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arguchiki was relatively happy with cingular wireless, when i first switched to it from at&t wireless. i thought it was a dumb nickel-and-dime thing, to be charged $18 to make that switch, given that cingular had recently purchased at&t wireless, but oh well. i got a full rebate for the phone, so i didn't worry about it too much. besides, the guy at the store warned me that if i didn't switch, and instead waited for the company to switch all the at&t stragglers (which was going to happen eventually), it would cost me more like $36. which is lame, but i was under contract, so what could i do?
my latest irritation with cingular concerns the actual phone. i'm using a motorola flip phone--not the one with a camera. in november i started to have trouble with the battery--it just didn't hold a charge worth a damn anymore. i took it into the store, and at first they were going to have me do a warranty replacement--the guy said it was a "known issue" with motorola phones--but at the last minute the manager just put a new battery in the phone (no charge to me) and said i should come back in a week if i were still having problems. that battery worked fine (until recently), so i went back to being fine with the phone.
in the last month or so, i've been having problems with the thing again. the battery is giving me trouble again. last week the "vibrate" function stopped working--this is a big problem for me, because when i go into the library or something i can't let my phone ring, but i still need to know when someone is calling me (because of the union organizing job). i've also been having trouble with the phone randomly deciding to re-boot itself. a few times this has happened while i'm in the middle of a call--it just shuts itself off. the other day it happened when i hit the little down arrow key to bring up my phone book. the phone book came up, and then the screen went dark, flashed on, and then went dark again. so far the phone has always been fine when i've turned it back on, but this is an unsettling symptom. seems like it would be better to replace it, rather than having it die at a really bad time.
but of course, when i went into a cingular store a couple of weeks ago, to try to replace the phone, the sales rep said, "the warranty has expired, and you're not eligible for an upgrade yet, so you should just keep the phone." i asked about just purchasing a new phone, and he said, "don't do that. it's not worth it. the cheapest phone we have is $120." great. the second time i went into a cingular store--last wednesday--was right after the vibrate function had stopped working. this time, i told the sales rep i *had* to buy a new phone because i needed to be able to put the phone in vibrate mode. he told me to call customer service, tell them my sordid history with this phone, and maybe they'd approve an exceptional upgrade for me. so i did--the call took about 30 minutes, but the service rep approved the exceptional upgrade allowance (i would basically get a phone for about half price). she said that normally she'd be able to complete the whole transaction over the phone, and have a phone sent straight to me, but that she couldn't access that part of the system. long story short: i would have to go to the store again, and have them call customer service to get an approval code. so today i went to the cingular store *again*. i explained the situation to the sales rep. he said, "i don't think we can do that in the store. and besides, customer service isn't open on sundays."
great. so i have to go to the store *again* when customer service is open, or call customer service tomorrow and have them ship me a phone.
and now, of course, it's becoming very clear to me that they are hoping i'll get fed up and just keep using my defective, half-functioning phone. they don't know me very well, do they?
my latest irritation with cingular concerns the actual phone. i'm using a motorola flip phone--not the one with a camera. in november i started to have trouble with the battery--it just didn't hold a charge worth a damn anymore. i took it into the store, and at first they were going to have me do a warranty replacement--the guy said it was a "known issue" with motorola phones--but at the last minute the manager just put a new battery in the phone (no charge to me) and said i should come back in a week if i were still having problems. that battery worked fine (until recently), so i went back to being fine with the phone.
in the last month or so, i've been having problems with the thing again. the battery is giving me trouble again. last week the "vibrate" function stopped working--this is a big problem for me, because when i go into the library or something i can't let my phone ring, but i still need to know when someone is calling me (because of the union organizing job). i've also been having trouble with the phone randomly deciding to re-boot itself. a few times this has happened while i'm in the middle of a call--it just shuts itself off. the other day it happened when i hit the little down arrow key to bring up my phone book. the phone book came up, and then the screen went dark, flashed on, and then went dark again. so far the phone has always been fine when i've turned it back on, but this is an unsettling symptom. seems like it would be better to replace it, rather than having it die at a really bad time.
but of course, when i went into a cingular store a couple of weeks ago, to try to replace the phone, the sales rep said, "the warranty has expired, and you're not eligible for an upgrade yet, so you should just keep the phone." i asked about just purchasing a new phone, and he said, "don't do that. it's not worth it. the cheapest phone we have is $120." great. the second time i went into a cingular store--last wednesday--was right after the vibrate function had stopped working. this time, i told the sales rep i *had* to buy a new phone because i needed to be able to put the phone in vibrate mode. he told me to call customer service, tell them my sordid history with this phone, and maybe they'd approve an exceptional upgrade for me. so i did--the call took about 30 minutes, but the service rep approved the exceptional upgrade allowance (i would basically get a phone for about half price). she said that normally she'd be able to complete the whole transaction over the phone, and have a phone sent straight to me, but that she couldn't access that part of the system. long story short: i would have to go to the store again, and have them call customer service to get an approval code. so today i went to the cingular store *again*. i explained the situation to the sales rep. he said, "i don't think we can do that in the store. and besides, customer service isn't open on sundays."
great. so i have to go to the store *again* when customer service is open, or call customer service tomorrow and have them ship me a phone.
and now, of course, it's becoming very clear to me that they are hoping i'll get fed up and just keep using my defective, half-functioning phone. they don't know me very well, do they?
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hey!
Date: 2006-02-12 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-12 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-13 08:29 am (UTC)They sent me a new phone once before after a 40 min call to customer service. They didn't however send a new battery. New phone same problem, argh!
This is all after i lost a phone and had to buy a new one.
I get the feeling phones are designed to last till the warrenty runs out so then people will upgrade and sign up for a new service agreement to get a new phone.
bah capitolism.