Cingular cell phone service - Is this true or a crock of ish

Author

Is this true or a crock of ish

ivebeenspammed

2006-07-20, 4:33 am

Is Cingular shaft on their own Cingular customers. A neighbor got a
message from them saying there was a mandatory SIM card change that had
to be done. I took her to the store and they installed a new SIM.
Service was horrible afterwards. Low bars, dropping calls, horrible
quality. We returned there today because a phone operaor told her the
chip was bad. The person at the store said it was because the new chips
were 64K, and her old one was 32k and that her phone would just do that
because it couldn't handle the faster chip. He said she would have to
buy a new phone.

Well to get the new phone, she would have to pay money, and be locked
for a new 2 year contract. Is this a plan to try to get money out of
customers? Its messed up that they make you get a new chip thats not
usable and then want you to pay money for their upgrades.

She can go to another provider, be a sucker and buy a new unlocked (no
contract) phone, sign a new contract, or throw her phone in the trash
and make an insurance claim and get a new phone without the other
hassles, but it still costs money.

Anyone else having this problem with their phone?

Jim Lange

2006-07-20, 7:33 am

What model phone does your friend have? the LGC 1500 and to a lesser extent
the 2000 cannot use the 3G SIM cards. They work fine with the non 3G 64K
cards but you will have trouble finding them in stores. Call Customer
Service and tell them you need a non 3G card.
"ivebeenspammed" < ivebeenspammed@gmail
.com> wrote in message
news:1153382700.977022.145740@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
> Is Cingular shaft on their own Cingular customers. A neighbor got a
> message from them saying there was a mandatory SIM card change that had
> to be done. I took her to the store and they installed a new SIM.
> Service was horrible afterwards. Low bars, dropping calls, horrible
> quality. We returned there today because a phone operaor told her the
> chip was bad. The person at the store said it was because the new chips
> were 64K, and her old one was 32k and that her phone would just do that
> because it couldn't handle the faster chip. He said she would have to
> buy a new phone.
>
> Well to get the new phone, she would have to pay money, and be locked
> for a new 2 year contract. Is this a plan to try to get money out of
> customers? Its messed up that they make you get a new chip thats not
> usable and then want you to pay money for their upgrades.
>
> She can go to another provider, be a sucker and buy a new unlocked (no
> contract) phone, sign a new contract, or throw her phone in the trash
> and make an insurance claim and get a new phone without the other
> hassles, but it still costs money.
>
> Anyone else having this problem with their phone?
>

Cavity Search

2006-07-21, 4:33 am

"ivebeenspammed" < ivebeenspammed@gmail
.com> wrote in message
news:1153382700.977022.145740@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com...
> Is Cingular shaft on their own Cingular customers. A neighbor got a
> message from them saying there was a mandatory SIM card change that had
> to be done. I took her to the store and they installed a new SIM.
> Service was horrible afterwards. Low bars, dropping calls, horrible
> quality. We returned there today because a phone operaor told her the
> chip was bad. The person at the store said it was because the new chips
> were 64K, and her old one was 32k and that her phone would just do that
> because it couldn't handle the faster chip. He said she would have to
> buy a new phone.
>
> Well to get the new phone, she would have to pay money, and be locked
> for a new 2 year contract. Is this a plan to try to get money out of
> customers? Its messed up that they make you get a new chip thats not
> usable and then want you to pay money for their upgrades.
>
> She can go to another provider, be a sucker and buy a new unlocked (no
> contract) phone, sign a new contract, or throw her phone in the trash
> and make an insurance claim and get a new phone without the other
> hassles, but it still costs money.
>
> Anyone else having this problem with their phone?

I chose not to upgrade my SIM just yet. For the moment, our phones are
working fine, and I don't know if the new SIM's will work better, or not at
all, in our old phones.

It certainly sounds like a scam, but it's hard to tell. Eventually Cingular
will have all their SIM's upgraded to the new 64k model, so I can see how
they'd want to have everybody upgrade before it becomes an issue, and people
start bitching about poor service.

