Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 16 to 26 of 26
  1. #16
    Edward Reid
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    Roaming ticket was canceled last night. They now claim -- story #57 -- that
    the SIM is bad and needs to be replaced. They would be willing to send me a
    new SIM but it might not get the downloads outside my home area. Of course,
    after 26 days of shifting stories, I don't believe any story that requires
    me to wait a while.

    Called the president's office again this morning. Talked to the person
    there I'd spoken with before, and with her manager, and with manager at the
    next level (her own manager could "call me back in 24-48 hours"). Brick
    wall at that point: "we can't let you out of your contract", "we can't
    authorize a replacement phone to sent from your home office", no we don't
    have any way to fix your service, your contract only guarantees service in
    your home area. And finally, "this is cellular service, it won't always
    work" ... wish I'd gotten the exact quote on that one.

    Me: I'm trying like hell to find a way to keep my Cingular service and
    you're not helping me.

    Them: no one in this office can authorize a replacement phone.

    Me: I thought this was the president's office.

    Them: Yes, but the president wouldn't authorize it.

    Me: Ah-ha, it's a refusal, not an inability.

    Strangely enough, they didn't follow my reasoning. In fact, it's obvious
    that though I may have spoken with people higher in the administrative
    change, I never got anyone with more authority to solve the problem. No one
    had the authority to tell a local office to do something, or even admitted
    that such authority existed -- mention of the president just totally
    confused them. They kept talking about my contract with Cingular but were
    totally confused when I mentioned that Cingular had a contract with me too.

    Edward




    See More: Cingular roaming nightmare




  2. #17
    Robert M.
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    In article <[email protected]>,
    Edward Reid <[email protected]> wrote:

    > Roaming ticket was canceled last night. They now claim -- story #57 -- that
    > the SIM is bad and needs to be replaced. They would be willing to send me a
    > new SIM but it might not get the downloads outside my home area. Of course,
    > after 26 days of shifting stories, I don't believe any story that requires
    > me to wait a while.
    >
    > Called the president's office again this morning. Talked to the person
    > there I'd spoken with before, and with her manager, and with manager at the
    > next level (her own manager could "call me back in 24-48 hours"). Brick
    > wall at that point: "we can't let you out of your contract", "we can't
    > authorize a replacement phone to sent from your home office", no we don't
    > have any way to fix your service, your contract only guarantees service in
    > your home area. And finally, "this is cellular service, it won't always
    > work" ... wish I'd gotten the exact quote on that one.
    >
    > Me: I'm trying like hell to find a way to keep my Cingular service and
    > you're not helping me.
    >
    > Them: no one in this office can authorize a replacement phone.
    >
    > Me: I thought this was the president's office.
    >
    > Them: Yes, but the president wouldn't authorize it.
    >
    > Me: Ah-ha, it's a refusal, not an inability.
    >
    > Strangely enough, they didn't follow my reasoning. In fact, it's obvious
    > that though I may have spoken with people higher in the administrative
    > change, I never got anyone with more authority to solve the problem. No one
    > had the authority to tell a local office to do something, or even admitted
    > that such authority existed -- mention of the president just totally
    > confused them. They kept talking about my contract with Cingular but were
    > totally confused when I mentioned that Cingular had a contract with me too.


    Write to the appropriate State Attorney general with certified copy to
    Atlanta. You'll be out of your contract sooo fast. Basic common law
    principle despite what it says in contract: Phone must be fit for
    purpose. If you cant make calls, they can't charge you.



  3. #18
    Wireless Guy
    Wireless Guy is offline
    Member

    Posts
    46

    John you are right , I really gotta stop posting so late. The lower that Type Class the more power it puts out. You are correct it is no where near the full Watt that AMPS puts out, but type 4 handsets are pushed closer to the max line of allowable output.
    The Cellphone Guy..



  4. #19
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    [email protected]pamfree (John S.) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...

    > The OP didn't say that he had a GAIT phone.


    In his first post he mentioned the problems began when he got a new
    phone- the Nokia 6340i. Of course that was over a dozen posts ago!
    ;-)

    > What you say of course is corret IF
    > -
    > The TDMA phone goes into AMPS mode


    Every TDMA phone Cingular has ever sold can fallback to AMPS.

    > He has a GAIT phone that can go into AMPS mode


    It should. (Isn't analog part of GAIT by definition?)



  5. #20
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    Edward Reid <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > Roaming ticket was canceled last night. They now claim -- story #57 -- that
    > the SIM is bad and needs to be replaced. They would be willing to send me a
    > new SIM but it might not get the downloads outside my home area. Of course,
    > after 26 days of shifting stories, I don't believe any story that requires
    > me to wait a while.


    Grrrr... this is why I hated the creation of Cingular. Back in the
    "good old days" before Cingular, BellSouth and SBMS had "local"
    customer service departments by region. There'd actually be guys in
    Atlanta who could solve your problem.

