The Sins of Cingular
Lockergnomie Rusty Weller, upon reading a note about Verizon's CEO dissing his customers:
You're such a kind soul. Very enlightening, too. I appreciate all that you do.
If Verizon's CEO disrespects his customers, you ought to be an AT&T merger victim in the unmerciful hands of Cingular. No, you ought not, on second thought.
After research, my wife and I chose AT&T over all other cell phone companies because it best suited what we needed and wanted. We enjoyed a nearby AT&T store stocked with a wide variety of cell phones and friendly employees who helped my wife learn her new gadget. From time to time she browsed the many phones lining store walls and looked forward being an AT&T customer long enough for an economical upgrade.
Then came the merger. Suddenly red-headed stepchildren, we were told there would be no new phones for us unless we “migrated” over to Cingular, which offered the same plans we previously rejected. We asked out of our contract, since AT&T now wasn't living up to its end of the bargain, and were given a flat “no.” We could buy our way out at a substantial amount for us fixed-income folk, or serve out the original sentence without any benefits.
At Christmas I wanted to get my wife of 35 years a better phone. The Cingular Store told me so few AT&T phones were left they'd be gone that very day. Aunty, you've certainly heard of the expression “as big as Dallas”? Well, that's where we live, yet only one Cingular store in all of Dallas had phones for AT&T customers. I rushed to that location apparently in time, but the Cingular computer didn't recognize my wife's upgrade eligibility and demanded full price for the phone. I called to register a complaint and, several levels deep into Cingular, I eventually was given a one-time opportunity for a phone at half price. No selection, though. Just one flip phone. Take it or leave it. The price was more than the one-year contract upgrade my wife was supposed to be entitled to receive, but I took it. Better than nothing, or full price.
When my phone later acted up and needed to be replaced, I had to go through much the same process. Both times if I'd taken the word or store personnel or the first two levels of phone support, we'd be empty handed today.
Oh, yes, both phone purchases re-started our two-year AT&T contracts. So to get the phones needed to keep using our contracts we're having to pay for, we had to greatly lengthen the time we are at Cingular's (lack of) mercy.
Cingular employees aren't all bad, mind you. They've just not been given anything to offer AT&T's orphans. It's like the Capitol One commerical — “no, no, no.” Time and again they ask: “Why don't you just join Cingular?” Because I didn't want Cingular from the start, I say. Because Cingular's closest plan gives us far less minutes at a greater price, I say. Because Cingular is heartlessly coercing AT&T customers into converting by offering no phones or benefits, by demanding contract buyouts, by making it extremely hard to ride out original contracts.
Just thought you might like to know.
Well, I'm still a Verizon customer. I might switch to Sprint, however, due to its killer data plan.
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14 Comments
Anonymous
April 22nd, 2005
at 6:25pm
i love sprint, mobile pc this month did a review of the carriers and my vm4500 got best mid priced phone for sprint :)
Escamoteurettes
April 22nd, 2005
at 6:38pm
The only problem with Sprint is, well, you'd actually have to use Sprint. After almost three years of miserable experiences — dropped calls occupying the top three spots in my top five complaints — we moved all three phones to Cingular.
Sorry about the AT&T folks who are being squeezed. We've been very happy with Cingular for nearly a year now.
John
Anonymous
April 22nd, 2005
at 6:50pm
I love Cingular. I have never had a droped call and their plans are great for me. Mind you I don't care to talk on the phone so I am not on it that often. Which could be why they are perfect for me.
Anonymous
April 23rd, 2005
at 8:14am
rusty can always get a phone from someone else other than cingular - such as amazon.com or some other independent national wireless retailer. As a side note, the only constant that we can really depend on is change. Adapt rusty - adapt.
debora
April 23rd, 2005
at 11:44am
My hubby and I have switch to pay as you go TracPhone. We hardly use our cells except for when we travel, and most other plans give lots of minutes but we never use them so it's a waste of money….We can now buy as we need to and our cell service averages around ten bucks per month for our average use and the great part is, if I leave town for a week, I can get a new card of minutes shoudl I get close to loosing them, right online!!!
zenyenta
April 23rd, 2005
at 6:36pm
It's not one size fits all for cell phones, at least not yet. Right now, Sprint is the major provider that works best from my home. My husband and I are both very happy with it and are using our Sprint cellphones as our main phones. We don't even use the data plans, either. Neither ATT&T nor Cingular would work from our house. Other people have the opposite experience. If a few years, they'll probably all work almost everywhere.
Anonymous
April 24th, 2005
at 10:44am
I signed up with Cinguar in Georgia where the service woked great and I had no complaints. Now that I have moved back to the boondocks of Illinois though the service is the worst in the area. I tried getting out of my contract when I went to get a local number and the paperwork clearly stated that I had 3 days to try out the network in this area and get out of the contract free if service was inadaquate. After discovering that service sucked in my area I tried to go and break my contract without paying the fee as the paperwork stated. They gave me nothing but a runaround and promises of a new tower in my town by the end of the 1st quarter '05. Maybe I should have pursued it further. That was in December. Now here I am in almost may, still no tower. I got fed up and recently signed a two year contract with verizon who gives me an 18% discount on the bill for being military. I am happy to say I have no complaints with them.
