Home » AT&T Mobility (aka Cingular) Billing Dispute

ATT vs. CINGULAR

On March 24th, 2008 Anonymous (not verified) says:

hi all,
I would like to share my story here too....last month I visited to international country & got approx. $ 1000.00 bill.
Last month when I was in international country I saw my cell phone had auto find local wireless GSM network & I was able to make/receive local calls.

I went to ATT website & started looking for international options & plan details to make sure I don't get charged crazy...

I saw following items pre-included in my plan which I never saw when I was with CINGULAR -

a. GSM Coverage shared $0.00

b. Expanded International Roaming $0.00

I opened up ATT website for internation roaming details & noticed that they have written information as follows -

a. International coverage, voice, data details -

City - XXX
Services - Voice, Data, Picture etc..
Network - GSM/GPRS

b. International roaming charges -

Voice - $ x.xx
Data - $ x.xx
etc...

I interpreted this as follows -

a. My plan has "GSM Coverage shared" which might mean I can share same minutes internationally with $ 0.00 cost.

b. Expanded International roaming - If I will be in roaming zone of particular international country then it will be charged to me at the rate of $ x.xx

So here I go....I started using my phone for calling/receiving local city people (my friends, relatives etc.)

After 1 month I got bill of $ 1000.00

I have couple of issues with it -

a. When I had CINGULAR plan International option/package was not by default included under my plan - In order to make/receive calls in international city I would have to pre-setup & take international package in my plan (Makes total sense!)
As appose to these ATT folks made this option by default TURN ON ! So I had no clue that what will be the charges if I access it & overall impact!!!

b. As any other layman in this world I also interpreted using GSM coverage totally differently & screwed myself!

c. Why ATT can't send an SMS saying that you started using your phone Internationally & would be charged for $ x.xx per minute on my very first call !

My future actions -

1. Fight for it !
2. File a case if not get resolved !
3. Do whatever I can to get it resolved !

thank u all for sharing ur pains same like me !!!

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