    Where did you get the phone, in a Cingular company store, an
    independent dealer, or directly via mail? In the first two cases, you
    might try calling the store manager and see if you can talk him into
    setting up a new 6340 on your account and mailing it to you if he'll
    take your credit card number "hostage" until you return with the old
    phone.

    > Me: I'm trying like hell to find a way to keep my Cingular service and
    > you're not helping me.
    >
    > Them: no one in this office can authorize a replacement phone.
    >
    > Me: I thought this was the president's office.
    >
    > Them: Yes, but the president wouldn't authorize it.
    >
    > Me: Ah-ha, it's a refusal, not an inability.


    They never understand the difference. I had a long term problem with
    Cingular service once (eventually settled to my satisfaction- full
    credit for the three screwed up months) and always I had to patiently
    explain the difference between "nothing we can do for you" and
    "nothing we're willing to do for you."

    > They kept talking about my contract with Cingular but were
    > totally confused when I mentioned that Cingular had a contract with me too.


    You can deal with the contract issue and the yelling later (and if I
    know Cingular CS there's likely to be yelling!), but the real issue
    here now is to get you up and running- (assuming you're still in LA).
    If you go to a local Cingular store in LA and stick your 6340's SIM
    into a store demo GSM phone, can it make or take calls? If so, it's
    likely a phone issue you have, if not, it's a probably a SIM issue.
    If the service works in the store phone, buy the cheapest pre-paid
    phone they have (or see if they have any reconditioned/used phones
    floating around cheap- often they keep a few as cheap replacements for
    lost/stolen phones) and stick your SIM in it while you're there.
    Then, when you get back to Atlanta, slap the receipt for the prepaid
    phone on the counter at the local Cingular and ask them for a
    "courtesy credit" (Cingular's term for any credit designed to ease
    your pain for bad service) on your account for that amount, or you're
    going to have do what it takes to get released from your contract.
    Cingular will probably be reasonable IF you don't ask for too much,
    which is why buying the cheapest phone would be to your advantage.

    If you're already back, you might try convincing the local store to
    loan you a GSM-only phone to take on the next trip out (or "sell" you
    one on the condition you can return it when you get back) as a backup
    if in case the 6340 still isn't working right.

    Good luck! I HATE how difficult cellular companies are to deal with
    when you're away from home (and you need them most!) My brother was
    visiting me in Kansas City from Rhode Island three years ago and his
    Verizon phone died. He called Verizon and asked if he could go to a
    Kansas City Verizon store and exchange the defective (in-warranty!)
    phone. No. I had no CDMA phone to give him (I was a Cingular dealer
    at the time), but I did have a few analog handsets kicking around that
    were compatible with Verizon. We asked if they'd switch his service
    to one of these old handsets for one lousy week until he could get
    back home and get his phon repaired. They refused, saying his rate
    plan required a tri-mode handset, blah, blah, etc. He explained he
    was willing to pay any roaming charges if he strayed off-network
    (despite his "no-roaming anywhere" rate plan). Still no. Finally
    (after some real work going up the CS food chain) we got them to
    forward his calls at no charge to a Cingular pre-paid account I
    hastily setup for him to use while he visited.

    I'm not picking on Verizon, as much as I'm saying they're all pretty
    incapable of creative solutions for problems, particularly for the
    traveling customer. If it's not in the rulebook, then "there's
    nothing we can do for you..."



  6. #21
    Robert M.
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    In article <[email protected]>,
    [email protected] (Todd Allcock) wrote:

    > I'm not picking on Verizon, as much as I'm saying they're all pretty
    > incapable of creative solutions for problems, particularly for the
    > traveling customer. If it's not in the rulebook, then "there's
    > nothing we can do for you..."


    Wow, you talk negatively about Cellular carriers like this and "Jerry
    Springer" likely will soon call you a moron.



  7. #22
    Edward Reid
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    [email protected] (Todd Allcock) wrote in:
    > In his first post he mentioned the problems began when he got a new
    > phone- the Nokia 6340i.


    Actually, the problem started before the new phone -- the new phone just
    confused the issue. I had a 6340i, but it had been shutting itself off
    (another very annoying problem but probably a Nokia rather than a
    Cingular problem). The chronology:

    Up through March 17 it was working fine.

    On March 18 the roaming problem began (in LA).

    On March 19 I reported it, spending about 3 hours on the phone.

    On March 20 I went home, and on March 23 swapped the phone out. It worked
    fine in Tallahassee both before and after the swapout. At that time, I
    did not know how to determine what kind of signal it was using. (In the
    past couple of days, I've learned about field test mode, as a result of
    posts either here or on wirelessadvisor.com.)

