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Anyone Use Cingular?

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AtHomeBoy_2000

AtHomeBoy_2000

macrumors 6502a
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Feb 3, 2005
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I am curious what everyone thinks of Cingular? I know they are becoming AT&T Mobile sometime this year (according to Wikipedia). Also, in the wikipedia article it is pretty scathing about their quality of service. I'd love an iPhone, but verizon kicks butt.
 
Cingular has been good to me

AtHomeBoy_2000 said:
I am curious what everyone thinks of Cingular? I know they are becoming AT&T Mobile sometime this year (according to Wikipedia). Also, in the wikipedia article it is pretty scathing about their quality of service. I'd love an iPhone, but verizon kicks butt.
Click to expand...

I have used Cingular since they were ATT Wireless, Inc. Cingular bought ATT Wireless and the ATT name - now the entire wirelss network (the original ATT Wireless and Cingular) are going to go under the ATT Wireles name.

they have far an away the best , largest network - I have never had a dropped call - and I get calls inside of buildings all the time.
 
Apparently, 58 million people use Cingular. BellSouth (half of Cingular) has been pushing it hard lately.

I like their phones but dislike dealing with a company that already is pathetic in home service. Besides, their prices are high and their customer service is bad. I've heard that Cingular customer service is worse but that's difficult to believe.
 
I have had cingular since it was Pacbell, about 8 years now. I am excited Iphone is with cingular, i am sure our user population will grow meaning for me, more free calls :)

But the iphone needs to be way cheaper for me to sign a 2 year contract. I hope the folks @ apple.inc are reading these threads and can take a hint.
There stock went up almost 8 points today without a mention of leapord or the ACD's. I was bummed bought that.
 
I used to be an AT&T Wireless customer, then that became Cingular. Before that I used Verizon.

Verizon used to have horrible customer service in the late 90s, but, they dramatically changed that and now have pretty darn good service for a phone company.

AT&T Wireless was even better than Verizon at the time. Then Cingular bought it and it really went downhill from there. The service itself is mostly good, but, I have no idea what they mean about "fewest dropped calls," because I have dropped calls all the time in the middle of Manhattan. Not so with Verizon.

I also think Cingular's customer service is absolutely HORRIBLE. Ever since my account was "migrated" from AT&T to Cingular (over 2 years ago), they still can never find my account record when I call in, which requires a 20-minute search and providing so much personal data, Cingular knows more about me than my mother. All this is done by someone who can barely speak English and can't do anything that veers away from their customer support script.

Plus, let's not forget that Cingular is one of the phone companies who willingly hands over phone records and other personal data to the government on ALL of their customers. Talk about breach of privacy! Apple could not have chosen a worse provider for their cool new phone. Tragic!
 
Based on my experience, the Verizon customer service completely OWNS Cingular's; and anyone else's for that matter. In addition, their service here in Minneapolis is better than any other carrier, including Cingular, bar none.
 
Cingular sucks

I had them for about 4 years. Their customer service was horrible. I canceled my service when I took off for a year and the idiot at customer service only canceled one of the phone numbers. They sent my account to a collection agency without ever trying to contact me. The collection agency said that even if I did cancel one of the numbers that service always renewed for a year at a time (wrong), so I owed a cancelation fee for that and for the one they didn't cancel.They were threatening to ruin my credit and all that crap. Trying to contact them and straighten it out from Australia was a nightmare. I finally found an email/number for the president of Cingular and wrote them a letter and a spokeswoman got back to me and credited my account. But it ruined a good part of my trip. Never ever will I go back to them-I don't care if that's the only carrier that will ever have the iPhone. It's just not worth the insanity.
 
Hi
I've had no problems with the handful of times I've contacted customer service.

Coverage...It seems pretty good and I'm in a quite rural area ( farmland galore ). I've never had a dropped call, even with low signal strength but there are some areas -- usually only when you are in a building -- that I don't get any service. I'll be signing a new contract with them, around June. Ironically, the iPhone release month is when I need to renew my contract anyway.

I'm deciding between the LG CU500 and the iPhone. Big difference but there are quite a few factors involved in the choice.
 
I have it and i have the data plan required for the iphone. I'm also in a big market, and i can honestly say i hate it. I like t-mobile much better
 
I've had Cingular for 5 years with very few problems. Before that I used Sprint, which I got rid of because they were truly horrific.

The only thing I hate about Cingular is how long it takes to get to talk to an employee in their stores.
 
Veritas&Equitas said:
Actually, that's wrong. Check the Consumer Reports, Verizon consistently gets higher marks for their network than Cingular or AT&T.
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In addition to Consumer Reports, 20,000+ wireless customers surveyed by JD Power rate Verizon and T-Mobile call quality and customer service higher than Cingular pretty much year after year.
http://www.jdpower.com/telecom/ratings/wireless/index.asp

Another good place for Cingular user reviews is HowardForums:
http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=50
 
Hi
mashinhead said:
I like t-mobile much better
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I assume you mean the plans / customer service? Cingular customers can use T-Mobile towers and I'd guess vice versa. So, coverage wise, you can combine them both.

valdore said:
I've had Cingular for 5 years with very few problems. Before that I used Sprint, which I got rid of because they were truly horrific.

