Cingular SUCKS!!!

[kdyork]

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

[Victim]

The worst customer service ever. Billing errors over $100.00 in one month, several layers of management with no continuity. Stated we will be sending out your new phone and should arrive in 3 days. It never arrived after 9 calls and no response they finally stated we will not be sending out your new phone due to: even though we took your credit card number and stated we will fix all your billing errors that we created we cannot comply with our original obligation. Basically telling me the conversation a week prior newver took place Ken was his name.

[Victim]

The worst customer service ever. Billing errors over $100.00 in one month, several layers of management with no continuity. Stated we will be sending out your new phone and should arrive in 3 days. A week later it never arrived after 9 calls and no response they finally stated we will not be sending out your new phone due to: even though we took your credit card number and stated we will fix all your billing errors that we created, we cannot comply with our original obligation, Management will not sign off!

[Unregistered]

Finally I dropped my service today, but my contract will expire on Dec 22th, since Cingular took over At&T , nothing but, dropped calls, not service on Missouri for three days, calls never went througth, try to call several times and couldn't get througth, all this is documented on my account with notes, and even then today when I dropped my service they said that they will give me a penalty fee for dropped my service.
What a jerks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT GET Cingular !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will regret it

[CSR JB]

I work as a Customer Service Representative for Cingular Wireless, and I use to be an AT&T Wireless Customer Service Representative and I just feel the urge tell you all that you have valid complaints. Cingular is a large company with many departments, and not all communicate with each other properly. This is like many large corporations, unfortunately.

Here are a couple hints to help you along the way:

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.

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.

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.

And Finally......

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.

Anyways, I hope this will help someone in someway. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to respond. I will check back later and answer any questions.

Sincerely, CSR J.B.

[Unregistered]

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!

[ralugnic-hcet]

CSR J.B.,

You probably are new to the bussiness, let me tell you something. If those are your expectations...leave PRONTO.

Professionalism is the key word here.

You still need to learn how to defuse a tuff situation, symphatize, educate...check with a supervisor or your learning tools.

[GB511]

I have to agree with the previous unregistered user. Customers are paying for a service and shouldn't be resposible for maintaining the quality of operation of the service, refering to the comment made by CSR JB about switching your phone off and switching it on to avoid dropped calls. Futhermore customers shouldn't have to keep note of representatives names, identification numbers and locations, that is part of the service the customer is paying for. Cingular needs to restructure the way in which it does business with it's customers, because judging by the amount of complaints that the Better Business Bureau receives in regards to Cingular they are going to end up losing alot of customers. I'm sure the one of the major reasons their customers aren't switching as fast as they would like to is because of the early termination fees.

[Steve Maximo]

Well let me tell you about Cingular sucking. I live in the Hurricane Katrina damaged area. It has been 6 weeks and the phone service really sucks. If I make a call it takes atleast 10 attemps to get a line when you do get a line you better talk fast because you will be dropped. Cingular in this area used to be great when the merger went through that is when it started. Every other call will be dropped. After the hurricane I got a signal and tried to make a call it came back emergency use only so being it was an emergency I call 911 because we was on the phone with a doctor because a friend had an alergic reation to a bug bite well all circuits was busy. I called to cancil my service and it will cost me $200.00. The service ASS HOLE on the phone said once you sign the contract and go over 15 days it doesn't matter how bad our service is you are still liable read your contract. Yes it is true so I figured that since I was treated that way I made a few phone calls with my new ALL TELL phone that worked good to the company that I work for and they are changing cell service. Cingular was top of the list. NOT ANYMORE so it cost me $200.00 and I was able to screw Cibgular out of several thousand dollars so no I can say **** You Cingular

[CSR JB]

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.

[Unregistered]

Now that Cingular and AT&T are joined, I just hope they do not absorb AT&T's way of doing business!
I had an AT&T account at one time. They billed me for $400+ in received calls for one month. Most calls were logged during hours when I was sleeping and my phone was turned off and on the charger!
When I contacted customer service, they assured me that they would take care of the problem, but that I should pay the bill to maintain my service. The amount would be refunded when the problem was corrected!
The following month, I received a similiar bill. When I called customer service again, the connected me with a technician who told me that this impossible for calls to be logged to me unless I received them. He refused to believe that my phone was turned off.
I cancelled my contract and was told that I would have to pay $150 cancellation fee.
The following month, they again billed me for an unbelievable number of received calls. When I told customer service that my contract had been cancelled during that period, they STILL insisted that I had gotten the calls! I now use only prepaid, even though it costs a bit more than the normal plans.

[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.

[some other csr]

im also a cingular csr and I can tell you i average 80 calls per day.. most people are nice..

now the thing is the policys cingular has are pretty strict... and usually when I get a pissed off customer there is nothing I can do WITHIN our policy to make you happy so technically your screwed..

now I can tell you this..

I agree with the previous rep and what he said and I will tell you this right now.. if a customer calls in pissed off, rude, swearing etc and there is nothing within policy I can do to help him then too bad cry me a river, your not entitled to anything, have a nice day..

now if a customer calls in like a NORMAL HUMAN BEING, and understands they are talking to a person with feelings explains everythign in there point of view, I am more then willing to bend policy etc to help them out as much as I can without risking my job...

[Cingular Cust.]

Reading the comments from the CSRs explains a lot about what's wrong with Cingular. I agree we should treat others the way we want to be treated. I wouldn't decieve you or try to cheat you out of your money. Nor would I work for a company who does and you shouldn't either. You should know that when you get an angry customer, they were probably nice the first couple of times they called. But when the problem is never resolved and all you get is the run-arouund, it's hard to be nice. Before you post of list of rules for customers you need to remember it's customer service, not representative service. You're not there to dole out favors to people who stroke your ego.

[Unregistered]

I'm in tech support, and unlike the wimpy CSR above, I love angry calls. Why? because they are so easy to disarm. The customer says, "Your company has just screwed me over and then insulted me." And I say, "That's awful, I don't blame you for being really angry. Now let me see if I can get something done to solve your problem. Did you want to escalate this issue to management?"

This of course is not the method of most Cingular CSP's (Customer Support Princesses). They demand a rosy attitude, and if they don't get it, well screw you and why should Ii care.

The most evil and horrible trick they use is to put you on hold. It's really worse than being hung up on because you hand on for 20 or 30 minutes and then get cut off.

[Unregistered]

My Cingular (Orange) nightmare continues even after I thought I had cancelled.

After 9 straight months of double billing problems, 2 hours per month on the phone and hordes of clueless support folks telling me it would never happen again I finally got help. The answer the Blue team came up with was a port to Orange. Ok, so I tried. Blue couldn't port one of my numbers, so I had to let the number go and sign up for new service with Orange. Off I went, happy to be rid of billing problems, soprry to see my old number go. Then the first Orange bill came in the mail. It was screwed up. Month after month, it had the same issues; Plan had been reset, double billing the anchor account, not merging family plan phones together, you get the idea. So I finally decided to bail. I ate the early termination fees gladly just to be rid of the monthly calls with unprofessional and under trained staff, a wholly incompetent billing management system and over a year of headaches.

Thinking I was done (I even took my wife to dinner to celebrate the break), I started getting collection calls. Turns out, one of the departments never got the memo for one of the other departments that the lines had been cancelled so they sent my account to a collection agency to get the payments for a phone that had been cancelled months ago.

The lesson for me here is to never-ever trust what anyone at Cingular has to say. Never trust what anyone at Cingular does. And if I have to deal with them, always triple check everything only do that thing with a supervisor.

I’ve been with Verizon for 3 months now. Not one single problem.

[Unregistered]

Here are my complaints.

My girlfriend had AT&T since 1995 and never had a problem. She bought me a cell phone for Xmas and added me to her plan. I was with AT&T for over two years, before Cingular came and took over. I had a Motorola V600 phone that worked well, before the dreaded "white flash" problem cropped up. Up until that time, I had not one dropped call, i swear. I had no problem receiving my messages, and the reception I had was unbelieveable.

I loved AT&T, and those that I knew that also had this service also mentioned how great the service was. The customer service was also helpful to me. I live in Miami and as an ex NY'er, I travel back and forth plenty. I have many firends and family there, and once ended up with a pretty large phone bill with the roaming charges. I contacted them to complain, not realizing why my bill was so high, and after receiving an explanation, the rep was nice enough to allow me to upgrade to the National Plan, which included free roaming. She waived the roaming charges!!

Try that with Cingular.

Since the merger, my reception completely sucks. My calls drop, and I have seen incoming calls immediatey route to my voicemail, without warning. I can't even use the phone inside my home, because the service is so lousy, where before, I could call from inside the elevator at my job.

I can't even use the Bluetooth feature on my phone. No one can offer me a reason as to why it doesn't work, even though it worked fine before. I am extremely unhappy, as I've had more problems since this damn company took over,t han I had prior to this merge.

Cingular sucks on an epic scale. The complaints mount, and friends of mine that had Cingular for years have balked and gone with other companies.

After Hurricane Katrina and Wilma, my already terrible service has gotten even worse. I have told my girlfriend that we should dump this piss poor company and go elsewhere.

[Unregistered]

Now up for your surfing pleasure....

http://www.CingularCucks.com

I can't begin to tell you how much I loathe Cingular.

They are the absolute Cuckiest.

(Except Latoya doesn't suck.)

[CINGULAR REP]

I AM A CINGULAR REP..USED TO BE ATT REP..

alot of the complaints that you guyz have some are valid..but some i really dont understand..some customers say? " ive been with att for years..i shouldnt have to extend my contract!!!" and there yelling and rude??? that doesnt make any sense?..that like going to Burger king and saying that since you been eating there for years since u been a kid..u desserve a free whopper?..this make no sense..a company should treat all customers the same....

[emm]

I hate cingular with a passion after being with them for more then 5 years. they still manage to screw loyal client with mistake on they part and make me pay for it. i will not recommend cingular to anyone.

[Another CSR]

In all honesty. yes I do hate my job. Once again 95% of my calls are I WENT OVER MY MINUTES GIVE ME CREDIT. **** off. Your not getting shit.

I will fix anything thats cingulars fault as soon as I can to the best our system allows us which is very good actually. Most the customers expect something for nothing. Yes if you go over your minutes your getting charged a retarded rate. guess what you agree'd to it. NONE OF YOU CHECK YOUR DAMN INFORMATION BEFORE SIGNING AGREEMENTS.

Cingulars customers SUCK

[Unregistered]

you know...i dont mind giveing credits, but if your really rude and u dont get the fact that cingular is doing YOU a favor cingular doesnt HAVE to give you there money..(credits), for valid charges..then im more reluctant...if i give anything at all...

[Sprint Rep]

I AM A CINGULAR REP..USED TO BE ATT REP..

alot of the complaints that you guyz have some are valid..but some i really dont understand..some customers say? " ive been with att for years..i shouldnt have to extend my contract!!!" and there yelling and rude??? that doesnt make any sense?..that like going to Burger king and saying that since you been eating there for years since u been a kid..u desserve a free whopper?..this make no sense..a company should treat all customers the same....

It is interesting, given the manner in which this Cingular rep answered his Customer's plea for help, you wonder why you get the same response when he answers the phone.

Seriously, some professionalisim would have been very welcome. For example, show us that you are infact older than 14yrs old by actually spelling your words, such as "you" and using complete sentances.

Now, can someone explain to me, Cingular offers free roaming. Is that just on the Cingular network? If so, that's interesting because Sprint's definition of Roaming is when you use another companies towers. Their roaming packages include other carrier's towers. It would appear that Cingular (and other co's) packages do not cover you in that case!

Just curious. And BTW, I am not a Sprint employee, just a sprint Rep. I could really care less about the company, I simply do my job and attempt to help my customers to the best of my Ability, which I might add usually gets me many thanks from the Customers. Sprint's training is really, quite good.

[Unregistered]

John, employee no. JK6066, refused to honor the cingular warranty. I own 3 motorolla v180 cell phones. Since the purchase of those devices, they have been defective. All three phones shut themselves off and cannot be restarted without first removing the battery. My warranty from cingular promises that the company will replace defective devices. John recognized that all three cell phones are defective and must be replaced. John violated my warranty by claiming that the warranty's "like kind" provision prevents cingular from replacing the defective motorolla v180 cell phones. Instead, according to john, cingular can only send me three motorolla v180 phones to replace the v180's I already own. That suggestion is ridiculous and clearly violates my rights under the cingular warranty. The motorolla v180 is a piece of junk. That junk status is documented on the internet, just run "motorolla v180" on phonescoop.com. Moreover, all three of my v180 have identical problems. Additionally, my mother's v180 has the same material defects as do my phones and as noted on phonescoop.com and other web sites. Finally, I am entitled to a $30.00 rebate for each v180. To date, I have not received my $90.00 in rebates.

[Unregistered]

your wararnty will only cover the model you orginally bought you coudl upgrade or by at retail if you would want a new device adn you had 30 days to return it under buyers remose

[Unregistered]

Cingular gave me a written warranty. That fact forces the company to also comply with all implied warranties. In this case, the implied warranty of merchantability. Cingular violates that warranty by selling the v180. In my opinion, after six months of use, the v180 is NOT fit for use as a cell phone. It may be a good door stop, or an ok item to throw at a wall, but it sure aint a cell phone.

It shuts itself off. It shuts itself off during conversations. It shuts itself off when not in use. When it shuts itself off you can't just turn it back on. You have to take out the battery, wait, and then hope it actually comes back on. Often it does not. The v180 is not just a bad phone. It's a defective phone that is unfit for the use for which cingular sold it.

Now the warranty led me to believe cingular would replace defective merchandise. John Q. Cingular told me the phones are defective but he refused to send different phones, phones that work. Now I believe that cingular has created a deceptive warranty. That warranty makes you believe defective products will be replaced when cingular only sends you more defective products and claims it has fullfilled its warranty obligations. What a crock!

By the way, Motorolla seems to agree that these phones suck and has stopped making them. Now you can only get the v180 from cingular when they send you one to replace the defective v180 that they sold you to begin with. So everyone seems to agree that these phones are defective (not just substandard) and unfit for use as cell phones. Under the warranty, I am entitled to a cell phone that actually works. According to Federal law, I am also entitled not to be misled by deceptive warranty practices. If you also have a problem with cingular's tactics and policies, I suggest you complain to the Federal Trade Commission https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 and follow it up with a class action law suit.

[Unregistered]

you need to read your terms more carefully i think

[Unregistered]

you need to read your terms more carefully i think

If cingular's warranty is deceptive, then the company's attempts to limit its own responsibility for selling junk phones won't matter. Look, the warranty covers defective devices. Replacing a defective device with another defective device is NOT honoring a warranty. Any guile used to convince consumers that a warranty protects them against defective devices, when, in reality, they are not so protected, creates a deceptive warranty.

All I want is a cell phone that works.

[Unregistered]

All I want is a cell phone that works.
then upgrade to a better one you had 30 days to figure that out and exchange for a different one..also not all those phonse are defective they still make the v180....and yes i know cingular can still ship them cause i work there

[Unregistered]

You mean all this time you've just been a regular companydick!?! I'm so ofended! And, BTW, your opinions are worthless drivel.

[Unregistered]

Cingular does indeed suck. I worked as a customer service rep and nobody knows what they're doing. T-mobile has outstanding Customer Service. Honestly if you go into one of their call centers and take a tally of who uses Cingular, it would be a small minority.

[Unregistered]

It is interesting, given the manner in which this Cingular rep answered his Customer's plea for help, you wonder why you get the same response when he answers the phone.

Seriously, some professionalisim would have been very welcome. For example, show us that you are infact older than 14yrs old by actually spelling your words, such as "you" and using complete sentances.

Now, can someone explain to me, Cingular offers free roaming. Is that just on the Cingular network? If so, that's interesting because Sprint's definition of Roaming is when you use another companies towers. Their roaming packages include other carrier's towers. It would appear that Cingular (and other co's) packages do not cover you in that case!

Just curious. And BTW, I am not a Sprint employee, just a sprint Rep. I could really care less about the company, I simply do my job and attempt to help my customers to the best of my Ability, which I might add usually gets me many thanks from the Customers. Sprint's training is really, quite good.
hhaha..well u did everything but answer my question, your really professional...haha, and cingular romaing is nationwide, no matter if your using sprint towers or not...

[Unregistered]

John, employee no. JK6066, refused to honor the cingular warranty. I own 3 motorolla v180 cell phones. Since the purchase of those devices, they have been defective. All three phones shut themselves off and cannot be restarted without first removing the battery. My warranty from cingular promises that the company will replace defective devices. John recognized that all three cell phones are defective and must be replaced. John violated my warranty by claiming that the warranty's "like kind" provision prevents cingular from replacing the defective motorolla v180 cell phones. Instead, according to john, cingular can only send me three motorolla v180 phones to replace the v180's I already own. That suggestion is ridiculous and clearly violates my rights under the cingular warranty. The motorolla v180 is a piece of junk. That junk status is documented on the internet, just run "motorolla v180" on phonescoop.com. Moreover, all three of my v180 have identical problems. Additionally, my mother's v180 has the same material defects as do my phones and as noted on phonescoop.com and other web sites. Finally, I am entitled to a $30.00 rebate for each v180. To date, I have not received my $90.00 in rebates.


...its request like yours that make no sense at all..you want to process warranty for a v180, but you want another phone? that makes no sense .. if you have warranty for something..your process warranty for the same time..no something different?

[Unregistered]

...its request like yours that make no sense at all..you want to process warranty for a v180, but you want another phone? that makes no sense .. if you have warranty for something..your process warranty for the same time..no something different?


Look at it this way. Say tonight you changed electric companies and your new electric supplier sold you a new, red toaster. Tomorrow moring you try to make toast but the brand new, red toaster won't get hot. Tomorrow evening you return home from work to find that brand new, red toaster had malfunctioned and burned down your house. Now your homeless living on the street. Would you be happy if your new electric company sent you a new toaster?

[Unregistered]

Everything about the warranty is explained in the warranty chapter of your user guide that came with your phone. READ IT! It will answer all of your questions and concerns about what is and is not covered under the warranty and who provides the warranty. (Hint, it ain't the service provider).

[Unregistered]

Everything about the warranty is explained in the warranty chapter of your user guide that came with your phone. READ IT! It will answer all of your questions and concerns about what is and is not covered under the warranty and who provides the warranty. (Hint, it ain't the service provider).

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?

[Unregistered]

I've been on the phone for 2 days now trying to sort out problems with the service I've had for over 4 years now. Originally was ATT. Now Cingular.

I Was talked into upgrading service last year. 2 New Phones, 2 Year Contract, etc...THE NEW GSM MIGRATION, etc...

I've been experiencing very poor reception over the past 2 months. When I called to report the problems, I was told that my current service is inadquate. That the GSM Program Stinks and I need 64 service instead of 32.

There Have Been Numerous Lies From Cingular Reps, Lied to 6 Times Just These Past 2 Days. I was also told by a Supervisor today that Cingular is doing a "FORCED MIGRATION" with old ATT Customers by not renewing contracts with shared towers.

I was talked into upgrading again today. Everytime a rep sent me over to the verification department, verification was unaware of the deal that was made and said that, "we would never authorize that". SO MUCH FOR THE TAPED CONVETRSATIONS THEY SAY THEY HAVE. I ASKED THEM TO REFER TO THE TAPES AFTER ALL OF THE LIES.

SO MUCH MORE FRUSTRATION TO THIS STOREY!!!!

I've been waiting now for the past hour for a, "SAVE TEAM SUPERVISOR", to call me back. She told me within 10 minutes. What a crock.

I'm in a remote area of Hawaii so my choices are limited, but this Cingular Customer Service Department is Probably, THE WORST I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED!!!!!!

[Unregistered]

I've been on the phone for 2 days now trying to sort out problems with the service I've had for over 4 years now. Originally was ATT. Now Cingular.

I Was talked into upgrading service last year. 2 New Phones, 2 Year Contract, etc...THE NEW GSM MIGRATION, etc...

I've been experiencing very poor reception over the past 2 months. When I called to report the problems, I was told that my current service is inadquate. That the GSM Program Stinks and I need 64 service instead of 32.

There Have Been Numerous Lies From Cingular Reps, Lied to 6 Times Just These Past 2 Days. I was also told by a Supervisor today that Cingular is doing a "FORCED MIGRATION" with old ATT Customers by not renewing contracts with shared towers.

I was talked into upgrading again today. Everytime a rep sent me over to the verification department, verification was unaware of the deal that was made and said that, "we would never authorize that". SO MUCH FOR THE TAPED CONVETRSATIONS THEY SAY THEY HAVE. I ASKED THEM TO REFER TO THE TAPES AFTER ALL OF THE LIES.

SO MUCH MORE FRUSTRATION TO THIS STOREY!!!!

I've been waiting now for the past hour for a, "SAVE TEAM SUPERVISOR", to call me back. She told me within 10 minutes. What a crock.

I'm in a remote area of Hawaii so my choices are limited, but this Cingular Customer Service Department is Probably, THE WORST I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED!!!!!!

It does seem strange to me also that, on a public board, everybody seems to love the companies and hate (not just dislike) disgruntled customers.

[Unregistered]

I was with verizion for years & it was horrible! Dropped calls, roaming in areas that shouldn't be roaming, phone just not connecting (and being billed for it). Changing plans & they never put the change through, so I get a HUGH bill, and the list goes on & on. I paid the early termination fee just to get rid of them. I signed up with Cingular a year or so ago & they have been great. No billing problems, no problems with customer service, nowhere near as many dropped calls. I think they're great! The ONLY problem I ever had with Cingular was a rep. in one of the stores was kind of rude. So I just don't go back to his store anymore. I just can't beleive these horror stories. I'm sure they are true, but it is completely opposite from my experiences.

[Unregistered]

I was willing to give Cingular a try. If the phone worked in the midwest, I would keep it. After one week, I realized the phone was not going to workout. I used a total of 12 minutes on the phone. And my trial period bill, after returning the phone, was $136.00. That's Bull****.

[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?
then u buy another toaster bro, u cant say because this "toaster" doesnt do that job i expected i want to get a better one, and just swap them.??!?..thats not just with cingualar..that for basically everyone..read ur terms and conditions...

[Unregistered]

if you have questions on the migration..i can help u with that..


I've been on the phone for 2 days now trying to sort out problems with the service I've had for over 4 years now. Originally was ATT. Now Cingular.

I Was talked into upgrading service last year. 2 New Phones, 2 Year Contract, etc...THE NEW GSM MIGRATION, etc...

I've been experiencing very poor reception over the past 2 months. When I called to report the problems, I was told that my current service is inadquate. That the GSM Program Stinks and I need 64 service instead of 32.

There Have Been Numerous Lies From Cingular Reps, Lied to 6 Times Just These Past 2 Days. I was also told by a Supervisor today that Cingular is doing a "FORCED MIGRATION" with old ATT Customers by not renewing contracts with shared towers.

I was talked into upgrading again today. Everytime a rep sent me over to the verification department, verification was unaware of the deal that was made and said that, "we would never authorize that". SO MUCH FOR THE TAPED CONVETRSATIONS THEY SAY THEY HAVE. I ASKED THEM TO REFER TO THE TAPES AFTER ALL OF THE LIES.

SO MUCH MORE FRUSTRATION TO THIS STOREY!!!!

I've been waiting now for the past hour for a, "SAVE TEAM SUPERVISOR", to call me back. She told me within 10 minutes. What a crock.

I'm in a remote area of Hawaii so my choices are limited, but this Cingular Customer Service Department is Probably, THE WORST I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED!!!!!!

[Another REP]

if you wouldnt get the lowest end ass cheap phone you wouldnt be having these problems

[Unregistered]

Look at it this way. Say tonight you changed electric companies and your new electric supplier sold you a new, red toaster. Tomorrow moring you try to make toast but the brand new, red toaster won't get hot. Tomorrow evening you return home from work to find that brand new, red toaster had malfunctioned and burned down your house. Now your homeless living on the street. Would you be happy if your new electric company sent you a new toaster?


Man, cingular doenst make Motorola phones ...MOTOROLA MAKES MOTOROLA PHONES...cingular provides you with a year warranty on the phone as a grace...if you buy a crapy phone, u cant expect cingular to give you a better phone for the crappy one?....if anything take that complaint to Motorola about making a crapy phone..not cingular.. CINGULAR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SERVICE...NOT YOUR PHONE..CINGULAR BUYS THE PHONES FROM THE MANUFACTURER...AFTER THAT ONE YEAR WARRANTY THE PHONE IS ALL IN YOUR HANDS!!

[Unregistered]

^ amen to that..

quit being a cheap ass and buy a real phone

[Unregistered]

I was nice and it got me nowhere!! I was on a dealer rate until I quit from my current company, Cingular called to tell me that I was no longer elgible for this rate and I needed to change to Standard plan. The guy on the phone told me I would have one month to do this before my phone would be shut off. Well 1 hour later, my phone was shut off. So I called and was nice and told them the gentlemen told me I had a month. The lady on the other end was very rude and told me that gentlemen would of told me no such thing and told me my phone could not be turned on until I changed to a Standard Plan. At that point I was upset over the way I was being treated so I told the lady to please disconnect my service and my account that I was going to a wireless that cared about their customers. Well 2 months later and I get a bill from Cingular. I called them back yesterday, and was on hold for one hour. When I finally got off hold the lady I spoke with said there was no record that I had called to disconnect my service, so I informed her I had and if there was no record we need to get it disconnected now, and I did not want to pay this bill because I had disconnected it two months ago. It was not my fault their employee did not do it right the first time. The agent continued to argue with me, told me their was no record and I was responsible for the bill. After spending 10 minutes calling me a liar and arguing with me and me finally getting angry she finally said she would refer it to a manager and a manager would get back to me on if I have to pay this bill or not Then she told me it would be 48 hours before we even hear from a manager. So I am waiting and we will see what resolve I get from that. But due to the service I just recieved, and having my cell phone not work for 2 months, I will not use Cingualr EVER. I do not do buisness with places that call their customers liars and really dont seem to care about the bottom line!

