But you knew what service would be like before that other carrier came along. You agreed the service that you were getting and you should not have gotten your contract fees waived. And that was a bad decision on Cingular's part to waive them for you... Just my opinion... To many customers get away with that type of stuff...

At the time I re-signed, AT&T was no better or worse than the other several available carriers. I had to have a cell phone, and with this huge Cingular joining with the no less huge AT&T, I was told at the local AT&T store that the reception was going to improve rapidly. That was the reason I re-signed.

That said, as the matter of principle I believe that carriers shouldn't hold people to the contracts if they can't assure workable reception. They should provide a full and honest disclosure and then let the customer decide. And if the disclosure was not true and full and the phone wasn't useable, the company should say sorry and let the customer go in peace. The reception (i.e., the ability to use the phone) is what the cell phone ca...
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I agree. Once you sign the contract, it's Cingular's duty to ensure that your service would be adequite in your home location. Living out in the boonies, I can understand, but in a situation where the person is in a reasonable location and Cingular has no plans on upgrading, if another carrier is there with better reception, Cingular has the responsibility of releasing the person from their contract.

I think a contract is a contract,,,and that's that. I also think Americans are whiny, complain over nothing and expect their wireless provider to hand them the world wrapped up on a silver platter.
It's a cell phone people, not a phone plugged into a wall. It won't work everywhere, there will be service disturbances that are unavoidable, and YES, you do have to pay your bill!
But hey, that's just me 🙂

I agree.

I mean, people can't just expect everything and then some. Personally I wouldn't expect flawless service from my cable company, let alone my wireless provider.

So what's going to happen now if the service worsens at your home now with your current provider? Are you going to be a turncoat again and try to get out of that contract as well? Customers need to realize that phones more often than not do NOT work inside of buildings of any sort.

I think this customer is correct. I also think that he demonstrates that complaining effectively, as opposed to complaining loudly, does work.

He was made a specific promise by Cingular and/or its reperesentative. That promise was not fulfilled.

This is not some irrational idiot that we all complain about. This si a customer who has tolerated bad service without complaint and was going to terminate his service at the END of his contract. The promises were not kept.

I applaud the person/s who made the decision to terminate the contract without prejudice.

jerrydock said:
I applaud the person/s who made the decision to terminate the contract without prejudice.

And I'm going to right her a thank you letter, with the copy to CEO.

I meant, "write." not "right." Just to do the right thing. 🙂

Tail said:
So what's going to happen now if the service worsens at your home now with your current provider? Are you going to be a turncoat again and try to get out of that contract as well? Customers need to realize that phones more often than not do NOT work inside of buildings of any sort.

Yes, if there would be a better alternative, I might. That doesn't make me a turncoat, just a person who recognizes his consumer rights. As to your last sentence, I don't believe it's true. We're talking here about a middle of the road single family home, not a steel and concrete bunker 100 feet under ground.

RUFF1415 said:
I agree.

I mean, people can't just expect everything and then some. Personally I wouldn't expect flawless service from my cable company, let alone my wireless provider.

You would, however, expect to be able to watch paid for cable TV in your own house, wouldn't you? Or you would be satisfied paying for cable TV and then having to go to a neighbor a few blocks from your house to watch it? 🙂

halifax_gal said:
I also think Americans are whiny, complain over nothing and expect their wireless provider to hand them the world wrapped up on a silver platter.

Europeans and Asians, on the other hand, have no such problem as they have a wall-to-wall uninterrupted coverage across the entire respective continents. Unfortunately, the US is grossly behind in this matter. ☹️

Ok, so let's say you subscribed to a satellite tv service and signed a 2 year contract so that you can get all the movie channels at a reduced rate. Shortly after signing, a meteor hits the satellite and only allows you to receive signals 80% of the time, and when you do, it's very choppy and degraded. The company says they're going to repair it, and has worked on it, but you're still getting bad service. You're now paying $95/month you're going to have to pay that for the next 20 months only to get terrible service. The cable company in your area is offering almost identical service for $100/month with a lot better reception. Are you still going to sit there and throw away $1500 just because "a contract is a contract?" By the way, 15...
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davidg4781 said:
Cingular can't force him to stay on his contract when they're not putting up towers or trying to help him use his phone.

Well, as I'd mentioned both the manager at the Cingular store (whom, over the years, I came to know well personally) and the Customer Service told me unequivocally that there was no way to have had my wife's and my contracts terminated without penalty. That was precisely the reason why I was so surprised when the woman from the (?see below) said and did completely the opposite.

And here is a footnote. I called the HQ in Atlanta to find the name of the department where the woman worked (she gave me her full name), but all they could do for me was to transfer me to so...
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I have a few questions for you.

How long have you had your service with Cingular?

and

Has the signal at your home always been bad or has it been deteriorating?

I have had service with AT&T and then with Cingular, when it took over, since the Fall of 2000. The signal has always been bad. We tried a TDMA phone first. Then the store suggested that a GSM phone would work better and we switched. (Actually, we got a tri-band Siemens, that had a TDMA band and two GSM bands. Because of the poor signal, every few minutes it came on and kept switching from TDMA to GSM and back, looking for a better signal, until the fully charged battery was dead in a matter of hours.)

Then, my favorite store manager suggested that a TDMA Nokia 3560 may actually have a better reception than a GSM phone. We tried both kinds at and around the house, and, indeed, TDMA was slightly better, so we switched again. (In t...
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So you're currently using a TDMA phone, correct?

I have heard, but am not certain, that Cingular is decommissioning TDMA in certain areas. If you're reception has been degrading, I would suggest inquiring at the local store whether or not TDMA has been decommissioned or even reallocated in your area. In some instances, where Cingular TDMA towers and AT&T TDMA towers have overlapping signals, antennas have been removed. This may very well have inadvertently affected your signal at home. If this is the case, you should have a good argument against Cingular for them to release you from your contracts without penalty.

But I must ask...

If you have had bad service since 2000, like you've claimed, then why have you not switched carrie...
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RUFF1415 said:
So you're currently using a TDMA phone, correct?

I have heard, but am not certain, that Cingular is decommissioning TDMA in certain areas. If you're reception has been degrading, I would suggest inquiring at the local store whether or not TDMA has been decommissioned or even reallocated in your area. In some instances, where Cingular TDMA towers and AT&T TDMA towers have overlapping signals, antennas have been removed. This may very well have inadvertently affected your signal at home. If this is the case, you should have a good argument against Cingular for them to release you from your contracts without penalty.

But I must ask...

If you have had bad service since 2000, like you've claimed, th

...
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