8-bit Overload reports $370 in unauthorized charges
8-bit Overload reported earlier this year about Cingular and mQube:
“To preface my rant, i was looking at my cingular bill yesterday, and waaaaay at the bottom of my bill, i notice three separate $9.99 charges. These charges, supposedly from a company called mQube, were some sort of subscription service for ringtones. Now, I dont really download ringtones, most of my tones are mp3s that I transferred to my phone myself, so I was kind of curious as to what this was, and why I was being charged for something that I never asked for, nor got any goods from.”
“So, i inspected my bill a bit more. I went on cingular’s site, and looked at each of my bills for the past year, and there it was too: two to three seperate $9.99 charges on each bill! I called Cingular customer service and let them know of my discovery, while i was still checking my other bills. The man I talked to found a few of them as well, and gave me a credit of $116 to my bill, and said that if I found any other charges like this, to call back. So I did just that, I checked each of my bills, all the way back to when i first opened my account, and i found a grand total of THIRTY-FIVE of these charges, totalling over $370.00. I called back, and let the next rep know what was going on.”
According to Godden “This is when the frustration started. I talked to 3 more reps from that point on, all giving me the same speech. ‘We’re sorry, but we can’t give you a credit, as you already had one.’ Yes, I did, but $116 is not $370, i would inform them. ‘We cant go back more than 3 months to credit previous bills’ and ‘It is your responsibility to check your bills for inconsistencies’.”
Godden continues “So, its ok for my cell phone company to sneak in charges, as long as John Q. Public doesnt notice them, it makes it ok? The general public shouldnt have to be looking over their shoulder, expecting everyone they do business with to screw them. Personally, I think you should be able to trust your phone company, or your cable company. You shouldn’t have to watch your bills like a hawk to see if they are screwing you.”
“After 5 hours on the phone with them, emotions ranging from calm to furious, with no progress, i decided to collect my evidence, and go to my local Cingular store in the mall. I was a man on a mission. Seething, I entered the mall, fully intent on being escorted out by mall security. I walked into the Cingular store, and I was greeted by a guy about half my size. I asked him if there was somewhere that we could chat in private, and we went to a small area in the back of the store.”
“I explained my situation to him, showed him the dates and charges i had written down, and told him that I expected an additional credit of $250, the remainder of the $370 I was charged over the past year. I dont know if it was the fact that I was twice his size, and very angry, or the fact that I threatened to close my account with them, but he seemed to have no problem giving me the credit after going over my evidence.”