[Unregistered]

Okay now its been way over the 48 hours and still no response from a manager. I am so not impressed with this company, I know I will never go through them again.

[Unregistered]

Okay now its been way over the 48 hours and still no response from a manager. I am so not impressed with this company, I know I will never go through them again.
I can help you right now if u want...

[Unregistered]

Thank you for offering to help, but as of yesterday we finally got it taken care of. Although my husband did have to call again, and got the same run around I did and arguing. He kept asking for a manager and the customer service rep kept telling him there wasnt one available. After 5 minutes she finally found a manager and got it all taken care of. Its really sad that they treat their customers this way. I chose to go through another carrier because of this and have had nothing but good service from the beginning. I hope Cingular will follow their example.

[Unregistered]

Flip:Cingular rocks, CSR's rock, and you all wish you were me.
A desperado, the happy cingular guns.
GI:Gi says to bad ur not tuely happy, if you were you would enjoy life, and work. You SUCK, and I don't!!!
Flip:Cingular Nation is the invasion. We have AT&T and your next!
SNIVILERS!!!!!!!!

[Unregistered]

I often found that when I would call customer service, I would get nowhere. Being 51 million strong, you would think they would invest a little more in making their customers happy. I moved to a different location and wanted a phone # change because my number was no longer local. I must have called ten times and got the same response: "I'm sorry sir, it is cingular's policy that we charge you $32.00 to make the change." I finally talked to a csr who was willing to make the change after I told him I didn't want to do business with a company that couldn't do their customer a courtesy for a completely valid reason. I recently closed my account and Started service with Verizon. The customer service over there is unbelieveable! They try their hardest to keep their customers happy, and I only have to call once to resolve my concern. My advice would be to get out when you can and switch to Verizon Wireless, you won't be disappointed.

[Unregistered]

Wow that sounds so typical of them... CINGULAR ---- ICCCK!

[Unregistered]

What Carrier did you go with???

[Unregistered]

What Carrier did you go with????

[Unregistered]

^ amen to that..

quit being a cheap ass and buy a real phone

We only buy the phone that the sales people refer to us. If they are crap maybe the sales people should not be selling them.

[not by choice]

I have had a personal work cell phone with Verizon for 5 years - I still have it for my persoanl phone. However, my new company has Cingular Phones, so that is now my work phone. First of all, I belive the actual PHONE is fine...it's a brand new Motoprola with webaccess, picture phone, etc. etc. I have been with the new company for 6 months and this is the THIRD phone they have had to get for me. And the service still BLOWS. Let me count the ways:

1) Dropped calls - constantly
2) Hardly EVER have full bars, constant static
3) More than 40% of the time I have NO SERVICE at all. An hour later I magically have 6 voice mails, and the phone never rang.
4) Goes into roaming in my office AND my house 2 MILES FROM DOWNTOWN ATLANTA!!!
5) Everyone in the office agrees the phone service SUCKS
6) Call to others in the office are impossible to hear due to horrendous static on one end or the other

Are they ever considering improving the network? On a side note, half the time I just pull out my personal phone, the Verixon, and make calls so the call don't drop, even though it means I pay for the call!

I guess the only plus is that I at least don't have to deal with billing or customer service since the company handles that.

[gwoman]

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
I'm with you, whoever you are. My little phone was fine until it mysteriously stopped ringing. I was "forced" to get an "upgrade" and it's been about 6 hours of ear-bleeding, listening to that gabbing, chirping, little bit.h, unable to think, read, watch television, strapped in the commercial shoving torture chamber in my ear.....EEEEOOOOWW..She needs to shut UP!! I have a combined account with SBC, so that's why I'm stuck..alas.
Good luck.

[Unregistered]

Well I'm not defending this company by ANY means but you might want to check a service map of your home. They have the ability to see the coverage all the way down to a specific house and if your office is like most offices in Atlanta reception is gonna be bad due to the building materials all believe it or not all the computers and what not in there. The point is that people demand too much from a wireless phone service. Dropped calls happen, your phone is going into roaming because without it you wouldn't have even near the coverage and btw neither would Verizon, Alltell, T-mobile (would have none). In the end the point is to think about what you are using! It's a phone that works on a wireless network that can access the INTERNET and some of the phones aren't at a bad speed at all! Geez you act like it should work like a landline. Yeah they advertise it that way but you as a consumer need to be a little more intelligent as to what you buy into. Cell phones suck, doesn't matter what carrier you have. Anyone who says diff is either a) lying, b) biased, c)doesn't know how to use their phone, or d) just stupid and probably owns an SUV.

[Unregistered]

so i have a nokia 6102 that i got when i upgraded to cingular a little over two months ago. it has been a perfectly fine phone until recently. about a week and a half ago, every time i would answer an incoming call, i would have to say hello two to three times before people would hear me. this was ridiculously annoying, so i made a call to cingular. after being on hold for a while, they then referred me to their warranty phone number. then i was on hold with them for another while. when they got my call they asked me what the problem was and then troubleshot my phone. that did nothing. they said they would replace my phone for free, but because i had insurance i had to call the insurance number and replace my phone through them. so i called the insurance number the next day and told them the story and how they troubleshot it, so they said they would replace my phone. then the service rep started asking "have you ever had any water damage? have you ever dropped your phone, physical damage etc.?" i answered yes to the phone dropping, not really because i dropped my phone, but because it distinctly looked like it had. very soon after i had gotten my phone, i was taking my phone out of my pocket when the antenna cap popped off. now i was furious that a phone would be made so cheaply that the antenna cap would just come off, but while my friend and i were looking for it on the ground, she accidently stepped on it so it cracked a little. i went to a nokia service center to get a new cap but nokia had not issued replacement parts yet. the crack wasn't that bad so i decided to live with it and they glued the cap back on. when the call was finished the sevice rep told me i was being charged 50 dollars because of physical dammage to the phone. they told me that if i had sent the phone into warranty, they would have seen the dammage and charged me full price. now, either way, if i had told them i dropped it or i hadn't, when the insurance received my phone they would have seen the dammage as well and charged me 50 dollars. i just think this is ridiculous that one drop can void the warranty, even if it was two months before. if one drop can cause a phone to not work, then that phone is useless and should not be manufactured.

[Unregistered]

Here's a trick Cingular won't tell you. If your phone is disconnected, you have to call to get it turned back on. Sounds simple, but think it through...you're disconnected for late payment (long story - company pays - name on check is different from name on phone - constant screw up), you pay, they cash the check.........they don't turn the phone back on until you call. They rack up that $36 reconnect fee - but don't connect. I waited a week just to see - then asked the CSR if that was standard procedure "yeah, you have to call, I don't know why" Even if the check is cashed and the account paid? "yeah"

I've got a year left, something better will come along in a year.

[Unregistered]

when the call was finished the sevice rep told me i was being charged 50 dollars because of physical dammage to the phone. they told me that if i had sent the phone into warranty, they would have seen the dammage and charged me full price. now, either way, if i had told them i dropped it or i hadn't, when the insurance received my phone they would have seen the dammage as well and charged me 50 dollars. i just think this is ridiculous that one drop can void the warranty, even if it was two months before. if one drop can cause a phone to not work, then that phone is useless and should not be manufactured.

Actually she was lying to you. Rather than tell you the 50.00 was for the "insurance deductable" she told you it was your fault for dropping it not just another fee they put on. Yep, you pay 3.99 a month for insurance and that allows you to make two claims a year (after the second claim you are dropped from the insurance program for one year) and when you need to make a claim you are charged 50.00 for the insurance deductable. don't believe me, go ask a service rep.

[Unregistered]

Here's a trick Cingular won't tell you. If your phone is disconnected, you have to call to get it turned back on. Sounds simple, but think it through...you're disconnected for late payment (long story - company pays - name on check is different from name on phone - constant screw up), you pay, they cash the check.........they don't turn the phone back on until you call. They rack up that $36 reconnect fee - but don't connect. I waited a week just to see - then asked the CSR if that was standard procedure "yeah, you have to call, I don't know why" Even if the check is cashed and the account paid? "yeah"

Not quite. When the payment is sent in and processed it is suppossed to turn the phone back on. Sometimes it doesn't though so you need to call but you are not suppossed to HAVE to call.

[Unregistered]

Guy ur crazy...sprint has the lowest customer service scores right now, if ur a sprint employee u should know this..that company customer service national average is the lowest out of all service providers for customer service...u dont know jack about your own company.haha..

[Unregistered]

your freind stepped on your phone, what do u mean a little drop? she cracked your phone?

[Unregistered]

your freind stepped on your phone, what do u mean a little drop? she cracked your phone?

Actually he was saying (what I think he meant at least) that a piece of the antenna broke off and while looking for it his freind stepped on that specific piece that had fallen off. Not that she actually dropped or stepped on the phone itself but that one specific piece that had fallen off.

[Unregistered]

ahhh i c...

[Unregistered]

Wow, I've read alot of hate posts.
I concur with most of them, as i also have droped calls and no service, in many areas that i used to get service with ATT and that is Dark fking yellow on their coverage map.
Customer Services Sucks Rocks, they tell me different things every time i call them.
I have 2 lines(gsm att) that I am currenty thinking about migrating to cing, and all i was asking is to get the same treatment as new customers get, be able to get current promos for the phones.
As i am preety much forced to switch, as they would do nothing for current phone or plans.
I was told number of times before by CSRs and by workers at the local store that i would be able to migrate and get new customer dealse with no prob, that i would be getting a new account # with cingular, a new phone with different GSM cards.
Now they tell me again that i cannot do that, untill my contract ends, or I will have to pay $150 Early termination fee.
I cant tell how frastrating it is, not being able to get a straight answer for so many times.
I had 2 lines with att since 1997.
How do they expect me to commint to new 2 year plan, why i see so much negative.
But I am willing to try couple more things, so i would like to hear if someOne did migrate with no problems, before contract expiration and DID get new phone deals. How bout getting AMAZON deals while still on the contract with ATT, is it DOABLE?

p.s.
Another really anoying thing that noOne mentioned(maybe its just me)
is getting these small DATA Charges like 20-70 cents, sometimes over a $1 on all of my 3 lines and every damn month, paying taxes on these small amount,so on average im paying over $5 extra every month, for DATA, that I dont FKING USE, i called them 2 times asking to disconnect the WEB/WAP feature on all of my phones, that I AM NOT USING, NOR I BELIVE ITS REASONABLE TO CHARGE CUSTOMERS for accidently pressing HUGE FREAKING BUTTON RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PHONE.
I got few runArrounds and it got me nowhere.

[Unregistered]

Here is a funny story. I have a cingular razor. It is the worst piece of shit ever built. I dont have a signal, so I cant make a call. I dont have any other phone in my house, so I cant make a call. So I go to the website. It tells me to call customer service, which I cant do. So, I try to find an email address. It tells me to register my phone for access to the email address. I type in my phone number and it wont register my type of plan. SO, I cannot get any kind of service for my phone. Bottom line, I want verizon back.

[Unregistered]

You know I've been on the front lines and I gotta say that it's ridiculous to hear some of these complaints. Some are valid, most are not. 99% of the time it is due to unreaslictic expectations on the part of the consumer and borderline false advertising on the part of cingular. Like I said, borderline...

Here's a quick tip for all of you, do not give up your landline phones. 911 doesn't work worth a darn on a cell phone. If you live in the southeast you should pretty much never have bad coverage. Keep in mind Cingular was originally Bell South. Thats Bell ---->SOUTH<----

Turn your phone off every day. Just once, it'll clear up 90% of the problems. The best are people who say they are mad because they don't get coverage at their house. You have a 30 day trail period. Buy the phone, if it doesn't work at home take it back. "Ohh the clerk didn't tell me I had 30 days" read your contract. Don't just sign it. I mean for the sake of all that is good and just in the world read a two year contract before your sign it or at LEAST read it when you get home. Guess what? Your coverage is NOT guaranteed. Go ahead, pull your contract out and read it for yourself. Their end of the contract is basically nothing. Your end is to pay them $xxx.xx a month for two years and they don't even have to offer you cellular service. Don't believe me? Well if that was the case then they would be breaking the contract when they turned your phones off. You don't pay, they disrupt your service. Even with your service disrupted you are still LEGALLY under contract for two years. Although they will charge the liquidation damages after two months, they could continue to bill you if they so chose.

All of this information is available on cingular.com you just have to look for it. The forums on cingular.com are a very good place to start. Here is some information for you guys.

Cingular forums. Probably the greatest place you guys could ever find. http://forums.cingular.com/ It is also a GREAT place to whine. These forums are watched carefully. You think they are gonna let some phone psycho get on there and slam them on their own website? Make a post and watch how fast it gets deleted. Post it is an intelligent and reasonable issue and you will get the help and support you are looking for.

Problems with your phone? Just put in your device type (i.e. LG C1300) and then select what is wrong with your phone. https://onlinecare.cingular.com/device-support/index.do

What the heck is this on my bill? Or How do I read my bill?
http://www.cingular.com/customer_service/bill_tutorial_demo

Return policy?
http://www.cingular.com/customer_service/common_phone_return

Phone doesn't work? Think the phone itself is busted?
http://www.cingular.com/customer_service/common_exchange_by_mail

[Bruce in Oregon]

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

[Unregistered]

Bruce you didn't do anything that anyone else can't do. You didn't get out of your contract, you're just paying the liquidation damages. 10.00 for every month remaining of the contract. Also as stated above service is NOT part of the Cingular contract. You didn't win, you lost dude.

[Unregistered]

Bruce of oregon,
wow, your funny, your playing cingular but the company doesnt even know u...haha, if your read your contract, reporting what u did to the FCC would of gotten you no where, everything att/cingular does is..in the contract, end of bililng cycle cancellation..is in your contract..your lucky your bill was ever pro rated...that would have been great if i would taken that call..

[Unregistered]

Wow, I've read alot of hate posts.
I concur with most of them, as i also have droped calls and no service, in many areas that i used to get service with ATT and that is Dark fking yellow on their coverage map.
Customer Services Sucks Rocks, they tell me different things every time i call them.
I have 2 lines(gsm att) that I am currenty thinking about migrating to cing, and all i was asking is to get the same treatment as new customers get, be able to get current promos for the phones.
As i am preety much forced to switch, as they would do nothing for current phone or plans.
I was told number of times before by CSRs and by workers at the local store that i would be able to migrate and get new customer dealse with no prob, that i would be getting a new account # with cingular, a new phone with different GSM cards.
Now they tell me again that i cannot do that, untill my contract ends, or I will have to pay $150 Early termination fee.
I cant tell how frastrating it is, not being able to get a straight answer for so many times.
I had 2 lines with att since 1997.
How do they expect me to commint to new 2 year plan, why i see so much negative.
But I am willing to try couple more things, so i would like to hear if someOne did migrate with no problems, before contract expiration and DID get new phone deals. How bout getting AMAZON deals while still on the contract with ATT, is it DOABLE?

p.s.
Another really anoying thing that noOne mentioned(maybe its just me)
is getting these small DATA Charges like 20-70 cents, sometimes over a $1 on all of my 3 lines and every damn month, paying taxes on these small amount,so on average im paying over $5 extra every month, for DATA, that I dont FKING USE, i called them 2 times asking to disconnect the WEB/WAP feature on all of my phones, that I AM NOT USING, NOR I BELIVE ITS REASONABLE TO CHARGE CUSTOMERS for accidently pressing HUGE FREAKING BUTTON RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PHONE.
I got few runArrounds and it got me nowhere.


you can do a migration from Gsm Att to cingular if your in contract....that shouldnt matter, but if your going to by the phone from amazon..then that would be setting up a whole new line of service, not a migration, and u would get another number setting up a whole new acccount ...in that case you would get an early termination fee, if u cancelled.

[Unregistered]

I just went through the all day hassle of going to the corporate store to try and get my contract cancelled with out a penalty. Being a former AT & T customer I suddenly too have lost reception throughout the city with none at home. They absolutely have you over a barrel. The only way to get through this is to buy new phones that are on their frequency now and sign a new contract. BULL!!! I signed with AT & T, not Cingular. One of their loyal employees told me that Radio Shack sell phones cheaper than they do and they will work for cingular customers. I guess I'm gonna have to go buy the cheapest one they've got till my contract expires in July and then switch to another company. I'm going to call the better business bureau anyway. I know it probably wont do any good but what the hey. I thought I liked Cingular until this but there's no way I would sign with them again. Good luck to all!!!

[Unregistered]

I just went through the all day hassle of going to the corporate store to try and get my contract cancelled with out a penalty. Being a former AT & T customer I suddenly too have lost reception throughout the city with none at home. They absolutely have you over a barrel. The only way to get through this is to buy new phones that are on their frequency now and sign a new contract. BULL!!! I signed with AT & T, not Cingular. One of their loyal employees told me that Radio Shack sell phones cheaper than they do and they will work for cingular customers. I guess I'm gonna have to go buy the cheapest one they've got till my contract expires in July and then switch to another company. I'm going to call the better business bureau anyway. I know it probably wont do any good but what the hey. I thought I liked Cingular until this but there's no way I would sign with them again. Good luck to all!!!



Yeah that stinks, but your best bet is to go to radio shack best buy , something like that, and get either an ATT or unlocked digital phone, its its a cingular phone it wont work, and u have to do that quick, but there going to stop activating att phones all together real soon!

[Unregistered]

Here is a funny story. I have a cingular razor. It is the worst piece of shit ever built. I dont have a signal, so I cant make a call. I dont have any other phone in my house, so I cant make a call. So I go to the website. It tells me to call customer service, which I cant do. So, I try to find an email address. It tells me to register my phone for access to the email address. I type in my phone number and it wont register my type of plan. SO, I cannot get any kind of service for my phone. Bottom line, I want verizon back.

Can i smack you its MOTOROLA razr take it to teh manufacturer not CINGULAR

[Unregistered]

Can i smack you its MOTOROLA razr take it to teh manufacturer not CINGULAR
U HAVE A "CINGULAR RAZR"...haha, cingular doesnt make razr's, hahah, cingular made like one phone,..man u need to call motorola, i guess "T-mobile's Razr" is better..hahahaha

[Unregistered]

Things customers of cingular need to know:
customer service reps are there to help with your issues. (Troubleshooting phones, helping you understand you bills, correcting errors, ect.)

Customers are responsible for reading their bills and knowing what the service includes and paying their bill. The terms and conditions cover everything possible that anyone could dispute. Misinformation does happen and we credit everything in our policy and sometimes more. The policies are clearly set out with what we can and cannot credit. They are more of a guideline. We can go outside of policy a bit but we have to be able to justify what we do with every account.

If a customer roams outside of their calling area or uses more minutes than they are entitled to it's not cingulars FAULT. Every sitation is unique and it's not hard to tell the truth from a BS story. Some complaints are valid and some are not.

As for warranty... the manufacture sets up what cingular can and cannot cover under warranty. Cingular provides warranty as a courtesy to the customer and cover only the phone that was purchased. Cingular could easily say sorry send it to the manufacture which takes way longer and is at your own expense to send to them.

The truth is that AT&T TDMA phones will not work on cingulars network with their plans because they operate on a different frequency. We would love to be able to let customers keep the same plans if it were possible. It would be way easier on our part but because they are in two totally different systems it is not possible.

Now ask yourself this.... would the manufacture of VHS and DVD spend more money making a VHS or a DVD? seeing as how DVD is the new technology it would make more sense (in a business perspective) that they would invest more in DVD's because it is the new technology. Same goes for GSM. They would obviously invest more into GSM than they would TDMA because GSM is the new thing. You can still get VHS but we all know at some point you won't be able to. TDMA is the same. Cingular/AT&T is still maintaining any TDMA towers they have as long as they are repairable. Does it make sense that they would replace a badly damaged tower with TDMA when they could replace it with the new GSM? obviously not. Which can explained why coverage in Florida has gone downhill. People expect that their phones will work no matter what. I had customer call me during the hurricanes to ask me why their phones were not working. nothing else in the area was left there, what would make them think that our towers would be invisible and not touched. I can understand the need to use the phone especially in a situation like that but what do people expect. We cannot get into the area and even get close enough to a tower to repair it but customers still think we can snap our fingers and make it work.

[Unregistered]

BULL!!! I signed with AT & T, not Cingular. One of their loyal employees told me that Radio Shack sell phones cheaper than they do and they will work for cingular customers.

Eh... sorta. You see Cingular and ATT and Bell South are all under the SBC umbrella. Essentially they are all the same company, just divided up with diff names. Oh and what's this? ATT is now BACK in the cell phone game! OH MY GOD! That's amazing! It's like they just keep driving their stock up! I swear these guys are doing something that nobody else is! People like Viacom and Pepsi should look into these ideas.

In short, do your research. It doesn't matter WHO you sign a contract with. Either way you need lubricant.

[Bruce in Oregon]

Gee - there are so many folks who call themselves "unregistered" that I don't know who to reply to. I posted my story a few days ago (Jan. 22) about how I got out of my contract with Cingular and someone calling themselves "Unregistered" made some uninformed comments that I would like to respond to...so, if you're that person then this is for you dude -

1 - I did indeed get out of a two year contract.

2 - When my contract was terminated I owed $137.00 for two months of
abysmal service, I did not owe one cent for a cancellation fee.

3 - Reading a Cingular contract would have done me no good since I wasn't
under a Cingular contract... I was under an old AT&T contract that was
purchased by Cingular. The cancellation fee I believe was $150.00.

4 - Getting in touch with the FCC did get someone's attention at Cingular.
Someone high enough up in the Cingular chain of command to cancel my
contract. That's more than anyone else has achieved in the postings I've
read here.

My suspicion is that the "Unregistered" who replied to my original posting of Jan. 22 is in reality a Cingular employee who gets paid to go on these forums and spread a bunch of crap around to confuse people looking for legitimate answers to their problems with Cingular. If anyone is having a hard time with their service then filing a complaint with the FCC will cost you nothing...why not give it a try? Or, call the number I posted earlier and see if it really does connect you to the "president's office at Cingular"
I have faith that the readers of this forum can tell the difference between the truth and a load of bovine excrement.

[just me]

I am a cingular (former AT&T) employee but am here on my own time, meaning I am not getting paid to type this. I did post as a unregistered user but did not reply to your message. It is not hard to get out of a 2 year contract. They cannot legal hold you to it unless the 2 year contract is signed. If you have an old AT&T contract you did not sign they have to revert it to a one year contract. A one year contract can be verbal. AT&T early termination fees are 175 for most plans but the real old plans are 150. As for the terms and conditions of the contract they have changed slightly (mainly just the way it is worded) but the terms you agreed to state that the terms can be changed. go into a old AT&T store they might have a copy of the terms they could send to you

[Unregistered]

i am also a cingular employee (former att) and trust me, im not getting paid to go on a forum...lol just read your story Bruce, and i agree with the cingular agents, u didnt really win anything, and the cingular contract your talking about that doesnt apply to u, they were quoting an att contract not a cingular one, in matter of fact the att contract is on cingular.com..

[Unregistered]

AMEN TO THAT....


Things customers of cingular need to know:
customer service reps are there to help with your issues. (Troubleshooting phones, helping you understand you bills, correcting errors, ect.)

Customers are responsible for reading their bills and knowing what the service includes and paying their bill. The terms and conditions cover everything possible that anyone could dispute. Misinformation does happen and we credit everything in our policy and sometimes more. The policies are clearly set out with what we can and cannot credit. They are more of a guideline. We can go outside of policy a bit but we have to be able to justify what we do with every account.

If a customer roams outside of their calling area or uses more minutes than they are entitled to it's not cingulars FAULT. Every sitation is unique and it's not hard to tell the truth from a BS story. Some complaints are valid and some are not.

As for warranty... the manufacture sets up what cingular can and cannot cover under warranty. Cingular provides warranty as a courtesy to the customer and cover only the phone that was purchased. Cingular could easily say sorry send it to the manufacture which takes way longer and is at your own expense to send to them.

The truth is that AT&T TDMA phones will not work on cingulars network with their plans because they operate on a different frequency. We would love to be able to let customers keep the same plans if it were possible. It would be way easier on our part but because they are in two totally different systems it is not possible.

Now ask yourself this.... would the manufacture of VHS and DVD spend more money making a VHS or a DVD? seeing as how DVD is the new technology it would make more sense (in a business perspective) that they would invest more in DVD's because it is the new technology. Same goes for GSM. They would obviously invest more into GSM than they would TDMA because GSM is the new thing. You can still get VHS but we all know at some point you won't be able to. TDMA is the same. Cingular/AT&T is still maintaining any TDMA towers they have as long as they are repairable. Does it make sense that they would replace a badly damaged tower with TDMA when they could replace it with the new GSM? obviously not. Which can explained why coverage in Florida has gone downhill. People expect that their phones will work no matter what. I had customer call me during the hurricanes to ask me why their phones were not working. nothing else in the area was left there, what would make them think that our towers would be invisible and not touched. I can understand the need to use the phone especially in a situation like that but what do people expect. We cannot get into the area and even get close enough to a tower to repair it but customers still think we can snap our fingers and make it work.

[Unregistered]

Gee - there are so many folks who call themselves "unregistered" that I don't know who to reply to. I posted my story a few days ago (Jan. 22) about how I got out of my contract with Cingular and someone calling themselves "Unregistered" made some uninformed comments that I would like to respond to...so, if you're that person then this is for you dude -

1 - I did indeed get out of a two year contract.

2 - When my contract was terminated I owed $137.00 for two months of
abysmal service, I did not owe one cent for a cancellation fee.

