tiredtiredtired Posted January 18, 2007 Report Share Posted January 18, 2007 I received a collection letter from an agency representing Cingular Wireless. They say I must respond to them within 30 days (I have writtent them a letter to mail off after I get some advice here).I'll try to make a long story short...Cingular says I owe them money based on a "replacement" phone they sent me becasue the original phone (and coverage in my area, frankly) didn't work. They suggested trying another model of phone. Flash forward two years...I want to close out my contract after the term ended (Oct. 06) and they tell me my contract runs until Feb '07 because I "upgraded" my phone and that extended my contract. WTF! There was no mention of either the phone being considered and upgrade or that it extended the contract. Now they want cash for the "contract termination" and the rest of the contract period. I've called Cingular twice and the dolts that I get on the phone say "they can't do anything about it" and neither can they patch me through to someone who can!My question is: How should I approach this letter to "dispute the validity of the claim," and what if they garnish or want to take me to court in some other jusisdiction other than Maryland or DC? Also do they have jusrisdiction to do such a thing? How could I defend myself if it were issued from a court in Georgia?Thank you.T3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SOC Posted January 18, 2007 Report Share Posted January 18, 2007 do they have your signature on a new contract with the new phone. Otherwise no new contract. verbal contract? only if there was a meeting of the minds. (in wich there obvioulsey was not). So i guess the answer is yes, dispute and demand validation. Court is not an issue, Since they contacted you, they have your addy, so the proof of service would have to come to you. the move venue, or sue. what ever is easier. (I am assuming you are talking about a debt collector since 30 days, as the OC would just send a bill if they thought money was owed.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilli7877 Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 Cinular is horrible when it comes to any common sense. But our contract with them had it on there conserning the phone upgrade. Although I think they are still legally obligated to verbally tell you. They are trying to claim we owe them 1500.00 due to early term. I've tried to despute with collection and never got response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiredtiredtired Posted January 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 Thank you folks!I thought I would try one more time before I sent off my letter. I have already complained to the FTC and FCC.I went to a Cingular store yesterday and spoke to one of the sales people who was very nice. He called the customer service people for me and after standing in their store ranting at this adle-minded CS person for over an hour (I had to repeat the scenario a dozen times, and it sure didn't look good for the custmers in the store) I finally got them to back off their claim. Originally I called them to make a telephopne payment on my bill and then close out my contract with them, but they wouldn't let me do either due to the disputed contract period. (I got them to admit they were wrong!) So I'll see if this works out as they said it would on the phone..Thanks again for the input. I don't need anymore troubles as I'm still in the process of BK chap 7.-T3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHateCAs Posted January 22, 2007 Report Share Posted January 22, 2007 If you already filed for BK7, they shouldn't have attempted collections on that debt. Did you tell your attorney about this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts