A consumer watchdog group is suing three of the nation�s top wireless companies over an alleged “handset-locking” scheme designed to prevent customers from switching companies.
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights group filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against T-Mobile, AT&T and Cingular, alleging the companies insert software in the phones they sell that disable the handsets from being used on competing systems.
According to the lawsuit, mobile phones sold by T-Mobile, AT&T and Cingular are designed to allow users to swap a chip inside their phone that identifies them as a customer of a particular network. Consumers that want to take advantage of the Federal Communications Commission’s recent “number portability” rule by going to another company and keeping the same phone number would also be able to keep their phones under this built-in technology.
However, the complaint alleges that the three wireless companies have inserted software inside the phones they sell to prevent such interchangeability. Thus, a dissatisfied customer of one company must be willing to buy a new phone in order to change carriers, FTCR said in a statement. The result, the consumer group said, is that many consumers are forced to stay with a wireless company whose service they find unsatisfactory, competition is frustrated, and usable phones clog our landfills.
“Like the ‘early termination fees’ that cell phone companies charge dissatisfied customers, this handset locking scheme is designed to force unhappy consumers to stay with a cell phone company no matter how poor the service is,” said consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield, FTCR’s co-counsel.
Last October, FTCR sued Nextel for charging its customers $2.50 to get a fully itemized bill, which it contends, makes it nearly impossible for consumers to determine if they are being billed correctly.
“Indeed, the new policy made it nearly impossible for Nextel customers to detect charges for four phony text messages Nextel transmitted to every California customer that month,” FTCR said in a statement.
The FTCR lawsuits are brought under California’s powerful consumer protection statute known as the Unfair Competition Law that law authorizes members of the public to challenge illegal or unfair practices.
{ 42 comments }
T-Mobile will release the unlock code if a customer calls and asks for it, then the phone can be used with any other company’s SIM card.
I recently won a brand new blackberry locked to the AT&T service, and since I personally have cingular, my new blackberry is a $400 paperweight. This issue upsets me. Any thoughts?
It’s time to go after Cingular. In WA state, Communications complaints are the number on issue, cell phone service leading the pack.
Cingular has lost big in CA, and it’s time to start a seeries of class action and Attys Gen actions across the country.
Stand up for your self! Prepare a complaint, file a small claims action, call or write the President of Cingular.
Phone the Office of The President@
1-866-894-2464
I bought a Treo 600 with AT&T service. The folks at Cingular will not support this phone as of January 2005. They tell me I must buy a Cingular phone to use their service. Verizon?…can YOU hear ME now?
This is incorrect. T-Mobile will NOT unlock any PDA/cellphone unless you are a T-Mobile customer for 90 days, and provide proof that you paid full retail price for your PDA by faxing in your receipt. This is in addition to providing them Part##, SN#, EMEI#, in addition to your T-Mobile account #, and last 4 of your SSN#!
What compounds this issue further is that people who can’t be T-Mobile customers (due to location) can’t unlock their PDA/cellphone unless they pay a service contract for a minimum of 90 days – yet these don’t exist – the minimum is a yearly contract, with exorbitant early cancellation fees.
This is still going on.
During the AT&T/Cingular changeover, we wanted to upgrade our tdma phones to gsm. However, since service was still at&t, we wanted to be sure our phones would switch over. We bought our phones through at&t’s 800#, after assurances, that all they would require was a new sim card from cingular. WRONG. They are locked to AT&T, and when you call customer service to have them unlocked, at first the guy was going to give me the code to do so, then stated that his floor supervisor said that they are not allowed to give that code out. They flat out lied to me. I never would have bought these 2 phones at the time I did if I knew that a month later they would be obselete.
You can cheaply, sometimes for free, get unlock codes for your phone. Google “cell phone unlock codes” to find websites that provide this service. The technologies companies use in these situations can almost always be easily circumvented. Unfortunately, it’s usually only the techno-savvy that have the understanding or access to do so.
Be careful every one who had bought a unlocked phone. for when you place an AT&T sim card you could be locking your phone automatically.
