By everyone, he meant existing Cingular customers as well. The fact of the matter is, AT&T customers were being treated better than Cingular's existing customers. AT&T customers weren't the only ones being charged $18 to upgrade, and they still aren't. At least AT&T customers were given the opportunity to have that fee waived. Few of them were smart enough to take that offer.

And that's coming from a former AT&T customer, now happily migrated Cingular customer.

Hey RUFF,

I would have to disagree with you that the AT&T customer base was treated better. I am not sure if you are/were an employee, or customer. But I was a AT&T employee. On AT&T for the longest time we rarely charged an upgrade fee. Plus when Cingular first took over the AT&T side, they werent helping the customers all that much. There plans were higher, they did offer a rebate/trade in for AT&T phones , but it was almost embarassing. Back when the V600 was the hot phone to have ( whether it sucked or not ! ) was like a $20 trade in, when John Doe just paid $199.00 for it 2 weeks ago on AT&T.

It always the talk of our region ( Chicago ) that Cingular should have called it a buy out over a merger.

It was a buyout.

And no offense guy, but ATTWS was bleeding revenue and losing customers with those great "policies". They were giving away anything they could to keep what they had left.

ATTWS customers were treated fairly but they weren't going to get to keep the charity given to them at the end. Once their agreements were up that stuff was going bye bye. It isn't shady, it isn't unfair.

I will agree with you that there was alot of "charity". For the most part, it was the reps. Yes there was the ground prices on what you are "supposed" to pay but reps never followed it. It was what did I have to do to sell this phone. They would bark evey now and then reagrding the over discounts and urged managers to enforce it, but when you have a store that is doing 137% to quota monthly and the average rep is making close to 6 figures a year and managers making $3k+ in commission alone, then stop. Ha not going to happen.

AT&T financial reports purely showed that the company was not in the gutter. That was purely a rumor created by SBC/Cingular in grounds of buying them. In fact, after the 3rd quarter of 2004 pre "merger" AT&T wi...
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Again making claims based in inaccurate or false information.

The changes in the upgrade program do not work the way you state. That is speculation based on zero facts. If a customer is always roaming Cingular will not offer to subsidize another handset. It has nothing to do with monthly amount so long as it is reasonable (as I stated previously the FEW $14.99 - $24.99 single line plans may not be eligible but the rest are slated to be eligible).

Why don't you pull those financial reports you speak of and tell me about their growth. Forbes, WSJ, etc. must have been in on that rumor Cingular started huh?

Over paying sales reps
Over paying for customers
Slow, no or negative growth in customer base

Sounds like a bad business p...
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Vodaphone, DoKoMo, etc... and dont for get TMobile. They all were "rumored" to have bids , but when it came time, none were there.

Regarding the profitabilty, I clearly stated that it was in a thread that I read. If its true , I dont know. Do I doubt it. No.

I will dig through my emails and see if I can find the articles. I as like many AT&T employees, followed the company and merger very closely. I ask you to do the same, show ME where it states in financial records that ATTWS took a dive, that they had a higher then normal retention drop on a constant basis.

Overpaying employees and customers in purely opinion. I could say that you are over paid for what you do. There was alot of people that made ATTWS their career. E...
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Vodafone was not "rumored" to have bids. Their are plenty of press releases out there concerning the final agreement between Vodafone and Cingular on the last bid. Vodafone agreed to forfeit if Cingular signed a contract on the spot locking them into the $41 billion price tag. It was a rather clever way to drive up the price for Verizon's competition if Vodafone couldn't buy the AT&T themselves.

I am self employed. I make what I personally earn. I do not get a salary or guaranteed wage in any way shape or form.

So you now admit that you made claims based on items from forum posts rather than factual information?

You don't know alot about this industry. I think you are in over your head in this conversation. Your opinion about the fact you enjoyed where you worked is great. But on every other point you make statements based on speculation, inuendo and rumor.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dis ... »

They are out there. If oyu care to know the truth you can do the other reasearch yourself.

Being an employee, you surely would have known that the upgrade fee was offered to be waived to AT&T customers, right? Not many took up that offer, but they should have if they thought about it logically. It's just the way things happened and they couldn't hold out on AT&T plans forever.

