Grrrrr-AT&T/Cingular vent

[KarenB]

I'll make this short, just need to vent for a moment.

DH and I have had cell phones/plans from AT&T for quite a few years now. We added on our DS plus purchased 3 new, upgraded phones when he turned 16. We have a contract that expires in September. We haven't been pleased with AT&T for the past year or so. We never seem to have a good reception, often loose our connection, and many times other people are using cell phones through dfferent companies and we can't get a signal what so ever. So I will admit, we have been looking at other plans/companies. We can't break the contract because it is $200/phone to disconnect which would total $600 to change plans before September. Okay, that is the contract we are in, I understand, no big deal there.

What really bothers me though is DH's AT&T phone konked out on him. Today, he went to AT&T to purchase another one. They won't sell him one unless he adds on another 2 year contract!!!! I just don't agree with that at all. I could maybe see if he was buying a phone from somewhere else, but he wants to buy another AT&T phone to replace the broken AT&T phone they sold us. GGRRRRR!!!

Thanks for listening-
Karen

 

[ash&abby'smom]

Did you have insurance on the phone? We have cingular and pay insurance every month. I had dropped mine once and had to replace it. I had to pay for my deductible $50, but did not have to sign another contract.

 

[drgnfly30]

Went through something very similar yesterday with AT&T/Cingular... ended up having to renew & buy four new phones because DH's old one stopped working...

The topper was I decided that two of the four phones would be the $99.99 Razrs... yet upon ringing me up (after activation etc.. for an HOUR), the manager, no less, tells me that the promo ended on 12/24... umm no I say, you have a full page newspaper ad & TV commercials advertising to hurry in - ends 12/31... no she tells me & I'd have to prove it to her...So it's the day after Xmas & to save myself $100, I haul my butt home to get the newspaper ad, haul it back to the, now packed , mall... she-devil-manager gives me total ATTITUDE, It's for authorized dealers only.. Uh.. your store address is LISTED in the ad... I start to threaten false advertising.. she yells at me in front of other customers "its the day after Christmas cut us a break!" Cut you a break?! You idiots don't even know you own promotions & make the customer go out of their way to PROVE IT?! She & co-idiot, get on their computer & sure enough I was right... Yeah, you couldn't do that first,
before making a customer go out of their way.. no apology.. nothing..!!

Don't get me started with Cingular.. I could go on for days... DH owes me big time!!

ETA

Did you have insurance on the phone? We have cingular and pay insurance every month. I had dropped mine once and had to replace it. I had to pay for my deductible $50, but did not have to sign another contract.

Ours did but it had gotten wet & the Insurance Co said they'd charge us for the replacement phone if they'd discovered it was due to water damage..

 

[KarenB]

No, I never knew insurance was offered....at least I can't remember it being offered. I am sure they would have told my DH today if we had it. Ugh!

Christine-It seems like the AT&T kiosk is always packed. I wonder if that is a sign that people are buying or complaining?

 

[bicker]

It amazed me when I first found out how much cellphones actually cost. We never really see how much they are because the phone companies build so much of the cost of the phones into the monthly fee.

 

[chyam]

Do a search on Cingular in this forum you will read many more horror stories, also research it on www.planetfeedback.com. To make my story short I will say that it cost me over 200.00 to dump them and get out of my contract and go back to Sprint. I have never dealt with more rude, condesending employees and customer service as I have with Cingular! And if you call them you will more than likely get someone with those qualities plus the added fact that most don't understand or speak English very well! I could not if my life depending on it get a call and keep it on to finish a conversation and that is if I even got through! What good is a cell phone if you can't use it! I hate Cingular , just their TV ads make me boil! I wouldn't under any circumstances extend a contract with them for another phone especially if you are unhappy with their service. Perhaps look into a pay by month plan for your husband until the family contract runs out and then all go with a new company in Sept.

 

[mmexpress]

First, I would call Cingular customer service directly and complain about the store service you got.
Second, Don't deal with wireless phone stores in a mall, they are full of untrained idiots.
You're better off finding a small local electronics retailer that sells cel phone equipment and service.
We have a local independent Radio Shack DEALER, not part of the chain store and the service there is great and they explain everything in detail.
I was on the phone with the owner today discussing Cingular vs Nextel and he told me to come down to the store, take his personal Nextel phone home for the day and see how it works for me.
How many mall stores would go that far for you?

 

[drgnfly30]

I could maybe see if he was buying a phone from somewhere else, but he wants to buy another AT&T phone to replace the broken AT&T phone they sold us. GGRRRRR!!!

Thanks for listening-
Karen

Hey.. I just had a thought... I still have my other AT&T phones... I could send you one & then they can assign your # to it... Ours all had SIM cards so all they had to do was download the old SIM info to a new SIM card for the new phones...

