Cingular: Lowering the Bar!!!
Written: Jul 08 '05
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Pros: Rollover minutes
Cons: HORRIBLE SERVICE! Arrogant staff, poor selection of phones, store smells nasty, they don't care
The Bottom Line: CINGULAR SUCKS, THEY ARE RUDE AND DO NOT CARE THAT THERE SERVICE DOES NOT WORK!
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| timebomb85's Full Review: Cingular Mobile Phone Service in Philadelphia |
Last week my contract was up with Verizon and from what I heard from a few of my friends is that Cingular is so great and all that so I decided to check it out for myself
My mom and I, walked in to our local cingular store to see what we could get. As soon as we got into the store, a salesman who spoke broken english walked over to us and asked if we needed any help. We said we were interested in the service and he took us to his desk and went over the plans with us. He was showing us that they were the only carrier that has rollover minutes so whatever minutes you do not use that month gets pushed over to the next month so you have some extra minutes. We said "great" he said the entire state has coverage and we would get service and would be able to hear clearly and would not have any dropped calls. he told us that there service will never drop calls and will always have a stable connection.
Once we agreed what plan we wanted and all, we checked out the phones. They didn't have a great selection at all, they had about 8 phones total in the store. I ended up getting the Motorola V220 and my mom got the Motorola V180. The guy set up our phones, put the sim cards in, gave us our numbers and then we walked out as happy customers.
We got in the car all excited that now we have 2 new flip phones and were anxious to try our phones out. We drove about 2 miles down the road to go to Costco. I was in the electronics department and my mom was in front of the store shopping and figured I'd call my mom to test out our phones. I dialed the number, pressed send and put the phone up to my ear, I hear nothing but static, crackling and ringing and then all of sudden, the phone beeps and says call has been lost. I said "Ok, maybe it's just because we are inside this building and something is blocking the signal" When we left the store, I was out in the parking lot and decided to call my dad to tell him that we got our new phones. I dialed the number (outside) and press send and the phone is ringing, my dad picks up and asks why my voice sounds so awful, I told him we got our new Cingular service and asked why does it sound so bad" He said is was tinny and before he even finished his sentence I started hearing the phone losing connection and it was crackling and I could hear him but he could not hear me at all, then it lost the call, AGAIN!
We drove home which is 3 1/2 miles from Costco, and I said well maybe it's just the area where costco is but I was wrong again, when I got home I called my friend to ask him how I sounded, I was on for less then a minute before it DROPPED THAT CALL TOO!!!
I was really angry that my brand new phone and service pretty much DID NOT WORK!!! I thought mine was defective until my mom went to make a call on her phone which is a different model then mine and had the same dropped calls and staticy and echoing for the 20 seconds it does work.
We brought the phones back to the store and this is where it all goes to hell. We walk into the store and salesman looks at us and says "What happened?" We explained to him what happens and the salesman says to us, "Yeah, well all cell phones drop calls alot" which is obviously a load of garbage since I have had verizon for 2 years and had a dropped call ONCE over the ENTIRE 2 YEARS I have had my phone. Once my mom started to get angry with the salesman and told him that we wanted our money back, he said how bout I swap out both phones for you guys and the sim cards and see how it works" we said ok we will give it a shot" we walk out of the store once again hoping everything will be ok
I called another one of my friends on the way home, I have to admit, the service was a bit better, it was staticy but did not drop the call. I found myself saying, "what, are you still there?" many times when I was on the phone" Once I got off the phone, I walked in the house and I said, well at least the phone works. About an hour later I went up to my room to my computer and sit at my desk. I had the cell phone in my pocket and all of a sudden as I walk closer to my computer I hear a extremely loud screeching/buzzing noise coming from my Altec Lansing 221 computer speakers. It turns out THE PHONE WAS MAKING IT DO IT!!! When I moved the phone away from my computer the sound would get lower but if it was 3 feet away from my speakers, the buzz would be audible through the entire house! My Verizon phone used to always be near my computer and never made my speakers do that and my friend who has Sprint service who stuck his Sanyo phone on my puter desk never had that problem. It wasn't just my phone because I took my moms phone and put it on my puter desk and made it do the same exact thing! It buzzed extremely loud. The next thing the phones do is make our Motorola Surfboard cable modem MALFUNCTION! The Modem failed everytime the phones were near it. That is also another thing that never happened with verizon.
We angerly went back to the Cingular store and asked for a full refund. The salesman was still there and he tried to tell us that all phones make speakers buzz and internet connections fail. That is a load of bull and tried to use that as a way out "all phones do _____ fill in the blank" I find it unprofessional to use excuses like that, and they gave us our money back because it was still within the 15 days, but we didn't get out money back and lost $42 for the stupid activation fee.
I ended up going back to Verizon and got a LG VX6100 phone this time and service is excellent and phone is beautiful.
In the end, CINGULAR SUCKS! The service is awful, the salesman wasn't very nice, and he was also a dork considering the fact that he got frustrated when we went back into the store he smacked his hand on the desk and got a nice big cut on one of his fingers and wipes the blood off on his desk. Honestly it was a nightmare dealing with cingular. if you want GOOD service, check out Verizon. Verizon is reliable, one of the biggest companies in the world, has a much bigger selection of phones, good support, and friendly staff.
Good Luck with your decision!
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): free
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Epinions.com ID:
timebomb85
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Location: NJ
Reviews written: 31
Trusted by: 2 members
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