I am a customer, not an employee. I signed a 2-year contract with AT&T on April 30, 2004. I then later signed a new 2-year contract with Cingular on February 5, 2005. I paid no upgrade fee (because it was waived), and was offered a reasonable deal on new equipment. The plan pricing was a little more expensive on the lower end for minutes but I decided to take a $10 step up in plan for 250 more minutes than I had with my AT&T plan. Rollover was included.
...
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True, and like I said not everyone is unhappy with it. In the midwest region, we were strictly told that there was no waiving of the fee. Now maybe in other areas/states it was different. Policys did range per market.

And that friendly "advice" from your rep was purely the company driven "upsell". Start them off with the $59.99 plan , then try to add a line, if not work from there. As business practice that is good, but do take it as more sales technique then advice.

That friendly advice was not from my local rep. It was from people on this site that honestly had my best interest in mind. They of course weren't trying to upsell anything, because they would see no benefit from it.

It was good advice, any way you look at it.

😁 Hey man, Im not trying to battle with you here. As long as you feel you are getting what you pay for . Rock On ! There are just alot of people that would be standing on line out the door sometimes ready to bitch moan and groan about there bill being 14.00 higher and why this fee and that blah blah blah. I guess I am just a little more opinionated about it having to deal with these types of people everyday all day for the longest.

What are you, ten?

And you absolutely implied you were required to do a new contract. Tap dancing around it because you were called on your B.S. is pretty weak.

So, Nextel18, how exactly did they overpay for ATTWS? Any idea how much ATTWS spectrum would cost if purchased via auction? Now the towers they chose to keep? Now the customer base?

Sprint bought Nextel for close to 50 billion. Overpaid for them too I suppose? Add it up, between aquisition costs and the requirement to buy out all the affiliates the paid $50 billion for less spectrum, less towers and less customers.

Now, douche bag, counter me with facts.

texaswireless said:
What are you, ten?

And you absolutely implied you were required to do a new contract. Tap dancing around it because you were called on your B.S. is pretty weak.

So, Nextel18, how exactly did they overpay for ATTWS? Any idea how much ATTWS spectrum would cost if purchased via auction? Now the towers they chose to keep? Now the customer base?

Sprint bought Nextel for close to 50 billion. Overpaid for them too I suppose? Add it up, between aquisition costs and the requirement to buy out all the affiliates the paid $50 billion for less spectrum, less towers and less customers.

Now, douche bag, counter me with facts.

Ok, hold on... You can't call me the same name I called y...
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And you could have kept what you had and kept the same service through the end of your contract. I know plenty of ATTWS blue customers who are STILL happy with the service they have. How did it ONLY degrade for some and not others if it was intentional?

What, no response on the rest?

texaswireless said:
And you could have kept what you had and kept the same service through the end of your contract. I know plenty of ATTWS blue customers who are STILL happy with the service they have. How did it ONLY degrade for some and not others if it was intentional?

What, no response on the rest?

Oh sorry, you're **** sweat...

I can't explain how the service got worse after the merger - it just did.

I can............ What they did was start converting towers from the 850 band which AT&T used, to the Cingulars 1900 ( I Believe, I always confuse if 1800 or 1900 is U.S. ) This took place in most Metro areas first. Some of the smaller areas AT&T used were leased from TMobile using there domestic 900 band. Hence not everyone affected. Yes there are still some people happy with there AT&T service. Would probably drop that they are using an older phone like a Nokia 8300 , Panasonic GU87, etc.......which all have the 900 as primary band.

Also maybe take into affect that the people who are "happy' are not heavy to moderate users. Of course if you use your phone once or twice a week to call aunt gertrude in Utah you wont see a problem bec...
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Your post is completely baseless.

900 Mhz is NOT used in the United States

Switching bands does not in of itself degrade service. ATTWS sold dual band phones.

T-Mobile and Cingular had a joint venture in NY and CA. Cingular began to use the ATTWS system and sold out of the joint venture leaving T-Mobile sole ownership of the old Orange network and Cingular using the newly aquired blue network. ORANGE customers in those areas potentially experienced changes in coverage as they were converted to the new network but BLUE customers saw no change (same network).

