DjfunkmasterG
18-Dec-2006, 08:28 AM
One of my good friends worked for Cingular so he knows a lot of ins and outs of the service and most recently he blurted out a way for you to get out of your cell contract... Here is how to do it.
Hello my friends, if you want to cancel your Cingular Contract! Gotta love the fine print no one reads, If you wanna make the switch to Verizon, I can help you with that too :) Follow these instructions:
For those of you with a postpaid cingular cellular phone contract that want to cancel service, you can now do so for free. And you will NOT incur the $150/$175 charge that you normally would. This is a limited time offer that will expire within 30 days.
The most recent bill from them says:
"Text & Instant Message Pay Per Use Rate Change
Effective 1/21/07, Cingular will charge $0.15 for text and
instant messages sent or received on a pay-per-use basis. If you
already subscribe to a Messaging Package or Media Bundle, there
is no change to your rate. By purchasing a Messaging Package or
MEdia Bundle, you can send and receive messages for as little as
a penny. Sign up & save at www.cingular.com/getmessaging or Dial
*NOW from your wireless phone."
Narrative of my expierence:
-I called customer service at 611
-Pressed "0" to speak to a customer service representative
-Then pressed "4" to close my account. This transferred me into the retentions department.
-I stated that I wanted to close my account
-They asked the reason for closing my account
-I stated that the text messaging cost had increased by 50% and this is unacceptable. The costs of text messaging are clearly stated at 10 cents per message in the seperate brochure that I recieved when I signed my contract.
-They then stated that I did not show any text messaging on my account for the past 6 billing cycles. So I stated that I use text messaging sporadically. And may not use it for months at a time. But when I do now use it, that portion of my bill will now be 50% higher than it was previously.
-The first represenative I spoke to refused to waive the early termination fee (ETF). So I hung up the phone, and called back again a couple minutes later. This time, the representative offered to waive the ETF after I repeated the above procedure.
Notes:
-I could not get any concessions from the retentions staff on being grandfathered into to the $0.10 per message rate structure.
-They wouldn't give me any money as a service credit on my account to cover the increased cost of the messaging
-They did suggest that I subscribe to a text messaging package. But did note that in my case, this would likely result in an increase in the total cost that I was paying for service since I don't use text messaging for months at a time.
-The rate change from $0.10 to $0.15 per text message appears to further deter users from using the pay per use (PPU) feature. And get them to sign up for an added cost text messaging bundle. Presumably they are hoping that this will raise the average revenue per user (APRU).
-Read the terms of service before you call:
http://www.cingular.com/download/Cingular%20Terms%20of%20Service.pdf
take note of:
"IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY
OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN
YOUR RATE PLAN BROCHURE, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL
AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY
DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE WILL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT
LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR
BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR EQUIPMENT, OR OTHERWISE) AND YOU MAY TERMINATE
THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR
RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE
OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST
BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE."
Hello my friends, if you want to cancel your Cingular Contract! Gotta love the fine print no one reads, If you wanna make the switch to Verizon, I can help you with that too :) Follow these instructions:
For those of you with a postpaid cingular cellular phone contract that want to cancel service, you can now do so for free. And you will NOT incur the $150/$175 charge that you normally would. This is a limited time offer that will expire within 30 days.
The most recent bill from them says:
"Text & Instant Message Pay Per Use Rate Change
Effective 1/21/07, Cingular will charge $0.15 for text and
instant messages sent or received on a pay-per-use basis. If you
already subscribe to a Messaging Package or Media Bundle, there
is no change to your rate. By purchasing a Messaging Package or
MEdia Bundle, you can send and receive messages for as little as
a penny. Sign up & save at www.cingular.com/getmessaging or Dial
*NOW from your wireless phone."
Narrative of my expierence:
-I called customer service at 611
-Pressed "0" to speak to a customer service representative
-Then pressed "4" to close my account. This transferred me into the retentions department.
-I stated that I wanted to close my account
-They asked the reason for closing my account
-I stated that the text messaging cost had increased by 50% and this is unacceptable. The costs of text messaging are clearly stated at 10 cents per message in the seperate brochure that I recieved when I signed my contract.
-They then stated that I did not show any text messaging on my account for the past 6 billing cycles. So I stated that I use text messaging sporadically. And may not use it for months at a time. But when I do now use it, that portion of my bill will now be 50% higher than it was previously.
-The first represenative I spoke to refused to waive the early termination fee (ETF). So I hung up the phone, and called back again a couple minutes later. This time, the representative offered to waive the ETF after I repeated the above procedure.
Notes:
-I could not get any concessions from the retentions staff on being grandfathered into to the $0.10 per message rate structure.
-They wouldn't give me any money as a service credit on my account to cover the increased cost of the messaging
-They did suggest that I subscribe to a text messaging package. But did note that in my case, this would likely result in an increase in the total cost that I was paying for service since I don't use text messaging for months at a time.
-The rate change from $0.10 to $0.15 per text message appears to further deter users from using the pay per use (PPU) feature. And get them to sign up for an added cost text messaging bundle. Presumably they are hoping that this will raise the average revenue per user (APRU).
-Read the terms of service before you call:
http://www.cingular.com/download/Cingular%20Terms%20of%20Service.pdf
take note of:
"IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY
OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN
YOUR RATE PLAN BROCHURE, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL
AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY
DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE WILL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT
LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR
BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR EQUIPMENT, OR OTHERWISE) AND YOU MAY TERMINATE
THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR
RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE
OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST
BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE."