Cingular

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machine
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Cingular

Post by machine »

So on the 15th I dropped my phone in a lake. Not a big deal, I have insurance on it, or so I thought. Due to the fact that I have yet to switch to cingular I have to wait until Monday to even file a claim.(in theory I should have my phone on Tuesday) Technically I am still with AT&T wireless so when they updated their customer support system some information is messed up and they have to file some bullshit paperwork and it will take 1-2 business days.

Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? This is the 2nd time I have had to deal with their stupidity. Last time it took them 1 week to get me my phone. Every time I talk to someone different they tell me different things. Any suggestions? I don't want to cancel my service, not yet anyways, because I will be graduating in less than a year and I am not under contract anymore. Since I am moving I don't want to sign a contract with a new cell company.



On a side note my Merkur Futur that I recently purchased should be arriving next week sometime :)
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Steve-o
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Re: Cingular

Post by Steve-o »

machine wrote:This is the 2nd time I have had to deal with their stupidity. Last time it took them 1 week to get me my phone. Every time I talk to someone different they tell me different things. Any suggestions?
There's a reason that Verizon is the only U.S. mobile-phone service that is actually gaining customers. Don't get me wrong -- Verizon is far from perfect and, really, when selecting mobile service, coverage should trump everything else. But Cingular and Sprint (especially Sprint) are notorious for their poor customer service. The only real way to get better service is to leave for Verizon or Alltel or another good regional carrier (again, if they offer the service you need). Hit them in the wallet. They'll learn eventually.

Given that you don't want to take that option, your best bet is to start keeping a log every time you deal with customer service. Log the date and time, take down names, repeat back to them what they're telling you so you're sure you have it right, make them repeat back to you what you've said to make sure they got the message, and, if there's any question or confusion, ask to speak with a supervisor. That tends to reduce the number of arguments that devolve into "he said, she said".

If you're not a heavy-duty mobile-phone user, you might also consider going prepaid with Verizon or a local regional carrier (like Alltel; my mom also has had good luck and good service with TracFone). Per minute, it's more expensive, but if you want a low investment and no tie-down, it's a choice.
“Time just seems to get quicker. You look in the mirror in the morning and you think, ‘I’m already shaving again!’” - Terry Jones of Monty Python's Flying Circus
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Austin
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Post by Austin »

I have been an AT&T (Cingular) customer since 1995. I have avoided jumping to other companies in the past. I guess you could say I was a loyal customer. I have been on a family plan with my son for the last three years until he was stationed in Korea. At that time I switched to a single plan which by the way costs more than being on a family plan. Insane isn't it? I wanted him to keep his phone number so they also put him on a single plan and put his account on hold.

My son was recently assigned to Hawaii and he activated his plan. I informed him that I wanted to merge our plans into the family plan so that it would be cheaper. He had to call Cingular and give permission for me to merge his plan. I called and was transferred to 4 different folks. I had to pay off his account which somehow they screwed up. There was only a partial payment made and I had to pay the remainder with a different person. I was transferred to another person that told me that he had to transfer me to another person. The last person was rather rude and told me they had to run a credit check in order to merge our plans. That was all it took for me to really get upset. I told her I have been a loyal customer for over 10 years and this is the way they treat me. She was not sympathetic. I asked to speak to the shift supervisor. He was not any better. The transfer did not get done. I spent a total of one hour on the phone.

I will have to stay with Cingular until October of 2007 or I will have to pay penalties. You bet I will be switching when my time is up. Good luck.
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Sam
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Post by Sam »

I liked TMobile the best when we had them. We now have Sprint. The problem is my daughter. She always wants the latest phone, the newest fad, and maybe next time, Sprint will have it or not. My wife, heck, we remember when cell phones were not around. Oh, my daughter never has a watch and never uses the home phone. She uses her cell for everything. I had to get unlimited nights and weekends after 7:00 and unlimited text messaging. I still have extra charges when she downloads a new ring tone and goes over her 2000 minutes (her mom and I use maybe 500 combined).

