Cingular Sucks
March 29, 2005
8:00 pm
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Cingular sucks. You don’t quickly forget about a company that lied to you and screwed you out of over $1,000
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Cingular sucks. You don’t quickly forget about a company that lied to you and screwed you out of over $1,000
Duh! Verizon is the best.
I used to be with GTE, then they turned into Pacific Bell Mobile Services, then they turned into Pacific Bell Mobile, and then finally Cingular. As the companies changed names, the service got progressively worse to the point where we couldn’t even make or receive calls in our own home.
Cingular has one goal. It wants to extract as much money as possible in the shortest time possible from every customer. It does not care whether you leave or not. Though if you do, you will be Punished. Because Cingular realizes you will want to leave after your first few bills. That is why it forces you to sign a contract. Want out of the contract? That will cost you $10 per month remaining. Per phone. For me, I paid $120 to get out of my contract, once I realized that Cingular was an unethical, deceitful, unhelpful, negligent and incompetent organization. I would have paid a thousand dollars to get out of my contract with Cingular — I feel that strongly about it. Cingular is the worst company I have ever encountered in my entire life. You would be better off not owning a phone at all than signing up with Cingular.
Cingular charges you for every little thing. If you are with them, brace yourself for big, thick bills where you will be nickle and dimed — and dollared — for every conceivable “service” of negligible value. Imagine, 39 cents per minute, just to check your voice mail. And with Cingular, your voice mail is answered by a very slow-speaking voice.
The service in the Atlanta area is horrible and you can forget about reliability. Basically your cell phone is a dead plastic weight with no purpose or utility in many areas.
In addition to this, Cingular cell phones cause interference with many electronic devices. My wonderful speaker system explodes with noise when a Cingular cell phone is nearby. This is because, again, Cingular does not care. No doubt, life-threatening cancer-causing waves are emitted by this phone, which the speaker system picks up. What do you feel about cancer in the next five, ten years?
Next, let us address the issue of Cingular customer service. Expect long lines at any Cingular store, and a staff that finds humor in your problems, at your expense. Expect customer service that will laugh at you, instead of with you. Expect your billing problems to multiply; and not be corrected.
Want to quit Cingular? No, wait! This always gets Cingular a little bit nervous — just a little bit. They will offer you $50 - $100 to sign up “for one more year”. If you take it, you are a greater fool. I paid $120 just to get free of their clutches. Cingular is one company I would actually go so far as to describe as “EVIL”.
I work for cingular and just hate those little bitches we call customers calling in and cryin about stupid shit. We dont think they are customers but stupid redneck crossbreading incest idiots who have no grasp on life. I hope you all die of super aids or a severe case of the clap. The only reason I come to work is to make one of you pieces of shit cry or be come confused or lossed or to commit suicide. Here at cingular we have a policy: customers are not people and I try to live by this policy everyday
Wow Sean! The others are right! Cingular must hire uneducated 7.00 an hour people as CSR’s! You just proved it with your little 4th grade rampage! Hope all is well with you and your sister back at the trailer park! As for your english…you may consider going back for that GED
You hope customers become “lossed”?!? You live by the “policy” that customers aren’t people?! What does that mean?? I’m glad you have something to live by…I guess!? HaHaHa
First of all, Sean probably isn’t a Cingular employee. He is probably a 14 pre-pubescent boy who thinks it is fun to use profanities on the Internet. Typical Internet tough guy….
As far as Cingular is concerned, I can’t say they are good or bad. I don’t like how they trick you into thinking you get rollover with the merger, when in fact you have to sign a new plan with them with a new two year contract. I guess they want to trap you so you are stuck with them. I am a prisoner of their service for 3 more months. After that, I am off to Verizon.
I meant 14 year old…..Sorry
Well, I actually have to agree with Sean, in theory. I am a former AT&T employee that was forced to become a Cingular employee. Cingular will take every opportunity to botch and complicate the most simple of processes. They split simple programs into several impossible to use applications. We are forced here to accept all calls that come in regardless if they fall into out sphere of influence. Sure hold times suck, because they have closed call centers and dumped the remaining queue into out phones without hireling new people. AT&T wasn’t perfect, but at least they treated their employees with a little respect. I guess what I’m saying is, before you get too pissed at the employees, ask them if they were AT&T before the merger, if so give em a break, if not, swear all you want.
Ooops “our sphere” and “hiring”
Mr. gone funny stuff on the at&t wireless employees. You couldn’t run a business and now your ‘forced’ to work for cingular.
To the folks complaining - here is the best way not to worry about breaking a contract or moving your line to other carries when you want…
DON’T get a free phone, oh that’s right people want something free and then no consequences…
Funny
Hey Everyone,
I work for Cingular Wireless, And Im not bashing anyone. Im in between basically. Yes Im a Customer Service Rep. Cingular does have bad things about them, Holy Crap YES. And alot of other companies do too. Im not coming to this site to complain about customers, because I know how frusterating it is when no one listens and helps you out…when you need help the most. Now Im probebly leaving the company soon unfortunatly. But Hey I have nothing better to do I guess. If you have any questions about Cingular Wireless or your service….Just ask. (the only thing I wont be able to do is change account information for you unless you call us at 1-800-331-0500….sorry). Bashing Cingular and Cingular Reps are ok to email. But I’ll just laugh about it. Im just here to try to help some people out. I can also provided you with Numbers of dept’s because there inbedded in my head :P. Hope to hear your questions or concerns soon. If I even make someones day alittle better thats awsome.. Email me w/ any questions cingular.rep@Hotmail.com
Cingular is the most arrogant and rude company I have ever encountered in my life. They should be shut down. Cingular Wireless lies, cheats and steals from customers.
The Cingular Wireless Research Page
OK, now i also work for Cingular wireless, and I would have to say that of course not all companies are the best out there. But Cingular is not as bad as you guys say they are. I have been a Cingular Customer for over 3 years, and an employee for 9 months. As far is the whole merger process, yes you have to migrate over to cingular form ATT to have rollover, but isn’t that what is supposed to happen when one company buys out another one. AT&T Wireless was purchased for 41 billion Dollars, Customers still have contracts with ATT and at first we would bring over any customer with their ATT contracts at any time no matter how much time was left on their contract. As of June 1st, that process changed, now you must be in the upgrade policy time frame before you are allowed to migrate over to cingular. As for the service issues, I have never had a problem with the service, yes you will run into your spots where there is no service, but doesn’t every company have that. After the buy out of ATT wireless we respectably became the largest company with customer database (48 Million Customers). Now we have over 51 Million, if Cingular sucks so much why did we go from 48 mil to over 51 mil in 9 months. The buy out was fulfilled on November 15, 2004. It is now August 18, 2005 and we have acquired over 3 million customers in 9 months. But yet again it sucks. Cell phones, and their companies are opinionated, NO COMPANY HAS THE PERFECT SERVICE. It’s as simple as that, you can bash on any company, and as you say cingular sucks, I’m sure there are plenty of other people who agree with you, then there are plenty of other people who disagree with you. Just as there are plenty of people who say verizon, t-mobile, sprint, and nextel suck, but other people may like those services. I personally have both Cingular and nextel, and i personally like both the companies. I hope that some of you people listened and actually thought about what i said and hopefully it will help you make some decisions when it comes to deciding what cellular provider you will go with in the future. If you guys have any questions regarding activations, migrations, so forth and are in the New York, New jersey area, please feel free to contact me at john.santos1@cingular.com. The only reason i ask that you be from the NY NJ area is that my computer systems will only allow me to pull up numbers from the market my employee codes are in. Thank you for reading!