Yes that happened to me , I unlocked a HP iPAQ H6315 POCKET PC form t-mobile and when I placed my AT&T sim card it was working fine but then when I migrate to Cingular, the phone said that was locked, some how AT&T locked my phone wirelessly, I don’t know about Cingular but AT&T is doing this.
i am getting a unlocked nextel motorola i730 w no sim card from a wholesale warehouse can i use cingular’s sim card and their service?
Thanks
HELP!! I cancelled my Verizon Wireless plan (LIKE AN IDIOT!!) and signed up for Cingular’s “Family Share” plan. I have a disabled daughter who is attending a special school about 3 hours from where I am living and we wanted to keep in touch without having to monitor our minutes spent talking to each other. About 4 days after activating my phone, Cingular started having problems getting my phone to receive phone calls and after more than 3 days and COUNTLESS hours on the phone (including using up expensive minutes on my boyfriend’s cell phone during peak hours), speaking to at least 20 different reps, supervisors, technical support reps and their supervisors, I had no other choice but to cancel the service and return the phones. My daughter’s phone was received by Cingular within 30 days of activation and my phone was received by Cingular just over 30 days after the phone was activated. Mind you…. I HAD to seek other wireless service because Cingular and all their technical support supervisors could not get my phone to RECEIVE calls after 4 days of trying countless tasks to get it to do so. Without sending me a final bill, Cingular sent me a letter without a detailed bill attached and it said to pay $77.00 immediately or my account would be turned over to collections. After calling and the rep assuring me (after reading my account history problems) that it was an error and that my account would be credited and a detailed bill sent out, I got another bill a little over a week later for over $657!!!!! After speaking to a supervisor, he said he’d take off $240 for my daughter’s phone which was returned within 30 days but my phone was not returned within the time required by the contract. After pleading with the supervisor and reminding him that I only cancelled because Cingular couldn’t configure my phone so that it would ring, he replied ” Read your contract! We do not guarantee anyone that they will be able to receive phone calls but we do require that that accounts be cancelled within 30 days and phones be returned within 30 days or early termination/liquidation charges will incur”!
My phone worked fine for the first 3 or 4 days after activation! It wasn’t my fault that Cingular couldn’t get their tower to download information so that my phone could work properly (the excuse the technicians kept giving me when they couldn’t get my phone to ring) !
CAN ANYBODY HELP ME?
Thanks!
I had to get my friend who is a T-Mobile customer to buy the HP6315 for me. I am getting my Razor unlocked for her from Cingular. We were told that using the code would fry the SIM card by Cingular and the floor Supervisor told the technician that it wasn’t possible. They changed their story once I asked to have it sent to me in writing that they were not able to do this service. T-mobile was a little more easy to make the request from but don’t try to get it done unless you know someone with a t-mobile account. They will send you to the “hold Please, Limbo land” for hours. Try searching the wireless sites for an unlock code or any mention of the practice and you get nothing. Europeans really laugh at us over this one.
I was customer for 8 years with Cingular. I was treating with lack of respect from Cingular by overcharging “My Bills and Getting Usedless Cell Phones”.And now AT&T Is Cingular. How Can I get out of “My ‘early termination fees’ Without Being Charge” From AT&T/Cingular? Thankyou and I am hope to hear from awesome LawFirm………..
No carrier to my knowledge will unlock a phone you received a discount on, because they paid the difference for you when you got the phone. If you want the unlock codes, look for them on the internet. No representative, supervisor, manager, whatever even HAS them, so don’t bother wasting your time on the phone with customer care.
I was a t-mobile customer for a good four years – on the least expensive plan, that was. When my first and only phone (Motorola) finally began to go, meaning, that the display became illegible and the batteries held charge for only 1 phone call, I tried to get a new phone at a reasonable price which I was denied by t-mobile. Reasoning: my cheap plan. O.K. – just never mind that the phone, which I needed for business did NOT WORK where I needed it most due to a lack of towers. Since I hardly ever used my 60 minutes, I decided to go pre-paid, thus getting a new phone reasonably, cutting out one monthly bill and believing, that I would be able to use the phone on 2 continents. Suddenly I was offered a new phone for a reasonable price if I renewed my contract for another year. I declined and purchased the pay-as-you-go kit. When I tried to get my phone unlocked so I could use it in Europe in case my mother would fall sick and I would get stuck aboard airplanes for hours on end AGAIN, trying to get to Germany (or back to N.Y.), t-mobile refused because “I wasn’t a customer for 3 months yet!!!” I returned the phone and am still without one right now. I am fed up with the tactics of ALL phone carriers and just purchased an unlocked phone, so I do not depend upon their mercy even though I’ll probably end up with t-mobile anyway. But I am also concerned about the waste of still perfectly good phones only because we cannot carry the equipment over to another carrier.
