A few months ago, I posted about my adventures in getting my Cingular bill straightened out and the general confusion around Cingular’s different plans.
My bill is still confused:
At least this month, the Cingular folks appear to have caught the problem before I did. After it shakes out, I’ll end up with a $90 or so bill. Ridiculous that after two months they can’t seem to figure out why my billing won’t calculate correctly, so each month my bill has to be manually adjusted. Your monthly service fees at work, people.
It’s scary just how misinformed some Cingular employees are. Are the bosses too busy changing the letterhead to at&t to spend time training the new folks?
Examples of some gems, taking right off the Cingular message boards which apparently Cingular employees don’t read. Or if they do read, they rarely if ever post a response. I don’t think these folks are making up what they’re being told. I know I’ve heard some doozies in my nearly 10 years as a customer along the Cingular food chain.
Question regarding WiFi vs. Data Plan:
lastly, i tried to get some answers from an instore sales person and got some disturbing answers. she told me that the wifi does not work independantly of the data plan and that without subscribing to it, the wifi would fail to even come on. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Cingular 8125 no-contract price:
I called and got a support rep and inquired about buying the phone. She told me a price, but suggested calling around the local Cingular stores since she thought they should have the units by now. I thought that sounded like a good idea, so I did. No one had them.
When I called back, I got another rep who told me that Cingular would not sell me a phone full price, and since I wasn’t eligible for an upgrade, I couldn’t buy a phone from them at al. Figuring I got a newbie, I ended the call and called back.
The third time I called, I got someone –willing– to sell me the phone, but the price had gone up by $100 (from like three hours eariler)!
Update: Cingular ROMS – Rumor?:
Today, I heard (indirectly) from a Cingular rep that the current 8125 has been on hold because of the stability issues with the ROM. He indicated they are ready to start shipping again with the updated ROM code. He also indicated the current crop is going to be recalled.
Cingular — PLEASE train your CSRs!!!
The last time (two days ago) was the worst! The CSR had never heard of the 2125 or HTC, and couldn’t find the phone on the Cingular website (I guess they removed it because it was on backorder) so he said that Cingular has never sold this phone (he claimed that if they had ever sold the phone it would show up on the website). He said I must have bought it from a third party vendor and now I was trying to get Cingular to provide support! I calmly went through the whole explanation, and assured him that I had bought the phone from Cingular.com (and that, to my knowledge, this phone isn’t even offered by third parties). He actually accused me of lying!
So I just got off with a cingular customer service representative about another problem I was having, and happened to mention that I was using the wifi so I could access the internet for free. He insisted that even through the wifi if I am using the internet it was costing me 2 cents per kb. I am very frustrated and have no way of showing it because they will not tell how much internet usage I have until the bill comes in.
This doesn’t even touch all the misinformation in this very long thread trying to straighten out what is the right plan for this phone. It’s so ridiculous it’s funny at this point. Is there another company this large that is doing this poorly on customer service knowledge? Don’t get me wrong, Cingular employees tend to be very nice people. Courteous. Friendly. But many are clearly making it up as they go along.
Judi Sohn 
7 responses to “Lies my Cingular rep told me”
One at a time..
lastly, i tried to get some answers from an instore sales person and got some disturbing answers. she told me that the wifi does not work independantly of the data plan and that without subscribing to it, the wifi would fail to even come on. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
I can deny it. Your WiFi will work fine if you have no data plan – it’ll work just fine if you turn the phone part of your 8125 off.
So I just got off with a cingular customer service representative about another problem I was having, and happened to mention that I was using the wifi so I could access the internet for free. He insisted that even through the wifi if I am using the internet it was costing me 2 cents per kb. I am very frustrated and have no way of showing it because they will not tell how much internet usage I have until the bill comes in.
That’s complete BS. When using wifi you connect through a wireless access point of some sort and Cingular has no clue what you’re doing in terms of usage.
This doesnt even touch all the misinformation in this very long thread trying to straighten out what is the right plan for this phone.
I’m a Nokia employee and a I spend a lot of time setting up data plans for our employees (who are using devices like the 9300, 9300i, and 9500). The MediaNet Unlimited plan only gives you access to the wap.cingular access point.. but this access is unlimited and can be used for just about anything (except tethering). I have users using it for web browsing, email (both push and pull), VPN access, instant messaging… all with no problems and no additional charges. Just make sure that your 8125 is configured to access the wap.cingular APN versus the isp.cingular APN and you’ll be golden.
I’m a Cingular corporate Rep and honestly, it’s a mixed bag. I’m as informative as can be to customers and try to explain things as clearly as possible. Unfortunately, some customers are tricked or confused by “the other side.” Or, as we corporate reps affectionately call “Dealers.” Dealers are either 1 of 2 things. They are either the people in the malls hawking shoppers to sign them up and are usually misinformed and don’t care as long as you sign up. The other type of dealer is the corporate-store look alike. They are the same way, occasionally worse. How to tell? 1.) Never buy from the malls. 2.) Ask the store if they are a corporate owned Cingular store or a dealer. If they choke or try to rationalize it, walk out. Another reason dealers are a bad idea is because almost all of them do double contracts. Or, they make you sign the Cingular contract and then, on top of that they make you sign a contract with the dealer stating that you will not cancel your account under 3 months and if you do, you must return the handset otherwise they will charge you full retail on the handset and also a “recovery fee” of around a $127 per line. Remember this is totally different from the ETF! Well, good luck!
Is there another company this large that is doing this poorly on customer service knowledge?
