Cingular Sucks

works great for me....full bars everywhere I go in the country, 1000 nation wide min, no roaming or long distance, unlimited n/w, unlimited m2m, rollover, unlimited sms, unlimited mms, unlimited media net. All for $59 a month!

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Originally Posted by eatmydave

I work for cingular. They do suck!

This is your boss. Get back to work.

My main problem with them is that their plans don't offer a lot of minutes. I'm a former ATT wireless user and I get 100 more anytime minutes a month on that plan than for the Cingular one that costs the same.

Originally Posted by cingular_bad

The Official results are in... and it doesn't look very good for Cingular... or AT&T... or Sprint. These three are at the bottom of the poop pile for major problems regarding poor coverage/reception, overbilling and general billing errors, REFUSAL to correct said errors, and poor customer service.

I personally became interested in this subject after having a multitude of service and billing problems with Cingular for over two years. These problems eventually led to my receiving a bill for over $3,000... when the bill should have been no more than $300.

Granted, I had experienced this problem with Cingular before... but NEVER on this scale! At first, I thought that a simple phone call would straighten everything out... But it didn't. And that's where the nightmare began. To make a long story short... Cingular ended up basically extorting over $1000 bucks from my family over this situation... and they even damaged my credit in a malicious manner.

For those of you out there that are satisfied with your Cingular service... I'm glad for you, and you should consider yourself VERY lucky because you would not believe how many people on the Internet are complaining about Cingular!

Check out the details at my site if you want, and if you have any questions feel free to email me for more info.

http://www.freewebs.com/cingularrippedmeoff/

Your link is dead. See you bad mouth Cingular, that's what you get.

Originally Posted by Backyardigan

This is your boss. Get back to work.

Stop *****ing and quit! I hate people that bite the hand that feeds.

Originally Posted by BrianSkibinski

As Cingular removes TDMA, your phone will look for other towers that will accept it's connection. Unfortunately for you, that means you're using other carrier's towers, which means you are roaming. Roaming is simply defined as not being in your local area on your cell providers tower. The tower you're actually connecting to (maybe T-Mobile?, not Cingular cause those are being phased out and your phone says roaming) is billing Cingular, who is billing you.


You may want to double check your contract to make sure they don't charge extra fees or some rediculous interest on unpaid balances. Sure they can't turn you off, but they can fee you to death.


Get a GSM Phone. Your phone should conenct to Cingular towers, so you shouldn't be charged roaming. Maybe switching to a nationwide plan wouldn't hurt either.

You are on a LOCAL plan. You'll be ROAMING ALOT on that plan, especially with a TDMA phone. Get a GSM phone, a NATION plan with Rollover and I feel you would not see a $300 wireless bill. If you buy the phone outright you do not have to sign a contract. If you get the phone at a discount from a Cingular store or agent you will need to sign a new contract. Also make sure you get the mobile-to-mobile in the plan.

I recently took a trip from Texas to South Carolina. Called my families in Texas and California each and every day on their Cingular phone. Since they were calls to other Cingular customers and I had a nation plan I wasn't charged ONE CENT for any of those calls, I have the bill to prove it!! GO CINGULAR!!!

I tend to agree with all those that were spurned in some way by singular. My father was with AT&T before thier merger. All he wanted to do was keep his old plan and get a new phone. Cingular wouldn't allow it. As someone that used to work for a major retailer that sold wireless phones, I know that *most* carriers will allow you to upgrade *without* changing your plan. I think that Cingular is just greedy for money.

Sprint may suck, but at least they allow you to change your phones without changing your plan. In anycase, Cingular will never equal Verizon Wireless nor Sprint for that matter. Here in Hawaii the market is so competitive, that they won't stand a chance. Especially because of all the billing problems that comes with that rollover that they have. My friends have had cingular, complained constantly about the billing problms because of the rollover, and have changed to different carriers since. My uncle got hit with a huge bill when he had lots of "carryover" minutes. The problem was resolved after hours on the phone with cingular. He switched over to Verizon after that and vowed never to go back.

Just based on the facts above, they deserve none of my money.

Originally Posted by Ryutora

I tend to agree with all those that were spurned in some way by singular. My father was with AT&T before thier merger. All he wanted to do was keep his old plan and get a new phone. Cingular wouldn't allow it. As someone that used to work for a major retailer that sold wireless phones, I know that *most* carriers will allow you to upgrade *without* changing your plan. I think that Cingular is just greedy for money.

Sprint may suck, but at least they allow you to change your phones without changing your plan. In anycase, Cingular will never equal Verizon Wireless nor Sprint for that matter. Here in Hawaii the market is so competitive, that they won't stand a chance. Especially because of all the billing problems that comes with that rollover that they have. My friends have had cingular, complained constantly about the billing problms because of the rollover, and have changed to different carriers since. My uncle got hit with a huge bill when he had lots of "carryover" minutes. The problem was resolved after hours on the phone with cingular. He switched over to Verizon after that and vowed never to go back.

Just based on the facts above, they deserve none of my money.

Sprint has purchased Nextel and trust me, the soon to be FORMER Nextel customers will find that the plans they were on with Nextel will not be honored or available soon and will have to choose from a Sprint plan. The same will be true of Verizon if they purchase someone.

I'm a manager at Cingular Wireless and this thread has been enlightening. I am also a Cingular customer, albeit free service, but still a Cingular customer and never have any issues.

I personally love Cingular and am proud to work for them. And I believe that the people who have billing issues either got a bad apple, and didn’t call back, or are truly at fault. We, at Cingular, pride ourselves in providing fantastic customer service. But providing good customer service does not mean giving away the farm.

