Cingular SUCKS!!!

[elmo01]

cingular defintley outsources..we have call centers in phillpines and India..

canada too...as well as across the USA... your point?

[just me]

I agree Cingular sucks, I've been a customer of AT & T Wireles for nearly 7 years & never had a problem, now I've 10,00 problems since Cingular took them over & they've apparently insulated themselves overly well inside of their ivory towers & provided us peons no means to contact them with endless complaints & have prevented me 10 ways from any Sunday from even registering for them to hear my ongoing complaints.

As far as I'm concerned, they owe me a few hundred dollars & I'm never ever again going to grace them by paying their overly inflated invoices.

[Unregistered]

Wow you guys REALLY make me want to go to work tomorrow.

[Unregistered]

I worked for Cingular (5 years and 7 months with AT&T Wireless) for 6 1/2 years in customer service (different departments of course). Back when it was AT&T, things were great! We were empowered to help our customers, show them that we do appreciate them and bend the rules now and again to promote customer satisfaction. Since Cingular took over, it is now virtually impossible for the CSR's to help the customers. Cingular has poor ideas of customer service, they do not empower their reps to solve issues and they have set unreachable call handling times (ever feel like you are being rushed off the phone? well that is because if the call lasts too long, then the rep is penalized!). Also, Cingular support is regionalized meaning that unlike the old AT&T Days, everyone across the nation CANNOT work together to solve your issue (hence the transfers). I have watched many highly skilled senior (AT&T) reps leave Cingular before it had even been a year since the merger; everything has gone down hill. The next time you are talking to a rep and don’t feel like they are offering you all they should, or are bending over backwards to satisfy you, keep in mind that Cingular has just stopped short of hog tying them! Oh, and I left Cingular 2 months ago and from what I hear (from my old co-workers), things just keep on getting worse!

[Unregistered]

Remember!!! Customer Rules!!!

[Unregistered]

i work at cingular in technical support. i will never go back to care even if they give me a 5 dollar raise. maybe for 10, but most likely i would kill myself before going back there. for 1, as a care rep, customers look at you as if you are SHIT. they take what you say with a grain of sand. they either a, want to speak to your supervisor, or disregard anything you say and you have to literally spoon feed everything to them in regards to what you are doing for them, and how everything works whether its policy, or just education them on what you are doing for them. and the ones that are having simple phone issues, dont even want the help of the incompetent care reps and want to immediately be transferred to tech, which is where i get calls that shouldnt even come to tech. i get care reps who dont know what the **** they are doing, and think when customers are having trouble ACCESSING their VM, that it has something to do with the DEPOSIT #s in snooper! WTF! what is training teaching these poor saps? its the RETRIEVAL # programmed in the phones losers! i have come to the conclusion that care reps dont go further than the systems they can see. they dont attempt to troubleshoot the SETTINGS IN THE PHONE. the most common response when i ask what troubleshooting steps were done is "everything is correct in telegence and snooper!" and i ask what about the settings in the phone? when they dont completely LIE to me and say they did verify the settings, they say they dont know HOW TO. WTF, you dont know how to do your job? THEN QUIT YOUR JOB, your in the wrong line of work highschool DROPOUT! many times i get calls with people on their phoens as well when care clearly stated they were not on their phones. in summary, CUSTOMER CARE IS WORSE THEN THE CUSTOMERS. most of the time customers are assholes because care escalated them with their lack of knowledge and lack of OWNERSHIP! customers have no faith in the intelligence of customer care. NEITHER DO I. customer care is a waste of wages. they should be making less, and i should be making more than what i am now.

you are right man i work in tech to i had care reps sit with me and they dont know squat even there freaking managers dont know basic troubleshooting cingular does not care for its employees it only cares about making money thats why alot of old tech reps left and we got people in who only been there for less than 3 months and are working tech wtf it took me a long ass time to become a tech and they go and hire retards from the street

[Unregistered]

I have been with Cingular for 3 years, and have had none of the problems others are writing about here. For what it's worth, I live in the Washington DC area. I don't have dropped calls, and since I haven't had trouble, I don't call customer service. I will also add that I have had nothing but Nokia phones. Just my "two cents".

[elmo01]

you are right man i work in tech to i had care reps sit with me and they dont know squat even there freaking managers dont know basic troubleshooting cingular does not care for its employees it only cares about making money thats why alot of old tech reps left and we got people in who only been there for less than 3 months and are working tech wtf it took me a long ass time to become a tech and they go and hire retards from the street



and I can say the same about some tech reps....

[Unregistered]

ok, so u would be happy receiving a new red toaster. what if that new red toaster still would not make toast. would u still like another?

I believe his hint was that the warranty IS NOT COVERED BY CINGULAR NOR IS IT COVERED BY THE WIRELESS SERVICE PROVIDER OF ANY OTHER WIRELESS COMPANY!!!

The warranty is covered by the device MANUFACTURER. Also, I am a Cingular Warranty Representative. If a customer has an issue with the same kind of device a couple of times (case by case), then I am always more than happy to send you a different make and model because we want you to be HAPPY with your phone... or at least that is my view when i help customers. I do WHATEVER I can to help customers...

sure, when they are extremely rude, its hard to be 100% into the call. but I still try as that is what I get paid to do. there ARE awesome reps out here and its a shame we get a bad rap for some of the idiots who do very poorly. I am appauled half the time when I hear what the reps have told the customers.

sincerely,

B. Dent, Cingular WEX rep, Tennessee

[Unregistered]

Cingular is a company that treats its customers like crap. It's like they are doing you a favor by allowing you to give them money. Their customer service reps are rude, their stores suck, the wait times are ridiculous, their 411 system bloww -- it has yet to recognize the request correctly.

I just can't think of a corporation that I have disliked more, or one that has as bad customer service policy that Cingular. They totally sucks.

I guess in this thread I am alone when I say that I really like Cingular. Not only am I a Warranty Rep, but I was with Cingular before I worked for them. I have been with them for 3 years (switch from T-Mobile) and I have had no issues. I get what I pay for. The dropped calls are few but still happen. The reps I've talked to (yes even reps have to call up the 800 numbers) have been helpful.

Its like reading reviews on a CD or a movie. you are going to have many people who like it (if its a good cd), but there will always be some who rank it very low. Its one extreme or the other. All I can say is that I get people who complain a LOT about other wireless companies all the time. Please make sure that you don't live in BFE where there isn't coverage. Also, please abide by the plan you signed for. And please be patient with the devices as Cingular does not make them, they only sell them. Things DO go wrong will cells. Go through the manufacturer if you feel that cingular is not doing it well enough. Any cingular rep has the manufacturer numbers.

[customercarerep]

You all have very valid points, and alot of what the last Cingular rep said is very true. Would you give someone who is screaming at you what they want just because they know if they scream most people will give it to them? I don't. If you have a legitimate reason for being upset we understand, however screaming like a 2 yr old doesnt get you anywhere because then we feel like we're the ones who caused this even though we didn't. However, I also agree that this forced migration and old AT&T stuff is crap! I don't believe that you should be forced to do anything. And as for you "tech support guy" I have issues with what you say, if I ever get you on the phone as my tech that I'm transferring to we would have words because theres only so much you can do in care. Too much info to talk about here but thats beyond the point. If you read our guidelines and policies you'll know what we can and cannot do and why we transfer to tech support for stupid things like removing text msg restrictions. HOWEVER I'm so freaking happy, starting Monday customer care will lose one of their best reps ever because why??? I'M HEADED FOR NEW TECH SUPPORT!!! I walk out of this center with atleast 15 positive escalations a month, have one of the best quality scores in this center alone, but I'm giving it all up for tech!!! PS IM IN CANADA, were a 3rd party vendor contracted out by cingular, that's why most people you get on the phone don't care about the job they do, they dont have to have cingular service therefore they dont care. However because I'm in Canada, I've been told that we're the nicest people in the world to talk to. Others HATE us!! AND store reps are the worst they're worse than we are! They're in it for their commission and nothing else. They dont tell the customer anything!! SO GO SCREAM AT THEM!!! lol I just find all this amusing. I am very professional and polite on the phone for all you who wanna say I'm not. This is a personal opinion not a professional one!!!

[Unregistered]

I am a manager with Cingular. First and foremost, understanding our claim is what most customers seem to overlook. As a company, we never mad the promise of NO dropped calls. We do claim, through an independent survey, that we have the LEAST dropped calls. That is statistically true and it's not like someone got paid under the table to say that! It's always easier dealing with intelligent people, however, we know that that probably wont happen most of the time. Nevertheless, common sense must be exercised in every situation. WE ARE NOT MAGICIANS IN THE RETAIL STORES! DONT EXPECT THE IMPOSSIBLE! For instance, stop being so cheap. Most of you (customers) use drugs, drink, buy Starbucks coffee at 4.00 per day, go to strip clubs and put denominations from 1.00 to 100.00 in dancing whores drawers, spend unnecessary money on stupidity, but when my reps clearly asked you at the time they closed the deal with you "DO YOU WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INSURANCE? ITS 4.99 PER MONTH COVERING, LOST BROKEN, STOLEN, ELECTRICAL/MECHANICAL FAILURE AND ACCIDENTAL WATER DAMAGE. IT WILL REQUIRE THAT YOUR PHONE BE EXCHANGED THRU A XBM (echange by mail) PROCESS AND A 50.00 DEDUCTIBLE WILL BE APPLIED TO YOUR NEXT BILLING CYCLE TO COVER THE REPLACEMENT AND YOUR PHONE CAN USUALLY BE REPLACED WITHIN 72 HOURS" and you say something stupid like " I'M NOT PAYING 4.99 A MONTH FOR THAT!" or even more silly " I'LL NEVER USE THAT ANYWAY". And the same clown will come in with a WET phone, try to remove the red moisture indicator off the back of the phone, LIE and say that the phone is not wet, and then when we uncover the lie, get mad and say you want to talk to my boss, like he is the "WET PHONE GENIE", maybe by some astronomical chance, he might not see that moisture you tried to slip past US with. I hate to be so candid but I see the tomfoolery every day and it's pitiful. Stop being cheapskates, ante up and stop tring to get s*** for free. And in reference to care, really we need to do better guys. I'm not passing the buck or anything, but a big reason we look crazy when customers come in to our retail locations is because we do have 2 different system (opus and telegence) and all stores (namely "blue") dont have telegence and we cant see "promissory notes" that you guys make to customers 15 minutes before they came into my store. And If it's not in the notes, (i.e., free phone upgrades, free car charger replacement outside of guidelines, standard upgrade overrides, etc.), I'm not doing it. This is, and will be an ongoing issue until we get done with all this merger stuff. We are confusing the hell out of our customers and new adds get pissed when we are so rigid. So what does that equal...LET'S ALL SAY IT TOGETHER....CHURN!!!!!!!!!! Dont cha love it???
Seriously, when everything is done with this transition, Cingular/AT&T is going to be the most dominant communications and entertainment company in the world. So customers ( and reps) just be cool, work through the kinks, do the best you can to help these customers so Verizon wont creep up on us (Oh yea, I forgot about that damn cricKety cricKet!). Peace!

