ok, so first there was the phone that hooked itself to the internet all day long, resulting in various monthly charges of 60 and 70 bucks, which required at least one phone call each to remove from my bill.
then there was the replacement phone, sent with a sim card that wasn't compatible and therefore disabled the voicemail icon.
then came the replacement sim card for that sim card that was STILL THE WRONG sim card.
then came the next sim card, which, following a message that said "message center number" when i tried to send a text to xx, i finally called to activate.
when you call for this shit, they make you punch in your phone number, then when they answer the phone, they make you give them your phone number again. then they ask you your name, then the last four digits of your ssn.
what with all this information they're using to verify things, i'm pretty fucking amazed at how the woman managed to activate my sim card to SOMEONE ELSE'S phone number. of course, i didn't know this until i tried to call myself and leave myself a vm to see if it worked and the icon is back. beep boop boop beep beep beep beep...dead air. DEAD. FUCKING. AIR.
luckily, i now have cingular's customer service number memorized and am currently on the phone with travis, who is, as they have all been, very helpful, but in whom i have very little confidence.
he just said "this is probably not going to be good".
turns out the lady i spoke to was making changes to another customer's account, which explained why she thought i had a nokia. (travis told me they work off three separate screens and she punched in the wrong number on one of her screens after verifying the account. which is obviously very comforting.) i mentioned that not only do i not have a nokia, but haven't for quite some time and have even recently been the recipient of a REPLACEMENT LG phone from THEM, so doesn't she think it's weird that it says i have a nokia; and also i DO have text messaging and i'm a little concerned that she says it says i don't on my account. this did not prompt her to double-check that she was looking at the right account, she just gave me a little attitude and activated my sim card to some other poor sod's phone -- who, incidentally, just unexplainedly lost all use of his or her phone. ha ha, guess they'll be dialing 18003310500 soon!!
anyway, they're now going to, for the third time, ship me a motherfucking sim card (dare i mention that i asked them to ship it to my work address, but they went ahead and sent it to my apartment anyway? nah, i'll leave that out). only travis didn't know what i was talking about when i said i need a special one that starts with 4101 instead of 4103, so chances are this one won't work either.
stay tuned!
5 comments:
Your problem isn't with Cingular, although you obviously feel it is. The real problem is with LG. LG shipped a huge batch of fucked up phones that don't work with 3G sim cards, but have to have older 2G sim cards for the voicemail icon to activate. The problem continues in that LG refuses to exchange or take any responsibility for this problem. Sorry to hear about your problems however. If you stop bothering Cingular and contact LG directly, or the warranty exchange department of Cingular at 800-801-1101 you would know there is a software update that should help you. No excuse for the one rep messing up the sim card swap however. Anyway... good luck.
BigRobLee is wrong wrong wrong.
Did Cherry Sara send money to LG? No.
She sent money to Cingular. Cingular has a problem with LG which Cingular should deal with.
The person who takes your money is responsible for taking care of you.
Actually, it's you "Anonymous" that is wrong. In the first 30 days Cingular will replace any device, no problem. After that, as it is with MANY retailers, you have to deal with the manufacturer. Check with Target, Wal-Mart, Sears (other than Craftsman tools), ect. The device is provided by LG or whatever manufacturer you deal with. Cingular provides XBM as a service, although it is not required. The company, in all legality, could direct her to the manufacturer for all problems after 30 days. People forget that the Telecoms provice SERVICE, not the devices. The device discounts are an enticement to get you to use the service. Let's take Cingular out of the equation. What if it was your home line, and the cordless phone you purchased wouldn't work to access the voicemail you get from SBC, AT&T, or whoever. Would you really expect the telecom to get you a phone? People have, over the years, come to understand that the phone is their own responsibility, and SBC or whoever provides the service. I look forward to the day when the same is true of Cellular phones. Then all the endless blaming of the carriers for bad devices will stop. Also, consumers will stop expecting the carrier to subsidize the price of a new handset every year. As someone who has worked on the inside for more than one carrier, I can assure you that the handsets are a loser for the companies at the advertised pricing, they make the money back in service. Also, a lot of people just don't get that unless they spend 60+ dollars a month with any of the major carriers, and that does NOT include taxes and fees, they are a money loser for the company. Im my experience the people who are the most demanding, and waste the most of reps time, are the lowest spending customers. I provided the same level of service (usually great, sometimes exceptional) irregardless of the price point a customer was at. Anyway, to the author. Start calling XBM. Repeatedly. Once you are past 30 days the only way to get a different make and model of phone is to either pay full purchase price yourself (everyone seems to expect the cell companies to offer the same pricing for handsets to new customers or people who are only 6 months into a contract), wait until at least 1/2 of your contract has passed and request an exception upgrade (you sign a new 2 year contract, voiding the original, and in exchange Cingular gives the same discount they would for a 1 year contract), or keep on XBM until you get a phone that works or you go through four of the same make and model, then you can request another. And before anyone bitches that is too much, Verizon makes you go through 6 of the same make and model before changing the handset. Good luck.
the whole thing started b/c cingular were charging me for all this internet usage i wasn't using, and when i explained the problem, the THIRD representative i spoke to mentioned i might have a faulty phone. everyone else just made me argue with them to take the charges off, and while i realize it's pretty shady to call and ask them to wipe $60 worth of internet fees, it was also pretty screwed up that the phone signed on for about 30 seconds at a time 20 times in a row. there's no way i could have done anything in that time.
anyway, cingular were the ones who brought the problem to my attention, and had they recommended i go through lg to solve the problem, i would have. but cingular are the ones who offered the replacement phone, which was very nice of them and i didn't have to pay for it. but, seriously, there is no reason cingular should not be held accountable for the tons of time i spend on the phone with them trying to figure out why they can't get their phones and their sim cards organzied.
further, i doubt lg could send me a sim card that would work with cingular's system without me going through some extra rigamorole (sp?).
cingular offered to do all this for me, the only thing i wanted was them to stop charging me for the internet. but they didn't execute what they set out to do, and i've had to spend a lot of time (time i could've spent blogging!) on the phone with them explaining the same damn thing over and over again. and i do think cingular's customer service has drastically improved, at least attitude-wise, over the last few years.
wcs
ps, 'irregardless' is not a word.
Yes, but it is in the dictionary, if only to state it is not a word. Neither is conversate, but that is about my favorite non-word. I hope the problem has been solved to your satisfaction.
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