Cingular Upgrade Policy
Due to my constant irritation with incorrect information I receive when contacting customer service, I thought I would pose my question here.
What is Cingular's upgrade policy (timeframe, special pricing & or discounts, contract terms, fees associated, etc ...)? I use to be an RA and never had to pay for a handset, therefore am unfamiliar. I am hesitant to upgrade because it would require a change to the GSM network and I am not impressed with the coverage area at this time(I am currently on TDMA and out of contract for a little over 3 years).
Also, would like some clarification about the "no roaming fees". Is it true there are no roaming charges because Cingular customers in essence cannot roam (meaning if you aren't on the Cingular...
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What is Cingular's upgrade policy (timeframe, special pricing & or discounts, contract terms, fees associated, etc ...)? I use to be an RA and never had to pay for a handset, therefore am unfamiliar. I am hesitant to upgrade because it would require a change to the GSM network and I am not impressed with the coverage area at this time(I am currently on TDMA and out of contract for a little over 3 years).
Also, would like some clarification about the "no roaming fees". Is it true there are no roaming charges because Cingular customers in essence cannot roam (meaning if you aren't on the Cingular...
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cingular does have roaming aggreements with other carriers, but will not charge roaming in the united states. very simple, but as all know advertising in this industry is hard to believe. also as of last year at&t accomplished 100% overlay of their tdma network with gsm. I assume your talking about going from at&t tdma to cingular gsm. from what I understand all major manufacturers will stop production of tdma handsets middle '05 so at that point you will have to upgrade if you lose/break your phone. I hope this helps
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I have Cingular TDMA not AT&T. I have four handsets so that is not an issue either. Really just need the info about the upgrade policy. The "no roaming charges" was a sidebar because I have different explanations as to what Cingular means about that. Thanks for your feedback.
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with the upgrade, you would have to change over to a 'new' cingular gsm rate plan, and you would get a 'new' cingular gsm phone. Therefore, the coverage would actually be different for you; the difference might be good, or bad...If you upgrade, you will have to sign a contract, how long of contract would depend on how much you want to pay for new phones...considering you are out of contract, there is nothing else you must do to upgrade, just go to your local cingular store and tell them what you want to do, you're out of contract so there is nothing keeping you from being eligible...i hope i've helped a little...by the way, the nationwide ld and roaming is that good, there's no extra charges, period, as long as you're in the good old U.S.
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The upgrade policy is "
If you have a 24 month contr:
Standard upgrade after 21 months
If on a 12 month contr:
There is no upgrade, you have to complete the full year.
If you have a 24 month contr:
Standard upgrade after 21 months
If on a 12 month contr:
There is no upgrade, you have to complete the full year.
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csr3000 said:
The upgrade policy is "
If you have a 24 month contr:
Standard upgrade after 21 months
If on a 12 month contr:
There is no upgrade, you have to complete the full year.
I have a GSM plan, and I am soon elgible for a upgrade, would I have to renew my contract with a newer plan, or could I renew with my current rate plan?!?
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In your particular situation the Upgrade policy is as such...
The customer is out of contract (regardless of length of service)
The customer is within one month of contract expiration
The customer has completed 21 or more months of service since the last handset discount
The customer has completed 12 or more months of service since the last handset discount AND has ARPU of $75 or more over the last three months
There is an $18 upgrade fee regardless of the price of the phone. You will not be required to pay this fee up front. It will be billed to you...
Depending on the contract length you choose will affect the price of the phone... Example... You could get a free phone (certain models) w/ a 2 yr contract but w/ a 1 yr would...
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The customer is out of contract (regardless of length of service)
The customer is within one month of contract expiration
The customer has completed 21 or more months of service since the last handset discount
The customer has completed 12 or more months of service since the last handset discount AND has ARPU of $75 or more over the last three months
There is an $18 upgrade fee regardless of the price of the phone. You will not be required to pay this fee up front. It will be billed to you...
Depending on the contract length you choose will affect the price of the phone... Example... You could get a free phone (certain models) w/ a 2 yr contract but w/ a 1 yr would...
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Just dont go near the Canadian border...like Niagra Falls, NY. They say no roaming, but they'll charge you international roaming there
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dont forget about el paso, tx... yay TelCel GSM international roaming and 20 cent text messages even WITHOUT an international roaming package on the account 🤣
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Yeah... my mom got killed with that... She considers me the enemy because I work for Cingular... 🤣
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If you were charged International roaming while in Niagra Falls, NY then you likely were reading off a Canadian tower. If this is the first time a call to CS will likely result in a credit due to accidental roaming. (if you actually were in Canada then this doesn't apply) The no roaming stands true as long as you're reading off of domestic towers.
