Cingular Wireless Rant!!!

[boomhauer]

Go with T-Mobile and just make sure you have enough minutes in your plan to cover your normal calling and you won't pay for voicemail access.

Plus in the 4 months we have had T-Mobile we have only had 2 calls drop. When we had Sprint we would have 3-4 a day.

I would if I could, but I'm only in the 6th month of a 24 month contract with Cingular Wireless. If I drop them now, I'll have to pay $175. I guess I'm screwed.

 

[mandy200587]

We were with Verizon and were raking up bills up to 500 bucks a month, because of many different things. We switched to tmobile and never have had a problem. They have some of the best customer service. I would go and browse around figure out if it's worth the money to get out. Here's another thing with T-mobile your contract is only a year along.

 

[robinb]

Are you talking about checking your voicemail from your mobile phone or from a land line? I guess that I would expect to be charged minutes as long as the mobile phone is "active". If I check from my mobile number, then I expect to be charged. If I check my VM from a land line, then I don't expect to be charged. FWIW, I have Nextel.

 

[boomhauer]

The reason is that you are making a call and is no different than a regular phone call. It is not that the companies are trying to steal from you or cheat you.

You are not going to like this but it is a consumer's responsibility to understand any products and/or services that they sign up for. On the flip side the company offering their products and/or services should be upfront with any and all information. It sounds like the sales rep that sold you the phone wasnt as upfront with you.

It does not benefit cell companies to try and "cheat" or mislead their customers. Churn (whenever a customer leaves) is a major concern within the industry that costs millions. Sales reps are usually trained to put someone in the best plan for them because they dont want to undersell and then have a customer get pissed off because they werent sold the right plan.

I think you are on the right track. Call customer service again and make sure you speak to a manager. Dont get mad at the customer service reps because they are only doing as they have been told. Also, do you have company owned CIngular stores in your area? If you do not get satisfaction with customer service try going to a store. MAKE SURE its a company owned store and not an agent. if you are not sure call and ask. Go to the store and ask to see the manager. they can escalate it up to an area manager.

I know you are upset but realize that you are to blame also. Stay calm with the people within Cingular and they will probably take care of you.

The thing that irritates me is that online it states the voicemail charging policy. On my contract, it does not. THAT is not right.

As for as it being a regular phone call, fine. But look at it this way. Here's what my plan includes:

- Unlimited mobile to mobile calls.

- Unlimited nights and weekends.

- 450 whenever minutes.

What doesn't make sense is, why should I lose some of my "whenever" minutes calling my voicemail, if the call takes place during "nights and weekends"? That simply doesn't make sense.

I understand what you're saying, but I believe the company IS trying to screw it's customers here. They know 99% of poeple won't even bother doing the research to find out if they're getting screwed, so they do it.

 

[dixipixi]

As soon as this contract expires, I'm done with Cingular. I don't necessarily have a problem with the billing, it's their customer service that has turned me off.

I was recently told by someone in the customer service dept.: "I'm sorry, I can't help you figure out your bill." I asked to be connected to the proper person and she said: "I don't think anyone here can explain it to you in terms you would understand. We're Cingular. We do not operate like FEMA and the Red Cross."

WTH was that supposed to mean? I only have 2 months on my contract, so I'm going to wait it out. If it was any longer, I would just take the penalty.

 

[mandy200587]

Cingular and Verizon are good for that. They were suppose to change our text messaging and never did. They also discontinued so many messages for so much and told none of its customers.

 

[boomhauer]

Are you talking about checking your voicemail from your mobile phone or from a land line? I guess that I would expect to be charged minutes as long as the mobile phone is "active". If I check from my mobile number, then I expect to be charged. If I check my VM from a land line, then I don't expect to be charged. FWIW, I have Nextel.

From my mobile phone. The reasons I didn't tink I'd be charged were:

- I have unlimited mobile to mobile calling on my network, and I'm calling my CINGULAR phone number from my CINGULAR phone.

- There's NOTHING in my contract stating I'll be charged for retrieving my voicemails.

