Cingular is on the Verge of Losing My Business
In accordance with this month’s resolution, I’m attempting to rework my cellular phone plan. I’ve had this number for over five-and-a-half years—I know that because Dad called me on my cell phone to tell me about Mom’s stroke, and I know how long that’s been. So, I decide to do a little hunting…
cingular.com: You need to get new phone. I say BS. Come on, guys … a Treo 600 GSM/GPRS phone works with any GSM/GPRS carrier. It uses a SIM card. Don’t insult my intelligence.
Call Cingular. Wait reasonable amount of time on hold. Have CSR tell me that I need a new phone. I call BS on him—I was firm but polite—and tell him that I know that Cingular supports these phones, because they’ve sold them in the past. [They don't sell them now because Treo's now on the 650 mainstream on the I-won't-use-it 700w on the bleeding edge.] I know people with Treo 600’s on Cingular. I tell the guy, “Come on. Don’t give me that crap.” Guy tells me that I just need to go into a store.
Okay, that’s fine. But really: why is Cingular’s first and second instinct to lie to me and tell me that I need a new phone? A new phone is going to cost them money—even if I sign a contract. I’m willing—although not too willing—to sign another contract if I can get a really good plan. [I need a low number of peak minutes, Rollover, free nights and weekends, and a data plan---that's it!] Don’t tell me that I need a new phone when I have one I really enjoy using—let me save you money!
Thankfully, the nearest store is really close to home. I’ll hit it after the late-afternoon meeting I have tomorrow. They better not give me the run-around, because … well, would you want my loud, angry ass in your mall store? Yeah, me neither.
Are you with Cingular now? If so, then yeah. They’re messing with you. However, if you’re currently with another provider, it’s not necessarily BS. GSM providers use a technique called “SIM locking” on their phones. It prevents the phone from being used with any other provider’s SIM. Supposedly, if you’ve had the phone long enough, you can have the provider remove the SIM lock so the phone can be taken elsewhere.
January 19th, 2006 at 22:35Jeff: Yes and no. I was originally a SunCom customer—TBE did a discount deal with them. AT&T Wireless absorbed its subsidiaries when it could, and then BellSouth and SBC bought AT&T Wireless and rolled its assets into Cingular. I bought the Treo after the merger was announced but before it was acted upon [which was a lag of several months]. I’ve been billed by Cingular for a solid year or more, but the SIM card in my phone was indeed technically given to me by AT&T.
January 19th, 2006 at 22:39Based on what I know of GSM, I suspect you need a new SIM. They’re probably trying to clean up the old AT&T cruft on their network. If the “Cingular Store” gives you the run-around, though, I highly recommend going to a privately-owned cellular retail store that sells multiple providers’ services. They generally have a clue, and usually they have less than 50% loyalty to any one carrier.
January 19th, 2006 at 22:48I like Verizon.
January 20th, 2006 at 04:36Oh, but no SIM cards in their phones….. how about T-Mobile?
January 20th, 2006 at 04:37Geof,
If you’re already with Cingular, at MOST you’ll need a new SIM card. You actually don’t even really need that, unless there is some underlying quirky network issue with the AT&T SIMs. That being said, as long as you just want to upgrade your plan, getting a new phone is unnecessary. The normal thing for them to do is insist on a new phone, and then have you pay full retail for it (ususally about 50% above cost), saying that the promo prices are for new activations only. It’s all a sales game. Just approach the most unexperienced looking rep there and bulldoze him. That’s how you have to be with those folks.
January 20th, 2006 at 10:06Thanks for validating my parking ticket, Chris. [See, that's why I didn't bust on you so hard yesterday, man. I like you!]
If I get any gruff, I’m going to ask the clown how long my account has been open. If not, I’ll tell him, and after writing down his name, I’ll ask him if he wants to be known to the regional sales manager as the guy who pissed off a six-year customer so much that he switched to another carrier. That’ll look real good on his permanent record.
[Poor bastard. I'm having a really, really shitty day, and this is going to be hell for whoever is on the other end.]
January 20th, 2006 at 10:10Are you out of contract yet? If so, you’ll probably have good luck getting what you want out of them. Last I checked, they get paid on every re-up.
January 20th, 2006 at 10:31My phone is 18 months old; IIRC, I only signed a one-year contract with AT&T, if I even signed one. [I flat-out bought my phone because I didn't want to be too beholden to them.] I think I’d remember being on a two-year, and I imagine I’d have been told that by the guy on the phone last night.
So yeah … probably.
January 20th, 2006 at 10:33Wow is all I can say to that. As best as I have heard from being in the industry over two years now, Cingular has been systematically trying to get rid of all hardware (both on their end and customer’s handsets) that were associated with the old AT&T Wireless so they can up-sell customers on new services that only their newest handsets support. If they give you any guff, I would suggest to get your phone unlocked and go to another carrier. (Might I suggest TMO?)