And the lies and run-about I got from t-mobile when tying to get the phone unlocked were really disgusting.
I never would have known about “locked” and “unlocked” if it had not been for the stupid and stubborn behaviour on t-mobiles side(which made me surf the net)and the fact that two years in a row every time I flew to Germany, I had problems with my flights – stuck in Amsterdam, stuck aboard the planes – and no phone to tell the party which awaited me, that I would be delayed. I did write a letter of complaint to t-mobile. To no avail – naturally.
I recently have gone through Cingular hell. I had a contract with AT&T that expires May 05, Cingular takes over and my service turns to garbage. Dropped calls, a constant humm in my phone, no raising of the bars at all. I switched to T-mobile, had my numbers switched over and just got a bill from Cingular for over $400. I have called and complained but to no avail. How can I get out of these charges. Will filing a complaint to the FCC help? Thanks!
HOLY KRAP, Batman!
I knew a bit about the class action against CingATT-BUT after reading this, I am concerned and confused. I WAS a satisfied T-MOBILE customer-no signal outside of BRouge capitol of LA-had to go with Cing-I received a bill for almost $200 after getting two phones in two weeks-dropped calls, static, the usual. (I was never in Dallas or NO during this period; was burying my mother and having an estate sale…yeah, I need this after my loss, 2000 mile move, blah, blah… Let’s start ANOTHER class action-complaint of course being re-written for some other consumers rights violations. Any attorneys out there? I was a paralegal in my former life; will assist where I can. Louisiana Anna
T-Mobile does NOT require any kind of proof of purchase price for an unlock. They will unlock 1 phone per line, every 90 days… at no cost, no hassle!
I recently was told of a hidden disclaimer by T-Mobile concerning a free replacement phone. According to the plan a person is untitled to one free replacement phone when one is lost. When I tried to order my new phone I was told that I could get it with a $20.00 rebate if i renewed my contract for 12 months starting today. My contract would be up in December so in oreder to get the free phone I am entitled to I have to renew my contract for six additional months. This is outrageous.
I also fully agree. I always have to fly to Europe (germany and more east) in order to get my cell phone unblocked for about $10. Also problem is that many (ie: all) US companies DON’T use SIMM card, only T-Mobile, which then makes it easy to switch different cellphone models. And don’t use NexTel – they are the MOST expencive mobile carrier in the USA. Just to connect form EU to USA they charge $150 fee on top of like several dollars per minute! T-Mobile and AT&T is 100x cheaper in this matter! I can’t wait for decent cellphone VoIP to send all these telcos to hell.
We live in Canada. I bought a supposedly UNLOCKED Blackberry on eBay. It wasn’t unlocked. The seller refused to get an unlock code and so does T-mobile. T-mobile does not even operate up here. I now own this phone, it isn’t new, it wasn’t stolen, I bought it and paid for it. In my opinion T-mobile has no ground or rights to prevent me from using it, especially up here in Canada. How can I more effectively make them reconsider their position? Any suggestions?
Regards,
Andreas
yeah i have a prepaid cingular. Cingular won’t even let me switch my area code when i move from a different area code. they want me to buy a new sim card. Can I sue them for that. on the other hand T-mobile they let you switch to any area code.
I am battling with Cingular now. I signed up with AT&T in December 2003 with a two year contract. Completely happy until Cingular took over. I was told I could stay with my AT&T plan as long as I liked and did not have to switch over. Now, they will not provide me phones that I can use with this account, said they do not carry them anymore and suggested I switch over to Cingular, and also will not let me add another line on my family share plan which states I can add up to four lines. I requested to terminate the account and them waive the early termination fee since they cannot provide the service my plan is supposed to have, and they are refusing. Is there anything I can do about this. Thanks.