3 - Reading a Cingular contract would have done me no good since I wasn't
under a Cingular contract... I was under an old AT&T contract that was
purchased by Cingular. The cancellation fee I believe was $150.00.

4 - Getting in touch with the FCC did get someone's attention at Cingular.
Someone high enough up in the Cingular chain of command to cancel my
contract. That's more than anyone else has achieved in the postings I've
read here.

My suspicion is that the "Unregistered" who replied to my original posting of Jan. 22 is in reality a Cingular employee who gets paid to go on these forums and spread a bunch of crap around to confuse people looking for legitimate answers to their problems with Cingular. If anyone is having a hard time with their service then filing a complaint with the FCC will cost you nothing...why not give it a try? Or, call the number I posted earlier and see if it really does connect you to the "president's office at Cingular"
I have faith that the readers of this forum can tell the difference between the truth and a load of bovine excrement.

BUDDY I CAN guarantee U, THAT U DID NOT GET TO THE PRESIDENTS OFFICE...I HAVE THAT NUMBER, IT SAYS "THANKYOU FOR CALLING THE PRESIDENT OFFICE? RIGHT?..., eslcalation procedure man, that all that was...

[Unregistered]

Okie dokie, well been away for a while but here ya go Bruce.

1 - I did indeed get out of a two year contract.

-Nope, you said yourself you are paying 10.00 a month... it's 10.00 a month for each month remaining of the contract.

2 - When my contract was terminated I owed $137.00 for two months of
abysmal service, I did not owe one cent for a cancellation fee.

-Okie, so why pay EXACTLY 10.00 a month? We'll go into this a little further in just a bit.....

3 - Reading a Cingular contract would have done me no good since I wasn't
under a Cingular contract... I was under an old AT&T contract that was
purchased by Cingular. The cancellation fee I believe was $150.00.

-Again, the contract was NOT purchased by Cingular. Techinically Cingular owned it already. ATT and Cingular are both owned by the SAME company! SBC!!! Also you initiated going to Cingular. That is why you were under a Cingular contract.

4 - Getting in touch with the FCC did get someone's attention at Cingular.
Someone high enough up in the Cingular chain of command to cancel my
contract. That's more than anyone else has achieved in the postings I've
read here.

-Here's my experience with the REAL OOP (Office of the President) first off it's not the president of cingular, just the highest you or I will ever get to talk to barring an act of God. My parents were Cingular customers for a pretty long time. One month they got a bill with big time overage. 300.00+ They claimed that my parents were using the phone during peak hours in the morning. Well they were under their night and weekend minutes which per their contract ran from 9pm - 7am. Every customer knows (or at least should) that the n/w minutes are applied to the time zone you are in, not where the contract originated. If you are in Eastern, they start at 9pm eastern time, central, mountain, etc... Well there's no way that they were using the phone at that time and they proved it. Where my step-dad works you CANNOT get a cell phone call out of. Ain't gonna happen. Well at that time he was able to prove that he was in class, then Cingular tried to say that these calls were made in the eastern time zone. Well he then proved that he was not in that time zone at the time through work documentation and by showing when the call was recieved by the other party on their cell phone bill. That person was in the eastern time zone and their was an hour diff between the two call times. Well after MONTHS of fighting with cingular reps (most of which I did for them) at this point they had liquidation damages (220.00 per phone due to almost brand new contracts and another 300.00 or so in overage the next month) and all kinds of overage on there. This bill was crazy go nuts huge! They decided to take it to the next level and let an arbitrator (per the cingular contract) resolve this dispute. The OOP called them and bam! Everything cleared off, not a penny owed and out of contract. They are now fairly happy Sprint customers.

This was not the only experience I've had with the REAL OOP and every time (a cousin and a very good friend) they wiped the bill regardless of why the overage was there and out of contract. A clean break. Cingular has a term for this regarding the OOP, it's called "giving away the farm". There's one last thing that kinda breaks your story, each time there were e-mails written back and forth and everything you can imagin was either faxed in or mailed in to the OOP. Somehow I became the guy everyone has deal with their cingular rep problems. I've spoken to probably a hundred (if not more) cingular employees. That's why I know so much. I've spoken with them soooo many times. I can tell them how to do their job when on the phone with them.

One last thing, I do NOT work for Cingular.

[Unregistered]

Okie dokie, well been away for a while but here ya go Bruce.

1 - I did indeed get out of a two year contract.

-Nope, you said yourself you are paying 10.00 a month... it's 10.00 a month for each month remaining of the contract.

2 - When my contract was terminated I owed $137.00 for two months of
abysmal service, I did not owe one cent for a cancellation fee.

-Okie, so why pay EXACTLY 10.00 a month? We'll go into this a little further in just a bit.....

3 - Reading a Cingular contract would have done me no good since I wasn't
under a Cingular contract... I was under an old AT&T contract that was
purchased by Cingular. The cancellation fee I believe was $150.00.

-Again, the contract was NOT purchased by Cingular. Techinically Cingular owned it already. ATT and Cingular are both owned by the SAME company! SBC!!! Also you initiated going to Cingular. That is why you were under a Cingular contract.

4 - Getting in touch with the FCC did get someone's attention at Cingular.
Someone high enough up in the Cingular chain of command to cancel my
contract. That's more than anyone else has achieved in the postings I've
read here.

-Here's my experience with the REAL OOP (Office of the President) first off it's not the president of cingular, just the highest you or I will ever get to talk to barring an act of God. My parents were Cingular customers for a pretty long time. One month they got a bill with big time overage. 300.00+ They claimed that my parents were using the phone during peak hours in the morning. Well they were under their night and weekend minutes which per their contract ran from 9pm - 7am. Every customer knows (or at least should) that the n/w minutes are applied to the time zone you are in, not where the contract originated. If you are in Eastern, they start at 9pm eastern time, central, mountain, etc... Well there's no way that they were using the phone at that time and they proved it. Where my step-dad works you CANNOT get a cell phone call out of. Ain't gonna happen. Well at that time he was able to prove that he was in class, then Cingular tried to say that these calls were made in the eastern time zone. Well he then proved that he was not in that time zone at the time through work documentation and by showing when the call was recieved by the other party on their cell phone bill. That person was in the eastern time zone and their was an hour diff between the two call times. Well after MONTHS of fighting with cingular reps (most of which I did for them) at this point they had liquidation damages (220.00 per phone due to almost brand new contracts and another 300.00 or so in overage the next month) and all kinds of overage on there. This bill was crazy go nuts huge! They decided to take it to the next level and let an arbitrator (per the cingular contract) resolve this dispute. The OOP called them and bam! Everything cleared off, not a penny owed and out of contract. They are now fairly happy Sprint customers.

This was not the only experience I've had with the REAL OOP and every time (a cousin and a very good friend) they wiped the bill regardless of why the overage was there and out of contract. A clean break. Cingular has a term for this regarding the OOP, it's called "giving away the farm". There's one last thing that kinda breaks your story, each time there were e-mails written back and forth and everything you can imagin was either faxed in or mailed in to the OOP. Somehow I became the guy everyone has deal with their cingular rep problems. I've spoken to probably a hundred (if not more) cingular employees. That's why I know so much. I've spoken with them soooo many times. I can tell them how to do their job when on the phone with them.

One last thing, I do NOT work for Cingular.


Okay whoever you are your stupid. Sorry but No other way to say it. Bruce said he was paying 10.00 a month till his bill was paid which was 137.00. There is no fee of 10.00 a month for a old AT&T contract. It is pay your plan price and keep getting billed until your contract is up and then cancel or cancel now and pay 150 (if you have a REAL OLD PLAN) or 175 (if it is a new plan.) By old plans I mean before mid 2003 at least. Cingular did not own the contract. AT&T and Cingular were 2 SEPERATE companies. That is why in 2004 there was a BIG PUSH to get AT&T customers into contract. They were paying us for every contract we got from customers. I only offered it it really was to the customers advantage and they were getting great promotions for it. Cingular did by the contracts. If they weren't then why would they have to BUY AT&T? As for you story you probably got the credit because it wasn't worth what cingular had to pay their employee's to help you resolve your issue. A lot of credit is given because it is not worth our time to argue with you about not getting credit. They may have been able to prove they were at work and did not make the call but could they prove that they had the phone with them while they were at work? and for the record customers of AT&T go by the AT&T terms they hads not the cingular terms

[Bruce in Oregon]

Okay folks, I don't mean to flog a dead horse, but the $10 I pay each month was my decision. Cingular wants ALL the money within 30 days or they say they'll turn it over to collections. My decision to pay $10/month was merely my way of expressing my unhappiness with Cingular customer service. I hope that keeping me on the books will cost them more than I'm sending them... probably not, but it gives me the feeling that in some small way I'm an irritant.
I liked AT&T because they tried to resolve problems. I never got that feeling with Cingular. Maybe it was the luck of the draw, and I got connected to lame reps, but I never got the feeling that the reps at Cingular had the authority or the desire to really solve my problem. They were friendly, but not helpful. I came to absolutely hate Cingular, and from the postings on the web I certainly was not alone. I have since moved over to T-Mobile and so far so good. It has been only a few months but I have nothing to complain about. My point in writing about my experiences is that writing to the FCC seemed to lead to a resolution of my impasse with Cingular. It may work out differently for others but it beats the hell out of accepting what Cingular hands out as customer service. Perhaps my experience with the FCC was unique (I doubt it) but like I said - it costs NOTHING to try it.
I appreciate the opportunity I've had on this forum to express my thoughts. I have read all the responses to my initial posting and I feel that the majority of them are from responsible people expressing their true feelings. I also believe that praising the providers of good service and flaming the ones who don't does a service to our larger community of readers.

Bruce in Oregon

[Unregistered]

Okay whoever you are your stupid. Sorry but No other way to say it. Bruce said he was paying 10.00 a month till his bill was paid which was 137.00. There is no fee of 10.00 a month for a old AT&T contract. It is pay your plan price and keep getting billed until your contract is up and then cancel or cancel now and pay 150 (if you have a REAL OLD PLAN) or 175 (if it is a new plan.) By old plans I mean before mid 2003 at least. Cingular did not own the contract. AT&T and Cingular were 2 SEPERATE companies. That is why in 2004 there was a BIG PUSH to get AT&T customers into contract. They were paying us for every contract we got from customers. I only offered it it really was to the customers advantage and they were getting great promotions for it. Cingular did by the contracts. If they weren't then why would they have to BUY AT&T? As for you story you probably got the credit because it wasn't worth what cingular had to pay their employee's to help you resolve your issue. A lot of credit is given because it is not worth our time to argue with you about not getting credit. They may have been able to prove they were at work and did not make the call but could they prove that they had the phone with them while they were at work? and for the record customers of AT&T go by the AT&T terms they hads not the cingular terms

NO NO NO, WHOEVER YOU ARE YOURE STUPID, whoever wrote that about the $10.00's a month for the contract to Bruce is right, its part of an esclation procedure, for old att contracts, for someone that doesnt work for the company, the guy does know alot...and if YOU do work for the company ask your Team Lead about it..

[Unregistered]

NO NO NO, WHOEVER YOU ARE YOURE STUPID, whoever wrote that about the $10.00's a month for the contract to Bruce is right, its part of an esclation procedure, for old att contracts, for someone that doesnt work for the company, the guy does know alot...and if YOU do work for the company ask your Team Lead about it..

actually I've asked about it plenty of times. If anything they would rerate it to the lowest plan they offered which would be 19.99 unless were talking business then that is different. if a customer had 3 months left they would be charged 3 months at 19.99 and given credit for the etf. (early termination fee)

[Unregistered]

actually I've asked about it plenty of times. If anything they would rerate it to the lowest plan they offered which would be 19.99 unless were talking business then that is different. if a customer had 3 months left they would be charged 3 months at 19.99 and given credit for the etf. (early termination fee)
Do You work for 2G? if u do, then your Team Lead is wrong,and on your spare time..contact RSD.

[Unregistered]

Do You work for 2G? if u do, then your Team Lead is wrong,and on your spare time..contact RSD.

Yeah 2g and like I said I have asked

[Another csr.]

i was just goin throught the 7 pages of hearing all u dumbass americans complain about nothing. you act like your cell phone is a part of you body and that it is always going to work.. but guess what liek every other compay out there, cingular is not perfect. and i have to agree with some reps it is easier to credit a friendly customer rather then an angry 1. altho i do understand that were are supposed to treat everyone with an open mind, but when u take 60-70+ calls per day and hear the same stores its gets irratating, liek for example, i had a call, some idiot was trying to dispute a 56000kb data charge on his bill, apperantly he never uses it, ya right GROW UP. but any way the whole warranty issue, its not offered by cingular. its the 1 year MANUFACTURES warranty.... and if there is an issue with the phone dont go blaming cingualr, cause like that said, we sell em, we dotn make em, but a tip, stay away from the LG phones, and the moto v557, and any cheap ones. and obviously the service in the hurricane affected areas will be shit cause guess what, towers arnt invisible and it takes time to build new ones. be paitent, soon enought they wil be fixed.. anyways thats all i can think of at the time being.. aND ll i know is im glad to be canadian and altho the service provider im with has poor customer servies.. the network servise is great, and i have the razr, and i never had any of the problems u ppl have. and the funny part is when u cal in about problems, chances r the rep ur gettin is canadian and guess what, we fix yer phones most of the time if u have a network issue, so the stereotype that u americans give us about not being smart is not even close to being true. and god, the southeaster acent is irratating.. and fir future referenc to anyone who calls in and calls the razr and i quote" i got the razr back phone" shouldnt own one!!! ne who im out.. peace

[Unregistered]

chances r the rep ur gettin is canadian and guess what, we fix yer phones most of the time if u have a network issue, so the stereotype that u americans give us about not being smart is not even close to being true. and god, the southeaster acent is irratating..

So right about Canadians. How many times have you had a customer ask where you were and tell you they always get the best service from Canadians. I get it all the time.

Yes and the southeastern accent is more than irratating. They need to learn how to say pardon me, excuse me, can you repeat that, instead of "maim" everytime they want you to repeat something. That annoys me the most out of all calls.

And on another note when you ask a question wait for the answer before you ask a million other questions. We can't answer your questions if you are going to cut us off before we give you your answer.

Another CSR where are you? Hal, RD?

[Unregistered]

Im in ontario, lol how bout u? the absolut worst is when thay have an issue with 2 of there phones and the call on 1 of em when there driving and the other is with a family member at work or stuff liek that, what do they expect us to so, magically fix it. but i have to admit i have had a few smart ones, very impressed, and whats the deal with the retard store agents, they screw everythign up. i say we take there jobs LOL.

[Unregistered]

I think it is great that you are defending your company! Your ability to type, spell, and form a complete sentence with proper grammar explains why I have had the experiences that I have with Cingular reps!

[another csr]

thx, i really appreiceat that, its nice to know that atleast someone out there appreicats the job we do. and its not all that bad of a company, ya some areas the srevice does suck, but we dont control the us and we dont have towers everywhere, with that said, for the most obvious and common error on the cell phone "network busy" dont call in and ask what it means, use your head, its self explainatory, you try runnin 55 million people thru sumthing of yours, it tends to happen, and 1 more thing before i sign off for the night, when you get your bill and see that its high, before you call in PLEASE REIVEW YOUR INVOICE, i cant stress that enougth, and even if its not hight do it anyway, so you dont call in a year later to say i never wanted voice dial etc.. well have a good night everyone!

[kepnchk2]

Wow! I am amazed at all the venting in this room. I also work for Cingular formally AT&T and it is true that due to the merger we did experience issues with combining our towers. We did however realize our network and equipment were having many issues with having two signal strengths out there and that is why we sold the troubled towers to t-mobile...lol... With that said I do feel however that Cingular is making great efforts to supply a great network, even though TDMA may seem more reliable, GSM is the future.

[kepnchk2]

I think it is great that you are defending your company! Your ability to type, spell, and form a complete sentence with proper grammar explains why I have had the experiences that I have with Cingular reps!


Umm, are you saying that you have had bad experiences? I am not sure if this is a compliment or not.

[kepnchk]

Okay whoever you are your stupid. Sorry but No other way to say it. Bruce said he was paying 10.00 a month till his bill was paid which was 137.00. There is no fee of 10.00 a month for a old AT&T contract. It is pay your plan price and keep getting billed until your contract is up and then cancel or cancel now and pay 150 (if you have a REAL OLD PLAN) or 175 (if it is a new plan.) By old plans I mean before mid 2003 at least. Cingular did not own the contract. AT&T and Cingular were 2 SEPERATE companies. That is why in 2004 there was a BIG PUSH to get AT&T customers into contract. They were paying us for every contract we got from customers. I only offered it it really was to the customers advantage and they were getting great promotions for it. Cingular did by the contracts. If they weren't then why would they have to BUY AT&T? As for you story you probably got the credit because it wasn't worth what cingular had to pay their employee's to help you resolve your issue. A lot of credit is given because it is not worth our time to argue with you about not getting credit. They may have been able to prove they were at work and did not make the call but could they prove that they had the phone with them while they were at work? and for the record customers of AT&T go by the AT&T terms they hads not the cingular terms



There was a time with AT&T that we did do suspentions for customers that only cost them 10.00 a month, which was a SAVE offer. Now, unless you were on the retention team you may not have been aware of this. Smashing customers, even former customers, is not good PR or a good image for Cingular, whether you are from the US or Canada. I know that this transition has been hard for both employees and customers. This forum should be used to help with pending issues or to share experiences, but to call someone stupid for sharing his or her experience is not an acceptable trait for an customer service rep. (Cingular or not). I am also Cingular formally AT&T and I came across this forum looking for unlocking codes for my V551, because my new phone with Cingular is no where close to the functionality I am accustumed to. And for all you customers out there, we employees have the same issues when it comes to getting unlock codes...lol..

[Unregistered]

There was a time with AT&T that we did do suspentions for customers that only cost them 10.00 a month, which was a SAVE offer.

well if it was a suspention then it really wasn't getting them out of their contract because as soon as it was reinstated the length of time it was suspended for would have been added to the end of their contract. And on another note it was 9.99 for 180 days then it was automatically reinstated, it was called seasonal/vacational suspend.

[another csr]

Actually its 10 dollars per month, it ads 1 mont to every month on the contract plus its call reduced rate suspend.

[Unregistered]

I use to work for AT&T and kept working for Cingular wireless and had enough so I left, and i will tell you why cingular has horrible customer service. First yes we get paid but belive me not nearly enough for the crap we put up with when people call in and can't understand something as simple yes sorry phone has a one year warranty you have a 2 yr contract it been a year and a half warranty is not through cingular its through your manufactor, and your over a year so can't warranty your phone your warranty is over no matter how mad you get. Believe me we try our best to help offering a new phone discount if we can and every thing but can't get you a free phone. there are some people who call in mad for valid reason them i can deal with its the people who think just because they pay a bill and have a contract that they deserve anything they want who arent worth a measly 7.50 an hour with at a maxium of a 35 cent raise every 6 months(about). and it gets worse from there to get the 35 cent raise you have to meet all these dumb quotas you can only be on a call for so long so if you feel your beeing rushed maybe its because someone is trying to stay with in the stupid alotted time they have given to your call. and than we can only transfer so many percent of calls so if you are getting a number and no transfer someone has probably transfered to much already and is tring to keep their numbers down. and than like you say we don't have the ability to talk with all systems or see all notes(how dumb is that) so some one calls in saying don't you see that in the notes ..... nope and if its really that important to the call guess what we have to do place you on hold and call dept with the info.....blah blah i could go on all day about all the stupid rules cingular imposes on its reps instead of saying here help this customer as best you can here is one system where everyone puts notes so you can see them and here is one system for trouble shooting don't worry about how long it takes to help the customer 1 minute or an hour if they need that much time then take that much time to help them. instead is here you can only see some notes you get 750 seconds to help each cuctomer only transfer so many a day hold for no longer than so much blah blah blah until the reps feel we can't win and morale gose down and your customer service gose down that is the truth i found a job that makes me happier and that is better for my health even if i get paid less than 7.50 with a max of 35 cent raise every 6 months (and no one gets 35 cents usually people avg about 10 - 15 raise ). so enjoy your service if you have cingular why do you think they got such a low score in customer service on the JD power awards
no longer customer service for cingular

[kepnchk]

I use to work for AT&T and kept working for Cingular wireless and had enough so I left, and i will tell you why cingular has horrible customer service. First yes we get paid but belive me not nearly enough for the crap we put up with when people call in and can't understand something as simple yes sorry phone has a one year warranty you have a 2 yr contract it been a year and a half warranty is not through cingular its through your manufactor, and your over a year so can't warranty your phone your warranty is over no matter how mad you get. Believe me we try our best to help offering a new phone discount if we can and every thing but can't get you a free phone. there are some people who call in mad for valid reason them i can deal with its the people who think just because they pay a bill and have a contract that they deserve anything they want who arent worth a measly 7.50 an hour with at a maxium of a 35 cent raise every 6 months(about). and it gets worse from there to get the 35 cent raise you have to meet all these dumb quotas you can only be on a call for so long so if you feel your beeing rushed maybe its because someone is trying to stay with in the stupid alotted time they have given to your call. and than we can only transfer so many percent of calls so if you are getting a number and no transfer someone has probably transfered to much already and is tring to keep their numbers down. and than like you say we don't have the ability to talk with all systems or see all notes(how dumb is that) so some one calls in saying don't you see that in the notes ..... nope and if its really that important to the call guess what we have to do place you on hold and call dept with the info.....blah blah i could go on all day about all the stupid rules cingular imposes on its reps instead of saying here help this customer as best you can here is one system where everyone puts notes so you can see them and here is one system for trouble shooting don't worry about how long it takes to help the customer 1 minute or an hour if they need that much time then take that much time to help them. instead is here you can only see some notes you get 750 seconds to help each cuctomer only transfer so many a day hold for no longer than so much blah blah blah until the reps feel we can't win and morale gose down and your customer service gose down that is the truth i found a job that makes me happier and that is better for my health even if i get paid less than 7.50 with a max of 35 cent raise every 6 months (and no one gets 35 cents usually people avg about 10 - 15 raise ). so enjoy your service if you have cingular why do you think they got such a low score in customer service on the JD power awards
no longer customer service for cingular


I hear you and I can totally relate, but I am still battling the protocols and moving myself up to make the changes that need to be made. I use to feel the same way as you do, but now I have come to realize, that I can complain about what I have lost or do something about it. Now all I see are opportunities. I guess I still hold a sense of loyalty to AT&T and knowing that we are now part of Cingular, it doesn't mean I should have any less loyalty. I think as a company we have much we can provide our customers, especially if you look at our competition, their customer service isn't that great either, but I feel that Cingular has the opportunity to meet its mission statement, its the people that need to voice and keep voicing. Many people have left and it saddens me that they have given up, when there is just so much opportunity for change. I have seen Cingular give a little, and I can see them giving more if we all just stood together and made our voices heard. We are our customers representitives and if we all bail who is left to defend our customers. My fight is not just for me, but more for my loyalty to my customers. I think it is all in the way you choose to look at it.

[kepnchk]

well if it was a suspention then it really wasn't getting them out of their contract because as soon as it was reinstated the length of time it was suspended for would have been added to the end of their contract. And on another note it was 9.99 for 180 days then it was automatically reinstated, it was called seasonal/vacational suspend.

That is true, but I found that most didn't really want to cancel as much as being in a financial bind at the time, and pushing the burden for that time was an added relief.

[dj009]

I've been given mixed informtation and don't know what to believe. Does Cingular Grey list? Does Cingular blacklist. Does Cingular monitor all listed phones?

[PissedOff]

What do you have to say to get them to remove the fee? I had to switch to another company b/c ATT couldnt get me a phone for 3-5 days and i neded mine replaced that day. I had the option to go into a Cingular store and migrate over but would have had to pay $20+ to get the same amount of minutes.

They left me no choice but to switch to another company. The only reason I switched is b/c ATT/Cingular couldnt accomodate my needs. Therefore, I shouldnt have to pay the early termination fee. This makes sense to me. I would STILL be with ATT/Cingular if I couldnt have gotten a new phone that day or a new phone and a new plan in Cingular for the same price.

What do I do to get the fee cancelled? Is it legally binding? I need advice. Thanks!!

[kepnchk]

What do you have to say to get them to remove the fee? I had to switch to another company b/c ATT couldnt get me a phone for 3-5 days and i neded mine replaced that day. I had the option to go into a Cingular store and migrate over but would have had to pay $20+ to get the same amount of minutes.

They left me no choice but to switch to another company. The only reason I switched is b/c ATT/Cingular couldnt accomodate my needs. Therefore, I shouldnt have to pay the early termination fee. This makes sense to me. I would STILL be with ATT/Cingular if I couldnt have gotten a new phone that day or a new phone and a new plan in Cingular for the same price.

What do I do to get the fee cancelled? Is it legally binding? I need advice. Thanks!!

I am sorry to hear that you went to another carrier. I am sure with the rollover minute plans Cingular could have helped you out. You do however have 59 days to reinstate your service and Cingular will reverse the ETF. As far as the agreement you had, it is legally binding if there is a signed contract. You may want to call and make sure there is one on file, if not they can only resort to a one year agreement time period.

What plan did you have with AT&T? I know that Cingular offered simular plans, but I do have to say AT&T had the best plans in town. Don't tell Cingular I said that...lol..

[kepnchk2]

I've been given mixed informtation and don't know what to believe. Does Cingular Grey list? Does Cingular blacklist. Does Cingular monitor all listed phones?

I do not know who or why you would think that any company especially wireless would have grey or black lists. As far as I know we do not. Why do you ask?

[Unregistered]

Sprint totally sucks @$$. I stood right in front of there tower once and had one bar. The customer service sucks and the phones are terrible. I am stuck with a f****** 2 yr contract and can't leave untill June 2007. I am going to be switching to Cingular then because I don't want to pay a $450 cancellation fee to cancel Sprint. Don't switch, Sprint is the worst you can possibly get!

