FV<K YOU Cingular wireless UPDATE!!!!!

[MommysLittleMonster]

Last night, I tried to pay my first cingular bill (switched over from TMobile) in the amount of $98.17. First of all, I noticed that their website is unusually slow. I first tried to pay the amount online in the form of a debit/credit card transaction. After waiting about 5 minutes which is unusual for an online transaction to complete, I cancelled it and attempted to make the payment again in the form of an electronic check. Again, this took 5 or more minutes. I cancelled that. I then checked my payment history and it showed two $98.17 payments. Amazed and pissed off, I called cingular first thing this morning. I told them I only wanted to make my on-time payment of $98.17 and not anything more. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it and the 2nd payment could not be reversed and the extra $98.17 would be credited to my account for following month's bills. I then told them that there would not be enough money in my checking account and I would be charged a $32 overdraft fee from my bank. They said there was nothing they can do.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone/has anyone worked for cingular and can they tell me anything about this policy? This just seems very deceiving and I cannot accept the fact that they cant do anything about this.

Any merchant who can accept a debit/credit payment has the ability to reverse or void a payment.

I am a few minutes away from calling them up again and really b!tching them out!

:|

**********************

I just called them again and told another woman the situation, and in a matter of seconds she reversed one payment. No questions asked. WTF!!!??? Earlier they made it apparent that there was absolutly nothing that could be done, even a manager said this to me.

:Q
**********************

 

[dabuddha]

All cell phone companies suck.

 

[Hammer]

never ever pay with a debit card. if it was a CC, you could have called them and had them issue a chargeback.

 

[tfinch2]

WAH WAH WAH That'll teach you to keep less than $100 in the bank account to pay bills with.

 

[RagingBITCH]

So you submitted it twice b/c you had a bad hop to their site?

 

[SouthPaW1227]

I tried Cingular for 15 days and HATED it, receiption was horrible here. Said "goodbye" ASAP. The only good thing about Cingular is their HOT phones

 

[KeyserSoze]

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
Last night, I tried to pay my first cingular bill (switched over from TMobile) in the amount of $98.17. First of all, I noticed that their website is unusually slow. I first tried to pay the amount online in the form of a debit/credit card transaction. After waiting about 5 minutes which is unusual for an online transaction to complete, I cancelled it and attempted to make the payment again in the form of an electronic check. Again, this took 5 or more minutes. I cancelled that. I then checked my payment history and it showed two $98.17 payments. Amazed and pissed off, I called cingular first thing this morning. I told them I only wanted to make my on-time payment of $98.17 and not anything more. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it and the 2nd payment could not be reversed and the extra $98.17 would be credited to my account for following month's bills. I then told them that there would not be enough money in my checking account and I would be charged a $32 overdraft fee from my bank. They said there was nothing they can do.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone/has anyone worked for cingular and can they tell me anything about this policy? This just seems very deceiving and I cannot accept the fact that they cant do anything about this.

Any merchant who can accept a debit/credit payment has the ability to reverse or void a payment.

I am a few minutes away from calling them up again and really b!tching them out!

:|

Woah, that does suck. If I were you, I'd try to call and talk to a manager about this. This is one of those things they can definitely easily do. Can you call your Debit Card authorizer (Visa/MC, etc) and have them deal with this? I can tell you that you need to make the calls quickly for a debit card. Heck, even call your bank and explain. My bank has helped me out twice, cuz I'm usually friendly with them and talk to them a lot when I go in there. So, try something quick.



KS

 

[optoman]

They should be able to reverse it but it might take 3-5 business days. I work for VZW and we are able to reverst payments but it will probably go thru and then can be reversed.

Should have gone with Verizon.

 

[MommysLittleMonster]

Originally posted by: KeyserSoze

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
Last night, I tried to pay my first cingular bill (switched over from TMobile) in the amount of $98.17. First of all, I noticed that their website is unusually slow. I first tried to pay the amount online in the form of a debit/credit card transaction. After waiting about 5 minutes which is unusual for an online transaction to complete, I cancelled it and attempted to make the payment again in the form of an electronic check. Again, this took 5 or more minutes. I cancelled that. I then checked my payment history and it showed two $98.17 payments. Amazed and pissed off, I called cingular first thing this morning. I told them I only wanted to make my on-time payment of $98.17 and not anything more. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it and the 2nd payment could not be reversed and the extra $98.17 would be credited to my account for following month's bills. I then told them that there would not be enough money in my checking account and I would be charged a $32 overdraft fee from my bank. They said there was nothing they can do.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone/has anyone worked for cingular and can they tell me anything about this policy? This just seems very deceiving and I cannot accept the fact that they cant do anything about this.

