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trapped by cellphone co. merger

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Tami0507

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Virginia

I have had a contract with my cellphone company for over two years. During that time we added on three additional lines on the family plan. Recently the company I have been doing business with merged with another and they are now operating under the new companies name and policies. My husband recently lost his phone and I went to the Cingular store nearest my home to purchase a new phone. I completely understand that if I want the discount price advertised for new phones I must sign a new contract, so when the service person approached me to offer I assistance, I explained that my husband's phone had been lost and I would like to purchase a new one at full price. I did not want to get a new contract, I was very happy with the plan that we had. The associate then explained that the new company did not have the plan that we were on and that if I wanted a new phone I would have to sign a new contract for a new plan. I told him I thought this was rather bad business because they basically put the customer in a lose-lose situation. Either I sign up for a new plan I don't want which is not in any way competetive with my old plan or I continue to pay for a plan which I am under contract for but can't use because I don't have a phone. I asked the associate if I could then just take my business elsewhere since they could not honor my original contract if I purchased a new phone. He stated that in that case they would have to charge me a 175.00 cancellation fee. Realizing that I really had no options, I purchased a new phone and a new contract. Two weeks later the other two users on the account called the toll free customer service line for our new provider and explained that they were not happy with their options of having to get a new contract at a much higher rate with less minutes if they wanted new phones. The manager they spoke with told them that she would authorize the account to be closed on those two lines without penalty. This week I received a bill from Cingular in the amount of 800.00. They not only charged us 350.00 for cancellation of the two lines, they also charged our entire monthly billing amount of 170.00 to my line since it was the only one left on our old plan. They also charged several miscellaneous fees related to my husbands contract renewall which were not explained to me either. We attempted to contact the customer service person who originally stated she would waive the fee and we were told that she was not authorized to do so. They offerred a goodwill credit of 175.00. I don't feel that is nearly enough "goodwill" seeing as our normal phone bill with all four lines averaged 170.00 monthly. Do we have any recourse or do we have to simply resign ourselves to the fact that there is nothing we can do? Thank you for your help.
 
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