- I'm already paying a monthly fee for voicemail. To use the analogy I used before, it's a bit like ordering HBO from your cable company. You pay the monthly fee and whenever you watch something on it, you get charged extra.

 

[Aidensmom]

Another one that says go with T-Mobile.

My work phone is Cingular. I can't talk on it inside my house. If I get a call on the work phone, I call back using my personal phone.

 

[boomhauer]

Oh yeah - Another thing that ticked me off.

I had a few incoming calls on my bill I noticed that had my cell number on it. At first I thought they were more voicemail calls, but then I realized it said incoming. One was for 37 minutes, one was for 23 minutes, and one was for 17 minutes. Those 3 calls came to $34.65. So, I asked what those were about. The lady tells me, "Oh, what that is is when you receive a call on another network's tower, and they don't recognize the number, it shows up on your bill as your number."

OK, first off - Makes zero sense. Secondly, there's nothing I can do about it. I have no idea what these calls are, but I am forced to pay for them.

 

[aquinas]

Actually you are calling a voicemail platform that Cingular maintains and supports. My voice mail number is different from my cell number. You are using airtime on their towers and towers that they have leased to put up their cell sites. From a call standpoint the system does not differentiate between a voicemail call and a regular call.

I know its frustrating and I agree with you in principle. But I do not think that the cell companies are trying to "screw" anyone. Any short term gains would be negated to millions lost in churn.

Customer service is an area that Cingular just like many other companies are struggling to maintain and upgrade the service given. Again, try going to a store and talking with someone face to face.

Good luck! I hope they take care of this for you.

 

[lulubelle]

Wev'e had our fair share of problems with them, too. We are stuck in our contract ten more months. We unaffectionately refer to them as "Suckular" in our house

 

[Poohnatic]

I'm counting the months-then back to TMo I go. The only reason why I'd dropped them was the dropped calls when I first moved down here. What I didn't know is EVERY carrier has dropped calls where I was having problems.

AT&T customer here-and we're treated worse by the customer service and the company as a whole. "Oh, that doesn't work for you-you're AT&T" has been said on many occasions.

Come on August, I'm with Boomhauer and saying Sayonara to Cingular.

Suzanne

 

[BelleBoo&AmisMum]

Cingular is the worst for nickel and dime charges that end up being a ton!

When we first switched to Cingular our first bill was $475, so I called and they told me it was for international calls, problem is we never left the country!! We were up in Bellingham, close but not quite the Canadian border. They did reverse the charges when they looked it up but it was pathetic!

We switched to T-mobile and haven't had any problems since.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I've had a problem with Cingular lately, too- I got a new phone several months ago, and I recently noticed that they've been charging me about $5 a month for data transfer/internet usage. The thing is, I *never* use the internet on the phone! I went to my local cingular place and asked about it, and the guy there said i was probably accidentally pressing the internet button (which I know I'm not). When I asked if there was some way to deactivate the internet, he said nope. No further help.

 

[chyam]

We just dropped Cingular on their big ole behinds this past week and went with Verizon. I'll spare you the details, but I'll go without a phone before I deal with Cingular again. Being a crook isn't the half of it.

I'm right there with you........it cost me over $200.00 to get rid of them and go back to Sprint...........Their Bars didn't seem to be in any of my places, and I can count on 1 hand how many calls I had that were not dropped, what good is a phone if you can't make a call and talk! They were real
******** to deal with even if you got one that spoke English....They were the same way face to face in their stores, not to mention you had to find the "right" store to even get any questions asked, just because it said "Cingular " on their storefront didn't mean they could handle your problems, you had to find a "company store" NEVER AGAIN would I ever hand them any of my money!!!!!

 

[boomhauer]

Well, after going over my bill, call for call, it comes out correctly. What irritates me so much, as I said, is NOWHERE in my contract does it say anything about being charged for calling my voicemail. It tells me how much my monthly voicemail bill is, but says nowhere that I will get charged every time I call my voicemail from my phone.

 

[robinb]

Will they allow you to change your minutes up and down? Perhaps you should increase your minutes for the next couple of months and go back down to the 450 minute level later.