[Unregistered]

HAHA - BLACKLISTS...

Here's the deal folk:

Say you are a repeat complainer and you call repeatedly, whining for credits because you've used more than your alotted minutes for the month; say you call bitching because your signal is weak where you live, but you've already gone more than 30 days (your Cingular trial period) into your contract; say you've been obnoxious and rude trying to PUSH your DEMANDS on a Cingular representative and you escalate the call; THIS IS ALL NOTED ON YOUR ACCOUNT FOOL! It is REQUIRED by ALL Cingular reps to READ account notations! In fact, if our call happens to be a randomly selected Quality Assurance recorded call, EVERYTHING is recorded and VIEWED by a Quality Assurance representative!!! The screens we are viewing, the length of time on each screen, the call itself... EVERYTHING!!! We have TWO places to read account notations: The Clarify system (verification software we use to type your CTN and verify the caller) and the BILLING system!

Now, if we value our jobs, we can not insert personal OPINION into any of our notes. That is, I cannot say in my notes that Mr. X was an asshole. But I can notate the "customer was audibly irate b/c he stated he went over his minutes and wasn't aware of his contract obligations and he demanded a refund. I explained that he already received a courtesy credit last month and that I cannot issue another credit. Customer demands escalation".

Now, if I am the next rep or manager that reviews this account note the next time Mr. X calls in, I will be on the defensive (HUMAN NATURE, YOU DWEEBS!) and will feel a sense of brotherhood or sisterhood (as it may be) for my fellow rep that was ill-treated by Mr. X and I will be verbally "concerned" as you will imagine, but mentally, I will have a block and somehow will be as "by the book" as I can be and as solemn in my decisions as possible. I will not go out of my way to "RAISE THE BAR" as our motto would have it, and Mr. X will NOT get his way on my watch. You see, Mr. X has already taken valuable time away from customers who have real issues and has damned sure made his mark on a Cingular employee to ruin that employee's day. One call is all it takes! I'm not speaking for myself! I guarantee I am speaking for THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of CSRs not JUST with Cingular, but Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, T-Mobile, Alltel, Metro PCS, US Cellular, Cellular One, etc.

I go OUT OF MY WAY for every call I answer. My verbal presentation is out of this world! I would rate my prefessional tone and demeanor one of the highest on ANY CSR scale, but I am also a human damnit! What I wouldn't give to call these snobby ass people at their jobs and bitch them out for 15 to 20 minutes at the begininning of their work day and watch them cringe and hold their ****ing breath because they have to.

Blacklists? Well, we'd be sued for defamation of character if we did use them the way I would like to use them, but heh - I guess it's more of a challenge, and heh - a lot more fun to be a professional NOTATER! I get my point across very well to the next CSR that has to deal with your sorry ass!

PEACE

[Unregistered]

i am a cingular sales rep. first, our roaming includes the use of other carriers towers within the u.s. this does not include roaming while in international waters. i.e gulf of mexico. let me make this simple for everyone... cell phones are not perfect nor are the companies that provide them. all cell phone communication is handled over the air(ota) it is very difficult to guarantee that it always works properly and the systems that they operate on are very complex and expansive. honestly, the consumers expectations are too high. its a cell phone. it is a service and this is a service driven industry. cell companies have gotten so big so quick that they are constantly having to adapt. the tech. is moving so quick. it doesn't matter who u are with you will drop calls, phones will mess up. these are very small devices that do amazing things and cust.s treat them like their car keys throwing them here and there. folks, if you want a cell phone... pay for it and shut up. its not perfect, neither is your car or vcr. if you don't want it, get rid of it. you do not deserve anything more than any other cust. call your local power company and tell them you have been a cust for 30 years and you want a discount or your entire company does business with the power company so you feel you should have some special treatment. folks, get over yourselves. you pass a homeless guy on a corner and lock your car doors then ask for everything under the sun when you go in a cell phone store. you are only mad when you don't get what you want and you and i both know it doesn't matter if you know you are right or wrong, you just know if you complain enough you get what you want. look yourself in the mirror and think about that. lastly, cingular has 53 million cust. give each of them something for free, a free phone, a credit, something..... average that out to $2 a cust. and that is 103 million dollars a month and of 1.2 billion dollars a year in loses. finance 101.... your f**ked!!!! it cost a fortune to run the company. if you are a stockholder in a major company you know you want more profits to get more dividends and you will screw your neighbor to get it. so don't act like cingular employees are out to get you. also, cingular is not a publicly traded company and just because bellsouth and sbc are doesn't mean you own part of cingular if you own stock in our parent companies. don't be stupid, go to college and learn something. that is not how it works. i hope i have educated you all. i haven't really defended cingular at all but defended logic and knowledge. either you are being unrational or stupid. if you have a legitimate problem.... someone at cingular will help you because i do it everyday.









It is interesting, given the manner in which this Cingular rep answered his Customer's plea for help, you wonder why you get the same response when he answers the phone.

Seriously, some professionalisim would have been very welcome. For example, show us that you are infact older than 14yrs old by actually spelling your words, such as "you" and using complete sentances.

Now, can someone explain to me, Cingular offers free roaming. Is that just on the Cingular network? If so, that's interesting because Sprint's definition of Roaming is when you use another companies towers. Their roaming packages include other carrier's towers. It would appear that Cingular (and other co's) packages do not cover you in that case!

Just curious. And BTW, I am not a Sprint employee, just a sprint Rep. I could really care less about the company, I simply do my job and attempt to help my customers to the best of my Ability, which I might add usually gets me many thanks from the Customers. Sprint's training is really, quite good.

[Unregistered]

of course the etf is valid?
cingular doesnt have to give you a free phone ...everything is in your contract
my advice to u..call and find out if they can tell if there is any notes to the contract extension

[Unregistered]

i would love if every customer read this statement ..(up)

[Another Csr]

my first complaint is to people that assue because they been a customer for 2-3 years should get stuff for free or feel thay should have 3 go on a contract to upgrade to a free phone, for example, this call i ahd today proved the retardedness of himself, claiming hes been a cust for 2.5 years and that he added a line and a 2 year contract just isnt good enough, he wants no contract. but the thing is, the reason why u got the phone for free is because you signed a 2 year contract so you forced to stay on for 2 years so that cingular can be comencated for the free phone. and as for the ETF, that is unavoidable if you cancel. no matter how much you bitvh, you cant beat it, even if you say the service sucked and you hardleyt get to use it cause of that wont work. read the enitre service agreement that you sign, it says we dont gaurentee service eveywhere but where we do, it will work great, fel free to take a look if you want https://onlinecare.cingular.com/my-account/legal/service-agreement.jsp

oh and for al u people that call in to get credits for the minutes you went over on your rate plan cause some how 900 minutes isnt god enough, give me a break, i have a hard time using 200 minutes. and i will deny each and everyone of you and note it in the account so when u call back in after ur done with me, the next rep will know that you are rep shopping for credits. use your brain, if you drove your car and you ran out of gas would you try to get free gas cause u had to use it more that day. no you would be a human about it and fil the tank, ame deal with phones, you go over, u pay, that how it works, u use a service we provide, we expect to be compencated.

and another thing, These third party vendors such as M-Qube, jamster, dada-mobile, sms.ac, dirty hippo, well when you call in cause there on your bill, dont claim that you never got shit from them, cause we all knwo you did, how else would they get your number., i know for a fact, i was on the sms.ac thing, the ony way they can get your number is when u register online, xo dont get all bent ot of shape if your refused a credit cause it hard to belive that u never use trhe internet when 5 charges proves that you do and if u do have beef with it go to www.cingular.com/db and gt the credits yourself, dont waste our time, if you cant pay it, dont buy it. and for all the m-qube complainers, if you want to cancle text the word stop to the number 42222. oh and 1 more thing, speak english, dont sa i "mashed" the keypay or the button, say u pressed the button. dont cal it the razr phone, call it the razr, and its turn it off and on, not cut it off and on. ans when we say power cycle, we mean turn it off and on. well i hope all u read this and use your head before callin in.

[Unregistered]

I'm actually very ashamed of the post before this one. PLEASE... before you tell people you work for Cingular (as I myself), PLEASE map out carefully what it is you want to iterate, and concentrate on your grammar and spelling! Most of your suggestions are now moot and have been discredited because your average joe (or sally) will skip your post because it jives in a childish manner. I read your post (barely) and found myself concentrating more on your spelling errors and punctuation (or lack of) more so than the substance of what it was I think you were trying to say!

Cingular corporate officials are always tipped off about consumer opinion. Where Cingular is today, in that our company has promised SBC (our parent company) that Cingular will rank #1 in customer satisfaction by 2007, it is of great importance that popular demand is paid attention to. We can all imagine where technology is going, and Cingular will be the first cell provider to take us there... however, it is also very important that the thousands of employees representing Cingular are unified in supporting their company, not by fixating on the customer's bad habits (because we all have our own), but by taking part in circulating popular demand within!

What do YOU expect from our company? What do YOU think should be Cingular's #1 objective? Don't lay this entirely in the hands of Stan Sigman... you have just as much a right to answer these questions as does the supervisor that signs off on your promotion!

[breach]

I was originally ATT, but signed up (forced) to Cingular and got GSM phones one year ago. Was originaly very happy because both the new phone and new service worked better than ATT.

10 months later something changed and we no longer have service in half (literally) our town. My children were being grounded for not calling in and they kept giving me the excuse "no signal". Finally I got in the car and drove to all their friends houses and sure enough, no signal driving through the neighborhood. (This is only 1/2 mile from my home).

This was November and I have not been able to resolve this issue.
I've worked with both techs and CSR's.
They say that my signal strength is good so they can't let me out of contract. (it is ok in my backyard, but drive 1/2 mile and I get zero bars!)

Are they not in breach of contract because the service is NOT the same as when I signed a contract? I would have returned all phones had the service been this spotty during the "trial" period.

They have given me no reason for the lack of service (loss of tower??).

They have tried to get me to buy 5 (five) new phones at $70 a piece! (4 of the phones I have are only 1 year old and 1 is only 3 months old! with the NEW sim card) All phones work exactly the same.

Also, all of our friends have the same problem and many have already left Cingular getting out of their contracts. (Their house addresses might appear in a "spotty" area)

For some reason, they won't let me out. They just want to keep me jumping through hoops (power cycle the phone, change the sim card, we are changing your tower, wait another week etc...)

Any suggestions??

Thanks!!

[CingularSucks]

I am now a former Cingular Wireless customer, and I have had it with them. To see why, feel free to visit my brand new website, just opened this morning:

http://www.cingularwirelessreallysucks.com

:mad:

[breach]

One more question concerning post above:

If I ask for arbitration, will it make them more likely to let me out.
I would think it less costly to let me go than to pay for arbitration.
I am eligable because they have not solved my problem in 3 months.

Thanks again!

[Unregistered]

Tell ya what,

Call customer care at 800-331-0500 (customer care) and ask to have you transferred to the tier 2 technical department. Explain your situation (pretend you haven't done this before if your nerves are on end), and tell them that you would like to have your service "pushed" to the other side. In other words, you might be working off the orange towers... ask our tech department to use the "CARD" application to have you pushed onto the "blue" network. This won't affect your bill at all... the area where your signal is weak most might not have orange equipped towers yet, so "pushing" your service to operate on blue might be your answer! This is often a TRUE fix for some areas where orange hasn't been fully implemented. This also happens immediately. When we do this, we will ask you AGAIN to power-cycle your equipment, so don't feel that you are going in circles, as I really don't think this has been attempted for you!

Try it, you might be pleasantly surprised! We don't want to lose you!

[breach]

Thank you very much for your reply!

Unfortunately, they switched me to blue coverage on Friday and there has been no change in reception. I did power cycle the phones ( different models, different sim cards) with no improvement.

[Unregistered]

uhhhh, okay

Matt Poole,

Are you the kind of person who took names in class for the teacher dude? Your attempt to spread the word about Cingular Wireless will ultimately be a BIG waste of time and effort on your part at this moment. Your anger for them will slowly trickle away and your website will seem like a lost cause. I know what it means to be upset and have to broadcast my sentiment, but trust me... I would do it at the expense of the other party, not myself!

You might put some cool java games on your new website! That might attract people, but good luck keeping ANY kind of ranking in a major search engine. I wish you luck dude...

[Unregistered]

i have great news for all Cingular Wireless customers. Research by an independant company has proven that Cingular has the fewest dropped calls of any cellular carrier in the nation. As a Cingular rep. i know that i still drop calls all the time. My point here is to let you know drop calls are unavoidable. however, we really do have the best network. i have had many customers leave cingular and end up paying cancelation fees with their new company to come back to cingular. obviously, there are many customers whose pride will not allow them to do this after they have made such a fuss in front of a sales rep to discontinue service in the first place. i just want everyone to be aware that cell phones are not landlines. they do not have dedicated connections from source to user. please stop expecting so much from your phones. these devices are used for convenience. remember that when you make 50 calls a day and have some dropped calls or no connects. if it worked all the time there wouldn't be a need for landline phones. maybe in a few years it will be that reliable, but not yet. don't believe any provider who says it is.

[Unregistered]

I am now a former Cingular Wireless customer, and I have had it with them. To see why, feel free to visit my brand new website, just opened this morning:

http://www.cingularwirelessreallysucks.com

:mad:


wow are u serious?...hahahaha.lol, wowowowowow, how old are U?

[Unregistered]

uhhhh, okay

Matt Poole,

Are you the kind of person who took names in class for the teacher dude? Your attempt to spread the word about Cingular Wireless will ultimately be a BIG waste of time and effort on your part at this moment. Your anger for them will slowly trickle away and your website will seem like a lost cause. I know what it means to be upset and have to broadcast my sentiment, but trust me... I would do it at the expense of the other party, not myself!

You might put some cool java games on your new website! That might attract people, but good luck keeping ANY kind of ranking in a major search engine. I wish you luck dude...
hahaha..that guy is from another planet.....

[Unregistered]

I think the guy has a valid beef... it's not like he's just griping about no signal or dead spots in their coverage... if they have a valid network issue and are unwilling to fix it, then the man has a valid point. Cheers!

[Unregistered]

I think the guy has a valid beef... it's not like he's just griping about no signal or dead spots in their coverage... if they have a valid network issue and are unwilling to fix it, then the man has a valid point. Cheers!

nah im not saying he doesnt, but the guy is going way out his way just to be validated??...i mean ok if u dont like cingular..cancell your service and you wont have to deal with them anymore, this guy cancells his service,...makes a webpage.....then writes i think 3 letters..., and now is posting on the forum..and whats funny is that his phone worked, just not his call forwarding featue, if hes mad fine, cancell then, but this guy wont get over it , untill some says...HEY YOUR ABSOLUTLY RIGHT,...sounds like a big kid to me..hahaha

[Unregistered]

nah im not saying he doesnt, but the guy is going way out his way just to be validated??...i mean ok if u dont like cingular..cancell your service and you wont have to deal with them anymore, this guy cancells his service,...makes a webpage.....then writes i think 3 letters..., and now is posting on the forum..and whats funny is that his phone worked, just not his call forwarding featue, if hes mad fine, cancell then, but this guy wont get over it , untill some says...HEY YOUR ABSOLUTLY RIGHT,...sounds like a big kid to me..hahaha

Did you ever stop to think that maybe he's old enough to know he's getting screwed by a big corporation and he chose to embarrass them in public? And the way I read his site, it wasn't just that his "call forwarding feature wasn't working" he had his home phone forwarded to his cell and people calling and getting the recording thinking his home phone wasn't working, and even a Cinuglar employee getting the recording when he forwarded calls to his cell phone. At least that's how I read it. And he was not the only one, if many people made the same bitch. I'm not saying I agree with his tactics, but I think he has a legit beef if Cingular had a network or equipment issue. So he chose to embarrass them on the net, so what? He is the one that will have to deal with Cingular's lawyers when they see the site.

[Unregistered]

This is an old game that big companies don't pay much attention to anymore! Cingular Wireless has over 54 million customers and won't be humiliated by a website run by a lone cowboy! What's funny is that in less than a year, what with the news that came out yesterday, Cingular will be known as AT&T Wireless and this poor cowboy will have to register another domain! Is it worth it?? My advice, write this off as a bad experience cry baby!

[tired of it all]

is all this bitching really necessary? Its only a cell phone, to devote all your time and energy to complain about cingular is a big waste, and it wont get you anywhere. Question: do all of you people complain about everything else like you do about your cell phones? if you bought a battery or say a pack of ice and it didnt last as long as it stated on the box, would you care enough to call up the manufacture to bitch? if you got gas for you vehicle and it took you 5 miles shorter then last week would you call up the gas station and bitch? no.. you would get over it and move on with your life. so why complain about your cell phones? its a little peice of technoloigy and as you may assume, it costs alot so it should work, right?, wrong... it will have its defects as well, just as if you bought a nice $100,000 lexus, it wil probably have some minor issues, get over it, thats whey we have warranty in this crazy world cause we know these things happen. its part of life, no matter how advanced it is, i can gaurentee it will have some issues. so get over it, dont get all stressed out over yor cell phone, it may extend your life an extra few years by NOT stressign over it, live life as you did before cell phones were widespread, dont rely on a cell to do all of your work, what did people do 20 years ago before cell phones were really availble to the general public.. we lived out lives stress free, carried on with what we do, not having to worry about calling someone on the subway and realizing there was no signal and so on and so forth, you get my point. so before i go, just one word of advice, RELAX!

[Unregistered]

who asked you anything Mr. Relaxation? Why did you waste your time writing to us about cell phones, hmm? You go relax... hippie!

[Unregistered]

I'm not saying I agree with the guy's tactics either, but that has got to be the funniest disclaimer I have ever read in my life. I'm still laughing!!

[Unregistered]

I also switched my plan and had all my rollover minutes taken away. They tried giving me the same BS story about how their policy changed and blah blah blah, and that the computer wouldn't allow them to put the minutes back on. Its a bunch of CRAP! I called and after fighting with them they put all of my 3500 minutes back onto my account! Now i'm fighting to get out of my contract!!! EVERYONE BEWARE: STAY AWAY OF CINGULAR- they lie, cheat and do anything they can to make you stay!!!!

[Unregistered]

God forbid Cingular loses someone as yourself! It might bankrupt the company!

[Unregistered]

God forbid Cingular loses someone as yourself! It might bankrupt the company!

P.S. 54 Million+ are wrong? Highly unlikely.

[Unregistered]

Did you ever stop to think that maybe he's old enough to know he's getting screwed by a big corporation and he chose to embarrass them in public? And the way I read his site, it wasn't just that his "call forwarding feature wasn't working" he had his home phone forwarded to his cell and people calling and getting the recording thinking his home phone wasn't working, and even a Cinuglar employee getting the recording when he forwarded calls to his cell phone. At least that's how I read it. And he was not the only one, if many people made the same bitch. I'm not saying I agree with his tactics, but I think he has a legit beef if Cingular had a network or equipment issue. So he chose to embarrass them on the net, so what? He is the one that will have to deal with Cingular's lawyers when they see the site.
Do you mean he trieeed to embarass them in public..?? and like i said i dont disagree with him being angry... but the guy is being a big baby..im saying: you cancelled your service, because you dont want to deal with cingular anymore...but your makeing a cingular webpage?..your on a cngular forum? and he wrote three letters explaing why he is cancelling? like i said this guy is just waiting to be validated...but hey your sticking up for him...so make his day and say: YOUR ABSOLUTLY RIGHT!

[Unregistered]

Try 51 Million, they are losing customers all time. Some cingular execs are having bet as to when Verizon will pass them.

Cingular has been kicked out of the New York BBB, for not fixing their problems.

That study of dropped calls was mostly done here in New York.


This is an old game that big companies don't pay much attention to anymore! Cingular Wireless has over 54 million customers and won't be humiliated by a website run by a lone cowboy! What's funny is that in less than a year, what with the news that came out yesterday, Cingular will be known as AT&T Wireless and this poor cowboy will have to register another domain! Is it worth it?? My advice, write this off as a bad experience cry baby!

[No Name]

Do all you people out there think what you say about cell phone companys on here will change anything? lets face it, no matter who you are, trying to defeat the monopoly of cell phone carriers may as well give up, its not going to happen. ya these companys may looe business but some other carrier will arise, claim they have the most bars a fewer dropped call, convince you to sign on and then screw you. just like you allege cingular has done, so GET over it, move on with your life, if you feel cingular has not provided u with service that does not meet your needs then by all means try someone else, its not like your forced to stay with cingular, or if u cancel theyll kill you. so this is to all the cry babies out there, QUIT YOUR BITCHIN AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE.

[Unregistered]

Try 51 Million, they are losing customers all time. Some cingular execs are having bet as to when Verizon will pass them.

Cingular has been kicked out of the New York BBB, for not fixing their problems.

That study of dropped calls was mostly done here in New York.


ok even if cingular is loosing all these customers..do u think that they hear u?? everyone here that is so mad a cingular like cingular recognizes them? If cingular did some how fall, the CEO isnt going to be hear any of u say " haha u suck" cingular isnt even looking at this forum..

[Cingular CSR]

First of all, to all those Cingular customers who have had poor customer service I would like to apologize. Second, I would like to say Thank You for being a Cingular customer. Without you as customers, I would not have a job. I am horrified to read the interactions you have had to deal with regarding other reps. I will not make excuses for them, for there is not one. I enjoy my job, and I enjoy helping my customers. Yes, I have had my fair share of upset and irate customers. I don't blame them. We have all had nightmarish experiences when it comes to retail and I know how I feel when I experience it. Still, it is my job to help the customer to the best of my ability and let the customer know I am happy to assist them. No, I can not always waive ETFs or give unlimited credits, but I can thoroughly explain the situation, answer any questions you may have, and hopefully resolve the issue so it goes no further than my desk. Customers should not have to repeat their situation to more than one person, EVER. It should be taken care of on the first call to the first person. And third I would like to apologize for my southern accent, since apparently according to this board, it is irritating some. Being from Alabama however, it is not something I can (or would) change. Just appreciate the differences in all of us, and if I ever take a call from you, I will appreciate your situation.

[eddyjr]

I have been with cingular for 2 years now and have had no problems so far, I have driven across this great country a number of times with my cell phone with no problems, called c/s a few times, never been put on hold for more then few min., always been helped by someone who was never rude. I have bought phones from store down the st. from people who are always helpful, and have always gotten what I paid for. My bill for feb. was late, a problem I can live with.

[Norman]

Please check out my most recent blog entry to see how I was mistreated and how unhappy I am with Cingular.

http://thinktone.wordpress.com/2005/09/15/cingular-customer-service

[Unregistered]

... u have alot of nerve to complain when u got those razers for so cheap, ...you were going to complain to the cooperate office because you didnt get your way...hmm...

[Unregistered]

As a rep im subject to stupidity all the time, and well as much as i dont care the poster of the pervious post where u bitched cause u didnt get ur way topped it all, were only a cell provider, were not here to baby your sorry ass, if t-mobile offerd them cheaper then why didnt you go to t-mobile, it would have made more sense then wasting your time complaining, because in the end, was it all worth it? did cinguar force you to stay with them, Thats why they offer a 30 day buyers remourse period.. and if you ddnt liek it, take it back.. and go to t-mobile. but you insited that you are better then all of us and that you should get shit cheaper, its called fairness, we cant favor one custome over the other, doest matter if uve been with us for 10 year, or just 6 months, cingular has there deals, ya thay may not be as cheap as other compays, we cant always offer low prices, partally because we give out far to many credits to keep all of u people happy. so get 0ver it, if uve felt uve been mistreated, then by all means, leave cingular and go somewhere else dont waste your time and the reps time complaing..

[Unregistered]

As a rep im subject to stupidity all the time, and well as much as i dont care the poster of the pervious post where u bitched cause u didnt get ur way topped it all, were only a cell provider, were not here to baby your sorry ass, if t-mobile offerd them cheaper then why didnt you go to t-mobile, it would have made more sense then wasting your time complaining, because in the end, was it all worth it? did cinguar force you to stay with them, Thats why they offer a 30 day buyers remourse period.. and if you ddnt liek it, take it back.. and go to t-mobile. but you insited that you are better then all of us and that you should get shit cheaper, its called fairness, we cant favor one custome over the other, doest matter if uve been with us for 10 year, or just 6 months, cingular has there deals, ya thay may not be as cheap as other compays, we cant always offer low prices, partally because we give out far to many credits to keep all of u people happy. so get 0ver it, if uve felt uve been mistreated, then by all means, leave cingular and go somewhere else dont waste your time and the reps time complaing..

[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.

[elmo01]

Here's a trick Cingular won't tell you. If your phone is disconnected, you have to call to get it turned back on. Sounds simple, but think it through...you're disconnected for late payment (long story - company pays - name on check is different from name on phone - constant screw up), you pay, they cash the check.........they don't turn the phone back on until you call. They rack up that $36 reconnect fee - but don't connect. I waited a week just to see - then asked the CSR if that was standard procedure "yeah, you have to call, I don't know why" Even if the check is cashed and the account paid? "yeah"

I've got a year left, something better will come along in a year.

so... your griping because you didnt pay your bill... got charged a reconnect fee...then griping again because you had to call to have your phone turned on...

when a payment is made the account gets the funds... I would be checking to see where those funds are going...it sounds more like you accounts payable department is sending one cheque to pay several billing accounts...if that is the case have all the services they pay for on one billing account or have accounts payable issue a separate cheque for each billing account... problem is solved

[elmo01]

I was originally ATT, but signed up (forced) to Cingular and got GSM phones one year ago. Was originaly very happy because both the new phone and new service worked better than ATT.

