Complaint Review: Cingular Wireless

We have been unable to call our home or office land lines with our Cingular phones for over three months now. Since we acquired the service it has been a relentlessly futile experience just trying to contact people who can help.

On a daily basis, we must dial anywhere from two to eight times just to complete a call. When the call is finally connected, it's almost a guarantee that it will be garbled or dropped at some time during the conversation.

It is a common problem to not be able to access our voicemail for days and many important calls do not ring the phone, but pass directly to voicemail. Since voicemail doesn't always work, this is a double whammy.

I have been a cell phone user for twenty years. My first phone was the size of a brick (I'm sure some of you remember). This is the first phone service in twenty years that I hate more than poking a sharp stick in my eye.

Our experience with "customer service" (I have no idea how they can call it that) has been to spend an average of 5 work hours a week on the phone trying to get service, minimally average.

Here is an interesting concept that as I write this letter, I just discovered that using my office land line, I tried to locate where I placed my phone. The phone would not ring, but gave me a busy signal.

I got up from my desk and located phone. It was turned on yet unable to connect. The phone would not ring or receive my call. For my own interest I called my associate's phone on the same system. His phone was also signaling busy and he had the same problem. In addition, both phones are unable to contact each other.

It has been 30 minutes (that am certain of) since I have been able to contact either phone and has thus far all attempts have been futile! So what I'm telling you is that the service continues to move from horrible to worse! How can someone conduct business with this kind of pathetic excuse for service?

Last week for three days we were unable to access our voicemail. Upon finally making the connection, I realized I had missed two very important calls from people that I had been anticipating calls from.

For some reason, other people (including other Cingular users) can call our numbers, but we cannot using our Cingular phones.

I thought we had a telephone problem. We are using the Motorola V180. We have sent back three refurbished phones each within the 30 day warranty period and still are having the same problems each time.

I even called Motorola. They told me they thought it was the SIM cards. I replaced the SIM cards yet the problems persisted.

One assistant at the Cingular phone center gave back the card and said "it's your contract, it's a Cingular problem, you need to contact tech service".

I told the representative, we spend a minimum of 5 hours a week on the phone with Cingular tech support. Every time we call, they tell us we have a "trouble order ticket" on this and we're still working on it. For over THREE MONTHS?

I would like to make one comment about this contract garbage. A contract is an agreement between two people that is mutually beneficial. In my opinion, I have maintained my portion of the contract with my payments. Cingular has breached their portion of the agreement by not providing even a reasonable portion of theirs.

A little synopsis: While I had been having CONSTANT SERVICE PROBLEMS, I decided to withhold a payment until their portion had been resolved. These people were like predators calling for payment. I was told that if I didn't pay immediately, the "service" would be cut off and I would have to pay a reconnection
fee.......is that bizarre or what?

You are tied to the contract for the full term (minimum of one year) with no alternative to pick up a carrier that WORKS! If you "QUALIFY" for an upgrade (This one makes me sick!!) You can PURCHASE a new phone at inflated prices and be LOCKED IN to a new TWO YEAR contract!!! For no guarantee of phone service!! WHAT???????

Their defense is; that in the contract it reads: "This is not a guarantee of phone service". If this is NOT a guarantee of phone service, what good is the contract and what are we paying for? Are we paying for the legal right for someone to steal from us?
(RIP US OFF!!!!!)

I have so much to tell about this story, but not enough time, room or patience to continue. This service has cost my business MONEY....lots of money, and here I am, after we spent another 1-1/2 hours on the phone with Cingular again last night, in the same futile situation we have had since we started with this pathetic excuse for a cellular phone service company.

If a customer is having this type of problems, doesn't it behoove them to try to either find the solution in a reasonable amount of time, or at least keep in touch and let them know the progress, plus offer some kind of credit for their inconveniences? This is merely good business practice.

I have a plethora of my own notes, names, and dates of conversations, along with complaints secured from the internet (I could have collected hundreds more but don't want to waste more paper). My file folder is bulging with information.

I have never seen a company with so many "programmed individuals" to respond just like the Capital One Commercial.....NO....NO.....NO.....NO!!! They have NO IDEA what customer service is.

NOTHING has been resolved, yet I'm still paying! Please tell me that someone else out there wants to file a class action lawsuit against Cingular Wireless. It's our ONLY option at this point!

Carol
Lutz, Florida
U.S.A.

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