Anonymous
April 24th, 2005
at 6:49pm
Personal effects of merger:
AT+T “free to go” plan was 6.67$ a month minutes good for 90 days. Awesome deal.
Cingular “No to go” is 15$ a month minutes good for 30 days. Not so good.
I let my dollars go elsewhere…
Switched to T-mobile prepaid for 8$ a month minutes good for 90 days. Plus I got a cool new phone.
Just switch, (if you can) nothing sends a better message than a shrinking customer base.
Anonymous
April 27th, 2005
at 12:04pm
Ugly, Ugly and more ugly! I am one of the AT&T orphans. Luckily Mu contract is over in 3 days, 7 hours and counting seconds. So who is the next one to Rip me? Good question. Done the Verizon gig all the way back to US West Celluar. Verizon screwed up my bill more than I believed possible.
WHo should I try? No idea.
Anonymous
April 27th, 2005
at 6:21pm
I used to work as a Customer Service Rep for T-Mobile. I could tell you more horror stories about customers getting screwed out of upgrades.
For example, something as simple as a mobile number change would reset people's discount elegibility (due to a computer glitch). Although we reps recognised it as a problem immediately, it took over 3 months for T-Mobile to even *recognise* the problem, let alone fix it. We weren't even given permission to override it, or even let a supervisor do it! Can you imagine how awful we felt telling the customer that they can't upgrade because of a COMPUTER GLITCH ?????
We were eventually given permission to do an override, but last time I checked, the problem still wasn't fixed (this went on for over a year).
Also: If someone was moved off a regular account and onto a regular one (or vise versa), it would reset their discount, NO MATTER HOW LONG THEY HAD BEEN WITH US!!!! We had some customers that were with us 2, 3, 4 or more years, and we couldn't upgrade them without charging full price (and last time I checked, we still weren't even allowed to override this!!!!).
Glad to be an ex-T-Mobile employee (actually I worked for an outsourcer, which was even worse). I'm sure they're all a b*tch to work for.
Jen
http://djjenx.proboards24.com
Anonymous
April 27th, 2005
at 6:25pm
>>>Also: If someone was moved off a regular account and onto a regular one (or vise versa)
hoodwinked
June 4th, 2005
at 3:15pm
No one seems to have noticed the whole “orphan” issue is a big scam that is part of an even bigger scam (and I'll leave it at three levels although it surely has many more). AT&T was busted into several “Baby Bells” back in the 1980's, one of which retaining the name and another is BellSouth. Check your local White Pages and notice Cingular is (after “aquiring” AT&T Cellular) now “Part of the BellSouth Family”. It's still the same people selling the same **** for more money, less value and tax looping, false reporting on earnings ect., ect….round and round we go…vaseline not included.
Chatterbox
August 29th, 2005
at 12:38pm
BEST WAY TO HANDLE CINGULAR FORCED CONVERSION OF YOUR AT&T WIRELESS SERVICE TO A NEW CINGULAR PHONE AND SERVICE:
Simply stop paying the bill.
New customers can still be added to all exisitng AT&T plans, TDMA, GSM, pre-paid and post paid. However, the Cingular policy is to NOT allow customers to make conversion to anything more affordable. The policy is to allow conversions only to HIGHER rate Cingular plans.
You will get better service and choices if you go into a Cingular store and pretend you are a new customer, buying a new phone and new service.
For me I found a better phone and plan with another carrier, for one phone. The other is on a great plan $100 per year with Cingular.
BUT BEFORE ABANDONING THE SERVICE ON THE PHONE I DID NOT LIKE…. LET IT RUN FOR 4 OR 5 MONTHS AND JUST DON'T PAY IT.
Once, you rationalize the poor customer service, refusal to convert the phone to the plan you really desired against the new rate $0.00. It's not such a bad deal for the last 5 to 6 months, pre or post contract.
Remember the caveat, “Buyer-beware”! Well every time you make another monthly payment you are letting the company take advantage of you. You would not keep paying a restaurant everyday if they gave you bad food. The same is true for your phone service.
darin
April 15th, 2007
at 9:21pm
Well, This might be a seperate issue kind of……but maybe not. I am a current Verizon subscriber. My bill is $125 a month for 2 phones and 1500 anytimes minutes. So i decided I wanted to find a way to lower my bill. Well of couse the only lower plan is 700 anytime minutes. Why such a big gap?? Because they know we will pay for the more expensive plan. Also $6.00 a month for insurance when I still pay $50 for the phone to be replaced…..Why even call it insurance. At $72 a year it should be free. Basically Im looking for another provider now.