Hi everyone,
I have a similiar the same problem as Darlene Dehart, but I am not suing Cingular. I was ordered to switch from AT&T to Cingular due to the merge. However, this is not really what Cingualr requested. It’s the distributor/shop who just wanted to make money out from custormer. I was told if I am not switching over, my AT&T sim card would no longer work. They only give me 18 hours to think about in which I have no way to make sur this is true or scam. If anyone have the same problem with me and wanted to sue your distributor, contact Asian Law Caucus. They are professional and licensed lawyers in San Francisco. I am currently under their roof. Good luck to you all.
I am currently fighting cingular because after I was forced to switch to cingular (which I had to pay off my at&t bill at the time) things were fine, last week they disconnected my service with no warning, after checking into it, they said I had a 56.00 bill with at&t (which I never recieved) and directed me to at&t to pay it, after being run around in the system for 2 hours I got nowhere. next day I get a bill from a collection agentcy. I call them up and pay the stupid 56.00 because I need a phone. (I find this interesting since my bill had to be payed in full to switch and even if it was prorated my entire monthly rate after fees was only 48.00) and the girl took my payment and said that 1000′S of people have had the same problem of bills and disconnection with no warning. this is all fine and dandy, i just want to get on with my life… she gives me a confirmation number and im on my way, when i call cingular, (after an hour of being on hold and redirected) they inform me it could take 3-4 weeks to turn my phone on. this is unbelievable. i miss at&t with all my heart… they had their problems but atleast they were not completely evil.
I’ve had ATT’s FreeToGo cellular system since summer ‘04. It is now run by Cingular. I lost my Nokia phone yesterday, and now Cingular will not sell me a new phone for this plan. The best they could do was offer to tansfer my balance ($41.00) to the Cingular PayASYou Go system, and sell me a new phone – the cheapest being a Nokia for $120.00 (plus extras)!
I’ve had ATT’s FreeToGo cellular system since summer ‘04. It is now run by Cingular. I lost my Nokia phone yesterday, and now Cingular will not sell me a new phone for this plan. The best they could do was offer to tansfer my balance ($41.00) to the Cingular PayASYou Go system, and sell me a new phone – the cheapest being a Nokia for $120.00 (plus extras)!
I recently purchased a Blackberry PDA Cell phone with an AT&T sim. I am already a Cingular/AT&T customer and since Cingular and AT&T mergerd this phone should be no problem to sign on to Cingular. No go. Cingular will not allow or even help me for that matter. They will not set up an AT&T account or help me to use this phone. Note: Cingular and AT&T was not a merge as explained. It was a take over and any and all AT&T customers beware.
Cingular / KIC has a new ripoff scheme for pre-paid refill cards -
When youre in line at the store, you’ll see prepaid phone cards. The hanging cards have two parts, the upper part, that is torn off and thrown away, and the Wallet Card, that contains the refill PIN.
Cingular (and maybe others) have moved the refill PIN off the wallet card, and on to the throwaway portion of the hanging display.
Cingular has refused to respond. Care to join me?
I had switch to T-mobile a couple of months ago from at&T. I had 15 days left on my contract when I canceled my service with at&T in which cingular had already taken over. I was charge the full 175.00 plus other charges that amount to $361 for switching over from cingular. Then a month later there was a bill for zero amount thought I was all paid up and just recieved a bill for $96. what happened was they prorated my monthy $39.00 bill and prorated my minutes as well in which forced overage on my minutes. that made me mad as H$!! . so I asked them to charge me the full amount for that month but some how they worked it so it came out to the amount of $96.00 so they broke that down one item was taxes on the $175.00 for cancelation two months prior- I am unable to look at my itemized bill – because my service is canceled and they will not send me an itemized bill. I called the about new service to asked them about their policy of new service and the penalty of canceling service after 6,9 15, months and the agent michele said that they will prorate it so comes out to the average of -10 a month for a two year contract up to $240 penalty- well we did a 3-way with customer service and they directed to legal loop hole website with at&t. I belive I was fincially missled and they snowed me. this was about a 2 hour process on my T-mobile phone. I will encourage anyone not to – they hurt my financially and how many other did they snowball for doing this— thanks. I hope we can do something so others dont get snowballed by this. thanks Ron.