January 20th, 2006 at 11:09Dearest Duckie: Yeah, it’s pretty ludicrous. If I’d've had your number last night, I would have called you to complain out of frustration. This is frickin’ ridiculous. They don’t want to piss me off—I have a cadre of out-of-contract co-workers whom I can steer to other carriers from Cingular if they’re not real careful. [And yes, I'll consider TMO.]
January 20th, 2006 at 11:13Rick and I found that the store itself for cingular was really low on Customer service. We did go to the cell phone areas in Wal-Mart and Sam’s and were pleased with both of those. So I’d probably agree with Grant’s comment above about going to another retail place (we actually didn’t go to privately owned ones but that may be better) that sells different carriers. We sure had better luck at those type places vs. the Cingular store!
January 20th, 2006 at 12:44Overwhelmingly, authorized dealers (those places that sell many carriers) will say just about anything they can to get you to jump companies, and they don’t even care which one. They thrive on their commission, so if you’re going somewhere to get honest advice, that wouldn’t be the place to do it … I have to deal with customers who’ve been screwed by these scam artists every day. Wal-Marts and Sam’s are really hit or miss - it just kinda depends on the rep you get. They’re on hourly, so they don’t have any vested interest in making you switch. This doesn’t by any means apply to everyone, but those that are helpful are the exception rather than the rule.
January 20th, 2006 at 15:24I’ve had very good luck with the local Cingular store, and I’ve had crappy luck in the past with the kiosk at Sam’s. I am not your standard cell phone user.
January 20th, 2006 at 15:27Well, we weren’t switching carriers, so that wasn’t a problem with us. We were wanting new phones though with a new contract without spending a ton of money. Turns out the cingular store is not the place to go for that! At least.. in our experience. The local store didn’t have any free-to-cheap phones with new contract. I still didn’t get a free phone, but I did get a relatively cheap one at Wal-Mart. Rick was able to get his Razr at Sam’s at a reasonable price too with the contract. But.. since you aren’t wanting a new phone, that probably makes sense to go to the store anyway. We just didn’t have a good experience buying new phones there.
January 20th, 2006 at 16:42My Cingular Hell: Round Two
Last time around was the joyous time spent with bare-bones, knowledgeless customer service from Cingular; today was time spent in the Cingular store on University Drive. I entered, signed in, sat down, and people-watched. The folks there were extrem…
January 21st, 2006 at 17:46[...] Cingular is on the Verge of Losing My Business @ The Indiana Jones School of Management - why are cell carriers so intent on getting new customers yet care little about keeping existing customers? [...]
January 23rd, 2006 at 00:00If you have a sim card in your phone you can get a 4 band unlocked phone from Celluar one or on the internet put your sim card in and you are ready to go anywhere in the country with great service.need a sim card there on ebay tell cingular to activate it
January 28th, 2006 at 13:27must be gsm phone 4 band unlocked. No new contracts
January 28th, 2006 at 13:33I can say this much. cingular is crap. Dropped networks. Regretted switching to them after 5years with T-mobile just for the crapppy Razr which is another “crap-o-la” phone bought before Jan 2006. Can’t wait for my 2 years contract to end with them
June 4th, 2006 at 10:40Cingular took me to the cleaners! Terrible coverage, even in D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore, major metro areas. So I attempted to cancel within 14 days. Took two weeks to get them to let me cancel (didn’t use the phone that entire time), and was charged $300 early termination by Cingular, then two months later, their “authorized dealer” sent me a seperate early termination bill for $450 — did I mention the 30 day money back if it sucks guarantee. I called authorized dealer, explained I already paid $300, and I cancelled in the 30 day period. “Ok” he says, “I’ll check into it and get back to you”. next thing I hear is from a collection agency, I’m now being charged $570 and have been reported to a credit agency. whoa! hold up, we just talked about this a month ago, not like I ignored that you’re trying to charge me. response this time, ‘you shouldn’t have paid Cingular and you didn’t pay us so now you owe $570 and nothing you can do about it’. I hung up before I said something in French. sooo, lesson learned, Cingular is still the same crap-o-la service the AT&T was and this 30 day trial period, they don’t abide by it so don’t be sucked in and give it a try. it will cost you a hit on your otherwise PERFECT credit report.
June 19th, 2006 at 07:40Le Treo Est Mort. Vive Le Treo!
Indeed, my Treo 600 is dead. I have a Treo 650 on order, despite all of Alex’s work to get me to go with a Blackberry as he did. [Indeed, I get 30 days to change my mind.] In the end, I didn’t want to have to develop a whole new workflow…
June 26th, 2006 at 18:45