Sam
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Austin
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Post by Austin »

Sam wrote:Oh, my daughter never has a watch and never uses the home phone. She uses her cell for everything.
Sam
LOL. My son used to do the same thing. He has a home phone in his room but would always use his cell phone.
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rtaylor61
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Post by rtaylor61 »

I believe I have the "Cingular" story that would qualify for a Darwin award. I switched from AT&T to Cingular a little over a year ago. Two months later, I called to pay my bill by phone as I had forgotten to mail a check. The day I called was the day the payment was due. I've paid by phone many times, all computer aided, no people to deal with...no big deal. I was surprised when a lady answered with "Collections". I asked why I was speaking with Collections? She told me my bill was overdue. So I asked when was it due, and she gave me that day's date. So I repeated..."It's due today, but it's already in collections because is it late?" Well apparently so. So afer a big run around and asking to speak with someone with a "brain", I get a manager. He tells me the same thing. The bill is DUE that day, but it is in collections because it is late. Okay, a light bulb goes off...maybe part of the AT&T bill did not get covered. He pulls up that account...it's also in collections. The balance for that bill? Zero. $0.00. Nada. Nothing. So I have two accounts in collections...one with no balance and one that is due on that very day. Nothing like professional customer service

Randy
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." J. B. Books
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TakeTheCann0lis
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Post by TakeTheCann0lis »

Yes!

We too have had similar experiences with Cingular. My wife has had her ATT account for about 6 years now, and when we decided to merge plans, we had to switch to cingluar. (Fiasco #1) We then a year later moved to a very metropolitan NY area, and there's not service in our house! (Fiasco #2)

But their piece de resistance, is definitly their customer service which every time we call sucks!
machine
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Post by machine »

Haha, those are some good stories.

My first phone was with sprint when I was 16-17, around 4 years ago. So it had to be under my parents name. No problem there, until there was actually a problem and I went to the sprint store, they wouldnt even talk to me because I wasnt the account wasnt under my name. I don't know if they have changed that or not, but I hated that.

The first time I lost/broke my phone and it was taking them forever (5-8 days) to get me a phone. I went to the Cingular store to see if they would just give me a loaner phone until my phone that I already paid a $50 deductible arrived. The guy in the store tried to sell me another phone, I could not believe it.

When I do switch I plan to switch to either TMobile or Verizon. I'm not a heavy-duty mobile phone user, but I want to keep my phone number. Once my new phone arrives I will be calling cingular to try and get some kind of a credit.
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DEF
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Post by DEF »

We've been pretty fortunate with our phone service, because we contract with AT&T (SBC) for home phone, DSL, and Cingular mobile service. Because of this, we're on some kind of super-duper VIP customer list, so our calls always go right through to a competent rep.

Still, I've often been frustrated with the fact that on Cingular, I seem to go straight to SWMBO's voice mail whenever I try to reach her. That may be a coverage issue, or it may be SWMBO -- not sure.

I also can't get a decent basic ring tone to save my life.

Doug
machine
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Post by machine »

I have a macbook pro laptop that has bluetooth on it, my phone has bluetooth has well. I use Audacity to cut the MP3 and then I send it wirelessly from my laptop to my phone. It works wonders.
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TakeTheCann0lis
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Post by TakeTheCann0lis »

I think that the problem is that Cingular doesn't value it's long term customers because it doesn't recognize the ATT ones
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texasPI
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Post by texasPI »

Benn with Verizon for 4-5 years. I've only had one problem with their customer service, actually with one person at a local store. I had dropped my phone off for a software upgrade and an hour later I picked it up but I did not see any improvement with the issue I'd been having. A couple of days later I went to a different store to take my wife's phone in because hers needed the same upgrade and I told the guy that I'd had the update on my phone done but did not notice an improvement. He asked me for my phone and checked it over and told me it had not been upgraded. I was upset. I told him that I had taken it to another store and told it had been done. He was apologetic and put my phone and the wife's ahead of several others and offered me a free accesory. I told him I had all the accesories I wanted so he gave my account a $20 credit. Sweet!