I had switch to T-mobile a couple of months ago from at&T. I had 15 days left on my contract when I canceled my service with at&T in which cingular had already taken over. I was charge the full 175.00 plus other charges that amount to $361 for switching over from cingular. Then a month later there was a bill for zero amount thought I was all paid up and just recieved a bill for $96. what happened was they prorated my monthy $39.00 bill and prorated my minutes as well in which forced overage on my minutes. that made me mad as H$!! . so I asked them to charge me the full amount for that month but some how they worked it so it came out to the amount of $96.00 so they broke that down one item was taxes on the $175.00 for cancelation two months prior- I am unable to look at my itemized bill – because my service is canceled and they will not send me an itemized bill. I called the about new service to asked them about their policy of new service and the penalty of canceling service after 6,9 15, months and the agent michele said that they will prorate it so comes out to the average of -10 a month for a two year contract up to $240 penalty- well we did a 3-way with customer service and they directed to legal loop hole website with at&t. I belive I was fincially missled and they snowed me. this was about a 2 hour process on my T-mobile phone. I will encourage anyone not to – they hurt my financially and how many other did they snowball for doing this— thanks. I hope we can do something so others dont get snowballed by this. thanks Ron.
I recently lost my Cingular cell phone which I acquired (had to purchase) at the time of the Cingular/ ATT takeover. Cingular was completely unhelpful. The manager at the Louisiana call center actually lectured me, saying that it was my own fault for losing the phone and for not having insurance. I pointed out that it was cheaper to cancel my service (a $150 fee) and rejoin a new company than to purchase a new phone. The rude Cingular manager told me that it did not matter at all if I cancelled my service and went elsewhere. Basically Cingular service stinks. Reception is terrible. They lock you in with rollover minutes and free calls to your family members, but you can’t use your minutes because reception is too bad! Regardless of the service, the employees are the rudest and most unhelpful people I have ever dealt with. They just don’t care about their customer satisfaction rating at all.
The good news is – the LG4015 (AT&T) phone and SIM card that I purchased through E-Bay were activated today.
The “customer service specialist” with AT&T that activated the phone was professional but I could hear the skepticism in her voice – “Is this an AT&T phone?” Did the SIM Card come with the phone? Is it an AT&T SIM card?
It was almost as if they were looking for another loophole to not activate the new phone.
So FYI all of you out there with AT&T Contracts and defective/broken AT&T Phones – they can be found on E-Bay!
Just make sure if you have GMS/GPRS that is the phone that you bid on. My sister gave me an AT&T phone but it was digital and would not work with my service.
Finally – something went right!
I have an at&t V600 and an ATT Blackberry 7210. Both are locked to ATT, this is a bit upsetting as a bought them at full price without a contract commitment so I could move carriers as needed. No one told me they were locked. Cingular was zero help, though the offered to sell me another locked Blackberry at full price without a contract! T-mobile has been excellent and has provided the unlock code in advance of my purchase. That is the type of company that gets my $79. per month. Watch out for Cingular, it is ATT all over again!
T-MOBILE SUX! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
T-Mobile is misleading, terrible service, phones that don’t work – dropped calls, can’t complete calls, can’t hear when you do get through… customer service? hours, & hours & MONTHS later, & 4 PHONES later, complaints lead to NOTHING, SO – when I stopped paying that got their attention – they just locked my phone & cancelled the service.
I *suppose* T-mobile will unlock the phones if I pay for their NON_service.
TOO BAD I HAVE 3 PHONES THAT CAN ONLY BE USED WITH T-MOBILE, AT&T/CINGULAR!!!
I’ve had service with AT&T for two years. I signed up for the family plan just before the merger, but I told the customer service person that I would add my other phone at a later date. He said no problem. I was given an extra 100 mn a month and 7:00 early evenings if I would sign up for an additional year program at the same time. Well when I went to add the phone, I was told that I had to switch to Cingular because they don’t support my phone, Sony Ericsson T715. So they locked me into another year, wants to charge me 7.00 a line for early evenings and charge me more for the same plan AND buy a new phone. I’m basically stuck until I get a new phone (which is a direct quote from the cust. rep)
HOW TO UNBLOCKED MY PIN CODE AND SIM CODE IF I DONT REMEMVER
i just want to unlock my phone from t mobile and go to at&t i have a siemens cf62t ,if anybody can help me please email me or if anybody has any cell phones or palm pda systems for sale let me know please?
