My son made a HUGE mistake! He and his girlfriend both have ATT which became Cingular. He is in college in NH and she is in VA. They talk ALL THE TIME! They average 10 hours/day. Since September, this has not been a problem because they call Mobile to Mobile. As a matter of fact he seldom uses even 20 minutes/month of his 500 minutes.

Anyway, his girlfriend's mother told her that she could only speak to my son for 1 hour/day. So to get around this, they decided he would call her on her dorm room phone. The only problem with this is he kept the same calling patterns. He did not wait to call her until after 9 pm. So we got this month's phone bill for over $3000!!!

I called Cingular and asked for compassion and understanding. His payment history has been perfect. Never late. I brought my pleas up 3 levels to a senior manager. She told me the only thing she could do was forward it to client services. I should call them in 2 weeks to see if they would give us some sort of credit. I'm not holding my breath.

Anybody have any suggestions on how I should proceed? Is there somebody particular I should call?

HELP!! We can't afford $3,000 for a 1 month phone bill.

 

 

damn...

good luck.

 

10 hours a day

 

In all honesty though, the facts are there: The minutes were used. All you can hope for is a nice person to talk to.

 

 

holy crap......i did some crazy shit like that but fuck...not 3k.

 

I hope it gets worked out though, maybe its time for him to get a part time job if he wants to keep those habits up?

 

Yeah, we know. We are not denying the facts. We are just hoping Cingular will show some compassion and understanding and give the kid a break. We'd be happy even if they cut it by 50%.

But I guess my main question is... assuming that Client Services is going to say "sorry there is nothing we can do"... is there one last step I can take? One last person to call or write to? The president of Cingular?

 

Perhaps they can put you on a payment plan to pay over a length of time, but I doubt they will do much for you. Sorry dude.

Time to add her to your account as a family member so calls are free.....

 

Sounds to me like it's time to take away your son's phone and make him pay the bill. That's just totally irresponsible.

 

sounds like you really love your son-- he should be takin care of that

i used to talk to my g/f when i was in vermont and she was in philly-- prob. more like 4 hours a day--- 10 is fuckin crazy

but anyways i had an unlimited plan w/ nextel which at the time was $200 w/ taxes-- while thats a lot, i never got any overages no matter where i was or if i called her cell phone or her dorm room

 

Yeah, I have unlim min with ATT for 85/month.... and i have nextel on seasonal standby 91/month for unlim minutes. its really the way to go.

 

how the hell do you pay so little for unlimited
thats less than half of what i paid!?

 

If you're willing to pay 50%, you might suggest that to them. Give them some options....

 

haha. well the nextel i have with a corporate discount. great deal. the att is normally 99/month but i have a corp discount on that as well. i have a 2nd att line for the same 99/month for unlim minutes that ive been waiting for somebody who wants it to take over...its just sitting on seasonal standby on my account. *hint* if anybody wants it PM me lol

 

might want to offer to extend your contract for 2 more years. seriously, phone companies love to lock people in. i wouldnt even offer 50%, 25 tops. in either case, that is just unhealthy, 10 hours a day.

 

what if the radation from these phones are harmful... hmm 10 hours a day....

i agree with the offering to lock in the contract for a longer period of time.

 

And increasing the plan. See if they are willing to retroactivly change his plan to something that wouldn't be so painful and commit to being on that plan for 2 years. It may still cost you $3K over the 2 years but at least you would have something in return.

 

Damn man that sux i think ur basically FAWKed but i do hope for the best

 

Heres your solution

Make him take out a 3000 student loan. He did it it's his problem he will eventually have to pay for it. Teaches him a good lesson without making him work his ass off when he needs to be doing school work.

P.S. How is he doing school work talking 10 hours a day?

 

the one time I racked up $550 of calls from the Bahamas, I lied and told the lady that I was told the calls counted as "normal" minutes...that was back in 2001, and they believed me and wiped all the charges. That doesn't sound like it will work in this case.

You could tell them you will "up" your plan to a greater level and like others said, extend your contract...they might possibly have some understanding if you take that approach. Even though they take notes on phone calls, keep calling different people if it doesn't work out.

As far as your son goes, forget the money...sit down and talk to him and try to figure out why he is talking to a girl for 600 minutes a day. What the fuck could they possibly talk about. I have spoken to a girl for 2-3 hours a day for about a three weeks, and half the time was spent with verbalized pauses and not knowing what to say. YOu might also want to tell him to get out more, odds are he is not awake more than 16 hours a day, which means about 60-70% of his day is spent on the phone with this girl. Which with classes and schoolwork, can't leave time for any other social interaction, which is not what college is about.

