Comment by Anonymous

February 18, 2005 @ 9:31 am

ROTFL, dude, you really don’t know how wireless carriers work. No one is going to give you a $50 phone for $10 for nothing. The reason AWS had so much better plans is to inflate the sales price, they were offering “beat-all” promos for contract extensions right before the acquisiotion, so that they can say “Look Cingular, we have so many customers locked in” we want $41B for them. If you want to switch to Cingular, you can buy a phone at a discounted price (called Blue-to-Orange migration), but no one is going to give you an acquisition price. You are NOT a new customer, so therefore your “they don’t let me switch via a website” whining is bullshit, you think you are the smartest? Wireless companies don’t get phones for $25 and sell them for $169.99. They pay a LITTLE ($5 - 50) lesser price than retail, but sell the phones for even less, so they lose money. They recuperate the loss on your monthly service. So if you wanna keep your plan, STFU and pay retail price for the phone and buy it directly from Siemens (so it is not SIM-locked), if you wanna be a freeloader, get a discount but switch to a regular Cingular plan (if you compare Cingular offers to other companies and coverage, they are still good). If you wanna cancel, and re-sign up to get a good deal, this is called “phantom churn”, you will end up being billed full price for the phone. Read the contract, you are so naive. It says if you cancel and re-sign up within 180 days, you are not eligible for acquisition promos. They will just reisnate your account and you will end up with your old plan and a bill for full retail price of the phone, and a different phone number. Here’s good news - they’ll let it fly the first time.

Comment by chovy

February 18, 2005 @ 1:34 pm

LOL, That was great.

Comment by Anonymous

February 24, 2005 @ 8:27 am

Get to T-mobile, get a V600 cash back WITHOUT rebates, 1 year contract, and then see if it is worth going back to Cingular a year later.

All this cellular bullshit is a service we should not have in first place. But unfortunately most of us require it. So maximize the offers as much as you can.

Check these deals:
http://www.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296021

oh, and btw, 2 year contract is bullshit too.

Comment by chovy

February 27, 2005 @ 7:15 pm

T-Mobile gives away 1,000 anytime minutes because their network sucks, from what I’ve heard from other users.

I’m happy with my AT&T plan, 800 anytime, unlimited nights/weekends, and nation wide roaming for $39/month ($46 w/ fees).

That’s a hell of a lot better than being forced into a Cingular plan at 450 anytime w/rollover for the same nationwide roaming, but $49/month (w/o fees). I’m just going to unlock the cell phone I got from my buddy so I can continue without contract with AT&T.

Personally, I think Cingular has good coverage because they got AT&T’s network as well. But their currently offered pricing plans are a joke. Big Whoop Rollover. I may rollover a whole 2 minutes every month with only 450 minutes.

Comment by Anonymous

March 14, 2005 @ 9:07 am

Let me begin by noting that you are a sloppy fat piece of shit. With that being said, let me address your current whining. So you found a good offer online for a phone but that website can’t process the deal that you want. So you blame Cingular. And on top of it all, you want a Siemens phone. Here is a tip for ya. Siemens makes the worst phones on the market. You would be a moron to take one even if they paid YOU to take it. But wait… you are a moron so nevermind. Here are your options. Cancel with ATT and start fresh with Cingular With a new number. You can get your piece of shit Siemens phone from the web. Don’t worry about any phantom churn bullshit. Cingular will never know the fucking difference. When you get your “free” phone and hate it, take it to a Cingular store so they can tell you to pound sand because you bought your phone from some bargain basement online store. You are just another lazy fuck who thinks you have some sort of entitlement. Better yet, go get yourself a T-Mobile phone and enjoy their wonderful coverage area.

Comment by Anonymous

March 22, 2005 @ 11:22 pm

A respons to this: “Let me begin by noting that you are a sloppy fat piece of shit”.

To the coward

I must say, it is persons such as yourself that bring out the weaker, more antiquated side of human nature, in me. You fool, you coward! If only you had the guts to act in such a manner in the very face of the individual you are referring to. But you won’t. You cannot, nor ever would you. You are the coward, the putrid, the person without honor, who feels it necessary to belittle anyone when opportunity presents in attempt to fill that empty self you live with everyday. You are the waste of this earth.

Comment by chovy

March 22, 2005 @ 11:35 pm

My thoughts exactly. I personally don’t know why people get so defensive about something as stupid as their cellular provider.

Comment by Anonymous

March 23, 2005 @ 5:57 pm

I agree: this merger sucks, and like any other merger (banks for example) results in larger fees, worse services and worse plans for the consumer.
I am an AT&T wireless customer for many years and just recently my Siemens C56 ceased working, so I called Cingular to repair or replace it (do I have an option?). Their “customer service” representative told me first that they do not service that phone anymore and can’t be repaired, and that my only option was to upgrade the plan and “migrate” to Cingular, for which there is a $18.00 fee, to start with.
MIGRATE?????? what do you mean by MIGRATE????? I already migrated. I am receiving invoices from Cingular, I never chose to be a Cingular customer, you bought AT&T wireless, you are now one company!!!!
No, he said, you are an AT&T wireless customer and you have to “migrate”. Frankly, Corporate Greed has an almost unlimited ability to steal consumers’ money and make it look legit. Can you imagine how many millions of “$18 fees” will be charged to the many AT&T wireless customers who are forced to “upgrade”?
Besides, my comparable Cingular plan (number of minutes, etc) is $10.- more expensive per month. More expensive? For years, every time I changed plans was to have more minutes and pay less. No exceptions. Until now.
Obviously, I did not do it. I am going to “migrate” to another company. Sadly, this is the normal result of another megamerger.

