1 July
Kathleen
Reference telephone number:
The address for this number is:
I am writing in regards to the complete lack of response to my inquiry into my account history and answers to questions that have been directed to unavailable supervisors through customer service.
When I returned from overseas, I was informed that my account was moved from AT&T to Cingular. Since I was satisfied with my service at AT&T, I shifted my service from AT&T to Cingular. Since that time, I have had nothing but trouble with this account.
There was no Cingular plan that mirrored my AT&T plan at sign up. This is not good business when merging two customer bases. Not offering an incoming customer a plan that is the same as the one he uses makes him want to shop around instead of staying with the new company. Having been gone and not remembering how my account was structured at AT&T, the girl at the Cingular booth looked up my account and told me what my services were. She showed me different plans through Cingular. She was not aware of my having a 2-line account and after looking at her print out of my services on the new plan, we added a plan for a second phone. This did not impress me either.
Now that I am back in the States, I am regularly making calls to the Middle East. I was assured that Middle Eastern calls were included in my plan. I was happy to know that.
I am paying outrageous fees through Cingular. It is not possible to fix this on your website. I would take responsibility for this being my mistake, but as a service provider, it is Cingular's job to make your site as user friendly as possible for it's customers. Yours needs work. Your website is designed to download ring tones and other media.
The Cingular website is not updated for billing in a timely fashion and only directs you to customer service for updates to service. Spend your website dollars more wisely. Service websites are very useful and enhance the ability for a company to improve their services to their customers while cutting customer service costs while allowing customers to feel better about their choice in service and giving them the confidence to increase their business with such a company, when done properly. Yours does not do this.
I called the customer service lines when I could not amend my services on the website. The recording told me to call during normal working hours. Your business has expanded in a huge way. Your website points us to customer service. For you to fit all of your customers into normal working hours is ridiculous. Not even banks have normal business hours anymore. Don't model your expanding business after other companies struggling to stay alive in today's multi-faceted service market.
The phone waiting time is too long and your customer service people at least the one that I reached, if you check you records for the change in service to Cingular World - are not educated on how to speak to a valued customer. This customer service person was abrasive and sounded inconvenienced by my questions.
I now know I can have much lower rates using a Cingular World plan. I asked the customer service representative to submit a remark for the supervisor to contact me in his request, as I wished to speak to someone that could make this plan retroactive and get the $2,560 bill to something more rational. That did not happen. I received a text message saying that I was approved for the world plan.
There are not many companies that offer service by cell to where I am trying to call, but Cingular is not the only one. And if there is not a favorable response to my inquiry here, I will gladly pay the penalty and move on to someone who prefers to make much more money from me over a long and faithful period of time, than to a company who simply desires what it can make quickly before their customers quit.
A quick response to this letter will be the first thing Cingular has done to show a desire to hold its customer base.
Jack
Buena Park, California
U.S.A.
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