Cingular

Maureen Ann McQuiggan

2177 Yellow Springs Road

Malvern Pa 19355

610-739-9982 (cell)

Email User

I have been a Cingular customer for many years and am writing because the service in my area seems to be getting increasingly worse every year. Service has gotten so bad in the last year that I am unable to fully utilize my phone when I drive to my parents home, when I drive to work, when I drive to school, and when I go to church. Since these are the 4 places to which I travel most often, the phones have become almost completely useless to my family and me as mobile communication devices. It has become a running joke with my friends and family as they imitate my broken and interrupted exchanges with them.

As you can see from my calling profile, a plan, which I once fully utilized, now has minutes expiring every month. My mother was so frustrated, she gave the phone back to me and it has been virtually unused for almost a year.

A few of my most frustrating examples:

q I attend night class at Immauclata University in Immaculata PA. There is no reception at all down the entire Route 352 side of the University. This has been the case for almost 2 years.

q I drive 6 miles to Phoenixville for most of my shopping and to visit my parents. Almost the entire portion of Charlestown Township I pass through has no reception. I have tried Route 29, Diamond Rock Road, and Pikeland Road and loose my signal on every one….100% of the time.

q My church is on the other end of Phoenixville from my parents and the most direct route is down Phoenixville Pike/State Road (Rt. 29) from Great Valley into Phoenixville. Lose my signal 100% of the time on this road. Until gas surpassed $2.25 a gallon I would drive in a huge circle to get to church when I needed to make a call.

q I work in Radnor, PA and travel 11 miles to work. I lose my signal on West Valley Road, near Strafford, PA every morning.

q At my old job I traveled North Valley road in Tredyffrin Township and also lost the signal near North Valley and Jennings Drive at least 75% of the time.

q Recently I drove 3 hours on the PA Turnpike and had no service for over 40 minutes at one point. Thank goodness I didn’t break down alone with 2 kids.

q In Taos, NM last year my sister in law laughed as she made repeated Verizon calls to her friends from the top of Taos Valley Mountain ski resort and from the chair lift; while I couldn’t even get a signal at the hotel…ever. In fact, I wasn’t until I drove 2 hours to the Albuquerque Airport that I got 2 bars of horrible reception.

I have called Cingular about this problem and all they seem to be interested in doing is keeping me on the phone for 20 minutes talking in circles.

It is my feeling that I signed a contract with your company and I have held up my end of it to the fullest. I have paid almost $200 per month, in full and on time. In return, I was to receive cell phone service. What I have now is cell phone anxiety. I am a widow with a handicapped child. I need to be in touch with him and his caregivers and I am not. Multiple times each day I loose my signal or opt not to make calls because I have no service.

I would like to know what Cingular can and will do to compensate me for this prolonged frustration and/or if I can just be let out of the contract so I can go to Verizon. I think I only have 4 or 5 months left anyway.

I am not excited about the prospect of hunting down a new provider and completing the frustrating enrollment process, but the situation has gotten worse instead of better and I do not even hear a glimmer of hope from customer service when I ask about rectify or at least improving the situation.

Maureen McQuiggan

Maureen A. McQuiggan

Radnor High School Literacy Coach

Email User

610-739-9982 (cell)

610-293-0855 x8063 (voice mail)