Comment by chovy

March 23, 2005 @ 9:15 pm

You do have one option if you’re still an AT&T customer (my phone also stopped working).

Buy one off eBay that works with AT&T, or take it somewhere and get it “unlocked” so you can use it on any network. However, for the Internet access to work, it must be a phone that AT&T had at one or time or another, supported. THe seimens A56 they didn’t support, however, they do support the Seimens A56i. And the A56 worked for calls, just not the web.

ps - i think it’s total bullshit they lock the phone so you can’t use it on another network.

Comment by Anonymous

March 26, 2005 @ 11:19 pm

Ok,

I am a At&t/ Cingular Rep and Im not going to be rude and state that your a fat piece of shit because thats just rude and wrong. OK I have been working as an At&t Customer care Rep for about 2 years now ( And now we are turning into cingular (CSE) Reps witch means that we are going to be customer care for the old At&t wireless customers that migrated to Cingular Wireless…Now on to my point I am a Canadian (living in canada) and doing the same job that someone in the States does for almost double the pay..Now you americans are always complaining “Oh everything is so expensive” WHAT AM I GOING TO DO….I have to pay 50$ for a phone…First off the person that said Siemens phones suck (WERE TOTALLY RIGHT!) and you Americans really dont know how good you get it..I just recently got a cell phone with a Canadian Wireless Company and I had to pay 79.99 for my phone with a 3 year contract and For 35$ a month I only get 100 anytime minutes and Unlim N&W that start at 9PM/For 5$ more I can get Earlier start times for my N&W (So theres 40$ right there) And Dont you Americans forgot this…Up in Canada we have to pay a conectivity charge of $6.95 On every Bill, plus 7$ for voicemail and caller ID…Plus GST And PST and then…SO there is about a 62.00 Charge for a 35$ rate plan..So Im paying 60.00 Each month…And then We have customers calling into customer care whining that there only getting 900 Anytime minutes on the At&t National plan W/ Unlim N&W at 7PM and Unlim Mobile to Mobile and no roaming charges “hence the National plan….SO compare those to plans and tell us how much You Americans are getting ripped off NOW! And One morth thing THE ALLOVER NETWORK w/ CINGULAR WIRELESS ROCKS!!…so what if your paying an extra 10$ a month…what you have to think about is the awsome coverage your going to get using At&t and Cingular towers as ONE COMPANY…..And one last though…would you AMERICANS stop asking for supervisors everytime you call customer care because all your doing is getting Xfered to A person that basically babysitts us and dosn’t know most of the systems and is not even half as smart as the rep you were just speaking with…And thats My Venting for the day..G’night.. Oh P.S I do love AMERICA though GO AMERICA!!! RED, WHITE AND BLUE all the way…AND PLEASE DONT FORGET ABOUT YOUR COLD NEIGHBORS UP NORTH ….peace out :P

Comment by chovy

March 28, 2005 @ 12:04 pm

Wow, sounds like you pay way more for cellular service. Are there no competitors in Canada? That after all, would drive down prices for everyone. The fact that Cingular bought AT&T is proof that one less competitor means crappier deals (even here in the USA). And that “all over network” crap is BS. AT&T and Cingular did not merge networks, if they did, I wouldn’t have to manually switch my phone between the two depending on whether I’m at home (cingular) or at work (only at&t).

It’s total BS what they are claiming. Granted we do have access to both, but they are not “one network” as it requires manually switching between the two (auto-switch ALWAYS uses AT&T on all my phones, unless there are 0 bars).

Also, you guys have national healthcare. I’d take that over cheap cell phones any day. You really don’t know how good you got it!

Comment by Anonymous

April 6, 2005 @ 10:52 pm

Wow, reading all of this sure got me thinking. How ignorant can you be? You actually like canada’s universal healthcare? Hopefully you don’t need a heart transplant, cause you might be in line and have to wait 45+ years, but hey, its free right? Wrong. Look at how friggin expensive everything in canada is compared to the US. Just look at the back of a book, you know a book, the thing that you can open, has lots of words in it, and even sometimes pictures! If you look at the back , you’ll notice about a 5 dollar increase in price. There is your “free” healthcare. Moron. Moving on the Cingular and ATT issue. The other anonymouse guy was completely right. Siemens phones are the absolute worst you could get, I wouldn’t take 500 bucks to use one. And here is an “insider” tip for you, Siemens is being dropped from Cingular’s phone line up, as well as Samsung phones. So if they are cheap, and look like a great day, you are going to get screwed if you buy one. :) Do you people not understand how great the buyout of att was? Cingular AND ATT customers are getting better service than ever. Sure ATT had some better rates, but like the other guy said, so did T-Mobile, and they are garbage. Cingular has the most competitive plans available compared to any true competitor, which at this point is only verizon, which is in and of itself a joke. Comparing T-Mobile and Cingluar is like comparing a BMW to a 1985 Chevy Station wagon. Are you serious? T-Mobile has about 1/5 the coverage of Cingular, and even in the places they have coverage it is horrible. Then again, most of you brain-dead idiots can’t pay your bills, and you have HUGE deposits with real wireless providers like Cingular, so you go with the company that is SO desperate that they will take you even if you haven’t paid 1 bill your whole life. Thank you T-Mobile, for giving hope to deadbeats! And if you are not happy about having to Migrate to Cingular to get better coverage, better handsets, etc. etc. etc. nobody is keeping you with ATT. What’s this you say? You have a contract and your phone isn’t working correctly? Well, that is why you had a 1 year warranty for your phone through its manufacturer. But its been over 1 year? Then you were screwed anyway. Besides, ATT would have made you contact Motorola to get a new phone if your screen was acting up, however CINGULAR will send you out a brand new phone within 2 days at NO COST TO YOU. If you damaged your phone, then you should know (what am I saying, you people are idiots) that the warranty is void and you need to make a purchase on a new phone anyway. I’m sick and tired of people crying their eyes out because they are idiots and can’t figure out how businesses work. Finally, if you buy your phone from a 3rd party site, good luck. 9 out of 10 people I’ve seen do that have gotten screwed. But “it’ll never happen to me” right? When the time comes and you’re out all of that money, you can suck it. Oh I almost forgot, 2 year contracts are bull? You are so right! A company should just GIVE you a phone that costs 159.99 to make and let you on a 0 Month contract that way you can leave the next day, sell your phone on ebay, and come out $160 ahead! Man, you should probably start your own wireless company, you’d do great! =P
-John

