The Caffeinated Penguin

Posted By matt on October 21, 2003

Okay, so I was going to take my free evening and write Cingular a letter. See, Liz and I went to their store in Warwick, because the website says that they do equipment upgrades there and I want them to look at my phone. The man behind the counter says that they do not deal with equipment there, and hands me this photocopied flyer that says that there is a new location open in Providence, in this two story metal building. Oh, and there's no cash drawer, so you'll have to pay by check or exact. This location is not listed on Cingular's website.

This struck me as:
1.) VERY shady
2.) Misinformation on Cingular's website (I'm assuming this is innocent – these things have a way of getting out of date).

So, I was going to send them a nice friendly email and say “hey, you guys might want to look into this.” But, on their website, no Customer Service email address. Okay, fine, how about a form submission? Nope. Okay, they don't like email. How about a paper letter? Customer service mailing address? Anyone? Beuller? Nope, no customer service address. General address? Well, I have the ones that I send the checks to. I also have the one for their corporate headquarters (both on their website and on the FCC's provider lookup site).

So, I am now pretty pissed off. On the back of your bill, and in the “Customer Service” section of their website should be published contact information of an address to which to send paper feedback. Period.

So, I emailed the FCC asking if this is illegal. If it is, I will file a complaint with the FCC. If it is not, it should be. This information is provided on all my other bills.

While I was at it, I asked about the Cox thing. I found some stuff that suggests that the FCC doesn't do ISP's, the FTC does. But, then I found other stuff that suggests that they do do broadband providers, because they are like telecom companies, not just service companies.

Category: LJ Import
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