Warning!!!!Do your research before going to Cingular!!!
😢 😢 I made the mistake of switching to Cingular without searching the Forums first.
I have been with them for 4 months and I am so dissatisfied and am sorry I switched from T-mobile. First of all they screwed up on my bill. They caught their mistake and sent me a whopping $300 phone bill expecting me to pay within the month when it wasn't even my fault. When I called them to see how we can work this out, they practically told me tough luck.
The reception is terrible. I cannot have a decent conversation without becoming disconnected at least 3 to 4 times on one call. I am paying for minutes I cannot even use because the connection is so bad. This frustration is too much and I cannot handle this for another 2 years. It is wort...
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I have been with them for 4 months and I am so dissatisfied and am sorry I switched from T-mobile. First of all they screwed up on my bill. They caught their mistake and sent me a whopping $300 phone bill expecting me to pay within the month when it wasn't even my fault. When I called them to see how we can work this out, they practically told me tough luck.
The reception is terrible. I cannot have a decent conversation without becoming disconnected at least 3 to 4 times on one call. I am paying for minutes I cannot even use because the connection is so bad. This frustration is too much and I cannot handle this for another 2 years. It is wort...
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not my problem if you can't listen to what other people did experience. Verizon absolutley did not work for us.
"There are none so blind but those who will not look. There are none so deaf but those who will not listen"
"There are none so blind but those who will not look. There are none so deaf but those who will not listen"
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Why didnt you cancel your service within the first 30 days? If you were having so many problems you had 30 days to disconnect without having to pay the Early Termination Fee.
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They did not send me a screwed up bill till the third month! The reception has been slowly getting worse. Too late to cancel without a penalty.
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The reception has slowly been getting worse? That sounds far fetched. If you have signed up with them in the last four months your are of course on a GSM plan. I see no reason that the reception should be degrading, perhaps it is your phone? Check with a Cingular store before you cancel, you may just need to replace your phone. It might save you a lot of hassle and money, and you might learn to like it in the long run.
Good luck!
Good luck!
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Yeah, I agree, it might be a phone problem. I have a V400 and I had dropped calls coming out my ear. I finally got them to XBM it (before, they were saying it was my location to the tower, which was pretty much bunk). After I got a new one, I haven't had the problems at all. It's been a few months already, and recently I've been having some problems, but they said it's the tower from the little hurricane that came through and that they're working on it.
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The vast majority of the time getting worse = defective equipment.
You mentioned they caught the problem but still sent you a $300 bill. Is it fixed yet or not? Also, if the problem was caught why do you still owe $300?
I will tell you the same thing I tell my own customers, bring me the bill to give it a once over. I get all credits to my customers promptly (my RAE is very good for this, mainly cause she knows if I ask for a credit it is LEGIT and I don't abuse the privilege) and/or I will explain all legit charges.
You mentioned they caught the problem but still sent you a $300 bill. Is it fixed yet or not? Also, if the problem was caught why do you still owe $300?
I will tell you the same thing I tell my own customers, bring me the bill to give it a once over. I get all credits to my customers promptly (my RAE is very good for this, mainly cause she knows if I ask for a credit it is LEGIT and I don't abuse the privilege) and/or I will explain all legit charges.
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My RAE takes forever! I just thought I would mention that. If everyone is reading, this may help solve an issue some have. If a rep in a store is willing to help you with your bill, and she says that she has to work on it and let you know, it may not be their fault if it takes forever. I get yelled at all the time because it takes my RAE so long to get it done for me. Im tired of it. Not much I can do about it, but it sucks.
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I am lucky with the one I have. Others in the past have been worthless (in fact worthless was their nickname).
Most RAE take so long because I am sure they get overwhelmed with stupid requests from people who screw it up on their own.
Most RAE take so long because I am sure they get overwhelmed with stupid requests from people who screw it up on their own.
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my RAE has to escalate alot of requests. he says he is questioned for every penny of credit he personally issues. so to avoid the questioning, he escalates it. sometimes that is why it takes so long.
i have also learned that if you "CC" the email request to THEIR supervisor...you'll get a response MUCH quicker!
i have also learned that if you "CC" the email request to THEIR supervisor...you'll get a response MUCH quicker!
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yeah, you should have stayed with T-Mobile. I warned someone else about the messed up billing system!