I have a family plan with three lines (why do they call them lines anyway?), two phones and a wireless card. Great coverage albeit a bit pricey. I also hate how they lock down all the multimedia features of the phones so that you have to use their pay services. Bottom line though is that their coverage is the best I've had the west Texas southern New Mexico where where I frequently travel.
Erik

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and dance like no one is watching."
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rtaylor61
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Post by rtaylor61 »

I now use the Treo 650, which is lacking in reception, and Cingular does not offer insurance for it. Hopefully if anything happens to it, work will replace it, since they bought this one.

Randy
"I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them." J. B. Books
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reginald-van-gleason
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Post by reginald-van-gleason »

I was originally with ATT as well. When they were bought by Cingular I experienced a myriad of problems as a former ATT customer being "grandfathered" in. At one point Cingular even started to overcharge me for extra services that I never ordered. When I tried to upgrade my phone, I experienced a three week waiting period for something that should have happened instantly. And now I'm finding that people I'm calling sometimes see my incoming call as "private" instead of my identifiable phone number - for no rhyme or reason. I've also had a day with no service (I just figured no one was calling me!) what so ever where I missed three or four important calls, only to get 4 voice mail messages the next day -- when I never heard the phone ring! Yes, I will certainly be exploring other options when my contract expires -- thank god we have the "right" to keep our old numbers or the move would be extremely difficult.

-Raffi
machine
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Post by machine »

My father lives on his phone and he was grandfathered in from AT&T as well. At one point sometimes when I called him it would say that number was no longer in service. I call back a couple of times and it would finally go through. He has since switched phone companies.
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texasPI
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Post by texasPI »

reginald-van-gleason wrote:I was originally with ATT as well. When they were bought by Cingular I experienced a myriad of problems as a former ATT customer being "grandfathered" in. At one point Cingular even started to overcharge me for extra services that I never ordered. When I tried to upgrade my phone, I experienced a three week waiting period for something that should have happened instantly. And now I'm finding that people I'm calling sometimes see my incoming call as "private" instead of my identifiable phone number - for no rhyme or reason. I've also had a day with no service (I just figured no one was calling me!) what so ever where I missed three or four important calls, only to get 4 voice mail messages the next day -- when I never heard the phone ring! Yes, I will certainly be exploring other options when my contract expires -- thank god we have the "right" to keep our old numbers or the move would be extremely difficult.

-Raffi
Waiting for important calls or having a call dropped when you're speaking with a client is pretty embarassing. Happened alot when I had nextel, sprint and tmobile. I almost switched to cingular but went with Verizon. I'm glad I didn't do cingular.
Erik

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love like you've never been hurt,
and dance like no one is watching."
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aircraft_electrician
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Post by aircraft_electrician »

It must be a problem with former AT&T customers. My wife and I switched to Cingular from T-Mobile right when Cingular and AT&T were merging, and we've never had a problem with the customer service. We're on the family plan, and recently added a 3rd phone for our teenage daughter, which we've discovered wasn't such a good idea, not because of anything Cingular has done, but because she just cannot be responsible with a cell phone, even when faced with $200 monthly bills.

Anyway, we've found the reception and customer service to be far better than T-Mobile, and while the reception isn't quite as good as Sprint was, the customer service is actually service, rather than Sprint's stupidity.

When we had Sprint, we regularly paid our bill early, just because it was due on the 21st, and the wife and I get paid on the 15th. We mailed the check on the 15th of every month. So, when we forgot to mail the check on payday, they shut off our service 3 days BEFORE the bill was due! When I called, they transferred me to collections, and I was told that since they hadn't revceived our payment by they usual 18th of the month, the account was sent to collections and the service was shut off! I was then told that there was a past due fee and a service fee due on the account to turn it back on! I argued that the due date was the 21st, but the only way they would agree to turn the service back on without paying the fees was if I gave them a credit card number and agreed to an automatic payment every month. That's when we switched to T-Mobile.

Tom
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Post by Onion »

I have been with Cingular for almost 4 years now. I have had no problems whatsoever. We have the family plan and have 4 lines.... I love Cingular. I had ATT prior to going to Cingular and that was a trek thru hell. I am thinking maybe you ex ATT folks are still dealing with the old ATT employees.... I have called on a few occasions about things with my Cingular service (lost phones and a mphone that went thru the washing machine) and have always been treated with courtesy and respect. Never a problem, and new phones delivered within two days.
I love Cingular!
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