Cingular Mobile Phone Service in Chicago

Pros: Good phone selection, good assortment of plans.
Cons: Customer support/ tech support can be a bit lacking.

I started off as an AT&T customer after dropping cellular one (which in Chicago was replaced by Cingular) after getting horrible customer service. AT&T was fine, but when I went in after the merger with Cingular to replace a phone, I was essentially told ...

Pros: Great Reception, Great Phone Prices, Decent Customer Service!
Cons: No Unlimited Text Message Plan, Highest Plan Prices!

Quick Overview Cingular Wireless as of August 29th 2006 is the largest wireless company in the United States. They have more than 54 million subscribers with the nation's largest digital voice and data network. They didn’t get this large without a ...

Pros: The phones did work most of the time and the reception was good.
Cons: They lie, cheat, and steal your money for things you didn't sign up for.

When we went to sign up for our home phone service at our new place, the representative asked us if we wanted to get Cingular bundled onto the bill. She went on and on about the plan: two free phones, 39.99 for the first line and 9.99 for the other, free ...

Pros: They sell nice phones.
Cons: Unbelievably poor reception on Chicago's Loop and Near North Side.

Am extemely unhappy with Cingular in Chicago. My Motorola V60 gets horrible reception and/or drops calls at 30 S. Wacker Drive, at 1400 N Lake Shore Drive, and can't even dial out on E. Oak st and from The Loop!
My new Moto V557 is no better! What a great phone, but useless with such poor Cingular reception. How can Cingular possibly be so incompetent?
Am switching to Verizon this week, which gets very good reviews from Consumer Reports and JD Power & Assoc. Verizon can't possibly be as bad as Cingular.

Pros: free phone
Cons: difficult customer service

I have found that when we purchased the free phone with Cingular they have always seemed to have broke really easy. I think they are defective. I have since switched and when i did switch and tried to cancel the plan they gave me a hard time. I even sent them the money to cancel and somehow the money I sent to cancel the plan arrived about 1-2days late to them. They went so far as to file me as delinqutent when i called our credit company they had red flagged it. Needless to say cingular corrected the problem and it did not count against us but it was just the hassel and worry that they might of messed up our credit. I am so glad i have switched since then.

Pros: This text messaging situation as a whole has no pros.
Cons: I just hate getting charged for texts I never even sent.

So as I was arguing with my father for the BILLIONTH time that I rarely if ever text message, he pulled out a copy of the phone bill. I looked at it and it listed all the texts I had received, AND CHARGED ME FOR IT! I was, to say the least, really ticked off. I didn't even send the texts and they charged me for them! I have no control over whether or not my friends send me a text... I've even tried to tell them to stop but I can't control whether or not they choose to send me a meaningless forward. Cingular really needs to make things obvious in terms of the text messaging situation. Currently they only allow free incoming texts on certain plans. I have no text plan at the moment and if I get one now in the middle of the contract, the price will skyrocket. I don't want to text, so why should I be charged?

Pros: Nice phones, good coverage in comparison to others, good customer service
Cons: Small lapses of coverage

With my husband being in the Air Force, I dont think I even need to mention how frequently we move around, and about 99% of the time, we always have signal. A previous reviewer stated that there were issues with the text messaging, well, on my plan we did not sign up for text messaging, and there for cannot receive them. My sister recently tried to send me a text message and it did not go through, so I would assume this issue has been resolved. Cingular has a nice selection of phones, and has decent plan pricing, as well as generous rebates. I have to admit there will are small sections of Randall road (near Elgin/St. Charles) that do not allow me to have signal (for VERY brief moments, max. 1 min), but other than that one small strip of road, I have excellent coverage.