wow. i’m quite thrilled to be able to express my mind here, and what i go through on a daily basis, if only for the anonymity, and knowing that i can’t lose my job for telling you people off. i work in the receivables management department of cingular wireless. that’s right, the collections department. and i am so fucking sick and tired of apologizing for things that are beyond my control and beyond the control of anyone i work with. i am posting here because i can. i am posting here as a way of venting my frustration over the verbal abuse that i endure day in and day out. i don’t come to your place of work and scream and cuss @ you and call you an incompetent slob, or a fucking bitch, or names that i haven’t even heard of or can pronounce. why would you treat a person that way? i understand that everyone deals with frustrating issues, but there is no reason to disrespect a person like that simply for answering a call that you initiated!! according to the FCC, as customer service representatives, we are lawfully and legally able to disconnect the call after attempts are made to ask the caller to stop the verbal abuse. however, cingular does not allow us to disconnect a call if the caller is being verbally abusive. we get to grin and bear it. i’ve had customers literally pounding numbers into their phones and screaming @ me @ the top of their lungs over the fact that they can’t pay their bills. here’s a hint: my ear had nothing to do with your xanax prescription running out. my ear had nothing to do with the fact that your ex is a deadbeat who won’t pay child support. and understand this: i can’t wiggle my nose and fart out a better fucking signal for you. doesn’t work that way. as for at&t, yeah, they did bend over backwards and let their customers walk all over them. they’d let their customers go months and months without paying their bills. gee, however was cingular able to buy out a company with debt like that? golly, takes a rocket scientist to figure that out. financially, at&t was in the shitter because their customers have been taking advantage of them for years. gosh, maybe if some of you “loyal” at&t customers actually made your payments when they were due, it might have been a tad more difficult for cingular to spend their $58 billion cash dollars. money that could have been spent on, say…towers? or a raise, for people like me who definitely don’t get paid enough to deal with assholes like you who think that crying and screaming @ the local walmart because they won’t return your dirty used fucking toaster is the best way to get what you want. i’ll close this with the most common anecdote i get on a daily basis: fuck off.
Wednesday, August 31st 2005 - 02:02:04 AM
Has this Sue person who is bitching so much about contracts and early termination fees ever been with an other company?!? I have been with a few cell companies, and have found Cingular to be the best. T-Mobil’s reception and customer service is horrible, AT&T was pretty good, but since the merger, my service had gotten a lot better, and am glad to be a Cingular customer. I got a $350 phone for $125 and had to agree to a contract (like ANY OTHER CARRIER). If you were with Verison and wanted to switch to an other carrier before your contract was up, guess what? You would have to pay an early termination fee!!! If you don’t want a contract, then you need to go with a pay-as-you-go program. You can’t expect something for nothing, lady. You want a free or discounted phone, you need to sign a contract. You want to back out of your contract? Fine. Cingular kept up their end of the deal, now you need to pay a penalty for not keeping up yours. Do your homework before you bitch about regulations enforced by every cellular company out there.
I agree with Tammy 100%. If you don’t want a contract don’t sign one. If you are angry about paying an early term fee (and Cingular’s is the lowest of all carriers) then don’t sign up, simple as that. Why is that when you get a free phone you expect to be able to cancel your service? Cingular doesn’t make these phones and they don’t get them for free that is why when you cancel you have an early term fee. Also, read your contract if you don’t like the service Cingular gives you 30 days to return it and cancel the contract, as far as I know all the other companies have 14 or 15 day return periods. So for all of you people complaining I’m sure I will see you again trashing another provider becuase your problems aren’t going to get any better. People like you just need something to complain about.
I’ve switched from Verizon to Cingular back in May. I’ve had dropped calls since day one. I did not cancel my contract within the 30 day period because I was learning how to use the phone that was so different from my Verizon phone. I thought I must be doing something to cause the dropped calls. Now it’s September and I’m still getting dropped calls. I have learned to use the phone, so I now know the dropped calls are not my fault. Cingular tells me there is good service in my area, and they blamed the problem on the phone I had. They sent me another phone about a month ago. I’m still getting dropped calls. I rarely get to say go “Good-bye” to the person I’m talking with. I now start every conservation with “We will probably be disconnected before we finish this call. Please don’t think I have hung up on you.” Nine out of ten calls are dropped. I’m usually sitting home on my couch when this happens. No reason to loose the signal. I HATE CINGULAR. There should be a way to cancel my contract without an early termination fee when service is this bad.
Forgot to say I switched from Verizon to Cingular because Cingular was cheaper. I never got a dropped call when I was with Verizon. I want to go back to Verizon but I sure don’t wont to pay the Cingular early termination fee. It’s just not right to have to pay it when the service has been so bad. You sure do get what you pay for when it comes to cell phone service.
I feel it is only fair to Cingular that I report I finally got through to a very nice lady who was understanding about my poor service and is being very helpful to me.
I did not get a free phone when I went with cingular, I paid over 100.00 for my phones, was not told anything about a contract did not get any paper work, they took out two payments instead of one and will not give the 2nd one back or credit it back to me they have given me 6 different reason why it happened, put me on hold from 4:00 until 6:00 It was the most unrealistic service I received on the phone when I have been able to talk to them. They played a little game passing me around to different operators, and thought it was so funny. Any one who does work for circular, that is the most immature behavior I have ever seen in a company don’t you know that without customers you would not receive a paycheck, employees can either make a company or break it.. And I personally thank your are going to break. alot of big companies have gone under because of the service they dish out!!
hello,
My name is Christopher Sprague, I am an authorized agent of Cingular Wireless and I am interested in filing suit against them. My company acquired a rather large account for Cingular with a company called Websense Inc. We sold seven phones to them for test trial with intention to purchase over 300 had things gone well. Minus some difficulty with the treo 650, all was well until the Cingular “B2B” squad swooped in, changed the account number for the client replaced the handsets. This of course dissolved all of our commissions and any future business with us from Websense because
“we didn’t know what we were doing” was quoted from one of the “b2b” reps. Cingular has snatched over $5,000 of our money directly, and potentially thousands of dollars in future business. I am looking for a pro-bono lawyer to help recover funds from Cingular. Can anyone help? Please call.
Christopher Sprague
619-316-1178
I just have to say one thing CINGULAR SUCKS…
Ok now I feel better. But I still cant tell who I’m talking to on the other end of the phone half the time…
Reception is AWFUL - simply horrendous. I switched from Verizon, and want to form a class action lawsuit against them!!
REVOLT… Write your congressman. Tell them that Cingular really does suck…
Cingular “continues to lower the service bar” as the worst cellular phone company available. 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 be sending out your phone in 3 days”, Management will not sign off with what we agreed to do. CSR Rep stated our rep never agreed to that. I have been with AT&T for ten years then signed a new contract with Cingular. Oh Yeah! The rep also told me it was good customer service to agree and state you are going to do something then renig on it. Good Job Cingular your number one in my book!
I am also a Cingular Wireless employee. And yes Cingular does have its fault’s. As does any company in the world that is open for business to the public. Yes you have to sign a contract, and yes if you decide that you want to cancel service you do have to pay $10.00 a month on a 2 year contract for any month left on it. But that is to cover the cost of the phone that you recieved at a severly discounted price when you activated service. Do you think you should get everything for free? And whats with wanting credits for everything?
I want credit for my overage. Unfortunatly we can’t do that for you. Sorry. No matter how much we might want to. If you use the minutes, you have to pay for them. Everybody wants to complain about how much Cingular sucks. But really how much can a company suck that has over 51 million customers? We are the largest mobile phone company in the country. And growing. Everyday we are growing. Yes we do have dead spots where there is no service. Sorry to say but every carrier has those. Its in those contracts that you hate so much that you signed. And we are the only company that has the rollover minutes. Sorry if your on an old AT&T plan you have to migrate to get rollover. You get to keep them for 12 months! Its awesome!