I won’t say Sprint does THAT poorly, but they surely served me very poorly when I changed from a Nokia PM-6225 phone to a PPC-6700. I’d had a Vision Pictures account I’d been using for about two years, and when I called up to order the 6700, no one bothered to tell me that my Pictures account would be deleted, since the new phone couldn’t use the account. I lost two years worth of photos. When I discovered a week later that I couldn’t access the account, I had to go through several layers of people before someone told me she’d submit a request to recover my pictures and have them shipped to me. I had to wait 6-8 weeks for the disc, which never arrived. When I called them, I was told that no one contacted me, because my pictures were unable to be recovered.
I’m upset about the loss of vacation and other photos, but even more incensed that the customer service people didn’t think it was important to warn me that I would lose my data. From my discussions with reps, it became quite obvious that this had happened before, so someone should have had the consideration to say something. I could have grabbed my photos and called back to order the phone, and there would have been no anger on my part. A Sprint tech implied by a question that it wasn’t wise of me to have some pictures only on the server, but it seemed perfectly logical to me: I was still with Sprint, so had no clue that they would kill my account; I had access to the photos from any location where I had internet access; and servers are backed up. Why WOULDN’T I have thought to trust Sprint to keep my photos safe?
Then there’s the issue of their immediately creating a new Pictures account after deleting the old. It seems silly and inefficient to me. My phone number didn’t change; why did my Vision Pictures account?
I keep reminding myself that at least I have EVDO without paying the ridiculous prices other providers charge. If the other companies ever lower their prices for data, I might find myself seriously regretting Sprint’s bad behavior just as I was committing to a new 2-year contract.
Well all I can say is that service was never that Great with Cingular. I started with Southwestern Bell and they became Cingular. My service started in 1999 and final after 7 years of dropped calls and you name it. They decided my 80 year old mothers cell phone after 7 years was going off network. The phone had never went off network for 7 years so why now. My Mom had not moved and the phone was being used in the same area for 7 years. Geesh you would think that they would want to check into why suddenly after 7 years this phone is going off net work. But no they crack a joke that maybe my 80 year old mother is climbing a tower? And also sent me a nasty letter. Ok that was it I dropped Cingular. I am with a new company they were very nice and so far drop calls are down and all is going well. I hope others do not have the problems I had with Cingular.
I have a Nokia N91 phone that Nokia sent to me. It is wifi enabled and I can access my dsl connection just fine. However, Cingular charged me $133.21 in data charges for 13,311kb of outbound data transer when I use the phone to download data from my personal wifi access point. They claim that I am using their airwaves to do this. I had the same problem last month and that time they reversed the charges and told me that they would block my internet services so I wouldn’t be charged. The rep in the call center said she was the final word from Cingular. I now have a call in to the office of the president – this company is just so frustrating.
Whatever you do stay away from corporate stores! I am a dealer and we have a corp store nearby. I have cust coming in all day telling me how long they had to wait how they were rude and not willing to help. Corp stores are under intense pressure to meet sales goals, so they will push you to buy. Plus they have nothing to loose because they know they won’t be there in 2 years to sell you another phone. Go find yourself a small dealer who is passionate about repeat and referral buisiness. BTW corp stores dislike dealers because most dealers direct all the cust service issues to them, which interferes with their sales. And regarding the secondary contract… What’s a 3-6 month contract when you are signing a 24 month contract? It’s only fair to let the dlr get reimbursed for the 100-200 loss on the phone, that was supposed to be reimbursed with the commission. Geez.
wow i just got so angry after reading this, i just called the cingular representavie for an upgrade on my phone.. they told me i am off net work frequently.. not consistantly.. but it is enough for me not to be eligable for an upgrade. they said i was off network as we spoke on the phone.. mind you.. i was home. No one has ever complained about off network i had these phones for a year. i never got a letter stating i am offnetwork and what is going to happen. well.. the other operators i spoke to said i did get a letter.. bogus… never got a letter from them what so ever. the letter was suppose to explain to me what is going on. Mind you, is NOT our fault our phones are going off network, is their job to create better services for what we pay for. the network company i spoke to said… that she didnt understand why they flagged my account. and that they are paying for me roaming or off network. humm interesting… because when i joined cingular i was told there was free roaming… free long distance.. with my plan of course. but when i bought it to her attention she said it is free but… we are paying for them everytime you get off network.. again. that is not our fault….not our fault what so ever. is not our fault that all of the sudden my phone doesnt pick up the tower. funny none of our phones ever displayed off network until i made the call. she stated she will tagg them so i can see that. what is the difference now? does it matter? hey i am not getting an upgrade. so yes is NOT FREE ROAMING ON OUR BEHALF ( customers) behalf because that upgrade option is taken away. which of course we all need an upgrade
on our phones by 2 years..
so she called her manager and got the nerve to call me back and say… oh we will upgrade you ifffff you sign a contract of two more years.. wtf? r u serious? and is no guaranteed that this issue will be solved? or corrected? justified? did she thought she was making me a deal? that is no deal what so ever. by the way my cell phone is a 8125 an expensive phone that is broken. that is the reason for the upgrade.. but noooo the out of warranty is 349…yes 349…. shit that is a brand new phone. my husbands screen is broken he cant get an upgrade my daughter was lucky that she got a phone from a friend because they refused to upgrade her last phone that broke.. all three phones from cingular and allphones broken with in a year. i was told that i can copy all complaints and take them to court. if i have proof of this being a situation. now when we go purchase a phone the questions we have to place on the table are.. is there an tower in my area if so how far? will i be off networking? are my features will be taken away due to lack of networking? what will you compromise with me if my phones are borken? and if so can i get that in writting? please? signed.. pissed the hell off