Any merchant who can accept a debit/credit payment has the ability to reverse or void a payment.

I am a few minutes away from calling them up again and really b!tching them out!

:|

Woah, that does suck. If I were you, I'd try to call and talk to a manager about this. This is one of those things they can definitely easily do. Can you call your Debit Card authorizer (Visa/MC, etc) and have them deal with this? I can tell you that you need to make the calls quickly for a debit card. Heck, even call your bank and explain. My bank has helped me out twice, cuz I'm usually friendly with them and talk to them a lot when I go in there. So, try something quick.



KS

I was thinking about going to my bank and talking to someone there to put a stop payment on the 2nd cingular payment. The normal rate for a stop payment is $32, but fees are often waived for customers. But that would be my last option. I refuse to believe that cingular cannot fix this.

 

[yukichigai]

My folks are currently on a family plan with Cingular, having migrated their phones from AT&T. In retrospect I think this was a bad idea. While they did get some new phones and a rather nice group minutes plan, getting charged for things like incoming text messages is just downright evil. Fortunately for me, my phone is still on AT&T since Cingular doesn't offer Dual Network (GSM and TMDA/CDMA combined) service anymore. While it's pricey for just one phone ($60/mo because of Nationwide) I get reception everywhere, and don't get dinged for anything incoming.

I do carry both my AT&T phone and the Cingular one, though. But yeah, unless you're getting some really good family plan deal Cingular just doesn't seem worth it at all.

 

[Bryophyte]

Your bank might forgive the overdraft fee if you have never bounced a check before. In the future, if you try to pay a bill online and get hung up like that, check your payment history before you try a second time.

 

[Shanteli]

I changed a few months ago and guess what they automatically tagged on a $2.50 charge for roadside assistance...so look at your statement for this...I called and complained but they of course said they could not reverse any of those charges. Regular runaround. I changed from Verizon and am kinda disappointed...cuz I did it all to get a Nokia 6230 which I am happy with but not "that" happy. Oh well...live and learn...they suck.

 

[Kelemvor]

Call the bank and have them reject it. If you tell them ahead of time they might be able to not charge you....

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
Last night, I tried to pay my first cingular bill (switched over from TMobile) in the amount of $98.17. First of all, I noticed that their website is unusually slow. I first tried to pay the amount online in the form of a debit/credit card transaction. After waiting about 5 minutes which is unusual for an online transaction to complete, I cancelled it and attempted to make the payment again in the form of an electronic check. Again, this took 5 or more minutes. I cancelled that. I then checked my payment history and it showed two $98.17 payments. Amazed and pissed off, I called cingular first thing this morning. I told them I only wanted to make my on-time payment of $98.17 and not anything more. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it and the 2nd payment could not be reversed and the extra $98.17 would be credited to my account for following month's bills. I then told them that there would not be enough money in my checking account and I would be charged a $32 overdraft fee from my bank. They said there was nothing they can do.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone/has anyone worked for cingular and can they tell me anything about this policy? This just seems very deceiving and I cannot accept the fact that they cant do anything about this.

Any merchant who can accept a debit/credit payment has the ability to reverse or void a payment.

I am a few minutes away from calling them up again and really b!tching them out!

:|

Call your bank and dispute the debit/credit card transaction.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

They can still debit it back to your card.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: KeyserSoze

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
Last night, I tried to pay my first cingular bill (switched over from TMobile) in the amount of $98.17. First of all, I noticed that their website is unusually slow. I first tried to pay the amount online in the form of a debit/credit card transaction. After waiting about 5 minutes which is unusual for an online transaction to complete, I cancelled it and attempted to make the payment again in the form of an electronic check. Again, this took 5 or more minutes. I cancelled that. I then checked my payment history and it showed two $98.17 payments. Amazed and pissed off, I called cingular first thing this morning. I told them I only wanted to make my on-time payment of $98.17 and not anything more. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it and the 2nd payment could not be reversed and the extra $98.17 would be credited to my account for following month's bills. I then told them that there would not be enough money in my checking account and I would be charged a $32 overdraft fee from my bank. They said there was nothing they can do.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone/has anyone worked for cingular and can they tell me anything about this policy? This just seems very deceiving and I cannot accept the fact that they cant do anything about this.

Any merchant who can accept a debit/credit payment has the ability to reverse or void a payment.

I am a few minutes away from calling them up again and really b!tching them out!

:|

Woah, that does suck. If I were you, I'd try to call and talk to a manager about this. This is one of those things they can definitely easily do. Can you call your Debit Card authorizer (Visa/MC, etc) and have them deal with this? I can tell you that you need to make the calls quickly for a debit card. Heck, even call your bank and explain. My bank has helped me out twice, cuz I'm usually friendly with them and talk to them a lot when I go in there. So, try something quick.



