Hawk’s Babble-Log

I’ve been with Cingular for a while now… probably over four years. Their service has been okay at the best times.

Now, don’t get me wrong; customer service is great. They really try to help you out. Well, mostly.

But the service I’m talking about is my cellphone. Actually working.

My cellphone gets really crappy reception in the two places I’m at most: my home, and my work. When they joined up with the AT&T network, this improved somewhat. But still, if I make a call from home, I have to go sit by the window. And even if I do this, the call will still mostlikely drop a minute or two into the conversation. Which means I’ll curse my phone, go over to my land-line, and call the person back. Then I’ll have a nice long conversation with no interruptions.

Another mild annoyance is that when I pick up a call, there is a 1-in-10 chance that the phone will turn itself off… three seconds into the conversation. This is *so* annoying: “Hello?” “Hey there! Listen, I was just…” Silence. Phones goes off. They wait just long enough for us to *think* we have a conversation going, then cut us off.

Virtually every time I call customer service, they tell me to “hardshock” the phone. A “hardshock” is when you take out the battery when the phone is on. This–apparently–solves all problems… at least, according to customer service. If this is their only tool, then they ain’t gonna be fixen too many problems.

Just to be on the safe side, I hardshock my phone every morning. It has not made any difference that I can detect.

Also of note is the little $20 credit fiasco. Now this is not really a customer service issue, even though it seems to be. Let me explain:

Cingular mailed me an offer: I get a free Motorola V220 phone, plus a $20 credit on my bill, and I get to sign up for two more years. (They like having me hooked–this way, they can deliver moderatly stinking service and not worry about me switching to another provider.)

So I took the deal, like the fool I am. They sent me the phone. I liked the phone (it was a big improvement over my old Motorola T720). But they never gave me the $20 credit. I called ‘em over and over again. They claimed that the $20 credit was never part of the deal. None of the customer service reps that I spoke with saw anything about any $20 credit anywhere in the deal. I was holding the promo piece in my hand while I was on the phone with ‘em. I was holding the letter which Cingular had sent me, and they wouldn’t give me my lousy $20 credit. Customer service continued to suggest that I take the “so-called letter” down to a Cingular Store and show it to a salesperson.

So I did that. On one of my days off, I rode down to a store. It was a nice day, and it was a nice ride, but I think they should have done what they promised me in the first place (in writing, I might add) and just given me my $20 credit. Well, as it turns out, the guy in the store was *no help whatsoever*.

But, I’m a stubborn bastard, even if a stubborn fool. I just kept calling and bothering them about it. I wanted what they had promised me (in writing) and for some reason, they didn’t want to give it to me. But, finally, I spoke with a very nice customer service rep and she did, indeed, give me my lousy $20 credit.

This is why I say that the customer service reps really do *try* to help you. The problem is elsewhere… maybe with the company, or maybe with the service, or maybe some other aspect.

Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be sticking with ‘em, despite the 2800+ rollerover minutes I’ve accumulated. How have I built up so much? Simple: I can’t use my phone most of the time; no reception.