PM me if you're interested.. one only has about 30 minutes of use...

 

[KarenB]

Oh Christine-thanks for the offer, but as of this morning, I believe DH was going to go to another company and sign up one line through them, then we will all switch in September, similar to chyam's suggestion. Yes, we will be eating about 40$/month.......

 

[monkeyboy]

Cingular has been going downhill for months now

 

[drgnfly30]

Cingular has been going downhill for months now

Years!! I left them about 4 years ago & went to AT&T.. then they merged!!! It's like a nightmare that I can't wake up from!

 

[EthansMom]

Karen,

Just a suggestion, but you may want to try giving Cingular's 1-800 number a call and see if you can order a new phone.

Around here, Cingular is the only cell phone that gets reception. I tried dealing with a couple of local dealerships and all they wanted to do was sell me expensive phones with pricey plans. I was able to get reasonably priced pre-paid phones by calling the 1-800 number direct. And don't even get me started about the curt/rude/lack-of customer service I've gotten when I've gone in to the dealerships to purchase refill cards -- took me a few months, but I've discovered that for the same price I can call 611 and refill with a credit card.

Still, it may be worth 10 or 15 minutes to call up Cingular and ask about a replacement phone.

 

[diznygirl]

Actually, we like AT&T/Cingular so much better than Verizon. I can't even go into all the reasons we hated Verizon - I think I would need therapy to get over it - but we've been happy since we switched to Cingular. We even washed my cell phone, got the insurance, then sent it back for a new phone - with no problems!

 

[Chris2597]

Dh dropped our cell phone while raking leaves and ds didnt see it and rolled over it with the lawn mower. It was a fairly new phone and would have cost $$$ to replace it....A nice salesman at the Cingular store suggested that we buy one of the prepaid phones that Cingular offers....I think it was 89...he would assign out # to it, we could use the minutes that the prepaid phone had on it and then transfer the phone to our acct. It was so easy....
I have to agree with others that the service at Cingular is awful....We constantly drop calls, get horrible reception...

 

[kristen821]

Do you know anyone that had a phone with them but don't use it anymore. They can connect one of those phones. I will check if we still have one of ours and send it to you if we do. It will be outdated if we still have them, but it will get you through until September. You may also want to try ebay. You never know what you will find

 

[kristen821]

There is a prepaid phone at a buy it now price of 9.95. Call At&t and see if you got a phone if they can switch it over to your phone number and put it on your plan. When I had At&t I switched over to prepaid so they should be able to do it the other way. The other thing you can do that they let me do is switch the phones to prepaid. I did that with At&t and they didn't charge me the $200 (that was about 5 years ago so they may be smarter now) But I had the two phones and only bought minutes for 1 so you can keep your son on that phone service until sept. and get yourself a new service.

 

[kristen821]

Went through something very similar yesterday with AT&T/Cingular... ended up having to renew & buy four new phones because DH's old one stopped working...

The topper was I decided that two of the four phones would be the $99.99 Razrs... yet upon ringing me up (after activation etc.. for an HOUR), the manager, no less, tells me that the promo ended on 12/24... umm no I say, you have a full page newspaper ad & TV commercials advertising to hurry in - ends 12/31... no she tells me & I'd have to prove it to her...So it's the day after Xmas & to save myself $100, I haul my butt home to get the newspaper ad, haul it back to the, now packed , mall... she-devil-manager gives me total ATTITUDE, It's for authorized dealers only.. Uh.. your store address is LISTED in the ad... I start to threaten false advertising.. she yells at me in front of other customers "its the day after Christmas cut us a break!" Cut you a break?! You idiots don't even know you own promotions & make the customer go out of their way to PROVE IT?! She & co-idiot, get on their computer & sure enough I was right... Yeah, you couldn't do that first,
before making a customer go out of their way.. no apology.. nothing..!!

Don't get me started with Cingular.. I could go on for days... DH owes me big time!!

ETA

Ours did but it had gotten wet & the Insurance Co said they'd charge us for the replacement phone if they'd discovered it was due to water damage..

You should probably have 7 days to cancel that contract. You may want to see if you can get another phone too if you don't want cingular anymore too.

 

[bicker]

Cancelling a contract typically must be down within three days, and you cannot cancel a contract for which you've taken delivery on product which you cannot return in saleable condition.

 

[drgnfly30]

You should probably have 7 days to cancel that contract. You may want to see if you can get another phone too if you don't want cingular anymore too.

I was in until Sept 06 anyway... & with four phones on the contract, it would have been a hefty cancellation fee.

I complain about them.. but like with anything else, I hear nightmares from friends & co-workers about their company as well - Sprint, Verizon, Nextel... all of them have issues!

 

[golfgal]

Do you still have your old phones? You can just have them put dh's number onto one of those and use that until Sept under your current plan, at least we can with our cell company.