoming calls. And there are plans to have international calls added for $60.00 per year!
I am very happy and have already disconnected my land line. I seldom use my mobile phone unless I am on the street. I telecommute several days per week with no problem. Last month I used less than 200 mobile phone minutes.
If a lot of consumers switched to that… or another computer phone service which allows us to opt to have Broadband on our laptops with a phone connected to it… then switch out mobile plans altogether, or to the cheapest 39.99 plans of any carrier, we’d use or collective voices more affectively. The companies would have a fit if their stocks went down… which is exactly what would happen. The jerks that implemented these policies of screwing the customer would lose their jobs… which is pretty good revenge for me.
Last weekend, I was unable to get mobile reception where I was working, so I opened up my laptop, found free broadband… and used Skype.
I am really tired of Cingular/AT&T. I have been with them for almost three years. The first two were alright except for the dropped calls. When I decided to add another line,that’s when the problems started. I was put on the wrong plan. I was charged an outrageous amount of money when I was told it was $9.99 to add another line. They had all these prorated charges that I was not told about. When my bill came it was well over three hundred dollars.
Class action. I’M IN!
My customers are mad, everyone else will only call my home phone because they know that they will not be able to finish our conversation before the call is dropped. No joke, I have been documenting every “service issue” since my battle with these people began a couple months ago. I have been lied to by supervisors, told by managers that they will “get back to me when they get back to me” after I ask for a follow up call on service issues. No surprise there were zero call backs. Their service technicians do not note their systems after conversations, so that there is no proof of them ever speaking to you and then lie to managers about their conversations. That manager refused to conference the tech in on the call so I could confront him on the contents of the conversation when I called them back. No surprise. I could go on, but no need as I am sure everyone reading this has experienced exactly the same thing. Is there a lawyer out there with the experience and knowhow to file a class action against AT&T and get us all out from under these rediculous contracts. After all these are strictly service contracts. If I don’t honor a contract with one of my customers, I don’t get paid and there isn’t a judge in the land that will force a customer to pay me. Why should AT&T get away with exactly the same thing???
We need legal council. Who will step up?
If you are that lawyer, please respond.
It is hard to believe that there is not a class action suit in progress with all of these comments.
Off network is becoming our thorn in the side. We have a family plan and four phones which we have had since 2003. We signed up and pay for no roaming charges and unlimited service between the plan phones. We were in europe in August and we needed to buy a new phone so we went online to try to find it. We were due for an upgrade so we figured it would be no problem. When we got to the point of buying the phone we found that we were blocked because of OFF NETWORK calls. We were told that we had more than 50% of the calls in May were OFf NETWORK. We had no contact at all about this problem until we saw this online. When we called they said they had sent a letter(they had not)that explained it all. The bottom line was that we were denied service for no reason. The OFF NETWORK is a complete delima. The OFF NETWORK shows up on your phone if you are using someone else’s tower. The problem is that most other providers do not have to send the signal to your phone and tell you when you are off the ATT tower. As a result you can be looking at an ATT on your phone and in reality be OFF NETWORK. As a matter of fact the signal for being OFF NETWORK is so peculiar that my wife and i can both be sitting in our living room and one of us have an ATT and the other be OFF NETWORK. When we told ATT about this they said it could be because of the phone(trying to sell us another phone). We are clearly not getting the service we signed the contract for(although we are paying a considerable amount each month for it.) The only solution offered was for us to cancel our plan. We know that we cannot get another plan that would do the same for the same money so that is really no option. It does not matter now anyway because they only offer you one time to cancel the plan and get out of the service and since I did not take the option at that second we are stuck until the plan runs out. Like everyone else we are stuck.
I can’t imagine that a smart lawyer could not make money off of a company who is this blatent about there lack of concern for the customer.
I too have noticed how mean spirited the phone reps have become. We used to love the Cingular people because they really were pleasant to talk to.
Help if you can. I will try the Attorney General next i guess.
report a complaint to the fcc
at&t are the biggest criminals out there.
I would be interested in filing fraud charges against AT& T in a class action suit. ANyone who has been on the $99 unlimited plan, please ocntact me at bracsfe@yahoo.com I believe it only takes three people to begin a class action suit and I am certain once we find an attorney we will be able to gather many more.
Dawn
FCC does nothing.
All they do is take the complaint. They only respond if there is publicity and literally hundreds of checkable complaints.
Class action suit is the only way to go. You will not get rich, but you can get a refunds and service that you paid for. I contacted the woman calling herself Dawn who posted earlier today.