10 months later something changed and we no longer have service in half (literally) our town. My children were being grounded for not calling in and they kept giving me the excuse "no signal". Finally I got in the car and drove to all their friends houses and sure enough, no signal driving through the neighborhood. (This is only 1/2 mile from my home).

This was November and I have not been able to resolve this issue.
I've worked with both techs and CSR's.
They say that my signal strength is good so they can't let me out of contract. (it is ok in my backyard, but drive 1/2 mile and I get zero bars!)

Are they not in breach of contract because the service is NOT the same as when I signed a contract? I would have returned all phones had the service been this spotty during the "trial" period.

They have given me no reason for the lack of service (loss of tower??).

They have tried to get me to buy 5 (five) new phones at $70 a piece! (4 of the phones I have are only 1 year old and 1 is only 3 months old! with the NEW sim card) All phones work exactly the same.

Also, all of our friends have the same problem and many have already left Cingular getting out of their contracts. (Their house addresses might appear in a "spotty" area)

For some reason, they won't let me out. They just want to keep me jumping through hoops (power cycle the phone, change the sim card, we are changing your tower, wait another week etc...)

Any suggestions??

Thanks!!


sounds like network integration...


prior to the merger there were 2 separate and apart networks... the ATT Network and the Cingular network... remember how your phone esed to say ATT WIRELESS or CINGULAR WIRELESS... those are the respective old un - integrated networks... then in November 2004 cingular buys att... and shortly after that the change the alfa tag to read CINGULAR (note there is no wireless there anymore)... next on a market by market basis cingular is combining the 2 former networks into 1 big one... (hence the ads for the all over network)... in a perfect worl this would be transparent to all the customers... but this world being far from perfect there are errors and some phones miss an update or the update doesnt get sent to said phone...ergo the phone appears to be defective... it actually isnt... the simple fix... resend the update... a good rep will know how to do this... a new or inexperienced rep may or may not... to save a big song and dance and trying to use lingo that you are not overly familiar with...


call customer care... 611 on your phone or 18003310500 from your home

give them your phone number... ask to have call waiting removed from that phone number ....wait 1 hour... call back and have it added....this will generate an OTA with the necessary info for your phone to recognize the new network....do that for all your phone numbers

[Unregistered]

I am also a CSR for Cingular. And I would like to tell you not everything is bad with Cingular. I know people have problems with bills, service, and overall satisfaction with Customer Service. But Majority of the problem is mis-communication between Dealer/Reps and Customer at 'point-of-sale'. I mean I want to help everyone, but still keep a solid point of view and weighing out the pros n cons for the customers and for Cingular. Billing issues - our error we'll correct 100%. Disputes with usage and overages that cust think 'they didn't do' Usually if your a CSR, I make my self as an example. Dependig on the situationa nd the pros and cons of the situation, both customer and company would benefit from the call. We can't generalize every situation, becuase each situation is different from each other. Tenour, average use, calling pattern, history notes, all play a role.

I generally base my resolution upon all those. But sometimes sticking to the company policies for situations that has no basis is hard. Cause your going to have those 'bad calls' But you have to handle it with CARE. Everyone who call in have a valid reason to call in. People don't call in just to call in. Eventhough as CSR, you think there are people who do that, just to call in. But there's always a reason behind it. Good ro bad it's for the records to decide on your resolution of the call.

[Unregistered]

http://myspace-159.vo.llnwd.net/00681/95/17/681647159_m.jpgThis is not me breakdancing. This is me spinning on the floor with frustration. I could write out exactly what happened between Cingular, Blackberry, and myself, but, this will be my last warning to all of you before I wash my hands of the whole ordeal, and I don't want to waste anymore of my time on them. Cingular sold me a broken Blackberry for $400. They wouldn't exchange it. I said,"What about the insurance I paid for?" They said you can't insure a Blackberry, and that it was there mistake for charging me for insurance, and I can't have my money back.:eek: THANKS CINGULAR. ( alll of a sudden I'm having thought of cambodian children with their bodies burned up saying, "Thank you Uncle Sam!"). They told me I had to buy a new phone. I couldn't afford this because I had allready spent $400 on the phone, $350 for the service, $450 for the deposit, $27 for insurance, $49 for internet and email(THAT NEVER WORKED!).:mad: This was all in the first 32 days of me having Cingular service. So, because I couldn't afford i.e. had no money left, and lost a substantial amount of work, since I am self employed and my phone is my connection to work, I had to cancel my service. I was charged a disconnect feet, contract cancelation fee, $75 insurance cancellation fee? I ended up paying over $1500 for 32 days of Cingular service, for a phone that only worked TWO DAYS!!!!. :mad:

[Unregistered]

cingular is doing you a favor as much as you are doing them a favor,, you pay they give u service...you could cancell your serivce..they can cancell your service just as well......MAN IT WOULD BE GREAT IF CINGULAR VP HEARD SOME OF THESE RUDE CUSTOMERS ...WHO TOTALLY JUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FACT THAT "THERE THE CUSTOMER"...WOULDNT IT BE GREAT IF HE CALLED THOSE CUSTOMERS BACK HE SAID HE WAS GOING TO CANCELL THERE SERVICE..........FOR BEING DISRESPECTFUL TO HIS AGENTS...i mean customers call in wanted a free razr, and ask so rudely and get upset becasue cingular wont give them there money (credit) for the phone..cingular buys these phones from the manufacturer ..everyphone they give out for free..is them give customers some of there money....

[Unregistered]

http://myspace-159.vo.llnwd.net/00681/95/17/681647159_m.jpgThis is not me breakdancing. This is me spinning on the floor with frustration. I could write out exactly what happened between Cingular, Blackberry, and myself, but, this will be my last warning to all of you before I wash my hands of the whole ordeal, and I don't want to waste anymore of my time on them. Cingular sold me a broken Blackberry for $400. They wouldn't exchange it. I said,"What about the insurance I paid for?" They said you can't insure a Blackberry, and that it was there mistake for charging me for insurance, and I can't have my money back.:eek: THANKS CINGULAR. ( alll of a sudden I'm having thought of cambodian children with their bodies burned up saying, "Thank you Uncle Sam!"). They told me I had to buy a new phone. I couldn't afford this because I had allready spent $400 on the phone, $350 for the service, $450 for the deposit, $27 for insurance, $49 for internet and email(THAT NEVER WORKED!).:mad: This was all in the first 32 days of me having Cingular service. So, because I couldn't afford i.e. had no money left, and lost a substantial amount of work, since I am self employed and my phone is my connection to work, I had to cancel my service. I was charged a disconnect feet, contract cancelation fee, $75 insurance cancellation fee? I ended up paying over $1500 for 32 days of Cingular service, for a phone that only worked TWO DAYS!!!!. :mad:

I would just like to say this, if you paid 350$ for the srevice, what were you smoking, or are u just over exagerating. and 27 for insurance?? you pay $3.99 PER MONTH, and there is NO insurance cancellation fee. there is no such thing and a disconnect fee, just an ETF, which if it was before febuaray of 06 was 240$$, and cingular has a 30 DAYS BUYERS REMOURSE PERIOD, which means if it was with that time there is no ETF. and im sure if u called in poiletly and asked for a break, and not get al hot headed and demanded one then you probably would not have had a problem, and if you actually read to the contract before you accept it then you would see that cingular does not gaurentee coverage everywhere.. hence the 30 day trial period, so why dont you suck it up and move on, bitching here wount get you anywhere, i tell ya, if i had my own cell company, people like you would NOT be allowed to sign on!

[Unregistered]

I would just like to say this, if you paid 350$ for the srevice, what were you smoking, or are u just over exagerating. and 27 for insurance?? you pay $3.99 PER MONTH, and there is NO insurance cancellation fee. there is no such thing and a disconnect fee, just an ETF, which if it was before febuaray of 06 was 240$$, and cingular has a 30 DAYS BUYERS REMOURSE PERIOD, which means if it was with that time there is no ETF. and im sure if u called in poiletly and asked for a break, and not get al hot headed and demanded one then you probably would not have had a problem, and if you actually read to the contract before you accept it then you would see that cingular does not gaurentee coverage everywhere.. hence the 30 day trial period, so why dont you suck it up and move on, bitching here wount get you anywhere, i tell ya, if i had my own cell company, people like you would NOT be allowed to sign on!


whoever wrote that mess is crazy, he totally made the story up....

[Unregistered]

You're a shit face...wait was that me?

[Unregistered]

They Consistently Post Payments Late And Then When You Complain They Try To Lure You Back With Cheap Deals On New Phones If You Sign A New Two Year Contract. Don't Do It!

[Unregistered]

They Consistently Post Payments Late And Then When You Complain They Try To Lure You Back With Cheap Deals On New Phones If You Sign A New Two Year Contract. Don't Do It!

[Kepnchk2]

http://myspace-159.vo.llnwd.net/00681/95/17/681647159_m.jpgThis is not me breakdancing. This is me spinning on the floor with frustration. I could write out exactly what happened between Cingular, Blackberry, and myself, but, this will be my last warning to all of you before I wash my hands of the whole ordeal, and I don't want to waste anymore of my time on them. Cingular sold me a broken Blackberry for $400. They wouldn't exchange it. I said,"What about the insurance I paid for?" They said you can't insure a Blackberry, and that it was there mistake for charging me for insurance, and I can't have my money back.:eek: THANKS CINGULAR. ( alll of a sudden I'm having thought of cambodian children with their bodies burned up saying, "Thank you Uncle Sam!"). They told me I had to buy a new phone. I couldn't afford this because I had allready spent $400 on the phone, $350 for the service, $450 for the deposit, $27 for insurance, $49 for internet and email(THAT NEVER WORKED!).:mad: This was all in the first 32 days of me having Cingular service. So, because I couldn't afford i.e. had no money left, and lost a substantial amount of work, since I am self employed and my phone is my connection to work, I had to cancel my service. I was charged a disconnect feet, contract cancelation fee, $75 insurance cancellation fee? I ended up paying over $1500 for 32 days of Cingular service, for a phone that only worked TWO DAYS!!!!. :mad:


Wow, sounds like you bought your device from an indirect dealer. I am totally sorry that this happened to you. Did you speak with the Customer Relations Department? We could have helped, and if your device didn't work, did you go back to the store where you purchased it? Within your 30 day buyer remorse period you do have the option to trade it in. When you talked about insurance, you have to understand, we use lockline insurance and at this time they do not insure PDA's, so the insurance must have been maybe an extented warrenty thru the dealership where you purchased the phone. As far as the fees are concerned, the only fee paid to CIngular would have been the ETF (early termination fee) + your normal billing any other fees came from the dealership. Cingular does not sell phones, we are network providers, we do however have corporate stores that do sell phones for the manufacturers, therefore, the manufacturers provide a one yr warrenty on their equipment, so after the 30 day period, our warrenty exchange could have exchanged your defective device for a working device. I have to tell you, however, that blackberry is having a really bad time adapting to the GSM networks (T-mobile, AT&T Cingular). It is an internal equipment issue. I am surprised that no one offered you assistance in explaining what your options were, or maybe it was you didn't know you could call Customer Service for assistance, or that you were too upset to deal with the situation? I do again appoligize that we didn't hold out our hand to you. This is something that Cingular Wireless will not stand for any longer.

I read the previous posts and wanted to add, CINGULAR DOES AND HAS LISTENED. We do realize that our customer service is not where it should be. We realize that customner service is the most important part of any company, and our quarterly objective is becoming #1 in Customer Satisfaction, so be prepared for a change when you call. Now I am not saying that you will get anything you want, what I am saying is that you will be treated with respect and fairness. Customer Service reps are taking ownership and do everything in their power to resolve your issues and concerns, and if they do not know, they will find you the person that does. I am so glad that, as a company, we have finally come to realize just how important our customers, as well as, the customer serive reps are. Stan Sigman, is the man behind it all. Through letters and talking personally with some of our customers he is making the changes happen, Kudos Mr. Sigman.

[Kepnchk2]

whoever wrote that mess is crazy, he totally made the story up....


The person who submitted the post, could well have paid all those charges if he went to an indirect dealer. You can not believe what these dealers are doing to our customers. They have their own contracts and agendas. Just the other day I had a customer calling because she was told by an indirect (which means, other than cingular coporate store) that she had 60 days to decide if she wanted the service. In her contract (which I had her fax to me) it stated that she had 60 days through the dealership to decide about her equipment, not realizing the contract was not with Cingular, but with that dealership. I also had a customer not too long ago, call because he cancelled within the 30 days, but was charged all these fees from the dealership. I explained that his current charges from Cingular were 0.00. He would have to take those charges up with the dealer. His contracted stated through the dealer that he had to keep his service for 90 days or he would be pentalized fees for stopping service early. Now I want everyone to understand that if you find yourself in this situation, to call Customer Care, have them in turn file an incindent report to the corporation (and this is with any provider, not just Cingular). This is becoming a standard industry wide problem and we need to report these incidents as they happen so we can hold the dealership responsible. Right now they can basically set their own rules, and most of the time they do not coinside with the carriers. Buyer Beware-- stay away from indirect dealers!!!!

[Bilingual CSR]

Its true that most of the costumers dont read the contract before sign it.. itsnt the way that cingular makes bussiness.. we really hate when people call us saying that we´re stealing from them.. but man.. we cant be watching every step you make.. costumers must be responsible for their usage and rate plan selection.. we have more than 50 million of costumers and not all of them is calling us each day...

[Unregistered]

I was a loyal customer for 5 years and always payed my bill on time. Yesterday,I went to pay my bill and it was for $156.00. (I never pay more than $50.00) They cut my non-peak minutes without any notice whatsoever. The cs rep didn't believe me at first, and said there was no such plan...I told him that I have a years worth of bills to support my claim. He insulted me by saying that real people (in the real world) don't keep their plans as long as I have...and that I have "had my plan since dinosaurs roamed the earth" The case is now being judged by somebody-somewhere. I have little faith of a fair resolution...

[Unregistered]

I totally agree with you about how to talk with CSR on the phone to state your problem. It is true complaints should be reported smoothly eventhough we expect the CSR to treat us fairly. This problem is not only with Cingular, it is with every CSR of any corporation of any business. But one thing puzzled me was the trick of switching mobile "off" "on" to avoid drop calls, I am not a Cingular cutomer nor a Cell user, I was doing a research b4 getting cellphone, and bumped in to this website reading the negative things about every single cellphone company plan providers. I think Cingular will be my second choice.

[Unregistered]

I was with Cingular for more than 2 years and recently I switched service as the calls were being dropped more frequently. I used to get all my previous bills to my address except the last settlement bill. Instead they sent this bill for collection agent and that too with some fake amount. When I called the CS, he was very rude and disconnected my call. Any how I am in tough with consumer forum of AZ state and I am hoping they will help customers like us to get justice.

[tombone600i]

Here's what you do... If you don't like your service provider, pay the early termintion and quit crying about it. You can't please everyone, and just remember, Cingular didnt sign your contract. You did!

If you want service with your Phone you have to sacrifice things like customer service. Look at T-Mobile... Best customer service in the country, but where do there phones work outside of a major US city. In every business there has to be sacrifices and unfortunately to give you the advantage of being able to make and recieve, oh and keep your call. Cingular had to let something slip, and unfortunately it was there 611 customer service. Does anyone go to the agent locations that would usually chomp at the bit to help a customer for simply lack of better things to do.

Point Blank: If you do not like your carrier, don't cry about it. Do something about it

Cingular Agent Smith

[Unregistered]

I AGREE WITH THE LAST AGENT...IF YOU"RE NOT HAPPY WITH THE SERV THEN LEAVE FIND ANOTHER CARRIER. THERE's NO PERFECT CELL COMPANY. WHEREVER YOU GO YOU WILL HAVE SOME KIND OF ISSUE.MOST OF THE TIME IS DUE TO CUST NOT KNOWING HOW THE CELL PHONE WORLD WORKS!!!!!

[FuucckCingular]

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 $!

[sammyA900]

the truth is that all phone companies SUCK, so find the one that gives you the best service and stick with it. i have been given the run around, hung up on and cussed at by cingular, sprint, and verizon. my gf was trying to resolve an issue about a rebate for 5 days, nobody knows whats going on!!! they turn on phones and turn off phones, they turned my gf phone for no reason!!!!

[CRT Specialist]

Here's what you do... If you don't like your service provider, pay the early termintion and quit crying about it. You can't please everyone, and just remember, Cingular didnt sign your contract. You did!

If you want service with your Phone you have to sacrifice things like customer service. Look at T-Mobile... Best customer service in the country, but where do there phones work outside of a major US city. In every business there has to be sacrifices and unfortunately to give you the advantage of being able to make and recieve, oh and keep your call. Cingular had to let something slip, and unfortunately it was there 611 customer service. Does anyone go to the agent locations that would usually chomp at the bit to help a customer for simply lack of better things to do.

Point Blank: If you do not like your carrier, don't cry about it. Do something about it

Cingular Agent Smith


I agree that all the wireless companys have their bad and good points. I have to say that no company is perfect. The good news is that Cingular is doing something really good and that is realizing that they have made a mistake and are now doing a 360 in customer service all the way to the stores. I am formally AT&T and at first I wanted to quit, but I couldn't walk out on my customers. I and others faught to get Cingular to realize just how important our customers are. I can't promise you will see the changes overnight, we are a big company, but I can promise you that if you are not getting the service you believe you deserve ask to speak to the customer relations team, we can help.

[Anonymous]

Call their "podium" desk!

509-789-6486

You can ask for a manager at this number, as well as the operations managers. Have Fun!

[elmo01]

Here's a trick Cingular won't tell you. If your phone is disconnected, you have to call to get it turned back on. Sounds simple, but think it through...you're disconnected for late payment (long story - company pays - name on check is different from name on phone - constant screw up), you pay, they cash the check.........they don't turn the phone back on until you call. They rack up that $36 reconnect fee - but don't connect. I waited a week just to see - then asked the CSR if that was standard procedure "yeah, you have to call, I don't know why" Even if the check is cashed and the account paid? "yeah"

I've got a year left, something better will come along in a year.

here's another trick... do the payment over the phone and the rep turns it on right away...

or better yet pay you bill every month and it wont get shut off in the first place!!

[elmo01]

I've been given mixed informtation and don't know what to believe. Does Cingular Grey list? Does Cingular blacklist. Does Cingular monitor all listed phones?


TDMA phones are black listed when reported stolen...the ESN is put on a deny list... the ESN is integral to the call routing (this will be important as you read on)

GSM phones are not black listed the SIM card is as the ICCID (sim card serial number) determines the routing not the IMEI or phone serial number

so depending who you ask ...a GSM customer care rep or a TDMA customer care rep you could get conflicting answers

AFAIK only the british blacklist IMEI's

[Unregistered]

Cingular works me like a dog. I am at the top of my game as a rep, I have excellent handle time, quality, and great first call resolution, and what do I get paid? Peanuts. I am forced to work overtime against my will constantly, and I am expected to listen to the wheedling complaints of people with no common sense.

I find it interesting that most of the complaints on this site are from former AT&T customers. When I worked for AT&T, the customers were spoiled rotten, as a rep, I never bothered saying no to them, they would just escalate and get their way, so why not just save everyone the time,and I would just give in, and guess what, AT&T managed to be so magnanimous with their pocketbook that they put themselves out of business.

For those of you that like to cite their tenure as a customer, and believe they should get a "special" deal because they are somehow "better" than the average customer, let me tell you as a Cingular employee, Cingular pinches every penny until it screams, and if you get a sweetheart deal, they will get their money back from you one way or the other. Cingular worships the almighty dollar, and your only value as a customer is the bottom line.

By the way, I do everything by the book in my job, and I believe that as a consumer of any product, (including a cell phone), it is not unreasonable to expect that you educate yourself. If you enter into any committment that will last for two years, and you will be subject to a monthly charge for that service, what could it hurt you to take the couple of minutes it takes to READ YOUR CONTRACT!

As for getting out of the early termination fee, and checking to see if a signed contract is on file, this was a flaw in the AT&T system. Cingular will not activate your service until you have accepted the contract, so yes, you are indeed legally bound, and you will be expected to pay the fee. Cingular is not required to waive this fee, EVER, and if they do it is a courtesy...

[Unregistered]

TDMA phones are black listed when reported stolen...the ESN is put on a deny list... the ESN is integral to the call routing (this will be important as you read on)

GSM phones are not black listed the SIM card is as the ICCID (sim card serial number) determines the routing not the IMEI or phone serial number

so depending who you ask ...a GSM customer care rep or a TDMA customer care rep you could get conflicting answers

AFAIK only the british blacklist IMEI's


If it is GSM, just put your SIM in the phone, and rock on, or go to a store and buy a SIM if you need one, with TDMA, forget it.

[CSR Nick M.]

Cingular works me like a dog. I am at the top of my game as a rep, I have excellent handle time, quality, and great first call resolution, and what do I get paid? Peanuts. I am forced to work overtime against my will constantly, and I am expected to listen to the wheedling complaints of people with no common sense.

I find it interesting that most of the complaints on this site are from former AT&T customers. When I worked for AT&T, the customers were spoiled rotten, as a rep, I never bothered saying no to them, they would just escalate and get their way, so why not just save everyone the time,and I would just give in, and guess what, AT&T managed to be so magnanimous with their pocketbook that they put themselves out of business.

For those of you that like to cite their tenure as a customer, and believe they should get a "special" deal because they are somehow "better" than the average customer, let me tell you as a Cingular employee, Cingular pinches every penny until it screams, and if you get a sweetheart deal, they will get their money back from you one way or the other. Cingular worships the almighty dollar, and your only value as a customer is the bottom line.

By the way, I do everything by the book in my job, and I believe that as a consumer of any product, (including a cell phone), it is not unreasonable to expect that you educate yourself. If you enter into any committment that will last for two years, and you will be subject to a monthly charge for that service, what could it hurt you to take the couple of minutes it takes to READ YOUR CONTRACT!

As for getting out of the early termination fee, and checking to see if a signed contract is on file, this was a flaw in the AT&T system. Cingular will not activate your service until you have accepted the contract, so yes, you are indeed legally bound, and you will be expected to pay the fee. Cingular is not required to waive this fee, EVER, and if they do it is a courtesy...

This was amazing. From the customers with no common sense, to AT&T cust. getting everything they want, to Cingular pinching every penny. The only problem here is if you don't like what you're getting paid, then why are you still working in a call center? Ask any of the RETAIL COR reps (not agents!) that call in with issues how much they make monthly between hourly and comission. It is a million times better and the fact that you have already worked in the call center makes you even more valuable! If you have any questions, look me up in csp. nicholas miranda.

[Unregistered]

Well; I may be about the only one to think this; but I have to say I am truly satisfied with Cingular now. When Hurricane Katrina hit; everyone should have EXPECTED bad service. That wasn't any fault of Cingular. There were towers 6ft. underwater. Now; since they have that fixed & they now have started the routing from Jackson, Miss. to Shreveport, La. & all towers in Shreveport are up & running. We live in a small town in Lousiana. It's called Bastrop. Three years ago; you couldn't even get GSM. Now we have NO problems. Dropped calls are almost a thing of the past. The only gripes I have about Cingular, is there CS. But we have a store in Monroe, La. that takes all un-warranted charges off our bill every month. It's usually about 40.00 every month. But since Cingular took over; AT&T doesn't know what Cingular is doing & Cingular doesn't know what AT&T is doing. And now with it going back to AT&T; it's really going to be a mess. But when they PHASE out the digital phones; I think everything will be alot better with CS. But to me; Cingular is alot better than the alternatives. I had some friends that were with All-Tel & they switched to Cingular. And I also hear alot of complaints about Nextel, Sprint & alot of these other little companies. The only other company that COULD compare to cingular, in my opinion; would be Verizon. And I have a few friends that live in Shreveport that are switching from Verizon to Cingular, just as soon as their contract is up. And Shreveport really pushes Verizon. So go figure. Bottom line; is I think it's where you live. But from my part of the world, CINGULAR ROCKS.

[kepnchk2]

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 $!


So are you saying that Cingular is a pack of parasites? It is funny to see how misinformation or misunderstanding can make a person feel taken advantage of. Now I would agree if the rules change in the middle of the game, but in the contract, it clearly states all the rules and discloses information about the uncertainties about the network and such. So I am assuming, and forgive me if I am qrong, your upset because you feel Cingular changed the rules mid-stream.

[Unregistered]

As a Call Center Rep in Tech Support I can understand some of the complaints against Cingular. When it is a money issue and within my limits, I quickly apologize and credit the customers account. If the customer has not been able to use service due to a fault on Cingular's part, I compensate them for that too. I have arbitrarily refunded a full months service due to poor service and will continue to do so in the future. That is the job. My job is NOT to help someone get out of their contract or get a new phone just because they decided to move or want another phone.

On the other hand I can also honestly say that a good number of people are simply parasites trying to get something for nothing by whining or just too stupid to have a cell phone.

My job is to provide good customer service within the parameters set by my employer. Regardless of how I am spoken to by the customer, I treat them all "Firm, Fair and Friendly", however I will not be intimidated by anyone here stating it is my job to be a kicktoy for the customers and to give them what they want just because they want it, regardless of the reality of the situation nor will I allow myself to become intimidated when taking calls. If the customer is right I will do everything I can within my reach to help them. If they are wrong I will sympathize with them and help them as best I can, but I will NOT jeopardize my job or help a customer screw my employer. If I did, I would soon not have a job and would also be guilty of unethical conduct. Simply said, it is NOT going to happen.

