It's official Cingular sucks.

[Kerouactivist]

In summary
For the past three months 50% of my calls that go longer than three minutes get dropped, I call customer service about once every two weeks or so they send me to the tech people who then call and tell me all of my issues should be resolved. Phone still drops calls about 50% of the time if the call is longer than three minutes or so. So I go into the store they tell me it is a problem with the network, back and forth, back and forth. Now for the past 3 days I get the system busy message 90% of the time I try to call out, my phone will beep about every 5-7 hours and show me all the missed calls and voice messages that I have (They say this is a problem everyone is having and they are working on it.) I live in an area where the signal bars always show full.
BTW I've got one of those real nationwide plans with the crappy GAIT Nokia phone.


I've spent over 8 hours trying to resolve the problem just this weekend alone, not to mention the time before that.

I've talked to the people at AT&T today about the number transfer program but, apparently it won't be in our area until April, maybe not even until summer.

I've got tons of job applications out right now, and not to mention needed the phone for my current business (this is my only phone), so I can't just cancel or whatever and get a new number.

Man I'm a so Pissed, and I needed to vent.
Cingular Sucks so bad, this is the worst customer support I've had for anything. The lines in there stores are on average a 30 minute wait, for you to basically get up there and tell you it's not there problem.

 

[Ranger X]

It's been official for a LONG time.

 

[Ryan]

I odn't have any problem with them.

 

[Kelvrick]

Don't worry, they'll buy AT&T and combine with ATT's excellent customer service.

 

[MazerRackham]

What phone model do you have? You might have a better time with a GSM phone, unless you already have one.

 

[saxophonoia]

Originally posted by: rbloedow
I odn't have any problem with them.

Same here although i have been noticing I won't get some calls and people have said they have to call 3 times before my phone will ring. Probably from me dropping my phone too many times though.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: MazerRackham
What phone model do you have? You might have a better time with a GSM phone, unless you already have one.

6340I damn GAIT phone from cingular it sucks

 

[imported_Tomato]

I had one awful experience in-store with Cingular customer service (they acted as if they didn't give a sh!t), but overall, I'm MUCH happier with Cingular than I was with Sprint.

 

[Hubris]

I've had no real issues with Cingular, except for them overcharging us by a ton for a few months, but that was taken care of and credited to us, so no real big deal.

 

[Ranger X]

Originally posted by: Dezign
I had one awful experience in-store with Cingular customer service (they acted as if they didn't give a sh!t), but overall, I'm MUCH happier with Cingular than I was with Sprint.

Sprint is the worst. Cingular isn't bad but areas near campus aren't so great because of all the students using their phones.

 

[PricklyPete]

Where do you live? I live in SC an my Cingular experience is great. I've had them for several years (they bought out Bell South's cell business and I was a Bell South customer). I just upgraded my phone from a Nokia 3695 to a Samsug x427. I had excellent reception with both phones with very few dropped calls or busy network problems. One thing though...in SC/NC/TN Cingular is a GSM network and I do not believe they are in any other location (all though I could be wrong).

On the other hand, my girlfriend recently switched from AT&T to Cingular in FL and she has had a horrible experience with them. Constantly dropped calls, bad reception, phone making crazy noises (some Sony Erricson model). Anyway, she absolutelys hates Cingular.

I guess I'm saying that your experience with the company can be very different depending on where you are.

 

[labrat25]

never had a problem with 'em...

only time i lost signal is in the middle of indiana and illinois corn fields, but other than that it's all been good for me

sorry they suck for you

 

[Kerouactivist]

Oh yeah I sometimes, when my call gets dropped I will hear someone else talking and when I try to hangup it won't and I can still hear them talking. It is really creepy.

Thanks for your support guys.

 

[ViperSSD]

depending on where you live, cingular has some bandwidth issues.
one of the main reasons for their bid for att was to acquire their rf licenses.
however, have you checked to see if your phone is possibly defective? that could be the prob since all of your problems seem to have happened all at once.

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Don't worry, they'll buy AT&T and combine with ATT's excellent customer service.