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Come back to T-Mobile, so you can get More. Who cares about "Raising the bar", and "rollover"? Its not worth it if you don't have good reception to use the service with. Come back to T-Mobile. We are waiting for you. Come and "Get More, customer service, and minutes, for less money". Literally!
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I agree. I think providers should give us some kind of credit if we're having bad reception issues in our area. For instance, a while back, I could connect, but could not communicate with the other party and had to redial until it worked out. They gave me a few minutes to cover it, in case I were to have gone over, but those days are long gone.
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I don't understand why anyone would go to T-Mobile - If you're on Cingular, you use T-Mobiles towers for free - at least in my market, not to mention you get access to the Old ATT and the Cingular towers as well as any other roaming partner such as cell one, dobson, unicell...
disgrutled = DFU
disgrutled = DFU
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In my parents home town I was having bad reception issues with T-Mobile and I called in and complained (nicely of course) about my signal problems, and you know what T-Mobile did? They gave me a whole month of service for FREE!
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That's pretty cool. The problem though, is after you use your free month, you possibly have 20 more months left that you'll be paying for with bad reception. There should be some standard where by if you can't get a certain percentage of reception over a period of time, you can be released from your contract. I'm sure that there probably is something like that in place aleady, just costly and time comsuming to take advantage of.
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But if the problem is your phone, and you refuse to correct the problem, you remain under contract.
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I can understand that. But if my phone's been replaced several times and I still have poor reception for whatever reason, that should be a case to be released from the contract. Of course, I would expect a Cingular tech to come down, maybe even meet with me so that I can show them the problem I'm having. There's been times for days at a time, I'll have little or no service, and when I call in, they either send out updates to my phone or say there's not a problem in my area.
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oh, and actually I found out that part of my coverage problem was that my SIM card was getting too old, so T-Mobile replaced mine for free, and now I can hear better and be heard better!
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actually no, I return to Chicago next week, and there I get flawless coverage. Plus I only have 9 more months left in my contract.
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In all fairness to everyone involved. When there is a 'mistake' on the bill, 9 times out of 10 they are legitimate charges and their was nothing wrong with the billing system. The customer was charged for a service they used. Now if cingular has hidden fee's high fee's or don't give customers a good heads up on certain features, that can defiantly be up for debate. But its not right now. If it actually WAS a billing error, charges are credited back in full thats cingular's policy, its clear and in black and white. However, if it was a case of misinfo thats not documented or the customer just didn't know about a charge (mmode is an evil one), its at the reps discretion if they feel the charges should be credited back... remember just because ...
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Umm, takes about 3 weeks for them to realize that the charges aren't legit, at least in my case. After they figure out that I should have free NW on my UNW plan, they credit it within minutes.
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N&W is a tough one,.. The information is there for us (the reps) to use, some know how to navigate around the system better than others. Most times it's common sense that n&w should be on there, but not every case is that clear. Like if the customer has a contract of a certain length, 2yr for example, and at least over a given value where that promotion would have been added on... and of course if the contract was signed before said promo expired. Bam, they should have it .. give the credits, end of call. It sounds simple... but some people make it out to be hard.
When you consider the amount of care reps that they need on the phones (any carrier) sometimes centers scrape the bottem of the barrel to get people to come into work. Think a...
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When you consider the amount of care reps that they need on the phones (any carrier) sometimes centers scrape the bottem of the barrel to get people to come into work. Think a...
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Well, what happened was that I switched plans and on the next month, I got this really huge bill. I called and asked about it and they could tell right off the bat that it was wrong, but they couldn't credit the amount because of the high amount. It went to comittee, was denied thrice, and I finally got someone on the phone that stayed with me for over an hour going through each call. We figured out what I should've been charged for (I did go over my minutes, just a bit) and she got her manager to approve it. That was the first time, back in 2001.
Recently, about 10 months ago, I switched plans, and the same thing happened to me. I called in, was told the charges were legit (beats me!) and they said good day. I called back, hopeing ...
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Recently, about 10 months ago, I switched plans, and the same thing happened to me. I called in, was told the charges were legit (beats me!) and they said good day. I called back, hopeing ...
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Heh, changing again ? Now your just asking for it. 😉
Yea, seems fairly simple. Sometimes reps just get so caught up in policy they don't actually take the effort to figure out what the problem is. They just up and offer 50% and hope you accept it and hang up, everyone is guilty of that at one point or another. And if you get that rep thats 5 minutes before lunch or god forbid you get one who's ready to go home... the odds of this increases.
