Cancelling a Cingular contract

I've been with Cingular for years.

However lately my reception in central NJ has been pretty spotty. This is usually no problem because I am in Manhattan for most of the year. But all the dropped and missed calls during the summer months is really getting to me.

My contract is up in January. My original contract was up years ago, but I took advantage of one of their promotions and they extended it. I didn't get any new phone through Cingular, so there's no need to subsidize the costs by having me pay a hefty early termination fee.

Is there any way I can terminate the contract early, without paying $150?

I've e-mailed them about the dropped calls, but I haven't gotten any helpful responses. Or attempts to mollify me.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Rich

Is there any way I can terminate the contract early, without paying $150?
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You should have been able to change plans without renewal.

They didn't let me.

Rich

[Joe0378]

No....anytime you renew a price plan or want to take on a new promotion offered by a provider, you are then put into a NEW contract. There is no way around it. If there service is that bad, you can always threaten to call the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Damn. I want to switch to Verizon, too.

Will Verizon buy me out of my contract if I upgrade a current Verizon plan, and add two new lines to it? LOL.

I've discovered that writing a letter to the CEO often gets results. You'd be surprised. A friend who lives in Washington signed up for Voicestream last year. Unfortunately, he happened to be in an area where coverage was poor so he never got a signal. Customer service refused to let him out of his contract without the termination fee so he wrote a letter of complaint to the CEO. Soon afterwards, the CEO's assistant called my friend, admitted that coverage was spotty where he lived, apologized and let him out of his contract. Personally, I recently had a dispute with AT&T Wireless that the customer reps refused to budge on. I wrote to the CEO and I got a call. My advice: write a letter. Be sure to be polite but firm, explain your trouble and include something about how disappointed you are with Cingular's treatment of a long-time customer.

peter

Great. I'm going to do that later tonight. I'll keep you posted on the results.

Thanks!

Rich

[Viper71882]

You said about contacting the CEO, who is the CEO and where would I send the letter, to what address? Any help would be greatly appreciated

[emag0rad]

Originally posted by: Viper71882
You said about contacting the CEO, who is the CEO and where would I send the letter, to what address? Any help would be greatly appreciated

Go to the carrier's web site, all that info will be there. Don't be so lazy, sheesh.

[bobolito]

That's a nice strategy Peter. I hope it works for Rich.

[ZaphodB]

One very important point: if you are going to write to the CEO, make absolutely certain you are professional in tone. What does that mean?

DO provide information about your account, including account number and wireless number.
DO provide one paragraph at the beginning which will stand as an executive summary. Who you are, what you're complaining about, and what exactly you want to have happen.
DO provide all the details you have, including to whom you spoke at Customer Care, when, and what they said.
DO state exactly the resolution you want. Be specific. ("I would like to be able to cancel my current contract with you without paying an early termination fee.")
DO justify why you think the resolution is fair. ("My Cingular Wireless phone receives no signal in my home.")
DO thank the CEO for his/her time and effort. ("Thank you in advance for your time and effort on my behalf. I hope to be able to tell others about the positive experience I had with your office.")
DO provide contact information: e-mail and/or a telephone number, and of course your address up on top in the header.
DO use a spell checker, and make sure you spell things such as "you" out. ("Thank you," not "Thank u").

DO NOT be too wordy. The longer your letter, the less likely it will be read carefully.
DO NOT use words like "sucks". No profanity, either, which includes "hell", "damn", and "bloody".
DO NOT make ad hominem (that means personal) attacks on anyone, including the CSRs who talked to you. ("Mary was a total b*tch on the phone to me.")
DO NOT make allegations for which you have no proof. ("Cingular has the worst coverage ever.")
DO NOT threaten idly. ("If you don't give me what I want, I will make sure your company goes down in flames.")

While this seems obvious to most of us, you would not BELIEVE some of the letters I saw when working as an assistant in a CEO's office.

(Edit: I see the "bullet" feature doesn't work so well.)

Even if you end up waiting out the end of your contract, good luck canceling. I have had a phone through CellularOne and then Cingular since I was 16 (my father's name) and I have had the phone for almost 5 years. I decided that since I was out on my own I would get my own phone. My contract ended on the 17th of this month with Cingular, so I went and got a T-Mobile phone so my boyfriend and I could share minutes. (That is who he has)

My dad called this afternoon and they were pratically begging him not to quit service. Mind you my family has TWO other phones with them, my phone was mere chump change in comparison to how much my mom pays them monthly. (She has a business phone) They wanted to know if my dad knew anyone who wanted the contract and number and stuff. My dad said it was really strange and that he is afraid to ever cancel the others. So if you wait yours out, be prepared for the guilt trip. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[pfp]

Originally posted by: Joe0378
No....anytime you renew a price plan or want to take on a new promotion offered by a provider, you are then put into a NEW contract. There is no way around it. If there service is that bad, you can always threaten to call the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

Not with Cingular. If you want to change price plans with Cingular and they nailed you with an extended contract, it was either before we offered the "Cingular Promise" or you talked to a sheisty Sales Rep in a store who, rather than helping you, was trying to bleed you for commission. Call customer service and ask WHY you were asked to extend your contract when there's the Cingular Promise (which is that you can change price plans, to any current plan, whenever you want, even under contract).

Pat