No other carrier will offer that. Do you know why? Because they can’t!I love my job very much and make it my goal to help every customer to the best of my ability’s. But it gets very hard when you get yelled, screamed and sworn at all day long. That has the exact opposite effect by the way. No one is going to want to help you if your screaming in someones ear. I don’t care where they work. That goes for any job. We are the best and will remain the best so you can whine and cry and vent and scream all you want but the next time you call in yelling and screaming, just remember, we get paid a lot to listen to that. And me, I don’t take it personally so it’s not going to get to me. I can just hit the mute button and laugh. Yes we laugh. I have yet to hang up or yell at a customer because someone has made me mad. Mostly because we make more than the $7.00 an hour someone else has assumed we make. Sorry its a lot more than that. We get paid the big bucks to fix your problems. Yes I know that not all Customer service reps are worth a hoot but some of us actually know what we’re doing and are great at our jobs. We actually care about helping you. The customer. Who does pay for service. So just remember that the next time you have to call. You might be surprised by the person who helps you.
Cingular does not give a crap about it’s employees or its Customers If you ACtually have better service going from At&t to Cingular YOU MUST be on Crack. As for the Acquistions. A Merger DOES NOT HAPPEN OVER NIGHT! Cingulars aquisitions were At&T customers who were duped in to the “BIGGEST MOST WONDERFUL YADAYADA bull and MIGRATED! The Merger will STILL NOT BE complete until after THIS year!!!!!!!! Cingular Micro-manages it employees to the point of having a man designated just to give permission to go to the bathroom! Further more At&T did not go into the crapper because a few people did not pay a bill, That was the guys at the tops fault. Some idiot thought it would be “fun” to put a guy in charge of a Huge company who didn’t know his butt from a whole in the ground. He was ONLY interestd in lining his own pockets. The guy got 33% of the buy out money to put in his OWN banking account. If you don’t know the facts then don’t speak!!!! The BEST Wireless Company Around……They CARE about the employees and the customers..Are you ready?!?!? Macaw…..Yea, they used to own Cellular One..?!?!?!?!?
I have been a Cingular customer since they were BellSouth Mobility. I have had service in both the Carolinas and Georgia and never had a problem. I am also a former employee of ALLTEL Corporation. There I was a level 3 technical support rep. Level 3 reps are the guys that physically can go into a switch via telnet and really get things done, from voicemail to porting issues. After working for ALLTEL in both wireline and wireless, I have to say Cingular is by far the best carrier out there. Bear in mind that TSR’s and CSR’s are only human and most likely, if you get pissed at them, they are going to get pissed with you. Is this good customer service? No. Remain calm and try to get someone who really knows there stuff. They are there to help, however everyone has bad days and good ones. This is the same with ANY CARRIER. Weigh your pros and cons. If you don’t like Cingular, move to another carrier, ther are a lot of options out there. Cingular offers rollover, I’m sitting on 6,000 minutes of those right now, what other carrier does that.
The only complaint that I have is that Cingular hasn’t rolled out the PTT service yet, however insider information tells me that it is working well, but they do not want to publically roll it out until it has a comperable PTT time to Nextel.
If theres anything I have learned from my experience with Cingular Wireless, it is that they are greedy and not all, but a great majority, of the customer “service” reps are out in space somewhere and have no clue. Also you have to be sure and ASK THEM EVERYTHING, because if you don’t, they won’t mention minor details and you’ll get nasty surprises on your bill. Text messaging, wireless internet, the best policy to follow with Cingular is, if your unsure of something or how much its gonna cost you, you had better not do anything until you call them and ask them about it because they’re sure not going to be clear about it otherwise. If you don’t ask, they’ll be happy to keep it a secret and you will pay dearly for it later. You have to think if everything because they won’t. I ordered a new cingular phone through one of cingular’s brilliant customer “service” reps on 9/23/05. I gave her my PO Box address and she supposedly processed the order that day, assuring me that all was fine and that “I should be getting my phone by express shipping in 2-3 business days.” What she had failed to tell me was that Cingular could not send to PO Boxes. Foul on their part, of course–but guess who had to deal with it-ME. The lady calls me back on my cell and tells me she can’t send the new phone to PO Boxes and that I should call them back and give them my PHYSICAL address. Like why didn’t she let me know that in the first place right? So , I call them back and give them the correct address the next business day. After a week and no new phone, and 3 or 4 more calls to cingular trying to track it down, I got it and was still charged express shiping on something that didn’t reach me for over a week because of their screw up. They did take the express charges off after I FAXED AND CALLED THEM. To top it all off, when I received the phone and called to activate it, I was immediately told that I could not activate it unless I agreed to a 2 yr contract–the first lady I talked to had told me I was going to pay $79.99 for the phone and only be on contract for 1 yr. However they ended up only charging me the $18 fee to activate the phone but putting me on a contract for 2 yrs!! I was so fed up with it all by then that I just signed onto the 2 yr–but I think next yr I will just pay the fee and break my contract with the creeps. What a pain, what a horrible way to treat customers! Cingular is big and evil–its almost like they planned the screw up on purpose so I’d have to be with them longer. Another thing. Ever notice how Cingular puts activation centers like, all over the place,in every other grocery store, in strip malls, in the middle of a wal-mart. This is because they want to get alot of customers signed on quickly. But you just TRY doing business with one of these little “hole in the wall” places if you are a pre-existing customer! They won’t honor upgrades–no you have to go to an actual Cingular STORE. How stupid is that! I’ll be so happy when I am rid of them.
Sorry Carol, I don’t need to get permission to go to the restroom. We can go when we want. And for your information the merger is over. It has been since last year. Actually October of last year. As of then AT&T no longer exists as a cell phone company. In fact we no longer use that term. They provide long distance service. That’s it.
And about the contracts. I know what most people do. They think “LALALA, this is going to be great!” and sign that piece of paper without reading a single word on it. And if you are one of the customer’s who claim to have never signed a contract, guess what? You did it over the automated system. We have the recording of where you accepted the terms and conditions, otherwise, your service would never have been activated in the first place.
So grow up people, and take some responsibility for what you do in your life. It is not Cingular’s fault that you agreed to your contract without reading it. You could have been buying a pig farm in Guam for all you know. Always read the fine print. And if you don’t want to sign one. THEN DON’T. But don’t expect to get anything for free or at a discount that way. Everything will then be retail.
And if you still want Mobile to Mobile with your plan you still have to sign an 11 month contract for the promotional element of the plan. The point to this. NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE! So stop expecting everything to work when nothing does all of the time.
And for those of you wanting credit for you voicemail not working? Sorry no can do. Voicemail is a free feature. You don’t pay for it’s use. We can’t issue credits for free features. If you do the math that adds up to 0+0=0.
I know it is frustrating when things don’t work.
I also have a Cingular phone. And guess what? I don’t have one bar of signal where I live. I’m in a no coverage area.
I realize this and know that I have to use my landline when I’m at home. What people don’t realize is that cell phones aren’t like landlines. They don’t work everywhere. They won’t for quite some time. So please, stop expecting them to. We can’t magically make a signal appear just for you where you have no coverage. Sorry, it’s just one of of those things in life that everyone has to deal with. And if you take a look at your contract it does state that you have to pay for your service even if you are never able to use your phone at all. That’s why you should always read.
READ, READ, READ people.
Don’t get me wrong. I love helping you with your problems. I’m always more than willing to listen. Most things I can fix on my own. For the very few things that I can’t, I can get you to the person who can. The point to this is everyone takes everything for granted in this life. And you shouldn’t. So be adult and responsible for your choices. We didn’t make you choose us. You did that on your own. Now give us the opportunity to prove why we are the best. If your not afraid to.