[Unregistered]

I am a manager with Cingular. First and foremost, understanding our claim is what most customers seem to overlook. As a company, we never mad the promise of NO dropped calls. We do claim, through an independent survey, that we have the LEAST dropped calls. That is statistically true and it's not like someone got paid under the table to say that! It's always easier dealing with intelligent people, however, we know that that probably wont happen most of the time. Nevertheless, common sense must be exercised in every situation. WE ARE NOT MAGICIANS IN THE RETAIL STORES! DONT EXPECT THE IMPOSSIBLE! For instance, stop being so cheap. Most of you (customers) use drugs, drink, buy Starbucks coffee at 4.00 per day, go to strip clubs and put denominations from 1.00 to 100.00 in dancing whores drawers, spend unnecessary money on stupidity, but when my reps clearly asked you at the time they closed the deal with you "DO YOU WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF INSURANCE? ITS 4.99 PER MONTH COVERING, LOST BROKEN, STOLEN, ELECTRICAL/MECHANICAL FAILURE AND ACCIDENTAL WATER DAMAGE. IT WILL REQUIRE THAT YOUR PHONE BE EXCHANGED THRU A XBM (echange by mail) PROCESS AND A 50.00 DEDUCTIBLE WILL BE APPLIED TO YOUR NEXT BILLING CYCLE TO COVER THE REPLACEMENT AND YOUR PHONE CAN USUALLY BE REPLACED WITHIN 72 HOURS" and you say something stupid like " I'M NOT PAYING 4.99 A MONTH FOR THAT!" or even more silly " I'LL NEVER USE THAT ANYWAY". And the same clown will come in with a WET phone, try to remove the red moisture indicator off the back of the phone, LIE and say that the phone is not wet, and then when we uncover the lie, get mad and say you want to talk to my boss, like he is the "WET PHONE GENIE", maybe by some astronomical chance, he might not see that moisture you tried to slip past US with. I hate to be so candid but I see the tomfoolery every day and it's pitiful. Stop being cheapskates, ante up and stop tring to get s*** for free. And in reference to care, really we need to do better guys. I'm not passing the buck or anything, but a big reason we look crazy when customers come in to our retail locations is because we do have 2 different system (opus and telegence) and all stores (namely "blue") dont have telegence and we cant see "promissory notes" that you guys make to customers 15 minutes before they came into my store. And If it's not in the notes, (i.e., free phone upgrades, free car charger replacement outside of guidelines, standard upgrade overrides, etc.), I'm not doing it. This is, and will be an ongoing issue until we get done with all this merger stuff. We are confusing the hell out of our customers and new adds get pissed when we are so rigid. So what does that equal...LET'S ALL SAY IT TOGETHER....CHURN!!!!!!!!!! Dont cha love it???
Seriously, when everything is done with this transition, Cingular/AT&T is going to be the most dominant communications and entertainment company in the world. So customers ( and reps) just be cool, work through the kinks, do the best you can to help these customers so Verizon wont creep up on us (Oh yea, I forgot about that damn cricKety cricKet!). Peace!

Amen. Amen, amen, amen.

[Unregistered]

Yes Cingular does suck... It is one of the few phone companies that do not provide unlimited texting.I NEED UNLIMITED TEXTING!!!!!!!!!!!!! not having unlimited texting is a killer.... Every other Phone company as unlimited and charge no more than 15 bucks, but cingular charges you 15 bucks just for a thousand.. I would so switch phone companies, if i wasnt so use to my number, my contract was up, and my dad didnt pay me bilL!UGHHH

[elmo01]

Yes Cingular does suck... It is one of the few phone companies that do not provide unlimited texting.I NEED UNLIMITED TEXTING!!!!!!!!!!!!! not having unlimited texting is a killer.... Every other Phone company as unlimited and charge no more than 15 bucks, but cingular charges you 15 bucks just for a thousand.. I would so switch phone companies, if i wasnt so use to my number, my contract was up, and my dad didnt pay me bilL!UGHHH


at least get your story straight... its 19.99 for 3000

[Unregistered]

Cingular is a pack of parasites that thing that this is open season on customers! Rip-off after rip-off after rip-off and rip-off! The botom line is that now that you have been warned you have to be a moron for still wanting to do business with cingular! And for the few trolls of this forum defending cingular since you are probably paid by cingular warn your parasitic friends that I am going to make a major move against these pack of rat and it could cost the compagny million of $!

this guy must have hit his head pretty hard he is not going to get shit prob didnt pay his bill and got his service tuened off ALL I CAN SAY IS GOOD LUCK WITH THAT

[Unregistered]

this guy must have hit his head pretty hard he is not going to get shit prob didnt pay his bill and got his service tuened off ALL I CAN SAY IS GOOD LUCK WITH THAT
"Cingular is a pack of parasites that thing that this is open season on customers! Rip-off after rip-off after rip-off and rip-off! The botom line is that now that you have been warned you have to be a moron for still wanting to do business with cingular! And for the few trolls of this forum defending cingular since you are probably paid by cingular warn your parasitic friends that I am going to make a major move against these pack of rat and it could cost the compagny million of $!"

Wow, I'm a troll now. This guy has horrible English. He's going to make a "major move against these pack of rat and it could cost the compagny million of $!"...HAHAHA, that's so funny! I deal with business customer's everyday who have bills that run AT LEAST $20,000 a month...like this guy can make a difference. Sorry if you're experience with Cingular has been that bad obviously you have been dealing with the wrong people, but then again you will have that with any company you deal with. You can't please everyone.

[I understand]

No matter where you go and what you buy you must understand what you agree to: READ YOUR CONTRACT.
Anything man made is subject to mistake: NOTHING IS PERFECT. How many people read their INSTRUCTIONS? Customer service is extremely important and that is my number one focus. Without the customer, I have no job, but at what point does the customer becomes responsible?
There are hundreds of policies and they change often and daily. These policy decisions start at levels that are much higher than the customer facing level. Cingular has over 61 million customers and happens to be the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. Why(ponder on)? Yes, there will be natural disasters at times that is only one reason why text messaging is so big today, it allows you to send info. out w/ only one bar of signal. The Ideal service provider would be the one that has NO PROBLEMS. I have a few links that may help to create less problems. >http://www.cingular.com/legal
>http://cingular.mediaroom.com/index.php?year=2007&s=press_releases
>https://www.cingular.com/support/content.do?page=phone-device-support

[Unregistered]

Cancel your contract and go to Verizon. After aquiring Alltell in the next couple months, it will be the largest carrier in the country. The network is better maintained than any other. $5 Billion a year is put into expansion and maintanence. You won't get your dropped calls, you get a phone that goes through extensive testing, and best of all......the termination fee is a low $175 and decreases by $5 every month. It's their way of saying, "if you don't like us, go elsewhere......you'll be back". Isn't it funny that Verizon has the lowest Churn (turnover) rate of any carrier. Consumer reports ranks it number 1 in every major city and every cell catagory. Stop ur whining and pay an extra $5 - $10 per month for service that is more palitable to consumers tastes and complaints.

[Unregistered]

and I can say the same about some tech reps....
I work for cingular in customer care, and I can honestly say that I agree 95% with this quote. I know there are a lot of reps that say they have done the basic troubleshooting, but all they needed to do in the end was have the cust powercycle the phone, but the other 5% is that our tech support doesn't always resolve the issue. When I call tech it's because I have exausted all of my resourses, but when I asked how you fixed it and what I can do next time to reduce my calls to tech, they give me a fake resolution # to one of our systems and then I end up calling right back. Or, when you think you know what the issue is and it turns out to be incorrect you get a lot of tech people who tell you the issue will be resolved within 24 hours...it makes Cingular look bad as well as the rep when the problem isn't resolved at all...just something to think about.

[Unregistered]

Do you have a source to this Verizon/Attel merge? I haven't heard anything.

Cancel your contract and go to Verizon. After aquiring Alltell in the next couple months, it will be the largest carrier in the country. The network is better maintained than any other. $5 Billion a year is put into expansion and maintanence. You won't get your dropped calls, you get a phone that goes through extensive testing, and best of all......the termination fee is a low $175 and decreases by $5 every month. It's their way of saying, "if you don't like us, go elsewhere......you'll be back". Isn't it funny that Verizon has the lowest Churn (turnover) rate of any carrier. Consumer reports ranks it number 1 in every major city and every cell catagory. Stop ur whining and pay an extra $5 - $10 per month for service that is more palitable to consumers tastes and complaints.

[BJ_Deipfo]

Yes Cingular does suck... It is one of the few phone companies that do not provide unlimited texting.I NEED UNLIMITED TEXTING!!!!!!!!!!!!! not having unlimited texting is a killer.... Every other Phone company as unlimited and charge no more than 15 bucks, but cingular charges you 15 bucks just for a thousand.. I would so switch phone companies, if i wasnt so use to my number, my contract was up, and my dad didnt pay me bilL!UGHHH

Cingular does have the Unlimited promotion for 1 month of unlimted texting and then it goes back down to what the bundle has to offer. Also, I know that you can have any bundle but for extra $5, u can have unlimited Cingular-Cingular messages for incoming/outgoing. Your choice of what you want to do w/ your money.

Also, I looked on Verizon's website and nothing states a merger is going on.

[Unregistered]

Cingular does have the Unlimited promotion for 1 month of unlimted texting and then it goes back down to what the bundle has to offer. Also, I know that you can have any bundle but for extra $5, u can have unlimited Cingular-Cingular messages for incoming/outgoing. Your choice of what you want to do w/ your money.

Also, I looked on Verizon's website and nothing states a merger is going on.
We are also getting ready to launch new message packages April 22nd, the packages that use to have 1000 will automatically have 1500 instead and our 3000 text message package will have 6000, you just have to call and have it upgraded, same price, just different SOC code for it. All of our blackberry plans are also going to the 1500 (The ones that have text messaging in with the package), and are going down in price.

[Unregistered]

I work for cingular in customer care, and I can honestly say that I agree 95% with this quote. I know there are a lot of reps that say they have done the basic troubleshooting, but all they needed to do in the end was have the cust powercycle the phone, but the other 5% is that our tech support doesn't always resolve the issue. When I call tech it's because I have exausted all of my resourses, but when I asked how you fixed it and what I can do next time to reduce my calls to tech, they give me a fake resolution # to one of our systems and then I end up calling right back. Or, when you think you know what the issue is and it turns out to be incorrect you get a lot of tech people who tell you the issue will be resolved within 24 hours...it makes Cingular look bad as well as the rep when the problem isn't resolved at all...just something to think about.
Or they say "it's too technical you wouldn't understand"...

[Unregistered]

first and foremost you all are talking about probs that will happen with any provider for cell phones and any customer service you call so get off cingulars back. Second of all the coverage areas yea sorry got bad coverage but a F@#$ing hurricane just hit ,What the hell do you want? Cingular is a very good company and is the only company i have ever had (also a customer with a nokia e62) that actually doenst mind crediting customers , try getting a courtesy credit with sprint yea right!!!!! And for the rep who asked the customer if he wants to sepak to management is tryin gto pass the buck on someone else and needs to take responsibility for that call and that customers concerns. I am the type of rep no matter how bad of an attitude you have i treat all evenly. If you are calling cause your 14 year old son used 100 dollars of internet and you are telling me noone used it, you aint getting $h!t. Now if you call and be honest about it we can work something out. Dopnt call in ating like you own the company because honestly its not the companys fault you cant read your own service plan and you signed a 2 year contract without reading it first . We provide the material to you and what you do with it is your choice. I always read anything i am singing my name on especially a contract. So in final , cingular is a great company and they do a lot of great things like the hurrican katrina relief and providing a great service that you are trying to bash becuase of 1 bad experience .Half of you will be on another bashing forum for another company in future cause you dont know how to R-E-A-D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and if you did read the contract we dotn force you to sign it !!!!!!!!!!

[Unregistered]

my fiancee is on cingular, so we decided to consolidate bills... i KNEW something would happen... i got my bill ---> $480.. oh lord... i have unlimited internet, but they charged me for "pay per use"... the CSR rep said i must have just added it... u frickin idiot, use some sense and look at the prev month bill and ull see that ive always had it... he said it in a very accusatory manner as well... my emails havent been going through and ive had no internet service all month... he tells me its a temp problem and will be resolved in an hour... temp problem? that lasts 30 days? dang... i just paid $175 to terminate my wireless card contract, im thinkin of biting the bullet and terminating the cell contract as well.... CINGULAR IS THE WORST

[Unregistered]

I'm a Sales rep, and just wanted to say the info posted earlier is now incorrect. The old "MEdia Works" package that was $14.99 and included 1000 messages, now includes 1500, and is the same price. The old "Messaging Extreme" Package that included 3000 messages is now UNLIMITED....PERIOD!! It does not matter who you text to, it's unlimited. Verizon has the same, but if you are roaming/not in calling area/using someone else's tower. The unlimited does not apply...but that's ONLY with THEM, not CINGULAR. Also, the Blackberry Plans did not change. The PDA plans changed. The $39.99 Unlimited PDA now included 1500 messages, or if you don't do messaging, you can get the unlimited if you have a calling plan, for $34.99.