I find it funny that they considered the issue closed because you accepted 50% worth of credits and it was a billing issue all along... again seems like someone with the little policy memo crammed so firmly up their *** that they didn't take the time to consider the possibility that it...
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Yea, seems fairly simple. Sometimes reps just get so caught up in policy they don't actually take the effort to figure out what the problem is. They just up and offer 50% and hope you accept it and hang up, everyone is guilty of that at one point or another. And if you get that rep thats 5 minutes before lunch or god forbid you get one who's ready to go home... the odds of this increases.
I find it funny that they considered the issue closed because you accepted 50% worth of credits and it was a billing issue all along... again seems like someone with the little policy memo crammed so firmly up their *** that they didn't take the time to consider the possibility that it...
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Ha, I wasn't expecting an apology. I got one from whoever it was sent me the email saying that it was fixed. Too bad they didn't give me anything to compensate me for pain and suffering, like a free RAZR. J/k! I don't care much for them anyway. I don't think I'll be changing though. I do get a discount with Sprint, 23%, but that's only about $20/month. Their phones suck and the few times I have called asking about their policies and such, as a possible customer, I had been treated rather rudely. Cingular has good phones, decent service, decent plans, and has been fairly good to me for the past 5 years. I don't think that'd be worth saving $20/month on. Also, don't know how much longer I'll be with this job. Finally graduating from...
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Well, I could get a GSM plan through Rogers wireless for "comparable" prices. But I really don't want a GSM phone, I'll stick with my CDMA, crappy phones but unparalleled service, on the East Coast at any rate.
Wow man, you've had a myriad of problems with Care. Your a trooper though. I would have admitted defeat long ago, or exploded into a white-hot fit of rage... it can go either way with me... so its hard to say.
I know nothing of the Blockbuster thing, so I cant even offer something sarcastic about the rep that helped... err, answered the phone. Personally if I get a call at or close to the end of my shift I milk it... I milk it for all its worth, Overtime is sweet, It's the only point I actually make decent money.
Wow man, you've had a myriad of problems with Care. Your a trooper though. I would have admitted defeat long ago, or exploded into a white-hot fit of rage... it can go either way with me... so its hard to say.
I know nothing of the Blockbuster thing, so I cant even offer something sarcastic about the rep that helped... err, answered the phone. Personally if I get a call at or close to the end of my shift I milk it... I milk it for all its worth, Overtime is sweet, It's the only point I actually make decent money.
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The Blockbuster thing.... Blockbuster is a movie rental store here in the states (I'm sure you know that). Well, you can sign up for this thing, similar to NetFlix. For $15/month, they'll send you 3 movies at a time through the mail. When you send one back, they send the next on your list. Pretty neat thing, although I haven't watched a movie in like a month, so right now, it's been a waste. One day, one of the movies disappeard from my list of sent movies. I sent it back, thinking it would go back, but nothing, so they were only sending me 2 at a time. I called, and well, you know what happened.
And I really don't know why I've stuck it out. Probably because I couldn't afford the ETFs. Usually, I'm pretty happy with my service ...
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And I really don't know why I've stuck it out. Probably because I couldn't afford the ETFs. Usually, I'm pretty happy with my service ...
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I know on ATTW side we dont terminate the call for any reason... ever. It's just not done. thats what our policy states anyway. You can call me everything but a white man I'll I'll just sit there and smile and nod.
As far as the legal action goes, I usually dismiss it, if someone is willing to spend their time and hard earned money disputing a couple of bucks that could very easily get dismissed or tied up for ages in court. Remember, you can be sure Cingular has the slimiest of lawyers on call 24/7, and as sad as it sounds thats the state of affairs these days.. Little guy gets crapped on, big business keeps their money.
Basically the threat of legal action means nothing to the company or anyone working for it, unless you slipp...
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As far as the legal action goes, I usually dismiss it, if someone is willing to spend their time and hard earned money disputing a couple of bucks that could very easily get dismissed or tied up for ages in court. Remember, you can be sure Cingular has the slimiest of lawyers on call 24/7, and as sad as it sounds thats the state of affairs these days.. Little guy gets crapped on, big business keeps their money.
Basically the threat of legal action means nothing to the company or anyone working for it, unless you slipp...