Why you should NOT choose CINGULAR —
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.
Yes you will use your package minutes if your checking your voicemail messages. It does count as a call. And all other cell phone company’s do it as well. And yes we do reserve the right to change our policy’s at anytime without notice. It does state so in your contract. If you had changed your plan before October 1st, you could have kept all of your rollover minutes. Sorry but if you changed it anytime after October 1st which is when the new rollover policy took effect, you only get to keep as many rollover minutes that are included in your new plan, So if you have 6000 rollover minutes and want to change to the 900 minute plan, you can only keep 900 rollover minutes. Which means you would lose 5100 rollover minutes. Sorry no manager or area manager can change that. Those adjustments are done automatically by the system anytime a rate plan is changed. You say that you were “told to do this?” Did they hold a gun to your head and make you?!?! You always have the right to choose what you want. Always. If you didn’t want to spend more money you didn’t have to so sorry. You can’t blame that one on us. Nobody made you. It was merely a suggestion. All we can do is advise you of things, but we NEVER, EVER make you do anything you don’t want to. If you don’t want to have a more expensive rate plan you don’t have to. At that time if you had changed your plan you could have kept all of your rollover minutes. No problem. But you waited to long. Sorry about your luck It sucks to be you. Move on with your life. And take some responsibility for your choices. My God! It is so third grade to say “They made me do it!” Grow up please!
Customer Service Rep,
The higher minute plan was suggested, because it would save him money. He could downgrade, and keep the minutes, and that would save him money. Then the policy was changed so that that the extra money he paid up front for the bigger plan was wasted… down the drain. He paid a premium for those minutes, and they pulled the rug out from under him. Cingular stands to screw a lot of people if this practice of suggesting higher minute plans with the false promise f being able to switch was widespread. If you get 100,000 customers to sign up for a plan that is $10 more than they need, and then 6 months later, you decide that they don’t get to keep their minutes, that’s an easy $6 million. And it is deceptive.
How would you feel if you signed up for Harry and David’s fruit of the month club for a 3 year contract, and they say they will send you 6 fruits a month. Let’s say that in the brochure for the program, they talk about how large and lucious their fruit is. And then, six months in, they decide that instead of pears, apples, and oranges, they’re going to start sending you 6 grapes every month. And when you complain, they point to the part in the contract where it says that “Harry and David reserves the right to redefine ‘large and lucious’ at any time, without giving prior notice.” No, they didn’t “make” you sign up, but they certainly deceived you by giving you a false promise.
I really believe that the law should clamp down on Cingular Wireless and all other crooked wireless companies who lie and “reserve the right to change their policies” to cheat and steal from their customers. And if you Cingular customer “service”reps don’t like having to put up with complaining customers, there’s the door, so to speak. You shouldn’t be working for Cingular becuase with them, unhappy, shortchanged, dissatisfied customers just go with the territory. And about this “read the fine print” thing–why does there have to be a bunch of “fine print”? Why can’t ur sh***y company be UP FRONT and HONEST WITH ITS prospective customers? NO, NOBODY MAKES anyone sign a contract. But if it were up to your pushy ads and sales people, everybody in the country would be prisoners held hostage to the almighty CINGULAR. You use slick talking sales and advertisements to lure people, then when they sign and get cheated because YOU decided to change your policy to shortchange your faithful hardworking customers, and they get angry about it, you just shrug it off with this “nobody made you sign anything” crap. How insolent and disrespectful!!! If it were not for us, the customers, you reps wouldn’t have a job. At least not at your beloved Cingular.
Also I think being billed for received test messages is a crock of crap to say the least. Everyone I’ve talked to who were ATT customers tell me that they didn’t charge for received messaging. So when Cingular boasts “1000 messages for $9.99″ what they really mean is about 500 messages for $9.99. Because when you send a message to someone, most people will send one back and Cingular counts on this because they can rip people off even more by counting received messages. I realize that Cingular probably isn’t the only wireless business guilty of this. When someone calls you on your land line, does your phone company charge you for their call? Of course not. Wireless service SHOULD work the same way but in most cases it doesn’t. You use your minutes when people call you, unless its mobile to mobile, and with cingular you are punished for received messages.
EXACTLY,
No one made me accept the suggestion - but when Cingular REP suggests something to me, I expect them to be on the up and up about it. A couple of weeks ago when I talked to a manager he told me that Cingular had previously had a POLICY OF SUGGESTING to customers this very thing. “Hey Cingular customer - choose a plan with a bunch of minutes and later on you can downgrade and keep all your rollover - YAY!” I believe I was actively scammed. No matter how you slice it this is a deceptive and unethical policy on Cingular’s part. Or at the very least horribly incompetant. You want me to take responsibility for MY SELF - I expect Cingular to take responsibility for what their reps say - THE MANAGER I TALKED TO KNEW THAT REPS HAD BEEN SUGGESTING THIS. And sure the contract says they can change their policy at any time but If it said in the contract that Cingular had the right to shoot my kids, it wouldn’t make it a fair practice. I was actively sold something on the basis of a falsehood. THIS IS WRONG.
I read my contract..my AT&T one…which I signed up for…now I am stuck with Cingular..the worst co I ever dealt with..I had them years ago and dropped them..went with AT&T.and stuck with Cingular again. This is not right. I did not sign a contract with a co that has no customer service and horrible rules. Why should I be obiligaged to fufill my end of the contract since it was not made with Cingular? Check out this website..they are the worst in the industry:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000717038088
I just got the same treatment. I have a 4 line family plan with 2000 minutes per month. Like you, I was advised by my salesman to err on the high side, because I could reduce my minutes later with no consequences. So, as of today, I have 9400 rollover minutes, and I decided to size down. No dice. I would lose all 9400 minutes. As I see it, Cingular is stealing my minutes. I paid for them. Just because I didn’t use them in the month in which they were purchased doesn’t make them any less mine. Kind of like buying canned food–it sits on the shelf until you need it. Given Cingular’s “they’re your minutes–keep ‘em” campaign, this strikes me as a serious bait-and-switch case. I don’t intend to drop it. BTW–the Area Manager is supposed to call me tomorrow.
Let me know if you hear from the area manager - I was supposed to get a call from the area manager and it never came.
With regard to the new Cingular rollover grab, I suggest contacting the FCC and the FTC at a minimum. I have had detailed discussions with both agencies, and was clearly not the first to have done so.
#1. You can contact the FCC if you wish but they will inform you that Cingular is well within the rules and regulations of said orginazation. So if you do contact them you would be wasting your time. #2. I don’t whine about talking to customers complaining about their service, rollover, or anything else and am certainly not going to quit my job over anything you could say to me. I am there to help you and to resolve your issues. If you were a little less psychotic when calling in other reps might be more willing to hear you out and help you. If I have a problem with any of the bills I pay I certainly don’t call in and scream at the person I get on the phone. Thats just uncalled for. #3. Its also a federal crime to curse at someone across state phone lines. So before you start cursing next time you might want to make sure they are in your state. Those calls are recorded after all. We could always report you to the FCC for harrassment. #4. Everyone thinks they are so much better than the customer service rep that they are talking to. When in fact we most likely make more money than you do just to talk to you on the phone and fix your problems. #5. Don’t ever call in for a credit if your voicemail isn’t working. It won’t happen. We can’t credit you for a feature that you don’t pay for. #6. Sorry but in reference to the other comment about the person losing all his rollover if he switched. No you won’t lose all of your rollover minutes. You will still get to keep as many rollover minutes that are included in your new plan. Customer service reps, Managers, and Area Managers can’t change that. Sorry, get over it. You will just be wasting your time trying to get that changed because it will not happen. #7. When you get a phone, read that little book that comes with it before you call in to activate it. Or at least know how to turn the phone on and off. That’s what that book is for. #8. If your phone isn’t working and you’ve had it less than a year guess what? It’s still under warranty. You can get a refurbished phone. Sorry they don’t send out new ones. We can’t change that either. #9. If your phone ever askes for a PUK code call customer service immediatly. Don’t enter in the code you think it might be. You’ll disable your sim card and then YOU will have to buy a new one. And #10. If your not happy with Cingular. Go somewhere else! Trust me you’ll come back happily after being with another company for a while. I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times. Customers say they hate our service they go to another carrier and three or four months later they are back with us. Because no other carrier can compete with our coverage. We have the largest. And to the customer who said he signed a contract with AT&T and not Cingular. For your information, Cingular bought AT&T, so AT&T no longer exists therefore we bought your contract with them which would now make it a contract with Cingular. That is just they way it works.