KS

If it's against company policy to do, they need to stick to their company policy. They shouldn't *HAVE* that kind of policy in the first place, but then again it probably covers bonehead conartists who make a payment to keep their account going, then call and say "oops gimme it back" or some stupid crap.

If they *do* have this company policy, they should have a clause in the policy for folks who make duplicate payments by mistake within a reasonable period of time.

Either way, I would have waited after "failing" with the debit/credit card. Maybe wait a few days to see if the transaction went through.

 

[Reckoner]

Calling Cingular is worse than pulling teeth. They tried to back out of a phone deal they offered for switching from AT&T to them.

 

[cliftonite]

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
Last night, I tried to pay my first cingular bill (switched over from TMobile) in the amount of $98.17. First of all, I noticed that their website is unusually slow. I first tried to pay the amount online in the form of a debit/credit card transaction. After waiting about 5 minutes which is unusual for an online transaction to complete, I cancelled it and attempted to make the payment again in the form of an electronic check. Again, this took 5 or more minutes. I cancelled that. I then checked my payment history and it showed two $98.17 payments. Amazed and pissed off, I called cingular first thing this morning. I told them I only wanted to make my on-time payment of $98.17 and not anything more. They told me that there was nothing they could do about it and the 2nd payment could not be reversed and the extra $98.17 would be credited to my account for following month's bills. I then told them that there would not be enough money in my checking account and I would be charged a $32 overdraft fee from my bank. They said there was nothing they can do.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Does anyone/has anyone worked for cingular and can they tell me anything about this policy? This just seems very deceiving and I cannot accept the fact that they cant do anything about this.

Any merchant who can accept a debit/credit payment has the ability to reverse or void a payment.

I am a few minutes away from calling them up again and really b!tching them out!

:|

**********************

I just called them again and told another woman the situation, and in a matter of seconds she reversed one payment. No questions asked. WTF!!!??? Earlier they made it apparent that there was absolutly nothing that could be done, even a manager said this to me.

:Q
**********************

Maybe she didnt know what she was doing and charged you another 100 dollars :Q

 

[sixone]

Cingular strikes again. If they don't already have their hooks in you, stay well clear.

EDIT: Oh, yeah - told you so.

 

[her209]

Sprint PCS rocks. I just go into the store, punch my cell number, and insert my bills into the machine. Done!

 

[Krk3561]

T-Mobile has the best customer service.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
**********************

I just called them again and told another woman the situation, and in a matter of seconds she reversed one payment. No questions asked. WTF!!!??? Earlier they made it apparent that there was absolutly nothing that could be done, even a manager said this to me.

:Q
**********************

Right. They have a system that can handle the task, but it's against company policy to perform for whatever overzealous security reasons. The woman who did it for you broke the rules for you. Probably risking her job to do it, too. Hope it was worth it.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
My folks are currently on a family plan with Cingular, having migrated their phones from AT&T. In retrospect I think this was a bad idea. While they did get some new phones and a rather nice group minutes plan, getting charged for things like incoming text messages is just downright evil. Fortunately for me, my phone is still on AT&T since Cingular doesn't offer Dual Network (GSM and TMDA/CDMA combined) service anymore. While it's pricey for just one phone ($60/mo because of Nationwide) I get reception everywhere, and don't get dinged for anything incoming.

I do carry both my AT&T phone and the Cingular one, though. But yeah, unless you're getting some really good family plan deal Cingular just doesn't seem worth it at all.

Sorta the same reason why I stuck with AT&T. dabuddha likes his 7PM nights

 

[AtlantaBob]

They're evil. Cingular is pure, pure evil.

That being said, demand that you speak to someone in the "Office of the President" -- they're the slightly more competent and easy to deal with customer service people. They should be able to help you out.

(Demand a couple of month's free service, too--are you still within the buyer's remorse opt-out-of-contract period?)

 

[AmigaMan]

Originally posted by: Nik

Originally posted by: MommysLittleMonster
**********************

I just called them again and told another woman the situation, and in a matter of seconds she reversed one payment. No questions asked. WTF!!!??? Earlier they made it apparent that there was absolutly nothing that could be done, even a manager said this to me.

:Q
**********************

Right. They have a system that can handle the task, but it's against company policy to perform for whatever overzealous security reasons. The woman who did it for you broke the rules for you. Probably risking her job to do it, too. Hope it was worth it.

Unless you work for Cingular, you don't know that Nik. I doubt the CSR was risking her job to do this.