[Unregistered]

I'm not agreed with the replays tht many people made about cingular i think tht most of the customers receive wht they wanted and also many of them are people who dont wanted to untderstood all the replays tht they present...

[Unregistered]

Cingular does have the Unlimited promotion for 1 month of unlimted texting and then it goes back down to what the bundle has to offer. Also, I know that you can have any bundle but for extra $5, u can have unlimited Cingular-Cingular messages for incoming/outgoing. Your choice of what you want to do w/ your money.

Also, I looked on Verizon's website and nothing states a merger is going on.

i think u are a little bit delayed with cingular features because we have now unlimited package of msg and best reception in all USA...

[Unregistered]

first and foremost you all are talking about probs that will happen with any provider for cell phones and any customer service you call so get off cingulars back. Second of all the coverage areas yea sorry got bad coverage but a F@#$ing hurricane just hit ,What the hell do you want? Cingular is a very good company and is the only company i have ever had (also a customer with a nokia e62) that actually doenst mind crediting customers , try getting a courtesy credit with sprint yea right!!!!! And for the rep who asked the customer if he wants to sepak to management is tryin gto pass the buck on someone else and needs to take responsibility for that call and that customers concerns. I am the type of rep no matter how bad of an attitude you have i treat all evenly. If you are calling cause your 14 year old son used 100 dollars of internet and you are telling me noone used it, you aint getting $h!t. Now if you call and be honest about it we can work something out. Dopnt call in ating like you own the company because honestly its not the companys fault you cant read your own service plan and you signed a 2 year contract without reading it first . We provide the material to you and what you do with it is your choice. I always read anything i am singing my name on especially a contract. So in final , cingular is a great company and they do a lot of great things like the hurrican katrina relief and providing a great service that you are trying to bash becuase of 1 bad experience .Half of you will be on another bashing forum for another company in future cause you dont know how to R-E-A-D!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and if you did read the contract we dotn force you to sign it !!!!!!!!!!








IM AGREED WITH U BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE THT I ATTENDED ALL THE DAYS DONT READ THE INFORMATION THT WE GAVE TO THEM I ADVICE BEFORE PROCEED CHNGS THE CUSTOMER RESPONSABILITY AND WHT T F!@#$@# feature tht is adding contains i am stongly agree with u

CCR

[Unregistered]

anybody check this out?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRG1iB8NF14

pretty hilarious.

[kokaneebaby]

yes they do....there are no less than 2 call centers in Canada that do cingular work...thats for orange cingular...not blue

actually this is quite wrong


i work in red deer alberta canada and there are atleast 6 more centers here in canada that handle these calls


our center handles converted blue tdma/gsm/orange gsm/tdma and tdma tech support which i am

[kokaneebaby]

We are also getting ready to launch new message packages April 22nd, the packages that use to have 1000 will automatically have 1500 instead and our 3000 text message package will have 6000, you just have to call and have it upgraded, same price, just different SOC code for it. All of our blackberry plans are also going to the 1500 (The ones that have text messaging in with the package), and are going down in price.




you may now get unlimited messaging for 19.99 and unlimited internet and messaging together for 39.99 now

[Unregistered]

you may now get unlimited messaging for 19.99 and unlimited internet and messaging together for 39.99 now
Yeah, I know, the unlimited package came out about 2 days after I posted that :)

[vrocchio]

I bought their broadband PC card over a year ago. At the time they told me that most of Minnesota would have braodband coverage by the end of 2006. I'm still waiting. Their EDGE coverage is slow. I'm thinking about tranferring all my services over to Verizon.
Vic Rocchio
Mpls, Mn
:mad:

[Unregistered]

I bought their broadband PC card over a year ago. At the time they told me that most of Minnesota would have braodband coverage by the end of 2006. I'm still waiting. Their EDGE coverage is slow. I'm thinking about tranferring all my services over to Verizon.
Vic Rocchio
Mpls, Mn
:mad:

Uh, Yeah good luck with that

[Unregistered]

I was with Nextel for six years; my company sent me this link to a "Premier" cingular website that gave our company's employees 40% off phones and 20% off rates... I swear, that if I had known what a fu@#!$%$@# up company this was, I would not have switched for a FREE phone and FREE service.

BE WARNED-- This company is going through a merger and none of the systems talk to each other and what one CSR tells you the next one won't have ANY record of.

You will have to sit on the phone for 45 minutes waiting for someone who has a clue what you're talking about and then have to be transferred to the department who "can do that" only to be told that you need to call another number!!!

Two year committment??? One-way if you ask me

Cingular is THE most user UNfriendly phones...website, and theyre customer service has got to be the absolute worse of all! I reccomend Verizon. Phones r easily operated, text messaging on cingular is the lamest Ive ever seen. Verizon is simplicity at its best. Ive had about all the wireless companies and theyre by far better than all the others. Cingular can kiss my ass

[Unregistered]

I am a CSR for Cingular and let me tell you something folks, an educated consumer is our best customer. When we get calls stating "how do i turn off my phone" or "Ever since you switched to AT&T all I get are dropped calls" and "There's no way I used that many minutes" It's hard not to laugh. My God people if you can explain how changing a company name gives you more dropped calls I'd sure love to hear the explanation! Cingular (Now the new AT&T) is a huge company and unfortunately mistakes can and will happen, Cell service is never 100%, no matter which company you deal with (The actual service and customer service) For every angry cust, there are 1000 happy ones, and of course this is no excuse. Sure your'e pissed because your phone service sucks, and your bill is way too high, but if you take the time to actually check your coverage area, and take the time to educate yourself on what rate plan and features you have and read your owners manual it can and will save you a lot of time and a lot of headaches. Now thats not asking a lot is it? I know if I spent a few hundred dollars on a phone and plan I would want to know exactly what I'm getting for my money. Cingular offers so many different options for this: Your online account,(If you have internet access) Your Cingular service summary, maps, brochures, the star services, and of course Customer care. I know there are reps who are inconsistent, rude and don't seem to care and this is unfortunate and vey frustrating, but there are many more who do genuinely care about the customer and want to solve your problem. I guarantee that if there are mistakes made because of Cingular it will get resolved, but I think some of the onus is on the customer to be informed about what they have. Its called being proactive.

[Unregistered]

excuse the lack of proper grammar that you will see in my response. i work for customer care for cingular as well. to be honest i have had 9+ yrs experience in the customer service business from many aspects being from fast food to inbound call centers. personally, anyone that reaches me that is already frustrated by the last 10 reps they talked to who had no idea how to handle the situation i am as inclined to help due to their frustration as any other customer that calls in and is patient. i know that it is difficult when you have tons of customer reps working in several different locations where the only contact between calls with us representives is the HOPE that the previous reps have notated the account properly with everything they have told, promised or set expectations for. unfortunately in a perfect world, the notations and communication would be superior, which sometimes they are non-existant.
i cannot tell you enough how much i as a rep get extremely frustrated by the time the call reaches me and the customer is furious and ready to climb through the phone becuase the LACK of following through on our end from other representitives and they were promised incredible feats by the last rep who didnt even bother to notate they touched the account to begin with.
it happens. i accept it and move along with the call and take it as if i was the first rep the customer has reached. thats my work flow and not very many take that on. i understand the frustrations because i too am a consumer that has to deal with calling customer care when i have a problem with any kind of service be it my cell phone, my landline, cable etc.
i can tell you one thing. i dont expect any customer to oblige me and be perky and friendly. i do expect the opportunity to help you. if youre yelling and screaming for 10 minutes into the call about your history with cingular it doesnt get to the root of the problem. thats one thing we all forget when we are upset. like ive said, it happens.
i also dont expect you to know everything there is. i do expect that you read your service agreement that you are signing into in full. youd be amazed at what is covered under that. it covers dropped calls, roaming charges, service isnt 100% gauranteed etc etc. its basically the same that every other provider states in their contractual agreements as well.
unfortunately the cell towers are not perfect, nor are we. there are days we have issues. there are also days youre going to reach someone who has no idea what theyre talking about or doing. nine times out of ten, that rep is in training and literally doesnt have a clue.
it doesnt hurt to be a little patient, and if you feel unconfident that they didnt resolve your issue for calling in, simply call back.
i know i dont want to spend all day on the phone. i know you as customers also dont want that as well. not everyone in my end works the way i do. unfortunately there will always be a sort of inconsistancy because of that.
the reps that have already posted responses show that. some are being profane and rude. others are trying to help.
i try my hardest to give the best customer service i can to you as a consumer, and that comes down to the treat others as you would like to be treated. i cant tell you enough that sometimes when im on the other end i tend to get frustrated and angered easily by lack of courtesy for being a customer as well. we all do. especially when it comes down to something i feel is unjust and out of whack.
there are plenty of us in the call centers that do care for you as a consumer and do understand how upsetting things can be. especially when you dont understand your bill.
there are a lot of customers that just pay their bill and dont look at it until it starts getting higher. the bills are sent for a reason. it states everything you are paying for and everything you are using on a monthly basis. its pretty good info to keep in tune with. especially when getting a new phone through an upgrade and certain features are slapped on your account as a promotion.
every area offers different features so stating the packages can cause confusion, especially on a forum. the best way to know what is offered in your areas are the internet (cingular.com), your nearest store (where i know can be a nightmare at times) or customer care.
as for getting a rep who is rude or passes you off, you can call back and have another rep send feedback for the last one you spoke to. make sure to get a first and last name as we do NOT give our id #s out (at least in my region we dont).
the only thing i expect from any customer that calls in be theyre upset and frustrated or calm and cheery is to give me the opportunity to resolve the issue youve called in for.
if i cant fix the problem i (and i can only speak for myself here) will do everything in my power to get you to someone who can. i will do my best to make sure that by the end of the conversation you feel confident that something has gone somewhere and not ended at a perfect stand still.
i know i cant make everyone happy and unfortunately thats part of the job.
as a consumer i also know that i am not going to reach someone who has half a brain, and unfortunately the same stands in this company as well.
i will not tell you that cingular is the best and i certainly wont tell you its the worst. that is your decision. i do however stand by the company that i work for and the work ethics that i can provide to our customers.
there are a LOT of things we do to be as fair as possible to our customers. especially when you go over your minutes. cingular is more prone to rerate your bill to a different plan to help you with overages. verizon i have yet to see do that (i have verizon as my provider. ive had it for years before i worked for cingular.)
there are always going to be ups and downs no matter what you choose for your service. as a consumer you have the right to choose what service you want. im not going to sell you on something you believe is horrible. im not going to sway or persuade your decision if you want to take your business elsewhere. i will however, try to find something that works for you within cingular. if there is nothing that will work for you, i dont get upset or take it personal.
cingular is a great provider, you have the option to agree or disagree to that.
i feel a lot of reps that have already posted in response to most of the arguements on here are showing otherwise in the way theyve chosen to respond.
unfortunately every company has those that really dont care and just want a paycheck. cingular is huge, there are that many more that do and love to provide you with the best customer service.
just understand that when you call in and are frustrated and upset, for the most part we are too when youve gotten several reps that didnt do what theyre supposed to do. not only does it make it harder for us to work with customers because by that time you are so upset with the company that you dont want to give any more opportunities because youve spent so much time already trying, it makes it harder to get the issue resolved because at that point customers are usually done listening to options that could resolve the problem.
sorry for babbling so long =D

[Unregistered]

What really gets me after reading thru this thing it the stupid people who say that they have been with Cingular anywhere from five to seven years. If the company is so bad why are you with them for so long? You sign a two year contract. After two years you can leave the company with no further committments to them. Its stupid customers like these who say stuff like, "I've been with Cingular for six years and they suck". Looks good on you. Stupid is as stupid does.

[Unregistered]

From checking other web sites about service provided by other wireless providers - all of them - it seems like they all have sites that say they "suck" too. At least these types of sites give a place to vent frustrations! Every service provider works to keep customers and it is unfortuate when customers have a bad experience with a company. As one who works for Cingular, now the new AT&T, I can only say that the folks who work at our call center really do care about providing good customer service - if they don't, they're not there for long. No company wants to lose customers.

