customer service my ass

[quteasabutton]

so i just got off the phone with cingular's "customer service" and that is because i hung up on them. attempting to get help thru their customer service department has to be one of the most aggravating things i have ever dealt with. i'd go thru all their phone menus to "best direct me to the person who can help me best" i've called about 9 times over the duration of my service and have only had ONE competent person help me. when i tried to purchase a new phone, i spent hours, talked to several different people, who all told me totally different, contradicting information all about the same phone.

well that phone is gone now, it managed to fall out of my zipped pocket last night at ski racing practice. and by this time today i'm almost positive has been crushed by the snow grooming machine $200 and it only lasted 3 months. so i'm trying to pick out a new phone today. i really liked the pink motorola RAZR v3 but for $600..i think not. so then i was like hmm how about the black one?

i then tried to call cingular as to inquire about the price since i'm not eligible for an upgrade and do not plan on purchasing a new plan so the online prices won't work. i spent 20 minutes going thru the menu many times, each time it said we are now connecting you to a customer service agent, it would start over again...i see how it is..

and they don't have an email address that you can bitch at them at. smart move on their part i suppose. has anyone else had a problem with their phone "customer service"? or can recommend a nice new phone that doesn't have a keyboard on it?

[GTP Dad]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Cingular wireless. They are the worst in the world. If I were you I would go to the local Cingular store to see if they could help you. Of course I doubt it they will give you any satisfaction either, I was never able to get any help from them.

When my contract is up in the next two months I intend to tell Cingular wireless where they can put their contracts, phones and everything else to do with their service. Unfortunately, I don't know if any of the others are any better. I think I will go with a trak phone. No contracts and just pay as you go. Good Luck!

[PBking82]

TracPhone is about as big as a ripoff possible. It was my first cellphone and they start deducting mins if you don't pickup a call after the second ring(hummm didn't say that anywhere.) They also don't have a rollover plan so say you buy one of the expensive min cards and don't use it all in a month, you lose those mins. Personally I think Verizon is the best. I get free verizon-verizon calls, free long distance, and free roaming. I don't have any singal problems and haven't had any problems with the phone either. If you lose a phone or break it(i.e. drop it in the toilet) then you're fucked no matter who your plan is with. Peace-

[quteasabutton]

yeah they're a wonderful company until you need help. i love how i get good reception practically everywhere, even in the middle of the northwoods *middle of nowhere northern wisconsin* and how there are never roaming charges. things i don't like tho is how u can't purchase unlimited texting, their atrocious customer service and just how much of a bitch it can be to try to change anything about your phone or plan.

last time i called, i bought a text messaging plan for my phone. the lady was nice about it, explained it out. sadly she never gave me the first month free promo like she told me i was getting, and also never turned off the charge-per-text feature. needless to say, my texting bill was quite large having been charged twice. i didn't have to pay any of it thankfully but i shouldn't have had to deal with that in the first place.

not as bad as my friend who called sprint tho...the customer service guy either had an IQ of like 10 or was very stoned at work. he kept asking my friend what time it was *i think he got asked that like 8 times* and what he was doing tonight and if he had eaten dinner yet..

[knorwj]

i've never had any problems with cingular customer service, however their website is horrible, its like pulling teeth just to navigate it.



As far as tracfone, it was my first phone as well. worked great as an emergency phone, however once my cellphone became my only phone it would have been way too expensive. You don't lose your minutes at the end of ech month as was suggested. However you do need to keep the phone activated which you do by buying another card. So actually the biggest problem is if you don't really use it too much and just keep buying 20 unit cards every month to keep it activated the units build up. I used to buy a 20 minute card every month just to keep it activated incase of roadside emergencys. By the time I was ready to get a regular cell phone I had over 400 units on my tracfone to use up. They get great reception also, I used to get reception where nobody else could.

[clawhammer]

It would probably be best if you bought an unlocked RAZR on ebay. You will probably pay less than you would with Cingular if you're not starting a new contract, but ebay is another can of worms. I've had good luck so far, but everybody's experience with it is different.