Joe Hills
The marriage that has never become a partnership.
I had AT&T before Cingular and at&t merged. I thought that both companies would have become one. To my amazement they are still two separate companies under one name.
My son who is sick switched my contract over to Cingular. I had the hardest time to switch back, because they were giving me a new 2 year contract. I had to spend hours going from one person to another trying to find to whom I should state my complain, Whenever I called the number on the bill I was told that I had an AT&T employee and I need cingularone. When I called cingular, I was told I need AT&T service. Which was very harassing, because my bill says Cingular. Tody I had the hardest time trying to get rid of a bill Cingular sent me. I was charged for the whole month of September up to October. Then AT&T charged me for that same time for the use of the phone. My son threw away his phone in the trash and I am trying to get a used phone so I can get someone to take over his contract. I now need a at&t unlock phone with a sim card. AT&T is charging me $25.00 for a sim card. I need their phone, their GSM, and there sim card. Isn’t that high way robbery?
I am very happy they are going after these companies.
It is only te very poor and the very young consumers who are hurt from the companies’ shady deals
I am happy to see that they are bring these two companies to trial I am hoping that justice will be serve to all consumers.
I don’t know if anyone else had this problem, when my phone went out At&t would not let me buy a new phone unless I switched to cingular. So I have a year left on my contract for At&t, yet cingular wants to charge me for another year contract and to buy new phones on order to just use a cell phone! This is robbery! I can’t afford to pay for two services, nor buy another phone! Cingular will not honor any of At&t’s old agreements, so getting phone service again means paying another bill ontop of the old one, and buying a new phone for cingular! Screw Them! Everyone go to Verizon #1 Coverage and extremely flexible with their plans. Go down in flames cingular!
I was an AT&T customer up until the merger. I have been unhappy with the service and have been thinking about changing services when my contract expires in a few months. I was talked into keeping Cingular/ATT by my family who also have Cingular and can talk for free and not use any minutes. I wanted to buy a new phone and was told that I needed to switch over to Cingular and that I was still with AT&T. I was also told that I needed to buy new phones and sign up for a new plan. I added up the cost and this new plan was going to cost me an additional $65 a month plus that purchase of new phones. I must say that I only wanted to purchase one phone in the beginning the other two phones on my plan work well. I was told by a Cingular rep. that the sims cards in the AT&T phones will not work in the Cingular phones. This is so crazy.
I feel like a gun is being held to my head and can do nothing about it. What is the average person to do. I can see the land fills being filled up with cell phones from AT&T.
I was wondering if I could find an AT&T cell phone to buy and put the sim card in it. Would this work?
If you were an ATT customer, you cannot put a Cingular sim card into it. Certain phones, like the V600 we own, are hardlocked. Neither Cingular nor ATT will give out the codes. Apparently, there is some small print in the ATT contract that states that you can never use the phone with another carrier. Which is ludicrous. I have been a Cingular customer for 8 years. My husband bought the ATT service for international travel. He still has the ATT service, but the bill comes from Cingular. This is insane. Cingular owns ATT. There is no reason that we should not be allowed to unlock the ATT phone and put a Cingular sim card into it. They aren’t losing any business! We still have 2 cell phones that are billed by Cingular. This is just maddening….
If you were an ATT customer, you cannot put a Cingular sim card into it. Certain phones, like the V600 we own, are hardlocked. Neither Cingular nor ATT will give out the codes. Apparently, there is some small print in the ATT contract that states that you can never use the phone with another carrier. Which is ludicrous. I have been a Cingular customer for 8 years. My husband bought the ATT service for international travel. He still has the ATT service, but the bill comes from Cingular. This is insane. Cingular owns ATT. There is no reason that we should not be allowed to unlock the ATT phone and put a Cingular sim card into it. They aren’t losing any business! We still have 2 cell phones that are billed by Cingular. This is just maddening….
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