Court of Appeals Backs UCAN Against Cingular on Marketing Abuses.
UCAN News
On June 20th, the California Court of Appeals started summer off in the nicest way by ruling that Cingular had to honor California's consumer protection laws. In a 3-0 vote,
A California appeals court yesterday upheld a state decision to fine Cingular Wireless $12 million for failing to tell customers that its network was overburdened and then charging them stiff penalties to get out of their contracts.
The case originated in San Diego when the nonprofit Utility Consumers' Action Network brought customer complaints about Cingular to the attention of the California Public Utilities Commission.
The California PUC imposed a $12 million fine in 2004 on Cingular, saying the wireless carrier was unreasonable in charging customers an early termination fee at a time when the company offered no grace period for a customer to try out the service. The PUC also found that Cingular failed to disclose network problems to prospective customers.
The Appellate Court ruled that the Public Utilities Commission could assess financial penalties against Cingular for misrepresentations about its service without intruding into the Federal Communications Commission's exclusive authority over wireless rates and infrastructure, said the Court of Appeal panel in Santa Ana.
The court also upheld the PUC's order requiring Cingular to pay reimbursement, plus interest, to customers who were charged early termination fees for ending wireless service contracts before they expired in one to two years. The fees were $150 to the company and, in some cases, up to $400 to its sales agent. It supported the CPUC ruling that Cingular and its agents had to refund any ill-gotten penalties that it imposed upon customers in the 2000-2002 time frame.
Perhaps most importantly, the ruling rejected the company's arguments that the PUC lacks authority to impose fines and that the financial penalties amounted to regulation of rates, an exclusively federal power.
To read the entire June 20, 2006 Court of Appeals Decision click here.
If you feel that you've been a victim of unsavory Cingular practices, please let us know. We are hopeful that the company will voluntarily clean-up its act. If not, UCAN is poised to take even regulatory or civil action.
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Crookedness
Meanwhile, I get a cingular offer in the mail stating $30.00 a month unlimited service.
Upon activation of my service via phone, I ordered my new phone My credit card was charged $400.00. I was told that if for any reason I didn't want the service, they'd refund my money. 2 weeks went by and I received my phone. The next week, I get a bill (3 weeks after activation) $400.00 !
I immediately called cingular and cancelled my account. A month passed and I get another bill $800.00 Another month passed I get another bill $1200.00 and a letter telling me "they" cancelled my account because of non payment!
Another month passed and I get a letter from a collection company. I replied to the collection agency with the exact same info and asked if they were going to be a party to this fiasco. Never heard from them again. A month or so later, I get another letter from different collection agency representing cingular. I sent them the same letter as the previous company and never heard from them again. Meanwhile, cingular sells out their company. And of course started up some place else under an assumed name.
This isn't exclusive to phone companies. It is standard procedure by the corporate world!
They're all a bunch of crooks.
Thanks for letting me vent here.
a2z
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