Excellant Choice As Long As You Don't Travel
Written: May 29 '02
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Pros: Excellant Store Service
Can Change Plans Anytime
Family Talk
Cons: Very Poor Service Outside Home Area
Can Get Very Pricey
The Bottom Line: For local service, they are great. But travel outside the DFW-North Texas area, you can forget about it.
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| chefjohnny5's Full Review: Cingular Mobile Phone Service in Dallas/Fort Worth |
I was needing to purchase 2 cell phones and did not have a clue when it comes to picking a provider. So I did a little research myself and that didn't help narrow my choices down any. So I talked to some people at work and they all recommended Cingular. So I went back and looked at Cingular again and decided Cingular was who I was going to go to.
I went to Best Buy (poor decision) and purchased 2 phones. 1 Nokia for me and one Motorola for my wife. It took over an hour to activate my service and after they were finished they informed me that they did not activate the Motorola because they simply did not know how. I was pretty upset. They informed me to go to a Cingular store but since it was on a weekend they would be closed. So far I am not at all happy. They also inform me that I would have nights and weekends free as well. I purchase the Nationwide plan that runs around $75/month. Thats for 2 phone numbers for each phone and around 300 minutes. No roaming, no extra charges.
Well I go to my local Cingular store and I am amazed at how fast everything is done. The Motorola is activated within 3 minutes and they were extremely polite. They told me to come back to them instead of going to Best Buy. By their quick activation and their extremely polite mannors, they sold me on that.
Fast forward a month and I take a job that requires me to travel to Oklahoma for one year. About 5 hours away from my home in Texas. I will be there for 5 days a week and then I am allowed to come home on the weekends. The pay improves dramatically so no biggie. Thats when I start seeing some of Cingular's faults. As soon as I hit the Oklahoma border I notice my phone barely even has a signal. The phone (Nokia 8260) says I have a full strength signal but do I? No sir. All I get is a beeping sound.
About 2 weeks later I travel to Northwest Indiana (Chicagoland area) to get married. During that week my new wife and I go to a local grocery store and when I come out I notice my phone is missing. Maybe I left it in the car? Nope. Maybe it fell in the parking lot or in the store? Nope. I talk to the service desk and tell them that my phone is missing. They take all the details and hopefully will find it and call me. Nope. I end up leaving Indiana for Texas & Oklahoma with no phone. I end up buying another Nokia 8260 on the internet for full price since since I did not have the insurance on the phone. Trust me, when you get your phone, fork over the extra 2 bucks a month for Cingular's insurance. It would've saved me about 400 bucks altogether. My new phone is activated and I use my local Cingular dealer again. Again, I have the best service I could possibly receive. Going into a store nowadays, I expect good service but usually don't receive it. But these guys were above good service. They just made me feel very comfortable dealing with them. They even knew the Cingular reps on the phone by first name and very extremely polite to them as well. Thats GREAT service.
Again I travel up to Oklahoma and my phone just doesn't work like it does in the local area of Texas. If someone tries to call me. The phone either does not even ring or rings about 5 minutes after the person called and left a voice-mail. To me thats extremely irratating! When I purchase Nationwide service, I expect Nationwide service. I am only about 40 miles east of Tulsa and their even is a big Cingular building off of the highway in Tulsa. Yet I cannot get any service.
And on top of that, my wife's phone sometimes calls mine. And my wife is not aware of it. The first time it happened I didn't know what was going on. It showed my wife's number on caller-id but no one was there. I didn't know if something bad was happening or what. I called her at our home phone and she didn't know what to say. She didn't even use the phone that day!!?? It has happened several times since and my wife gets mad cause it drains her battery and she hasn't even talked on the phone yet.
Again we traveled up to Chicago again and talked on the phone throughout the stated we traveled through. I was on major highways that went through major towns such as St. Louis and such. Yet my phone reception was poor at best. It kept cutting out and not working right. Again, why have nationwide service if it does not work.
So I ended up going to my local Cingular dealer again and just dropped to the bare minimum of minutes. I can never use my phone anymore cause of their service not working up here in Oklahoma. And as I was there they informed me that I did not have the free weekends and nights like Best Buy told me I would have. So I would never buy another cell phone from Best Buy. I wouuld go down to the local phone dealer. Much better service. Again, they changed my plan within 5 minutes and again they were super polite.
I am almost done with my travel to Oklahoma and now will stay in Texas full-time. My wife and I talked about canceling the service since it is so shotty and we never use it anymore due to our problems. I am not sure what we will do. The service is EXCELLANT when you stay in the North Texas-Dallas-Ft. Worth area. No drop-outs, nothing. And on top of that, they have the FamilyTalk where I can call my wife's cell phone and talk all day everyday and not use either one of our minutes up. I like that concept. And I really like my local (Keller,TX) Cingular dealer so I think we will try it for another year.
I also get some people who call my cell phone thinking its someone else and I have also received a couple of telemarketers calling me on my phone. Its frustrating since no one has my number besides my wife, my boss, and my immediate family. So is Cingular selling me out? Is their a number problem?
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 29/month
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Epinions.com ID:
chefjohnny5
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Location: Clarksville, TN
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
I am pretty tough on products I spend money on.
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