Cingular: doing their best to make my experience with Verizon seem pleasant

My wife and I decided to add a line with a second wireless company sort of as a safety net for our Sprint service since we have no landline. After all I went through with Verizon, which would probably be the logical 2nd choice in Columbus, I knew they were out of the question. So I tried out Cingular service, got a Cingular phone this past Monday or Tuesday. Well, no real problems other than my phone kept switching between Cingular and Cingular Extend (AWS) in my basement. The switching back and forth caused calls to be missed, as well as some drops with the weak Cingular signal. The finished part of our basement is our family room so this level of service was not acceptable.

Easy enough, I returned my phone to Best Buy and called Cingular to cancel. Oops, the Cingular CSR informs me that Best Buy is supposed to call Cingular when I return the phone and prove that I actually did return the equipment. OK then, fine. I go back to Best Buy after dinner. No one in the store, in customer service or wireless, is aware of such a policy. Still, one of the guys in the wireless dept calls up Cingular, tells them I am there with my return receipt in hand. The BB employee gives the Cingular rep his ID#. The next thing I hear the BB employee say is "he needs to fax in the receipt too?" in a disbelieving tone. Un believable!

So tomorrow I am hauling my down to a Cingular store where I will very likely shove my BB receipt down the first unlucky employees throat while shouting "here's your proof !!!!" Well, not really, but that sure would be fun.

 

Because when I called to cancel I was told I need a Best Buy employee to verify the return. That was all. Once I got that proof then they said I needed to fax them the receipt. Since the wait at any Cingular store is usually over an hour long, I figured the BB store 40 seconds away from my house was the way to go. Obviously I was wrong.

 

Yeah, I went with ATT, which is ironic since before long it will be Cingular.

 

Well, when I went to the Cingular store they processed the cancellation no problem. The sale rep helping me, when I told her I was informed I needed to fax the return receipt despite the fact I had a BB employee call in, said in reference to the telephone customer service reps "They said you had to do what? I hate when they do stuff like that." So maybe she had never heard of the receipt faxing policy either.... Anyway, everything worked out in end, even if I had to jump through a few hoops.

 

So far so good. It's been less than a day, but I have found one place where AWS works where Sprint didn't, but even the AWS signal was very unreliable. I think the store (meijer) is just the type of building that kills all signal.

 

Not at all, I was sitting at my desk in my basement watching the phone flip-flop back and forth between Cingular and ATT without even moving the phone.

 

And in the Sam's Club, Wal-Mart (ugh), and Best Buy across the street. And the Kroger down the road too. Not that I hang out in those places or anything. About 1/2 mile north of me ATT is weak and Cingular is better indoors. Just goes to show how there can be a big difference between carriers even within a 1 mile radius.

 

My phone said Cingular Extend when it switched over to ATT. I dialed 611 to find out whether I was on ATT or T-Mobile. Apparently ATT phones will display the name of the carrier I am roaming on, but I have not roamed yet with them so I can't personally confirm this.

 

Who says they are going to consolidate anything? Either way, I don't care. Roaming is free. I am about 1/4 mile from a county line where Cingular doesn't even have licenses, so I am fairly certain all the ATT towers in this area will remain in Cinuglar's hands.

 

Well, in defense of the BB employees, they don't get any commission so it doesn't matter who they sell on a personal level. Now it is entirely possible that Sprint pays BB more for an activation than does Cingular and that as a result store managers tell their employees to push Sprint over the other carriers.

 

I wonder if when they charged (the credited I presume) your ETF in the incident describe above, that they forgot to put you back on a contract?