[elmo01]

Cingular is THE most user UNfriendly phones...website, and theyre customer service has got to be the absolute worse of all! I reccomend Verizon. Phones r easily operated, text messaging on cingular is the lamest Ive ever seen. Verizon is simplicity at its best. Ive had about all the wireless companies and theyre by far better than all the others. Cingular can kiss my ass

bravo for the mentally inept...I'll bet your VCR flashes 12:00 alot....


can you hear me now?

[kitkat]

I have never had any problems with cingular. The CSR's are always really polite when I have any questions. I think the service is great!
http://www.temcells.com

[Unregistered]

Ok, I have been an employee of Cingular/AT&T for 9 years. They treat thier employees like dirt and the customers as well. You can see by reading the Cingular manager's post. Um, yeah like he really cares about the customer? This company manages by intimidation. Management has no formal education. They recieve "on the job" taining then are let loose to "manage" the people you customers deal with. They are hateful and hostile. I work in the corporate headquartewrs and would rather not tell my position. I have seen first hand the disciplinary papers from such management. They are nightmares. This company promotes and instigates discrimination and retaliation. This is a communication company yet they think they are some kind of Gods. They do not care about the customer because they are trained not to by intimidation. Management is to conserned about being mean to these customer service employees than actually helping them. Anyway, I could go on all day....

[Unregistered]

Ok, I have been an employee of Cingular/AT&T for 9 years. They treat thier employees like dirt and the customers as well. You can see by reading the Cingular manager's post. Um, yeah like he really cares about the customer? This company manages by intimidation. Management has no formal education. They recieve "on the job" taining then are let loose to "manage" the people you customers deal with. They are hateful and hostile. I work in the corporate headquartewrs and would rather not tell my position. I have seen first hand the disciplinary papers from such management. They are nightmares. This company promotes and instigates discrimination and retaliation. This is a communication company yet they think they are some kind of Gods. They do not care about the customer because they are trained not to by intimidation. Management is to conserned about being mean to these customer service employees than actually helping them. Anyway, I could go on all day....


I don't know were your from but here in Canada we get 3 months training using care, clarify, CSP... Management are always friendly to the employees we get free prizes and other stuff that goes out to teams that do they're job good. As for customers yes we get alot of angry calls but not on any fault of the CCR it is mostly the dealers who cause most problems by adding features that the customer iden't ask for since they get paid by comission. You are so wrong about the new at&t not caring about the customer were I work we got the golden rule posted almost every were washroom, caffeteria, etc.... It's says THE CUSTOER RULES we gota do it easy for the customer and seemleas. So I feel sorry for the customers that you get.

P.S You probably got canned for slacking off and not doing a good job, and looking to put the company down XD. For all the customers that got a rep like this I am TRULY SORRY for the experience you got but not everyone out there is like this we try to be as polite and courties to the customer as possible because without you we have no job thank you and have a great day

[Blair Jett]

I was an AT&T customer for 3 1/2 years & migrated to Cingular in October 2005. I could sit here & tell horror stories that would take up 100 pages. For a company that claims to have the least amount of dropped calls over any other provider, why were my calls being dropped 4-6 times per day? Another problem was that the audio would often cutout for a few seconds every few minutes. Twice in one year the entire network went down in the state of Washington for over 24 hours.

Their mobile web (Media Net) was always going down for maintenance or technical trouble, & this was happening all the time, not just occasionally. Media Net wasn`t working properly in Marysville, Washington, so I reported the problem. They kept insisting that their network was fine & the problem was my phone. I explained to them that the problem only occurred in Marysville & when I went out of town & used other towers it was fine. This tells me that the issue is at the tower near my home. Cingular insisted on sending me a replacement phone. 3 phones later the problem was still there. At one point I finally got a rep to admit that there was a problem at the local tower & they fixed it. 24 hours later the problem was back.

I was calling Cingular an average of about 5 to 10 times a week. They filed several trouble tickets & kept trying to insist that it was my phone, even though I had 3 replacement phones in 3 months. I finally gave Cingular an ultimatum... fix the problem or let me out of my 2 year contract. a few months later I became fed up & called them to cancel my service. The rep begged me to give them one more chance & offered me a $100 credit if I would do so. A week later the problem was not resolved & it was obvious that tech support was ignoring me. I then got an $80 bill in the mail, so I called them to ask what happened to my $100 credit. They claimed they had no record of anyone offering me any such credit.

At that point I went to Sprint & took my number with me. After I came home with my new Sprint phone, I called Cingular & explained that they lost a long time good paying customer because of their crappy service & I informed them that if they did not honor the $100 credit & void the $200 early termination fee that i`d see them in small claims court. They told me that I violated the 2 year contract by terminating my service. I told them "although I did agree to such a contract, Cingular was also committed contractually to provide me with a certain level of service & because Cingular didn`t follow through, Cingular violated the 2 year contract, NOT ME!" I was on the phone for almost 2 hours, but they finally let me out of the contract & gave me that $100 credit.

I have been with Sprint ever since & the call quality & mobile web is 100 times better. I`m pretty happy with Sprint. I will never do business with Cingular (now AT&T again) ever again. Sprint is so much better!

I have dozens of other horror stories with Cingular, this one was just the tip of the iceberg.

[Blair Jett]

You want to know how changing a company name gives you more dropped calls? Let me tell you! When Cingular bought out AT&T they had two sets of towers (red & blue). They eventually shut off several of the old AT&T towers & started using the Cingular towers. It`s common knowledge that one set of towers were far more efficient the the others & the system wasn`t integrated properly when they did the transition. Not to mention that your company can`t seem to decide who owns who. First Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless, then a year later announced that AT&T actually owns Cingular & they will be changing the name back again.

They said it was because AT&T bought some companies back east & that AT&T owns Cingular. MAKE UP YOUR FRICKEN MIND, WHO OWNS WHO???

[Unregistered]

There is some trurth to the towers not being integrated properlly when the original merge happened. I used to work for a subsidary of Cingular West Corporation for customer care over a year ago. At that time they had an ongoing plan to integrate the AT&T towers which unfortunately took a long time to integrate the "gold" towers.

So yes there absolutely was a difference in their reception when the AT&T towers were being switched over, this is no longer an issue thou since the network is fully integrated. They really didn't "turn off" or stop using the AT&T towers, they configured them it think it took a year to do this.

As for dropped calls it could be your calling area, or your model of phone. Usually the reason is that nobody ever turns their phone off! Your sim gets updated when you turn off the phone. Also when your charge is low on the phone you will drop more calls.

I have worked for 2 other cell companies since then and Cingular is better for reception as a whole. The least dropped calls was an independant company that tested the network, The now AT&T can be a bit more expensive than other cell compaies but their network is awesome!

[elmo01]

You want to know how changing a company name gives you more dropped calls? Let me tell you! When Cingular bought out AT&T they had two sets of towers (red & blue). They eventually shut off several of the old AT&T towers & started using the Cingular towers. It`s common knowledge that one set of towers were far more efficient the the others & the system wasn`t integrated properly when they did the transition. Not to mention that your company can`t seem to decide who owns who. First Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless, then a year later announced that AT&T actually owns Cingular & they will be changing the name back again.

They said it was because AT&T bought some companies back east & that AT&T owns Cingular. MAKE UP YOUR FRICKEN MIND, WHO OWNS WHO???

what is the basis of your "common knowledge"? ...

the un-integrated network were blue and orange ( former ATT and former cingular), yes when an area started the integration process the company found out very quickly which phones didnt recieve the OTA update (remember the power cycle to ensure update) and then the ota would have to be sent manually (a user issue... not a tower or the network)...

to set the record straight SBC (who owns cingular) bought ATT wireless and the wireless service name changed...ATT the corporation (who was forced to split into smaller companies in 2000) bought SBC... the name change just became official... when you get used to saying a script 50-60 times a day it aint easy to change... nobodys perfect...considering your post I think you fall into that slot...

[sleber]

I have had cellular service with BellSouth Mobility/Cingular/AT&T for 14 years and for the most part have received fairly decent customer service but now that it is AT&T the customer service sucks.

Prior to signing the contract for my current plan I had a 10% (business) on all my lines, when I got new phones I transferred another line to the account and asked specifically if I would continue to receive my 10% discount including the added line and was told yes. Well I never paid that much attention to the bills but a couple months ago I noticed that the added line did not receive the discount so obviously I tried to get it corrected. After a bit of arguing with the CINGULAR CSR I got a credit for past months and was told I would get the discount in the future. I look at my next bill (the one I paid late because I never received my email notification) and instead of giving me a 10% discount they had given me a credit (to expire in 3 months) equal to the 10%. I sent an email to get it corrected (now AT&T) and was told that that line and all my other secondary lines were not eligible for the discount and it would be removed. I replied to the email to have a supervisor call me.

As I am shopping I get a call from the AT&T CSR supervisor and basically get told that I was lucky to be getting the deal I was getting because my plan should not have been eligible for any discounts. The person was extremely rude and was not going to waiver on giving me my PROMISED discount even though it would only amount to about $20 since my contract was about to expire. So once again I asked for her supervisor with no better results (except she wasn't quite as rude). So again I asked for another supervisor. I got the call from the Customer Service Manager and again was told I was lucky to have the plan I had and even luckier that I was still going to receive my discount on my main number. I tried my best to explain my position, I did not care about the money (remember $20) but it was the principle. I had made an agreement in good faith and all I expected was for the other party to do the same. I was told that the discount was not part of the agreement and I was getting a really good deal. This went back and forth for a few minutes during which time the CSR Manager threatened to remove the discount on the main line "all it will take is a click of the mouse". I continued with my argument and the CSR Manager told me I was arguing a "MUTE" point and he took offense when I offered that the word he meant to use was actually "MOOT" (which I also spelled for him). Bottom line AT&T Customer (dis)Service sucks. Why would any company risk losing a long time customer (14 years) over 20 bucks (probably more now, I am sure they will remove my remaining discount)?

This has ticked me off to the point that I am now planning on changing wireless phone providers and switching my AT&T home service to a digital carrier. I plan on sending a letters to AT&T higher ups (not that they will care) letting them know how dissatisfied.

[Unregistered]

I don't know man. I don't think it's so much "demanding a rosy attitude" from a customer as much as it is having the customer explain what the problem or issue is with their service. I know some of the customers have been experiencing frustrating service problems and I can understand that their pissed off. There are also high turnover rates at call centers and a lot of the customer service reps that you get are brand new to the job and often times they are thrown into the middle of troubleshooting phones and analyzing bills. I'm not defending Cingular's service. I'm just saying that to me its just a job. I don't let it get to me, and I try to help customers. I don't demand a cherry attitude. I don't wield credits based on merit points I assign to a customer based on whether or not they are rude. If you've got a problem with your phone I'll try to fix it. If there's a billing issue. If it's legitimate, I'll will make an adjustment. And if you want to tell me that Cingular sucks, go right ahead and I'll still try to help you.

[EnzoF]

That's too bad. Whenever you make changes to the account make sure you ask a lot of questions. Family talk plans only give a discount on the primary line and text messaging features and such do not receive the discount, even on the primary line. By the way, when you get a business discount with AT&T, you are bound by the terms and regulations set out on your FAN (foundation account number) which represents the agreement that your company or the company you work for signed with Cingular or AT&T. If you had all lines on individual plans, then you would get discounts on all. Best of Luck.

:) I have had cellular service with BellSouth Mobility/Cingular/AT&T for 14 years and for the most part have received fairly decent customer service but now that it is AT&T the customer service sucks.

