AT&T Customer for Years ... Now Signal-less with Cingular
Written: Dec 28 '05 (Updated Dec 28 '05)
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Pros: coverage area, cell phone options
Cons: CS non-existent, plans too expensive, they modify contract plan at whim, roaming_charges_for_known_coverage_areas_when_an_outage_occurs
The Bottom Line: Cingular does not care about their customers, especially those from the AT&T merger.
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| merlin1000's Full Review: General Reviews of Cingular Wireless Customer Serv... |
This is a Long Review ... But I hope others will read it and not have to deal with the same lack of customer-service.
I was a customer of AT&T for 5 years with up to 5 cell phones (currently 2 - changed 3 to Verizon when contracts ended after the merger). I never once had a complaint about service, signal, cell phones, etc. I had to have 3 phones replaced under warranty due to loss or failure. All were taken care of with less than 15 minutes on the phone with the warranty department and all 3 phones came in with a note stated who had tested the phone before it was shipped.
At our house, we have always had a full signal meter on the cell phones with AT&T as well as every site where I have worked installing network infrastructure in the South East and California.
Fast forward to the merger ... Cingular merges with AT&T and suddenly things start to change. My premium voice mail service with multiple selectable outgoing messages and more storage than my digital answering system in my office turns into Cingular Basic voice mail with just enough message storage to be highly annoying. Not to mention the new 7 day timer on messages and a per message time limit. I was out of state in an area where in the past I had always had full signal but found that my phone was roaming 100% of the time. And I was not receiving ANY of my incoming calls even though I could make outgoing calls. I was unable to access my voice mail from the roaming area (kept getting a message like AT&T something 2T). When I got back into an area with Cingular/AT&T service I had a full voice mail box and had lost a number of messages that had been left prior to 7 days earlier. This was when I was informed by customer service that my voice mail option had been changed without my authorization and that it could not be put back the way it was. I even spoke with a supervisor who stated that they have the authority to change my service plan at their option. I thought I had a contract, evidently Cingular does not think they have to honor the AT&T contracts.
I took the opportunity with the supervisor to complain about the lack of signal in the area I had been in. I was told that the towers were being merged into the Cingular network and as such were probably down for upgrade and modifications. Now for a day or so I can understand, but 7 days? They did not even offer to prorate my service, but instead informed me that they do not guarantee service anywhere.
When I arrived home from my trip, I found that I did not have a signal at my home where I had previously had a 100% signal. I again called Cingular customer service, from my land-line this time, and complained about the lost signal at the house. I was told that the tower about 1 mile from our house was taken offline as it was redundant coverage. This left a tower about 3 miles away to offer coverage to us. Now this might sound like the problem, but amazingly enough my neighbor with a "Cingular" phone and service has 100% signal and I have none to 1 standing right beside him. I found this to be very odd. After talking to several other people in the neighborhood I found both Cingular and AT&T customers. Every AT&T customer was having the same issue and every Cingular customer had 100% signal strength. And strangely enough, the signal strengths had been the opposite previously. At this point I called repeatedly and talked to different people in the customer service department. Slowly but surely piecing things together. Turns out that they referred to us AT&T users as Cingular Blue customers at the time. After calling for nearly 3 weeks complaining almost daily, I was finally told that Cingular was selling off unneeded AT&T towers and converting those they needed to the Cingular frequency. Thus they are taking offline the AT&T towers either way thereby reducing the AT&T signal strength. After complaining about this fact I was told that to correct it I would need to purchase new Cingular cell phones, which would require new 2yr contracts, service plans, AND new phone numbers (seems the cell # portability requirement does not apply since both phones are with Cingular according to the CSR). And to top it off, the new 2yr contract would not start until my current AT&T contract ENDED. Thus locking me in for 34 months. After continuing to call customer service and complaining every time I had a signal issue (hoping to get the point across and get some type of special upgrade offering). I was then told by the manager of a Cingular corporate store that Cingular intended to force migration of the AT&T users to Cingular service plans and cell phones through legal means, but they would not elaborate. They actually clammed up immediately like they realized what they had said shouldn't have been said. I spent a few minutes looking at the cell phone and service plan options, and realized the specifications for the Motorola RAZR v3 in the Cingular corporate store did not support pictures, video, etc. according to the information provided. So I spoke to the manager again and asked if it was an oversight or had the phones been locked down limiting the abilities. I was told that the Cingular network could not support those functions and therefore the phones had been locked down. Thus the fancy, super expensive RAZR had less functionality than the $19 Nokia on sale.
