Guest Author - Gary King

I urge all Seniors to be very careful of all phone companies offering cellular service. CINGULAR service is being marketed very deceptively and some of their marketing strategies and practices should be checked out and monitored by the FCC and other agencies.

The following incident is TRUE and in this case involves yours truly, who should have known better than to think a company like CINGULAR would live up to their promises.

For all of you out there, be VERY careful of CINGULAR! There are some very deceptive practices taking place.

I have what they call a Talk Tracker account with U.S. Cellular, which is okay and works well. You are not billed and every 60 days you have to pay at least $15.00 to keep the account going and time on it. But it has few other options, like voice mail and all that. So I decided to try a CINGULAR account. I walked into the mall and signed up for an account with them. I bought a Samsung phone for $20.00 and was told I would be billed for activation fees and had approximately 445 minutes of time.

When I left their office, and later tried to make a call, it kept breaking up, the phone did not light up well, and I could not see the display outside. A couple of times and in different locations, I tried to use it again, to no avail. I could not reach anyone.

I even called the TOLL FREE number in the back cover of the phone and talked to Samsung. They told me to check some things, including area coverage.
Since the CINGULAR representative had told me I had 30 days to decide for sure on the account, I returned the phone and all equipment in the box I bought it. So they cancelled my account and told me I would be refunded for the phone, which I turned in. They marked it down as NO SERVICE FOR MY PARTICULAR AREA. IN other words, the phone would not work in the area where I lived and it was not in their coverage area.

Two days ago I received a statement/bill from CINGULAR for $137.74 for the following:

Previous Balance: $90.21
Monthly Service Charge: $39.99
Usage charges: 0.01
Credits/Adjustments/Other Charges: $3.08
Government Fees & Taxes: $4.45
TOTAL CURRENT CHARGES: $47.53
TOTAL AMOUNT DUE: $137.74

When I originally returned the phone and all items, he told me I would receive a refund for the phone I had bought for $20.00. There has been no credit or refund mentioned for that. There is no service for CINGULAR in my area, but they never told me that when I bought it. So now they are billing me for service charges for service I never had, took my phone back but did not refund the money, and now have the gall to bill me.

I am obviously not going to pay this but I wanted all of you to know just how bad things are getting in this nation. We need our legislators, the FCC and others to start checking these companies out and clamping down on activities of this type. CINCULAR should never have sold me service when they knew there was no service in my area.

They may even try to get a crooked lawyer and may go to great steps to collect the money that I really don't owe. And as I live and breathe, I WILL NOT pay this money to them because they misrepresented the service and played dirty pool. I will go to jail before I pay this.

My Talk Tracker account with U.S. Cellular may not have many options but it works well and I have no problems with it. And U.S. Cellular never misrepresented anything with me. They have been good.

Just thought all of you should know and I should have known better. It is really getting bad out there these days. You have to watch every thing any more. I cannot believe CINGULAR can pull something like this and get away with it. The FCC should close them down!

The bottom line is that this is another example of deceptive marketing practices in the United States. And it seems to get worse each day. I am amazed at the lack of attention by legislators and the FCC in matters like this.

What really bothers me is the way all these companies and businesses can do things like this, seemingly at will, and get away with it without someone questioning their motives and their practices. And it makes me wonder just how secure we are when it comes to Homeland Security. Since they cannot seem to monitor and control companies in the United States, how can they control and monitor companies and elements outside of the United States.

But, so it goes, and it makes one wonder why they ever phased out the Pony Express? The Ponies did not eat that much, they were honest, and they earned their keep. And from what I see going on from many businesses in this nation, the Ponies seemed to have more intelligence.