Why does Cingular do dumb things?
 

I have been a customer of Cingular (nee AT&T Wireless) for about 12 years. I have to phones with them and spend about $400/month. I have decided I will get one of those smart phones--a Blackberry or something like that. I settled on a Treo 750: they're new, they have everything, I have colleagues in Europe who love it, I like it. Since I bought two phones with Cingular in March, I am not entitled to an upgrade.

So, for new customers, they get to pay $499.99, with a $100 rebate and a two year contact. Since I have a two-year contact on an existing phone, I get to pay $649.99 (I think I get a rebate, but am not sure). The $150 difference is exactly the charge for me to exit my existing contract.

I have never thought about switching to another carrier until today. I plan to switch one phone--the one that runs a bill of $350; the other phone is used for personal calls. I don't understand why Cingular doesn't give a better deal to its existing customers.

At the moment, no other companies offer the Treo 750. That's not a big deal to me. I need to find a smart device that is GSM capable, has Windows, and can do e-mail. So, I guess I am now left with research Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint/Nextel. This Forum is a great help in my search.

I was another longtime AT&T Wireless customer who was essentially driven away by the ridiculously onerous and difficult plans offered when I wanted to simply get an updated phone and move to the Cingular plan that best matched my old AT&T plan. I moved to T-Mobile and haven't looked back.

I would definitely call Cingular customer service again and this time, escalate the call to a Manager. Let him/her know everything you said in this post, especially the fact that you've been a customer for 12 years and that you pay about $400 per month. That makes you a very special customer in their eyes. If the Manager is not willing to give you the new customer deal, then escalate the call one level up. You'll be speaking to an Area Manager. And if that doesn't work, write a letter to the CEO, Stan Sigman in Atlanta. Make sure you tell them all that you will be looking into a competitior if you do not get satisfaction.

I know it sounds like a hassle, but Cingular does not want to lose a customer like you. Good luck and please keep us posted as to the outcome.

Seems like an awful lot of work just to get them to appreciate you.

FWIW; T-mobile is pretty generous in their phone upgrades AND for high-yield customers they have a special "secret" program, the T-mobile retentions department will often reward their best customers for staying with cheap/free phones and free months of service.

OT: How do you manage to run up a bill of $350 on a personal phone?

I have close to unlimited calls... and I still dont manage to get that close.



For phones, I generally buy them on my own when they are in the market
for a bit and dont cost as much.. and try not to keep the contract with
the provider. (ie. not renew the contract once its over)

But I never had to switch a vendor because of this in a while now.

Thanks for the feedback.

I used to be very dogged about escalating things, but as of late, I just couldn't be bother. If someone else is offering something similar, I'd jump. I guess that Cingular has its policies, etc., but it would seem to be a no brainer for them to sell me a new phone at a competitive price--my guess is that, since I will use the thing for e-mail in the US and Europe, I imagine I will be spending more money. My attitude is that if they want me to work to stay with them, I'd rather they work to replace me. Maybe I'll send them an ultimatum!

There's no way I am taking time away from FT to pressure Cingular!

I have a personal and business phone on the same account. The business phone is the only that runs up the $300 to $500 bill each month. I call overseas a lot; and I call from Europe to the US quite often too. I suspect that its profitable for Cingular when I call Europe, but I don't know if they get much when I call from overseas.

I didn't look at any of the "e-mail" plans, but I have to believe they would have tacked on a lot of additional charges when I started using e-mail.

I think the 350 dollar bill is for the non-personal phone. I'd guess when used abroad, etc., it's not that hard... Still probably worth having the phone unlocked, if not done already.

I have lately bought unlocked phones, because I don't want to give up my ATT plan from the fall of 2004. Non of the new plans are anywhere near as generous.

Normally, cellular companies want you in contract for as long as possible because the price of the phone is subsidized. That is why you can't switch phones at the discounted price every few months. I'd think that in the OP's situation, though, they'd want to keep you. Doesn't hurt to speak to a manager, though you could jump ship for a while to T-mobile and come back later if you like.

The early termination fee becomes moot when your bills are as large as yours. The fee is less than one month's bill!

fuzz

Here's how to get out of a Cingular contract:

http://consumerist.com/consumer/cons...use-228186.php

http://consumerist.com/consumer/cons...dum-228491.php

Trust me, they get a lot when you call from overseas. I use a service based
out of another country (A regular GSM phone with international roaming)
what I pay = (amount charges by the roaming partner + 15% surcharge)
Its much cheaper compared to any other vendor based in US or UK.

Based on this, I can see my vendor makes 15% and may be a little bit
here and there.... But I suspect US based providers make a lot more.
They may even pay less charges to the roaming partners based on some
volume deals.

IIRC there are some Email/web plans on a PDA device for about $70 +/- with unlimited international roaming. Might want to look into it.

Actually, here's the thing I pointed out to them. If I stay with Cingular and buy a Palm Treo 750, I have to spend $650--something like that. New customers get to pay $400. The termination fee is $150. So, if I go to another company and get a Blackberry, it's a cheaper option (though, in fairiness, this decision isn't been driven by the phone price or termination fee); the $250 to stay with Cingular seemed dumb. The person I spoke to said he had to talk to someone about this price difference, but he disappeared for ten minutes and I gave up and just hung up.

Clearly you are less price-sensitive than most of us.
You should consider getting a new smart-phone or PDA type of device (Treo or Blackberry etc.) on a separate phone number from your voice service, on a new data-only plan. You want it to operate in Europe, so you need to look at T-Mobile or Cingular because they use GSM technology. You want the unlimited Internet data-only plan, which only covers US operations. Foreign operations will be at additional (roaming) charges. Usually T-Mobile is much less expensive than Cingular for US data-only plans. But for the device itself, you need to do a little research and even have some of the devices demonstrated for you to see which is most comfortable.

Thanks for these links, I will read through them.

Also keep in mind that T-Mobile will generally unlock your phone after a few months. The procedure is painless - you call them and just state that you want to use the phone overseas, and they e-mail you a code and instructions.