I will list a few conversations I have had with customers as an example. Customer statements will be shown inside "customer" and my responses will be inside *response*

----------------------------------------------------------

Older lady calls in: "I can not get my bluetooth headset to work with my razor"
*That is certainly frustrating Ma'am. What model headset do you have?*
"I don't know what it is. It was given to me"
*Okay ma'am, is there a manufacturers logo on the earpiece?*
"I don't know. I can't see one"
*Did it come from Cingular?*
"No. My son had it with another service"
*Okay ma'am. Could you look for a small button on the headset and hold it down for me so that it lights up?*
"I have been pushing it down and nothing happens"
*Okay ma'am, has the headset worked in the past?*
"Yes, when I got it but it has not been working for the last week"
*Well ma'am, it would appear that your headset needs batterys or may be damaged. Do you have extra batterys for the headset?*
"No. It is just supposed to work!"
*Well, I am sorry ma'am but without the manufacturers information there is not much I can do for you at this point. Can you get into a Cingular store so that a representative there can assist you?*
"Well that is just too far away and it is just such an inconvenience to go there everytime something like this happens. You need to credit my account for the troubles I am having!"

I took the hint and dug into her account, noting that she had requested "credit" so often (several times over 6 months) that she had been barred from receiving further credit on mms messaging or excess usage.

*I apologize ma'am, but I can not credit your account for a headset that is not a recognizable Cingular product. Perhaps a Cingular Representative in a store could identify the headset and help you.*
"Well I really think you need to credit my account to make up for the cost of going there."
*I am sorry ma'am, but I can not compensate you for such expenses"
"Sigh. Well, can you note my account for a new headset to replace this one for free?"
*No ma'am. I am sorry but I can not".
""CLICK**

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Gentleman calls in complaining of not being able to access his voicemail.
"I can not access my voicemail! Whenever I hold down the 1 key it dials my own number and asks for a password! You people are so ****ed up, I don't know why I keep this service"
*Okay sir. I understand that can be quite frustrating and apologize for the troubles. By chance have you recently changed a phone number in your handset's voicemail message center?*
"No. I just use the damn phone to make calls. Can you fix this shit or not?"
*Yes sir, this is fixable. Do you have the handset with you?*
"I am talking on it"
*Okay sir, is there another phone number I can call you back at in order to help you with the handset you are on? We need to be able to change some numbers on it*
"Yes, call me at my home phone. The number is 123-456-7898
*Okay sir, when I get you on that line please hang this line up*

Get the caller on the other line.

*Okay sir, I need you to press the menu key and go to the voicemail center*
"Okay. I am there"
*Now please choose "Voicemail Message Number*
"Okay"
*What is the number you see there?*
"That is my number"
*Okay sir. That is the problem. The voicemail retrieval number should be there. It has been changed and is your problem.*
"Why is someone else's number supposed to be there!?"
*The number to retrieve voicemail on our voicemail platform is supposed to be there sir. It connects to the voicemail box and allows you to access your voicemail*
"Okay, do you have the damn number or not?"
*Yes sir. Please type in 19876543212*
"Okay, I got it"
*Good. Now sir would you test your voicemail by pressing the 1 key please?*
"Okay. It is working. Another thing. Why does that damned tutorial come up every time I call my voicemail?"
*Well sir, if you do not complete the voicemail setup program when you first start using your voicemail it will repeat each time you call. All you have to do is follow the setup to it's end where it asks you to press * to hang-up*
"Okay. Stay on the phone with me while I set it up"
LONG SILENCE
"It is still asking me to set it up damn it."
*Did you wait until it asked you to press * to hang up?*
"No"
*Okay sir, you have to complete the setup in order for it not to ask you to set up your voicemail. Just follow it all the way to the end and then when it asks you to press * to hang up, just press the * key on your handset*
"Damn! Okay. Wait"
LONG SILENCE AGAIN
"Okay. It is working right. You people need to learn how to help the customer better in the future"
*I am sorry for the frustration sir. I understand it can be quite exasperating.*
"Whatever - !CLICK!"

-----------------------------------------------------------

"I am getting dropped calls and have almost no antenna! This service is terrible"
*I apologize sir. Give me just a moment to look at your account and the particulars of it and I will be happy to help you......*
"Okay"
*Okay sir, has your address changed recently?*
"Yes, we just moved. We had great reception but your service is really terrible here"
*I am sorry sir. Could you tell me your new address so I can update it in the system and check the mapping for service at your new location?*
"!sigh! Yes, I live at 1234 First Hwy, Podunk, MS"
*Okay Sir. Give me just a moment to look at that area in mapping...*
"Well, ya'll are supposed to be sending me a new phone since the one you replaced my last one with ain't got no damned reception here. I was guarenteed a free Sliver damn it!"

-I checked account notes and there was no note for a free phone upgrade and the handset he had was less than two months old-

*Okay sir. I show that the signal you get there is no coverage at your new location*
"Well, you need to replace this damned phone so I can get a better signal"
*I am sorry sir, but a new phone will not change the signal strength in your area. You live approximately 50 miles from the nearest tower.*
"Well damn it, give me a new phone so I can. I know you can. I know you have the power"
*No sir. I do not have the power to change the specifics of the signal coverage in the area you moved to, other than to submit a network quality report. Sending you a replacement handset will not correct that deficiency either*
"What the hell is wrong with you? I know you can give me another phone. I want to talk to a manager damn it!"
*Okay sir. Bear with me just a moment and I will be happy to get one for you*

Pause while I get a manager for an -escalation- and explain the situtation to the manager. Manager checks my notes and previous actions in the billing notes, then takes the call.

Customer argues with the manager about getting a new phone.
Manager notes the customer has already gotten 2 free handsets due to poor reception before I caught the fact that the customer moved to an area with no coverage.
Customer states he will move back to the city . Just give him the new phone
Manager explains that there is nothing wrong with the one he has and declines
Customer says he wants to cancel service.
Manager transfers the call to a higher level of support.
Later on I find that support declined to try and keep the customer and will be billing him for the full cost of canceling service.

Facts are this guy was simply whining in order to try and get the latest and greatest cell phones and he got caught.

-----------------------------------------------------------

I will visit here again in the future and continue listing customer interactions. Perhaps some people will see issues similar to their own and learn something from there. Additionally, maybe some people will learn that a Customer Service Representative is not stupid just because you want them to be.

TS Rep

[Unregistered]

I would never work in Tech. I have seen too many care reps use tech for a dumping ground for simple calls so they do not have to troubleshoot, and the pay is not any more than customer service, I will never understand why Cingular considers this a lateral position...

I had a customer last week who wanted me to waive the cancellation fee on 5 family talk lines because he moved out of the coverage area. This spineless whimp of a supervisor I took my escalation to agreed to waive the fee on 2 lines. I went back and told the customer this, and he said that he was only going to cancel the two lines in that case, and wanted to make sure one of the ones we cancelled was the $60 per month phone.

Deep sigh...

All of this stuff is covered in the contract...

For all of you ridiculous customers who think you will be able to think of some new scam Cingular hasn't heard, you have obviously not read the particulars of the contract. There is nothing someone has not tried, and it is sewed up pretty tight. Truth be told, these days customers bore me. Even the ones who are escalating are not interesting, I've heard it all before a million times. I spend all day with virtually the same 3 calls...

1. Newest, latest and greatest phone for free
2. I have gone over my minutes, don't charge me for it
3. My phone does not work cause your network sucks..

Virtually all the other calls take a minute and a half for me to resolve, I actually got in trouble for having a 120 sec average handle time for the month.

Boring job...

[Unregistered]

i work in a call center and i have to say that i feel for all the people who are on here BUT with the same breath i have to say that you probaly shouldn't take one bad situation and make it your demarcation point with the company. I come to work every day and work very hard to make every call the best it can be. there are many times where i have received calls from customers who are infuriated becase they have been on the phone for hours trying to get something minute resolved. I WORK WITH THEM....most people do not know that we have only 420 seconds to resolve evey call but i cannot even begin to tell you the times that i have not made my stats to help out someone and esure that they get the best for their money. so please don't say that CINGULAR sucks because you probaly just happened to speak to that ONE bad apple in the company. Next time you call in you will probably get someone like myself is determined to esure that our customers are satisfied.

[kepnchk2]

It is nice to hear another Cingular employee taking pride in their job as I do. I found this site looking for unlock codes for my AT&T phones and I have been posting every now and again, but mostly noticed that this site was mostly employees complaining about customers than visa versa. There is no doubt that we all have been frustrated at one time or another, but one thing is for sure, Cingular is evolving and it is up to all of us to keep it evolving to become the better company for all!!

[Unregistered]

HILARIOUS....

I"m an agent and believe me....we get the same stuff.

As a Call Center Rep in Tech Support I can understand some of the complaints against Cingular. When it is a money issue and within my limits, I quickly apologize and credit the customers account. If the customer has not been able to use service due to a fault on Cingular's part, I compensate them for that too. I have arbitrarily refunded a full months service due to poor service and will continue to do so in the future. That is the job. My job is NOT to help someone get out of their contract or get a new phone just because they decided to move or want another phone.

On the other hand I can also honestly say that a good number of people are simply parasites trying to get something for nothing by whining or just too stupid to have a cell phone.

My job is to provide good customer service within the parameters set by my employer. Regardless of how I am spoken to by the customer, I treat them all "Firm, Fair and Friendly", however I will not be intimidated by anyone here stating it is my job to be a kicktoy for the customers and to give them what they want just because they want it, regardless of the reality of the situation nor will I allow myself to become intimidated when taking calls. If the customer is right I will do everything I can within my reach to help them. If they are wrong I will sympathize with them and help them as best I can, but I will NOT jeopardize my job or help a customer screw my employer. If I did, I would soon not have a job and would also be guilty of unethical conduct. Simply said, it is NOT going to happen.

I will list a few conversations I have had with customers as an example. Customer statements will be shown inside "customer" and my responses will be inside *response*

----------------------------------------------------------

Older lady calls in: "I can not get my bluetooth headset to work with my razor"
*That is certainly frustrating Ma'am. What model headset do you have?*
"I don't know what it is. It was given to me"
*Okay ma'am, is there a manufacturers logo on the earpiece?*
"I don't know. I can't see one"
*Did it come from Cingular?*
"No. My son had it with another service"
*Okay ma'am. Could you look for a small button on the headset and hold it down for me so that it lights up?*
"I have been pushing it down and nothing happens"
*Okay ma'am, has the headset worked in the past?*
"Yes, when I got it but it has not been working for the last week"
*Well ma'am, it would appear that your headset needs batterys or may be damaged. Do you have extra batterys for the headset?*
"No. It is just supposed to work!"
*Well, I am sorry ma'am but without the manufacturers information there is not much I can do for you at this point. Can you get into a Cingular store so that a representative there can assist you?*
"Well that is just too far away and it is just such an inconvenience to go there everytime something like this happens. You need to credit my account for the troubles I am having!"

I took the hint and dug into her account, noting that she had requested "credit" so often (several times over 6 months) that she had been barred from receiving further credit on mms messaging or excess usage.

*I apologize ma'am, but I can not credit your account for a headset that is not a recognizable Cingular product. Perhaps a Cingular Representative in a store could identify the headset and help you.*
"Well I really think you need to credit my account to make up for the cost of going there."
*I am sorry ma'am, but I can not compensate you for such expenses"
"Sigh. Well, can you note my account for a new headset to replace this one for free?"
*No ma'am. I am sorry but I can not".
""CLICK**

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Gentleman calls in complaining of not being able to access his voicemail.
"I can not access my voicemail! Whenever I hold down the 1 key it dials my own number and asks for a password! You people are so ****ed up, I don't know why I keep this service"
*Okay sir. I understand that can be quite frustrating and apologize for the troubles. By chance have you recently changed a phone number in your handset's voicemail message center?*
"No. I just use the damn phone to make calls. Can you fix this shit or not?"
*Yes sir, this is fixable. Do you have the handset with you?*
"I am talking on it"
*Okay sir, is there another phone number I can call you back at in order to help you with the handset you are on? We need to be able to change some numbers on it*
"Yes, call me at my home phone. The number is 123-456-7898
*Okay sir, when I get you on that line please hang this line up*

Get the caller on the other line.

*Okay sir, I need you to press the menu key and go to the voicemail center*
"Okay. I am there"
*Now please choose "Voicemail Message Number*
"Okay"
*What is the number you see there?*
"That is my number"
*Okay sir. That is the problem. The voicemail retrieval number should be there. It has been changed and is your problem.*
"Why is someone else's number supposed to be there!?"
*The number to retrieve voicemail on our voicemail platform is supposed to be there sir. It connects to the voicemail box and allows you to access your voicemail*
"Okay, do you have the damn number or not?"
*Yes sir. Please type in 19876543212*
"Okay, I got it"
*Good. Now sir would you test your voicemail by pressing the 1 key please?*
"Okay. It is working. Another thing. Why does that damned tutorial come up every time I call my voicemail?"
*Well sir, if you do not complete the voicemail setup program when you first start using your voicemail it will repeat each time you call. All you have to do is follow the setup to it's end where it asks you to press * to hang-up*
"Okay. Stay on the phone with me while I set it up"
LONG SILENCE
"It is still asking me to set it up damn it."
*Did you wait until it asked you to press * to hang up?*
"No"
*Okay sir, you have to complete the setup in order for it not to ask you to set up your voicemail. Just follow it all the way to the end and then when it asks you to press * to hang up, just press the * key on your handset*
"Damn! Okay. Wait"
LONG SILENCE AGAIN
"Okay. It is working right. You people need to learn how to help the customer better in the future"
*I am sorry for the frustration sir. I understand it can be quite exasperating.*
"Whatever - !CLICK!"

-----------------------------------------------------------

"I am getting dropped calls and have almost no antenna! This service is terrible"
*I apologize sir. Give me just a moment to look at your account and the particulars of it and I will be happy to help you......*
"Okay"
*Okay sir, has your address changed recently?*
"Yes, we just moved. We had great reception but your service is really terrible here"
*I am sorry sir. Could you tell me your new address so I can update it in the system and check the mapping for service at your new location?*
"!sigh! Yes, I live at 1234 First Hwy, Podunk, MS"
*Okay Sir. Give me just a moment to look at that area in mapping...*
"Well, ya'll are supposed to be sending me a new phone since the one you replaced my last one with ain't got no damned reception here. I was guarenteed a free Sliver damn it!"

-I checked account notes and there was no note for a free phone upgrade and the handset he had was less than two months old-

*Okay sir. I show that the signal you get there is no coverage at your new location*
"Well, you need to replace this damned phone so I can get a better signal"
*I am sorry sir, but a new phone will not change the signal strength in your area. You live approximately 50 miles from the nearest tower.*
"Well damn it, give me a new phone so I can. I know you can. I know you have the power"
*No sir. I do not have the power to change the specifics of the signal coverage in the area you moved to, other than to submit a network quality report. Sending you a replacement handset will not correct that deficiency either*
"What the hell is wrong with you? I know you can give me another phone. I want to talk to a manager damn it!"
*Okay sir. Bear with me just a moment and I will be happy to get one for you*

Pause while I get a manager for an -escalation- and explain the situtation to the manager. Manager checks my notes and previous actions in the billing notes, then takes the call.

Customer argues with the manager about getting a new phone.
Manager notes the customer has already gotten 2 free handsets due to poor reception before I caught the fact that the customer moved to an area with no coverage.
Customer states he will move back to the city . Just give him the new phone
Manager explains that there is nothing wrong with the one he has and declines
Customer says he wants to cancel service.
Manager transfers the call to a higher level of support.
Later on I find that support declined to try and keep the customer and will be billing him for the full cost of canceling service.

Facts are this guy was simply whining in order to try and get the latest and greatest cell phones and he got caught.

-----------------------------------------------------------

I will visit here again in the future and continue listing customer interactions. Perhaps some people will see issues similar to their own and learn something from there. Additionally, maybe some people will learn that a Customer Service Representative is not stupid just because you want them to be.

TS Rep

[Unregistered]

cingular customers are the most devious people in the world...they complain about not having service but want 200 addtl minutes on there rate plan for free..this will fix the issue?...I had a customer call in because she wanted a credit..i asked why? she said because she been a cingular customer for awhile and she just wants a credit??????? .....she wants cingular to give her "THERE" money because shes been with the company for a while...and then on page 8..this moron makes a cingularwirelessreallysucks.com..website..people gooooooo way out of there way just to diss a company..they wont go one with there lives...

[elmo01]

cingular customers are the most devious people in the world...they complain about not having service but want 200 addtl minutes on there rate plan for free..this will fix the issue?...I had a customer call in because she wanted a credit..i asked why? she said because she been a cingular customer for awhile and she just wants a credit??????? .....she wants cingular to give her "THERE" money because shes been with the company for a while...and then on page 8..this moron makes a cingularwirelessreallysucks.com..website..people gooooooo way out of there way just to diss a company..they wont go one with there lives...

some people just dont know how to handle the "non-desired response" to a billing question...

and carriers from several years ago used to thow money at the problem and hope it would go away...

now the CSR's have to deal with "I got the credit before and I want it again"

[Unregistered]

I really feel sorry for all you whiners. Constantly wanting something for free and expected the phone company to pull miracles if it doesn't. Let's examine a few things here:

1. Cell phones are a WIRELESS technology. Your phone is relying on a signal to work. If you are to far away from a tower, to far below or above a tower, inside a really thick building, or a metal building, or any combination of the above, you phone is not going to work at optimum conditions. How often does your house phone not work optimally? Only if something happens to the phone wire. Hmm....I wonder why that is?

2. You want a FREE phone? Wow, so do I. However, I really don't want the crap that cell phone companies sell for free. I want a quality device, and I am willing to pay for it. To call in multiple times to try to weasel your way into another free phone is truly sad. Read your contract. ONE discounted PER CONTRACT.

3. Do your research. Don't get the free phone and call complaining to me that it's crap. We know it is. But you want it, and your going to keep asking for free phones. This is supposed to be the day of the educated consumer, however most cell phone customers are completely uneducated about the product and service they have purchased.

4. We will no longer throw money at you to "fix" the problem. If you have a legitimate problem, we will work with you to fix the problem through legitimate processes. Throwing credits and another free phone at you does not fix the problem and result in you being more displeased with the company later when these "fixes" do not actually FIX your problem. It's like giving a druggie more crack. It may help them right now, but eventually they'll need another fix.

5. READ YOUR BILL! Wanna know why your bill is not the usual amount? Try reading it! All charges are ITEMIZED. You know how much quicker you will get your problem solved if you call in and say, "I have a problem with this charge on page 6 of my bill..." If you know what charges are incorrect, it not only helps the csr with finding your problem, but also tells them where to look and lets them expedite your issue with either getting you a credit for an invalid charge, or being able to explain why those charges are valid. If you just simply call in saying "I wanna know why my bill's so big" means we spend the next 5-10 minutes reading over the bill ourselves to be able to pinpoint your problem. It's YOUR service. Why wouldn't you want to know EXACTLY what is going on with it? I have always called in (to whatever company) and told them exactly what charges I am disputing and had a resolution in minutes!

7. Every once in a while, there is a snafu in the system, and unfortunately, YOU maybe be the target of it. Instead of calling in halfcocked and taking LONGER to fix your problem, again, be aware of what is going on with your service. Politely inform the rep what's going on and let them look into it. Most of the time, if you approach a rep with manners and knowledge, they will be more than happy to fix your problem for you. It is not a personal attack on you, and it is not the company trying to single you out to screw you. You are screwing yourself more by calling in acting like an @$$hole.

8. Learn your companies policies. If you know the policies, then you can probably also learn where the rules can be bent the easiest. And no, our policy is not if you call in screaming and cussing, you will get whatever you want.


I'm not trying to rude here, but simply exhibiting a little intelligence goes a long way in making a lasting relationship between you and your service provider.

I have Cingular and I have NEVER been happier with any provider.

[Unregistered]

Hi, I'm a customer service represantive from cingular and most of the calls I assist are related to equipment or billing issues. I know is our work to deal with that, I just want to say some points to you customers to get a better help next time you call:

- Understand, DUE DATE is not the same as LATE FEE. If you don't pay before the due date, your service can get disconnected and will be charge for restoral. Please do not think that the due date is when the late fee charges would apply. Different DATES.

- If you get over your minutes, we'll help you in some many ways like providing adjustments and offering rate plan changes, BUT please do not blame us for that. All call records all listed on your bill and you can count one by one if you don't believe the overage. Don't call stating that you don't even use that much the service, or that you don't recognize many of the called numbers. I think it is stupid believe that a carrier would overage your account. We would get many cancellations. Think it!

- WE DON'T SUBSCRIBE YOU ON ANYTHING. Charges for internet downloads or subscription are gotten from you using media net or sending sms to recieve, for example, your luck. Once I assisted a customer that stated that he never used media net and got like $100.00 on downloads. I verified the internet usage and had like 5 MB transfered!!! PLEASE!!

- Don't expect to waive the early termination fee only because your device is not working only INSIDE your house or bulding. I know is annoying to need to get out in order to get a call, but that issue is not in our hands. Acknowledge that the buyers remorse was implemented to try the service for 30 days and could waive the cancellation fee for situations like above.

THE THING I HATE THE MOST:

- If you are having issues with the device, please DO NOT call from THAT device. It would be helpful.

Well, please don't get me wrong, I really like to assist customers, I only want you to understand these point to get better help. And believe when I say there is much more but I don't have the time to write them, maybe some other time.

PS: I have heard calls from latinoamericans, mexican the most, willing to get a free device and willing to cancel if they don't get it. I really don't think carriers from México, like Telcel, would give you a free device for nothing, even if you have been loyal for years, so please give it up!!! wait until there is a special offer.

[Unregistered]

I have read many complaints on this site from representatives.
First, any company should consider the tenure and behavior of their customers. Second, I wonder how many customers got credit, but didn't ask for it, because Cingular screwed up. This has happened to me several times- I have never asked for credit, I just wanted things fixed-I have found plenty of mistakes in the bill, ect over the last 12 years. I can not tell you how many times a rep screwed stuff up- it got rediculous. Therefore I try not to make many changes.

However, I did want a new phone-it had been 10 years since Cingular discounted a phone for me- I just bought a better one than they offered. Now, they say the $200/mo. we pay for service-that's without overtime, doesn't pay enough to warrant any discounts. Last month, I was told we were due for 3 phone upgrades and the rep talked me into it. After vacation, getting a more expensive plan and adding features, we called to order the new phones. After being elgible for a free or discounted phone for 8 years, we are not allowed to get one. We were told we used too many "free" night/weekend minutes. Funny, we just signed up for extended hours to cut out the hundreds of minutes we had been going over. This must have really made someone mad! We couldn't afford to keep paying double each month.(over $350/mo.)
By the way, we have never been late, have spent tens of thousands of dollars since 1994, but this doesn't matter. And not getting discounted phones from them for years doesn't matter either.
I got a lecture on how Cingular was a good deal and I should be feeling blessed to have them as a carrier. If we had that attitude, my company would have failed long ago.

Actually we are blessed to have choices in the market.

[Unregistered]

you should see how they treat employees. It's pretty funny how these CSR's are defending the worst company I have ever worked for. They must be young, stupid or both because the company treats employees worse every day (just think, they pay US, they must HATE that). If you think things are bad now, just wait til the merger is finallized. It will get worse, trust me. I believe we (cingular) don't give a shit and think that it does not matter how you are treated. I do not have anything to do with customers in my current (til next week) position, I've seen things get worse since the day Cingular became a company, and I was with SBC prior. Thank god I have finally gotten so fed up that I found a better company (there is no way on earth it could be worse). Good luck cingular customers, you will need it. And don't think I'm saying these things because I have been personally treated badly by this company. I just see how others are treated and the things we do to customers. No thanks, see ya!

[Unregistered]

Yes, I can see it coming after my phone calls to them. The reps have an attitude problem. They act like bratty teens who were convinced theya re better than the next high school!

It's true that cingular has many costumers. It's true ther are other companies. It is redicuous that they have decided to "punish" their costumers for using their elite service. I was eneve told that it costs them $50/mo. to maintain the equipment for each phone in their system! Interesting- how do they make a profit? Are they lying about the worth of their stock?

[Unregistered]

They suck so bad in every way.

I paid over 400 bucks to canel all my lines and switch to verizon.
Worth over penny.
There service works everywere. Its so much better.
cingular call drop everywere. even thought they claim to have the least.
I regret every dime I spent with them.

[CingularSSGRep]

I work on behalf of Cingular in one of their depts. ( I handle customers within their first 30 days ). In regards to warranty issues, it is not the service provider that handles warranty issues, its the manufacturer of the device. As for the exchanging of devices within the first 30 days, any rep in my centre will be more than happy to do an exchange on any piece of deffective, damaged (upon arrival) equipment, even a phone that someone doesnt like we will exchange it. But when customers wait until the 29th day to return a defective phone, we just have to sit back and think about what is going through the customers head. Myself as a rep and the majority of the ones in my centre will do anything that is possible to help all of the customers that call us (even when alot of the customers press the wrong buttons, just because they want to talk to a real person, and they have been with us for 3 years not 30 days ie. misdirected calls) When a customer calls in and wants to escalate to management because she wants to get credit for a game that she downloaded because it sucks, and we see on her account that she has been credited $300.00 in 2 months for no apparent reason, it seems to us that a lot of the customers that call in just to complain and see what they can get out of us, it gets a little discouraging.
There is not one company out there that is perfect and I know for a fact that most people will end up not liking something because of one bad experience that they have had. In the case of Cingular, here are some basic ones that I have encountered and here are some of the solutions :

Deffective Phone : Call the customer care centre, and they will direct you to the original point of sale, and the rep that you speak with will exchange your phone.

Dropped Calls : Do a "power-cycle" on your phone, let it die completely then charge it for a full 8-12 hours, then repeat the process once more, this should eleviate the amount of "dropped calls"

Phone just stops working : Call Customer Service and see if there is an outage in the area, if there isn't, tech support will troubleshoot your phone with you.