Prior to signing the contract for my current plan I had a 10% (business) on all my lines, when I got new phones I transferred another line to the account and asked specifically if I would continue to receive my 10% discount including the added line and was told yes. Well I never paid that much attention to the bills but a couple months ago I noticed that the added line did not receive the discount so obviously I tried to get it corrected. After a bit of arguing with the CINGULAR CSR I got a credit for past months and was told I would get the discount in the future. I look at my next bill (the one I paid late because I never received my email notification) and instead of giving me a 10% discount they had given me a credit (to expire in 3 months) equal to the 10%. I sent an email to get it corrected (now AT&T) and was told that that line and all my other secondary lines were not eligible for the discount and it would be removed. I replied to the email to have a supervisor call me.

As I am shopping I get a call from the AT&T CSR supervisor and basically get told that I was lucky to be getting the deal I was getting because my plan should not have been eligible for any discounts. The person was extremely rude and was not going to waiver on giving me my PROMISED discount even though it would only amount to about $20 since my contract was about to expire. So once again I asked for her supervisor with no better results (except she wasn't quite as rude). So again I asked for another supervisor. I got the call from the Customer Service Manager and again was told I was lucky to have the plan I had and even luckier that I was still going to receive my discount on my main number. I tried my best to explain my position, I did not care about the money (remember $20) but it was the principle. I had made an agreement in good faith and all I expected was for the other party to do the same. I was told that the discount was not part of the agreement and I was getting a really good deal. This went back and forth for a few minutes during which time the CSR Manager threatened to remove the discount on the main line "all it will take is a click of the mouse". I continued with my argument and the CSR Manager told me I was arguing a "MUTE" point and he took offense when I offered that the word he meant to use was actually "MOOT" (which I also spelled for him). Bottom line AT&T Customer (dis)Service sucks. Why would any company risk losing a long time customer (14 years) over 20 bucks (probably more now, I am sure they will remove my remaining discount)?

This has ticked me off to the point that I am now planning on changing wireless phone providers and switching my AT&T home service to a digital carrier. I plan on sending a letters to AT&T higher ups (not that they will care) letting them know how dissatisfied.

[Unregistered]

You sit here and read all these complaints about at&t and how bad their services is, yet at&t has the most customers then any other wireless service. They may have a few dropped calls, but which company can not gurantee that they will not drop a call, none. What customers don't realize is that at&t always gets the best phones that are gsm first. Yeah some of you idiots are like well verizon has better phones, well verizon is cdma, two different systems. Did everybody forget that they launched the v3 razor phone first, and how about a new phone that is out, maybe you have heard of it, the iphone. So maybe the services isn't the greatest but at least they give you options for more phones then you can choose from, and they still have the largest voice and data services in the United States. Also did you forget that they offer rollover mins, unity plans which allow wireless customer's to call landline numbers with at&t at no cost to them. So next time you sit here and want to say that at&t sucks just remeber that they provide the service to the best ways that they can but things could be worse, they could be sprint.

[God dammit!]

after reading thrugh all of this nonesne, as i have nothing better to do at the moment, i feel the need to clarify a few things here.. im an EX cingular/ AT&T rep, and happy to be out, the management at my center was shit, so mush pressure to say the right things like "have i resloved ur issues" and other bul shit rather then looking into if we actualy resolved the issue even if we didnt word it liek that. the day i left was the best day of my life. but moving forward, When cingular bout out AT&T WIRELESS!, they did alot of changes, for exapmle att wirelss was tdma, cingular was gsm, already theres 1 problem, towers had to be converged to GSM.that was completed, i had few complaints, minus the retards still using the old att phones and wondering y they wont work, after being notifed about free fones to switch over. Then THE NEW AT&T, not part of ATT wireless folks, purchased cingular, all they did was simply change the name of th company and what ur phone displays the towers were identical, they started to shut down the remainder of the TDMA towers cause lets face it, TIME TO UPGRADE! it happens, put it this way you buy a car, it has a cassette deck, then the CD player was standered EQuIP. the cassettes start to fail from age, time played and you go to get a new deck, Guess what, unelss u go to a used parts place, ie, scrap yard, ebay, you will have to GET a cd player, like TDMA to GSM. There is no suck thing as perfect service, alot ofthings and contibute to a dropped call, ie. wether, the building your in, steel roofs, house wiering, dead spots do exist, EVE near sighs that thay " fewest drop calls". thats the keyword, FEWEST!!!! not NEVER. verizon, sprint, and all this comapnys are just the same, with shitter phones, and less coverage, because they are TDMA and CDMA, and good luck takeing one of thoes out of the country, because it wont work, everywhere else is GSM ( global system for mobile communication) keyword being "global" it cause be used anywhere. what else, non att simcard will work in the GSM phone, unless unlocked, and DONT call the day b4 leave, try a few weeks ahead, cause u wont get it that instant. read your bil, not just the total on the front page. even tho ur phone isnt the primary on the FT plan, cause it was purchased furst, maes no difference in pricing, its all the same, 411 DOES cost, its $1.79 per call, dont use it, then call in saying you didnt, esp if u do it every month, notes are kepts for reference we can see everying u called about, deping if the rep left any, dont cal demanding for credits cause YOU dont liek the bill bal, if ligitamet, PAY IT. don call in trying to get a free phone with NO contract, it wont happen. If calling to change plan, have it started on the billing cycle date to save on prorated charges, thats al il reply, BED TIME

[SilverR]

You sit here and read all these complaints about at&t and how bad their services is, yet at&t has the most customers then any other wireless service.

They have the most because 1 bought another.

[???]

i am also a CSR for at+t(cingular) i will bend the rules and do all i possibly can, but if you are immature enough to call names, curse, yell, and scream... i will do everything in my power to make you miserable or help you the least i possibly can. i have been here little more than a year and have given almost $50,000 worth of credits, but only to those that DESERVE them. If your nice, I will do anything i can to help you.

It does seem a little unnessesary to have to call back and check up on everything. But honestlly as an employee.. i have to agree....sadly enough things dont get done as they should.. but its that way with ANY company(cable, internet, home phone, cell phone) thats the reason i left Verizon. the reps that i had dealt with there were actually mean and seemed to do everything they coudl possible do to make you feel stupid.

[A. Rodriguez]

All right, I'll say there's alot of issues with AT&T...there's times when even I (CSR) think...'WTF, this is ridiculous!' and I'm ashamed of many people with in the company. But come on...wheres the consumer responsibility here????? I've read 2 pages into this blog and couldn't go any further. I COMPLETLY AGREE, 110%, theres a giant's handful of useless reps working here and its a nasty headache...I catch myself getting crabby at times, and try not to take it out on my customers (I am human). But seriously...80% of the complaints are just ridiculous. People want what they want (UNREASONABLE REQUESTS, MEANING), if they don't get it, its waa waa to the Better Business, or FCC...but nothing thats actually a valid complaint. Dont cry about rollover capping, ITS BEEN IN THE CONTRACT T's and C's for YEARS!!! Dont complain about stuff that you SHOULD have taken the time to reveiw ahead of time (the ts and cs are veiwable any time). I actually get the pleasure of working in a department that requires us to provide a 'welcome call' for our new customers...we're working on getting this standardized throughout the customer srvs departments...tho, it takes about 20 minutes to go thru (covers costs/fees/ts and cs/etfs/returns/etc...no surprises for those who choose to listen)and i can imagine that annoys a lot of people. Truth be told, theres NO possibilty of 100% satisfaction in ANY company, ANY indrustry, but I will say this in closing, AT&T IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE OTHER WIRELESS CARRIERS...I would say Verision is the only other Cell Phone Co I would even consider. The notion that AT&T is doing shady business is really quite ridiculous...dont think we would be allowed to continue as a company if AT&T was actually breaking the laws...

[Unregistered]

How To Escape From Your Cingular Contract.
This is a success story of how a mere mortal got “Cinguliar” to cancel my contract and let me port my number to another carrier. I was a former customer of AT&T Wireless, and by and large I liked them – great coverage, decent customer service and a good rate plan. I was with AT&T from 2001 until they sold out to Cinguliar. Shortly after the buyout my signal strength began to deteriorate. A friend in the industry informed me that it was only going to get worse. He told me Cinguliar was moving across the land dismantling the TDMA equipment used by AT&T and replacing it with Cinguliar’s GSM equipment, thereby deminishing the ability of former AT&T customers to use their cell phones. After about a month of being unable to make a cell phone connection from our home I phoned Cinguliar Customer Circus from our land-line and asked them what they could offer me in the way of a GSM cell phone. They informed me that they would be only too happy to sell me a new cell phone but I could NOT keep my former rate plan – a plan that was much better than any offered by Cinguliar. They said I would have to “upgrade” my rate plan along with my phone because a new GSM phone wouldn’t work with the old TDMA rate plan. I told them that I was fairly certain that the phone didn’t give a damn what the rate plan was and expressed my belief that it was a breach of contract for Cinguliar to purchase AT&T contracts and then systematically degrade the signal strength - that the contract ran both ways – they agree to provide me with service and I agree to pay for it. No Service – No Pay.
So, I informed the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html) and went off to Europe for five weeks with my wife. When I returned I had a brief letter from Cinguliar informing me that, in their eyes, the issue was resolved because I did not answer my cell phone when they called me, and I had not returned their call as they had instructed in the message they left. Great - so I called the “President’s Office” at Cinguliar (800-498-1912) and left a message. A week later I received a call from Angela (ext. 12211) who informed me that she had “Good News”. She said that not only could I buy a new phone but that she could offer me a less expensive plan than the one I had with AT&T. She then proceeded to explain how she had researched my usage for the past four months and discovered that I was using far less minutes than my plan allowed and wouldn’t it be a better deal for me to buy a Cinguliar plan with 450 anytime minutes for $39.95. I received this call when my wife and I were having dinner at a restaurant and the entire place came to a halt when I exploded in laughter… “Umm, excuse me Ms. Craft, but did it not occur to you that I used so few minutes during those four months because I could hardly ever get a signal?” I didn’t even mention that for five weeks my phone sat at home while I was out of the country. So, after a brief silence I informed her that I wanted out of my contract and I wanted to port my number to T-Mobile where $39.95 would give me 1500 anytime minutes. Furthermore, if she did not agree, I would invoke the arbitration clause of my contract, and I defied her to find an impartial arbitrator on the planet who would rule in Cinguliar‘s favor. She actually agreed with me and said that I was out of my contract and I could port my number and she would send me a letter stating these facts. Well, big surprise…the letter never came, but I was able to port my number and I am now a happy T-Mobile customer.
I am having my bank send Cinguliar a check for $10.00 every month until my final bill is paid. I am doing this for the months of frustration and poor service I had to endure. Cinguliar has since informed me that because I ported my number over one day into my next billing cycle that I owe them for an additional month. When I confronted them they backed down and prorated the bill for that month. Actually, at this point – I’m just having fun with Cinguliar. I could care less that they insist I pay the entire amount immediately – my credit can handle the hit, and as long as I’m paying something they can’t really do very much.
So, I suggest that any unfortunate Cinguliar customer in a similar situation repeat my steps to freedom. It will take a while, but there is a light, and a much better service provider, at the end of the tunnel.

Bruce in Oregon


WHATS FUNNY IS T-MOBILE IS A GSM CARRIER...JUST LIKE, guess who.......uh oh, thats right!...CINGULAR!!! Cant imagine the cell serivce is any different, considering its the SAME service, just under a different name...hhmmm. And T-Mobile has partnership deals with Cingular to use each others towers when needed. Sounds like a little exaggeration there. Good deal on the price plan tho...but my question is: does it include m2m or nw mins too or just 1500 anytime mins?

[Worbit]

They have the most because 1 bought another.

Silver, i like you man.....we think a lot alike.....i was about to post the same thing too.

Its funny how that company made it seem like they grew to be that big. I worked for Cingular when the merger happened and all of the AT&T customers that came into my store opt'd to port their number out for free and cingular waived their ETF fees because their contracts were with AT&T......not cingular. They only became that big because those customers suddenly found their service with Cingular, not AT&T. The window that they had to change service providers and not get hit with a ETF fee was very very small....so in the end, Cingular basically trapped AT&T customers into becoming their customer

[Unregistered]

I have been with cingular for over a year now and I also helped customers switch thier accounts to cingular from the former AT&T wireless...I dont think we "trapped" them we gave them the option to either switch carriers or migrate over to us...yes they would sign a new contract if they switch but the reason for them switching is due to the fact that the goverment is makeing all carriers who use the TDMA network to shut down so the customer had to either move to cingular, switch carriers, or just not have a cell phone...now that cingular is the new at&t we are not requiering our current customers to resign because its just a name change not a technology change...if thier are any Verizon customers out thier you will know what I mean because they will be switching to GSM in the next couple of years...

