I recently called Cingular's Customer Service line because I was called at home and told that my phone, and my husband's, would no longer work in a month. I was a bit confused since I had only had the $150 phone (after mail-in rebate and 2 year service agreement, of course) for six months. The man on the line told me that Cingular was switching networks from TDMA to GSM. That means what? Hell if I know.
I called the CS Deptartment and was told that an outside company had been hired by Cingular to make these calls. My phone would actually work until June. Cingular just wanted to avoid the influx of people switching to a new phone all at once. So, Cingular had hired a company to call me at home and lie to me to avoid too much work.
The same CSR proceeded to tell me that if I kept my phone for a while, a better "deal" would come along. But, She had to admit, "you will get crappy service until you switch phones." I had never had a "customer service" person tell me that my service was going to be crappy.
As mad as I was, I left it at that. I would keep my "crappy" service until I had to switch phones. A month later, I couldn't talk on my phone for more than maybe 15 seconds without my call being dropped.
I went to my "neighborhood Cingular Store" and told the girl at the counter the problem. Of course, she immediately told me to call customer service because she "just sells phones". Umm... Okay.
Tonight I gave the folks at the friendly "customer service department" a call. I have to admit that the gentleman I talked to first said that he'd like to help, but didn't have the authority to. He put me through to the manager on duty, Allison Webb. The problem seems easy to remedy to me.
I signed a contract with Cingular for wireless service. I bought two phones, a hands-free car kit, and a car charger. My service is lacking, yet my monthly fees are the same. I can disconnect my phones for a large fee. Or I can buy a new phone, that is like mine, that works on the new network. All the "options" that Allison proposed to me were about me losing money on my old things and/or shelling out for new ones. She told me, "Cingular cannot guarantee service." Did she mean service at all? Because, I thought that was what I was paying $80 a month for.
Not only did Allison not help me, she literally told me that she was done talking to me about the issue. After 30 minutes of analogies (which she didn't like) and her interrupting me (which I didn't like), I asked to speak to her supervisor.
She told me that she was the manager. I said, "You don't have anyone that signs your paycheck?" She gave me the name of her supervisor finally. I'll be on the phone tomorrow bright and early, I suppose. I call it my "I'm-getting-ripped-off" plan.
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