Billing Problems : Instead of yelling at the rep about a charge on your bill (remember that rep isnt the one that necessarily put it there), calmy explain to the rep about the charge, they will pull up the information and look into it with you, and if need be; they will credit it back.

These are just a very small portion of the issues that I recieve calls about on a daily basis, but there is always someone out there that is willing to help you out if there is and issue, problem or concern that needs to be adressed.

CHEERS!

[Unregistered]

I work on behalf of Cingular in one of their depts. ( I handle customers within their first 30 days ). In regards to warranty issues, it is not the service provider that handles warranty issues, its the manufacturer of the device. As for the exchanging of devices within the first 30 days, any rep in my centre will be more than happy to do an exchange on any piece of deffective, damaged (upon arrival) equipment, even a phone that someone doesnt like we will exchange it. But when customers wait until the 29th day to return a defective phone, we just have to sit back and think about what is going through the customers head. Myself as a rep and the majority of the ones in my centre will do anything that is possible to help all of the customers that call us (even when alot of the customers press the wrong buttons, just because they want to talk to a real person, and they have been with us for 3 years not 30 days ie. misdirected calls) When a customer calls in and wants to escalate to management because she wants to get credit for a game that she downloaded because it sucks, and we see on her account that she has been credited $300.00 in 2 months for no apparent reason, it seems to us that a lot of the customers that call in just to complain and see what they can get out of us, it gets a little discouraging.
There is not one company out there that is perfect and I know for a fact that most people will end up not liking something because of one bad experience that they have had. In the case of Cingular, here are some basic ones that I have encountered and here are some of the solutions :

Deffective Phone : Call the customer care centre, and they will direct you to the original point of sale, and the rep that you speak with will exchange your phone.

Dropped Calls : Do a "power-cycle" on your phone, let it die completely then charge it for a full 8-12 hours, then repeat the process once more, this should eleviate the amount of "dropped calls"

Phone just stops working : Call Customer Service and see if there is an outage in the area, if there isn't, tech support will troubleshoot your phone with you.

Billing Problems : Instead of yelling at the rep about a charge on your bill (remember that rep isnt the one that necessarily put it there), calmy explain to the rep about the charge, they will pull up the information and look into it with you, and if need be; they will credit it back.

These are just a very small portion of the issues that I recieve calls about on a daily basis, but there is always someone out there that is willing to help you out if there is and issue, problem or concern that needs to be adressed.

CHEERS!

On the dropped call thing - I NEVER let my battery die completely. Some phone manufacturers suggest to keep it charging when not in use to give you the best amount of talk time. The more you charge it the longer it will last.

For Nokia and Sony Ericsson they go as far as to say if you let the battery die, you could damage the battery. I've had phones from both and read this in their user guides.

So I have Cingular, I have pretty good coverage but keeping my battery charged does not help the "dropped call" issue. I still average about one to two dropped calls a week in areas that I usually get good coverage in.

One thing you can't argue is Cingulars rates. They are way overpriced compared to other providers. I am stuck with Cingular because I get the best coverage with them and since I run my own business I need to stay connected this way.

If it were up to me I could do without a cell but my business can't at this point.

[Unregistered]

Yes, I can see it coming after my phone calls to them. The reps have an attitude problem. They act like bratty teens who were convinced theya re better than the next high school!

It's true that cingular has many costumers. It's true ther are other companies. It is redicuous that they have decided to "punish" their costumers for using their elite service. I was eneve told that it costs them $50/mo. to maintain the equipment for each phone in their system! Interesting- how do they make a profit? Are they lying about the worth of their stock?


Cingular doesn't have stock jack a**. and yes, that is correct, unless you have been a customer for more than a year. cingular has not made a penny on you. but, that is the same with every company... hence the need for a contract with service. and yes, just like you pay too much for your over priced bmw, you pay more for better service... last thing, the customers act like brats too. these folks don't make the decision they just collect a crappy pay check just like you do to pay the bills. don't get mad at them. they put up with the same shit you do everyday when they get home from work. so think before you treat someone who has never seen you ugly mug before like crap. think... think.... think....think....

[Unregistered]

im a cingular customer service rep. i havent read all the posts. just the first few pages, (up to page 4). WE are the ONLY ones who will give you your money back after being screwed around. call in angry, we arent giving you anything. no matter if our job is to be nice or not. we will find a "nice" way of telling you you arent getting anything. if you call in and are civil, i personally will give you MORE than youre entitled to. NO customer service reps will hook you up with ANYTHING when they are getting challanged or confronted. challange me. do it. please. im spiteful as hell. i deal with it all day. and i laugh when you call in pissed off about your bill. yell and scream at m, please, because ill push 1 button and drop your call. without a trace. oops! ask for a manager. they will read the account and see youve called in 4 times before asking for the same credit. and youll get nothing. sleep on it. call in when your not snapping out. ill go out of my way and bend policy to help you out if your concern is valid. im telling you. whine and cry all you want. cell phone technology is what, 15, 20 years old and you expect us to have everything figured out, perfectly, no interruptions??? your joking me. and for all you people that "RELY" on your phone and your losing thousands of dollars a day. get real. get over yourself. it says in your contract not to use the service for buisness. IGNORANT PEOPLE IGNORANT READ EDUCATE YOURSELF CHRIST. idiots.

[Unregistered]

How do I call customer service when my cell phone is not working?

In other words, where do I find the landline number for Cingular in my area?

Thanks....

[elmo01]

How do I call customer service when my cell phone is not working?

In other words, where do I find the landline number for Cingular in my area?

Thanks....

1-800-331-0500

[Unregistered]

[QUOTE=Bruce in Oregon]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 you were smart, heres another story-involving 2 years and days on the phone.. I was with AT&T since 99 or 2000, ok, not super wonderful, but all around satisfied. Most problems were of my own stupidity. Then one day I am charged a roaming fee of $68.04 for 4 minutes in West by God,West VA. I am in DC. This is 7 hours away from me, luckily I had made a call 2 min before and 4 min after both hitting local towers. So I call cust svc, they agree it is impossible, tell me I should pay it just to avoid any problems... and when they are done with the studies on tower-jumping they will reimburse me. I politely refuse, this is not my error-and the rep is agreeing it is not my error. He will not wipe it, he will not put it on stand by, but he will make a "note" in my file. Lovely, to make this story short, it took them 11 months (that is actual bills received with said amount) And after 2-3 months of maintaining that balance I get a "warning" on my bill. I call cust svc, they tell me again it is in my best interest to pay just to keep all smooth. (not like time spent on phone isn't enough for them) They tell me that Cingular (damn them!!) and something about towers, location, merging companys etc. No point, just working up to it. My service gets stopped, i get irate, cust svc agrees with me, they will restart. THey do not inform me that there is a charge... Next bill I call again, not only is this $68.04 still showing, but now a $35 ($30?-funny I can't remember that one) reinstatement fee.
Now during all of this Cingular tower business my own paltry svc has been spotty-no additional charges, but hey-its been crappy. No signal, no power etc... Sooo, when the next bill with all additional charges rolls around, I send a email and call cust svc. Somehow, they convince me that if I sign up for this wonderous new GSM svc my roaming charges will just be nothing!! He totally sells me on this phone, this plan... However they just don't tell me that AT&T do not have any coverage in area, (only Cingular does!! they have tons and tons!) but they are not totally merged yet-so I can't quite use them. So my cycle rolls on each month, like a said 11 bills, 7 or so cancellations, each time charged then refunded a re-on fee.
AT&T & cingular merge, leaving only Cingular. My service is suddenly on hyper-drive, I have SERVICE EVERYWHERE!!!!! It is all powerful. My bliss lasts for 2 months. My phone breaks, I am sold on a new plan-I am given minutes, loyalty minutes, for the rest of my contract. It is 1300 a mth. I 2x all with guy, this is just not only for 1 month, i have guys name, i write verbatim what he tells me. I go to nearest store to get my free phone that is all ready to go... only they want to charge me $400 for my "free" phone... so I call cust svc back, they will ship... The next bill I am charged for the phone (now $499 with start up fee) they do not even give me credit for $50 for promo.... I call, I wait... The next month, I have a $50 credit, still charged for phone, and all of my minutes are gone..(well most) So I call again, and cuz I am a sucker for punishment I have to add a 2nd phone (25$/free) onto my bill with the $9.99 fee... Then the bs really starts.. Since they took half my minutes, I am no longer eligible for the $9.99 plan, so that is doubled. The free phone is not free, nor is it $25... it has now doubled. My original minutes were "never possible, there is no PLAN AT ALL FOR 1300 minutes" - but to get the $9.99 plan, there is a new plan with 1300 minutes.... hmm. Each time that I call I am treated with an attitude. I become the "girl that got her phone shut off each month, since I can't pay my bill" So I am not taken seriously,much less with any respect... They willl NOT deduct their charges to reflect the agreement... I offer to send the phones back. They are snide... "hmmmm, it shows here we have ALREADY reimbursed you quite alot" According to them, they have just given me service with benefits and beyond" I am polite, lucid, and calm in explaining...
they well, they just dont give a damn. I never did get 1/2 of it back. My contract runs out, I send a card to re-up for another 2 yrs... and get 1 free month of basic svc.... 3 months later, my bill for 2 months is tripled... ah yes, they never resigned me up... one month later, I have had enough... I spend 4 days on phone.. end up talking to a high-tootin "cust.svc mgr mgr" He treats me the same, tells me the same. I tell him it is totally sad that this huge company can get away with treating their customers (7-8 yrs)- (oh-yes, soooo spotty!) with such disregard.. telling the customer that they are not only wrong- but stupid also.
Mr Cingular himself only says, you cannot break your contract or you will be charged... And I dont have to sign anything, sheer use of my cell phone implies a contract agreement...
Funny how it didnt keep my contract going for that 2 months...
Sad. Just sad.

[Unregistered]

Sprint totally sucks @$$. I stood right in front of there tower once and had one bar. The customer service sucks and the phones are terrible. I am stuck with a f****** 2 yr contract and can't leave untill June 2007. I am going to be switching to Cingular then because I don't want to pay a $450 cancellation fee to cancel Sprint. Don't switch, Sprint is the worst you can possibly get!

If you think you have it bad with sprint just wait til you get f***** by cingular. Not only does the phones not work they will also rip you off. Believe me THEY SUCK>

[Unregistered]

I'm actually very ashamed of the post before this one. PLEASE... before you tell people you work for Cingular (as I myself), PLEASE map out carefully what it is you want to iterate, and concentrate on your grammar and spelling! Most of your suggestions are now moot and have been discredited because your average joe (or sally) will skip your post because it jives in a childish manner. I read your post (barely) and found myself concentrating more on your spelling errors and punctuation (or lack of) more so than the substance of what it was I think you were trying to say!

Cingular corporate officials are always tipped off about consumer opinion. Where Cingular is today, in that our company has promised SBC (our parent company) that Cingular will rank #1 in customer satisfaction by 2007, it is of great importance that popular demand is paid attention to. We can all imagine where technology is going, and Cingular will be the first cell provider to take us there... however, it is also very important that the thousands of employees representing Cingular are unified in supporting their company, not by fixating on the customer's bad habits (because we all have our own), but by taking part in circulating popular demand within!

What do YOU expect from our company? What do YOU think should be Cingular's #1 objective? Don't lay this entirely in the hands of Stan Sigman... you have just as much a right to answer these questions as does the supervisor that signs off on your promotion!

I don't think cingular will ever be number 1#. They are just to big of a rip off to even come close to being number one. I would never recommand cingular to anyone. Sorry but to me they suck!

[Unregistered]

I was originally ATT, but signed up (forced) to Cingular and got GSM phones one year ago. Was originaly very happy because both the new phone and new service worked better than ATT.

10 months later something changed and we no longer have service in half (literally) our town. My children were being grounded for not calling in and they kept giving me the excuse "no signal". Finally I got in the car and drove to all their friends houses and sure enough, no signal driving through the neighborhood. (This is only 1/2 mile from my home).

This was November and I have not been able to resolve this issue.
I've worked with both techs and CSR's.
They say that my signal strength is good so they can't let me out of contract. (it is ok in my backyard, but drive 1/2 mile and I get zero bars!)

Are they not in breach of contract because the service is NOT the same as when I signed a contract? I would have returned all phones had the service been this spotty during the "trial" period.

They have given me no reason for the lack of service (loss of tower??).

They have tried to get me to buy 5 (five) new phones at $70 a piece! (4 of the phones I have are only 1 year old and 1 is only 3 months old! with the NEW sim card) All phones work exactly the same.

Also, all of our friends have the same problem and many have already left Cingular getting out of their contracts. (Their house addresses might appear in a "spotty" area)

For some reason, they won't let me out. They just want to keep me jumping through hoops (power cycle the phone, change the sim card, we are changing your tower, wait another week etc...)

Any suggestions??

Thanks!!

Sure one suggestion get a lawyer you can get out of it. You will have to pay a payment to get out of the contract but it will be worth every penny of it to get away from cingular.

[Unregistered]

I am a former csr w/cingular. And I laugh reading some of the ranting and raving posted on here.I agree with alot of the concerns w/cingular policies but the biggest peeve I have is with people thinking that because their phone is broken Cingular has to replace it. Warranties people warranties. And if all else fails call the manufacturer (umm...also known as the company who MADE the phone for you slower folk) I as a consumer have had positive dealings with the manufacturer directly and they more flexible with alot of issues within the 1 year timeline of your warranty that cingular policies will not touch. But if you drop your phone in the toilet or run over it with your car you are sol without insurance. Its not cingulars fault you were the idiot who broke the phone.They only provide the service your broken phone would be using. Also people who bitch about rollover minutes can bite me. If you have 6 gazillion minutes banked and you have to lose some when you change your price plan then so be it. Honestly what are the chances you would be using all of those minutes before they expire? Slim. Take the cut and start with a fresh year before your remaining minutes expire. Quit being greedy.And I have to say cingular has a lot of perks that I do not get with my service provider here in Canada. NO insurance, NO rollover minutes, NO national roaming.And you thought you had it bad. HA!!

[Unregistered]

Dear everyone who has posted anything on this site and anyone who leaves a post after this..... If you are a cingular employee or a former employee, just let people rant. please don't respond to every little comment they post here. some people just want to piss and moan and get over it and feel better for doing it. it has no real affect on the company. you don't control anything, stan stigman does... and he makes too damn much money to care what you think anyway. just try to call him. you can't!!! to the customers..... fokes, come on for just a minute. do you work? do you deal with people? do they piss you off, ruin your day over shit you have no control over. have you ever just said no. do you tell you kids,NO!!... because i said so. let he who is without sin cast the first stone. let me clarify, get over it. this is a business... a company trying to make money. go figure..... how long have you paid your power bill, how much money do you spend at walmart? ever ask for discount? how about a free loaf of bread. Huh? NO! why, because its a business, you aren't stupid. leave the damn folks alone. if you have a problem, they will help you if its not already your own damn fault.... and even then they may still try to help, but don't expect... you pay for the service you get, not anything more, so stop expecting it. phones cost money, you don't need a free one.... who else gives you free shit. no one, unless its crap, you don't want and f**king free phone. they suck,, if you get one, you have a peice of shit. pay for it, they give you 200 dollars off retail anyway, and if you just got a discount 6 months ago, don't ask for another. talk about rude.... where else do you act like this and get away with it. and don't be made because i'm completely putting you down, because you know its the truth... your mad because i just called you out and you wouldn't be mad if it weren't true.... and to all you people that go through life pitching a fit just to get what you want because you know someone will give you something just because you do it..... there is an all new level in hell for people like you!!!! you are scum..................VERY LAST THING....... IF ANYONE POST ANOTHER COMMENT AFTER THIS ONE I WANT YOU TO KNOW YOU ARE THE BIGGEST LOSER.... AND YES I AM POSTING ON THIS WALL..... NOT THE POINT.... IF YOU POST AFTER READING THIS YOU ARE THE MOST HOPELESS EXCUSE FOR A REASONABLE HUMAN BEING ON THIS PLANET. .... DON'T DO IT..... I'LL TAKE THE TITLE JUST TO KEEP YOU FROM GETTING ANY STUPIDER BY POSTING ANYTHING ELSE ON THIS WALL. .... AND GOD FORBID!!! YOU POST SOMETHING IN RESPONSE TO THIS BECAUSE YOU CAN REST ASSURED YOU WILL RECIEVE THE STUPIEST LOOKS THE REST OF YOU LIFE BECAUSE... YES.... YOU ARE THAT RETARDED.

[Unregistered]

I have been with this company since it was Cellular One...."90's. The past few months I have spent countless hours on the phone trying to correct my bill...not to mention the dropped calls.etc.....when Att changed their name to Cingular.... my service has been awful....

The last two month I have spent countless hours on the phone to correct overcharges.....
I'm being charged "daytime min" to retrieve voice mail...which should be Mobile to Mobile.....

I'm being charged Daytime...at 8pm when it should be "nights and weekends"

I've recieved a bill today that is triple what it should be.....

I've spent at least an hour trying to make sense of my current bill.....

yes last month after an hour on the phone they changed my bill to what I normally pay.l....

And now I have to go through this again....

My time is valuable....I make $30.00/hr.....I feel as I should submit an invoice for my time invested in correcting their mistakes.

So...... mr......whoever daring anyone to submit a post.....

It's past your bedtime.

[Unregistered]

do you still work for cingular if you do please email me at matthew_sullins1986@yahoo.com

[Unregistered]

some reps shouldnt be reps at because they show a payment complet and they have the money and you tell them to note that so you have a not to go by if something go worng with that payment and the when some thing dose happen there is no note to go by i am starting to think CINGULAR is another SPRINT

[Unregistered]

lets hope and prey your not a rep because now i can print what you said and get out of my contract or get one mounth free

[Unregistered]

you go #200 tell it off

[Unregistered]

Ok Enough is enough. Fist thing I want to state. Cingular did not buy AT&T. What, what, What you say. Cingular bought AT&T WIRELESS. Two different companies.Yes they may have said AT&T but they are two different parts of the company.AT&T no longer wanted to compete in the wireless world as it had other things to put its efforts into. And as for talking about blah blah my service sucks my phones shuts off , restarts randomly, flickers, drops calls.Well first off 2 ways to avoid it.
1: Stay away from free phones.Just cause you go to a store or call and they say yeah this phone rocks blah blah, Thye are not going to bash the phones they sell.SPECIALY THE SALES DEPARTMENT. Me, if you got ahold of me I will tell you the truth.

2:Stay away from the Damn MOTO V3 RAZOR.That phone is a poorly made peice of crap that they did 2 recalls on and all they did was make it so the problem only shows up later.Buy an LG CU500 looks like the razor but better.

Now if you have to call in to our cust care deptarments.do not call in cussing at the rep.As all this rep knows is that his or her phone just beeped and he/she answered it to a cust about to blow a gasket.PLEASE TALK CALMLY LIKE A HUMAN. don't call in asking for credits.It won't happen. Make some kinda sob story, nothing huge just like.My bill was just so high and I aalmost had a heart attack knowing i would not be able to pay this., (somthing like that ) If you got me on the phone and worked with me nicly Then guess what I will help you.I make it almost a note everytime If i get a great cust on the line i even give a bonus 200 rollover minute just to help.even if your problem had nothing to do with minutes.

As when it comes to getting smart people.Don't blame Cingular.Blame the call center.I got a job at this call center .when i was hired i did not even know it was for cingular wireless. Took about a hour after being hired that i found out it was a call center lol. As i was saying don't blame cingular for bad cust service.Blame the center.they train reps horribly.A week and ahalf to learn everything cingular and to learn 19 different computer programs and all their nook and crannys.what do you exspect from us.
Plus in america you know we hire any one no matter your age sex or creed,have the people who sit with me are at least 50+ and iam not saying its bad but they can barely figure out how to work there swivel chairs.but i know what iam doing as i had a leg up as iam very computer lit.I program games and levels on my side time and build comps for friends and work on cars for friends.And everyone who sits around me if my friend also and even when iam on a call i will mute my mic just to help anougher rep out so ther cust dosn't have to suffer. I love my job but when someone calls in and the only thing they say is i want a manager.Well without giving me your info and life background story you are not going to get anywhere with me.

And don't call in saying, uh,,my bill was high cause i went over my minutes.can you give me a credit.,,,,Hmm \:) let me think,,, uh ,,NOPE. You went over its your fault.If you feel its not then ask to go over your bill in detail and see whats wrong.and when you want to change your monthly minute plan never have it take effect emidetly.you will be prorated the price and minutes.And it never turns out good. also as far as VOICEMAIL goes.you are only charged air time if you check your messages and the mesage came form a non cingular cust. If anougher Cingular cust called you then guess what, Its call M2M. its free.

Oh and anougher thing call in once in a wile to check your plan and features and see if their outdated.I have cust's calling in on a plan from 1999 and think well i saw a comercial that said cingular is free M2M and unlimted N/W and no roaming and longdistance. well that only appies to our new nation plans.Don't tune your ears out to everything the comercial says and only what you want.

and one last thing, sorry for this long Rant but I need to do this,When you see ad's for FRee ringtone gice it a try or free graphics or games and you are not on a cingular site or in your medianet or cingular mall then you are taking ahuge chance in getting a subscription fee.No matter wheather or not it says it there or not. when you get ringtones graphics games or anything like that it should show up on the bill as a subscription to MBlox or M-qube as they are the company delivering the free graphic or tone to you.not cingular. image mblox or m-qube as a sorta digital fed-ex.

Iam a cingular rep.I work in the BEUC dept. (Buisness End User Care ) Iam not trying to be an ass if this sounds like it.Very sorry for it.I will also be checking this forum as much as possible.Go ahead post your problems and I will tell you how to fix it.
----------------------------------
PEACE OUT WITH 2 FINGERS :)

[Unregistered]

dear #200...... shit happens. send your kids an invoice for the time you spend with them if your time is that valuable. if there is a problem, it usually does take time or it wouldn't be a problem. and obviously your time wasn't that valuable if you spent the time to find this website and make a post. sounds like you should move your bedtime up and you won't be so cranky!

[Unregistered]

I have been with this company since it was Cellular One...."90's. The past few months I have spent countless hours on the phone trying to correct my bill...not to mention the dropped calls.etc.....when Att changed their name to Cingular.... my service has been awful....

The last two month I have spent countless hours on the phone to correct overcharges.....
I'm being charged "daytime min" to retrieve voice mail...which should be Mobile to Mobile.....

I'm being charged Daytime...at 8pm when it should be "nights and weekends"

I've recieved a bill today that is triple what it should be.....

I've spent at least an hour trying to make sense of my current bill.....

yes last month after an hour on the phone they changed my bill to what I normally pay.l....

And now I have to go through this again....

My time is valuable....I make $30.00/hr.....I feel as I should submit an invoice for my time invested in correcting their mistakes.

So...... mr......whoever daring anyone to submit a post.....

It's past your bedtime.

how long have you been with your power company? how about your water company? cable? how often have you shopped at wal-mart. who cares how long you have been a customer....

[Unregistered]

What a disease.... Think about this. At home on my computer, and what am I searching for? Cingular! Work should be the last thing on my mind... I find it bizarre that not only am I searching for this crap, but apearently you did aswell. The sad thing is that you support it. Cingular.. has got to be one of the worst corporations I have ever worked for. The pay is garbage, the policies are insane, the value of the customer means nothing unless they never call us for anything and spend more than $150.00 a month.. and yes mrs and mr customer, your value does decrease every time you call us. How does that make you feel? You will probably tell me that I should find another job if this is how I feel about my current job, unfortunately ever since the free trade agreement had been signed by that guttless piece of s**t mulrooney, all we have had for job oportunities in this god damned country, have been offered to us by huge corporation such as cingular, ****-mart best buy, so on and so forth. Cingular the "Client" my apologies, can sit there feeling pretty good about themselves when they state that they pay the national average, which isn't hard to accomplish concidering that the national average for the lower class is just better than minimum wage. You attack a csr even when they are giving constructive tips to the customer... just because they are somewhat honest about how they feel. What the **** is wrong with you? How could any human being see the reputation of such a huge corporation as having a greater importance than the thoughts and feelings of any "HUMAN BEING"? Are you that cold inside? Are you that completely f***ed in the head? America! You are getting f***ed up the ass by these corporations more than I think you could possibly realize. My suggestion to you! Stop giving them your money! How important is it that you have a cell phone. thats what payphones are for. A quarter will pay for any phonecall you want to make within a certain area, and the best part is, you can even talk as long as you want. Or perhaps you could get a home phone aka landline. That will still cost far less. Where does this obsession with these things come from? **** cingular, **** the telecommunications industry, and **** you Mr I think cingular is great and if you don't like your job find another one! Some people can't afford to do that. Even in the great state of america. You would have to be one of the most repulsive human beings -though I'm not sure you deserve that title- I have ever encountered.....

[Unregistered]

yep they both do i left sprint oweing a 1,448.30 dollers on my bill because they dont know what there doing and if cingular cuts me off for a 79.00 doller past due amount i will tell them to stick that passdue amoumt up there ass.

[pepe milan]

you over there you don't know what you are talking about, cingular rocks, i love cingular, i have been working with cingular and they have games, war games, bejeweled, and I can answer my phone whenever I want to, I got my own major league baseball fantasy team and they call me a lot, I have never had something bad with cingular..

Cingular rocks!!!!

[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.

[CSRofDoom]

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.
im in at&t and cingular combined billing, i wish i had tech this shit pisses me off sometimes or work in outbound and yell back at stuipd customers.

