Cingular ain't getting my money, honey. Here's why.

Thought I'd chime in with my own story.

MONDAY, 4pm: I go online and ordered a phone w/service from the Cingular website. The phone is on sale -- an internet-only sale -- so I’m psyched. After entering all of my information over 10 minutes at a pay-as-you-go internet cafe, I try to switch my Boston number to my new phone at a NYC location, where I'll be living for the next year or so. As the webpage tells me to wait a few minutes to process my order, I start to get a little edgy when 10 minutes go by without a peep. Finally, after timing out and refreshing, the website says it can't process my order. Ah, okay…

MONDAY, 4:25pm: Call Cingular sales, put on hold for 7 minutes. Clerk #1 says I'm not in her market and she has to transfer me. She puts me on hold again. I wait 5 more minutes. The whole time, I'm still on the pay-as-you-go internet service, calling from my T-mobile phone that is maxed out on minutes. When I’m finally reconnected, I’m back at the same customer service center. I wonder why they have one customer service number when they have different markets. Anyway, Clerk #2's name is Mimi. Mimi isn't too interested in my problem, but she enters my information into the computer and puts me on hold 3 times, after I let her know my minutes are running out, about 4-5 minutes per time. Finally tells me she can try to switch my number to Cingular, and I want to make sure I'll still get the internet deal. She gives it to me -- awesome. I ask her about the $70 online rebate for the phone I’ve just bought, and she doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I print it out anyway and tell her it exists because I’m looking right at it. It’s okay, I say…I’ll take care of it later. She also doesn’t believe me when I say that there is free 1-2 day shipping on all internet orders, which there is. After some resistance and a frustrated sigh, she gives it to me. She takes my AMEX and tells me to call an 800# the next day to check on my order status. It's now 5:05pm. I pay $6 for the internet and $9 in overage T-mobile charges. Wow...well, at least that’s over with.

TUESDAY, 10am: I call the 800#…nothing. Check online, nothing.

TUESDAY, 1:30pm: Call again, nothing. Online, nada. It says to wait 24 hours after placing my order, so that’s cool. I decide to check back at 6 or so.

TUESDAY, 9:45pm: It has to be ready now, right? I call…no record of my order. Nothing online either. I call customer care, they're closed. I try customer service -- they're closed. Um, they’re not open 24 hours like every other cell service? Wait, didn’t they just merge with AT&T, totaling 46 MILLION CUSTOMERS? Do they expect to handle all of those people during business hours? I’m pretty baffled at this point, and getting more than a little annoyed. Yeah, they’re merging. Yeah, they’re busy. But come on…

WEDNESDAY, 8am: I call customer service from my girlfriend's landline. On hold for 7 minutes. Clerk #3 answers and can't find any record of my order. Tells me she'll have to transfer me to the Northeastern market. Okay, I say, but please don't put me on hold for too long – why doesn’t every rep have access to national information? 10 minutes later, I get Clerk #4 in my division. She can't find any record either. She says it might have been canceled because I can't keep my Boston number if I live in NYC. Fine, I say, but why couldn’t anyone at Cingular throw me a bone and let me know that? She has no answer for that one. She's very nice, but wants to ask someone else about it, and she puts me on hold for another 5 minutes. Then I very politely ask to speak to a supervisor. After holding for another 4 minutes, I get Rob Kahn. I explain my story, ask him why nobody knows where my order is, and he tells me that it must not have been entered or the number switch canceled it on its own. He just offers to reenter my information. I ask him to file a complaint against rude and inept Clerk #2 (Mimi) and I give him the time and date I called, and he tells me that he can't file anything unless I have her last name. Uh, what? When does a customer service rep EVER give her last name over the phone?? I ask him if he can just cut me a break and give me a discount or a reduction on my agreement or give me a deal on anything at all, given my insane troubles with their customer service department. After all, I want them to want my business. He says he can't do anything for me. I tell him I'm telling everyone I know to steer clear of Cingular, and that he's just lost my business as well as my girlfriend's, who's just signed up herself. He says nothing except "There's nothing I can do". I hang up and realize I've been gripping the phone so tightly my fingertips have gone to sleep.

TODAY: I'm stuck with my rinky-dink phone I’ve had for 2 years on T-mobile with 650 minutes (including 50 "loyalty" minutes) and excellent customer service that's open 24 hours a day. They even gave me a bonus 50 for that phonecall to Cingular when I called their customer service department. So I don’t have my blingy Bluetooth Sony Ericsson photo cam phone, and I’ll probably never get it. But hey -- you never know what you've got until you start looking around, i guess.

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› See More: Cingular ain't getting my money, honey. Here's why.

Good for you, that's what I like to hear, we need to steer clear of cingular. I've had my shares of crap from them too. I'm now going sprint. You pay a little more, but they have imaculate service, just amazing.

sir

i have been a cingular customer for while and i am definitely not going to say they are perfect. they are far from it but before you switch to sprint do your research. There reception is horrific. dopped calls, poor call quality, bad customer service (i think all cell companies have bad C.S. it must be a requirement). I had a sprint phone with my company for 3 years and i have to say from experience that i would not go back to sprint if they gave me a free phone and free service for life. Cingular GSM reception blows sprint away and face it reception and the ability to make and receive calls is the point of having a cell phone, not C.S.

The only cell service that has been as good or even better than cingular is Verizon. trust me ive had them all

lets face it I work for cingular in tech supp. but let me just say we don't really care about the cust that is what I have been seeing that is why im leaving i would rather work for free then have to lie to the cust. 1 more day.

WOW.
That's sad.
Cingular was good to me...

I've had T-Mobile for 2 yrs now and love them. No matter what company it is, they are going to put you on hold when you call C.S. but atleast with T-Mobile they resolve the problem making it all worthwhile.

Anyways, why not try to upgrade your phone & plan with T-Mobile? If you've been a customer for 2 years, I'm sure they'll give you a discount off of the latest phones and such if you explain your situation. When I first signed up, I got a $70 discount off of a phone from a manager I just met, who I now know pretty well. Let us know what happens