I've been happy with Cingular for over two years
Written: Feb 14 '04
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Pros: Friendly service, pretty good coverage, good features, GSM worldphones available, good packages.
Cons: Coverage worse than Verizon. A few bad experiences (see review). Fake taxes and fees.
The Bottom Line: Ask about the trial-period policies. Check the coverage in your most important areas. If it works, I'd say go with it.
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| dreish's Full Review: General Reviews of Cingular Wireless Customer Serv... |
I've been a Cingular customer since July 2001. I've had a few
moderately bad experiences (listed below), but for the most part, I
have been happy with the coverage, the call quality, the consistent
availability of phone service, and the friendliness of their customer
service personnel.
I had tried a prepaid plan with PowerTel (bought by VoiceStream, which
became T-Mobile) for a couple of months before going with Cingular,
just to try out the whole cell phone thing, and I found PowerTel's
service maddeningly poor. People couldn't reach me, they got
circuits-busy messages, and they didn't even get sent to my voicemail.
I made many test calls to my own phone from work, and probably about
half of them didn't go through. I found dead spots all over town,
including in a busy pedestrian shopping district. Customer service
was never able to do anything to make me a satisfied customer, despite
my repeated complaints.
Compared to that experience, everything has been wonderful with
Cingular. I used to lament their selection of clunky phones, but with
the transition to GSM, this is no longer a problem.
Of course, nothing is perfect, especially after almost three years. I
have a few specific complaints:
- First off is the fact that Cingular's rate plan prices are
dishonest. When you get your first bill, you will discover that
they charge for "taxes" and "fees" which aren't really per-user
taxes or fees. It's like ordering a $15 entree at a restaurant and
getting a bill for $15 for the entree, $2.07 for property taxes,
$1.72 for sewer service, and $1.18 for the waiter's payroll taxes.
It makes me angry, and I wish they'd stop doing it, but at this point
I at least know what to expect from them, so I'm not going to switch
away because of it. Some other carriers don't do this, so ask while
you're shopping around.
- November 2001, I lock my keys in the car I bought just a week or two
earlier. I call roadside assistance, but cancel when a locksmith in his
work van happens to pull into the Waffle House across the street.
- June 2002, I call roadside assistance to jumpstart a dead battery.
It takes them an hour to arrive. I cancel roadside assistance.
(From what I've heard, roadside assistance plans are generally
awful, no matter who they're with. You might be better off calling
directory assistance and asking for a locksmith or a tow company --
anyone. Some cab companies also do jumpstarts.)
- Spring 2003, I upgrade to the most expensive phone in the store.
Two weeks later, Cingular is advertising it as the phone which is
free with a two-year contract. I'm miffed, but I did, after all,
buy the phone I wanted, and I was willing to pay the price they
asked. No one twisted my arm.
- Early Fall 2003, my phone mysteriously stopped working. Customer
service, though friendly as always, couldn't find anything in the
system which might be causing a problem for me. I tried taking the
phone to the company-owned store where I'd bought it, only to
discover what had once been a reasonable retail store had since been
rearranged into the customer service equivalent of an abattoir.
There were long lines crowded into a small space not configured to
handle lines, no place to sit while waiting, and a lot of anger and
confusion. I nearly got into a fistfight with another customer over
which of us was next, only to be told by an employee that I'd been
waiting in the wrong line. The phone mysteriously started working
while I was there, and I haven't had a problem since, nor returned
to that specific store since (there are numerous independent
Cingular stores in my city), so I didn't switch carriers over that
one, either. The memory of it still makes me angry, though.
Someone should lose their job.
- Fall 2003, Cingular stopped including due dates or amounts in their
billing notices sent by email. I was disconnected after missing one
payment, despite the fact that I'm probably one of their most
profitable customers. I called and got it straightened out, service
was restored within a few minutes, and there were no late penalties.
I now have an automatic payment set up through my bank.
- January 2004, I switched from TDMA to a GSM phone. It was a Treo
600, bought directly from Cingular, but customer service had never
heard of the phone and didn't how to help me find the SIM card
number. I got connected to a woman in tech support who was more
knowledgeable and helpful, but either she or I made an error in
reading or entering one of the very long codes needed to set up the
new phone. I spent a total of about three hours getting it
straightened out, and though all the people I came in contact with
were pleasant and did their job as well as they could have, there
were obviously problems. First, it took about twenty minutes to get
connected to level-two tech support. Second, every time I came back
from being on hold with them (calling from a landline), the
connection failed, and the level-two could no longer hear my voice
(though I could hear his). The first level-two just hung up, but
the second one stuck with it and got the problem solved, giving me
instructions even though he couldn't hear me confirm that I was able
to hear him (until I was finally able to answer his test call to my
cell phone).
Chances are I could have avoided the whole thing if I'd just waited
until the following day to take my phone to a store (other than the
corporate store, of course) to get it activated. But I don't like
to wait, so I didn't.
In all these experiences, there has been a marked contrast from what I
hear other people saying about their bad cell phone customer service
experiences, especially with Sprint: I've always been able to speak to
an operator within two or three minutes, and I have never felt cheated
or disrespected by anyone that I have come in contact with. People
have made mistakes, and, granted, roadside assistance was a rip-off,
and whoever decided on their billing and pricing policies is a crook,
but every time I've had a problem, I've been able to get it resolved
to my satisfaction.
Even with phone number portability, I don't see myself switching away
from Cingular any time soon. Maybe it's a sad commentary on how low my expectations are, but I just don't expect any other company to
do any better.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 65/mo
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Epinions.com ID:
dreish
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Reviews written: 2
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