[Unregistered]

yeah cingular does have loop holes that customers who dont read their terms and conditions or dont verify what the have fall into, would you take out a loan without reading what your agreeing to...no you wouldnt, would you accept or sign up for a credit card without reading the fine print....no you wouldnt. its all there open your freaking eye's and read. if you dont like the service you have 30 days to return it, so save an employee's from hearing your b*tch and return it, or just stop b*tching about it. waaaa....oh yeah and for the guy who was in katrina sorry we dont have a way to divert hurricanes, but if you didnt notice your town wasnt there anymore so how the hell are cingular towers suppose to be????? try getting credit from any other company, actually let me save you the time it aint gonna happen, i mean thats why all of you are pissed cause you want something for nothing.

[crystal2002]

i also work for cinguar for over 4 year, i do agree with the other reps that have noted the account, being angry does not help at all how would u like it if someone was like to you, this means you "our customer" should treat people with RESPECT

[Unregistered]

i also work for cinguar for over 4 year, i do agree with the other reps that have noted the account, being angry does not help at all how would u like it if someone was like to you, this means you "our customer" should treat people with RESPECT

Yup! Respect is the right word, on the both sides - the customer and the employee

[evilspawn06]

Ok I know alot of customers for Cingular wireless are pissed at the company and the workers of the company. But let me tell you....the employees have nothing to do with it. Take for example....The Warranty Exchange Department...which I am part of. We are the ones that are nice enough to listen to you yell and rant and piss and moan about how you cant text message or you can't download 5000 ringtones.:rolleyes: And we still send you out another phone. But then alot of people get mad because they do not want the phones we offer because they are "remanufactured"....well of course they are. Why should you get a brand new phone in exchange for a used one...You are lucky you are even getting a phone at all. :eek: But then you go off and blame the CSR that you are talking to for not doing what they need to do for the customer. Trust me when someone is sitting there yelling at you, you are not going to want to send them a phone. IT IS NOT THE CSR'S FAULT YOUR PHONE IS MESSING UP!!!!! Alot of people need to see that. We are there listening, trying to help you and doing the job we are supossed to do. And if there is something they say they can not do....DO NOT ASK FOR A MANAGER....trust me they will tell you the same thing. We have certain policies we have to follow and they go for every customer. We are not allowed to make exceptions...This is not Cingular's policy but the MANUFACTURER'S policy...They are the ones that send out remanufactured phones NOT cingular. So the next time you call into Cingular and you want to act childish and whine about something...just stop and think what if you were on the receiving end of that phone and you were just innocently doing your job and some pissed off person comes on the phone and yells at you for something that is in no way your fault..... And alot of you think you are smarter than the CSR you are talking too.....THINK AGAIN!!!!! If you were smarter than us then why are you calling us about your phone messing up....If you were smarter than us then you should be able to deal with it yourself...We actually do know what we are doing, believe it or not. So dont go off and blame others when you sit on tyour phone and it breaks or you have to pay for a phone you decided to let your kid use as a chew toy. Your phone messing up is not our fault...IT IS YOURS. Cingular did not make your phone so it is not our fault your MOTOROLA is messing up....Blame them...Not cingular....SO cingular is not the one that sucks, we provide you service and let you use your phones. We give you bill extensions and credits on your account. If we sucked so bad then we would not even answer our phones when you called in....We just sit and laugh at everyone panic because their "life line" cell phone is not working.....People need to get off the dependency...If your phone will not text...BIG DEAL....You can't use the internet on your phone??? OMG....What was the computer for again...The phone is a phone NOT A COMPUTER..... So people quit whining and deal with it...

[evilspawn06]

I have to agree with the previous unregistered user. Customers are paying for a service and shouldn't be resposible for maintaining the quality of operation of the service, refering to the comment made by CSR JB about switching your phone off and switching it on to avoid dropped calls. Futhermore customers shouldn't have to keep note of representatives names, identification numbers and locations, that is part of the service the customer is paying for. Cingular needs to restructure the way in which it does business with it's customers, because judging by the amount of complaints that the Better Business Bureau receives in regards to Cingular they are going to end up losing alot of customers. I'm sure the one of the major reasons their customers aren't switching as fast as they would like to is because of the early termination fees.


Ok you say it is not your responsibility to do what you need to do to keep your phone up and running...How hard is it to turn off your phone for 2 minutes every night?!?!?!?!?! Can you not live without for that long?? Quit bitching and take some advice from someone who is just trying to help. Cingular may be responsible for giving your service but customers have responsibilities also. It is your responsibility to not damage your phone, not use it in the bath tub,and not walk in the rain ( PHONES ARE NOT WATER PROOF.:eek: ....DUH!!!!!) while talking on your phone. It is not our responsibility to credit you if you break the phone and can't use it for 2 weeks...Is it our fault you didnt call in till 2 weeks after the phone messed up...You expect us to fix it right away and if we dont then we owe you something.....We are not mind readers and cannot detect that your phone is not working...NO PHONE COMPANY CAN DO THAT!!!! :rolleyes: So everyone that thinks they can just switch companies and get better service....THINK AGAIN.....Every phone company is the same....and if you have not noticed, most of the phone they carry are exactly the same also...So if you have a Motorola razr with Cingular that is messing up...What makes you think that the T-Mobile Motorola Razr will work any better? So all of you customers need to take some initiative and responsibility for yourselves and your phones and quit sitting on your asses wanting everyone else to do everything for you.....God America is getting pathetic

[evilspawn06]

Well let me tell you about Cingular sucking. I live in the Hurricane Katrina damaged area. It has been 6 weeks and the phone service really sucks. If I make a call it takes atleast 10 attemps to get a line when you do get a line you better talk fast because you will be dropped. Cingular in this area used to be great when the merger went through that is when it started. Every other call will be dropped. After the hurricane I got a signal and tried to make a call it came back emergency use only so being it was an emergency I call 911 because we was on the phone with a doctor because a friend had an alergic reation to a bug bite well all circuits was busy. I called to cancil my service and it will cost me $200.00. The service ASS HOLE on the phone said once you sign the contract and go over 15 days it doesn't matter how bad our service is you are still liable read your contract. Yes it is true so I figured that since I was treated that way I made a few phone calls with my new ALL TELL phone that worked good to the company that I work for and they are changing cell service. Cingular was top of the list. NOT ANYMORE so it cost me $200.00 and I was able to screw Cibgular out of several thousand dollars so no I can say **** You Cingular
How can you expect to have service after a f*&%!#$ hurricane has destroyed the towers?!?!?!??!!?!??!?!

[Unregistered]

Here is a funny story. I have a cingular razor. It is the worst piece of shit ever built. I dont have a signal, so I cant make a call. I dont have any other phone in my house, so I cant make a call. So I go to the website. It tells me to call customer service, which I cant do. So, I try to find an email address. It tells me to register my phone for access to the email address. I type in my phone number and it wont register my type of plan. SO, I cannot get any kind of service for my phone. Bottom line, I want verizon back.

VERIZON, CINGULAR, T-MOBILE, SPRINT...THEY ALL GET THERE PHONES FROM THE SAME ****ING MANUFACTURER. IF CINGULAR RAZRS SUCK, VERIZON RAZRS SUCK JUST AS HARD. DON'T HATE THE SERVICE PROVIDER, HATE THE PHONE PROVIDER!!!

[evilspawn06]

John, employee no. JK6066, refused to honor the cingular warranty. I own 3 motorolla v180 cell phones. Since the purchase of those devices, they have been defective. All three phones shut themselves off and cannot be restarted without first removing the battery. My warranty from cingular promises that the company will replace defective devices. John recognized that all three cell phones are defective and must be replaced. John violated my warranty by claiming that the warranty's "like kind" provision prevents cingular from replacing the defective motorolla v180 cell phones. Instead, according to john, cingular can only send me three motorolla v180 phones to replace the v180's I already own. That suggestion is ridiculous and clearly violates my rights under the cingular warranty. The motorolla v180 is a piece of junk. That junk status is documented on the internet, just run "motorolla v180" on phonescoop.com. Moreover, all three of my v180 have identical problems. Additionally, my mother's v180 has the same material defects as do my phones and as noted on phonescoop.com and other web sites. Finally, I am entitled to a $30.00 rebate for each v180. To date, I have not received my $90.00 in rebates.

You should really learn before you speak....or at least listen to what the CSR told you. I am a warranty rep and the policies that Motorola THEMSELVES set down is that we exchange your phone for a like for like exchange. We have policies like everyother business out there.....Just it is weird that when we follow them we are in the wrong......You have jobs that have rules and so do we....RESPECT THAT!!!!

[evilspawn06]

Okay now its been way over the 48 hours and still no response from a manager. I am so not impressed with this company, I know I will never go through them again.

I just want to let you everyone know that managers and reps do get busy.....It will take longer than they say sometimes...You have to realize that they are getting calls from all over the US and we are always busy....that is why there is such a long hold time.

[Unregistered]

I've been a rep for about a year and half now, and I've been reading all of these posts for a while. Most of them are pretty funny, either them being from other reps or customers. My post is mainly for all of the customers on here that are unhappy with the service. You should come work for us for a while. Get a job in a call center, and I promise you'll stop complaining and start understanding things. Common sense helps with alot of issues I've heard about such as, reading your contract when you get the service, not getting the "free phone" because your cheap, taking care of your phones, reading your bills every month when you get them, and many other things I'm sure I'm not putting on here. Also know that if you really are unhappy with Cingular, there are many other companies to choose from, just don't be suprised when you want to come back to us because you are treated worse there.

[judy1117]

I work for the *NEW* at&t, formerly SBC, formerly Ameritech, formerly AT&T, formerly Bell.

We sell Cingular services all day long. Not only do I sell Cingular plans but as an inbound customer service rep handling mainly escalations, I am happy to say that we rarely (and I mean very rarely) get any complaints about Cingular, other than the combined billing issues. Those are still a bit of a nightmare that I myself am going through.

We do however, get many complaints about Nextel (mainly their prices) and Sprint.

I have had Cingular for 6 years and wouldn't switch if I paid half the price. I seldom get dropped calls and if I do it's due to the surrounding and not the service. I've always had professional responses to any problems and been adequately compensated for any billing issues.

For example, while traveling by air I inadvertantly forgot to turn off my cell phone. It actually rang while I was in flight and in Mexican airspace. I was charged for an international call and was promptly credited when I explained the problem.

I do however have a complaint about Independent Dealers who will do any unscrupulous sale just to make a buck.

I bought gift phones for my sisters and never intended for either of those contracts to be renewed. One sister moved to another state, walked right into a Cingular indy dealer and was allowed to change the phone to an out of state account and renew MY new 2 year contract. My other sister lost her phone and walked right into a dealer and was able to purchase and start a new two year contract, again, under my name. Neither had my social security number nor my permission. I did not sign a contract...they signed!

That's not on Cingular direct and they are trying to help me with the issue.

So if your Cingular "sucks", maybe it's the territory you live in or it's a user error.

A happy Cingular customer!

[cingularhatesU]

I think that most people complain about cingular are complaining about nothing! problems with bills, bills too high, srvc not working all the time.
First off : my bill is too high, I get people that tell me this all the time, most of the time its "my plan is 39.99 a month, why am I paying 95.00??""
This one is easy....first of all, everyone (including older men and women) need text messaging, which costs money, it seems like every one needs to have txt on their fon or insurance or internet. On top of that people download ring tones, games, wall paper constantly.

so why is your bill twice what you expected?? because of you!!! its that simple, if your going to complain about paying a high amount then drop all your extra feats and use your fon for what a fon is used for....talking......

bad coverage?? its a cell fon not a landline, cell fon srvc is no where near perfect yet and wont be for many years to come, so if you get a dropped call just be glad that technology allows you to make calls away from home.

also the famous "what incentives do you have for me to stay with this company?" WTF.........its a business, get that thru your heads.....you want a free fon, I want a raise how about that one. try going to your car dealership after a year a try getting a discounted car just because you bought your first one there.

Lastly....People who dont pay thier bill on time because they never recieved a bill....this is probably the one that ticks me off the most....just for example...what would happend if you didnt pay you electric bill just because you never recieved it??? or if you didnt pay your car payment??? why do people think that because a mix up in mail preventing you from recieving your bill means its not due? if you dont recieve a bill...try calling your wireless company...or maybe checking it online? or from you wirless fon for free....that might just work too.......

yes I work in the wireless industry and Im quite a nice and happy person but It boggles my mind when I recived these calls that make no sense.....

"my son/daughter said they never downloaded 10 ringtones last month"

yeah it must have been a damn ghost then right? these things just dont happend for no reason, live up to what you do and pay your damn bill...we are smarter than you think..and when you try and Lie about your charges...we know...

[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.

isnt cingular tech support in india or something like that? everytime I transfer a cust I get someone with a indian accent..

[the_sadist_God]

isnt cingular tech support in india or something like that? everytime I transfer a cust I get someone with a indian accent..

That's not entirely true. I'm in southeast US and we've got a tech support team in our call center. Maybe the center you get in touch with depends on your location, I dunno.

[Unregistered]

This is in response to the previous post regarding a technical support representative with an Indian accent. Regardless of what accent the individual might have had, was that person able to resolve your issue? We should judge people based on their ability and knowledge instead of making uneducated and racist comment.

[kepnchk2]

isnt cingular tech support in india or something like that? everytime I transfer a cust I get someone with a indian accent..

Cingular Wireless does not outsource..... we are probably the only large company that doesn't. We see the value of keeping America employed!

[elmo01]

Cingular Wireless does not outsource..... we are probably the only large company that doesn't. We see the value of keeping America employed!


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

[Unregistered]

Cingular Wireless does not outsource..... we are probably the only large company that doesn't. We see the value of keeping America employed!

Cingular does indeed outsource...I am am Cingular Rep and I'm in Canada and there are at least 7 other call centers in Canada. Also there are call centers and processing centers in India, and I know this for a fact, there were supervisors and managers from our center that went there to re-train them.
So Cingular does not value keeping America employeed. Sorry!!!

[registerded]

What a disease.... Think about this. At home on my computer, and what am I searching for? Cingular! Work should be the last thing on my mind... I find it bizarre that not only am I searching for this crap, but apearently you did aswell. The sad thing is that you support it. Cingular.. has got to be one of the worst corporations I have ever worked for. The pay is garbage, the policies are insane, the value of the customer means nothing unless they never call us for anything and spend more than $150.00 a month.. and yes mrs and mr customer, your value does decrease every time you call us. How does that make you feel? You will probably tell me that I should find another job if this is how I feel about my current job, unfortunately ever since the free trade agreement had been signed by that guttless piece of s**t mulrooney, all we have had for job oportunities in this god damned country, have been offered to us by huge corporation such as cingular, ****-mart best buy, so on and so forth. Cingular the "Client" my apologies, can sit there feeling pretty good about themselves when they state that they pay the national average, which isn't hard to accomplish concidering that the national average for the lower class is just better than minimum wage. You attack a csr even when they are giving constructive tips to the customer... just because they are somewhat honest about how they feel. What the **** is wrong with you? How could any human being see the reputation of such a huge corporation as having a greater importance than the thoughts and feelings of any "HUMAN BEING"? Are you that cold inside? Are you that completely f***ed in the head? America! You are getting f***ed up the ass by these corporations more than I think you could possibly realize. My suggestion to you! Stop giving them your money! How important is it that you have a cell phone. thats what payphones are for. A quarter will pay for any phonecall you want to make within a certain area, and the best part is, you can even talk as long as you want. Or perhaps you could get a home phone aka landline. That will still cost far less. Where does this obsession with these things come from? **** cingular, **** the telecommunications industry, and **** you Mr I think cingular is great and if you don't like your job find another one! Some people can't afford to do that. Even in the great state of america. You would have to be one of the most repulsive human beings -though I'm not sure you deserve that title- I have ever encountered..... U FRICKIN SISSY QUIT CRYING THATS HOW LIFE IS. DEAL WITH IT

[Unregistered]

Look at it this way. Say tonight you changed electric companies and your new electric supplier sold you a new, red toaster. Tomorrow moring you try to make toast but the brand new, red toaster won't get hot. Tomorrow evening you return home from work to find that brand new, red toaster had malfunctioned and burned down your house. Now your homeless living on the street. Would you be happy if your new electric company sent you a new toaster?


Totally wrong situation..... I work in Cellular Sales and used to be a Customer Service Manager for Cingular... Here is the right analogy......Let's say 6 months after you bought your new car( still under warranty) the transmission went out. Now would the company let you pick which car you wanted or fix the one you have???? Common sense people......just because we as consumers are greedy and want only we we want doesn't always make it right!!

[soxfan798]

Folks:

I'm also a Cingular CSR and for all the complaints on these sites, look at our CSAT numbers over the past two quarters. Our call center customer care, network, and overall sat numbers are all up! For all the complaints, we're doing better.

My question to the Cingular CSRs and retail sales consultants is why do you think so? I mean, we've had self service tools for a while and this dropped call ad stuff seems kind of weak. Besides some new emphasis on online training follow-up, I'm not seeing anything new.

Thanks, CSR, SR, Florida

[Unregistered]

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!

You know that cingular wireless sucks!!! They treat not only the customers badly but the employee's as well. They should be ashamed of the way they treat the employee's. You need to get a real wake up call and find another job like I did!!!! You ass.

[Unregistered]

Depending on what you want out of Cingular Wireless.... The way to handle most requests form them is to just ask for a manager right off the bat. They have to get you one if you request one. If you ask for the "office of the pres." they will kiss you butt. You can tell pretty quick if you have a good rep. on the phone they don't spill out a bunch of the bull- shit script that the company tells them to say. Like: "on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your call with me today".... they make them say that lame sh*& too.

[elmo01]

Depending on what you want out of Cingular Wireless.... The way to handle most requests form them is to just ask for a manager right off the bat. They have to get you one if you request one. If you ask for the "office of the pres." they will kiss you butt. You can tell pretty quick if you have a good rep. on the phone they don't spill out a bunch of the bull- shit script that the company tells them to say. Like: "on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your call with me today".... they make them say that lame sh*& too.


a note on contacting the office of the president *too* often....

if you go that route 1 too many times without a reasonable cause you *could* be released from your contract and find yourself seeking another carrier

[Unregistered]

Very true ...The thing consumers do not do is read their contract!!! Of course when something comes up that they do not agree with..you get the "OH well no one ever said that" or" thats BS!" and then they refuse to comply with there contract terms b/c We never explained to them what was going top happen if that situation arose. Sorry to tell you, you signed it you agree to it. So if you complain to the Office of the President too much you will be terminated!. Oh and another thing for you Petty people that do not read...... If you so much as curse at a rep ...threaten a rep just b/c you think you can get further.....WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO TERMINATE YOU!. This as well is written at the bottom of your contract! So as far as calling in and yelling at us try it!

[Unregistered]

Call the president and get released from contract? Does this work? If so I will call everyday to get rid of this company. This is by far the most arrogant company I have ever seen.

Billing problems? HA! Thats the tip of the iceburg! I have a file in 6 short months that is approaching 6 inches thick!

I would rather put a note on a pigeons leg and send it! At least I know I wont get network busy, failed call or a 1000.00 phone bill.

Document your problems, get badge ID, write dates and times down, it comes in handy!

[Colione]

If you have that many problems with billing, are are that unhappy, why not suck it up, pay the term fee and move to another carrier??

The grass is always greener as they say.

[Unregistered]

Hey guys I do work for cingular and everybody is different, not everyone is going to like the way we do business. But they are many different companies out there...YOU HAVE CHOICES. But i do want to thank those customers that have been with us. And for the ones that are no longer with us sorry we were not good enough for you. Have a good one.

[Unregistered]

First off, you would be amazed how many things in a cellular company are not handled by the provider itself.

First example: Warranty. Your phone's warranty is from the manufacturer themselves. (i.e. motorola, samsung, etc) The warranty department in a wireless provider follows the guidelines provided by them.

Second: Insurance. Asurion is the ins provider for Cingular, Verizon and Sprint (I don't know about T-Mobile cause I have never had them) Their policies are also dictated to the wireless provider by Asurion.

Third: Rebates. Young America is the company that handles the rebate offers and processing for both Verizon and Cingular and probably the others, too.

Second, all wireless providers suck balls. They all have issues. When you switch carriers, you trade one problem for another. I have had Sprint and Verizon and I work for Cingular. All three companies have billing issues, phone issues, network issues, etc. You are ALWAYS going to have issues when you handle millions of customers day in and day out.

As a CSR, here are the tips I have for customers. Your service and bill are the company's responsibility. But you are the one ultimately responsible for paying that bill and using that service. The more quickly you call in about a problem, the easier it is to fix it. And treat people like you would if you were looking them square in the eye. The CSR didn't personally jack you over and they geniunely do want to fix your problem. Give us the benefit of the doubt. And if you don't like the answer, or if you don't trust the answer, speak with a supervisor to confirm or get another opinion from another CSR. I know it sounds weird but policies really do change every day. What was true three weeks ago may not be true now and vice versa.

[Unregistered]

I totally second that policies change every single day! To the gentlemen that stated he wish the Office of The President would release of his contract ..the part you won't like is you still have to pay the early term fee! When you sign a contract YOU as the signer agree to all of this maybe people should read before they sign! It is very true if you switch from one company to another you will just be trading problems!

[Unregistered]

I work for cingular and even though I would get my employee discount I would never get service with them. I have T-Mobile and iam very happy with the service the reason that Cingular does have the fewest Dropped calls acording to them is because there is always a network issue you can't get dropped calls if you can't even connect to the network. The best thing to do is just finish your current contract and just go month by month so that when you do decide to cancel there is no early termination fee and dont go for the upgrade buy a phone online like on EBAY most of the phones are cheaper and you wouldn't have to sign another two year contract.

[Unregistered]

I work for cingular from 1 year ago, and let me say that are cingular have one of best "CS" and we do care about the customers problems. I speak for myself, not all think that way, but most csr resolve the situation. Its true that policy change every day, when you gonna adquire a cellphone service, choose well, there many options on market and the best are Verizon, T-Mobile, Nextel and Cingular. If you gonna sign from one this carriers, "READ Terms & Conditions" of the contract, most sellers in store didnt give a damn what they sell. But as costumers have the responsability to know what product or service they. As cingulars worker i feel great with my job and will continue doing a little longer, where not perfect, whe have issues ill admit, if you dont like the cingular service. Try another carrier, but im sure that all have issues

[Unregistered]

Please people, try working for Cingular! I'm a CSR as well, and let me tell you the hours and pay are crap! I have a trainer who's motto is "When Cingular wins everyone wins." Yeah, except the people stuck with horrible hours and minimum wage! And for the record, I don't care about resolving the customer's issuem; I just care about getting my pay cheque every week. P.S. Cingular outsources!!!!

[Unregistered]

man, isn't it crazy how we're all googling Cingular? That's how brainwashed we are by the company. Just so were all clear there ARE at least 7 Cingular call centers in Canada.

[Unregistered]

How can you expect to have service after a f*&%!#$ hurricane has destroyed the towers?!?!?!??!!?!??!?!



HOW THE CRAP DO U EXPECT UR PHONE TO WORK AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA!!!!!

[Unregistered]

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

[Unregistered]

ALL CINGULAR CUSTOMER'S ..PLEASE READ THIS SO IF U CANCEL YOU WANT GET SUPRISED WHEN YOU HEAR THE END OF BILL CYCLE POLICY: PARAGRAPHH 12 LAST SENTENCE..: https://onlinecare.cingular.com/my-account/legal/service-agreement.jsp

[Unregistered]

Wow. It seems we have a lot of disgruntled employees. I also work for Cingular. Wherever you work, there are going to be problems, but with a company on such a large scale there certainly needs to be more structure.

And I don't mean more structure in the form of hypocritical policies that require the Rosetta Stone to decipher either. I mean direct communication, straight routes for problem resolution that don't include filing cases, seeking the arbitrary approval of management, taking blood samples, fingerprints, and unearthing a genuine UFO.

As customers, you may assume just as I did before I became so familiar with the company, that the answers to your questions are spelled out in black and white. They most certainly are not. The answers are in several different shades of gray and they vary greatly from one person's interpretation to the next. Your best bet is to explain your situation in full, and if the person sounds moderately competent, allow them to help. If not, call back. There are people willing to help, and willing to bend or break the rules as I have a time or many, to help out folks who have no where else to turn.

In reference to a much earlier comment about turning phones on and off to keep them working properly... It is the fault of the technology, not the people themselves for placing this responsibility on the customers. However, most people do not leave their televisions on 24/7. They don't leave their oven preheated to 350 degrees for a solid year just in case they decide to bake a batch of cookies. You have to restart your computer, preheat your oven, blow dry your hair, and get the oil changed in your car. It's really not a big deal to turn off your phone once every day or so.

In all reality, the cell phone business is very new. The things phones do today would have been considered impossible 20 years ago. Hell, it's only been 15 years since the bag phone went the way of the steam engine. The technology will progress and improve and become simpler and less expensive to maintain. The rate plans have become much less expensive than they were 5 years ago. People can pay $59.99 for 900 minutes of national service that would have cost them $410 not that long ago. And that $410 had to be used within a certain geographic area or that same service would have cost $720!!

In my experience, 9 out of 10 people who call into customer service have a valid claim. I usually have no trouble defusing a tense situation with understanding, compassion, or humor. One of the above usually does the trick. It is easy to become jaded by the business though. Cellular customers are some of the most spoiled customers in the utilities business. I would never call my gas company and demand they give me a furnace for fee since I've been such a longtime customer. I would never call my electric company and demand they refund my service because my lamp broke, therefore I was unable to use their service.

Cellular service is just that, a service. You have to have the right equipment to use it. You have to read your bill to make sure it is right. Do NOT rely on a computerized billing system to catch every error. The days of Ma and Pa Bell's handwritten phone bills are long gone. You have to be an educated consumer so that you do not have to rely solely on the information provided to you by ANY company, because some of those people are just in it for the money, and some of those people may have dropped their cell phones in the toilet and found out how much it was going to cost THEM to get another phone too. What goes around always comes around.