Cingular - The plan I chose was a Nationwide 850 plan. This plan is a no roaming no long distance plan. After using the phone for a couple of days I realized that the all GSM network Cingular has moved to would not suit my needs.

Cingular - The plan I chose was a Nationwide 850 plan. This plan is a no roaming no long distance plan. After using the phone for a couple of days I realized that the all GSM network Cingular has moved to would not suit my needs.

Cingular After switching to Cingular, because of a move, I learned the hard way what others had warned about on the web. Cingular has unethical business practices that I believe would justify a class action suit if enough customers and former customers brought there evidence together. I would encourage any current Cingular customers to keep written documentation of all their conversations with Cingular representatives including the names of the reprehensive they speak with. I signed up with Cingular over the internet in late Sept. 2004 by porting my number from Suncom.

The plan I chose was a Nationwide 850 plan. This plan is a no roaming no long distance plan. After using the phone for a couple of days I realized that the all GSM network Cingular has moved to would not suit my needs. In fact the service could be described as terrible and did not function in areas where I was told there would be at least some service as well as being inconsistent in urban areas. As a side note their GSM signal seems to be inferior to Alltel when used indoors. I contacted Cingular to enquire about receiving a GAIT plan or as to how to go about canceling my service within the grace period. They did not want to offer me a GAIT plan (even though I finally got them to tell me it was possible to do) but said I had 30 days to cancel my service without losing my deposit, which they had some how calculated to be $240 when I signed up (no other cell company has ever asked for a deposit from me).The representative insured me that if I wanted to try and use the phone within the 30day period I could without incurring additional early cancellation fees.

I decided to give Cingular a chance and continued using the phone. It became clearer that the service could not suit my needs. I called Cingular again and confirmed the date of the last day in my grace period and asked for instruction for canceling my contracted according their protocol. They simply said to cancel the service before Oct. 27 and that it would be wise to do it a couple of days before the 27th to avoid any complications and was assured I would get the balance of my deposit after the monthly service charge was deducted (sounded fine with me).

I decided to switch to Alltel on the 25th. I ported my number and called Cingular while I was at the Alltel store to confirm that I was canceling the service. They first told me it would several weeks but the deposit would be credited back to my credit card. I asked them about the need to return the phone and they said 'oh yeah' there should be a return shipping label in the box the phone came in. I told them that I did not receive such a label and they said they would send one out to me and that was it. I had seen trouble coming a couple of weeks before when I listened to a lady in the Cingular store complain to the clerk about how she was treated by Cingular.

I checked the web and saw that Cingular was ranked low by customers in an industry already ranked next to last in customer service. I called Cingular again just to make sure I was doing everything right and was told this time that I would get a check for the balance in my account within 7 to 10 days. Well I never received a return shipping form but I did receive a letter date Oct. 26th that said if I reactivated my account my Nov. 3 they would so kind as not to keep my deposit (ok now I see). So, I called Cingular and after speaking to a customer service rep who said she would note my account and gave me a number to the financial department (she couldn't just transfer me).

So I got on the phone with a guy in the financial department who informed first that I would not get my deposit back because I had ported my number which was Cingular's (he was reaching I could tell) I quickly informed him that the number came from Suncom and that when I ported over to Alltel that is how the number was listed. The rep backed up a little bit as I discussed the entire series of events and asked to speak to the manager of the department. Well he spoke to the manager without me and came on the phone now informing that I would get my deposit back not because of porting the number but because I had not returned the phone within 30days (what?).

I explained that I was the one who had stayed with Cingular as long as possible within my grace period to see if I could live with the service and that not one single customer service rep had said anything about returning the phone within 30days with would seem to contradict their advice to stick with Cingular up to the end of my grace period plus I was the one that asked them about returning the phone and had not received the return label. It became clear to me that this was a loophole just like the number porting excuse Cingular uses to add unearned dollars to the bottom line along with requiring exurbanite deposits. Anyhow, after an hour on the phone I finally got the manager and was now assured that he would allow me to return the phone and get my deposit back (I'm not holding my breath but this would be somewhat of a redemption for Cingular).

All I had to do is go on line and find the return shipping label, well guess how easy that is? The website works in a manner that loops you around the return product information and as far as I can tell you can't email a representative to get further instructions. This is ridicules when you think about the hours I've spend in the nightmare. Well the next thing that has happened is I received a bill which with an about due that has already been deducted from the deposit and is recorded as such online. After reviewing the bill I see that I used the phone for about a total of 20minutes during the month and 15.75 minutes are billed as roaming with long distance increasing the bill by $20 (all calls made within the mapped area that comes with the plan).

So in one month Cingular has gotten me for about $400 and untold hours of dealing with them on the phone. If the manager's word is good I'll get about $160 back if I don't fight the roaming and long distance charges (that are not even supposed to be possible with the nationwide plan) when I return the phone (which it looks like I'll have to pay the shipping fees on since the label issue is obviously a road block to prevent customers from returning merchandise). I'm worried about the paper bill since I've now read on the web that Cingular does this often.

They will charge a credit card and then try to double bill by sending out a paper bill which they do not reconcile with the previous payment. I might be in for a miserable serious of events over this paper bill if what I've read about Cingular's billing practices is true. Anyhow, please learn from my experience and don't do business with Cingular. If you do a little research you'll quickly realize that I'm not the only one with this experience.

I hear that Verizon is the best, I went with Alltel and feel pretty good about them. Suncom was a good regional company but I don't know how the Cingular ATT merger affected them since they were an ATT affiliate. In general my research seems to point towards companies who use CDMA as being the best with the exception of Nextel which will probably go with CDMA for their 3G upgrade. Also, don't be the whole world is using GSM argument.

This experience has lead me to do allot of research on the cellular phone industry and CDMA technology is growing at a faster pace than GSM and will overtake GSM before the end of the decade. Asia has 88 million CDMA used and the Americas have a similar number of CDMA users. The technology is better and the companies who use it are rated higher by customers. I hope this will help at least one person avoid my mistake by avoiding Cingular which by the way is loosing customers steadily since the merger with ATT (I have nothing against mergers, just a fact). Dough, W. G Click this link to e-mail the above consumer: Email User Consumer