[Unregistered]

I have been with cingular for over a year now and I also helped customers switch thier accounts to cingular from the former AT&T wireless...I dont think we "trapped" them we gave them the option to either switch carriers or migrate over to us...yes they would sign a new contract if they switch but the reason for them switching is due to the fact that the goverment is makeing all carriers who use the TDMA network to shut down so the customer had to either move to cingular, switch carriers, or just not have a cell phone...now that cingular is the new at&t we are not requiering our current customers to resign because its just a name change not a technology change...if thier are any Verizon customers out thier you will know what I mean because they will be switching to GSM in the next couple of years...


Shoot, I'll just have to deal with it. Maybe by then ATT will have a robust 3G network in place here in LA, and I can switch over. Their 3G coverage map looks like swiss cheese in SoCal. I don't wanna hear how all carriers have dropped calls, etc.. as some have previously posted. I'm 10 days into a 30 day try-out of an ATT phone (TILT), absolutely love the features on the phone, but it will probably go back. Why? I've had more dropped and poor quality calls in the past 10 days than I've had with Verizon in past 6-7 years. The first time I called my wife she barely could make out what I was saying - and I was calling from our local market. My calls with V are clear, and those with ATT have a little hiss in the background on the best of calls. Bummer, cause V is soooo slow getting out PDA phones out in a reasonable time.

Bill from SG

[Unregistered]

cingulars insurance is a fraud.... ive been a customer since 2005, i paid the couple of dollars a month and so recently i renewed my contract and upgraded my phone to the nokia n75 over the internet. well 2 months after the fact the outer and inner display broke. so i called up cingular to get a replacement phone only to be told that cingular had removed the insurance over a year ago. so why didnt they ask me if i wanted to add insurance to the new phone? if i didnt have it. their excuse was "we dont issue insurance on pda's"... that makes no sense to me, why wouldnt you want to insure an expensive phone... so here i am stuck with a broken phone and my old phone from the stone age for another 2 years. if i want the same phone it would cost me full price.. why should i pay full price for a replacement phone when their the ones who screwed up. the customer service rep pretty much told me it was my problem and they offered me a phone that is in no way comparable to the n75. this is really disappointing.. not to mention that when lowering the minutes on your plan they take away all your rollover minutes. i had a family plan with 1400 minutes with 7,000 rollover then changed it to the 700 minute plan they took away all but 700 rollover minutes. CINGULAR IS A HUGE RIPOFF....

[Unregistered]

I was with Cingular for over 3years and they did not have a tower in Elizabethtown (North Carolina) where my family went every weekend so I was waiting for my contract to end to change to another plan. My husband and son both lost their phones so I went to the Cingular store to purchase at FULL PRICE 2 phones that cost me over 400.00 because I told them I did not want to sign up on a new contract but I had to wait 3 more months until the contract ran out. When I switched phone services Cingular billed me hundreds of dollars for breaking the contract on the two phones I purchased. I called and they said when you make one phone call from the phone that was purchased you automatically went under contract. I had to pay the money for the broken contract and asked them over and over why would I have paid full price for 2 phones when if I wanted to sign up for the contract the phones would only have been 30.00 per phone? No one would ever help me, they sent me to collection so I had no choice or time to really fight them. Beware because they lie!

[Unregistered]

The Rollover policy was put in place to avoid fraud. Signing up service on a 6000 minute plan for one month, rolling over 5000 minutes and dropping down to a $39.99 plan is STEALING.

[Unregistered]

The reason PDA's are not insured is because they are EXPENSIVE and they don't want to allow someone to fraudulently file a claim for a $350 phone and only pay $50 for a brand new one. Yes, it should have been explained to you when you purchased the phone...but your logoc that the company should insure more expensive phones is just petty.

[Unregistered]

My PDA is covered...


But I have Verizon

[Crazed Fanz]

ill tell u im a warranty exchange rep for the new at&t. Let me tell u aboutyour warrnty first off in the contract it states do not use the phone for bussiness, personal home phone etc simply because the phones will break if u think your phones coverd under warranty for physical or liquid damge think again only manuifature defects apply to warrnty blank screens, buttons sticking, you know manufature problems as a warrnty exchange rep we only send out refurbished phones, even if u get the phone from insurance, even if its from a warranty exchange store you guessed it. And its not poor At&T's fault i mean when it was cingular it was a little bit better but the phones suck... yes they do i work for at&t but i have sprint:D as my service providor... why becasue they give me a 25% discount on service and they are wayyyyyy better than cingular. Speaking of refurbs again i work for warranty exchange i was told " im the most important part of atr&t wireless" of course i am,:mad: :mad: the phoes suck. if there was no me who would customers:mad: call to complain to;) . And all the phone doent suck beacuse at&t has 70million sumthing customers they only loose 1.4 million a year just take into consideration before you gop with any service providor what is the warranty covering if you phones starts having problems.

[Crazed Fanz]

BE WARNED-- This company is going through a merger and none of the systems talk to each other and what one CSR tells you the next one won't have ANY record of.

You will have to sit on the phone for 45 minutes waiting for someone who has a clue what you're talking about and then have to be transferred to the department who "can do that" only to be told that you need to call another number!!!

Two year committment??? One-way if you ask me
( im a warranty exchange csr and this statment is so true i transfere people all day everyday)

[Unregistered]

I work for AT&T and i'll admit that everything is not perfect in the company, unlike the company all these people posting here are working for. A good majority of customers that i talk to want the company to take care of all the issues they have, when a good deal of them are the customers fault. Example, one customer calls in and just got a new phone and then two months later dropped it in the toilet. By their own admission they declined to add insure to it and then got made at us because we wouldn't give them a new one. Another, Dad calls in because his son goes over his text mess by almost $3000.00, yes, $3000.00. He then wants us to give him credit for all the messages and then cancel his son's line with no term fee. We are we having to take responsability for what your kid does. I see these kinds of issues day in and day out. Now, i'm not going to sit here and say that AT&T doesn't have things they need to fix and have legit customers that call in and have real issues. But, we are here to help our customers with real issues and not to baby sit customers minutes, text messages or tell there kids not to download porn form the net. People have gotten to the point now that they want to take no responsability for there actions, it's all a blame game now days.

[VZW]

Verizon customers out thier you will know what I mean because they will be switching to GSM in the next couple of years...

No, if anything we will be switching to the 4G network that is the next gen GSM, they are completely different in quality. The way you state it Verizon is stepping down to GSM within the next few years but in reality we are going towards the next band of GSM. Vodaphone is developing with Verizon Wireless a model of GSM that should be roughly 5 times faster than REV-A CDMA connectivity. CDMA is currently superior but the next gen GSM is going to blow CDMA out of the water.

[Unregistered]

except the next gen isn't GSM. it's OFDM.

and the standard is referred to as LTE.

so you're wrong, too.

[runner1212]

AT&T is by far better than this lewd crap I have now with t-mobile.

[GDawgtuk]

I apologize. In total honesty, I dislike how Cingular and other wireless phone companies are ran. You're right that I am paid to help the customers who call in for assistance, and I work very hard to do what I can to help everyone I talk to with the best of my ability. I wrote these comments with the intention to help someone, maybe just give some tips that could help get better results from the CSR you are speaking to, but I never mean't to insult anyone or make anyone mad. I do what I can within the policies and guidelines that Cingular has set for me and my coworkers. I am a consumer too, and I have been "screwed" by corporations myself, so I have an idea of what you folks have been through. I hope that one day I will get the chance to assist you as I truly try to do what I can to get you as a Cingular customer a proper resolution. My past comments were mean't in the best of intentions, but I do understand how it could be read like I was being a jerk. So, I'm sorry. Hope everything works out for all of you, Sincerely, CSR JB.



Though JB here received some responses that I am sure he wasn't expecting I do feel I need to point out that he had some valid points along the way. In a perfect world, we can put all of our faith into a company as we blindly hand them over money for a service, that by any reviewer is rated "perfect," and know that the money we give is going toward the exact thing we want and need. Of course, that is a perfect world and certainly not the one we are living in. I have a lot that I am compelled to say here. So I need to split this up a bit.

1) To avoid dropped calls, power your phone off and on atleast once per day. If you leave your phone on for days at a time, your signal may get stuck on one tower and the farther you travel away or the more you move around, the weaker your signal will get. This causes dropped calls, static, gargling, etc.....When you turn your device off/on, your phone automatically searches for the strongest signal possible in your area, and by getting a new signal you can prevent dropped calls, static, etc.

Phones are getting more advanced by the minute now days. Compared to even two years ago, it seems they are getting closer and closer to little handheld computers instead of phones. What happens to your computer when you keep it on for months at a time? Ironically, it's the same thing that happens to your phone! It is definitely a good idea to make people aware of this, otherwise someone else will end up doing it anyways when the customer comes to the store or calls into customer service. No harm here.

2) When you make changes to your account or start a new service, MAKE SURE YOU WRITE DOWN THAT REPRESENTATIVES FULL NAME, ID NUMBER, AND LOCATION (store, customer care, online, etc). And as a precaution, make sure you call back within 24 hrs and ask probing questions like "what text messaging package do I have, or, what rate-plan am I on"? If you wait weeks or months and assume it is done the first time, you may have waited too long and that is where your billing errors come in. A lot of the charges that you pay for that were "discrepancies" could have been avoided by calling back within 24 hrs to make sure that your request has been fulfilled.........Now I know this shouldn't be necessary, but for your own safety, I would recommend you follow this.

Why is this bad advice? You are signing a contract for one or two years of your life. You are agreeing that not only are you going to pay for these services but you are also prepared to pay a termination fee if you decide to change your mind somewhere down the line. With that in mind, why would you not want to know exactly what you are paying for? I invite anyone to answer me this; when buying a car, do you not care about the miles, warranty, previous owners, car features, etc? You may think, "That's stupid, a cell phone isn't the price of a car and definitely not as serious of a commitment." If you think that, you may be surprised.

- Both a car and a cell phone hurt your credit if you do not pay on them
- A $99.99 calling plan costs you 2399.76 in two years BEFORE tax, extra features, insurance, etc. Many used vehicles can be acquired at this price range.
- Both require extra insurance to cover the item in case of accidents or theft

Okay enough with the comparison, I need to get to my point. Before you sign a contract you are able to view all the features. If you are blindly going to into that commitment, then you did not ask enough questions. Yes, believe it or not it is also your responsibility to ask questions on things you are unsure of. The sales rep is there to explain anything that needs explaining, but at the same time, he also works on commission and wants a sale. Just like a car, it is up to you to do your own homework and make sure that the sales rep is not trying to get some extra cash by getting you to commit to something that you don’t need. CSR JB has a very good point, by going on your account online or calling a customer service rep other than the one that helped you originally, you can verify that your account is as it should be and rest easy when you go to pay that first bill. No Harm there either! Lets move on.

3) When ordering a new device/phone, go to a Authorized Cingular Wireless store. You save the shipping cost, as well, you pickup the device that day. When you buy a phone you have 30 days to return it (buyer's remorse). It is a lot easier to go back to the store for a return or exchange, rather than sending the phone back through the mail. Sending through the mail obviously can be a risk as phones have been known to go missing, or we don't receive them for weeks at a time, causing a delay in your refund.

This I honestly don’t have much to comment about. You will find a number of "Corporate Stores vs. Authorized Agent" forum posts on this site alone let alone countless of them spread out around the Internet. I personally put my trust in corporate stores. That’s just me. This is good advice though if you are not aware of the differences between indirect and direct agents. No Harm here either.