Comment by chovy

April 7, 2005 @ 10:47 am

YOu really don’t get it at all do you? I fail to see the need of repeating myself for someone who obviously can’t read.

Comment by Anonymous

April 8, 2005 @ 8:58 am

Sure, the network coverage for Stinkular is good because they got AT&Ts - but Stinkular plans are expensive, and their customer service rates as the worst in the industry (JD Powers). If your an AT&T customer, it not the worst service, its no service at all. A friend had her AT&T phone stop working, and was told by Stinkular that the don’t repair or exchange AT&T phones, and her only option was to cancel her AT&T contract ($180 charge) and then sign up for a new phone and contract with Stinkular. I’ll bet that Stinkular loses 90% of the AT&T customers the got through the merger to other carriers.

Comment by Anonymous

April 10, 2005 @ 2:41 pm

hi, i am also an attws rep that has been changed to cingular, customer’s call in and fuss about the merger all the time, how do you think the reps feel? we are just there for a paycheck and most the ones that i work with are looking for a new job. we only have 600 seconds to take care of your issue and get you off the phone. when this does not happen we get fussed at by our management and by the customers. the next time you call customer service think about this, thanks for calling

Comment by Jimmy-James

April 14, 2005 @ 3:40 pm

Anthony,
I am in total agreement with you on this merger. First of all, to the piece of dung who resorted to infantile name-calling on here, he is obviously an extremely illiterate, uneducated, useless bottom-feeder. (BTW, love the A’s shirt, Oakland in the house!)

As an 11 year customer, starting back with Cellular One, which became AT&T Wireless, and now (the horrid Cingular), I have called and visited retail stores, and I REFUSE to migrate over to an inferior plan. As far as I am concerned, I will buy a couple of extra phones now off Craigslist or EBay and keep them around, because I will not give Cingular the satisfaction of not giving me my 1500 anytime minutes, mobile to mobile and 7:00 p.m. night time minutes for $49.99 a month. Yes, that’s right, because I have been a long time customer, I have a crap-load of enhancements, and NO CONTRACT remaining. I am “the king of longevity” on cell phones.
Nevertheless, when I’ve called and written the new Cingular, they still don’t seem to care. So I don’t either. I won’t move over to their network and I have told them I will go on an anti-Cingular blitz (I have some buddies in advertising who think it’d be a hoot).

But…I hear they are working on some sweet deals for the hold-out ATTWS customers who refuse to migrate until they are given a fair package in the new Cingular.

Thank God my freakin’ Motorola V60i rocks and is still going strong. I have 2.5X as many minutes as the crappy Cingular Rollover plan, and… they’re all mine. On top of it all, I get my 7:00 p.m. night time minutes for free now, and I am NOT paying $7 more per month for something I get for nothing right now. It’s not an affordability issue, it’s a pride and principle issue.

On to other carriers… most of my friends are on T-Mobile and out here in the Bay Area, (where us intelligent folk live) they LOVE their service, and can’t say enough about it. They have all left Cingular (old Cingular/PacBell) and Verizon and gone to T-Mobile, so it may be that when I finally give up on the new Cingular, I may go to T-Mobile. Their phones rock and their major variety of rate plans kick ass.
Until then, loved your blog and I think that shit-talker is an obvious ignorant.
Go Anthony!
Go AT&T Wireless hold-outs! Stay strong! Fight the power!
~James

Comment by Anonymous

April 21, 2005 @ 2:15 am

First of all, to the rep who just whined about 600 seconds to do their job… shut the hell up. When I was 3G care, I was consistently under 300 seconds and I’m third party vendor (even with all the extra forms & bullshit that you internal sites don’t do), its really not that hard.

Secondly, I can safely say you customers are getting more than enough for your money. I’m in the same situation as the last rep, shitty Rogers up here in Canada. Its so bad that I just buy unlocked GSM devices off eBay, to avoid the contract, and buy prepaid service.

