As you might expect, there are a wide variety of experiences with each provider; those with negative experiences are what is producing so much "churn" as people switch to alternate providers. So each of us have different stories to tell.

I had a great Web-purchasing experience with Sprint, with no problems at all. But after almost four years of putting up with the inability to use our cell phones in our own house, we switched to Cingular. What's the use of a good Web experience or acceptable customer support if you can't use the phones where you want?

We happened to use a local Cingular store a few months ago when we switched. In this case, it definitely paid off to do this in person rather than via the Web, because they very pro...
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gsspatoulas said:
Hey guys just tell me this has only happened to me!!!

It's only happened to you.

Okay, maybe a few others.

It does not represent our intended customer experience, nor (I hope) a typical one.

gsspatoulas said:
I ordered a T616 and a local 1000min plan from Cingular's web site.
I thought I got a two year agreement

I've noted some discrepancy between the web site and actual account information. This seems an extreme case.

gsspatoulas said:
I call them they tell me it just shipped. I asked them about my CC charges they say I have to fax my CC print out to this "research" number and they will check it out !!!!!

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For the record, I just had a great experience with Cingular CS. I had ported away and ported back within a month (in order to get a "new" contract with a 3rd party resale agent- letstalk.com) anyway, LetsTalk was horrible (at least with their customer service). I signed up for 3 lines, porting one number, for the GSM 500 National plan on January 26th, for whatever reason, the phones didn't get activated until 2/6, and as you all know, the plans had changed 2/1, so they put me on the new plan (50 fewer min, and twice as much for the familytalk lines, but you get mobile to mobile min). They didn't warn or ask me about this, just did it. When I received the phones, the one with the ported number, the SIM hadn't been activated. Anyway, called Le...
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i've got a t616 (though with attws), try this to see if you can get a better signal by manually selecting another carrier's tower:
goto menu, connect, gsm network, then select network. try the attws since you said that friends on attws get a good signal in your house. i'm not family with cing's plans but if i understand correctly then you shouldn't have to worry about roaming charges if you are on their nationaly plan, so you be able to roam on attws w/o a problem in your house.