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Rival Carriers Playing Dirty to Keep Customers

It's funny you mentioned that, because Verizon tried to do the same thing to me.

I called Verizon on Monday and had a one minute question for them. I asked them what was the code to fwd. my calls to another number was. (*72). The guy told me and then asked why.

I said "Well mister, I am getting the iPhone next week and I want to fwd. my calls to my new phone until my contract ends with you in 3 weeks."

He immediately went on to tell me to be careful because Cingular was known for their horrible customer service, frequent dropped calls, and unreliability of service. He tried to also keep me by saying I had been with Verizon for 7 years, and why would I want to leave with such loyalty. I flat out told him it was because Verizon rejected Apple's deal to have them offer the iPhone, that I have been dying to have one since January, and because their customer service in the store's is absolutely the worst experience ever.

He apologized about the bad service and acknowledged they had some service opportunities but went on to say that I could just call up and have everything taken care of for me instead of going into the store. He then offered me the new Blackberry that is GSM capable so I can travel abroad. I told him I really didn't care for the crapberries, and then he said "Well we have the LG Chocolate phones that play music like the iPhone does." I told him I wasn't interested but he kept going on and on for about 15 minutes on how I was making a big mistake, how the iPhone wasn't worth it, how the service I would be receiving would make me wanna come back, and how I would end up coming back after realizing how unworthy it was.

I laughed, and politely hung up with him.

SAY BYE, BYE VERIZON!!! ;)

Edit: I forgot to mention he also was trying to make me believe I would be paying double minutes on my Verizon phone for using the call fwd. option. I asked him why and he said that's just what happens. I continued to argue about it and then he fessed up and said that I would be paying for minutes from Verizon and then minutes from AT&T, which I agreed but found it funny he was initially trying to make me believe I would be paying double minutes from Verizon and then additional minutes from AT&T.

-Kevin
 
im going to tell nextel/sprint im throwing there phone over a bridge because there service sucks.
 
rdowns said:
When I left Verizon for Cingular (Verizon did not have BT phones that paired with my car) I was offered a new phone, more minutes, lower monthly rate and every other Tuesday night with the CEO's wife.
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Verizon told me they had my privates in a vice and we'll talk in two years about any 'bonus' features.:) Although the technical term they used instead of 'privates in a vice' was 'contract'.
 
a little while ago I had to buy a new phone because my old one broke. I've been off contract on TMobile for a long time now, and I told the rep at the store I wanted the cheapest one without a contract, he asked me why, and I told him it was for the iPhone - he laughed and said he didn't blame me. He didn't try to sell me on another one. He probably makes more off commission anyway that way, when some one buys a phone full price. Plus he knew he was in for sale regardless of what he said, I suppose he wasn't, at that point (April) trying to keep me as a customer.
 
Here's my dialogue with the manager at my local Verizon store about how to switch my number over to AT&T.

Manager: Can I help you sir?
Me: Yeah, I might be switching to AT&T in a week or so, how would I go about switching my number over?
Manager: (Confused) Your switching to them... from us?
Me: Yeah I might be getting the iPhone.
Manager: The iWhat? You don't want that crap! Here, check out this Motorola Q, it's a lot better that that iCrap!
Me: Can You just answer my question sir?
Manager: Yeah, yeah. Just go get your iCrap and come back here so we can deactivate your phone. Have a nice day.

I started to walk out and he stops me...

Manager: Wait kid, remember you gotta pay a $175 deactivation fee.

Jeez... I bet he'll be getting an iPhone as soon as he retires/quits.
 
mrat93 said:
Here's my dialogue with the manager at my local Verizon store about how to switch my number over to AT&T.

Manager: Can I help you sir?
Me: Yeah, I might be switching to AT&T in a week or so, how would I go about switching my number over?
Manager: (Confused) Your switching to them... from us?
Me: Yeah I might be getting the iPhone.
Manager: The iWhat? You don't want that crap! Here, check out this Motorola Q, it's a lot better that that iCrap!
Me: Can You just answer my question sir?
Manager: Yeah, yeah. Just go get your iCrap and come back here so we can deactivate your phone. Have a nice day.