[GTP Dad]

I very rarely use my cell phone that is why a trac phone may be a good choice for me. If you only have one phone they are not the best choice although I think they interface with every known system so that you always have reception.

Like I said earlier Cingular is not my first choice, I really don't have experience with Verizon wireless but I have heard horror strories about their customer service too.

[skibum1111]

Cingular sucks. I had ATT before they were bought out by cingular, and they were even worse. 4 months to get the first bill, they had the wrong address, town and state, and to top it off the fat moron who setup my phone didn't do it right.

Sprint, they have problems too. Their customer service sucks, and they have this annoying habit of asking you when you are going to pay your bill even if its not due.

[knorwj]

see I liked att even better than cingular. I feel like everything has been slightly more of a hassle since they merged. My only complaint with Cingular is that the digital service was so myuch better than the gsm, My phone always is slightly hard to hear and sometimes staticy. When it was just the digital it was awesome.



PS: unless you can't tell I am NOT a fan of verizon, I think its all hype. I dislike most if not all of their phones. and it seems like all my friends with verizon always have days where their service is down. Then everyone comes to me to borrow my phone. For instance 2 nights ago all the service for verizon was down around me, and today was the same. Now granted there must obviously be a problem with the tower or something and it seems to happen every couple of months.....but like I said never had any dead time with ATT or Cingular in the 5 years I've had them. so i'll stick to them for another year at least (damn contracts)

[twospirits]

You might want to check out Howard Forums mobile phone bulletin boards, they have a Cingular section and they should have a direct number for you to call.

I think most cell phone companies have good and bad custmer service. Everyone in my family except me uses Cingular and they have had problems as well. I have Sprint and no problems so far (knocks on wood).

TS out

[Cyprus106]

You think that's bad? I had a motherfucker turn a phone on in my name for no good reason. When I got the bill, I immedietly call sprint/nextell and say wtF? I want this turned off now. Great. That's straightforward; it's not me, turn off the service. So ok cool. No... After 1.5 hours I go transfered "to the fraud department" FIVE TIMES, and "transfered to someone more competent" 4 times. Got transfered nine times and absolutely nothing happens. nothing. after an hour and a half talking with people and people telling me this and that, they didn't change a thing, didn't even turn the phone off.

[bh04]

Alltel. Great customer service. Really awesome plans as well. I'm not sure how the're service is wherever you're from. But they do have no roaming and unlimnited night and weekend, unlimited mobile to mobile (alltel to alltel), and text mesaging plans .

[imtheoneandonlyD]

I have had t-mobile for the last 4 years. No problems at all. Gone through about 4-5 phones. Only one of which i ever had a problem with and thats because someone walked by and the cord that was charging it got caught on their leg and it got thrown to the floor. The terminal to charge it was messed up. I called t-mobile and had a replacement the next day. At no charge to me. My girlfriend and I have a "couples" plan 600 whenever minutes a month, unlimited t-mobile to t-mobile, unl. txt messaging, free long distance/roaming. Works great for us.

[tubjub]

everyone has a cellular phone horror story... only thing i can suggest... go to a cingular store ? so you can yell at someone in person.

[quteasabutton]

Originally Posted by tubjub

everyone has a cellular phone horror story... only thing i can suggest... go to a cingular store ? so you can yell at someone in person.

no i could never do that. i work in retail and i HATE it when people come in and bitch at me for things i have no control over or can do nothing about. i've had people throw stuff at me, yell at me, report me to my manager when i had done absolutely nothing wrong but listen to their problem *which i regret now*...yelling at someone who had nothing to do with it will not make anything better. i got written up at work tonight too, first time ever in the 10 months i've been there some lady harassed everyone working in my store except one girl. figures she complains to the manager the most about me cuz i was her cashier and i'm just out to get her. since we all know i have nothing better to do than ruin petsmart customer's lives...