Originally Posted by
murphy
I was a former AT&T Cingular customer until yesterday. Someone stole my old, busted up phone. I had another of the same phones, with an AT&T sim that used to be assigned to my wife. Cingular told me they couldn't reassign the sim to me, and suggested I go to the store and buy a new sim.
At the Cingular store, I was told that because they no longer have AT&T sims, I would have to sign up for a new 2 yr contract, and buy a new cingular phone and sim. I told the salesman what I really wanted was an iphone, so I'd just take the sim and buy an unlocked phone to tide me over until the iphone come out. He explained that I wouldn't be eligible for the upgrade price if I didn't buy a phone now. He suggested I call customer care and see if they could offer me anything.
The thought of spending time on the phone with Cingular's reps and working to remain their customer just seemed silly to me. I went to Amazon, bought a Blackberry Pearl for $50 (free after rebate), and switched to T-Mobile.
Just FYI, I'm fairly sure those Amazon prices are usually only for new customers, not for existing customers extending contracts.
I had a phone stolen recently also but my experience with Cingular was much different...
I went into the store expecting to use the insurance that I pay for (is insurance a suckers bet?)they said I would have to pay 50.00 deductible and they would next day a similar phone to me.
I mentioned that I had an older phone and could I just have a new sim card put in?
Sure no problem just let us see your ID.
Umm wallet was stolen too.
No problem, checked their files and found a copy of my contract and 5 minutes later I was on my way with a working phone. Couldn't have been easier.
But I did go to the cingular place where I have bought all of my phones for the past 10 years.