| Author |
Message |
DocO
Posts: 6 |
 
Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:25 am |
When I can't use them!! This is the third weekend in a row where my ability to make and recieve calls stopped Friday afternoon and started again Early monday AM.. I get an excellent signal at my house (almost all bars), but as soon as the weekend rolls around, all the sudden I get "Network busy" every time I check.. We have 3 phones on our $150/month family plan, and just for the heck of it, we decided to check each one as many times over the weekend as we could manage. I bet I checked my phone 1000 times.. I never once was able to make a call. Even in the wee hours of Sunday morning at 2am.. I wasn't able to make a call. This is total BS!! I'm beginning to wonder if they aren't somehow limiting the number of people that can make calls on the network on the weekends (kind of like ISP's throttle bandwidth). We took a short drive up the road and what do you know.. We must have hit another tower, because we were able to call out. As soon as we headed back home... we were dropped. Plenty of signal.. but no service. As you can tell, I am extremely annoyed with this.. it's been 3 solid weekends in a row. Why do I have weekend minutes again? Heck.. I even pay extra so my minutes start at 7pm instead of 9pm!! All I can say is.. If I try and cancel the service and they give me any crap about it.. It wasn't me that breached the contract first. I pay for service, I expect it.
|
 |
Advertisement
|
|
|
|
|
elmo01
Posts: 2195
Phone Model:
Samsung SPH-M510
Service Provider:
Bell Canada |
Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:37 am |
from what you are describing you have a tower issue....
call customer care and report the issue...a case should be submitted on it...
|
|
Cptech31
Posts: 604
Phone Model:
LG
Service Provider:
Hmm what service |
Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:06 am |
|
It does sound like a local tower issue like elmo said call into customer care and report the issue that way we can get someone out to look at the tower.
|
|
DocO
Posts: 6 |
Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:18 am |
My wife called them and gave them the details of the problem.. The CSR told her "I have no clue as to why it would do that". They did give us a $40 credit on our account which is excellent and much appreciated, and told us that they would "check into it".
It would have been nice to have given us a case number or something to refer to in the future. I'm fully expecting them not to call us back with any answers since we don't have a case number. I work tech support at a fairly large company, and we always create trouble tickets.. give the customer the ticket number, and advise the customer when the ticket is closed and what the answer is. With this method there is tracking and assurance of customer satisfaction. I feel better that they've credited my account, but if the problem isn't resolved, the credit doesn't really do me much good.
|
|
The Chemist
Posts: 80
Phone Model:
Moto RAZR V3i
Service Provider:
Cingular |
Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:45 pm |
|
Hey I would like some free credit, tell me exactly what you told them so I can call them too and make it all up.
|
|
DocO
Posts: 6 |
Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:24 am |
|
Well this certainly isn't about free credit. I am always willing to pay for what I get, and have no problem paying premiums on top of that. If you're just trying to get some free credit, you're on your own. The CSR likely looked at my calling history.. my plan (which includes a large number of minutes as well as 3 phones) and saw I made no calls on the last 3 weekends, but plenty of calls during the week. Prior to that, when we had service, we made extensive use of our phones on the weekends. My wife has family out of state (a LOT of family), and she calls every weekend. Like I said.. I pay for service, I expect it. Their credit to my account was nice and appreciated, but if I still don't get the service, what is it worth to me in the end?
|
|
WebDunce
Posts: 180 |
Wed Aug 09, 2006 1:56 am |
well, I wonder (could be wrong)...if there are a whole bunch of cingular customers in the area served by the tower(s) that serve you.
a tower, if I understand right, is able to process only x number of phone calls at a time. once that limit is reached, the phone gives the "network busy" signal as the phone cannot access the network.
so, tons of cingular customers all anxiously awaiting the "free" weekend minutes. weekend rolls around and "boom"...network overloaded.
having full signal bars but getting network busy signal can mean other problems but my first assumption IS a busy network.
by any chance, is there some reason why extra people should be in your area (road construction, after-disaster reconstruction, local popular events, is traffic backed up...)
but my first guess is people just waiting to take advantage of the free weekend minutes.
with a truly busy network...persistence can sometimes get you in...keep redialing...as soon as one of the callers disconnects a "slot is freed" in the tower and if you're the first to ask for access...you're in...
that's my understanding....could be wrong. also could be a tower down and rep didn't know or didn't look or didn't know how to look. so now have fewer towers serving same #number of calls.
<shrug>
|
|
DocO
Posts: 6 |
Wed Aug 09, 2006 9:41 am |
|
I don't know what capacity a tower may have, but I live in a fairly rural area (15 miles from the closest "town"). My area requires a minumum of 2 acre parcel for a home, and when I look out across my front yard, the field on the other side of me is a cow pasture. Unless every single person in my area uses Cingular, I can't imagine the tower being overloaded.
|
|
FlyerTDL
Posts: 157
Phone Model:
Nokia 8260/6235i
Service Provider:
The New AT&T/Alltel-U |
Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:35 pm |
|
You could try to power cycle the phone. Turn off the phone and leave it off for about 15 minuets, then turn it back on. Your phone should grab a new, "higher" spot on the totem pole of users. If I understand it correctly, towers give preference to mobiles that are "newer" on their list of connected users versus a user that, for instance, have been connected for days at a time. A CS/tech rep can feel free to correct me on that, but this is how I understood it.
|
|
DocO
Posts: 6 |
Thu Aug 10, 2006 9:19 am |
|
Well.. it happened again this morning. 6:30 AM I check and I have 5 bars of signal, but the little connectivity icon isn't on. I tried several times to make calls and each attempt told me "Network is busy". I called Cingular right then and there. After about an hour and a half on the phone first with a CSR and then with a technician doing various things... pulled sim, power cycle, reactivation, and several other things.. I still had the same problem. They finally opened a case and gave me a case number. I'm keeping my fingers crossed..
|
| | |
|
|
|
|
