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Previous: Do Not Enter sign in Delaware | Main | Next: "No pets" sign
January 16, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Cingular phone and customer service
Greg Kloiber writes in:
My phone calls on my Cingular service have been breaking up and dropping out.
When I went to the Cingular site to tell them, it suggested: "For faster service, we can best help you with this question over the phone." And then it told me to call them on my Cingular phone... which is dropping calls.
I say damaged, but not completely broken. You don't necessarily need to call from your cellular telephone. Use a landline.
Actually, the number of people without a landline is rising, so I wouldn't be suprised if somebody only had a cell phone. Even my dad doesn't have a land line.
"I say damaged, but not completely broken. You don't necessarily need to call from your cellular telephone. Use a landline."
if the company expects you to have a backup for their own product then i'd call it pretty broken...
Agree with Robert, if the company expects you to have a back up, it's broken. I don't have a land line and like hell if I'm going to use a nasty pay phone..those things are disgustingly filthy.
Anyway, I had this problem with a non Cingular phone one time and the culprit was the battery itself. I could go get another one but rather than lose everything on my SMART card, I just turn the phone off every so often. Apparently that solves the trick. Worth a shot.
We changed to Cingular 07/05 and have had nothing but problems, including poor service. The time spent on the telephone trying to correct each issue has been very time consuming and not always rectified.
Not completely broken, but it plays nicely into their tagline:
"Cingular... raising the bar" (to getting service).
I also have Cingular and have had this problem for a year. It does no good to call them. They sent me a rebuilt phone which didn't solve the problem. Then they told me I was in an area of poor to average service and the tower serving my area wasn't even theirs but belonged to a "partner" company. They told me to drive to an area about 3 miles from where I live and reboot my phone. There was NO SERVICE when I got there. I have tried to cancel to no avail. Cingular is definitely broken in my area!
Funny how telecom companies don't realize that they're in the communications business and that a failure to communicate threatens the core of their business model. The whole industry is broken.
Agree with Tom. Same multitude of problems with Cingular in my area (MEMPHIS! BIG F-IN' CITY!). Finally someone said something about it and I can go back to hating the hundreds of other companies that ruin my life.
Not exactly broken. You can dial the 1-800 number from a regular phone OR 611 from your mobile phone. Sheeesh!
The truly broken part of this is that you have to drill down through three or four levels of definitions and subdefinitions of your problem - each one causing an excruciatingly-slow reload of the extremely crufty page - to be told that you must make a phone call instead. And - I checked this - in most of the categories, "call us" is the answer for every one of the subcategories.
So by the time you dial the phone, even before proceeding to wade through all the phone menus and the inevitable hold time before talking to an actual human who will then be unable to solve your issue - you're already ticked off.
The worst was when I called my cellular provider to tell them that I couldn't make or receive any calls from inside my apartment. I called them from outside my building, and they told me I had to call - on my mobile phone - from inside the building to see what the problem was. "Huh?" I asked. How can I call you from inside, when the phone doesn't work inside. "Well, sir, we can only see what's wrong with your reception when you are on the phone in the affected area."
"Sigh..."
I've had similar things happen with Verizon Online. I have Verizon DSL, and I have to call them if I have a problem with the service (like no connection and therefore no access to the internet). While waiting on hold, the message says something similar: you can also reach us at www.verizononline.com. Well, duh! If I had internet access, I wouldn't be waiting in the queue for tech support!
Just curious: are any of you who have had problems with Cingular in the DC area?
they mean that if you dial 611 from a landline it wont get to them.. should be dial the 800 number, or dial 611 from your cingular wireless phone
I (and many, many friends with Cingular) are having the same problem. We have all called to inquire and complain. On my last call to Cingular CS the clerk asked me if I was having trouble MAKING calls. I explained that outgoing calls were no problem, I was just unable to talk on incoming calls for more than a few seconds before it drops out. He then asked me, "OK, so you can MAKE calls, then what's the problem?" (!).
When they say call over the phone, it doesn't specifically say to call using the same phone that drops the calls; the simple solution would be to call using another phone instead of taking up space on this site!!!
Don't be a douche, Perez. We all don't have easy access to multiple phone lines, and sometimes Cingular says you DO have to call them from the affected phone. Broken broken broken.
It's not saying you have to use your Cingular phone. It's just saying that if you do, you just have to dial 611 instead of the phone number listed previously.
Though, this reminds me of when I was calling customer service for FedEx and the on hold message kept saying "for faster service, use our website" and the whole reason I was calling was because the website told me I had to call to get the problem corrected.
The service technicians at Cingular never seem to see the painful truth that the reason that they cannot understand me is the reason that I'm calling.
Just be nice to the cingular rep when you get them on the phone, and call from a landline, you should be able to get things taken care of. Cingular reps got through hell on a day to day basis and are paid next to nothing, so they want to get you off the phone as quickly as possibile if you are interrupting them or yelling, even if they don't solve your problem. Now if you are nice to them, and a cheer to talk to, they will keep you on the line as long as they can and do everything to get you fixed. I know, I'm one of the people that answer when you dial 611.
No one can hear me on my cingular phone.Store says it is probably your mike and hands it back.
Called cingular they can do nothing to help except sell me a new phone.Where is the service
john
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Previous: Do Not Enter sign in Delaware | Main | Next: "No pets" sign
Well, they did admit to your problem. And that is the first step to recovery.
No, wait. They admited that you admitted to your problem. Not quite the same.
Posted by: Josephc4 at January 16, 2006 12:17 AM