I started to walk out and he stops me...

Manager: Wait kid, remember you gotta pay a $175 deactivation fee.

Jeez... I bet he'll be getting an iPhone as soon as he retires/quits.
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you do not even have to go back to him. All you have to do is go to cingular and tell them what your number that you want ported over and everything else they take char of. Including causing you old contract to be canceled. you proceed to get billed the cancellation fee from verizon.

At least that that is how it worked with me both times I switch companies. minus the cancellation fees because my contact was up. I went verizon to sprint to cingular. Reason for each was verizon sucked where I spent most of my year and sprint was great. only reason I left sprint was because my sister was on cingular and my parents where just moving all our numbers over to one company because it was cheaper that way.
 
I find all the flak that Cingular gets on these forums and elsewhere on the Internet since the announcement of the iPhone to be quite shocking.
In Dallas, where I live, my friends and I almost all use Cingular/ATT and laugh at some friends with Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile. I consistently have more "bars" than my friends with Sprint (who has horrible service here), regularly get dropped calls talking to my friend on Verizon, and T-Mobile hardly gets service.

I guess it's different anywhere, but in the entire North Texas/Oklahoma area, Cingular/ATT has had the most reliable service over the years.
 
yg17 said:
Haven't had any of that crap with T-Mobile. Not all of them suck. Hence, one of the several reasons why I refuse to go anywhere else for an iPhone. ;)
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It's all a matter of location. I had old AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and currently Cingular/New AT&T. I stuck with Cingular because they offered the best coverage, quality, and service in the areas I use my phone the most. I couldn't even get a single bar of signal with T-Mobile in my office and there was only one spot in my apartment (I had an apartment at the time, now in a house) where I got any signal at all. I've had zero coverage issues since switching to Cingular. Since switching I've been on snowboard trips to Vail, Killington, and Heavenly and I've had signal and excellent call quality on the slopes and on the lifts. I'd lose a signal with T-Mobile on the access roads to most places. I'm very happy with the quality and service I've had with Cingular over the last 3 years.
 
i dont know why people are bashing cingular/att... i havent met ONE person who loved their moble carrier... every single cell phone service provider sucks, and doesnt care about their customers.. they all have contracts that blow, they all squeeze as much money out of you as possible, and they all lie to you... its just how it is... i have been with many carriers, and i have been pretty happy with cingular.. the service is great around me (philadelphia) and i havent had to deal with them for any issues in a long time... its not the best, and its not the worst.. no matter where you go, the customer service sucks.. but cingular has the iphone, which no other carrier has.. so i can see why people dont mind switching to them..
 
elg23 said:
i dont know why people are bashing cingular/att... i havent met ONE person who loved their moble carrier... every single cell phone service provider sucks, and doesnt care about their customers.. they all have contracts that blow, they all squeeze as much money out of you as possible, and they all lie to you... its just how it is... i have been with many carriers, and i have been pretty happy with cingular.. the service is great around me (philadelphia) and i havent had to deal with them for any issues in a long time... its not the best, and its not the worst.. no matter where you go, the customer service sucks.. but cingular has the iphone, which no other carrier has.. so i can see why people dont mind switching to them..
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Not true. Not all cellular customer service is bad. Just most of it, AT&T included.
 
yg17 said:
Haven't had any of that crap with T-Mobile. Not all of them suck. Hence, one of the several reasons why I refuse to go anywhere else for an iPhone. ;)
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Yea, I think everyone on the forum is well aware tha in your dark corner of the world outside of St. Louis Cingular sucked. We hear it quite often. Do you have a larger frame of reference? I travel frequently and have had T-Mobile, Verizon and Cingular.