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As far as having a huge bill after changing your plan, were you changing in the middle of a billing cycle? Because cingular bills in advance... and if you change in the middle of a biulling cycle, there will always be proration. It's not that you are paying anymorethan you should, it's just everything gets crammed onto one bill. You pay a prorated charge for the time left untill your billy cycle, and then you pay for next month's service in advance. If you didn;t use all your minutes or you were downgrading, you will receive a credit for that, but the proration on top of the next month of service usually overpowers the credit anyways...........
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Yeah, I know about all that. I changed at the beginning of my cycle like I'm supposed to. It's just that the UNW feature wasn't added because, when adding up my minutes, started getting overage charges when my day and NW calls added up to 850. My first charge was actually during an UNW call. GO figure.
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Well, my bill was about $400 more than what it should've been and they weren't even bothering to help. I could've gotten them for breach of contract since they were charging me for my NW that were supposed to be free. When doing stuff like that, usually it's not the $400 that I'd be after, but punitive damages, a punishment, in the form of hundreds of thousands of dollars. That'd only work if it's something Cingular's doing to many people and being jerks about it. Kind of like the Ford Pinto (I think) back in the 70s/80s. There was a problem with the car that cost about $10/car to fix. Ford didn't want to do it, and the judge awarded the sueing party millions. It was mainly a punishment to Ford, to show them what jerks they for not fi...
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On a side note to your crediting for poor service. Yeah, those days are long gone. Funny part of it all is, if you were to actually read the terms and conditions of your contract it basically states (in legalese of course) that service isn't guaranteed, due to things like hills, tree's, valleys, "acts of god" and other nonsense.
I guess thats part of the logic behind not crediting for interruptions in service (unless there is a documented issue with a tower or something within out system) and why cells are not a good choice for a primary business phone. Also it amounts to a he said she said between the company and customer if their isn't enough reports of an issue in the area.
I guess thats part of the logic behind not crediting for interruptions in service (unless there is a documented issue with a tower or something within out system) and why cells are not a good choice for a primary business phone. Also it amounts to a he said she said between the company and customer if their isn't enough reports of an issue in the area.
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Yeah, that's happened to me a few times. I'll call in and tell them I have no bars and neither does anyone in my area that I've spoken to. They'll say that their screen shows there's no problem and for me to powercycle my phone. This last time, I told them that I've done that, done the whole remove the battery and SIM thing, and there's still nothing. I then asked if their screen shows the actual tower reception or that no one has reported any problems to tech and tech is showing there's no problem. She mumbled a bit, put me on hold, then came back and said there was a problem with my tower and they'll start working on it.
And I have read the T&C. I understand that they don't guarantee against all those things, but, when I've calle...
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And I have read the T&C. I understand that they don't guarantee against all those things, but, when I've calle...
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Probably not. But I guess it depends on what kind of interruption were talking about here... a day or two is to be expected, better part of a month I'd be screaming bloody murder (if it was a known issue)
Luckily I have CDMA and my service is stellar regardless of where I go, and if it drops I just switch it over to Analog and I'm laughing. I basically live in a bunker-style basement apartment here and I get 4 bars... no 5 with the antenna up.
One thing about service issues : Care and Tech are not exactly what you would call a cohesive unit. Care reps consider tech to be holier than thou and Tech considers Reps to be slow, dim-witted buffoons who waste their time with dumb questions. So from time to time your going to enc...
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Luckily I have CDMA and my service is stellar regardless of where I go, and if it drops I just switch it over to Analog and I'm laughing. I basically live in a bunker-style basement apartment here and I get 4 bars... no 5 with the antenna up.
One thing about service issues : Care and Tech are not exactly what you would call a cohesive unit. Care reps consider tech to be holier than thou and Tech considers Reps to be slow, dim-witted buffoons who waste their time with dumb questions. So from time to time your going to enc...
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oh yea, and Cingualr has more customers that we have people in Canada... so that might have something to do with pricing.
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ZombieJ said:
On a side note to your crediting for poor service. Yeah, those days are long gone. Funny part of it all is, if you were to actually read the terms and conditions of your contract it basically states (in legalese of course) that service isn't guaranteed, due to things like hills, tree's, valleys, "acts of god" and other nonsense.
Thats one reason I won't sign any contracts with Carriers after the initial 1 year 'promo pak" "free" upgrade PHones be dammed.