4) Be nice to your customer service representative when calling in for assistance........The saying "Treat others how you would like to be treated". I'll tell you from personal experience, I am much more willing to give credit and/or bend policies if you're friendly with me. If you swear at me, call names, shout, or act like you're entitled to more than what we're offering, you'll get less than what you could have. Just take a deep breath, state your point and why you feel there has been a mistake, and I as a representative would be more than happy to help you.................Just try to put yourself in a customer service representatives shoes. We take approx. 50+ calls per day, and get treated pretty poorly the majority of the time. If you're being treated badly by someone, you are less inclined to assist them. But if you're nice and friendly, you will get more in the end.

Oh, and if you feel you've been mistreated or the rep you are talking to "doesn't know what they are talking about", you're probably right. Like I said, 50+ calls a day of getting treated poorly will do that. My suggestion is to hangup the phone and call back, because you're bound to catch a nice person who is just beginning their shift. Just remember, be nice or you get nothing.

Remember that perfect world mass sarcasm I spewed off at the beginning of this excessively long forum post? That is where this wouldn't apply. We are not in a perfect world, nor are we in the future where all our CSRs are robots. When you call ANY cell phone provider's customer service, you are talking to a human being. A human being that is likely not paid enough for the amount of verbal abuse they have to combat during their 8+ hour day. Though there are many different types of people, you commonly see two different types doing customer service. The first is the "war-torn" rep that has been at it for several years that know how to turn the emotion switch to the off position and do their job. The other is the one that honestly hopes to help each and every person as much as they can, and takes a person's verbal rampage to heart each and every day. Last time I visited my old college, I didn’t see a two or four year program for a Cell Phone provider's customer service department so I can only assume that it hasn't been recognized as a sought after carrier. It is difficult and requires a lot of emotion, restraint and patience and many people that are being chewed out on the other end of that phone are people that had roughly 0.01% to do with your current problem (the extra .01% because they are employed by the company you are having troubles with). But enough CSR sob story. As much as I would go out of my way to defend the difficulty of being a CSR, you also get a wide variety that couldn't care less about the job and just want the paycheck. That ties into everything said in this post about double-checking their work and protecting yourself.

I have gone way off topic, basically my point is these are people you are dealing with, and the crude reality is that people, even while being paid to help you, will do only as much as they want to. Kindness goes a long way.

[GDawgtuk]

I manage a customer service call center and your comments, however true they may be, are abhorrent. The fact that you place the responsibilities on the customer are completely unacceptable. Not only do they not get paid to do any of this, they ARE PAYING YOU TO DO IT. Please send your note along with this reply to anyone in management who will read it. Tell them you "found it" on the internet. But the things you have described are PART OF YOUR JOB. You tell people to treat people how you would like to be treated. The reason that they called you is because they feel they ALREADY HAVE BEEN TREATED POORLY. You say you get 50+angry calls a day. Perhaps you are not going into these calls with an open mind, and not taking the attitude "what can I do to help this customer leave the conversation happy."

You do not have to automatically cave in to help a customer, but you do need to listen and evaluate their complaint to see if it is legitamate. If it is not, you must still find a way to make them feel good about the conversation. That is what you are PAID to do.

Cell service charges are far too restrictive for a company to behave this way.

This is not a threat it is a promise: If you continue to rely on the fact that customers have no choice but deal with you because they are required to sign 2 year contracts, you will eventually lose them, your job, and the integrity that you must have, to have tried to respond here.

If you really want to make a difference, make a difference where you can...there. Not here!

That entire speech had corporate brutally written all over it so it makes a lot of sense that you manage a call center. I am curious on how placing responsibilities on customers are unacceptable? The instant a customer has the idea to purchase cell service they are faced with responsibilities: Finding what company to go with, researching phones and consumer reports, getting facts from the internet or sales person, etc. Contracts are responsibilities aren’t they? Ironically those are directly enforced on the customer by the company itself, but we wont go into that because depending how you look at it, contracts make sense. I'll revisit this for a moment but only to help my point. I didn't get paid to buy my car. I didn't get paid to research it, to maintain it, to talk it down and sit in an office with a guy that decides what interest rate I go with (who also makes commission on a higher rate) and talk to him about exactly what the details of my loan are. I was a customer, but the instant I wanted to become one I had a full plate of responsibility pie to dig into.

Please send your note along with this reply to anyone in management who will read it.

Why do you think he is putting the "advice" on here and not in the form of a note to a lost cause called management? Since when can you go into a retail store and say "I want your plans to be lower" and have it instantly happen because it was told to a manager. You yourself admitted that it was true what he said. One of the things he said was this: Cingular is a large company with many departments, and not all communicate with each other properly. This is like many large corporations, unfortunately. Unfortunately that applies to suggestions as well. If anything, be honest with us and tell him to print it out on soft paper and mail it to you so you can use it as a reserve incase you forgot to get toilet paper at the super market. At least then it would get an ounce of attention and maybe even your thanks.

This is not a threat it is a promise: If you continue to rely on the fact that customers have no choice but deal with you because they are required to sign 2 year contracts, you will eventually lose them, your job, and the integrity that you must have, to have tried to respond here.

This is a double-edged sword. The rep apparently made you feel that he believes people need to deal with him because they are in contract while the average customer feels they are forced to stay with a company because it imposed a contract on them. Maybe that is why many of the reps get that mentality? Even this far into this post I am confused on why you are so mad he wrote that. With so many websites and forums like Phone Arena every flaw a cell phone company has is easily brought out into the open. The advice he gave was honest and his own opinion so though you may believe that in a call center or corporate environment reps need to be like machines, they are still human and likely will act as such.

To be honest though there is a lot here that makes sense with the later parts of your response and there are things I can't argue with.

That’s about it for my rant.

(Was feeling a bit on the sarcastic side if people couldnt tell :D)

[GDawgtuk]

I am going to bring this thread back from the dead because it has to be the most popular thread phone arena has seen.


I work for AT&T and i'll admit that everything is not perfect in the company, unlike the company all these people posting here are working for. A good majority of customers that i talk to want the company to take care of all the issues they have, when a good deal of them are the customers fault. Example, one customer calls in and just got a new phone and then two months later dropped it in the toilet. By their own admission they declined to add insure to it and then got made at us because we wouldn't give them a new one. Another, Dad calls in because his son goes over his text mess by almost $3000.00, yes, $3000.00. He then wants us to give him credit for all the messages and then cancel his son's line with no term fee. We are we having to take responsability for what your kid does. I see these kinds of issues day in and day out. Now, i'm not going to sit here and say that AT&T doesn't have things they need to fix and have legit customers that call in and have real issues. But, we are here to help our customers with real issues and not to baby sit customers minutes, text messages or tell there kids not to download porn form the net. People have gotten to the point now that they want to take no responsability for there actions, it's all a blame game now days.

This response for me is a mixture of questions and a response.

First with the damaged phone, what does AT&T do in that situation? I have not dealt with them in a long time for a phone issue so I am curious? What I am use to in Verizon is if someone was in the same situation, they would have the chance to swap the phone out for a replacement for a $50 fee. They would have to buy a new battery if they needed one but it beats full retail.

You mentioned this: Now, i'm not going to sit here and say that AT&T doesn't have things they need to fix and have legit customers that call in and have real issues. But, we are here to help our customers with real issues and not to baby sit customers and I am just curious what a legit customer and a real issue is? If someone has an issue with their phone, be it they damaged it or it is a defect, that customer is paying for a service they can’t use. That would be a legit issue to any customer. Not to mock your post in any way but isn’t all this in the eye of the beholder? If I was dealing with someone and I knew flat out they were 100% to blame for their phone being damaged, I would likely end up taking a much more skeptical and layed back approach to the situation than the person that is not only down one device they paid for but now has to re-purchase it (in some form) and cant use a service they are obligated to pay for monthly. Damage to their phone isn’t your fault in any way, but to handle those things are literally the job you've taken.

[Unregistered]

well i can see where sum of these questions are coming from, ill give u real life examples ive had to deal with.

Person #1) I dropped my phone in the pool, no insurance, will you give me a replacement phone for free? the answer is no
Person #2) Ive had my phone for almost a year and the charger stopped working. answer yes its under warranty and there appears to be no physical damage
Person #3) My screen stopped working. The phone appears that a dog ate it and pooped it out. In this case no the phone isnt covered
Person #4) I dropped my phone off a building, and its broken into a million pieces. Will you give me a new one. NO, physical damage isnt our responsibility, cust had insurance and needed to file a claim.
Person #5) I left my phone in the car all winter long and now the battery doesnt hold a charge, will you give me a new one? NO, battery failure isnt covered under the warranty or insurance, I consider that neglect of the phone.
Person #6) My key pad isnt working properly and ive had it for 13 months, Yes we can get you a replacement phone, no physical damage.

The moral of these examples is tha if th phone looks abused and your having problems, shock and suprise. You wouldnt take ur plasma tv and leave it out in the rain or throw it in the pool, or abuse it and expect the store to replace it. you must take care of ur device. some of these phones cost as much as $500-$700. treat the device as if it were gold!

[Unregistered]

i too work for AT&T and let me tell you guys something, sure our service has dead zones but Verizon has more. Along with that, verizon has a larger area of coverage.. Our phones arnt the best in the business, but most are reliable (I said MOST). Verizon phones tend to break easy because its the first of theyre kind. That will go for any new design.

At&t is on the verge of getting new and awesome phones... i just dont kno why ppl hate AT&T just because theyre phones dont match verizons. If u have good service (Like i have had... im really proud to say that having AT&T for 4 years now, i have NEVER had more than 5 dropped calls in those 4 years. how many have verizon customers had?).

Customer Service can be a pain and most customers hate calling them up, but like stated in previous replies, if your nice to them, they are amazing to you. I kno from being a customer and workin for them. So be nice and ull get what u want. :)

[bandgirl787]

OH GOODNESS I LOVE Verizon Wireless. I'm not trying being defensive I'm just simply stating what I think. I rarely have dead zone problems. The only problem I've had is when we've gone to Malibu, but, nobody's phone works where we went up there whether it be Cingular, AT&T, or T-Mobile no one can get service. But I love Verizon Wireless. They treat you great, they solve your problems, amazing customer service, they insure your phone, and sure it costs about $5.99 a month, but that's not bad because I got my phone stolen and I had a brand new phone (not refurbished) the very next day. Then, that one had a speaker problem, and they gave me ANOTHER phone that wasn't refurbished on the spot! It was perfect. I also recently bought the Dare. It's a $250.00 phone, online it's $200.00 because of the online discount. I called and they gave me the phone for $150.00 no problem. The guy said, "Hey, I can give you the phone for $150.00" There were no inside twists or anything. It was great. I should be getting my new Dare either tomorrow or Monday. Verizon is TRULY AMAZING. I have NEVER had a problem with Verizon. Now I really am truly sorry for everyone's problems....I HIGHLY recommend Verizon Wireless. It's AMAZING.....but this is just my opinion. :D

[apb91781]

Why CINGULAR TRULY SUCKS
First of all:
They charge you minutes for checking your messages.
Second:
When I signed with Cingular I was TOLD BY THE CINGULAR REPRESENTATIVE to choose a plan that had more minutes than I could use. Since they have rollover I could save up minutes (I WAS TOLD) and then switch to a plan with less minutes at a later time. I would be able to keep the rollover (I WAS TOLD BY A CINGULAR REP), and from there switch back and forth as necessary.
I chose a plan with more minutes than I needed and paid more than I needed in order to put this plan into effect. A few months later (and 6000 rollover minutes saved up), I called to switch to a plan with less minutes. The Cingular rep told me they had changed their policy three days previously and switching to a plan caused me to FORFEIT my rollover minutes. The minutes they seem to take such pride in saying are mine with catch phrases such as “They’re your minutes – you paid for them” and "Never throw away anything you can use to express yourself, including your unused minutes." and "They're your minutes. Don't trash 'em." Keep in mind (and this is what really makes me upset) I WAS TOLD TO DO THIS.
I was obviously upset with this situation. After several calls and talks to managers I was told that an area manager would call me to resolve my issue. I was never called. After over a week of waiting for an area manager to call me back (NEVER HAPPENED), I called them back again and they were very rude to me and told me it was impossible to resolve the situation and that it states in the contract that they can change their billing policy WITHOUT NOTICE. They also told me they couldn't change my plan without decimating my saved rollover minutes (6000 minutes) because the COMPUTER WOULDN'T LET THEM.
That’s fine, I wouldn’t have a problem with that – but understand what happened here – THEY TOLD ME TO CHOOSE A PLAN WITH MORE MINUTES AND THEN SWITCH TO A PLAN WITH LESS MINUTES (KEEPING MY ROLLOVER) AT A LATER TIME. THEY SUGGESTED IT TO ME. If they switch the policy without notice, I don’t have a problem with that. But it’s the dishonesty of tricking me into spending more money on one of their plans and then cheating me out of the value I thought I was receiving – IN FACT I WAS TOLD I WOULD RECEIVE. This is in my opinion a horribly dishonest practice.

