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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Cingular / June 2006Cingular upgrade--Advised to switch companies
Called Cingular today because my 2 year agreement with them is about to expire. I've had a family plan with them with my total bill running just a bit over $100 a month. I've never been late or otherwise had any account problems. I am interested in changing my phone on the plan to a PDA phone. In particular I was interested in the Cingular 8125 Pocket PC. All other phones on my account would stay the same. Cingular's website shows this upgrade as $299. Amazon shows this same phone as $199 with a new account activation. I was hoping that at minimum I could get Cingular to agree to sell me this phone for $199 with a 2 year contract renewal. I was flexible, and I thought realistic in hoping for a good price. No luck. I told the representative I was looking for a PDA with WiFi. I mentioned to him other companies products and prices which, which a new contract with them, would put the phone at the $199 price goal. He advised me that I might be better off just going with these other companies. Cingular couldn't do much to assist me. Ultimately the representative indicated that there was nothing better he or anyone else could offer below $299, and he said "going with another company is probably your best bet." I can't figure out why Cingular wouldn't offer me the same deal they do new activations. Am I being unrealistic? Tony just who the heck do you think you are asking cingular to sell products at market rates ...you'd better wachit 'cuz cingular might just send someone out to your house to put a hurt on you ...the audacity of it !! do you expect them to sell you air for nothing ?? what's it gonna be next, free water at drinking fountains ?? > I can't figure out why Cingular wouldn't offer me the same deal they do new > activations. Am I being unrealistic? Well if you don't mind changing your phone numbers, you can just buy new Cingular service from Amazon, and cancel your existing service. I guess Cingular doesn't want word getting around that their prices are negotiable. Verizon has a better selection of PDAs than Cingular at this time, as well as better coverage, so you're best off switching to them. >> I can't figure out why Cingular wouldn't offer me the same deal they >> do new activations. Am I being unrealistic? [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > Verizon has a better selection of PDAs than Cingular at this time, as > well as better coverage, so you're best off switching to them. Well, obviously the "new customer" prices are designed to attract new customers, which you are not. But you can keep your same # and get the phone for $149 with a rebate from letstalk.com-had a friend use them and phone/service are just fine... > Well if you don't mind changing your phone numbers, you can just buy new > Cingular service from Amazon, and cancel your existing service. A friend did just that. New Razr from Amazon, new phone number, forget the old Cingular number. But the OP here has a family plan, and what I read is that you can't get the new Amazon phone and cancel an existing line... I forget what the limits are, but canceling one line out of a family plan might run afoul of the Cingular-Amazon rebate watchers. Switching to another carrier is a seemingly stupid alternative, but then so are rebates that exceed the profit margin of the contract period.  Signature--- Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5 >> Well if you don't mind changing your phone numbers, you can just buy new >> Cingular service from Amazon, and cancel your existing service. [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > But the OP here has a family plan, and what I read is that you can't get > the new Amazon phone and cancel an existing line... Right, everyone will have to get a new number, and pay an activation fee, so it might not be worth doing. > No luck. I told the representative I was looking for a PDA with WiFi. I > mentioned to him other companies products and prices which, which a new [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > I can't figure out why Cingular wouldn't offer me the same deal they do > new activations. Am I being unrealistic? Here's the finale to this (assuming all the drama is over)... When I originally talked to the rep, I was invited to answer a survey after we were done talking. I indicated my dissatisfaction with the customer service I received. About 2 hours later I got a call from another Cingular rep. She asked me about the situation. I explained as nicely as I could how I thought it was odd that after almost 2 years of a good "relationship," a Cingular rep informed me that my best venue for improved equipment would be with a competitor. Apparently, my negative responses on the survey caused my phone transcript to also be sent to this other rep since she indicated that she had listened to my original phone call and could understand why I was concerned. She said the employee had been "counseled" and that she would offer me a $100 credit towards the phone if I still wanted it. I took her up on her offer. I think the rep that helped me likely did handle this the way Cingular instructs, but I also think that he hit the "try a competitor" bit way too hard. I was 100% happy with Cingular before today. After the first call that dropped to about 70%. Now, I'm happy again, but this incident did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing like being treated like a less-than-valued customer by a company you've spent a lot of money with. Tony >> No luck. I told the representative I was looking for a PDA with WiFi. I >> mentioned to him other companies products and prices which, which a new [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] >leave a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing like being treated like a >less-than-valued customer by a company you've spent a lot of money with. That's a good outcome but i understand what your saying. Like McDonalds, it's a volume business now. > That's a good outcome but i understand what your saying. Like > McDonalds, it's a volume business now. Yet McDonald's realizes that they have to compete. In my area, the In 'N Out chain typically opens across the street from McDonalds, and basically destroys McDonald's business, if the customer wants only a hamburger. McDonald's now competes with salads, chicken, fish, etc., since they've lost the high volume hamburger/fries/shake business to a competitor with much better quality, that's no cheaper. It's similar to what's happening in the cellular business with the poorer carriers experiencing high churn levels. > That's a good outcome but i understand what your saying. Like > McDonalds, it's a volume business now. cellular communications, like computers and internet access, has become a commodity, i.e. big volume business where the volume offesets the dissatisfied few. Somewhere around Wed, 28 Jun 2006 18:40:39 -0500, while reading alt.cellular.cingular, I think I thought I saw this post from "Tony" <pittares.nospam@nospam.bellsouth.net>: >Here's the finale to this (assuming all the drama is over)... > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] >leave a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing like being treated like a >less-than-valued customer by a company you've spent a lot of money with. I think the 1st rep was not following company policy, nor is it normal, in my experience. I think sometimes the agents must be having a bad day, or maybe they weren't trained well, or something. My experience has been that most of them will go out of their way to keep good customers. And I recently told a friend about my experiences, and his wife called and got 2 free RAZRs from them, even though they were still under contract. Glad you got what you wanted. I actually had to initiate an attempt to cancel before I got a good deal, but I didn't really try very hard before I did that; I just asked if they could give me a good deal on a new phone whenever I called about something else and they asked if there was anything else they could help with. SignatureMarty - public.forums (at) gmail (dot) com "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." - Groucho Marx > I think the rep that helped me likely did handle this the way Cingular > instructs, but I also think that he hit the "try a competitor" bit way too > hard. I was 100% happy with Cingular before today. After the first call > that dropped to about 70%. Now, I'm happy again, but this incident did > leave a bad taste in my mouth. Nothing like being treated like a > less-than-valued customer by a company you've spent a lot of money with. Well, Tony, now you know how all the long time former AT&T wireless customers feel. It's not personal to you, it's just that Cingular doesn't seem to care about keeping loyal customers around. They may have salvaged your account but I'm sure there were many more in similar positions who have already or will be leaving over their lack of ethics and poor treatment of good customers. > Well, Tony, now you know how all the long time former AT&T > wireless customers feel. It's not personal to you, it's just that > Cingular doesn't seem to care about keeping loyal customers around. > They may have salvaged your account but I'm sure there were many more in > similar positions who have already or will be leaving over their > lack of ethics and poor treatment of good customers. The truth be told, they don't care to keep loyal customers that don't allow them to make the level of profit they desire. Just business. |
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