When I was a customer with Cingular my husband and I had a lot of issues with cingular. They charged us for going over minutes which never happened, We had to pay 350 dollars for a termintation fee even though we discussed this with them frequently, and with my husband being in the Navy(both of us living in san diego) they would not allow me to cancel his phone while he was out at sea. Now keep in mind that i paid for a phone that wasn't even being used while he was out fighting a war, I also paid for my cell phone which didn't get any service where i was in west virginia while he was gone (this was explained to them).There was only 2 areas that got service in West Virginia and they weren't near. I had to go home for the simple fact i had no where to stay. They wouldn't allow me to cancel our service at all. So basically i was paying for phones that could not be used. They got free money in the long run. Its not fair but when my husband got back from sea we cancelled our service but they charged us a cancelation fee of 350.00 even when we cancelled it on the date that our service expired. WHAT A BUNCH OF CROOKS.

I was assisted by U-Can a few years ago with a couple of issues with Cingular. 1st, like most users I was affected by the lack of coverage-- I had none at my home address in Pacific Beach.. The other issue that I never heard resolved was call cut off not ending my call. I would try to match up the seconds in my phone with near instant cut off and discovered that I would be charged 3-8 minutes for calls that were cut off within 10 seconds. It was way less expensive for me to pay an early termination fee than my $800 to $1100 monthly bills. Like most mobile phone companies, Cinqular is a crooked company with little regulation due to their heavy lobby dollars.

I recently changed my service from Cingular to another carrier. I did this two weeks prior to the expiration of my cingular contract, thinking I would simply pay my last months cingular bill and would have fulfilled my 2 yr. obligation. I also was concerned with using the Cingular service even one day past my contract expiration which would have obligated me to another months service with them. To my astonishment I did not receive my final monthly bill from cingular, but a bill for an early cancellation fee for all five phones (over $700). After two conversations with customer service totaling an hour and a half, and talking with 5 different people there is still no resolution. The best offer they gave was to reduce the amount by a third and thought I should be happy. My monthly bill was typically around $130. I noticed that Verizon has taken care of this problem by pro rating the cancellation fees. This whole process has been painful, and still no resolution.

I heard on a local radio this morning, that Cingular was going to have to start refunding former California customers who were charged ETFs when they quit Cingular due to lack of service/dropped calls during the period 2001-2003. I was one such customer, on a family plan with 2 phones and so got hit twice with the fee. I saw your article on the UCAN inquiry into Cingular's customer (dis)service practices from 2002-2006, and the CPUC's subsequent fines. Do you have any more information on recent developments in this case, and whether the fees are going to be refunded? The radio station, KRAB of Bakersfield, said that those involved in the suit should have received class action questionnaires. I did not receive such a questionnaire, and the radio station didn't have any contact information regarding the article they were citing. Also, when I called Cingular customer service directly, they were unable (or unwilling) to give me any information.

Thanks.
Anna