If she is a real person and not ATT baiting to see if we are serious, there might be a beginning here. But most people are too lazy to act… and often do not stick to it unless there is money rewards involved. The lawyers will eat up any punitive damages of any significance… but the suit could set a legal precedent to prevent things from getting worse for consumers. Here is Dawn’s post on this site.
Maybe if she is real, we can get organised. I am in… how about you???!!!
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On Nov 7, 2007 @ 1:36 pm, dawn Said:
I would be interested in filing fraud charges against AT& T in a class action suit. Anyone who has been on the $99 unlimited plan, please contact me at bracsfe@yahoo.com I believe it only takes three people to begin a class action suit and I am certain once we find an attorney we will be able to gather many more.
Dawn
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Contact any other people who have other postings online anywhere else and give them her address. You don’t need to be a unlimited 99.00 customer to join her law suit. You just have to be with ATT and not getting what you agreed to.
We are talking about how ATT/Cingular have purposely reduced the quality for people on the $99 unlimited plan and when you call in the fix anything the only way to resolve it is to change your plan to something that benifits ATT and does not benifit the customer. I specifically asked the question when I signed up on the plan. “Will I be able to keep this plan forever”. The Customer Service Rep or Sales Guy at ATT Corporate not a store said “Yes, we realize the new 3g technology does not have the coverage of other services including ATT analog for sticking with us through the building of the network you will get the benifit of future technology as long as you are a customer and dont cancel your service”.
That is not the case I cant even send a MMS message.
They refuse to replace my phone even though I paid and pay Insurance.
“The only way to fix either is to change my plan”
I would preffer a Class action law suit requireing ATT/cingular/new ATT to honor what was said and give the advantage of the new technologies.
But why would a company like ATT want to honor an agreement they or one of their employees made just because they dont make as much money off of me?
please… whoever referred to a CNN story, resend the info with a link or date of story.
I am gathering up info to start a class action suit. I am in New York. If anyone else wants to assist, please sign up on this blog with your address. Thanks!
Is there a lawyer suing AT and T on behalf of old subscribers? The company is now saying they are going to cut of service of old subscribers unless they migrate (ie. to more expepensive less conprehensive plans)
what lawyer? Guys you need to give me names, here!!!
Please re-post the lawyer’s name and city/address or the article link where you saw the information.
Did you find anything out about suing? i have a fabulous old plan and no (NOVEmber)ATT says they are cutting off old subscribers if they dont migrate i..e. worse plan more money
please let me know if you can find lawyer oor anythng else to do about this forced migration issue. i have an excellent plan with thenm which does not exist with the new ATT
JUDITH,
I spoke with a law firm on Friday. I also mailed a woman named Dawn, who wrote something last week; please contact her here: bracsfe@yahoo.com .
Let her know you are interested. Post your email address here and I will contact you directly. The law firm I spoke with is one of several firms who are presently suing ATT regarding the iphone problems.
ATT is horrible. They have terrible customer service and over billing. I sign up for ATT service in September 07 and had to switch to another service provider in 2 week. My new phone died 5 days after I got it and they couldn’t help me. It took me two weeks and 10 hours on the phone to get them to take back the phone, which broke 5 day after i had it. I cancel the service 13 days after I got it because my phone didn’t work and I got no help, and they send me a huge bill for a month and a half of service plus early termination fees. I am still calling them to dispute the overcharges.
I have had both ATT and Cingular in the past and never had a problem with them but now. I am never going to switch to them again and would advice everyone to never use ATT ever. I spent over $200 worth on charges, 15 hours of my time on the phone trying to get help, and didn’t even have a phone that worked for the 13 day I had it.
I too switched form AT&T to Cingular. I bought three new phones and one of them being a $500+ treo with internet services. I paid for the unlimited program. Well first months bill came and it was $1700+, the next months bill came and it was $2000+. I spent hours upon hours back and forth with Cingular. I finally just disconnected the unlimited internet after all the billing headaches but I was the one who had to sit on the phone for hours and muliple days in a row to finally get credits to my account. I was scammed and tunred my phones to “vacation” until the contract was up. $1000’s of dollars on bills, close to $1000 in phones and I really had horrible service. I had a lot better with AT&T than Cingular.
Spint is my new carrier and they suck too. If you make one change, they start a new contract (2 years of course). A $200 early termination contract as well as, if you make a change they give you a new account number. Once you get a new account number, you get new bills. Be aware that the old bill will still carry a balance and it will turn up on your credit report. They have horrible billing too. I am not sure if a cell phone is worth the headaches!!!!