Right now, with cingular, there are basically 2 types of customers. Blue and orange. Blue customers are people in AT&T’s billing system on an AT&T rate plan. If they want to take advantage of a new phone or rate plan, they will be left with the option to migrate to cingular’s billing system. This is different than a technology migration (2G->2.5G), which you’ve done before. Cingular wants the administration fee to cover its costs. Think of it this way. Cingular must now combine 2 seperate networks of cell sites, BTSs, BSCs, MSCs, and various switches. They have to combine 4 completely seperate billing systems. Combine/train staff… You get the picture. They are NOT doing this to make your life hard. They are doing this because they know that now they can provide you with better products, features, coverage, and all that stuff. They want your money, man. Do you think they just want your 18$? I can safely say (I have seen some CSE quality numbers) Cingular will EXCEED your expectations. Just drop the garbage phone, keep in mind how good you have it, and switch. Everything is better with Cingular. I can promise you that the reps will be more mellow (their systems have improved, making their jobs easier). That also means from now on you won’t need to hold for 10 minutes just for a name change… Cingulars goal right now is to take 2 of the worst customer rated wireless providers, and combine them into 1 provider with excellent customer service. That is one of their main concerns.

You keep forgetting that the merger of 2 companies doesn’t happen over night. The reason you are still seeing seperate orange and blue alpha tags is simply because not all MSCs have been updated. It’s being done by market. If your market has already been switched, you may need to have your PLMN updated to notice the change in alpha tags (known siemens issue). IF this is the case, you’ll notice in the coming weeks that your service is interrupted when cingular changes all MNC (tower IDs). Any competent care rep can help… If they sound confused, tell them to call TSD.

The Allover network is amazing. You will need an orange phone to best take advantage of it. The reason I say that is because any blue phone (AT&T branded) were not manufactured as ENS compatible. Without going into detail, it simply means your phone will not switch between blue and orange towers as effeciently as an orange phone with a 64K sim card.
You are benefitting from all of this, an 18$ fee is nothing.

Like the last rep said, LOOK AT MSRP before you flip out for crappy prices. THE PROVIDER TAKES A SIGNIFACT LOSS ON EVERY PHONE IT SELLS. Keeping in mind that most of you call in demanding credits (for the lamest stuff, that I can clearly see on my screen is a blatant lie) every month.

Everyone wants something for nothing. Keep in mind that you can’t shit a wireless fucking communications system, when you get your bill.

Some of you may have heard of the recent deal between Cingular and ALLTEL to buy the AT&T FCC divested markets (areas where the FCC said cingular couldn’t take over, out of fear of creating a monopoly). AT&T customers in the area recently received a notice with their bill stating they have 60 days to contact alltell to switch services, or they will be disconnected. Yes, this is only in certain areas like WV, VA, OR, etc. But since right now Cingular only owns the AT&T brand for a few more months, more customers may start getting notices. Just a rumour…

Sorry for the long winded post. I just hate when people are misinformed about their wireless carrier. DO NOT GO INTO A STORE FOR HELP. THEY ARE SALES STAFF, AND ARE TRAINED ACCORDINGLY. CALL CUSTOMER CARE, THEY ARE THERE TO HELP (most of them, you might have to try back a few times, hehehe) AND NOT TO SELL.

Comment by chovy

April 21, 2005 @ 9:25 am

I’m more or less upset not about the phone, but about the crappy deals offered by Cingular. Like I said, I get 800 anytime minutes nationwide roaming from AT&T right now (no contract) for $40/month. The best I can get from Cingular is 450 minutes w/nation wide roaming. So you tell me, what would you do?

Also, it sounds like to take advantage of the auto-switching between AT&T/Cingular network (I have to do it manually now) I would have to buy a new phone, which means converting to Cingular.

Forget it. I don’t mind the extra step of switching to Cingular’s network when I get home and AT&T’s when I get to work.

Comment by Anonymous

April 21, 2005 @ 7:17 pm

hi there

Comment by Anonymous

April 22, 2005 @ 12:33 pm

SCREW CINGULAR!!! EAT YOUR 2 year contract, YOUR Bull Shit service, AND YOUR REPS!!! I’VE TALKED to TEN of YOU CINGULAR REPS who couldn’t negotiate a customer solution in 60 minutes let alone 600 seconds. YOUR Cingular Service DOES NOT WORK AS ADVERTISED! WILL GET WORSE AS YOU overload it by FORCING the switch of CUSTOMSERS from AT&T AT THEIR EXPENSE. The wait time to talk to an idiot rep was over 30 minutes. And Horrible service at Higher prices means DROP CINGULAR NOW. A Cell Phone is not a requirement and Customers should demand the level of service they expect by their power of spending. DO NOT USE CINGULAR UNTIL THEY IMPROVE SERVICE AND LOWER RATES AND REDUCE CONTRACTS.
Yes the REPS LIE. They will not tell you about unlocking phones. They will tell you that the Network is the same for AT&T and Cingular, AND THEY WILL BLAME THEIR PROBLEMS ON THE HARDWARE!!!

Comment by Derrick

May 5, 2005 @ 4:00 am

First all, I just want to tell everyone to chill out. I mean my god, it’s just a cell phone service. It’s not a life or death situation. I was with ATT then migrated to Cingular and I have to say that I love it. I hated my phone with ATT, but that was a result of me getting a free phone. Now with Cingular, my phone is great, I get great service, and the customer service is great. I haven’t had a problem yet. The only thing that I would complain about is the 2-year contracts. This just seems way to long to me. I could do with 1-year, but 2-years is just ridiculous. But what am I going to do, I need a phone so I might as well get the 2-year contract.

And with all these people stating that Cingular is horrible and that they’ll never switch. Then don’t, but please don’t complain about it. I, and probably everybody would agree with me, don’t really care what you do. I think it was a good thing for me to switch. It only cost me $18 which isn’t that much. For the price, I got everything I wanted. Nationwide Coverage and Roaming, Unlimited NW, TXT messaging. It’s been great.