On the other hand, they must be quite aware that gas costs over $3 a gallon,
but instead of just mailing our SIM's to us, they send us a letter telling
us to go to their store, on our own dime and time. It sounds like they want
to drag their customers back into the store so they sales reps can push new
phones and services. The old "Looks like you'll have to upgrade, please
hand over some money" trick is as old as used car salesmen.

Ironically, if they just offered a wider array of phones, I'd probably just
buy one and lock in another two years. Instead they offer the same, tired,
old phones, basically the same 3 or so models with different brands.
There's the flip, slider, and candy bar. Yawn.

We bought new, unlocked phones. My wife got a nice little Samsung off Ebay,
and I got a XXXXX'n VOQ from Amazon. They both work fine, and we didn't get
nickel and dimed to death with car adapters, hands free gizmos, and cases.
Everything came with these, unlike Cingular, which want's to sell you every
little thing.

Anyway, keep bugging them until you get an older, 32k chip, or throw the old
phone and get them to replace it. Other than an unlocked phone, those are
your only choices.

CS

Marty

2006-07-21, 3:33 pm

Somewhere around 20 Jul 2006 01:05:01 -0700, while reading
alt.cellular.cingular, I think I thought I saw this post from
"ivebeenspammed" < ivebeenspammed@gmail
.com>:

>Is Cingular shaft on their own Cingular customers. A neighbor got a
>message from them saying there was a mandatory SIM card change that had
>to be done. I took her to the store and they installed a new SIM.
>Service was horrible afterwards. Low bars, dropping calls, horrible
>quality. We returned there today because a phone operaor told her the
>chip was bad. The person at the store said it was because the new chips
>were 64K, and her old one was 32k and that her phone would just do that
>because it couldn't handle the faster chip. He said she would have to
>buy a new phone.
>
>Well to get the new phone, she would have to pay money, and be locked
>for a new 2 year contract. Is this a plan to try to get money out of
>customers? Its messed up that they make you get a new chip thats not
>usable and then want you to pay money for their upgrades.
>
>She can go to another provider, be a sucker and buy a new unlocked (no
>contract) phone, sign a new contract, or throw her phone in the trash
>and make an insurance claim and get a new phone without the other
>hassles, but it still costs money.
>
>Anyone else having this problem with their phone?

No, but have you talked to Cingular, rather than a "person at the store"?

One thing about the stores is that most of them are not owned by Cingular,
and their business is selling phones, so of course they will try to say you
need a new phone.

I never go to the stores. If I have a problem, I call Cingular, and usually
get helpful people that solve my problem. In the few cases where I don't, I
end the call as soon as I can, and call back later.

I got the sims in the mail, and didn't even activate one of them for a while
(I have 3 phones on a family plan). When my son't phone had a problem with
a forgotten password, they rushed new sims to us via 2-day UPS. I activated
it over the internet.

Call them if you have a problem, be nice and polite, and surprise, they will
probably bend over backwards to help you.

--
Marty - public.forums (at) gmail (dot) com
"Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...
well, I have others." - Groucho Marx

John Navas

2006-07-28, 4:33 am

On 20 Jul 2006 01:05:01 -0700, "ivebeenspammed"
< ivebeenspammed@gmail
.com> wrote in
<1153382700.977022.145740@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com>:

>Is Cingular shaft on their own Cingular customers. A neighbor got a
>message from them saying there was a mandatory SIM card change that had
>to be done. I took her to the store and they installed a new SIM.
>Service was horrible afterwards. Low bars, dropping calls, horrible
>quality. We returned there today because a phone operaor told her the
>chip was bad. The person at the store said it was because the new chips
>were 64K, and her old one was 32k and that her phone would just do that
>because it couldn't handle the faster chip. He said she would have to
>buy a new phone.
>
>Well to get the new phone, she would have to pay money, and be locked
>for a new 2 year contract. Is this a plan to try to get money out of
>customers? Its messed up that they make you get a new chip thats not
>usable and then want you to pay money for their upgrades.
>
>She can go to another provider, be a sucker and buy a new unlocked (no
>contract) phone, sign a new contract, or throw her phone in the trash
>and make an insurance claim and get a new phone without the other
>hassles, but it still costs money.
>
>Anyone else having this problem with their phone?

The SIM change alone will not have that effect.
Something else is going on.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ Cingu...less_FA
Q>

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