Network integration is still going on. Markets switched first might have experienced issues due to trial and error but not conspriracy. Integrated markets have far superi...
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So there is no basis for the massive number of complaints on these boards or elsewhere on the Internet regarding the poor service of Cingular after the merger?

Amazing all these people have similar complaints and problems yet nothing ever happened.

The At&T TDMA customers have suffered unfair business practices and service degradation.

Perhaps you missed it, but in late May 2005 it was reported by Li Yuan, staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal that:

Cingular continues to push former AT&T Wireless customers to move from their old TDMA network to Cingular's newer GSM network, which requires those customers to upgrade their phones.

Although 28% of aftermerger Cingular subscribers are still using the old TDMA ne

...
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temerityboy said:
the company is investing close to nothing in that infrastructure, says Ed Reynolds, Cingular's network operations president. The TDMA network is "emptying out," and handles only 16% of Cingular's total air minutes, he says. Cingular says the combined network will ultimately improve coverage, but the integration will not be finished until June 2006.

Cingular has invested next to nothing in maintaining and repairing the TDMA network.

That comes from Ed Reynold's, the PRESIDENT of operations, how the hell can you possibly dispute that?
it said, investing close to nothing in that network... why expand or add towers etc. in a dying netowrk... you turned it around and said 'm...
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the company is investing close to nothing in that infrastructure

How do they repair and maintain it when no money is going into it?

temerityboy said:

the company is investing close to nothing in that infrastructure

How do they repair and maintain it when no money is going into it?

well answers.com says Investing The act of committing money or capital to an endeavor (a business, project, real estate, etc.) with the expectation of obtaining an additional income or profit.

so, by repairing and maintaining it is not the same as investing..............

🤣 Don't quit your day job!

LITTLE TO NO MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON IT PERIOD.

Damn you are right.

Now why won't someone repair my Commodore 64. I have an Intellivision with a broken controller. Damn them for not still making parts for it. Any why is no no readily available knobs for my 13" B&W 13 station TV anymore.

BECAUSE IT IS A WASTE OF MONEY!

mikeymancini said:
Also maybe take into affect that the people who are "happy' are not heavy to moderate users. Of course if you use your phone once or twice a week to call aunt gertrude in Utah you wont see a problem because you have little to base it off of.

I'm happy. I'm a moderate user. I was an AT&T customer for 5 months after the merge. I did not experience any service degredation.

I've since migrated to Cingular. The service is still spectacular. I still am a moderate user. And I could not be happier.

People will always have the mind to find things to complain about. Especially when they can sue and get money for it.

Of course , and thats with any company where goods and services are exchanged. But one thing that no one can change , is the way people/customers feel. Its funny how when you have enough people behind something things get done. Watch after this suit is over, Cingular will be coughing up some money for these peoples fees, etc.

mikeymancini said:
Watch after this suit is over, Cingular will be coughing up some money for these peoples fees, etc.

I honestly do not think they will be, but we shall see.

We should start a little running tab/bet for this one. Will they have to pay??? How much would it be????

I sure the responses will be upmost interesting.

If I am not mistaken, having worked for AWS customer service for over 2 years, pre-merger, and post merger, right up to a month ago, it was AWS who used primarily 1900 MHz and Cingular has been working to use more 850 band. Really, as Texaswireless has stated, it's a moot point. Blue customers could access the same towers as orange customers and vice versa. One of the bigger challenges of network integration was getting the cell sites to emit the same network code and to eliminate duplicate equipment. I worked for a third party call center (Convergys) so my pay didn't change. I noticed a big change in corporate communications - AWS communications seemed much clearer, straight forward and consistent. But even toward the end, I found Cingular'...
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as far as 850 vs. 1900 it was pretty much even... depends on location............. but thank you for a positive post...

Ignoring? I believe I asked him a question about his experience. That sure is a strange was to ignore people.

Oh and I guarantee I have listened to and helped to solve more problems in this forum in the last year than you have in your entire life.