So I decided to read up on the unlocked versions of the RAZR and its capabilities. While reviewing some information on using one with Cingular, I came across the blog of a Cingular employee on the web where they mentioned the same forced migration and methods such as converting towers which forces the AT&T phones to roam and sending a configuration change to the cell phone to use the Cingular towers as a last resort. This is just not right, they should not target the AT&T customers in this manner. The person also stated that the only way to use an unlocked RAZR with Cingular service is to flash the phone. And periodically the phone will have to be re-flashed to keep it working and that some functions will be unavailable. Now, since the exact same phone is used by Verizon, Cingular, and now T-Mobile with only the flash of the phone being different, why is it that the phones are limited and locked to a single carrier? Oh yes, they want to force the purchase of new cell phones if you change carriers as well as early termination fees and the like. They intend to make it cost prohibitive to change carriers for most customers.
So after spending weeks talking to Cingular CSRs and no telling how much time on hold, I realize that they just don't care. They are a huge carrier now and don't care if they lose a few customers in the process of merging the AT&T customers into the fold.
So I spent the next 3 weeks looking for new service figuring when my contract ends, I'll go elsewhere. But as much as I hate to say it, it looks like the Cingular coverage and cell phone options are the best at the current time in the South East if you need widespread coverage. Verizon has very nice service plans and a couple of excellent cell phone options, but they do not provide any coverage in 3 areas which are critical to us. So I went by the Verizon corporate office in town and spoke to them about the coverage maps and plans for new towers in the areas in question. It turns out that they are working to implement towers in those areas int he coming months. If they have them in place or nearly in place by the time my contract is up, I will definitely be a Verizon customer. Otherwise, I just don't know. I have no intentions of remaining a Cingular customer in the future.
UPDATE -- 28 DEC 05:
As I sat this morning in a restaurant about 300 yards from the Cingular corporate store and cell tower site, a customer tried 5 times to call me going straight to voice mail 4 out of 5 times. The 5th time it rang once on my end and I answered as they hung up. After checking voice mail even though none showed, I found they had been trying to reach me for more than an hour due to a database server crash. I had to call them back and scramble to get the issue corrected. I called Cingular about the lack of calls coming through and was told that they do not guarantee any service in any area, and therefore they could do nothing for me. This made my mind up.
I am now the proud new owner of Verizon Wireless service on my last 2 cell phones ... a Motorola RAZR v3c and an LG VX8100. The representative in the Verizon stored worked with me to get me the maximum discounts and rebates, including Manager authorization for an additional $50 discount on a phone and $200+ sticker price of accessories for about $100. Total time in the store was about 2hrs (about 45mins was working with her, the rest was me determining my plan needs).
Cost of service with Cingular(AT&T plan) ... $110/month
for 800 anytime minutes, 7pm-6am N&W, Mobile to Mobile
Total Coverage Warranty ($4.99/m) which is useless
as they no longer allow warranty replacement of
AT&T cell phones
Service Guarantee ... Un-available
Additional cost of Cingular Service today ...
~4hrs of billable time at $100/hr
Cost of service with Verizon ... $139/month
for 1400 anytime, 9pm-6am N&W, Mobile to Mobile,
Unlimited IN TXT and Pix messages,
250 TXT/Pix messages to non Verizon phones,
Premium Voice Mail Service without limits,
Total Coverage Warranty
Friendly, Professional, and HELPFUL Staff in the
Verizon Corporate Store -- PRICELESS
COST OF GUARANTEED SERVICE ... FREE !!!
The above are the key features to me and were the factors in my carrier decision. I have changed out my Cingular service plans to the bare minimums and in 45 days will terminate them with much ado.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 110/month
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Epinions.com ID:
merlin1000
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Location: Huntsville, AL, USA
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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