Adventures in Customer Service

Back in October, Cingular accidentally charged me 6 times in one month. I didn't notice because I didn't check my bank account and my phone didn't show a huge surplus of minutes. I noticed it in December and had the bank return all but 5. On December 27 I tried to use my phone and noticed I had no money to use. Apparently on the 23rd, my payment didn't go through and the 4 days grace period passed and I lost my Rollover. We went in to Cingular on Thursday to figure out what's going on. We were on hold for a long time until they were getting close to closing and after all that we only found out who we needed to talk to, a financial specialist.

I went into the bank where my mom works and I called Cingular again. Customer Care sent me to a financial specialist. There was a series of holds and I found out what happened. Cingular was supposed to credit me for those 6 payments and I would get a free month of service for the accident. That credit never came in and the bank told them that. When I returned the payments Cingular thought my account was insufficient or something and they flagged my account. When my December bill went out, Cingular's flag prevented the payment and I lost my service. I got the flag removed and paid my bill so I had service again.

I then wanted to get my Rollover balance because they cancelled it on their flag and not my negligence. They sent me to Customer Care. Keep in mind there are about 10 minute waits in between. Customer Care sent me a number that didn't work so I had to call again. Customer care sent me to the billing department. A guy there couldn't help me so he sent me to his supervisor. After 15 minutes of holding the supervisor said she couldn't help me and Customer Care could. She transferred me to Customer Care and the transfer was unsuccessful so I had to call in again. When I called Customer Care again I asked for a supervisor. She was very helpful and eventually got my balance back.

So I'm back to where I was if it never happened. That took two lousy hours on the phone to get back to where I was. I still promote Cingular because I have a GoPhone and if I was under contract I'm sure they would care more. Well now I'm going to watch my account better so they don't screw me again.