AT&T/Cingular merger causing cancellation of cell phone contracts.

[debraham]

Our family had 4 or 5 phones with Cingular when AT&T bought them or they merged or something happened and we got a letter in the mail in December of 2007 saying they were canceling our contract and we would not be under obligation to fulfill it due to the cost for AT&T to provide service for our Cingular phones (something to do with towers). Since that time every couple of years we receive a collection letter from a collection agency for the cancellation of our contract. I dispute it every time and explain it and that's the end of it for a couple of more years.  I just got another collection bill today, obviously this is not helping my credit either.  Has anyone else experienced this and how do we resolve it?

[MicCheck]

Are you sure it wasn't a final bill for service that wasn't paid, rather than an ETF?

I understand it may be hard to determine from so long ago.  Send a PM to Jamileh (http://forums.att.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2548143). She'll help you get this sorted out.

[debraham]

It was not a final bill; the principal amount is $480.  The first collection agency that sent us a bill was probably a couple of years after this happened and they evern said it was for cancellation of contract for which we explained that we received a letter I believe it was in December advising us that since we had cingular phones and contracts and AT&T could not service them in our area (due to towers and expense) they would have to cancel our contracts and we would not be responsible for them since they canceled us.  It was indeed an inconvenience as we have I think 4 members of our family that had to find other service.  My husband and I went back to a home phone and didn't get cell phone service again for years.  I explained this to the collection agency and we never heard from them again.  And then probably 2 years later, here comes another different collection agency and  this has probably happened about 4 times including the one I received yesterday.  I told them the same thing.  Surely AT&T has a record of this cancellation by them as I'm sure we were not the only customers to have this letter sent to them.

[jamileh]

Hi there, 

i got your PM (thanks MicCheck) and have just responded. Will you please take a look by clicking on the little blue envelope in the upper right hand corner?