You sign a commitment for a service which by contract is not even guarenteed to work at all and have no recourse. THey always fall back on that clause.
IF no one signed contracts and just bought phones elsewhere and paid month to m...
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Possibly. You would have a more "European" cell market. Won't see that for a while. Unless the FCC says cell phones can no longer be branded to only work for a certain carrier or something along those lines.
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I know this a little off topic, but WTF is wrong with cINGULAR's billing/ minute monitoring system? I think having to wait 5 days after the billing cycle to view your minutes is totally unacceptable. Furthermore, when it is working it take a day or two before u get accurate minutes use. There is also no way to monitor your data usages, text messages, and M2m(I understand its unlimited but some people need this info for business purposes).
I spoke to a rep about these issues(bless her heart because she was defenseless against my arguments) she admitted that maybe that something they need to work on, but was not sure of any plans the company had to address this issue. I wouldn't be surprised if they are held liable for misleading the cu...
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I spoke to a rep about these issues(bless her heart because she was defenseless against my arguments) she admitted that maybe that something they need to work on, but was not sure of any plans the company had to address this issue. I wouldn't be surprised if they are held liable for misleading the cu...
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they just upgraded that this past sunday. they are working on it and it's getting much faster on when they have that info.
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That supposidly happened to me. I called in asking how many minutes have been used and was told around 400 out of 850. Few days later, I call again and am told around 425. Well, I get my bill and it says I used about 1000. I called and asked how I could've used 475 minutes in 4 days and was told that my account was noted that I called in and was told I had already gone over and would be responsible for the charges. I asked and the girl let it slip that they put down how many minutes I'm told I have when I call in. Both of the guys didn't put that. She gave me some credit because I think she believed me, maybe half, maybe just didn't want me bugging her, but I ended up paying. I really wouldn't have minded, because I did go over, but ...
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That isn't true kingfrog. The only difference between a 1 year agreement, 2 year agreement and month to month os length of time.
The Terms and Conditions of service are still the same.
The Terms and Conditions of service are still the same.
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I realize the terms are the same. But if the service degrades or changes in an area and you call in they will not let you out of your contract stating the Terms and Conditions not guaranteeing service.
With a month to month contract one can just take their phone to another Carrier such as Suncom or T mobile.
If most subscribers did that Carriers would have to offer more then cheaper phones to get LT commitments they need. As always the T&Cs are totally in the Carrier's favor.
With a month to month contract one can just take their phone to another Carrier such as Suncom or T mobile.
If most subscribers did that Carriers would have to offer more then cheaper phones to get LT commitments they need. As always the T&Cs are totally in the Carrier's favor.
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We've been with Cingular for over 3 years and have never had a problem that could not be resolved.
Customer Service has always been helpful, whether direct with Cingular or at one of the stores.
Customer Service has always been helpful, whether direct with Cingular or at one of the stores.
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here's another suggestion to the dropped calls/poor reception issue. have your downloads to your sim card checked. if you don't power cycle the phone on a regular basis, it's highly possible you miss the system updates. just call into customer service and have them resend them to your phone.
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Is a consumer supposed to call ad ask for a power cycle for your phone? What exactly is that and how often should we ask? I never heard of this, should I also do it on my ATT/Cingular phone while I am waiting/considering swiching to 'straight' Cingular? Thanks!
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Yes if you are having dropped call issues give customer service a call. Let us go ahead and troubleshoot the problem. It could be very easy to fix and also add phone insurance 2 your account. Just in case it is an equipment issue and your warranty is up u can switch phones without a contract.
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Unless you are on a former AT&T wireless plan with an old AT&T phone. We are no longer allowing those customers to add insurance. As of Monday July 25th, 2005 Blue Equipment Protection Features were no longer available for new enrollments.
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msjanieb said:
Is a consumer supposed to call ad ask for a power cycle for your phone? What exactly is that and how often should we ask? I never heard of this, should I also do it on my ATT/Cingular phone while I am waiting/considering swiching to 'straight' Cingular? Thanks!
The first trouble shooting step always is to power cycle remove and read the SIM card. but a simple power cycle now and then should work. Anything electrical should be shut off now and then not nessarly for a long time but off then on. kinda like a reboot. It amazes me how many people never and i mean never shut their phone off.
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I used to never turn my phone off, but now at night I shut it off for the whole night while it is charging, that way it can get a good night's rest too. 🙂
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