    On March 24 and 25 I got conflicting reports from Cingular reps, some
    saying the problem was fixed and some saying the roaming ticket had been
    canceled because I had left the LA area. (It's obvious that roaming
    tickets go to a division that the CSRs can't see.)

    On March 28 I returned to LA and found that the problem had not changed.
    That's where it stands 2-1/2 weeks later.

    During that time, I FedExed it to a rep in Ocean Springs MS, who made
    sure it had all downloads and was working correctly on a GSM signal.

    I'll be going home this Saturday, April 17, but will be back in LA a week
    later. I expect to need service in LA extensively through at least July.

    Relative to your other post: I got the phone in a Cingular store in
    Tallahassee. Got the 6340i last August (swapping for an older Nokia in
    return for a 2-year contract) at a Cingular sales-only outlet. Swapped it
    out in late January and again on March 23 due to the turning-off problem,
    both times in the corporate/tech support store.

    I did the SIM-swap in a local (LA) store two days ago. My SIM card in her
    phone did not work (her fancier phone said something like "registration
    rejected"). Her SIM card in my phone worked fine.

    I agree that I have no reason to believe that Cingular is any worse than
    the others -- in fact, based on all the stories I've read, they are
    pretty much all the same, typical of huge corporations, excellent
    arguments for government regulation. ;-) There's no real competition:
    when I went looking for service, the only significant factor I could find
    to differentiate was the Cingular prorates the ETF, which I found useful
    when I was first getting a cell phone and wasn't convinced that I wanted
    it. At the time, I had no idea I'd be spending time in LA, or I might
    have looked more carefully at roaming issues. You'd think that with so
    little to distingish them technically, the cell companies would work on
    improving customer service, but apparently not.

    They have credited me with a month's service. When they offered another
    month, I told them I was insulted at being offered less than half minimum
    wage for the time I'd spent on the problem. It's never been about the
    money -- it's about the service (my wife is ill and I need to be
    contactable along with all the usual reasons people have cell phones),
    I've spent many hours when I needed to be working trying to fix the
    problem, and it's raised my adrenaline levels to where it's ard to
    concentrate.

    AND THE LATEST NEWS: 24 hours after the rep in the "president's office"
    said the roaming ticket had been closed and there was nothing they could
    do until I got home ... out of the blue, a tech rep called me from
    Atlanta! And then contacted the Tallahassee store, which has promised to
    overnight a new SIM to me! I'll still believe it when I see it, and
    believe it works when I see the signal on my phone. But at least there's
    a chance that I'll know before I leave LA whether it's working or needs
    more work.

    Edward




  8. #23
    Edward Reid
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    .... and 15 minutes later, the tech rep called again. It was not in the IIF
    provisioning database, or something like that. A couple of clicks and it's
    working now.

    This was what it looked like all along to me. Why it took 26 days to cut
    through CS to get to the root of the problem ... well, that's the part that
    was a nightmare.

    Thanks to all.

    Edward




  9. #24

    Re: Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    I'm a little late catching up on this stuff but after almost a month,
    it was solved just by a few clicks? Wow. Amazing.

    On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 20:37:16 GMT, Edward Reid <[email protected]> said:

    >... and 15 minutes later, the tech rep called again. It was not in the IIF
    >provisioning database, or something like that. A couple of clicks and it's
    >working now.
    >
    >This was what it looked like all along to me. Why it took 26 days to cut
    >through CS to get to the root of the problem ... well, that's the part that
    >was a nightmare.
    >
    >Thanks to all.
    >
    >Edward





  10. #25
    Ralph Blach
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    Edward,

    I really think the reason you cant roam an a tdma phone is that threir
    are no longer tdma towers there.

    Buying a tdma phone on two year deal was a bad deal. you will have to
    get a new phone shortly anyway because cingular says its overlay of the
    TDMA network will be done in 90 days.

    Look at there web page. I was in a cingular store in Alabama, and they
    were saying that they were changing this summer ot GSM.

    Check where you live about when the switch over will be happen.

    Here how to solve the problem in the mean time
    1)get a gait phone.