And even more sh!tty coverage

 

[AMDMaddness]

Bthorny,
I work for Cingular in the RF/OPS dept (won't tell you where ) but it sounds like you have an interference problem where you live which causes you to hear other calls. Also have you tried to exchange your phone for another one? I use the 6340i phone and yes it does have its problems (software) but it performs pretty well. Contact you local Cingular store and ask for the local RF engineer for your area and don?t let them push you off get them to tell you or transfer you explain your problem and tell him it sounds like interference (Co-Channel) and you would like them to look at it and call you back after they have checked it out. If that doesn?t resolve it email me and tell me when/where etc. and I will help as best I can but I'm sure im pretty remote to you. Cingular is not bad the problem is they have so many users it takes a lot of people and cell sites to support them hang in there we are doing a huge build out right now to GSM it can only get better

Peter

 

[ghostman]

I have Cingular in NYC. The service is horrible. It's actually not so bad in the daytime, but as soon as it nears 9PM, none of my calls go through and I barely use any of my 5000 N&W minutes. I was once walking home at 9:30pm and I had 10 blocks to go, so I called ahead. Network busy. I try again. Network busy. I decided to see how close to my home I'll get before it actually calls through. When I finally got through, I was only two houses away.

I'm going to end my contract immediately after the year. Shouldn't I be able to get some sort of refund for not being able to use my N&W minutes?

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: ghostman
I have Cingular in NYC. The service is horrible. It's actually not so bad in the daytime, but as soon as it nears 9PM, none of my calls go through and I barely use any of my 5000 N&W minutes. I was once walking home at 9:30pm and I had 10 blocks to go, so I called ahead. Network busy. I try again. Network busy. I decided to see how close to my home I'll get before it actually calls through. When I finally got through, I was only two houses away.

I'm going to end my contract immediately after the year. Shouldn't I be able to get some sort of refund for not being able to use my N&W minutes?

Call them and complain.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: AMDMaddness
Bthorny,
I work for Cingular in the RF/OPS dept (won't tell you where ) but it sounds like you have an interference problem where you live which causes you to hear other calls. Also have you tried to exchange your phone for another one? I use the 6340i phone and yes it does have its problems (software) but it performs pretty well. Contact you local Cingular store and ask for the local RF engineer for your area and don?t let them push you off get them to tell you or transfer you explain your problem and tell him it sounds like interference (Co-Channel) and you would like them to look at it and call you back after they have checked it out. If that doesn?t resolve it email me and tell me when/where etc. and I will help as best I can but I'm sure im pretty remote to you. Cingular is not bad the problem is they have so many users it takes a lot of people and cell sites to support them hang in there we are doing a huge build out right now to GSM it can only get better

Peter

Thanks for the reply, I just got back from the cingular store (went there before I saw your message).
Apparently the network busy problem is because the tower closest to my house has a software glitch, they said it should be fixed today. There tech guy just messed with my phone for abit and then handed it to me and said that in a little while it would say waiting and not work for a little bit and that should fix the problem (I don't see how my phone is going to get updated or whatever if the tower is screwed up) but, this sounds like the same old stuff they did over the phone and it didn't work. I guess I'll just have to wait until they get the tower back up and if I have problems again, I'll just go out there and ask for another phone. I hate this darn phone would I get better service from a purely GSM phone, I would hate switching to GSM nationwide but, if that is what I have to do to get the service to work right so be it.

I give more updates once they get the tower up and working and thanks for the help.

 

[AMDMaddness]

Software smoftware lol Are you talking on a TDMA site or a GSM site? if its TDMA site is most likely ericsson (they suck) if it is an ericsson then its most likely an equipment failure (which they are very prone to do) and not a software failure. the sites all use the same software the next one does so dont let there BS fool you. if its a GSM site (nokia ) now thats one sweet working site and if its new then yeah maybe a software issue but if its been there for a while then likely not and the site has an equipment problem. the problems could range from interference to bad antenna's to bad radios keep on 'em! around here the squeaky wheel gets the grease good luck feel free to email me more info like where etc.. I will try to help.

Pete

 

[dquan97]

Originally posted by: Ranger X
It's been official for a LONG time.

I'm waiting for my contract to end, so I can take my business elsewhere

 

[NutBucket]

Originally posted by: dquan97

Originally posted by: Ranger X
It's been official for a LONG time.

I'm waiting for my contract to end, so I can take my business elsewhere

Amen to that. WNLP and Cingular's bs network made it easy to convince my gf to switch to sprint. Unlimited PCS-PCS rocks!

 

[geckojohn]

Yup, and Verizon pwns all of them. I just switched to Verizon from AT&T and Tmobile... i couldn't be happier now. I get service in areas that i've never been able to use my phone.

 

[bo0]

Yes they do

<--------4 months left on my cingular contract:|

 

[brtspears2]

It's offical you made a bad choice when signing up.