I honestly think that the plans Cingular has out right now are good values. I did lots of research on which company I should get and Cingular had the best deals. Verizon’s plans are the worst because of all the fees they charge you for TXT messaging, Picture Messaging, Internet. It’s ridiculous. Sprint was out of the question, can’t stand them. The only other one I was even considering was T-Mobile, but with the lack of coverage they had, I went with Cingular and I’m glad I did. They were the best all around plan for the price. I pay roughly $70 every month for 600 Rollover Anytime Minutes, 300 TXT, 50 PIX, and 1MB of Internet, Insurance. It’s a good deal, and I have the option of adding another line for only $10. That’s great.

So please, stop complaining about how horrible the Merger was, I really believe it was good and with the increase in service, I’m happy I did it.

Comment by chovy

May 5, 2005 @ 5:41 am

another fool in our midst. But I won’t hold it against him, if he thinks 450 minutes is a “good value” that’s his problem. Not mine.

Comment by Anonymous

May 19, 2005 @ 12:52 pm

I have to say that Cingular Wireless as a company sucks and I work there as a cusotmer care rep. I get sick and tired of people calling in everyday bitching and whinning about their service that has been turned off because they were to stupid to pay thier bill on time. I think you should look for another carrier because at some point you are going to be force migrated any way and have to pay for a new fone. If you have any further questions about the merger please feel free to call a Cingular Wireless manger at 276.883.4139

Comment by chovy

May 19, 2005 @ 12:55 pm

Yeah, as soon as I am forced to switch from AT&T, I’m gone. Probably won’t even get a cell phone elsewhere. It hardly ever works, and is a rip off.

The only thing I like it for is if I’m interviewing, I can take calls while I’m at work. Otherwise, “leave a message”.

Comment by Anonymous

May 19, 2005 @ 1:16 pm

My main gripe about people calling in to bitch about service is the fact that they always ask for a manager. Well the managers in my call center have never taken the first call as a rep for Cingular Wireless. The reps honestly have more training than the managers. While you are talking to a manager a rep is on the line navigatiing the system because the manager doesn’t know what he or she is doing. I have to agree with you that AT&T was a better company and I miss being an AT&T employee. As far as the rep from Canada is concerned he or she is just pissed because they will be out of a job in about 3 months. And as far as handle time for that person only being 300 seconds PLEASE all a vendor center is good for is to blind transfer and give miss information so that the customer will be good and pissed when talking to a rep.

Comment by chovy

May 19, 2005 @ 2:32 pm

I find it really does depend on the rep, of course not everybody has the same knowledge. Like telling me to buy a new phone so I can switch automatically between AT&T and Cingular network, which is still not possible after buying a new phone. If I get 1 bar on AT&T it will stay on AT&T, even if Cingular has 5 bars. I manually switch between work and home.

By the way, is it possible for one of you old AT&T reps to give me unlimited nights starting at 7pm instead of 9pm without a fee increase?

Talked with a rep the other day, and she said if she did, it would just switch back on the next bill, or charge me an extra $7.

Comment by Anonymous

May 27, 2005 @ 7:22 pm

I really like cingular! I have an old phone and I think people forget - IT IS A PHONE!..hello…its not your life!…so get one….all of you! I like the person that said “but wait - you are a moron”….make my day!!! Thanx for the laugh..

Comment by chovy

June 1, 2005 @ 6:57 pm

Siemens phones r0ck.

Comment by Anita

June 2, 2005 @ 2:53 pm

Another reason ATT/Cingular Sucks. I recently changed services from ATT/Cingular to another carrier. I canceled my service with ATT/Cingular on 4/29/05. Today I received a billing showing monthly
service charges from 4/26/05 through 5/25/05. I called to get a pro-rated billing for 6 days. They
informed me that I am responsible for the “full” month of billing
since I disconnected in that
billing cylce even though I used only 6 days worth.
Now you tell me, does that make any sense to you? How can a company charge a customer for services not used. Please let me know if you have heard this from other users and if there is something that can be done. To me this is illegal as well as
unacceptable for a company to treat their customers in this manner. I look forward to any feedback you can provide. This will also provide a heads up for anybody who may change carriers and what to expect with their final billing.

Comment by Anonymous

June 8, 2005 @ 2:24 pm

If you think the AT&T/Cingular merger sucks, you probably can’t wait for the AT&T/SBC merger! That’s right, there are hearings going on in June to create the largest telecommunications company in California. As a dedicated hater of AT&T due to its horrible customer service, I recommend emailing the CPUC at public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov to try to prevent this merger. It is bad for consumers.

Comment by Red

June 9, 2005 @ 1:48 am

TO Anita:
I’m a call center rep, and i get customers like you all the time. FIrst of all, it’s on your service agreement (you know, the one that you get when you start the service that say you agree to it by using and/or paying for your phone?) that you will be charged to the end of a billing cycle even if you port out to another carrier. I’ve actually looked at a few other Service agreements, and attw/cingular is not the only carrier to do this. Verizon for example.
For the love of all that is good and pure, people!!! please read your goddamned service agreements and keep them - no, wait, get them plasticized and put somewhere safe!! They detail *every* way that a service provider can screw over a customer! (for instance the section in the attw one that said that they can sell off any part or all of their agreement to you to another carrier with little or no notice, thusly, your contract still being valid post merger.)