I do so enjoy reading your comments by the way. I’ve informed my co-workers of this site. We read and them and several of us have postings. Thanks for giving us something to talk about between calls.
To 37: What are you talking about? You’re rambling. Who said anyting about cursing? This is exactly the kind of “service” one comes to expect from Cingular.
To 37: I believe I have identified the source of your paranoid ramblings. It appears that there are two Marks (at least) posting to this thread. I am only responsible for 34 and beyond. So, as you say, get over it.
Hey Cingular Rep - I’m sure you talk to quite a few disgruntled customers every day and I’m sure some of them are probably just natural complainers and I’m sure some of them are just trying to get something for nothing, BUT HERE’S A FREAKING TIP FOR YOU - SOME HAVE LEGITIMATE CONCERNS. From your response it’s obvious that TO YOU anyone with a complaint has no grounds for complaining. I’m a very reasonable person, and let me tell you that this situation has made me very angry. You may not believe this, but I don’t get angry very often. Hey - maybe on this occasion there is a REASON I’M ANGRY, and maybe IT’S A LEGITIMATE REASON. Hey, maybe even some of your co-workers agree with me. Here is a quote from a Cingular rep from another site that responded to my post:
“Unfortunately nobody knows in the trenches if the Big Wigs had this idea proposed before it happened. Noone knows if the Big Wigs even KNEW we were offering this to our customers. What I can assure you is the majority of my peers disagreed and definately griped vocally about this policy.”
HEY - HIS PEERS - OTHER PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR CINGULAR (LIKE YOU) - GRIPED VOCALLY ABOUT THIS POLICY. Hmmm, wonder why? Probably because they knew it was a crappy policy and that they would get a lot of complaints about it from the customers they deal with on a day to day basis. Just because your corporate masters make you enforce a policy doesn’t mean that the policy isn’t unfair to the customer.
But then, maybe you don’t even work for Cingular, because you make Cingular Reps sound like complete tools. You’re probably a sock puppet for some other company.
No, I to did quite disagree with the new rollover policy and vocally while we were in training for it. But does it matter if we disagree? NO! Do they care what we think? NO!
The fact of the matter is it is a business. Designed to make money. Just like every other business in corporate America. It’s also designed to stop customers to stop hopping from rate plan to rate plan. That is the reason for the new rollover policy. So no, they aren’t going to listen to us. Do you think I like to hear customer’s complaining about it all day? I don’t. I’m well aware that it sucks. And I’m sorry for your loss. I understand how frustrating it is. I talked to a guy just yesterday who had 500 rollover minutes expire. Meaning they had been there for 12 months and if they aren’t used they do expire. Yes I know it sucks for him, and I had to tell him that next month he had another 586 rollover that would expire. That to blows another big one. I also disagreed with the new Family Talk plans before they pushed them out. Did that stop them? NO! Many of us disputed it while we were in training for them. But the fact of the matter is, we do have to enforce them. So do managers and area managers. These do come down from the Big Wigs as you say.
Do they listen to what we think? No because we only talk to the customers all day long and know their biggest concerns. I’m all for you guys when it comes to things like this. And they like to mess with us to by the way.
With my seniority in the company I should be working an earlier shift but am I? Noooo….but people with less seniority than I sure are. Is that right? NO! There have been union grievances filed for that. Will it change the fact that I’m still working the late shift? No! It won’t.
Am I going to quit? No I’m not. Because the money’s great and it is an easy job. And despite what many of you think I do like to help you guys. But nobody can make them change a thing until they want to so unfortunately everybody will have to get over it because there is nothing anybody can do. Sorry. Just a fact of life. Which has been known to suck on occasion. But I’ve decided I don’t care, I’ve moved on. I’ll help each and every customer to the best of my ability’s which is all anyone can ask. I’ll argue with managers for you if necessary to try to get things done if I think your getting a raw deal. Because I hate to see people get screwed. But the truth is, sometimes that just doesn’t work.
Aha! Now we’re getting somewhere! THANK YOU! And believe me, I know that you are on the side of the customer if the customer has a legitimate concern. It’s just nice to at least have some one admit it rather than give us the brush off (”Get over it” grrr). The fact is everybody has to chose their battles carefully, and corporations have been given more and more power lately at the expense of individuals. We live in a country where a company can declare bankruptcy and be exempt from paying it’s employees their pension money, but I can no longer declare bankruptcy even if I have serious medical problems. Every little bit helps.
Your very welcome! And believe me, most reps are on your side when it comes to issues like this. We do voice these concerns because we know it will affect you, the customers.
I know it sucks to get the raw end of a deal. Believe me I’ve had my fair share. So trust me when I say I empathize with each and every customer. I know how it is.
Unfortunately it doesn’t mean there is always something we can do about it. But we will try if asked nicely. If you’ve got any questions or concerns don’t hesitate to ask.
I’ll be happy to answer any and all. And if I don’t have one I’ll get one for you. Just remember that there are limitations to what we can do but we will do everything we can to help. That’s what customer care is for.
please spread the words, cingular suck, suck, suck!!! they don’t give crap about you! well, in this case, me, the customer.
Um…that was kind of random there Chris. Nothing other than that statement to back up your claim of why Cingular sucks? Why you think that they don’t care about you? Honestly Chris, you’ll confuse others if you have nothing to back up such a statement with. Please, be more specific. After all, that is what this site is for. To voice your complaints in detail. It’s really difficult to determine where you might be coming from with making accusations like that. Just thought I’d let you know. So please enlighten us. Why does Cingular Suck?
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.
Ned,
I am truly sorry that you had such a bad experience at Cingular. I only wish you had talked to me a year ago. Because I know for a fact I could have cleared everything up in one phone call. That’s right…Just one phone call…That was what I was best at, fixing the rate plans and billing errors, when there were errors… before I went into Technical Support. Now I fix the phones. And I hate to say it, but your always welcome to check with a supervisor, but chances are, the rep your speaking with is going to know more than any manager will. And I’ll tell you why. We are on the phones 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They are hardly ever on the phones except to take escalations. Some of them haven’t been on the phones for years. I myself know my job and can do it well. If you’ve got a problem I can fix it and if I can’t well then it has to go to a network engineer. Again I’m sorry that you had such a negative view of Cingular. But also consider that your experience is not the norm. It very rarely happens. I’m also sorry that you feel that we are under trained but I have to tell you that’s not the case. You start with 6 weeks training, then along the way after your taking calls you still have to take training courses. Total I think I’ve taken about 500 hours of training in just under a year. They train us to death! I hate to say it but I could do my job in my sleep! In fact I have, I wake up and it’s like I never left work but I have to go back anyway. So please don’t think that everyone that works in customer service or technical support doesn’t know what they are doing. Most of us do. I’m sorry you apparently got the ones who either didn’t care or were probably new to the job. That being said I’ll hope that you soon realize that what happened was not our fault either nor was it yours. Most likely it was a glitch in the system. Sorry again for your experience and I hope you enjoy your other service. Most likely we’ll see you back with us in about a year.
