Cingular Wireless

This is the copy of a complaint I am sending to Cingular. I have not sent it yet, as I cannot find ANYWHERE an address or person to send it to at Cingular. Seems they are very good at shielding themselves from customers.

I am writing to complain about the absolutely horrendous customer service I have received from Cingular Wireless. My problem was compounded each and every step of a very simple process as follows:

1. I called on Friday, January 20 at approximately 4:00pm. I had, up to that point, a Blackberry 7290 that I used for both voice and data. As I have had numerous problems with using the 7290 as a phone (which I didn’t bother Cingular with), I wanted to use the Blackberry only for data and use a Nokia 3120 for voice. I called Cingular and was told in order to do this, I needed to add a line (for the data) and get a new SIM card. I agreed to do this, which required me to change my plan (to a more expensive plan with fewer minutes, I might add, but I digress…). My new SIM card was to be FEDEXed to me.

2. On Friday January 20, at approximately 7:00pm I realized that my Blackberry no longer was sending/receiving data and I called to see why. I was told that the old SIM card was deactivated for data and that I wouldn’t be able to use my data account until I received the new SIM card. I expressed my dismay at this information, as I was not told that I would lose data access for four days while the new SIM card was being shipped.

3. On Tuesday, January 24, 2006, I arrived home from work to find that I did not receive my new SIM card. As I use my Blackberry for work and I was going on a two-day business trip the following day, I was quite upset at the delay. I called Cingular and spoke to a person named Kevin. Kevin was very apologetic for the delay and noted that the package had been shipped to the wrong address. I am impressed with Cingular’s ability to get my monthly invoice to me at the correct address – not quite sure the SIM card wasn’t shipped to that address. I agreed to spend an hour of my evening to drive to the FEDEX distribution center in Denver to get the SIM card myself. Kevin agreed to waive the shipping charge ($6.40) and any activation fee charged to my account in exchange for my trouble.

4. I installed the new SIM card in my Blackberry and… nothing. The documentation that arrived with the SIM card had absolutely no relationship with this transaction (it detailed starting up a new device. I didn’t have a new device). I attempted to log into my previous Blackberry WebClient account, but was told it was suspended by Cingular. I tried to create a new Blackberry WebClient account, but received a message that I didn’t have the appropriate access to that kind of process. I tried again and again and was finally told that I had tried too many times and was now locked out.

5. On Tuesday, January 24, 2006, at approximately 8:30pm, I called Cingular customer service. (I waited 9 minutes to speak to a human). The person I spoke to said he couldn’t help but he would transfer me to the department that could. I waited on hold for approximately 15 minutes until someone in technical service picked up. They said that department couldn’t help, but they would transfer me to someone else. I waited on hold for about 20 more minutes, until I reached someone named Justin.

6. Justin was not sure what the problem was, but he got someone named Andrew on the line. Andrew told me that to activate the Blackberry account I needed to call in and accept the “Contract Terms and Conditions” I asked him what terms and conditions were those and he informed me that my new line (for data) was a brand new contract! This was totally brand new information to me and I told him that under no circumstances was I going to sign a new (second) contract. I asked him to speak to a supervisor.

7. I was connected to Zelda Quiralte who was obviously well trained in dealing with irate customers. She apologized for Cingular’s ineptitude numerous times and diffused my anger my expressing her empathy with my situation. In addition, she attached the Blackberry data line to my existing contract, and annotated to my account that she (not I) accepted the Terms and Conditions in order to activate my data line.

While I am happy that things are finally as they should be, I am VERY upset about the route I had to take to get here. I hope Cingular can figure out that as soon as my contract term expires, I’m headed to a different provider. Maybe you can learn a few lessons about how customers should not be treated in order to be able to retain them.

SIncerely,

Monica