CINGULAR IS THE DEVIL....

your title is a little harsh. one can find horror stories from any of the carriers it is too bad that you had one with cingular and hope it can be resolved but just chill out a bit....and 2nd of all didnt you use your trial period at all when you first got your phone since you seem to say that from the beginning you had no service at home so wouldnt it have made sense to cancel in the beginning?

 

i notice you mention your phone not working inside your house. If cingular tells you they cover an area, it doesnt guareenty service indoors. Unless you live relatively close by a tower, and you dont have RF blocking walls. If this is a big issue for you, then you are just stressing yourself out more by constantly changing phones expecting a major difference. My advice, if indoor service is a priority for you, then you should try another provider. For example, sprint fluctuates between decent-to-poor in my apartment, but verizon works very well. Verizon is lacking in my school buildings, but sprint works perfect. You really need to utilize trial periods then stick with one that you are satisfied with. if they gave you a free $400 phone. Then i suggest you sell it on ebay and use that money to break your contract with cingular. Best of luck!

 

Hey Husk, I had the exact same problem with my Centennial service. I had the most crummy Ericsson phones (2 of them me and my hubby) and I could not talk on these phones in my house (or outside my house so it wasnt the walls) at all. We had mob to mob mins that we could not use to talk to one another. We paid the $5 for long distance each month that we could not use to call family and friends because they could not hear us. Always cutting in and out.

So,,,, I just kept calling them and harping on them about it until I finally got out of my contract with them with NO FEES. Of course it took a little bit and they had to ok it with the heads but I did get it. I live in a rural area of northern indiana and my closest tower was about 8 miles away.

I now have VERIZON and am very happy with them. I have the Kyocera 2235 and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it for you. Sometimes I have no signal on it and I can still talk. It may get a little bit garbly if the signal is weak but I can always hear and understand and there is no cutting out.

I did not know about the 15 day trial period. I dont think any cell phone company advertises this. I had no idea about it or I would have taken my phones back right away. So dont let them tell you that you should have when you may not have even known about it...

Good luck!!!!

 

A different phone is not going to make a difference in that situation. It is simply a fact of not having coverage in your home, a different provider is the only way to go.

 

Yep Rally, I agree with you. They kept trying to give me other phones (of which 2 were just as bad) and tried to talk me into going totally analog. I never could have stayed with their service here either.

I know what you mean. I was surprised to see that I am a member now and not a "neophyte" whatever that is....hehe.

 

I understand that the above poster had problems with Cingular, but jeez. First off, if I bought a phone and took it home and got no service, I'd be back at the store the next day asking what was up. All carriers have a cancellation policy, and all you have to do is ask... "Hey, if this doesn't work as planned, how long do I have to cancel?". He also states he does business out of his home and needs it to work there. Yet another reason to be back at the store pitching a fit when it doesn't work as planned... He had 15 days to figure out that his phone simply was NOT going to work at his house, yet everything is Cingular's fault. I'm by no means trying to abstain Cingular from all wrongdoing in this case, however, part of the blame definitely rests on the original poster's shoulders, as he had ample opportunity to cancel his service. At this point, there are a few options here...

1. pay the cancellation fee and cancel, then sell your phone on ebay to recoup some of the loss...

1. Cancel and dispute the cancellation fee saying they never provided you with service as advertised. If they report it to the credit bureau, you're allowed to add your own note to any debt and you can just simply state the cancellation fee was unjustified based on your experiences with the service.

1. You could move down to the "Cingular Security" plan for $7.99 per month, and ride out your contract; meanwhile, switch to Verizon or Nextel or whomever you so choose and leave the new # on your voicemail on your Cingular phone at which you can be reached.

Personally option 3 would probably be the best option in your case, as it's most likely the cheapest and it serves the purpose of informing anyone who calls your old # of your new #.

 

The problem is that some people get the impression that coverage areas depend only on the phone, not the network. If they get a weak signal and the call drops they blame the phone and forget about the network. They think that a new phone can do miracles for the same provider. Surprisingly, 90% of the times reception related problems have to do with the network. It's not the phone's fault that the signal from your provider is weak.

 

This isn't a set in stone rule, but very seldom will you find that switching phones will make more than 1 bar or difference in signal quality. If your provider's signal is THAT weak, no phone can work miracles; though I will admit some phone hold calls better with low signal than others do. Still, your chances of a miraculous turnaround in service just by switching phones is pretty slim. Of course your provider is going to try and make it seem like a new phone is going to solve ALL your problems; it's one of their ways of keeping you from cancelling.