Castrated Cingular customer service

Has anyone else noticed how Cingular's upper management is continually
reducing customer service at Cingular? The phone reps used to be able to do
more for the customer than they can now. For instance, several years ago, a
Cingular rep granted me 50 free "lifetime" bonus minutes on my contract.
When I tossed my TDMA phone and "upgraded" to a new GSM, they said I
couldn't carry those minutes forward, and they couldn't do anything like
that bonus deal again. Now, my 3 month old Moto v400 phone completely died,
and I have to wait a week for their mail order service to replace it.
Meanwhile, I'm without a phone, and without the service that I'm still
paying for. Starting on August 1, 2004, Cingular switched to mail order
phone replacement, and shut down their Cingular store tech departments.
Prior to August, I could have taken my phone into Cingular and received a
working replacement on the spot. Today I have to wait for mail order
service. I guess I'm wondering if this is the latest standard for the
cellular industry. And why, with all the competition out there, isn't
Cingular still providing proper customer service to their customers? I
thought the last thing a cellular company would want to do is have their
customers without a working phone. It was like that until August of this
year.

---

› See More: Castrated Cingular customer service

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Sun, 5 Sep 2004 12:44:05
-0400, "Steve Larson" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Has anyone else noticed how Cingular's upper management is continually
>reducing customer service at Cingular? The phone reps used to be able to do
>more for the customer than they can now. For instance, several years ago, a
>Cingular rep granted me 50 free "lifetime" bonus minutes on my contract.
>When I tossed my TDMA phone and "upgraded" to a new GSM, they said I
>couldn't carry those minutes forward, and they couldn't do anything like
>that bonus deal again. Now, my 3 month old Moto v400 phone completely died,
>and I have to wait a week for their mail order service to replace it.
>Meanwhile, I'm without a phone, and without the service that I'm still
>paying for. Starting on August 1, 2004, Cingular switched to mail order
>phone replacement, and shut down their Cingular store tech departments.
>Prior to August, I could have taken my phone into Cingular and received a
>working replacement on the spot. Today I have to wait for mail order
>service. I guess I'm wondering if this is the latest standard for the
>cellular industry. And why, with all the competition out there, isn't
>Cingular still providing proper customer service to their customers?

Razor thin margins.

>I
>thought the last thing a cellular company would want to do is have their
>customers without a working phone. ...

The last thing a cellular company would want to do is lose money.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

> Razor thin margins.
>
> >I
> >thought the last thing a cellular company would want to do is have their
> >customers without a working phone. ...
>
> The last thing a cellular company would want to do is lose money.
>

The quickest way to lose money is to lose customers with piss-poor customer
service. That's why I'm no longer a Verizon customer. -Dave

The other interesting thing that I've found is that there is no way to
contact Cingular customer service by email. I wanted to air my complaints
to Cingular regarding their new phone service policy, but there is no email
address to send that to. I guess that's been done for obvious reasons: If
they don't receive any complaints, then the new program is going smashingly,
and the Cingular exec who came up with this takeaway becomes a hugely
bonusable hero. Another Enron-like example of corporate America at its
finest.


"Dave C." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>> Razor thin margins.
>>
>> >I
>> >thought the last thing a cellular company would want to do is have their
>> >customers without a working phone. ...
>>
>> The last thing a cellular company would want to do is lose money.
>>
>
> The quickest way to lose money is to lose customers with piss-poor
> customer
> service. That's why I'm no longer a Verizon customer. -Dave
>
>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <aV%[email protected]> on Mon, 6 Sep 2004 12:06:25
-0400, "Steve Larson" <[email protected]> wrote:

>The other interesting thing that I've found is that there is no way to
>contact Cingular customer service by email. I wanted to air my complaints
>to Cingular regarding their new phone service policy, but there is no email
>address to send that to. I guess that's been done for obvious reasons: If
>they don't receive any complaints, then the new program is going smashingly,
>and the Cingular exec who came up with this takeaway becomes a hugely
>bonusable hero. Another Enron-like example of corporate America at its
>finest.