Again I must state....
IF WE INCREASE THE PRICE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES TO WHICH YOU SUBSCRIBE, BEYOND THE LIMITS SET FORTH IN YOUR RATE PLAN BROCHURE, OR IF WE MATERIALLY DECREASE THE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA IN WHICH YOUR AIRTIME RATE APPLIES (OTHER THAN A TEMPORARY DECREASE FOR REPAIRS OR MAINTENANCE), WE WILL DISCLOSE THE CHANGE AT LEAST ONE BILLING CYCLE IN ADVANCE (EITHER THROUGH A NOTICE WITH YOUR BILL, A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR DEVICE, OR OTHERWISE), AND YOU MAY TERMINATE THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PAYING AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE OR RETURNING OR PAYING FOR ANY PROMOTIONAL ITEMS, PROVIDED YOUR NOTICE OF TERMINATION IS DELIVERED TO US WITHIN THIRTY (30) DAYS AFTER THE FIRST BILL REFLECTING THE CHANGE.
By all technicalities they changed your billing, increasing the price of the services because of the amounts you paid before did not keep with what was promised at the beginning of your service and that you lost that money that had adversely affected your billing without notice. Granted the legalese on this is rather specific this is a loophole that can be exploited with the proper terminology.
And theres your usual way out, they do that again just leave.

[alannn]

true, i agree with you at This. it sucks big time.





___________
Used verizon cell phones (http://www.wireoxclub.com/)

[VZWtrainer]

i too work for AT&T and let me tell you guys something, sure our service has dead zones but Verizon has more. Along with that, verizon has a larger area of coverage.. Our phones arnt the best in the business, but most are reliable (I said MOST). Verizon phones tend to break easy because its the first of theyre kind. That will go for any new design.

At&t is on the verge of getting new and awesome phones... i just dont kno why ppl hate AT&T just because theyre phones dont match verizons. If u have good service (Like i have had... im really proud to say that having AT&T for 4 years now, i have NEVER had more than 5 dropped calls in those 4 years. how many have verizon customers had?).

Customer Service can be a pain and most customers hate calling them up, but like stated in previous replies, if your nice to them, they are amazing to you. I kno from being a customer and workin for them. So be nice and ull get what u want. :)



EVERY major carrier says that they have the best network. I think the best indicator would be third party opions (such as JD Power, whom AT&T NEVER wins, and Verizon does more frequently than any other carrier <besides Alltel, who we are taking over> and churn numbers <% of customers that leave a company> and Verizon is ALWAYS #1 in the industry for this number). If third party surveyers and cusotmers both rate Verizon above AT&T, that means a lot more than either carrier could say about it.

[Clowny]

As someone who has no experience with AT&T and came to this area of the site to learn a bit about them, I must say that I love how a lot of the negative comments are left by reps of other providers. Now I am not saying that just because you are a rep of another company that you shouldn't be allowed to speak your mind, but I have a few pointers for you.

1. This thread is for genuine complaints, not sales pitches. If i wanna know how many freakin awards your company won, Ill go to one of your stores. I'm sure they'd be glad to tell me all about them.

2. Your mindless dribble reaks so badly of corporate rhetoric that I can't find the info I am looking for because i have to wade through your posts before finding the ones with genuine information. please stop.

3. This one goes for AT&T reps too. This section of the site is for AT&T. I dont want to come in here and see Verizon has this, or Verizon does that. leave the company bashing at the door. I don't care what your competitor can't do, I care about what you can do. period.

/rant

p.s. to all the reps from at&t or other providers that have been putting in good info into this thread or bringing up genuine issues and leaving it at that, thank you.

[Unregistered]

I found a website complaining about Cingular Wireless, and I must say the disclaimer when you enter the site is one of the funniest disclaimers I have ever read... the whole site is pretty damn funny. I was cracking up... the disclaimer is well worth the time LOL

http://www.cingularwirelessreallysucks.com

[Unregistered]

jb i have a question im trying to buy a new att phone and i saw the quick fire and the eternity but im trying to find out what sistem they use like windows or os can you or someone let me know

thanks in advance

[Unregistered]

Why CINGULAR TRULY SUCKS
First of all:
They charge you minutes for checking your messages.
Second:
When I signed with Cingular I was TOLD BY THE CINGULAR REPRESENTATIVE to choose a plan that had more minutes than I could use. Since they have rollover I could save up minutes (I WAS TOLD) and then switch to a plan with less minutes at a later time. I would be able to keep the rollover (I WAS TOLD BY A CINGULAR REP), and from there switch back and forth as necessary.
I chose a plan with more minutes than I needed and paid more than I needed in order to put this plan into effect. A few months later (and 6000 rollover minutes saved up), I called to switch to a plan with less minutes. The Cingular rep told me they had changed their policy three days previously and switching to a plan caused me to FORFEIT my rollover minutes. The minutes they seem to take such pride in saying are mine with catch phrases such as “They’re your minutes – you paid for them” and "Never throw away anything you can use to express yourself, including your unused minutes." and "They're your minutes. Don't trash 'em." Keep in mind (and this is what really makes me upset) I WAS TOLD TO DO THIS.
I was obviously upset with this situation. After several calls and talks to managers I was told that an area manager would call me to resolve my issue. I was never called. After over a week of waiting for an area manager to call me back (NEVER HAPPENED), I called them back again and they were very rude to me and told me it was impossible to resolve the situation and that it states in the contract that they can change their billing policy WITHOUT NOTICE. They also told me they couldn't change my plan without decimating my saved rollover minutes (6000 minutes) because the COMPUTER WOULDN'T LET THEM.
That’s fine, I wouldn’t have a problem with that – but understand what happened here – THEY TOLD ME TO CHOOSE A PLAN WITH MORE MINUTES AND THEN SWITCH TO A PLAN WITH LESS MINUTES (KEEPING MY ROLLOVER) AT A LATER TIME. THEY SUGGESTED IT TO ME. If they switch the policy without notice, I don’t have a problem with that. But it’s the dishonesty of tricking me into spending more money on one of their plans and then cheating me out of the value I thought I was receiving – IN FACT I WAS TOLD I WOULD RECEIVE. This is in my opinion a horribly dishonest practice.

it is dishonest, yes, but there is no way that the rep could have known that the policy would change 6 MONTHS later.
sounds like that rep was trying to help you cheat the system- and now you can't cheat the system and you're pissed.
........oh well.

[Unregistered]

well i am a rep for at&t now and have worked for at a call center for sprint also. No matter what your opinion is about how we should act on the phone when customers call what i think these reps are trying to communicate is how you can "play" the system to get what you want. When i worked for sprint we actually cleaned house with all of the persistant callers beacause some of them were calling over a hundred times a month. Now you cannot give me any issue that requires you to call that many times in a month. Thats the bad part people call assuming they will have to escalate to a supervisor or act rediculus just to get what they want. The reason for this is because these companies like the prior reps had said "bend" the rules for certain people and certain situations. I have said from the beginning if these companies would make things more cut and dry and not "bend" ANY rules then everyone would be alot happier customers would know what to expect and reps woud not have to worry about if the person that you just told correct info to is just calling back to get another rep that doesn't look into the issue as far as you and does what the customer asks just because of the way the customer acts...believe me it happends all the time. People tell me all the time that they wish they would have gotten me from the beginning so that there issue would have been resolved before they got soo upset. The only thing i would like to say to customers that experience this is everyone knows customer service is the the crapper so when you call its just like any other business. You have a small group of people that really care about customers and atake pride in resolving someones issue. Then you also have those agents that just work at a call center becasue it is an easy job to get with no experience at all and they really just done care..at all! Then there is the larger group of people that sometimes they do what they should and somtimes they dont...really i mean its that bad. So no saying that you guys fall in the category just that's what i have oberserved. Also, i tell all of m friends the same things....most of the call centers you speak with are not company owned they are owned by third party companies. The building i currently work in houses 5 different projects and only 2 are at&t. Now these companies will hire just about anyone that walks off the street and says they have a high school education so when you call in you must have confedence in the person you are speaking with. Looking around i know that when i call in i will make sure i have total confedence in the person i am speaking with because they have access (usually it is staring them in the face) to my personal information. These people have access to everywhere you have lived since you had service with that company as well as ssn, drivers lic number, credit card info....i mean everything. So i hope they may open some of your eyes to the "real world" of the cell phone inudustry....some of your ideas of how customer service should be are talked about in training but seriusly i think what these guys are trying to do and what i am trying to do is just open your eyes to how things really are.

So here's my list....lol
1. if you dont trust the person on the phone or cant UNDERSTAND their version of english-hang up and get someone you can work with.
2. escalate everything to a supervisor- if these companies want to give everything away just because we have lazy managers them let them.
3. make sure the account is noted...whatever is noted in that account is gospel- i have my girlfriend call in and have that rep check the notes on the account when i am offered something before i hang up the call with the rep that i have on the line.(its sad but it works to protect yourself)
4. take responsibility! most problems i run into is people know what they want they just dont take the time to look into it...look at your bills, monitor your usage, and you will find where you can save money
5. do not reley on anything a store rep says expecially if its not a company owned store, most of the reps in those stores are just out for the money as many of you know and they really could care less about you getting overage charges and such as long as they get paid

[Unregistered]

^ amen to that..

quit being a cheap ass and buy a real phone

i agree w/ this. If you buy the cheapest "toaster" you can't expect that to last as long or work as good as say the top of the line "toaster" its common sense, yess phones should be able to work, BUT if you pick up a phone and it weighs like .3 ounces and just looks like crap chances are its crap.....

[Jonnnnnnnnn]

I also work at att, and i have to admit all these complaints are half retarted. from the guy that buys the lowest grade phone they offer to a guy that makes a webpage about how much he hates cingular. 1st off the cingular hatred guy.. I think this is the most retarted idea ever, just because 1.) your wasting your time. 2.) your prob wasting more time and money than if you just paid off the 227 or w/e you owed. and 3.) cingular probably doesn't read your posts im pretty sure they have an automated system that just sends a reply so while your thinkin of all this stuff thinkin o wow im important.... no.. your getting the same letter im sure that every other person that has complained has gotten. And to put that much time in trying to make somethin sound bad is just retarted. Like all the reps said there are terms and conditions, yes you had a problem but likewise if your car was to have problems a year down the road your not just gonna be able to terminate a contract and not pay another dime for it because you think its not up to your expectations.. people do take cell phones for granted as others have said its a fairly new technology and can't be expected to be perfect, after all perfection only comes from one thing...GOD and he didnd't make celll phones.. And ALSOOOOO if you try to treat the person you are on the phone with respectful they are going to try to help you. So overall hopefully you've learned that: 1.) don't make retarted cingular hate sites 2.) every cell phone provider in a way prob has a contract w/ eachother so your gonna have similar problems 3.) cheap phones don't perform as well as the more expensive ones. 4.) if you are nice you will most likely be helped more effectively 5.) don't think that nothing is going to be wrong w/ phones because once again they are not perfect. if you have any questions feel free, to email motoquser@gmail.com

[Lopsterrrr]

cd full retail Macromedia Flash 8 Pro (http://passwordinspiration.com/info-Macromedia_Flash_8_Pro.html)