Comment by chovy

June 9, 2005 @ 1:52 am

In all seriousness, who in the hell reads those? Anyway, you have to agree to it to get the service. We had a huge project at my last company about the user agreements, and the big joke was, nobody ever reads ‘em.

Comment by Anonymous

June 15, 2005 @ 3:39 pm

Good Grief Red do you think you could be a little more rude???? I too an a call center rep and there are ways to get around all the legal mumbo jumbo of the contract. It all depends on who you talk to. For example all you Cingular/ATTWS cusotmers did you know that once a year you are entitled to a credit. Meaning (for example) lets say you have overage in the amount of $100.00 the rep can credit up to half of that for you and you will not get another curtosey credit for another 365 days. I agree it is all in who you talk to. I think right off the bat if you don’t get your way ask for a manager. Sooner or later you will get what you want. Also I want the world to know that Cingular Wireless is hosting Gay and Lesbian Apperciation Month in July. So if that tells you anything at all about the company there you go…….. As far as I am concernered the company is being run by Satan himself……….

Comment by Anthony

June 15, 2005 @ 3:55 pm

this page seems to be very popular among Cingular/ATT call reps. Are you guys passing it around at work, or just googling “Cingular Sucks”?

Comment by Sam

June 16, 2005 @ 7:40 pm

I have a AT&T Go Phone. which means theres not contract so cingular can never stop my plan and service. when Cingular aquired AT&t wirelss I nedded a new phone, so I wen to get one and the the rep told me I had to switch to a “Cingular Go-phone” which i payed the same and lost my free nights and weekends and I lost 10 mins. if i did this then he told me I could no longer come in and pay cahs for my go phoen bill..it had to be linked to an bank account. which is shit. Plus he said I couldnt even keep my number….he said I should just get an AT&T phone of ebay and that it wasnt relaly worht it cause soon i would have crappy service to my phoen and I would have to switch to cingualr eventually. Well screw cingualr because i got an unlocked Mototorollar V600 cingualr phoen and put my at&t sim card in and it works fine. I think are choices for wireless services are getting lowered by the minute. I heard soon Sprint will aquire nextel too.

Comment by Anonymous

June 26, 2005 @ 9:56 pm

Anita and/or Red …or anyone else who may have the answer to my question: I am an AT&T customer, and wish to remain one….or switch to another carrier. My head was swimming this afternoon from my visit to my local Cingular store….but it was somehow comforting to read the blog here with all the same details….$18 migration fees, “need” to switch to Cingular, crappier ‘pay-more-and-get-less’ service plans…. Well, here’s my question: Anita - was your contract ending that particular month? Because I thought that the small print in our contract also states that if we cancel our service, we will be charged a termination fee (somewhere in the area of $175 per line, I think)? If that is not so, then I’d surely pay one month’s bill to get out of this mess. But shelling $350 out of my pocket to terminate 2 lines is out of the question. Thanks to anyone who can shed light on this! Go BLUE!

Comment by Anonymous

June 26, 2005 @ 10:20 pm

Try this: Go to cingular.com, go to ‘about us”, then click on ‘meet us’. Shoot off an email to the big guys. It may not mean a thing, but it made me feel a little better. I wrote: “When the AT&T/Cingular merge was about to occur, I was sent a ‘wedding’ invitation from you. Well, guess what…..I want a DIVORCE!!!!”

Comment by Anthony

June 26, 2005 @ 10:37 pm

Two the poster 2 comments up. I’m pretty sure she was complaining that Cingular did not pro-rate her bill, her contract was up, afaik.

Two the poster directly above mine….I want a damn divorce too. If the cingular/at&t marriage is gonna be like a real marriage, I ain’t never gonna get married!

Comment by Anthony

June 26, 2005 @ 10:40 pm

I went over there to send the same thing to their CEO that you did, and they require all my personal info just to contact them.

Forget it, they will probably cancel my service.

Yet another reason this company sucks ass.

Comment by Supervisor

June 27, 2005 @ 6:54 am

A Blog on wireless service…hahaha…life must be rough…Interestingly enough it’s true what I was told. A blog created by customers to vent…and know it all reps that have to jump in and bash others and or each other. As a supervisor I will admit that the reps are far more proficient on the systems, in fact I tell the customers they are. I will leave it at that there is no need to defend a position that one can not comprehend. However policy is policy, and who do they speak to when they need that policy broken due to some obscure grey area that does not quite fall within the pretty little guidelines set out by the client? The wireless industry has created a whole new breed of customer…they for the most part have large teeth and like to use descriptive colorful vocabulary. I would have to agree that in a lot of cases it is not fair. However as stated by another here, it’s just a wireless service. We have people calling in about all the millions they are losing due to lack of service. If I were losing a million I am not sure I would rely on a cell phone. People are using a wireless service as a crutch. They are extremely practical to have but I would not use it as a backup to make life changing decisions. The moral here is simple, there is a difference between my cell phone does not work, and I have terminal cancer.
I can honestly say that the reps, (even the ones venting in here) do have a reason to do so. Their jobs are demanding. In 90% of all cases the reps truly want to help their customers. It’s just that their hands are tied.

Thanks for the attention-grabbing read.