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Are there loyalty discounts? In other words, with a 2 year renewal can I get a higher end phone at a much lower cost. I don't necessarily mean V3 high end, but I also don't want one of the "free" basic entry model phones new customers are lured in with. My expectation is since I am a long time customer (since it started as Ameritech mobile) with an ARPU of $120 I would be eligible for additional promotional pricing or dicounts with a 2 year agreement (yeah I know - I hated it when customers played on that "I been with you for so long crap" too).
I have only been keeping this phone because of the no roaming portion of the plan, however it seems that Cingular doesn't have the same type of friendly upgrade policies as other carriers. For ex...
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I have only been keeping this phone because of the no roaming portion of the plan, however it seems that Cingular doesn't have the same type of friendly upgrade policies as other carriers. For ex...
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LoveSexy said:
Are there loyalty discounts? In other words, with a 2 year renewal can I get a higher end phone at a much lower cost.
Cingular discounts for future loyalty. A 1-year contract gets you $50 off the price of the phone. A 2-year contract gets you $100 off.
Your history (and more importantly, ARPU) gets you the ability to do that more often. From the stated policy, you could sign a new 2-year agreement every 12 or 13 months, getting that $100 discount each time.
LoveSexy said:
In addition, I am still not clear on the absolutely no roaming charges.
Your phone can roam on any GSM tower in the US. Right now, those would be Cingular towers, former ATTWS...
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To be honest i'm not clear on the details to VZW's NE2... From what i've gathered is that they give you $100 off any phone you choose when up for upgrade (if i'm wrong please correct me.)
Our offers to loyal customers is that they are allowed to get the same pricing as a new customer would... In other words, some other companies have really great sign on promos but when it's time for renewal... The new customers get better deals...
With us... If we're giving a $250 phone for free you can get it for the same price... Any phone in our lineup you can get the promotional offer for... (I hope this clears things up a bit.)
As far as roaming... VZW can roam in more places than Cingular, so long as you have a tri-mode phone. The GSM phones ...
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Our offers to loyal customers is that they are allowed to get the same pricing as a new customer would... In other words, some other companies have really great sign on promos but when it's time for renewal... The new customers get better deals...
With us... If we're giving a $250 phone for free you can get it for the same price... Any phone in our lineup you can get the promotional offer for... (I hope this clears things up a bit.)
As far as roaming... VZW can roam in more places than Cingular, so long as you have a tri-mode phone. The GSM phones ...
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your out of contract, so youll lget best deals on phones, providing you agree to a 2 year term. (usally between 100-250 bucks off phone price) as far as the roaming goes....as long as your in the U.S you wont get roaming charges if your on a cingular nation gsm plan. dosent matter if your on our network or not. there may be patches with NO signal in wich case your phone wont work....so check with a store or call in to see if there is gsm service and towers in your area.
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Dont go to Niagra Falls, NY. Youre phone will get signal off a Canadian tower and you will be charged for international roaming. When you call in to tell them that youve never been to Canada they'll say "sorry, we have no way of knowing that, just know that youre phone used a Canadian tower so now we are gonna charge you for all those international roaming calls." But as far as I know, anywhere else you should be fine. Maybe, if your by the Mexico border you could run into the same problem? I dont know, stay away from international borders!
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HAND said:
Dont go to Niagra Falls, NY. Youre phone will get signal off a Canadian tower and you will be charged for international roaming. When you call in to tell them that youve never been to Canada they'll say "sorry, we have no way of knowing that, just know that youre phone used a Canadian tower so now we are gonna charge you for all those international roaming calls." But as far as I know, anywhere else you should be fine. Maybe, if your by the Mexico border you could run into the same problem? I dont know, stay away from international borders!
The way that att worked it they would explain 'fringe areas, like near the mexican and canadian borders, and would educate and give credit for incoming ...
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Well its pretty easy.. if you are near the border and you look down at your phone and you see it says Rogers or Fido.. you dont want to use it! 😛
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I agree, but it's also a good thing to have them add ICR to your account if you know you'll be in a fringe area and don't plan on roaming internationally. It "should" disallow international roaming, and if it's on there and you still roam, it's obviously not your fault.
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