Even despite the noticeable decline in all business sectors in 'Customer Service' throughout the U.S.in recent years, Cingular Wireless takes it one step lower! They are hideous!
As an international businessman I was keen to obtain a new phone which would work worldwide with the new UMTS technology developed by AT&T which works on quad-band and does not necessitate the purchase and hassle of obtaining local phones or SIM cards overseas, even in Japan and Korea. Hearing that Cingular Wireless was taking over AT&T Wireless, I scrambled to make sure I ordered the Motorola A845 through AT&T last March. The phone arrived in LA and worked fine for a few weeks until it stopped recharging the battery.By then Cingular was in full control (or so THEY thought) of AT&T Wireless. Their website proved to be practically worthless for AT&T customers with questions, their corporate retail store employees in San Diego (a UMTS market) and Los Angeles were even more clueless (if that were possible) than before the merger and even downright rude when confronted with questions regarding UMTS service and my particular telephone. After 6 weeks at Motorola's Ft. Worth Tech Center, I received a new (or refurbished) phone.
One might think time would've smoothed over the problems created by such a corporate merger. Yet, when I contacted Cingular's Finance department about changing the account name on my phone from my then recently former employer to my new business (after, I might add, 2 frustrating weeks of repeated calls, 20-30 minute hold times, with several disconnects in the automated Cingular corporate telephone and voice mail 'customer avoidance' roulette from HELL!) I was told I would need to deposit $800 for the change to be effected despite my protests that I had been an AT&T customer for over 30 years! I gave them a credit card and assumed all would be okay. Not so! The next month I was shocked to see a $900 Cingular bill with a previous balance of $800 and ominous threats that if I din;t pay the full amount my service would be cut off. I called again to find out what had happened and was told to find my receipt (FROM THE EARLIER PHONE CALL!) and to fax a copy of it to a number without any contact name. I agreed to at least find a reference number (which I later did and faxed into their 'Black Hole') but was shocked to discover 20 minutes later upon leaving the house with the phone that they had shut the service off!!!
Again I called and received the same horrid treatment from both employees and a supervisor along with weak assurances the entire matter would be immediately investigated. I paid the portion ($159) of the new bill for my monthly charges which I did not dispute. Wrong move! This only further muddled the simple minds of Cingular's Finance FOOLS along with the fact that it was their failure to even submit my initial $800 deposit with my credit card company! Told that the only way to resolve the matter then and resume service would be to give them another credit card number for the deposit which I did with a few comments about their VERY BAD customer service and obviously poor training for employees on how to feign interest and dismiss an upset business customer which uncannily mimics the equally AWFUL customer service program of Congular's majority stakeholder, fellow Texas corporate crooks SBC (our hideous local LAN and DSL provider). The following months'a statement finally chowed the $800 deposit correctly applied, but unbelieveably tried to collect again for the previous month's service ($159).
And so it continued for another 2 months until Cingular finally seemed to get it RIGHT!
THE most deceitful thing that makes me sick is that Cingular is constantly advertising about 'more bars' of service than anyone else yet there are HUGE swathes of metro Los Angeles where my phone clearly sees NO BARS!
Yikes! Someone must stop 'em!!!
David
Studio City, California
U.S.A.
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