 

Man...thats crazy, but it doesnt make sense to me. I thought all mobile providers include free nights and weekends in their packages? Your only realistic option is to PGA said... and take away the phone, and have him buy calling cards...he'll be talking to that chick no more than an hour.

 

Other has mentioned upping the level of the plan. Tmobile had allowed a friend of mine to do that when he drasticallywent over his minutes. You could ask them if you can bump up to their $250 plan which is 6000 minutes, and then just pay for the extra 4000 minutes.

 

Oh, also, how long have you bee a customer with cingular? If it has been a long time you may have a better chance at getting some help from them. if its only been a short amount of time, i doubt they will help you much

 

Yeah, how is he doing? I barely have time for anything with my work load from UMich.... 10 hours a day would clearly give me a 0.0gpa

 

Thanks for the replies. Some helpful, some not.

First, he knows he made a mistake. For 8 months, there was not a problem because he and his girlfriend were talking mobile to mobile. But her parents told her she was only allowed to talk to him 1 hour/day. So to get around having her parents seeing her minutes, they decided that he would call her dorm phone. Problem is, they forgot that this was not FREE!.

He pays his own phone bill and he WILL pay this one. I am just trying to minimize the damage for him. Right now, he knows that he will be working full time this summer to pay off this bill.

He is doing well at school 3.0 gpa. That is why we haven't been on him so hard about the minutes. As a matter of fact, she has actually been a positive influence on him with regards to school work. She keeps him to task.

I'll give them a week before I call back to see what they will do. I will consider the option of upping his plan. I also mentioned to them that our other cell phone contract expires this summer (Verizon). If Cingular helps us out, we would definitely change our other 4 phones to Cingular.

One thing that bothers me. If your Credit Card has "unusual activity" the credit card company will call you. Why don't the cell phone companies do this? Probably because we are only liable for $50 of unauthorized credit card charges, but we are responsible for all of our phone usage.

Anyway, thanks for the input. It is a hard lesson for him to learn. It could be worse, she could be pregnant!!!

 

It is definitely a hard lesson learned, but they should be understanding of your situation. Definitely negotiate with them and tell them that you'll extend your contract and up the plan. If they don't help you out, I say leave them and go with a different carrier after you pay it off. I mean, how can running your cell bill to $3000 not justify a big mistake. Well, good luck with this and I hope things work out. Even half that would be much better though $1500 is still crazy.

 

It is a hard lesson learnt, but at least he did learn one. I hope that cingular will help you guys out. Good luck and deffinately let us know what happens.

 

erase your son. He never existed. Move to (insert third world country here) for 7 years. Then you're good to go

-Alex

 

10 hours a day is just sick. You simply run out of things to say after a few hours. Tell your son to drop the bitch and go find some campus pussy.

 

I would have said the same thing, but he says, "He is doing well at school 3.0 gpa. That is why we haven't been on him so hard about the minutes. As a matter of fact, she has actually been a positive influence on him with regards to school work. She keeps him to task."

I'm not exactly sure how many parents also encourage sex

 

 

But he called her before 9 and From a Dorm room phone, so it wasnt free mobile to mobile

 

deyummm, i think ur basiacally screwed on that one. i suggest your son get a job and quick

 

I don't understand why you think Cingular should do anything.

There is no dispute your son ran up the bill, so why not just pay your debt?

 

wow thats insane, hope everything works out

 

Exactly what I say to my customers, they come in and yell at me and say how they hate there plan etc, and than I look up there balance and activity, and Ask them did u call this number? did u text here? and they are all "YES I DID BUT.."

But what, you used it than pay it, they start talking shit about all the companies, thats a reason why Sprint has bad rep, everyone around my area qualifies for it, gets it, than goes over, never pays there bill, and hates it

In your case yes I understand its different, and you have been with them for a while, I feel for you, maybe you could ask them to do some type of payment plan for you, do they expect u to chalk up $3k in 30 days? THATS CRAZY!

 

He already has a job lined up this summer when he gets back from college. He is actually interviewing today for another job that hopefully will pay more.

He has worked since he was 16 and has maintained a 3.0 gpa and higher in college and HS. He is a good kid, who forgot about the "rules" of his cell phone plan.

 

Correct there is no dispute he made the calls and the bill is legit.

We are just hoping Cingular will be a little understanding that it was a 19 year old kid who made a mistake 1 month.

In the end, if they can't adjust this bill a little (10%?, 25%, 50%), whatever, he will pay it off. He has already learned a huge lesson. He is a responsible kid who knows that he is accountable for his actions. But hey, it never hurts to see if we can reduce the sting a little bit.