When I get an escalated call, I review the following before I even take the call: how long have you been a customer, how many times do you call in and ask for credit, how much credit have you received, and how many times have you escalated?

You see, we have customers who want to blame us for their own lack of self-control (going over their package minutes) or to blame us for not monitoring their children’s phone activities (Little Sally Sue downloaded 50 ringtones at 2.49 each or was IMing at 10 cents a text message). There comes a time when the customer must take ownership of his or her or children’s actions.

Rarely do I get an escalation that deserves a legitimate credit because the representative will see the error and correct the issue. The calls that I get are from the people who call in every time they get their bill and argue that it’s our fault somehow that they can’t control their usage.

Some words of wisdom:

The free phone is typically a piece of junk. Spend a little bit and you’ll see a world of difference in the reception.

Sugar will get you more than vinegar. If you have a true billing error or really made a mistake and didn’t understand what was going to happen, be nice about it and you’ll get a heck of a lot more positive response. Starting the conversation with “You will give me this credit.” isn’t going to get you far.

Your rollover balance is on the first page of your bill. Look at it. I can’t tell you how many people deplete their minutes and then call in because they have gone over. Also remember that rollover minutes fall off after one rolling calendar year.

Look at your bill each month. Don’t come back a year later because you have roadside assistance on your account and now want credit for the last year. It’s not going to happen. We will only go back 3 months on a billing error (check your contract.).

If you have a genuine billing error that hasn’t gotten resolved after 2 calls, do the following:

Send a letter to the following address:
CINGULAR WIRELESS, BILL DISPUTE, SUITE 1400, 5565 Glenridge Connector, P.O. BOX 16, ATLANTA, GA 30342

Photocopy your bill and highlight the disputed charges. Include a letter advising them why you think it’s wrong. You’ll get a response because this is head quarters.

Hope that help!

I have had cingular service with 3 lines for about 6 years. Until recently, the voicemail feature was working fine (included in the package - but of course, nothing is really free), I was able to keep or erase any older messages at will. About 2 months ago, they decided to change the voicemail system, and it now operates differently. When I call to check my messages, it first replays any message older than 2 weeks, and gives only two options: either listen to the same message again, OR delete it. If it is not deleted, I am prevented from hearing any newer messages. I have only one older message (4 weeks) and can not delete it, since I need to keep it as evidence (untampered) for an upcoming court case next month. But that means that I now basically do not have any way to get newer messages. They refuse to make any changes to restore to original functionality of the system, as effective under the terms of my original contract. This present configuration constitutes reduced functionality versus the previous system, and equals a breach of contract on their part. They will not allow me to break my contract without heavy penalties, even though they have not kept their part of the agreement. This arrogance and their bullying attitude must be stopped. Please let me know if there is any help available. (I filed the preceding message as a complaint with the FCC, and will post copies on as many sites as I can. It is time that these giants start accomodating the customers needs, since it is us who are footing the bill for their profits. I am fed up with their attitude of "take and swallow".

Cingula'r service is good, however their billing practices leave a great deal to be desired -- verging on the unethical. They are quick to shut off your service for non-payment, and they only give you 2 days from the due date of your monthly bill, before they charge you a $5.00 late fee. They're not one of the more civilized cell phone companies, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by charlespyott

Cingula'r service is good, however their billing practices leave a great deal to be desired -- verging on the unethical. They are quick to shut off your service for non-payment, and they only give you 2 days from the due date of your monthly bill, before they charge you a $5.00 late fee. They're not one of the more civilized cell phone companies, that's for sure.

hmmm....seems like a pretty simple solution: pay your bill on time. those processes are in place for a reason, to discourage late payments.

i'm not going to get into the debate of late payments, because i've been there myself. but i never blamed the company i owed for my mistake/irresponsibility.

Yea I Know In My Area The Reception Stinks. Cingular May Be Good In Other Areas In The Country But I Know I Hate It Where I Live. Oh Yea And Text Messaging Is Way To Expensive.

Originally Posted by n1ckel5

hmmm....seems like a pretty simple solution: pay your bill on time. those processes are in place for a reason, to discourage late payments.

i'm not going to get into the debate of late payments, because i've been there myself. but i never blamed the company i owed for my mistake/irresponsibility.

Discouraging late payments is one thing -- but building a business model which seeks to profit from even short delays in payments by individual customers is quite another matter entirely, as I think you might come to understand, if you considered the matter a little more carefully.

If it were a critical matter, such as Cingular not having enough operating capital to cover all of its expenses from month to month, for example, then I know Cingular customers would be more than understanding.

But it is pretty clearly not an instance of Cingular being particularly disadvantaged, in this case. Rather, it is simply a case of a large company (and its shareholders) profiting at the expense of -- what ends up to be -- millions of individual customers, many of whom may have legitimate and unassailable reasons for being late to pay, as most of the readers of this bulletin board will no doubt understand.

So, to conclude: We are not blaming Cingular for people's negligence, mistakes or irresponsibility, but we can nonetheless hold Cingular and other companies to account for behaving in an exploitative manner. And I encourage everyone reading this bulletin board to do the same.

Originally Posted by charlespyott

Discouraging late payments is one thing -- but building a business model which seeks to profit from even short delays in payments by individual customers is quite another matter entirely, as I think you might come to understand, if you considered the matter a little more carefully...

Here's the thing...

It was your choice (the customer) to agree to the contract terms, you know the fees, you know the bill's due date, you know the outcome to paying late.

I think it's somewhat childish to launch a campaign to make customer irresponsibility more acceptable.

I have considered the situation, and I still chose to pay my Cingular bill on time.