I had an interesting experience recently (I thought).

My teenaged son was messing around with his phone, and got the prompt to
enter his PUK code - I think he was messing around with passwords, and
forgot his.  So, being a typical teenager (or maybe thinking it was the same
as his password), he tried enought times to guess it that he locked himself
out of the SIM card.

I called Cingular at night, and got someone that said we needed to buy a new
SIM card, and pay $25.  I mentioned that I had gotten a new 64K SIM, but not
him, and the rep said to ask at the store, and maybe they would give us one
for free.  OK, not the best solution to me, but I couldn't legitimately
demand anything more.

The next day, I called again.  This time, I explained what happened (and I
had a better idea what actually did happen), and asked if I could get the
new 64K sim card sooner rather than later.  This agent put me on hold after
apologizing for having to do this, ordered the card, and told me I should
get it in a few days - no charge.  When I got a tracking number, I see that
two of them (one for my wife, also) were shipped 2-day FedEx.

I don't know if it's that they have better support during the day, or the
fact that I asked for what I wanted right off, but it shows that sometimes
patience and politeness can get you what you want.

Some might say they should always give better support, but my experience is
that even the best companies sometimes have people that don't do a good job
at some times - either thay are having a bad day, or not thinking clearly,
or maybe even not suited for the job.  

So, my advice for the day is to remember that the person on the phone is a
human being, and subject to the same imperfections as anyone else.  And
don't expect a bad experience when you need to call, or you might get what
you expect.

Sorry if this post isn't up to the usual newsgroup standards of bitching and
trolling.  I'm not trying to say Cingular is good or bad, just that they
aren't always one or the other, like most companies.