Cingular will save you $7395793.42
Written: Jul 05 '01 (Updated Aug 05 '01)
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Pros: Just like someone giving you a check for $120 every month (sort of!)
Cons: Some "extra" charges, not complete coverage areas. :(
The Bottom Line: Free nights. Free weekends. Free long distance. Phone insurance. Roadside assistance. *heart* *heart* *heart*
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| jeremyf's Full Review: General Reviews of Cingular Wireless Customer Serv... |
Cingular is by far the best wireless phone company, in my opinion. =(
This is a review of Cingular's national service and rates; once Epinions sets up a Cingular in Seattle category I'll tell you about Cingular where I live!
Cingular saves you lots of money if you use your phone like me. Here's why:
* Rate Plans
Cingular offers lots of promotions, but there are some constants. Free long distance, and free nights and weekends. Cingular is the ONLY major wireless company that offers this. If you talk between 8pm and 7am, you can talk as much as you want, use the wireless web as much as you want, call Florida or Ohio as much as you want, and not be charged a dime more. This also works all Saturday and Sunday, of course.
I've been known to talk an hour or two long distance every night. On a very good long distance plan this would cost me $4 every night or $120 a month. Cingular gives me this and regular cellular phone service for $39.99 a month (which is actually almost $55 with all my options and taxes).
Cingular also gives somewhat generous daytime minutes. My $39.99 a month plan gives 450 daytime minutes per month, although if you sign up the exact number seems to vary every month or two (you can keep the one you sign up with as long as you want, though). To compare, the everpopular (in Seattle) Voicestream gives 600 minutes per month for the same price. However, its limited "Weekend" minutes don't work at night, and it charges about $6 more for free long distance. If you even use some of your talk time at night, Cingular gives more bang for your buck. If you only use your cell phone for local calls 7am-8pm, though, you might not want to use Cingular.
Cingular requires a year long contract for its normal plans, which is the norm for cell phone companies. As of the time of this writing, they have a nice $34.99/month plan with 350 minutes per month and free nights, weekends, and long distance.
* Extra Benefits
Cingular has some great extras you can sign up for. My two favorites are insurance and roadside assistance. Both cost $2.99/month with no activation fees or contracts; you can quit these services at any time.
Insurance is great and easy to use. It costs $2.99 a month and insures your phone against loss or damage. It requires a $35 deductible each time you use it. In the first month of my service, I dropped my phone into a puddle of water (and later lost my broken phone, which is a testament to why I need insurance). I just went to the local Cingular store, had them call up the number (I think you can do this at home), told them my information and that I dropped it in some water. I came back the next day, picked up my new phone, paid them $35, and I was all set with my new phone. :D This is especially useful if you have an expensive phone!
Roadside assistance sounds as great as anything AAA provides, but I've never used it yet. Just call #HELP on your phone and you can get a jumpstart, 3 gallons of gas, door unlocking, flat tire change (using your own tire), or up to 10 miles of towing for free. I don't think there's even a limit to how much you can use this. :)
Insurance saved me most of the $150 or so it would have cost to buy my phone again (without the contract discount), and if I had had the roadside assistance when I locked my keys in my car a month earlier, it would have saved me $50. I'm sure it will save me money (or I will at least break even) in the future. It's nice to have that feature handy, although I'm afraid of locking my keys AND my cell phone in my car. :(
Text messaging costs $0.10 per use, or $2.99/month for 100 uses. Wireless web access costs $6.99/month. Mobile-to-mobile calling costs $9.99/month, or you can switch it instead of your free nights and weekends for free. It lets you call other Cingular phone users in your local area (see below) for an unlimited amount of time for free, at any time.
Unfortunately, "Detailed billing" also costs $2.99 per month. It's pretty much a necessity to see why you are being charged what you are being charged.
* Roaming / Coverage
Cingular has great coverage, although not the best (which is Verizon, I think). The free "home roaming" area for me includes Washington state, Idaho, California, and Nevada. Oregon is sadly not included, because Cingular doesn't operate there yet (I believe).
Cingular has other rate plans for nationwide roaming that aren't too bad.
The coverage is pretty good; I've never been in an area yet (besides on an airplane!) where I can't use Cingular service (except sporadically), although I'm sure they exist.
* Website
Cingular's website has a lot of information, but isn't organized well. It tells you how many minutes you've used the current month, but the bills online are only basic and are pretty confusing. It has all the basic information, though.
* Customer Service
The phone customer service really shines; I don't know what everyone else is talking about. I've called a few times to get information. The most important occassion is that I was charged for my first day of service as a seperate month (because of how Cingular's billing works, I signed up on 24th and that was the last day of my billing cycle). I was charged a whole month for my detailed billing and insurance, but everything else was prorated, which was OK. I was even charged for roadside assistance which I was told I'd get free for 2 months. They immediately fixed the roadside assistance problem and credited my account. They explained to me Cingular's (bad) policies about charging an entire month for one day's usage, but it was explained clearly and politely. I've called other times and have had no problems.
Cingular isn't the perfect company, but I'd still highly recommend it if its plans match your needs. I've had good experiences with them.
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Updated Aug. 5th, 2001.
I still like Cingular, but I just got wrecked with a $120 bill for going 160 minutes over during peak times. =( I have to watch out more. Cingular raised their $40/month plan to 500 "anytime" minutes so that is good. I look at cell phone plan ads still and Cingular still looks #1 to me.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 39.99/month
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jeremyf
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Location: West coast
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