Low expectations = no disappointments. Quite frankly, in every area of the united states, each cell phone companies service varies. As for me, I live in east texas, not exactly the place all the companies rush to. If I use verizon, I’m going to get coverage only around major highways. Same with sprint, or t-mobile. If I use alltel, I’m going to be charged out the ass for roaming charges & get shitty service all around. With cingular, I know that my bill will always remain around $50 a month because everyone & their mother has cingular, which makes 99% of my calling not even count toward my minutes. I’ve racked up rollover minutes out the ass because of this. Quite frankly, I’m sick of people trying to act like a bunch of non-conformist bitches & call a company crappy just because it’s on top. Face it, Cingular is one of the top companies, and will remain there. Sure people have problems. But you never hear about the people who enjoy their service, only those who don’t. To knock Cingular because maybe 10% of their customers actually don’t like the service (and yeah, 10% is a lot of people in their case, but not the majority) is kind of like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Get over it.
I have problems with the reception and being disconnected all the time when talking or not being able to reach someone when I dial the number. The quality of the connection sucks I can barely hear thru the static. This is not only me. but my family and friends that are on Cingular. Why do I pay $100 a month if I can’t use the phone the way I should - they are stealing my money.
It looks like they got more customers than their network can handle and because they are greedy they don’t want to invest in upgrading their hardware. I have been with them for couple of years but lately they are very bad and I feel cheated.
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.
I live in California and have been using a local cell provider with unlimited minutes to anyone within the state for $40/mo. The only catch is that I have to stay within a 40 mile radius of the major metro where I live, otherwise there are the usual extra charges for being outside of my “area.” No big deal as long as I stay in my area. However, my cell phone loses its service/signal where I work. I tried Cingular since I knew that co-workers were able to get a signal at work. Well, my new Cingular phone functioned great at work but not at HOME! Big deal for me, since my employees may need to get a hold of me on my days/time off. So, I luckily kept my old cell phone just in case something like that happened. I made sure to return the Cingular phone to the retailer within the required number of days to avoid any “fees/charges” and still had two bills come in a week later. They were trying to charge me something like several hundreds of dollars (for two phones/family plan). I called Cingular and the first rep was able to clear up one phone but not the other. They said that I would have to hang up and immediately call back to talk to another CSR to address the second phone. Silly requirement for such a big company. Unfortunately, the second CSR was not as “experienced” and said she was not able to fix my other phone. I explained to her that I just spoke with a CSR just before her who easily alleviated the billing problem for the first line. Not wanting to waste time with an “inexperienced” CSR, I called again and fortunately found another worthy CSR who resolved the second phone’s issues as fast and courteous as the first CSR. Just had to pay a pro-rated 3 days worth for both phones which turned out to be $25 after taxes, fees, etc. Never heard from them again. Moral of this fable… “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and if it is broke, FIX IT and don’t whine and complain!” BE A F*&%$@#n GROWN UP ADULT ABOUT IT. If you are old enough to purchase a phone, then hold yourself accountable and follow through with whichever endeavors you encounter with any phone company!
On a different subject somewhat. Try dealing with a really incompetent company like UPS who has lost over $900 worth of product for me in one shipment! Lost somewhere on this big blue earth and reimbursed the sender but not me (the receiver). What can brown do for you? NOTHING! Even the multiple CSR’s I spoke to were not willing to pass me on to managers! I eventually got a call from several “upper” management types who could only apologize for their insurance policy (which is a joke) and $900 mistake! Funny thing is that the shipment was only a 5 hour drive by car! Somehow, they lost (or Stole)my package in the initial warehouse. UPS SUCKS!
I expect cell phones I buy to actually be fit to operate as cell phones.
I expect that defective merchandise covered by warranty will be replaced with fully operational merchandise.
I expect not to be misled by deceptive warranty programs.
Do I expect too much?
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.
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, motorola seems to agree that these phones bite and has ceased commercial production. 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.
cingular is the direct consumer contact on junk phone/deceptive warranty issues. cingular administeres the warranty program. cingular chose to market the v180. cingular sells the service that we pay for monthly and cannot access because of the v180. In short, cingular is intimately intertwined with the junk phone/warranty issue and has much more to lose (monthly service payments) than does motorola if customers are dissatisfied. Moreover, cingular drives the marketing of these devices and consciously uses junk phones to affect its share of the consumer market for cellular services. Sales, marketing, rebates, monthly service, and even the manufacturer’s warranty program are all driven and controlled by cingular!
I believe that:
(1) cingular should be held to stand in the shoes of motorola because cingular substantially controls the v180 warranty program;
(2) States should pass laws regulating junk phones (like automobile lemon laws); and
(3)we need federal standard for cell phone quality that subject cingular to per se liability when junk phones are sold.
Hey Customslawyer,
You bought 3 Motorola V180’s right? Well when you bought them they came with a one year manufacturer’s warranty. That means that Motorola will allow Cingular to replace those 3 defective V180’s with 3 other V180’s. If you buy a Benz and something goes out on it and it’s covered under warranty what are they going to replace it with? Another Benz! Hello! Cingular did not violate any warranty rights that you had…We replaced the phones under the warranty. And by the way we don’t make the phones. Motorola does. If you have a problem with them call Motorola or go to their website at Motorola.com and discuss it with them…I’ve talked to hundreds of customers who have had their V180s for over a year and they are still working fine. Before you run off at the mouth about how we violated your “rights”, why don’t you read your warranty. And by the way. It takes 10 to 12 weeks to receive your rebate. If its been longer that that you need to contact Young America in regards to a rebate. And if they rejected the rebate they would have sent you a letter.
Sorry that you feel so strongly about that but you bought a Motorola phone. Therefore the warranty is through them. They are the ones replacing the phones not us. So if you’ve got a problem with the like for like exchange take it up with them. Because we can’t send you anything different from what you purchased. Same as if you were calling in an insurance claim. You’d get the same phone! Isn’t this just common since? Or were you absent the day they that they handed that out at school? I guess so. Well I’m sorry for your loss but don’t take it out on us. Or John JK6066. He was just doing his job and he didn’t violate any of your rights personally. And no I do not know John but he is correct about the like for like exchange. Even though I don’t work in the warranty department but the Technical department. And if you happen to read this GREAT WORK JOHN! for doing your job correctly and not lying to a customer just to get them off the phone! I applaud you for that! Go Cingular!
Hey Customslawyer,
You were not deceived by the warranty program. So please get over it. We too have stopped selling the V180’s. Also get over that. If you did indeed purchase 3 defective ones they will be replaced by 3 other V180’s. This is the warranty that you purchased when you bought the phones…You bought the phones so please take some responsibility for your choices. If your old enough to purchase a cell phone then you are old enough to know you get what you pay for. I reiterate, How could you expect us to send you something that you didn’t purchase in the first place? It can’t and won’t be done. That phone is under warranty for one year. And if it stops working then that is what will be replaced in the like for like exchange. I hear customers complain about their phones all the time but have never had any complaints about the V180. Several people that work for Cingular have them and they work just fine. I guess it must be the person and the way they use the phones. Anyway, you can complain all you like about the warranty program but it is what is and you get what you pay for. That’s just one of life’s little lessons just in case you haven’t already learned it. I had to tell a guy today that the warranty wouldn’t replace his phone because he was 6 days past the one year mark. Because that’s all they are covered for. If he had had insurance sure it could have been replaced for the $50.00 non refundable deductible that would have been billed to his account. But alas he didn’t have insurance and wasn’t eligible to upgrade until August of next year so his only option is to purchase a new phone at retail price. So in light of his situation, yours doesn’t sound so bad to me. You get to have your phones replaced while he has to purchase a new one himself a full price. So why don’t you be thankful for small miracles instead of blathering on like an idiot about something that you obviously know nothing about. If you would read that contract you signed when you agreed to service you would see. And before you bounce back with ” I didn’t sign any contract!” then you did it over the automated system for which we have a record and recording of you accepting the terms and conditions of your contract. You can pick up a copy at any Cingular retail location if you so wish. And if you are still unhappy with the V180’s and their warranty then you can purchase another phone at retail price to have it replaced. Cingular cannot be held responsible for defective phones since we do not manufacture them, we only sell them for the manufacture. So again if you still have a problem take it up with Motorola and have them send you three new phones because we will not. We didn’t cause the problem but we have obviously tried to correct it by sending new phones for which you are unhappy with. I understand that you can’t please all the people all the time but in this case it’s just ridiculous.
