LG Wireless Phone

What should I do about my Cingular/ATT bill?

Almost two years ago, I got behind on my Cingular bill by a couple months and they shut my phone off. It had only been turned off a couple weeks when I got the money to pay it. I called and told the Cingular rep that I wanted to pay my bill and get my phone turned back on. She processed my payment, then told me that I would have to pay another $200 to get my phone turned back on. I then told her that I wasn't going to do that, so she then told me that I had to pay a $250 early termination fee since I wasn't going to pay the $200 to get it turned back on. That sounds like extortion to me. I paid my bill in full, so my options were either pay to have it turned back on, or pay to not have it turned back on. Now I have debt collectors calling me about this everyday and I refuse to pay the $250. Am I wrong to think this is ridiculous? Is there any way to settle this?

Public Comments

1. That is how a cell phone works. ATT's contract has a $250 ending fee.
2. There's always a fee to cancel your cell phone service. It's always in that very fine print on your bills every month. I would just pay one or the other....Your credit is taking a hit that will catch up with you later--when you're buying a car or a house. It seems like extortion, but it's totally legal--even though it sucks.
3. When mine got shut off a while back it was only a 35 dollar re-connect fee and it was 200 dollars if I wanted to cancel my contract so I don't know what they were trying to charge you for!That is ridiculous!
4. wait till they sell the account to a collection agency then try to make a deal for 25% of the bill. or don't pay at all. they probably won't take you to court over $250.00. and don't talk to them on the phone. don't promise to pay anything. that will start the sol up again.
5. The reason it would cost you $200 to turn it back on is because once you have it turned off for a few weeks/months. they have to run your credit again b/c of you getting behind on your bill. Now for the cing. rep to say it will be $250 for early termination is rediculous. Unless the policy has changed since dec. it should only be $200. I would call and talk to another rep and explain your situation. Maybe that rep was having a bad day. I know that when i have to call in for a customer and the rep is rude or seems like they don't want to help. i act like they did help me. hang up and call the # again. almost all the time, you get a different rep.
6. i advise that do not coordinate with any debt collector, it is double jeopardy if you pay them call them up once more ask for a supervisor tell them your intention maybe you could settle it amicably. maybe you could ask them if you could pay the reinstatement fee in payments billed to you. you'd raher pay 200 to have it back on than loosing 250 down the drain because of early termination fee.
7. When you don't pay utilities and they are turned off, all companies charge a restoration fee.
8. The $200 is a security deposit because you don't know how to pay your bills on time. Just like your electricity or real life phone bill... imagine that. You do owe the $250 and your credit will be in the toilet if you don't pay it. You broke the contract and you signed an agreement to pay $250 (for the phone) if you did. You also agreed to pay the bill every month and you didn't do that so they want a $200 security deposit. You have established yourself as a "bad risk". This is your fault paying the bill late. It's not extortion, it's business. You agreed to this arrangement by not paying your bill as required. Pay the bill and save your credit. The only way to settle this is to pay the $250 you owe. You can't go back and pay the $200 deposit to get the service started again. It's already been closed and sent to their debt collector. PAY WHAT YOU OWE.
9. You have a couple options. Like you, I wouldn't pay that $250, but thats a moral issue and strictly up to you. Have you pulled your credit reports lately? If not, do so and find out if this is being listed. If it isn't, I'd simply ignore the collection agency and go along with your business. If they have listed it, I'd immediately hit them with the 1-2 punch of disputing the listing with the credit bureaus and sending the collection agency a demand to validate letter. You can pin them down on making them provide the signed contracts, receipts, statements and all other neccesary documentation. Chances are they can't provide this or they simply won't bother, so they'll just drop the issue and remove the listing. If they can provide sufficent validation, you can either bite the bullet and offer to settle with them in exchange for removing the listing from your credit report, or you can continue to ignore it. Remember that this can only be reported on your credit report for 7 years from the date of delinquency, and with this being 2 years old already it's going to start having less and less effect on your credit as time goes by. If you want to stop the phone calls, you can send the collection agency a cease and desist letter stating to only contact you through US mail.