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.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Not saying that you shouldn't use Verizon but I've been with Sprint for about the last year and have been very pleased with their service. I rarely have a dropped call and I like having my anytime minutes start at 7pm, rather than 9. Just a thought...

[Chernabog]

I have been having massive problems with Cingular as well, but my problems started right after the AT&T merger.

I wrote a letter describing the entire situation from my law office to the office of the president of Cingular (after going through the 611 customer service route)-- we will see where the fancy law office letterhead gets us eh?

Anyway, I will post the letter on here in full tomorrow when I'm at the office. I actually had a Cingular supervisor blatantly lie to me in order to get me off the phone and attempt to make someone at a Cingular store hear my problem.

Apparently the "good" Cingular customer service/phone service turned to **** when they merged with AT&T. One of those "we're so big that we don't give a rat's ass if you are our customer or not" deals. I am thinking Verizon is the way to go here as well.... anyone here use Verizon?

[Isaac]

I've had Verizon for 5 years.

No complaints.

[Matterhorn Fan]

I know at least two other people who have had problem's with AT&T's service/customer service.

I'm happy with T-Mobile, FWIW.

[Mousey Girl]

Speaking as someone who deals with phone service on a daily basis... When you call today make sure you let them know you WILL be going to both the CPUC and the FCC with your complaint. There was new legislation that a company MUST reveal certain names and phone numbers when asked, some sort of privacy/information act, but since I am not at work today I can't look it up. I know it applies to landline phone service, not sure about cell phones. Also you can let them know that you WILL be filing a complaint with the exectutive office (which will cause them to bring up your account and they will be able to pinpoint every call you made and who told you what).

I just switched to Cingular from AT&T with my 2 cells and added The Old People to my plan. I am hoping I still have the coverage that I had with AT&T. So far it is better, I can use my phone inside my house!! They also applied my employee discount to my bill already. Luckily I spend the majority of my time north of the Grapevine.

Good luck with everything!! I will poke around and see if I can come up with more info on the web. If you are still having trouble I will look up some of my numbers when I go back to work on Tuesday.


http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/GEN...RDER/37861.htm
This is what I was thinking of... a lot of legalize, but hopefully something that can help.

[BarTopDancer]

If you do a search back on the Pad you will be able to find my Cingluar issues. The OOP (Office of the Prez) solved them and they were polite and helpful about it too.

Chernabog, I started having issues right after the merger as well. Not sure how well they were resolved but I always make my case that I am unhappy to be a Cingular Customer, that my contract was with AT&T and I expect the level of service I received from AT&T. What kind of issues are you having?

Morri, The BBB has a link for cell phone complaints. I suggest you file one there, with the CPUC and contact the OOP for Cingular Wireless. The CSRs won't do anything for you, not even the *supervisors* if you're lucky enough to call when they aren't in a *meeting*. I found this phone number for the OOP 1-866-894-2464.

Good luck.

[HTHBellcaptain]

Without going into the details, I've had problem with AT&T. I view them as the Deathstar. When I heard that Cingular (my current cell phone company) was merging with evil intergallactic telecomunications villian, I decided that as soon as my contract is up (June), I'm switching to another company.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I don't think I know of a cell phone company for whom I haven't heard SOME horror story, either based on quality of coverage, customer service, or both. I had an issue with AT&T, but they made it right, so it wasn't awful. When my contract is up, I'm going to go with whoever offers me the best deal. There's a chance you're going to get screwed no matter who you end up with.

[Chernabog]

OK here is my letter to Cingular in its entirety, explaining my problem with the bastards:

February 1, 2005

Cingular Wireless
Attn: Office of the President
P.O. Box 755
A****er, CA 95301

Re: Unacceptable Wireless Voice Mail Service
Unacceptable Call Center Customer Service
Cingular Wireless Number: 323-XXX-XXXX

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing this letter to discuss a major problem I have had in the last week with your phone service as well as your call center’s insulting “non-resolution” this afternoon of the phone service issue.

I noticed in the last week or two that I was not receiving voice messages until hours or days after the message had been left. At first, I called the call center (using 611 on my phone) thinking that my phone itself was faulty. However, later in the week I realized that it was not my phone that was the problem, as your system consistently did not register my voice mail for hours or days after it had been left. For instance, when a voice message was left on Thursday afternoon, the system did not give me the message until Friday morning, even though I had called into the voice mail system on Thursday evening.

As this problem was losing business, I called again last week to resolve the issue. The call center informed me at that time that many people were having similar issues due to the network merge in Southern California with AT&T. She even mentioned that I “was lucky to be getting the messages at all”, but assured me that problems would be fixed within 24 hours. Her assurance proved to be false as I had more phone messages over the weekend which were not received until hours after they had been left (even though I had checked voice mail after the messages were initially recorded). I tried calling again on Sunday, but your customer service center was closed.

I spoke to other friends that use Cingular Wireless over the past few days and they reported having similar problems with their voice mail.

This afternoon I called a fourth time to your call center to report this issue and figure out a solution to this problem. The woman who I initially spoke to was friendly over the phone, but the only form of compensation she could offer me was extra minutes on my phone. Such compensation is useless since I have thousands of saved minutes already on my phone. I informed her that I would not pay $100 per month for a phone service that was unreliable to this level, but she could not offer any sort of reimbursement on my bill or assurance that any problems with the AT&T network merger were being fixed. I asked to be transferred to her supervisor.

I was then transferred to J. Wunker, who is the manager of the call service center. I do not know how this woman became a manager of a customer service center, but she quite obviously did not care about keeping me as a customer for Cingular Wireless. When I explained the problem I was having and asked about having the voice mail problem looked at and/or about offering a week of phone service reimbursement for problems I had been having, she flatly refused. Then, Ms. Wunker attempted to defuse the problem by arguing with me that my name is not the name on the account, and that I would have to waste my time going into a Cingular Store to show a picture ID and put my name on the account.

Keep in mind that my name is the only name on the account. The account is under my social security number, driver’s license and credit information. Bills are sent to my name at my address. I verified with Ms. Wunker my driver’s license and social security number but she refused to recognize that I am the account holder. She said she “cannot change the name on the account” and that to get any information about the account, I would have to again waste my time going into a Cingular Wireless store. I hung up on Ms. Wunker in confusion over the name recognition issue and frustration with her complete unwillingness to show any kind of good faith attempt to keep me as a Cingular customer.

When I called back a fifth time to get this address and Ms. Wunker’s name, I was told that my name was indeed on the account. This leads me to believe that Ms. Wunker argued with me about some “other name” being on the account in order to dismiss me from the phone center. She simply did not want to deal with the problem I was having, and tried to get me into a Cingular Wireless store to let them deal with the problem instead of her.

A customer service call center manager/supervisor that does not want to deal with customer problems is completely shocking and insulting. I was pleasant over the phone regarding this issue until Ms. Wunker came up with some “different name on the account” problem so as to get me off the phone.

I would like to be contacted immediately to see what actions your company would like to take to keep me as a customer. One would hope that you would not only like to keep me as a customer, but not have me complain to my family, friends and colleagues about the abysmal phone and customer service provided by Cingular Wireless.


Very truly yours,



Joseph M. Levy, Esq.

(I'm not sure why the intentations are off with the paragraph when this posts on LoT, but obviously it was sent in the correct letter format. I also find it funny that the name of the city was censored, lololol.... At-water.... )

(Oopsie on that last part of the letter -- lol )