Cingular woes..... - Montana Owners Club

SlickWillie · 03-18-2007, 02:49 PM

A new one for me. My son called me today and said he had a letter from Cingular that they were canceling his contract. Come to find out, if you have 3 consecutive billing cycles with over 50% roaming, they can cancel your service. This is in an area where they sell service, but they have no towers. In other words, you are always roaming. Short story, my phone is at the same address. Wonder when they'll cancel me? Thankfully, I don't have a lot invested in my phone. I suppose this is the new AT&T!

richfaa · 03-18-2007, 03:33 PM

I wonder if that is a local or a regional plan.We have a cingular national plan. Unlimited minutes, no roaming charges 39.99 per month.Same with our verizon aircard.I know that some years ago when we had a regional plan(before we traveled) anytime we got out of our regional area we incurred roaming charges.

illapah · 03-18-2007, 04:43 PM

I looked at Cingular website and coverage area. Saw that if you do use too much time out of the prime area you can loose their service. Only reason I looked is the new iphone from Apple is only Cingular. Makes me glad I have Verizon.

richfaa · 03-18-2007, 06:28 PM

That has to apply to a local or regional plan . We have the National plan so our "prime area" is everywhere..same as the verizon national plan.

SlickWillie · 03-19-2007, 03:10 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by richfaa

That has to apply to a local or regional plan . We have the National plan so our "prime area" is everywhere..same as the verizon national plan.

It has to do with roaming, although you incur no roaming charges. Cingular still has to pay when you are not on their tower. I can understand them not wanting to lose money on service, my real question is why they would sell service in an area that they know they can't service? The area in East TX was formerly AT&T, and Cingular was not allowed to purchase that area.(AT&T sold the tower to Cellular One.) You might want to look at your contract. If you stay in an area for 3 months that is not Cingular, your account can be tagged for termination.

gkbutler · 03-20-2007, 12:30 AM

We have had Cingular for over 15 years and have been in the roaming mode almost continually since we bought our first "bag phone". We have the national plan like Rich and Helen and have had no problems at all. We spend the winter at the one and only spot in SW Florida that is not in the Cingular Network ( you can look at the map and see a little bare spot at Naples,FL) and there is no Cingular Tower near where we spend the summer.

To be honest, we had both Verizon and Cingular many years ago. Karen bought her phone in one area (Cingular), and I bought mine in another (Verizon). Cingular didn't cover the area where I bought my phone (rural vs suburban area). Verizon cancelled me because I didn't make enough calls. Figure that out.

Each phone company has their own idiocincricies (sp?) that are unique to them. We happen to have Cingular and wouldn't have anything else.

sreigle · 03-22-2007, 05:49 AM

We've been roaming for four years with a Cingular phone. We have the Nation Plan where we pay no extra for roaming. They've not canceled us yet. I suppose they like our monthly payment to them. Something sounds strange. What plan did your son have?

The one reason I could see they might do that is if all the roaming is coming from a single area where they do not sell the service (there are some areas where you cannot buy one brand or another). In that case they'd figure he moved to an area they do not service. I don't know if there is a legal question for them about providing a service to a permanent resident in an area they are not licensed to sell. Any chance this might be what happened?

SlickWillie · 03-22-2007, 09:56 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by sreigle

We've been roaming for four years with a Cingular phone. We have the Nation Plan where we pay no extra for roaming. They've not canceled us yet. I suppose they like our monthly payment to them. Something sounds strange. What plan did your son have?

The one reason I could see they might do that is if all the roaming is coming from a single area where they do not sell the service (there are some areas where you cannot buy one brand or another). In that case they'd figure he moved to an area they do not service. I don't know if there is a legal question for them about providing a service to a permanent resident in an area they are not licensed to sell. Any chance this might be what happened?

He lives in our stick house, only a couple miles from where he sold his house. We were both on AT&T before Cingular bought them out. Our area was not allowed to be sold to Cingular by FCC regulations. We wanted to go to Cingular because of other family members on Cingular. No problem. We (both wife and I, and his family) purchased Cingular nationwide plans. He has four phones on his plan, we have just one. There is a store (Cingular) in our area, but the tower that serves us is owned now by Cellular One (purchased from AT&T). I know that when we were at home, the majority of our calls were on the roaming tower, no way around it, as it is within sight of our house. That makes me wonder if they have just started enforcement of the clause in their contract. It's no big deal, as we'll all go to Altel, as they also have a tower near our house. It just xxx me off that they sell plans when they know the address will be in a roaming area. Rant over. Hope it happens to no one else.