No offense, but that's pretty silly. Many companies don't use email for
customer service because it's not really reliable and is overwhelmed by spam,
and you'll usually get better results by snail mail or fax in any event.
<http://www.hoovers.com/cingular-wire...actsheet.xhtml>

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

No offense in return, John, but most large companies retain email addresses
for customer service feedback, and I think you are terribly mistaken. You
should note that Cingular's parent/partner company, Bellsouth, still
provides such contact options. Now, how silly is that? Verizon, one of
Cingular's largest competitors, has a variety of customer service contact
methods, email being one of those. So do all of Cingular's competitors in
the cellular industry. Silly? No, just proper customer service. It serves
to back up my claim that Cingular is stripping customer service from their
offerings, at their customers' expense. It will take a toll, eventually.
But in the short term, the rocket scientist executive, or perhaps the
overpaid consultant, like Accenture, will be the big hero for saving the
company all this money. What they don't realize is what the Japanese
learned a long time ago, you have to continue to invest in your business,
and show committment to your customers. They're missing on both points with
their new strategy, and it will come back to hurt them in the end.

=======================================================
Bellsouth:
Need to send us an email? Select the link to the BellSouth department you
would like to contact from the list below. Please Note that response times
may vary.
=======================================================
Verizon:
Choose a topic from the list below to contact us via e-mail, phone, or mail.

=======================================================
T-Mobile:
Already a T-Mobile customer? E-mail us
Submit your question via our e-mail form and a T-Mobile Customer Care
representative will respond in a timely manner. Send us an e-mail
=======================================================
SprintPCS:
{They have a customer service email link on their website that I can't
easily copy/paste}
=======================================================


"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:cM0%[email protected]...
> [POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]
>
> In <aV%[email protected]> on Mon, 6 Sep 2004
> 12:06:25
> -0400, "Steve Larson" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>The other interesting thing that I've found is that there is no way to
>>contact Cingular customer service by email. I wanted to air my complaints
>>to Cingular regarding their new phone service policy, but there is no
>>email
>>address to send that to. I guess that's been done for obvious reasons:
>>If
>>they don't receive any complaints, then the new program is going
>>smashingly,
>>and the Cingular exec who came up with this takeaway becomes a hugely
>>bonusable hero. Another Enron-like example of corporate America at its
>>finest.
>
> No offense, but that's pretty silly. Many companies don't use email for
> customer service because it's not really reliable and is overwhelmed by
> spam,
> and you'll usually get better results by snail mail or fax in any event.
> <http://www.hoovers.com/cingular-wire...actsheet.xhtml>
>
> --
> Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
> John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>


begin 666 arrow.gif
M1TE&.#EA# `+`( ``/\`9@```"'Y! $```$`+ `````,``L```(4C(^IRWT`
0#%PSU%2OC)8_KCEB4@``.P``
`
end

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <Nm3%[email protected]> on Mon, 6 Sep 2004 16:02:43
-0400, "Steve Larson" <[email protected]> wrote:

>No offense in return, John, but most large companies retain email addresses
>for customer service feedback, and I think you are terribly mistaken.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.

>You
>should note that Cingular's parent/partner company, Bellsouth, still
>provides such contact options.

Does it actually work in a timely manner?

>Now, how silly is that?

Pretty silly.

>Verizon, one of
>Cingular's largest competitors, has a variety of customer service contact
>methods, email being one of those.

Does it actually work in a timely manner?

>So do all of Cingular's competitors in
>the cellular industry.

Some, not all.

>Silly?

Yes.

>No, just proper customer service.

No, an inefficient mechanism. I personally never waste time with email on a
significant customer service issue..

>It serves
>to back up my claim that Cingular is stripping customer service from their
>offerings, at their customers' expense.

Again, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

>It will take a toll, eventually.

I doubt it.

>But in the short term, the rocket scientist executive, or perhaps the
>overpaid consultant, like Accenture, will be the big hero for saving the
>company all this money.

Good reason.

>What they don't realize is what the Japanese
>learned a long time ago, you have to continue to invest in your business,
>and show committment to your customers.

Which has nothing to do with email.

>They're missing on both points with
>their new strategy, and it will come back to hurt them in the end.

I disagree.

--
Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>