AT&T/Cingular - a grievance

[Morrigoon]

For those of you who know me well enough to have become acquainted with my infamous cell phone, you know that I have a reputation for dropped calls. This has been an ongoing problem for the better part of the last year.

First, my old phone started having the problem. It was absurdly bad at that point, where nearly every other call was dropped. They said it was because my phone was the old technology, and that though they were building new towers, they were all with the new technology. So I pointed out the unfairness of being charged the same amount for less and less service. So they said if I signed a new contract, they'd send me a new phone on the newer technology so that I wouldn't have the call drop problem. And I, rather foolishly, agreed.

So it was no longer dropping every other call, but I still dropped more calls than ANYBODY else. I called into their service time and time again, and got one cockamamie scheme after another. Everything from : It's the equipment (um, no, you sent me this phone to solve this problem), to: Wipe off the battery terminals (didn't work), to: Do a power cycle (a what?) Pull out the battery and the SIM card, wait a few seconds, then put them both back in (didn't solve it), to: turn the phone on and off once a day to re-register with the network (uhm, excuse me? And no, it didn't solve it).

Today, I was finally done. I called in and respectfully explained the situation, that I was in the contract because the new phone was supposed to solve my problem, that I gave them numerous chances to solve it and they failed miserably, and that all I wanted was to be peacefully let go and not charged a fee. Naturally, they resisted. I asked to speak with a supervisor, and went through the whole thing all over again. She told me she could let me out of contract but that I'd be charged the fee, I argued further, and she said (get this) that if she did that, she'd have to justify it, and that she couldn't justify it! I repeated to her that I thought it was perfectly reasonable given the pretenses under which I had gotten into such a long contract, and that given the number of opportunities they had to SOLVE my problem (I have called in once or more per month, pretty much, to let them know that the drops were STILL a problem), and that I thought my loyalty and willingness to give them the opportunity to solve my problem were more than reasonable and that I at least deserved this consideration - if they can't solve my problem (it's obvious to me now that they can't) they should at least let me go peacefully. She refused and repeated that she couldn't justify it.

So I asked for HER supervisor. Naturally, there isn't one present at the moment, and she only offered me the written complaint address. I asked her name again (Tammy) and her supervisor's name. She gave me the name "Doug Smith". I've worked in a call center, I know a fake name when I see it. So I laughed and asked if that was seriously a real name. She assured me it was. So I asked if I called in during business hours, would I be able to speak with Mr. Doug Smith. She said there's no direct line to reach him. Right, but if I call 611 and ask to be transferred to a supervisor's supervisor, there's someone I can talk to, right? She said there *might* be.

Are you holding your breath yet? I'm not. But I'm calling in tomorrow. They *REALLY* don't want me letting Gaucho's brother make the call after that.

I think I've been more than reasonable, don't you? I mean, 6 months with the new phone, repeat calls to advise them that I was having an issue, etc. I think it's more than fair. Do I deserve to be slapped in my face for my patience? That supervisor girl kept saying that if I'd cancelled in the first 30 days she could understand but I kept the service blah blah blah... but I did so because I genuinely gave them the opportunity to fix the problem. Do I deserve to be slapped in the face with an early termination fee after all that?

BTW, I have already determined that I'm going to Verizon. I'm *done* with this company. I'm changing to an OC phone number as well. I just wanted to share this story with you in case anyone was thinking of going over to this horrible cell service.