The only thing I hate about Cingular is how long it takes to get to talk to an employee in their stores.
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I'd say NexTel is horrific and I'm glad I didn't go with them, I thought about it some time ago but went with AT&T Wireless instead, than was "grandfathered" into Cingular and will now be grandfathered into AT&T.

I can agree about them not having enough employees or whatever the problem is. My other complaint in that area is their in-store computer system being horrifically slow. Doing changes to your account requires a lot of waiting, even the employee just stands there in a daze of patience.
 
MacCheetah3 said:
I'd say NexTel is horrific and I'm glad I didn't go with them, I thought about it some time ago but went with AT&T Wireless instead, than was "grandfathered" into Cingular and will now be grandfathered into AT&T.

I can agree about them not having enough employees or whatever the problem is. My other complaint in that area is their in-store computer system being horrifically slow. Doing changes to your account requires a lot of waiting, even the employee just stands there in a daze of patience.
Click to expand...

I hate how, if you go into a Cingular store to pay your bill, they make you use that dodgy, half assed payment computer machine thing, which doesn't even work half the time. Actually seeing a real person to take your payment is just too much to ask from companies these days. Revolting.
 
I've had cingular for about two years (my contract ends on Feb. 14) and I plan on resigning with them once the iPhone is released.

I've been through T-Mobile (which was absolutely useless in my area) and Nextel (which was very pricey, poor rate plans, and mediocre signal strength).

I really like Cingular's "Roll Over" deal...since most of my friends have Cingular, my roll over minutes are very high, so I can get away with having the lowest roll over plan (I believe is priced at $39.99 USD a month)
 
T-Mobile has those machines too.

I guess they all prefer to have their sales staff selling?
 
Hi
valdore said:
I hate how, if you go into a Cingular store to pay your bill, they make you use that dodgy, half assed payment computer machine thing, which doesn't even work half the time. Actually seeing a real person to take your payment is just too much to ask from companies these days. Revolting.
Click to expand...
I've never done that. I've always talked to a person but as I said, the computer the employee is using is always slow, or so they claim as they stand their in awkward patience.
 
I've gone from Sprint -> TMobile -> Cingular in the last 18 months.
Also, I use my phones pretty exclusively in the northeast.

Sprint was okay, but expensive and I didnt care much for their phone options.

TMobile was terrible and I couldnt wait to get off their service. I switched for the ability to purchase unlocked phones and their low cost, but the service was terrible.

Cingular has been great so far (4 months). I've had coverage everywhere I've needed it and I actually used customer service for the first time this week and the were responsive, no hassle, and fixed my problem. My only regret is not having a 3G phone for network speed.
 
Bubbasteve said:
I really like Cingular's "Roll Over" deal...since most of my friends have Cingular, my roll over minutes are very high, so I can get away with having the lowest roll over plan (I believe is priced at $39.99 USD a month)
Click to expand...

Same here. I never, ever worry about how much time I spend on my phone because I never go over my limit ... that's with my wife sharing the plan.

Sprint stinks because it costs too much for what you get and T-Mobile has poorer coverage. The only good alternative is Verizon but I'd really, really hate to have to use their crippled phones. I love being able to buy whatever SIM phone I want, whenever I want and have it work.

On the other hand, Cingular stinks because I get dropped calls all the time in my area (Northern DC) but that's probably because of the population density since I also sometimes can't connect when I dial and it doesn't happen anywhere else when I travel. I don't have any experience with the in store kiosk because I pay either through the mail or online. The call quality isn't as crisp and clean as Sprint but they are cheaper, have better coverage and better phone options. And let's face it. All telecomm call quality is way, way under where it should be in this day in age ... why are still using very low bandwidth ? I want to be using full bandwidth for my calls so I can actually tell what people are saying wherever I am.
 
I've been using Cingular for just under two years now, and it's been great. I always have excellent coverage (both here in SC and at home in MI), and the customer service has been great, as well. They've let us upgrade and downgrade our plan as we've needed, and have always been really helpful. I can't foresee wanting to be with a different provider, really.

I was with Verizon before, but they always tacked on extra charges and our bills were always more than they were supposed to be - and the customer service was horrendous. Coverage was just fine, but the other things drove me away.
 
Hi
xfiftyfour said:
I was with Verizon before, but they always tacked on extra charges and our bills were always more than they were supposed to be - and the customer service was horrendous.
Click to expand...
YouTube - vcents

This is totally wicked! :D I've seen this ( "$0.02 cents / Kb" ) on cellular carrier web sites and was confused / chuckled myself in the past. I don't even know if any of them have ever corrected it but since I know what they are attempting to get across, I don't bother. This, for once, would be a fair legal battle though.
 
They get service were I live. Verizon doesn't(a little here and there)


I'm very happy Apple went Cingular only, over Verizon only, plus I can make calls over seas with Cingular
 
This is really a question you shouldn't ask. You will get 100 replies with 100 different answers. Service largely depends on where you live.

I will give you my 2 cents.
1. I used Sprint for 5 years and service was always good where I travel.
2. 2 years ago I moved and Sprint had spotty coverage where I live so I switched to Cingular.
3. Cingular has been equally great in service where I travel plus I get the added benefit of GSM for Europe.

2 reasons I didn't go with Verizon. (1) horrible reception inside my work building. (2) Verizon locks down bluetooth so you can only use it for headsets. You can use it to send pictures, ringtones, contacts, etc from your mac to the phone and Verizon. Cingular doesn't lock this feature.
 
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