Comment by Anonymous

June 27, 2005 @ 8:35 pm

Anthony - I’ll let u know if the CEOs cancel my service! LOL
And to just clear this whole mess up, no, this is not running my life. However, I looked to the web to see if anyone else was in the same situation as me, and this is one of the places that I ended up….and did, in fact, find that many, many others are in the same situation as me. I work hard for my money, have tuition bills, car notes, insurance bills, etc. etc. and to put it bluntly, I don’t like to (and honestly can’t) piss away my money. I feel that I (and all other AT&T former subscribers) have been done an injustice. I don’t think we are being treated fairly. We purchased one service (which, by the way, I shopped very diligently for before committing) and are being forced to change to something else…which happens to cost more and provide less. (And ’supervisor’, if you think it’s so funny that there is a blog on wireless service, what are you doing here? Just wondering. Not being ugly here, I am truly wondering why you’re here and putting up your big long post if you’re enjoying laughing at us all.) Thanks, Chovy, for starting this chaos (LOL) and to all of the rest of y’all for sharing your grief. Somehow it strangly gives me a bit of comfort to know I’m not the only one who feels this way. Peace.

Comment by Anita

July 6, 2005 @ 12:44 pm

To the anonymous person requsting info regarding choice of company to go with. I went with another carrier and was told they pro-rate the final bill. In addition, they are cheaper than Cingular and I get more minutes. Hmmm…sounds like good customer service to me.

Red’s response to me (who is a customer service rep for Cingular) was very rude. Just another reason I don’t like Cingular and will never do business with them again.

Anthony. Responding to your question regarding my service contract. I was not under contract as it had expired and I was on a month to month. I find it’s just an underhanded way for a company to rip off a customer and put more money in their pocket. What has happened to taking care of the customer. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be a priority for a lot of companies. They do, however, forget that without customers you don’t have a business. Anthony, thanks for allowing us to speak our mind.

Comment by Anita

July 13, 2005 @ 10:25 am

Anthony,

I received a call on 7/12/05 from Cingular’s customer care office and was informed that they will be refunding me $45.00. Along with the posting on your site, I sent a complaint to the BBB and to the Consumer Affairs Department which must have gotten somebody’s attention. Just wanted to let you know that I was successful in getting my complaint resolved. Thank you again for allowing me to vent.

Comment by Anthony

July 13, 2005 @ 10:36 am

Well, that’s good to hear. I think that is the only thing that companies will listen to are customers who are vocal, especially those who rank high in google for “cingular sucks” :-)

Comment by Anonymous

August 16, 2005 @ 1:05 am

AT&T Holdouts.

So how can we maintain at least some of our benefits?

I was an AT&T customer, & here are my current benefits (as an attached customer to Cingular):

7pm nights/weekends

Business deal (300 extra minutes, 19% off phone bill)

Unlimited text messaging

I want to swith to GSM because my connection is getting worse. However, I don’t want to lose all of my benefits if some can be salvaged. Is there any leeway by Cingular about maintaining old benefits, or is a switch incentive in the works for AT&T customers to switch to Cingular?

G

Comment by Anthony

August 16, 2005 @ 10:09 am

I have the same problem. My phone, which Cingular reps told me to buy, apparently is NOT GMS (it’s TDMA). Which means I can’t access the “new” multi-billion dollar GMS network. (I frankly find it difficult to tell if they are full of shit or not, as I say, they were the ones who suggested this phone about a year ago).

Now they are requiring everyone to switch to GMS by September 3, 2005, or buy a new phone (and be converted to the standard cingular 39.99 plan (nation wide i believe is 450min w/rollover).

I have 850 anytime mins, starting at 9pm w/AT&T. But I gotta say, their service has been starting to suck royally over the past year or so.

My girlfriend has verizon, and she gets coverage EVERYWHERE we go (where as with AT&T/Cingular, I have to manually switch networks all the time - and I even get billed in Lakeport, CA for “roaming” even though I have nation wide roaming. Again, the reps claim it’s my GMS phone. People who live up there claim Cingular sucks in Lakeport, CA. I have to call them everytime I go up there to reverse the charges, however the kicker is that I still have to pay the taxes on an eronous $200 roaming charge, which comes to about $15. After talking with a manager, and threatening to leave, they agreed to reverse the taxes too on my next bill.

Frankly, this company doesn’t give a damn about the customer, and pumps the customer full of baloney when signing up. Kind of like a republican - they really care for you the first 9 months of your life, after that, they don’t want anything to do with you ;-)

J/K for all you wannabe republicans out there!

Comment by Anonymous

October 26, 2005 @ 12:03 am

The best way to be heard is complain to the person in charge of this poor customer service. Got her email from a former rep:

kathy.dowling@semail.cingular.com

Comment by Anonymous

October 26, 2005 @ 12:10 am

No need to put up with rudeness and stupidity of the customer service reps at cingular. Contact your BBB. Cingular has been kicked out of the local BBB in many area of the country. Right the BBB and FCC and contact the management. Let you voice be heard that coverage sucks, customer reps are rude and incompetent, contracts are ridiculous, sale reps lie and all the feedback they need on this intolerable situation

Comment by Nathan

February 9, 2006 @ 10:40 pm

As a former employee of Cingular I just want everyone to know that Cingular Wireless, T-mobile, ATTWS are all using the same network. As to the guy who said Seimens makes the worst phones….Seimens built the entire Cingular GSM network. There are dozens of factors that will effect coverage at any given time. Which include tower congestion, data channel availibility ( voice calls take priority over data calls so data calls get bumped to make more room on the tower during heavy traffic.)National Security personell have priority over all other customers. Weather, geographic conditions, man made obstructions, and power grid outages all can effect the ability to receive service. So no matter who you go with cellular is cellular.

