Beware to former ATT customers now with Cingular

My phone broke about 14 months ago, and I tried to upgrade it to no avail, so I used the crappy phone while Nokia was repairing my phone since it was still under warranty, then I used the crappy phone again when my wife's power button broke for a couple of months before we finally bit the bullet 23 months into our AT+T contract to switch over so our numbers would be local, and so we could get new phones.

I guess I should have held out a little longer and then shopped to Verizon or something, but Cingular was the only real provider who offers the things we want in a plan, even though the basic plans are more expensive (less minutes.)

Cingular and Sprint are the only 2 carriers that offer international calling discounts that are reasonable. $4 a month for .08 cents per minute to Sweden. T-mobile was a lot more. I wanted a GSM phone, so I could switch it between phones with ease.

the key to any rate plan is nopt how many minutes you have... but how many you use...

with the new plan whatever you dont use go into your rollover account...you save them for when you need then... that has more value to you than more minutes per month

lets say you have a 900 minute rate plan (assuming a 59.99 national)... your useage is 350 a month... under the ATT scheme the 550 unused falls off the end of the earth at the end of the bill cycle... never to be seen again

now for the same price over on cingular...its 700 minutes... your useage is still 350... but the unused 350 goes to your rollover..and will every month

Thats a pretty clear explanation elmo01 - just one thing I would mention. With the 700, 350/350 example a person could be confused by which 350 is which ( beleive me I've had that conversation too many times! ) I have learned the hard way that as clear as rollover seems- it isnt always to an x-ATT cust.
Heres how I would suggest putting it:

Lets say you have a 900 minute rate plan (assuming a 59.99 national)... your useage is 400 a month... under the ATT scheme the 500 unused falls off the end of the earth at the end of the bill cycle... never to be seen again.

now for the same price over on Cingular this time with rollover minutes...its 700 minutes...
Your useage is still 400... but the unused 300 goes to your rollover and is available minutes now for you. .and will be every month until those rollover minutes expire after 12 months.

I had a 900 minute plan with AT+T for $59.99 on 2 phones. We used a little over 700 a month, so the 700 a month plan on Cingular isn't good enough for me. I had to go to 1400 minutes for $89.99. I'm not happy about paying an extra $30 a month for only about 100 minutes that I will ever use.

The other kicker is having to pay for incoming text messages. That was never explained to me in the store, and no brochures were ever handed to me.

don't assume things in life are free. yes, cingular is responsible for telling you certain things, but most customers don't take responsibility as the consumer asking questions. if cingular explained everything you might potentially have a question about before they let you leave the store as a new customer, you'd be in the store for like 5 days.

Im a cust care rep at Cingular, and all youre talking about can be fixed.
Goto 611 - ( and btw- try to get transfered to Bussiness Care if you can, they/we have much much more authorizations to change things )

As far as the ATT / Cingular thing - and all these ppl saying "It was better with ATT... OK- sit down for this:

ATT IS CINGULAR YOU DUMBASSES!!!!
Look into the bussiness behind it, and basically, Bell broke into a bunch of chunks like ATT/Bellsouth/SBC etc etc- and then they all merged and were NAMED Cingular. Ok- its a new NAME for ATT and BELL. And the bills in Orange instead of Blue, and we are supposed to be nicer to the customers now. But bottom line: ATT IS CINGULAR - so saying ATT has better reception/better this better that/ makes no sense!!! Cingular is ATT upgraded with new better technologies. You were NOT 'forced' (as many say) to go from ATT to Cingular - It was just a paper thing, ok????? You werent forced to go anywhere! ITS THE SAME COMPANY!!!!

As far as the complaints about the plans and features - OK yes, it is not the same exactly as it was, but - if you could pull your mind off of the 2 minits a month you lost you would notice that you probably GAINED alot of features and aspects of your rate plan. I am not on a side - I just get tired of listening to customers complain of how it was better when they were with the SAME company paying the SAME amount, getting WORSE coverage and MORE dropped calls than they do now! ( Look it up- new unbiased study found that Cingular had FEWER dropped calls and GREATER actual person by person coverage than the competition. Yes, it used to be 2nd rate while they upgraded the 1000s of rusting ATT towers with 2G 3G towers- )

Ok - sorry for freaking. Just I get that call 1000 times a day, and im not "allowed" to tell anyone that ATT IS CINGULAR so I have to listen to them say how much better it was with the same company BEFORE the network was fixed!!!!

Peace to all, thanks for listening to my rant....

Zed@ht

Good suggestion but since I had an ATT Wireless business account I have already tried Business Care. The customer service reps all told me the same thing. There is no ATT contract to go back to. I didn't care if the contract said ATT or Cingular I just wanted a plan just like the one I had. The upgraded contract I signed stated "you have 30 days and if you are not completely satisfied return the phones and cancel your upgrade". Cingular

would not allow this. I think it's a breach of contract but who has the time or money to fight them. I don't.

Anyway Verizon has this cool new Samsung SCH-a990 3.2 mega-pixel flip phone that I want. Sure it's expensive but maybe it will help me feel better about taking one for the home team.

I felt I had a right to assume that incoming text messages was free, because it was free when I was with AT+T, which was Cingular.
I was originally with Cingular, switched to Verizon, switched to Sprint, then to AT+T, and none of these providers charged for incoming text messages. It never even occured to me that I could be charged. When did this policy change? It had to have changed sometime in the last 4 years.

I signed up with AT&T in May 2004 for a two-year contract. In July of this year, I switched to T-Mobile. I just received my final bill from Cingular and was assessed TWO $175 early termination fees (we had two lines/family plan). They claim my contract started in September 2004 which is completely in error.

I told them I wouldn't pay it. Technically, my contract was with AT&T and not with Cingular. They said they will send it to collection.

So the thing is, a company with whom I did not sign a contract will send to collection fees that I do not owe and will not pay, which will then negatively affect my credit report.

It's extortion.

were both service activated on the same day... was there any changes to the original rate plan (more minutes new promotions),,, suspended voluntarily or for non payment... all of those situations can affect your contract end date...

its not extortion...when cingular bought the company you contract was included in the deal... look at your terms of service... that situation is covered... as a matter of fact in all the major carriers that caveat is there

Beware to former ATT customers now with Cingular

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