    Chip

    Edward Reid wrote:
    > I'm in the middle of a Cingular roaming nightmare. If anyone has any
    > ideas how to prod Cingular out of their complacency, please let me
    > know.
    >
    > Background: I was a reasonably happy customer of Cingular for over two
    > years -- not totally happy, but happy enough to realize that none of
    > the others were likely to be much better. I'm based in Tallahassee FL
    > with a National plan. I had traveled to Seattle and Los Angeles quite
    > a bit. Last August, Cingular gave me a new Nokia 6340i and $30 in
    > exchange for a 2-year contract -- presumably mostly because they are
    > moving to GSM and my old phone didn't support it, though surely partly
    > to get customers under contract before number portability arrived in
    > Tallahassee.
    >
    > It's not a big surprise that the 6340i gave me much better service on
    > the west coast, where it's all GSM. Excellent service in the middle of
    > the office building where I'm working in LA, where previously I had no
    > signal at all -- usually a seven-bar signal. Excellent strong signal
    > everywhere in the area (just north of LAX). Good service in Seattle
    > when I went there for a weekend in November, in locations where I'd
    > previously had poor service. So I was a happy camper.
    >
    > The first inkling of problems came in January, when the 6340i started
    > shutting itself off spontaneously. That isn't what I'm writing about
    > here -- I'm pretty sure that's a Nokia problem -- but that's when I
    > found out that in Cingular, East is East and West is West and never
    > the twain shall meet. Not only are the tech people in LA unfamiliar
    > with the 6340i, they don't touch anything TDMA. And they can't even
    > get into my account to set up a loaner phone. The original companies
    > -- Bell South Wireless and whatever the west coast part was -- are
    > merged in name only, not in operations.
    >
    > But other than the phone problem, I continued to get good service.
    >
    > So on to my current problem:
    >
    > On Thursday, March 18, I was in LA, and I suddenly stopped getting
    > digital service. The phone would occasionally say Cingular Extend, but
    > could not place calls even when it showed a signal. Despite several
    > hours on the phone with tech support (most of it on hold playing the
    > extremely annoying advertising messages over and over and over and
    > over ad nauseum), this condition continued until I left LA on the
    > morning of Saturday, March 20 for a week at home. I had reached tier 2
    > support and had been given a roaming ticket number.
    >
    > When I changed planes in Memphis, the phone worked fine. The entire
    > week in Tallahassee, it worked fine. I called tech support -- twice --
    > to check on the roaming ticket; they said it had been closed but
    > refused to attempt to locate any information on the action taken.
    > (Later experience, described below, would show that no effective
    > action had been taken.)
    >
    > On Tuesday, March 23, I swapped the phone out (for the second time)
    > due to the problem of it turning itself off (up to a dozen times a
    > day). In retrospect, this was a mistake, because it conflated the two
    > problems. However, the new phone worked fine in Tallahassee. It also
    > worked fine in Memphis on the evening of Sunday, March 28, when I
    > again changed planes on my way to LA.
    >
    > When I reached LA, the problem returned full force. No "Cingular"
    > signal, only a sometimes "Cingular Extend". I tried in a number of
    > locations near the airport and at my hotel a couple of miles north --
    > an area where the GSM signal is so strong you can float in it. I was
    > actually able to call my voicemail, but could not place ANY other
    > calls, not even to Cingular customer service. I contacted after hours
    > support; the level of competence I encountered is indicated by the
    > rep's suggestion that I walk around to find a better signal -- in an
    > area where you have to be in a steel and concrete bunker to avoid the
    > signal.
    >
    > The next morning I took the phone to a Cingular store across the
    > street. They got the same results, the only difference being that
    > Cingular tech support didn't assume they were dolts. After an hour and
    > a half, they claimed that my phone had not received the proper
    > downloads -- "over air activation" -- after I swapped it out. They
    > sent me out to stand under a Cingular tower, claiming that there I'd
    > be able to receive the downloads, whereas near a Verizon tower I could
    > not. That evening, another rep on the phone gave me a different
    > location for the tower, with identical lack of results.
    >
    > Tuesday morning (March 30) I called again and asked for one rep to
    > stay on the problem until it was fixed. The rep agreed to be my
    > contact. She came to the same conclusion, that my phone needed
    > downloads, and said that yes, getting the downloads outside my home
    > area was hopeless. I shipped the phone to her office in Ocean Spring
    > MS, where she checked it out, verified the downloads, and swore that
    > everything would be fine now. Due to a couple of shipping foul-ups, I
    > didn't get it back until yesterday, Wednesday, April 7.
    >
    > And it still isn't working. Exactly the same symptoms. I'm waiting for
    > the rep to contact me. I've been without west coast roaming service
    > for a full three weeks now -- which for me at this time means I've
    > been without a cell phone for three weeks, since I only have the phone
    > for travel and am currently traveling to, duh, the west coast.
    >
    > It appears that Cingular simply has no system for elevating problems
    > which can't be solved at the regular tech support level. My guess
    > would be that this is a problem with authorization in the roaming
    > system.
    >
    > Non-destructive suggestions welcome. ;-)
    >
    > Edward Reid




  11. #26
    (Pete Cresswell)
    Guest

    Re: Cingular roaming nightmare

    RE/
    >It appears that Cingular simply has no system for elevating problems
    >which can't be solved at the regular tech support level. My guess
    >would be that this is a problem with authorization in the roaming
    >system.
    >
    >Non-destructive suggestions welcome. ;-)


    I got, at least, a response form NexTel some years ago when their messaging was
    out to lunch. What I did was send a FedEx Overnight Letter to one of the VPs.
    --
    PeteCresswell



  • Similar Threads




  • Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12