This site sucks cause there’s actually Cingular guys who are writing back to these comments and siding with this disgusting company. They rape you and hurt you and spit in your face. Each call is a whole other set of lies to customer service. I’ve had a nice sized book of stories since August regarding my bouts w/ COngular. I now call them Suckular. I get dropped calls all the time, and many times when friends call me, the call goes straight to a service that tells them that my number doesn’t exist anymore or for them to input MY number so it can leave me a page. I have spent almost a 1000 bucks fixing bill charges, and many (about half) were their fault after I called and called to get updated minute usage and they said I HAD minutes, when I actually didn’t. Overall, this is a model company for poor capitalism and not thinking about the customer. Poor Poor Customer Service. My credit card companies are WAY nicer, and remember when they used to be the bad guys?? I’ll chose credit card disputes any day of the week over a call to Suckular. Give me a month and when I’m finally a little less broke, I’m severing my ties with them and making a fact to send long nightmare story emails to everyone I know and their mothers to steer clear of this heartless company. Build your business on values- not screwing people. Screwing is nice, but not from a company when you aren’t looking. bend over buddy. it’s coming at ya~
This site sucks cause there’s actually Cingular guys who are writing back to these comments and siding with this disgusting company. They rape you and hurt you and spit in your face. Each call is a whole other set of lies from customer service. I’ve had a nice sized book of stories since August regarding my bouts w/ Cingular. I now call them Suckular. I get dropped calls all the time, and many times when friends call me, the call goes straight to a service that tells them that my number doesn’t exist anymore or for them to input MY number so it can leave me a page. I have spent almost a 1000 bucks fixing bill charges, and many (about half) were their fault after I called and called to get updated minute usage and they said I HAD minutes, when I actually didn’t. Overall, this is a model company for poor capitalism and not thinking about the customer. Poor Poor Customer Service. My credit card companies are WAY nicer, and remember when they used to be the bad guys?? I’ll chose credit card disputes any day of the week over a call to Suckular. Give me a month and when I’m finally a little less broke, I’m severing my ties with them and making a fact to send long nightmare story emails to everyone I know and their mothers to steer clear of this heartless company. Build your business on values- not screwing people. Screwing is nice, but not from a company when you aren’t looking. bend over buddy. it’s coming at ya~
I want to get out of this “stingular” contract.. Anyone have suggestions on how to get out of it… as far as the customer service reps who check this blog … ya’ll are a bunch of dweebs. Get a real job eh? As far as the rest of you go … look at the bigger picture.. Do you really need to have the latest and greatest cell? Just get the basic one so u can get out of those 2 yr contracts easily. Big Industry is taking advantage of us. Empower yourself .. become educated! The best was to hit the Big Industry is.. their pocketbook! Just get the basics and live … s i m p l e !!!!!!
Cingular Rep, thank you for you comments, they have helped.
The bottom line here folks, is we came to expect things a certain way, for phones, we expected to hook up to SBC or AT&T or whoever your land line carrier is/was, pay a deposit, get their phone, and then we got service with predictable rates, of a very good quality…
Land lines spoiled us.
Now, we have the equivilant of GM or Ford who makes and services a product.. and all the little dealerships (used car guys) that sell us the service. They make suggestions on loopholes they know of… they have less than quality eithics sometimes, and sometimes they lie out the butt.
We are all encountering the same problems you have with a car you are unhappy with, and it is hard to reach the car company and get thing strait, and often we are left to deal with a dealer that may or may not be helpful.
Same situation. Some people will be happy, and some will say Ford sucks and switch to GM.
I hate the whole damn cell phone /land line system of operation. not simple enough. so we all miss things or get the wrong story on the fine print and get pissed.
Cingular rep, I have a question, I am going to try and renew with cingular, and the best deals seem to be thru 3rd party venders on-line… I’m out of contract, no problems there, but I am wondering if I can keep my current number with Cingular. The number portability thing seems to be between carriers, but not nessasarilly for renewing. Can’t find anything that covers this.
Also, if I go ahead and get two lines, one my phone number, and one a new number, and my fiance wants to switchover to my plan, could I switch out the old number with his current number (he is with cingular?)
And finally, I’m thinking about having one of my lines have my old land line number, and leave a phone at the house for the ‘home’ number… wierd, but may end up as practical, like for when I screw up and leave my phone somewhere I can’t get to… how hard is it to get my land line switched?
Thanks!
Oops, please contact me direct, grullotobi@yahoo.com…
Thanks! :o)
Dear Grullotobi,
Those are very good questions. You can go to a third party vendor if you wish because they do have awesome deals sometimes. Deals that we don’t offer. But they will give you a new number. It would be like starting new service all over again with them. And the contract you would sign would be with them and not Cingular. Also in my experience they’ve been a nightmare to deal with. If they phone you get messes up its really hard to get a replacement because it wasn’t purchase thru us. The third-party vendors sell the phones with Cingular service but they aren’t Cingular.
As to your second question, if your fiance is already with Cingular and you want to share a family talk plan all you’d have to do is a Transfer of Service. Have one of the existing lines moved to just one account into either your or his name. That way if he’s under contract he doesn’t pay the penalty’s but the contract for his line goes into your name, don’t worry it doesn’t extend the contract if you do this. If he’s not no worries. You can then have both the phones put on the same family talk plan and share the minutes. You wouldn’t even really have to switch numbers. He could keep his and you could keep yours if you did this.
As for having your landline number moved over to a cell phone number it is possible. Although I wouldn’t recommend it. In my experience it turned out to be nothing but a hassle for the customer. But all we would need is a copy of a landline bill so we could port it over if you wanted to do that. It would be up to you.
Hope I’ve helped you out.
Enjoy
I am a very unhappy Cingular user. I have gone through 3 bad phones, two bad auto-chargers, poor reception in areas I was promised I would get good reception. The salespeople have been rude, uncaring, and ridiculous. Today, took car charger in because it has never worked property, keeps “falling out” of the phone. Sales person says it is missing a part at the end and if I bring back in the original packaging and the receipt, they will exchange it. SURE, like I have the original packaging for a $25.00 part after three months. Could they look it up on the computer? Sure, but still need that wrapper. We have two year contract. They want $300 to get us out (2 phones) won’t do any good to complain, but feels better.
Funny thing today, we just changed providers from cingular to T-Mobile. So they tell us that the contract for ALL the phones ends on the 26 of december. They said we would be charged now changing of service fee if we changed on the last day of the contract. Guess what? Today we just got a bill from them for $350.00!!!!!!! My mom being a good yeller calls cingular and asks them about it. They claim that the contracts for each phone ends one on the 26th and then some amount a days after for the other phones. They offer to pay us back part of the bill. My mom won’t have it LOL! Ridiculous or what. She threatened to call one of those like Channel 7 News Investigates things.
