Canceling Contract - Need help!

[Shiva]

Hello,

I've posted this on the Western states forum as well.

My husband purchased a Digital Advantage plan with AT&T through Circuit City last Thursday. The salesperson was not the best, to say the least. To figure out exactly what his plan entailed I called AT&T Wireless yesterday. Several problems exist, 1) He specifically asked for a one-year contract but was signed up for two years; 2) he wasn't told he would have to pay $4.99 for Nationwide Long Distance; 3) the coverage area for the Regional plan looked sufficient and appeared to cover our home area. This morning before he left the house he thought he'd test the phone first. He dialed our home number only to find out that in order to connect he had to dial "1" and the area code. So, just to call home he has to pay roaming charges at $.69 per minute! He's not happy!!! I've tried to find info on buyer's remorse laws in Oregon but can't find anything related to wireless services and I know the laws vary from state to state. I believe he has 72 hours, but don't know if it applys to everything. I don't believe he should have to pay a cancellation fee for something he didn't ask for and when he was given a map by the retailer that didn't reveal we aren't in the home calling area.

Any suggestions to avoid a cancellation fee and get out of this contract?

Thank you!
Shiva

[jmccrane]

Well, first of all if it was only purchased last Thursday you should still be under the return policy to get out without any problem.

For the 1 year vs. 2 year debate: it's your word against theirs UNLESS you have a written copy of the contract. The lesson is to always get it in writing

Long distance charge: Explain that this wasn't made clear, and ask if you can get free LD. If not, drop the lD (if you can't lose the contract).

As far as the romaing, how do you know your phone is roaming? All the carriers make you dial 10-digits these days, and some make you dial 11 no matter who you're calling. Is that the only indication you have that the phone roams? On the Digital Advantage plan, if you have a signal inside your coverage area, there's no roaming no matter what.

[tarheelfan]

Shiva,

Just go back to CC and cancel. There will be no fee to do so, no explanation required. Every carrier gives at least 14 days to try their service, and I think AT&T gives you 30 days

[Shiva]

Thank you. I will do that.

As for the other response, the message I get is :Welcome to Cellular One. While roaming on our service you must first dial a 1 and then the area code. So, our home is not in the coverage area we signed up for.

Thank you for your help.

Shiva

[tino]

Unless its different in oregon, a regional plan includes free roaming and you have 30 days to cancel service and you only pay for calls placed.....soon they are supposed to change to 15 day return....

[jmccrane]

Originally posted by: Shiva
Thank you. I will do that.

As for the other response, the message I get is :Welcome to Cellular One. While roaming on our service you must first dial a 1 and then the area code. So, our home is not in the coverage area we signed up for.

Thank you for your help.

Shiva

Just to explain for the masses: Sometimes on local plans you will roam on other carriers (AT&T and Cingular roam on each other in PA and DE), but you will nto get charged roaming as long as you are in your coverage area. The carrier knows from where you placed the call, no matter whose network picked it up. Local plans aren't the same as teh quasi-national "network" plans where you have to stay on the carrier's own network.

In other words, it's possible that AT&T has an agreement with CellOne in your area to fill holes in the local coverage area.

[Shiva]

Thank you to everyone for your responses.

We returned the phone at CC with no problems. Cancelling the contract with AT&T was slightly more complicated as they insisted on charging us for the days the "service was available" even if we weren't able to use it. The rep used the analogy of having cable TV service available and not watching it, you'd still be charged for it. My response was that this was an inaccurate analogy. The correct analogy was having cable TV service available but only being able to get Pay-per-view programs. CC came through for us and gave us a cash refund equal to the amount AT&T will charge us for 3 days. AT&T not only lost us as a customer, but at the end of our annual agreement I will be cancelling our corporate analog accounts and transferring over to Verizon, who does have the best coverage in OR.

In response to the replies about the roaming, yes, we would have had to pay roaming charges at $.69 per minute for the Digital Advantage plan just to call our home, we verified that. My husband and I have learned quite a bit about cellular services during the past week. My advice is to call the provider and verify all their statements about "free long distance" "no roaming" and ask plenty of questions about their coverage maps. Neither we nor the salespeople at CC could have been aware that there was no digital service available for our zip code just from looking at the coverage map provided in the AT&T literature or on their website.

So, as the saying goes...buyer beware, and be informed!

Shiva

[tino]

thats why you get the 30 days, for that reason....and yep you gotta pay the prorate after cancelling typically....i would have returned as soon as it didnt provide service to avoid this.....as for picking your next carrier choose one then utilize there trial period to test coverage, there maps will say the same thing as far as what SHOULD be covered but so many factors come into play with where you will actually recieve good signal....good luck