Comment by DJprosound99

March 26, 2006 @ 9:29 am

I had cingular in like 2000 there service was teriable. THen i went to att i loved them and miss them so much. there is rumors that att and t has percurched cingular. I know this sounds weird but i think its a stock thing or mabee just a name change to attract new customs from cingular shity deals.
I read all over the net and i agree with everone we are pickey with our plans and are greedy, but we have a reason to be att spoiled us and we wont that back. with att u can get a phone every year and great amount of min for a good price. If u could get a car all the options for half the price then someone bought the company then charged double price would u not miss that company regradless of there flaws ?
I think that it is unfair for us not to have the same plans w/ cingular that we where used to its only fair, But u know what that is big bussiness and it just sucks there nothing we can do about but not go to cingular and fight for our rights agenst big bussiness that wont to rip us off to make them self rich and us poorer.

Can someone inform me on this att cingular thing whats going on if att is returning w/ its good plans or not.

Comment by Bruce

August 12, 2006 @ 6:48 am

I initially had ATT wireless service, which was so horrible I had to dump them. I was blacked out in so many areas you wouldn’t believe it. The worse area was on the block where I live, where it started to get crappy, to my apartment building; where it completley shut down. I felt conned, because the service was okay the first few weeks, then all of a sudden the crappy reception came about. I questioned the Customer Care reps, and was told “all phones have problems in those types of area”. I found that to be a blatant lie, because many a day I would be getting nothing while someone with a different carrier is standing right next to me chatting away! As soon as my contract was up, it was dumping time for ATT. I couldn’t stand them anyway because when they send you a bill, it’s nasty, rude and it as if they want you to pay YESTERDAY. I was happy that my local phone company - SBC - was providing wireless service at that time, and so I signed up with them.

SBC had a combined billing plan, and for some reason which i never figured out, as soon as I signed up for phone service (wireless) with them (CINGULAR?SBC at the time) they started getting really agressive and threatening with billing. Like ATT, as soon as I got a bill I also recieved phone calls, and threatening notices. I was told that “because my phone options have changed” I was being placed on restrictions and must pay my bill within 7 days of whenever I got it - or else face further punishment for doing nothing but being a loyal long time customer. I just think I was not thier preferred demographic. Well, at least they had the due dates on thier bill - ATT just sent a “PAY WHEN RECIEVED” notice, with no clue as to when it was sent, or what the actual due date was… assholes. Needless to say, I shipped those phones right back to them and dealt with Cingular directly. Cingular people WERE nice BACK THEN (before the merger).

Cingular service was perfect up until the merger. I don’t know what they did to screw it up, but after almost two years of good service with Cingular, I am back to the crappy ATT performance. The ATT customer care people (in my neighborhood) weren’t given a crash course in customer service, either - they are still nasty, ghetto, and rude like a spreading virus in the Cingular system now. The last time I was in a Cingular store I waited 30 minutes to buy a fucking phone clip while the ignorant ass employees / friends chatted away… the excuse for that bullshit was “she was buying a phone” - but what does gossip about her momma, friends, the party, her baby daddy, and her freakin’ outfit have to do with buying a phone? They go in the back “looking for a product” and go to sleep, then come out with some crappy excuse as to why it was so hard to find. If anyone needs time restrictions, it’s the idiots they hire in those phone centers. Let a buddy come in and nobody has anything better to do than to listen to your pathetic chatter all fucking day, inconsiderate ATT refuge bastads.

So now I’m back to square one. I was doing my damnest to get rid of all that’s ATT in my life - but now they want to FORCE themselves on me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that they acquired SBC also - so now I have to find new residential service… I’m looking at thier “letter of demand” right now…

Comment by shanen

October 1, 2006 @ 10:49 pm

If I were to buy a company that provides a service to a custmer for a price, I would not serigate the custmers, If I am a fuckin att custmor, why the hell does my bill say cingular at the top. shouldnt I be writing my $59.00 chek out to at&frikint. This is soo iritating. and I was with At&t scence 1994. I will migrate to another company, yes i will, fuckem

Comment by ODIN

November 20, 2006 @ 2:34 am

I just got this pay as you go crap, it charges you a minute for 30 seconds, which means they’ve actually decided to CHANGE what the meaning of TIME is to the equation 1 minute = 2 minutes. After exhausting those minutes, I try to reload the phone with a credit card both on the phone and online and that service is “down”. I can’t even give them more money?? Good thing I didn’t have an emergency I guess. I’m just glad I DIDN’T sign a contract like they tried to talk me into.

Comment by chovy

November 24, 2006 @ 1:38 pm

I just bought a Virgin Mobile Pay-As-You-Go phone with $20 card. It was $40 total at Target - not bad, but they immediately signed me up with a monthly service fee of $14.99 that would get me 10 cents per minute instead of 18 cents per minute.

That is BS in my opinion. The operator reverted back to the pay-as-you-go plan so it’s 18 cents per minute (no monthly fee).

And yes, phone companies *always* charge you for a complete minute. Even land-lines function like that.

Comment by Whatever

March 30, 2008 @ 11:51 pm

“Also I want the world to know that Cingular Wireless is hosting Gay and Lesbian Apperciation Month in July. So if that tells you anything at all about the company there you go…….. As far as I am concernered the company is being run by Satan himself……….”

Dude, they could be buttfucking sheep all over the service center for all I care, as long and the price is right and the perks are cool it’s fine for me.