**They said we would be charged no changing of service fee if we changed on the last day of the contract.
Brian,
Because I seriously doubt that it will.
Perhaps your Mommy should have checked the end dates for all of the contracts before she decided to switch to T-Mobile. If she had done so she wouldn’t have gotten such a surprise bill. And even if she does call channel 7 news they won’t be able to help her. You said that she was already offered part of the bill back and didn’t take it. Well she should have because now she won’t be able to have any of it credited. It’s only offered as a one time courtesy. Now she’ll have to pay the $350.00 or it will be charged off to a collection agency and reflect badly on her credit. Something she should think about. Your dear old mom has 60 days to pay it then its sent to an outside agency for collection. Oh and just let us know how T-Mobile works out for you. Since they are no longer a roaming partner with Cingular they have no towers. Which means no coverage hardly anywhere. They were using Cingular’s towers. Just let me know if your service gets any better. LOL
Have a good day!
Hello Cingular Board,
I was with Cingular for 4+ years and several years ago when I encountered financial problems….I was turned over to a collection agency who was overseer of my re-payment plan. At the end of the agreed payments I received a check from Cingular to reimburse me for an overpayment.
I have, on average received 2 calls/letters a year since that time from DIFFERENT collection agencies asking for a response to an unpaid balance.
The original collection agency has written a letter to provide proof to these agencies that I have paid in full, but I only have to wait a few months before the next agency calls and then writes with the threat to….blah blah…attempt to collect a debt.
I was instructed to send along the proof of the debt paid and a copy of the un-cashed overpayment check from Cingular.
I have tried to get help from Cingular…nope..no go…it is a collection.
How does this happen? I need an agency to call or someone to talk to about this ongoing re-sale-of-my-so-very-long pushing-up-daises-debt paid in full.
It has happened yet again….Friday evening….I am getting worn down with it….
Thanks in advance,
Suzan
Dealing with Cingular WAS awful. Never will Bell South or any of their subsidiarys see another penny of mine. I don’t know what the Customer Sevice reps are doing posting how good their company is. (probably put someone on hold for another 15 minutes) Everyone I know says the same thing. “CINGULAR SUCKS”
Wow i agree with sue levonnee..(sorry bout spelling)…anyway everything she said is right and i agree…i have an 800 dollar debt that i outright refuse to pay…Im trying to negotiate a price but its total bullshit..they are impossible to do it with..so ive gotta go through the friendly collection agency..this is the mere gist..so sorry..im in the middle of dealing with this crap right now but basicallyI will find a way to not pay the full amount. I lost my home in katrina and wil not pay for the months that i havent used the phone…I know what a contract means but have some goddamn mercy and dont chrge me for any of the months i dont use the phone for…im willing to pay the balance before the day the water rose 10 feet and killed the phone and the cancelation fee…but nothing more. My father borrowed the cell while he stayed for the storm…imagine that…incompassionate bastards, cingular.
Alright…later.
Well Todd,
Truly sorry for the loss you have endured. But you know, since I have posted…I went back through all my paperwork from this mess (save everything, by the way)…and I remember what the “nice” collection agency told me…That is is very possible that Cingular is selling and re-selling this account. How it is so I do not know.
But I have decided to let them follow through and even suggested in a letter the other day that they proceed to Small Claims with my “unpaid bogus balance” and that way at least some part of the judicial system can take a look at the Stingular situation.
You have enough to deal with….I’d would blow them off…you have bigger issues right now.
Luck to you and yours,
Suzan
While I am a very compassionate person and I feel for everyone who lost homes and family members in hurricane Katrina I do however have to point out that Cingular being the generous company that they are offered Katrina victims up to 50% off of their monthly invoices for at least 3 months. They even offered each household one cell phone and 3 months of service at no charge for those that could prove they were victims. And I will also point out the countless collection drives that we held at work. All of us bringing in everything from food and clothing to medicines and diapers. All to help the victims of Katrina. Yes we do care what happens to you and yours Todd. Why else did you think we helped out. This came from the customer service reps that you seem to take such glee in mocking and say that we don’t care about you. That simply isn’t true. As a human being I have always gone above and beyond to help those who are in need. And at the same time trying to provide for my own family. I truly am sorry for the loss that you’ve experienced but you know, If a fire were to gut my home I’d still have to pay all of my bills and debts. And I doubt that a soul would lift a finger to help me and mine. And yes I know it was tragic but you know what else. That was five months ago. I know that the hard work hasn’t ended for everyone and that you still have a ways to go but my GOD! What else can we possibly do to make you people happy?!?! We were by the way, the only cell phone provider who had service immediately afterwards in the most effected areas. No I’m not saying that every area had service but the ones that were really bad. We made sure that the people still there, only God would know why they stayed, had service. So yes we did everything we could for you “victims”. And I use quotation marks because there are oh so very many who would take advantage by saying that they are. And I have had people tell me they were “victims” and she was in northern Florida! Ha! She wanted a hurricane credit for her service and I actually had to say to her “Mam, you were no where near the hurricane zone. What makes you think that you are entitled to any sort of a credit when there are people who have lost everything they’ve ever had? No you don’t get a credit!” Of all the nerve! You people, and its those people who would take advantage that I’m talking to here, you make me sick! You should really be ashamed of yourselves! Oh if I could have reached through the phone and slapped that woman I would have. What burns me up more that a liar is someone who would cheat or try to get something that isn’t theirs. Sorry everyone, I didn’t mean to go on a rant it just burns me up thats all. But I just want it to be known that most of us do care. I’m sorry that you think we don’t but again I really don’t care what you think of me. I get paid to do my job and do it well so I’ll sit and I’ll listen and do what is needed. But please try to remember. We all have the same guidelines to follow. We can’t break them for even one of you when your asking for a credit for something. Just remember that. So peace be with you all and God Bless!
First of all, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time on this.. They don’t care about our problems, with THEIR service! My girlfriend and I have the C2000 phones (the worst piece of junk I’ve ever owned!) under my name on a same account. She was experiencing problems with her’s soon after we got them back in Aug. of 2005, but it didn’t start getting real bad until about a month ago (Feb. 06′). It was freezing, especially when you tried to get into the picture gallery… the screen was turning blue, then green. Not to long after that, all the buttons above the numbers would not work AT ALL!! I then called Cingular, which they sent me over to the Warrenty dept. and after explaining the problem, they had me change some settings and reset the phone. Not even 5 mins. after I got off the phone with them, it started doing the same stuff all over again. I called back, and they said they’d send a new phone.. so the new phone came a couple days later and we were then stuck in a dilemma, how am I supposed to send all her ringtones and pictures over from her old phone to this phone!? I had brought a serial data cable for $30.00, and the only information it would transfer were the contacts. At the same time, my phone started acting up.. So I called the number (for questions) on the warrenty box, and I told my story.. asking if there was any way I could transfer all her stuff over. They then said they didn’t know, so they sent me to Customer Service.. which said they couldn’t do anything! Planning on calling warrenty again (now for my phone), after getting off the phone with these people.. She tells me that on April 5, (less than a month) we won’t be able to call out when our phones say, “Off Network.” Which where we live, is always! So she said, “Well you either have to move, or you won’t be able to have our service.” Fuck that! We’re not going to move for a cell phone company, that just 7 months ago.. told us that our area was completely covered. At first, I just thought that it was the phone (C2000). That was only the beginning.. their phones do suck, but their service sucks too! Oh, and so do the people! I Hate Cingular!
NO, Cingular Wireless REALLY sucks… they try to blame their problems on the competition, even when NUMEROUS customers somplain about it, then they throw their hands in the ai