- Report: #108416
Complaint Review: Cingular Wireless - Nationwide
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Cingular Wireless
Nationwide, U.S.A.
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Cingular Wireless ripoff Phone Upgrades Service Contracts Nationwide
I have been a customer since day 1 in 1997. It was Pacific Bell Wireless then and I had great service and great customer service. The problems began when Cingular took over.
The first problems were minor and are not worth talking about. In December of 2000 I added a second line for my wife. This did not cause any problems at first, but then when I tried to upgrade my service I was told I could not.
I upgraded my old phone to a new Ericsson T28z and had nothing but problems with it. I was told I would have to keep it for 2 years due to the 2 year contract I signed. I did however upgrade my phone when my wife's contract was up and had no problems with it (A Nokia) until I dropped it and it broke. This is where the real fun began.
I purchased a new phone at full price. Since I was a customer for 4 years at that time I was penalized for my 4 years of faithful service and a always paying my bill on time by being charged full price. I know it was my fault I dropped the phone, but you would think a good customer would be offered a break.
When I purchaswed the new phone I went to all three of the Cingular stores in my area and I was told that the Motorola C313 was the best phone for me. I was assured it had excellent reception, battery life, and durability by all three stores. All three were wrong on all accounts. I did not move or change jobs during this time, but I had way more dropped calls and poorer reception after I purchased the phone (for full price) and the battery would die on stand-by with no calls made or received every day by 4:00 PM. That is totally dead, no life, won't stay on. I would charge it over night and then the same thing again, daily.
I did get the phone exchanged for one that was the same, but it too developed the same problems in a short amount of time. When I contacted Cingular I was told it must be the coverage in my area. Again I had not moved nor changed jobs so that was not the cause.
In the meantime I purchased a phone for my daughter who is away at college and was told that the bill could be sent to her as she was not sharing minutes with me and does not live in the same city (250 miles away and a different area code). When My next bill came it had her phone on it.
When my next bill came it had her billing on it as well as mine so I called Cingular and was told that they could not send the bill to my daughters address since the phone was in my name. Again, not what I was told in the store. I then asked to cancel the contract and was told that I could not without paying a $250 fee for breaking the contract. As it was past the 15 days after purchase when I received the bill could not stop the process. I explained that I did not know there was a problem until I received the bill (after the 15 days)but again tough luck for me (now a 6 year customer)
Back to my Motorola C313. I finally got to get rid of that piece of s@#! last July (2003). I purchased for full price (The penalty for being a good paying customer)Motorola T720 and it is a great phone!!! I was told at the time that they had discovered many problems with the C313 and in fact were not selling it any more after only 9 months.
My wife's contract was up in July of this year so I called in June to tell Cingular I would not be renewing it due to the way they treat good paying customers. I called again two weeks before and one week before the contract ended to be sure that they would not screw it up. I am happy to report they did not screw it up. In fact one month after the contract ended I received an email and a letter from Cingular inviting me to upgrade my wife's phone! (Even though she no longer has Cingular service)
My contract and my daughter's contract are both up in the end of December and we will both be cancelling service (Me after eight years of being a good paying customer)How often do people stay with one cell phone company that long?
It is mind numbing to me to think that retaing good customers is so un-important to a company. Anybody that knows anything about business knows that word-of-mouth is the cheapest and most effective form of advertising there is. I will tell anybody that will listen how bad the customer service and customer treatment is from Cingular. If just one of those people decides not to use Cingular, than I have done my job!
Bill
Monterey, California
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Cingular Wireless
The first problems were minor and are not worth talking about. In December of 2000 I added a second line for my wife. This did not cause any problems at first, but then when I tried to upgrade my service I was told I could not.
I upgraded my old phone to a new Ericsson T28z and had nothing but problems with it. I was told I would have to keep it for 2 years due to the 2 year contract I signed. I did however upgrade my phone when my wife's contract was up and had no problems with it (A Nokia) until I dropped it and it broke. This is where the real fun began.
I purchased a new phone at full price. Since I was a customer for 4 years at that time I was penalized for my 4 years of faithful service and a always paying my bill on time by being charged full price. I know it was my fault I dropped the phone, but you would think a good customer would be offered a break.
When I purchaswed the new phone I went to all three of the Cingular stores in my area and I was told that the Motorola C313 was the best phone for me. I was assured it had excellent reception, battery life, and durability by all three stores. All three were wrong on all accounts. I did not move or change jobs during this time, but I had way more dropped calls and poorer reception after I purchased the phone (for full price) and the battery would die on stand-by with no calls made or received every day by 4:00 PM. That is totally dead, no life, won't stay on. I would charge it over night and then the same thing again, daily.
I did get the phone exchanged for one that was the same, but it too developed the same problems in a short amount of time. When I contacted Cingular I was told it must be the coverage in my area. Again I had not moved nor changed jobs so that was not the cause.
In the meantime I purchased a phone for my daughter who is away at college and was told that the bill could be sent to her as she was not sharing minutes with me and does not live in the same city (250 miles away and a different area code). When My next bill came it had her phone on it.
When my next bill came it had her billing on it as well as mine so I called Cingular and was told that they could not send the bill to my daughters address since the phone was in my name. Again, not what I was told in the store. I then asked to cancel the contract and was told that I could not without paying a $250 fee for breaking the contract. As it was past the 15 days after purchase when I received the bill could not stop the process. I explained that I did not know there was a problem until I received the bill (after the 15 days)but again tough luck for me (now a 6 year customer)
Back to my Motorola C313. I finally got to get rid of that piece of s@#! last July (2003). I purchased for full price (The penalty for being a good paying customer)Motorola T720 and it is a great phone!!! I was told at the time that they had discovered many problems with the C313 and in fact were not selling it any more after only 9 months.
My wife's contract was up in July of this year so I called in June to tell Cingular I would not be renewing it due to the way they treat good paying customers. I called again two weeks before and one week before the contract ended to be sure that they would not screw it up. I am happy to report they did not screw it up. In fact one month after the contract ended I received an email and a letter from Cingular inviting me to upgrade my wife's phone! (Even though she no longer has Cingular service)
My contract and my daughter's contract are both up in the end of December and we will both be cancelling service (Me after eight years of being a good paying customer)How often do people stay with one cell phone company that long?
It is mind numbing to me to think that retaing good customers is so un-important to a company. Anybody that knows anything about business knows that word-of-mouth is the cheapest and most effective form of advertising there is. I will tell anybody that will listen how bad the customer service and customer treatment is from Cingular. If just one of those people decides not to use Cingular, than I have done my job!
Bill
Monterey, California
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Cingular Wireless