DonandJudy_12 · 03-24-2007, 06:49 AM

Can you hear me now? We have been verizon customers for 5 years- Our contract just came due- We have used verizon as our internet and e-mail provider through "quick link mobil" all that time- it is a free service due to an error in the original verizon program- now verizon is ending this perk- my question is " does this constitute breaking our contract by verizon" and what are our options? would appreciate hearing from all who have experienced this difficulty before and what they have done- this problem will not go away unless we are all aware of what is going on- THANKS- Don
P.S. from Judy, I have contacted Sprint and AT&T and they all have the same thing. You purchase a card (that gives you unlimited high speed internet, does not count against your minutes - for $59.99 a month. For those of us on limited income and the idea of it being so high to travel with computers and cell phones, are we spoiled or what, it may not be an option. We will have to use modems and hope to get free wifi someplaces. We were lucky to get on today, as we got new phones, we couldn't get on last night with our new phones and thought they had blocked us out, but they said it was only a matter of time and they would just cut us off. We don't like this at all.

borfaloo · 03-25-2007, 12:39 PM

As I used to work for At&T/ Cingular and later Sprint/ Nextel as a technical support training manager I can give my opinion on these matters ..based on personal experiences so please do not place too much faith in them as things change so rapidly.

1. The Cingular contract cancel may be due to the carrier no longer having any agreement with the other company that was being roamed on ..more likely the other carrier wanted more money per caller when the master contract came up for renewal. Even if you have a national plan the phone company does not like paying for you to use your phone in an area where you are roaming all the time.. They still get charged the cost but bill strip it before it gets to you.

2. The removal of the data plan question ..you say your contract was up ..did you change anything ??? get new phones etc ??? only if you changed anything then the system would probably try to remove the feature you had.If you just went month to month then the system would probably ignore the feature until they ran a cleanup script and it would then go away automatically..You say it was an error that you had the feature in the first place so it probably has no implication contract wise as you should never have had it in the first place.

Hope that made sense

Sean

virgil47 · 03-31-2007, 03:27 PM

When we lived in Atlanta, and had Cingular National, "never any charges for long distance or roaming" service. In retirement we "moved" those cell phones 2 hours north of Atlanta where there was cell coverage but not Cingluar. Cingular never said a word for 2 years. Then we went on a 5 month trip in the Montana and traveled to a lot of places where the cell service was not Cingular. After we returned home, we got a letter from Cingular that said..."you live in an area that is not covered by Cingular servicem we are canceling your service at the end of December. Guess we also cost them money.

I've since got Verizon service and we've been happier with it.

ols1932 · 03-31-2007, 03:51 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by DonandJudy_12

Can you hear me now? We have been verizon customers for 5 years- Our contract just came due- We have used verizon as our internet and e-mail provider through "quick link mobil" all that time- it is a free service due to an error in the original verizon program- now verizon is ending this perk- my question is " does this constitute breaking our contract by verizon" and what are our options? would appreciate hearing from all who have experienced this difficulty before and what they have done- this problem will not go away unless we are all aware of what is going on- THANKS- Don

We've been with Verizon for almost six years and have been using our cell phone for e-mail and internet surfing using Mobile Office kit (cable between phone and PC)with no problems. With three renewals and a change in plan, we've never been told that this method of getting data with our cell phone was going to be stopped. Am I missing something or have I misinterfeted what you said about an error in the original Verizon program?

Orv

Montana Sky · 03-31-2007, 04:11 PM

I have been an AT&T wireless customer since 1995. I was rolled over to Cingular when the two companies merged and am still with them. I bet at least 60% of my monthly phone calls are out of my local calling area. (I do have the nationwide plan) Nobody has ever said anything to me about all the roaming I do in the past 12 years. I wonder what will happen now that AT&T and Cingular are merging; again??

SlickWillie · 05-02-2007, 02:59 AM

Just to follow up on this topic. We returned to East TX to find we had no cellular service. Cingular has shut down roaming for it's customers in this area. (IIRC it effects 8 towers) I was still under contract, but the second individual I spoke with at Cingular was very understanding of our situation, and I switched service to Cellular One of East Texas. No early termination fees at Cingular, and they sent me a code to unlock my phone. I was loaded for bear when I called Cingular, and the first person I spoke with (in India perhaps) wanted to tell me I just had a problem with my phone, but when she transferred me to the tech department, they were aware of the situation. So, I kept the bear shot in the gun, and was very pleased with the outcome. I think they could have handled the roaming problem in a much better manner, but I can see that it was a bad business deal for them.

Chuck and Carol · 05-02-2007, 03:17 AM

I was told last week Verizon is not going to be using the mobile office in a month or so. You have to subscribe to some kind of plan at $59.00 a month. Similiar to an air card. Bummer. I use it when there is service in the area. Our contract is up in July and because of the crudy service we had on this last trip, I may not renew.

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