The Cost of Doing Bu

The Cost of Doing Business

It’s done . My final communication with Cingular was his morning. I sent off my last two payments to Cingular , even though I actually only owed one. There was a clause in the fine print which said if I were to port my number over to a provider other then Cingular, I would have to pay the for the whole month of the billed month regardless of used time.

I was a bit surprised on Saturday when I got a bill in the mail from Cingular for two payments for my cellular service. I sort of expected the one bill for the month of January but was taken a back when I also had a bill for February when I had clearly started my new service with Verizon. I knew then that I was going to get the short end of this deal regardless-that is just the way that it is. I was actually going to pay the portion of the bill for February and quasi contest the remaining amount but not too day. I have been paying on line so I went on line accessed ATT Wireless which is now Cingular and could not find my account. This actually made some kind of sense to me since I had ported my number in February but it also raised the question: what if I was now lost in the huge Cingular system.

So, I made the call and after what seemed an eternity of listening to computerized voices, making selections and being warned that” you call might be monitored for quality control” in two languages I finally ended up with Darren. I mould not tell if Darren was in the United States or some Latin America country. Darren sounded close but that could be just good connections. It was Darren who explained to me the fine print of the contract—that long, multi-folded , front and back printed document which came tucked in with my cellular service, which I have never read nor intend to. If Darren says the clause voiding any hope of partial payment for the month of February is in this mass of words I assumed it is. Darren pulled my account right up and wondered through by life with Cingular and did praise me for always paying my statements on time. When Darren explained the problem and that I would indeed have to pay both months due to the fact that “it’s written in the contract” I thought I detected a little insolence; just an edge “I can do this to you just because I CAN do this too you and I don’t if I might be monitored for quality Control.” I even asked if I could finish off the payment one payment today and the other in to weeks. And Darren graciously said I could but I ended up paying on month on my debit card and the second on my credit card. Thus I am finished. Cingular was not bad work with, actually they treated pretty good except for the ending scene.