Cingular Wireless Complaint

Cingular is a disloyal, un-ethical, and money hungry company. I SAY IT AGAIN CINGULAR IS A DISLOYAL, UNETHICAL, and MONEY-HUNGRY COMPANY. This organization does not care about its customers. They mis-inform their existing and potential customers (lie?) get them tie to a more costly BU T UNNECESSARY plan. Here is my story:

Up until today I had been a Cingular customer for more 3 years. For all those years I have migrated through one Cingular-supplied phone (V551) and three unlocked (non-Cingular) phones. For all of these phones I was able to maintain my voice plan ($39.99 per month) and unlimited Internet access including modem dialup using my laptop and Bluetooth-enabled devices ($19.99 per month).

All of these came to end yesterday when I was suggested by Cingular representative that I need to upgrade my 2G SIM to 3G SIM to get access to Cingular Video. Prior to the upgrade I asked the salesperson if this SIM change would have an impact on my connectivity. The answer I was provided was that "SIM card change does not impact your account whatsoever".

The 3G card was installed, the old 2G was returned to me no longer valid (which I expected). I noticed that I suddenly could no longer able to dial from my laptop to Internet via my phone over Bluetooth. I checked the connection using a USB cable connection to my phone and also experienced the same problem. I also checked the SIM card in my other phones and experienced the same problems.

I MUST SAY THAT PRIOR TO NOW THESE OPERATIONS HAVE WORKED CONSISTENTLY FOR ME OVER THREE DIFFERENT PHONES USING THE SAME NUMBER AND THE OLD 2G SIM CARD.

I spent my lunch at the Cingular POS office (and POS is not point of sale) chasing down what have happened to all these connection errors. Guess what, what the salespersons and I found out is that Cingular has used the 3G SIM upgrade to prevent my device from being used as a dialup modem. THAT'S RIGHT! CINGULAR POS HAS PREVENTED MY PHONE FROM BEING USED AS A MODEM, SOMETHING I HAD BEEN FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS! I was asked to call Customer Care because there is nothing POS can do for me.

After spending two more hours on the phone with Cingular CUSTOMER CARE POS, I was told that I need to get the PDA Unlimited Connect to make that phone into a MODEM and that PLAN WILL COST $44.99/month! I asked the representative, Tamara, why? Will have more bandwidth for my data connect? Her answer was no. I asked for them to revert my phone back to 2G. The answer was "it was not possible to do so because we no longer have 2G SIM cards".

After two hours of alternative discussions and trials, we were at a stalemate. Cingular BOLDLY offered a discount of $34.99/month for three months for the same POS service that I was getting for $19.99 per month. The Supervisor (Janice Lark) finally came on and said that there is nothing else they can do for me, either take the deal and end the call. THIS WAS A BIG INSULT OF MY INTELLIGENCE. WHY DO I WANT TO DO THAT AND REWARD DISLOYALTY? The conversation ended at that point. I will never WORK WITH THAT COMPANY AGAIN!

Why is it UNETHICAL? The right thing that Cingular should do is to recognize their mistake and either revert or provide the PDA Connect Plan at the same cost as the original MediaNet for $19.99 especially when the PDA Connect Plan does not create any additional value beyond the original cost.

Here is my advice to ALL data plan users out there with Cingular, YOU ARE BEING RIPPED OFF BY CINGULAR. THEY ARE THIEVES. IF YOU ARE PAYING FOR A DATA PLAN, YOU SHOULD SWITCH.

You can switch to T-Mobile and get the same outcome for the same amount of money ($29.99 voice + $29.99 Unlimited data plan). They do not restrict you and even unlock your phone after three months. I checked today and everything work as it should.

TMobile is how phone providers should be. This rigging practice of cell phones to manipulate endusers into higher pricing bracket with no addition gain is SIMPLY HIGHWAY ROBBERY.

I WILL POST THIS LETTER TO EVERY GSM FORUM I AM A MEMBER OF. THIS PRACTICE IS CLEARLY UNETHICAL, and MAY EVEN BE ILLEGAL. I THINK I MAY EVEN FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE FCC!

GOOD RIDDEN CINGULAR POS.

I will take my Nokia E65 Smart Phone to TMobile b/c these people treat me FAIRLY!