Swindled by Cingular?

I suppose you've seen the Cingular advertisements of free mobile to mobile? Well, basically all cellular companies have that promotion now. But my deal is with Cingular specifically. I renewed my contract with Cingular after that promotion came out. But I wasn't particularly interested in it at that time, so I didn't ask a lot of questions, or any, really. Then, later, my mom, another Cingular customer, informs me that since I renewed after that promotion came out, I automatically have free mobile to mobile minutes with other Cingular customers. I was pretty excited. Then my good friend Ashley tells me she has the same promotion and I assume that I do too. So I do what I do best, and I talk. Whenever I was bored after school, before Josh came to pick me up. I would call my mom, or Ashley and I would talk for HOURS. Thinking that there would be no consequences.

Aaaaand then the bill comes. Now, don't worry, it wasn't THAT extreme. It was only $20 over the aproximate $35 it usually was. But I was concerned. It said that I had gone over my minutes while talking with other Cingular customers! But I had free mobile to mobile with other Cingular people... dind't I? So I get on the phone with Cingular and ask them what this is all about. They explain that I have the cheapest plan on the market: the $29.99/mo plan. And that plan does not include mobile to mobile minutes. Every other plan Cingular offers does, but not my cheap little plan. Well, crap.

So here I am, half-way through the month (my minutes start on the 3rd, but the bill comes on the 15th) and I have no minutes left. And this is the month that I'm going home to Illinois two weekends in a row, going to Taylor for the other, and going to Ohio to help Josh's brother move in. So basically, not a good month to be without minutes. So I ask the guy if I can upgrade in the middle of my billing cycle to the next highest plan so that I can have minutes for the rest of the month. He said, "Of course!" Well, duh, of course they wouldn't refuse me wanting to pay more or upgrade. Then I ask, but then, can I downgrade after that month is up if I cannot afforde the higher monthly rate? And he says that I can. So I upgrade to the $39.99/mo plan. I still have to pay the overage fees for the minutes I went over prior to upgrading, but at least I had minutes. And actually, I really like my newer plan. Instead of 250 anytime minutes, I now have 450. And instead of 1000 N&W I have 5000. AND I have rollover. AND I have free mobile to mobile minutes. But Josh says for as much as we use our phone, we really don't need all that anyway. So when the month is up, he says, I still have to switch back.

So here I am, a month later. I call Cingular and explain to them that I would like to go back down to my $29.99/mo cheap-o plan. And the lady very politely explains to me that that plan no longer exists. BWHAAA? Okay, breathe, it'll be alright (actually, more than half of me is going "Yay! I get to keep my plan!" But for Josh's sake, I continue). So I ask, "Then what is the cheapest plan I can go down to?" "The cheapest plan we have, ma'am, is $39.99/mo." "Wait, that's the plan I'm on right now, isn't it?" "Yes, Ma'am, it is." ... Pause... "Is there anything else I can do for you Ma'am?" "Uh.. no.. I guess not."

I figured it's over and done with, but when I explain what happened to Josh, he got slightly outraged (no sarcasm intended there). He wanted me to get back on the phone and explain to Cingular that they can't swindle us like that. But since A) I felt that this wasn't a mistake made by them, but rather by me and B) I really didn't want to get rid of this plan, I told him that I didn't feel comfortable calling them back. So he did.

His basic arguement was that the man who I had talked to originally told me that I could go back down to my original plan when the month was done. The man should have told me that my plan no longer existed and that I would not be able to downgrade afterall. I heard him tell the person on the other end, "But the message I hear whenever I call says 'This call may be recorded.' Can you please look into that and find that call my wife made?" I thought that was pretty good. But the guy was helpless because his computer would not let us downgrade. So he said when his manager comes in, he'll call us back. Somehow, that doesn't sound very likely, but we took it, since it was obvious that this guy could do, or would do, nothing for us. Josh also suggested to this guy that if it is impossible to downgrade us because the plan no longer exists, that at least they could give us a discount on the plan we have now so that we could go back to our $29.99/mo rate, since we were told we would be able to do so.

So we'll see what happens, if/when this manager calls us back!

But Josh needs to use the internet now to look up something. He's actually starting his thesis! I'm so proud. I told him when he gets 10% done (that's approximately 10 pages), that he could get a prize. :-D

Bye!
Beth