Frankly right before the merger when the AT&T wireless and Cingualr towers allowed full roaming the service began to blow everyone else away in major markets. The are whole coridors in Dallas, the Bay area, DC and the Virigina 'burbs where Verizon and T-Mobile just don't work.

From my experiences, T-Mobile has great customer service, but it's b/c they neeed it to make up for the relatively small network footprint overall. Not saying in isn't great in your enck of the woods, but overall not great.


Verizon - Please. EVDO is great, but there coverage is spotty and their customer service is the pits.
 
joeconvert said:
Yea, I think everyone on the forum is well aware tha in your dark corner of the world outside of St. Louis Cingular sucked. We hear it quite often. Do you have a larger frame of reference?
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Yes, in the middle of Manhattan, no one in my family could keep a halfway decent signal with Cingular. Manhattan...not exactly the middle of nowhere.

And customer service isn't location based, that's all over. It's either good or bad, not good if you live in city X and bad if you live in city Y like coverage is.

I know I sound like a broken record here, but if I can stop one person from making the same mistake we did by signing a 2 year contract with them, I feel like I've done a good deed ;)
 
yg17 said:
Yes, in the middle of Manhattan, no one in my family could keep a halfway decent signal with Cingular. Manhattan...not exactly the middle of nowhere.

And customer service isn't location based, that's all over. It's either good or bad, not good if you live in city X and bad if you live in city Y like coverage is.

I know I sound like a broken record here, but if I can stop one person from making the same mistake we did by signing a 2 year contract with them, I feel like I've done a good deed ;)
Click to expand...

I must disagree. Cingular/ATT works just fine in Manhattan, Queens and Long Island for that matter. The only time I have ever dropped a call is on the Cross Island Pkwy. - seems to be a dead zone- as Verizon used to drop there and satellite radio is very staticy. Also, I only get 1-2 bars in my bathroom. :p
 
rdowns said:
I must disagree. Cingular/ATT works just fine in Manhattan, Queens and Long Island for that matter. The only time I have ever dropped a call is on the Cross Island Pkwy. - seems to be a dead zone- as Verizon used to drop there and satellite radio is very staticy. Also, I only get 1-2 bars in my bathroom. :p
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Perhaps they've improved, but there was no excuse for the crappy service we dealt with a few years ago when we were there
 
yg17 said:
Perhaps they've improved, but there was no excuse for the crappy service we dealt with a few years ago when we were there
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i dont think its fair to talk so bad about their service when you are saying your problems were a few years ago... a lot has changed for att/cingular in the past few years... if anything, they have gotten better... and i think their customer service will be great considering they are doing another name change and going to be getting a lot of new customers... im sure they will be extra nice right now and handle problems pretty well....
 
elg23 said:
i dont think its fair to talk so bad about their service when you are saying your problems were a few years ago... a lot has changed for att/cingular in the past few years... if anything, they have gotten better... and i think their customer service will be great considering they are doing another name change and going to be getting a lot of new customers... im sure they will be extra nice right now and handle problems pretty well....
Click to expand...


When I last used them 6 months ago before leaving they were still terrible here. What does the name change have to do with better customer service? If anything, they'll cut corners and outsource it to India to help pay for another name change
 
yg17 said:
When I last used them 6 months ago before leaving they were still terrible here. What does the name change have to do with better customer service? If anything, they'll cut corners and outsource it to India to help pay for another name change
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i was with nextel when they switched to sprint.. when they go thru name changes they always bump up customer service so existing customers dont get angry that since they "merged" the company has gone down hill... they do everything they can to convince customers that quality is going to improve with the "new" company...
 
yg17 said:
I know I sound like a broken record here, but if I can stop one person from making the same mistake we did by signing a 2 year contract with them, I feel like I've done a good deed ;)
Click to expand...


I really think its getting to a unneeded point...also you site 2 example, from a while ago. They have improved, and have been great to be, as a recent switcher to At&T
 
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