| Author |
Message |
bmr1230
Posts: 2
Phone Model:
Treo600
Service Provider:
Sprint |
 
Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:37 pm |
What would this mean to current Cingular or AT&T customer? Bad news, esp. for its business clients! I can speak for its B2B division b/c I used to work there.
As everyone who works in the industry know that no one carrier has a complete coverage--you pick the one that works best in your region. So it is NOT about coverage. It is about everything else. Business clients choose their carrier(s) based on the ease of activation, the sophisticaion of the supporting staff, the national customer service support, and availability of a diverse portfolio of wireless voice and data device and applications. Cingular is the only carrier that CANNOT get its business clients a new handset within a day or two. It takes 7-10 business days! The reason behind this is Cingular's lack of intelligence in its warehouse/fulfillment departments. For example, in the King of Prussia office, Cingular has two people activating handsets for all of its 60 salespeople in the office, and there is no oganization as to how orders are processed. If a salesperson bribes these backoffice people well, then his/her clients will get priority. Now, what does the merger mean to this problem? It will get worse. Without a true nationwide fulfillment process, how can Cingular merge its fulfillment departments with those of AT&T?
That brings me to Cingular's lack of a nationwide support program. If you are a large corporation with multiple offices in the U.S., you'll need one Cingular salesperson for each of your office. An employee in one region cannot assist you with activation or customer service issues for another region. Try calling a customer service line for a phone you got in NY while traveling in CA. The customer service center in CA, after being on hold for many many minutes, will transfer you to the center that supports NY. Your dedicated rep from NY? If your HQs is in NY but need a phone for an employee in CA? Your rep doesn't tell you this, but s/he has to call someone in CA to activate that phone for you. This not only happens because your offices are in different coast, this happens also if you have an office in LA, SF, San Diego, or Santa Barbara. Each is in a different region for Cingular's billing system! What does this mean after the merger? Again, how can they merge a non-nationwide support system with a totally foreign system of AT&T? Cingular can boast that they were a merger of 11 different companies in 1999. That was 5 years ago, and their different billing systems still do not talk to each other.
I have many more examples such as these. But I'll save them for later.
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Pedro7
Posts: 6
Phone Model:
Nokia 6340i/3595
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Wed Nov 17, 2004 2:59 pm |
Strange, on two ocassions I received new phones from a Cingular B2B rep overnight via Fedex at no extra charge. I'd say you are posting a load of bollocks. Find another 'merged' carrier who doesn't have its share of issues (logistics) and I'll shut up  .
-P
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bmr1230
Posts: 2
Phone Model:
Treo600
Service Provider:
Sprint |
Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:40 pm |
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Pedro7, Just because you had one good experience doesn't wipe out the thousands of orders that were mis-processed. You may be lucky that the rep had his/her own trunk stock to send the phone to you next-day. You may be getting a low-end "free" phone that somehow someone else just returned. Anyone with any proper math education knows that you cannot determine real facts based on one occurrence. When a lying politican tells one true statement doesn't qualify him/her as a honest opinion.
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JCMyersIV
Posts: 122
Phone Model:
V635 & BB 7290
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Wed Nov 17, 2004 11:39 pm |
I'm really confused by your rant. Are you saying that a company of 26k employees in the country should work through one rep? Your comment about not having one rep seemed confusing...
I can speak from my experience. I am a client service manager for a professional services firm. The B2B reps have always been very curteous - in fact they're taking me out for lunch tomorrow. In terms of devices in 7-10 days, I think things have changed since you worked there. I get devices overnighted from a central logistics facility in Memphis. If not, the rep hand-delivers the device to me personally (same day - wherever I want to meet) and my co-workers. The phones come activated; if they're not, I just call the admin person on her direct line- again never an issue. I always get amazing response - usually within an hour or two for any email questions I send.
I also correspond with the lead account rep for our account - she's in boston, I'm in Chicago. Again, always very professional and quick to reply (even when they're out of the office). I didn't get anywhere near this care and feeding when I had service with Verizon or ATT. I think your rant, while possibly valid in King of Prussia, cannot be made a blanket statement across the country.
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Pedro7
Posts: 6
Phone Model:
Nokia 6340i/3595
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Thu Nov 18, 2004 5:30 pm |
ROTFL Anyone who generalizes without thinking of the 'big picture' like you have done here needs to rethink their own 'education'. Using a little common sense (as in JC's post) might be good starting point for you.
All large companies have their logistical problems. Even Wal-Mart, with their massive computer system second only to the Pentagon. You have failed to show that the other wireless phone companies are without such problems.
-P
| bmr1230 wrote: | | Pedro7, Just because you had one good experience doesn't wipe out the thousands of orders that were mis-processed. You may be lucky that the rep had his/her own trunk stock to send the phone to you next-day. You may be getting a low-end "free" phone that somehow someone else just returned. Anyone with any proper math education knows that you cannot determine real facts based on one occurrence. When a lying politican tells one true statement doesn't qualify him/her as a honest opinion. |
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i like bush
Posts: 5
Phone Model:
Samsung SPH A460
Service Provider:
Cingular and Sprint |
Fri Nov 19, 2004 12:57 pm |
I manage the phones for our company. We have 40 cell phones. As a Cingular, AT&T (and Sprint PCS) customer I can't tell if the merger is going to be good or bad. My Cingular rep bends over backward to take care of me, BUT she is massively overworked, or maybe a better way to say it is the office is massively undermanned (underwomanned?) I know she takes work home everynight. How will the merger make that any better? Doubt that it will.
BTW. The quality of cellular phone serivce is very good, here in little ole Meridian, MS. The service at the retail stores ...  . On the one hand it's good that I can "go around them" on the other hand, if I need a phone I have to get it out of the "business" stock, not the "retail" stock. At times that creates a problem.
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xXTidusXx
Posts: 10
Phone Model:
Nokia 8390
Service Provider:
Cingular/at&t |
Thu Nov 25, 2004 2:35 am |
Hah tahts what exactly what ive been saying...I really wish that cingular stayed independent.
 Cingular + AT&T
but yeah.... they give me good service so i cant really complain too much.
I got that cool birthday card thing in the mail announcing to my account that AT&T is junctioned with Cingular.
but so far we cant really do anything.
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gsm_evolution
Posts: 4
Phone Model:
Nokia 6310i / future motorola owner
Service Provider:
AT&T Wireless / Cingular |
Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:23 pm |
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Birthday cards? This merger has been in lots of commercials and newspapers...but cards? Well,. gotta get the word out somehow.
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