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Cingular-AT&T Wireless Merger Complete
bigmase521 writes "PRNNewsWire, Phonescoop.com, and this thread on Howardforums.com, are reporting that the Cingular/AT&T Wireless Merger is now complete. Cingular bought out AT&T Wireless for ~$41B to become the nations largest cellular provider. Details of the merger, and full press coverage, including the audio of this afternoon's conference call can be found here, and Cingular and AT&T customers can see what is/isn't changing for them at newcingular.com."
...but I couldn't help it. I went to the website and clicked the "I'm an AT&T customer" (I recently left Cingular for AT&T).
They had a list of bullet points and then a whole page devoted to how much better my life is going to be after this merger. I swear, there were about 64 kilobytes of text devoted to listing all the positives of this merger.
That's when it struck me that companies really need to read the Cluetrain Manifesto. I really would be interested in the six worst things that are going to happen to me, so that I can be prepared for it.
Take, for example, when I first signed up with AT&T. Plan: $65/month all told. First bill comes. $300. WTF? Everything that could go wrong, did. They put me on the wrong plans. They didn't count my mobile-to-mobile minutes. They signed me up for about 17 extra plans I didn't need or ask for. Not to mention that "Federal fund recovery fee" which is essentially AT&T's way of saying "How come restaurants get to charge you 15% extra for tips, and we don't??? Oh, wait. We do. We'll just charge a tip on every bill. Nice."
Now Cingular is going to take this bumblefuck of a corporation and incorporate it into its everyday operations.
And things are going to go smoothly? I don't think so.
This is Tweedle-dee meets Tweedle-dum, and they're in charge of your critical wireless communications. Be prepared to be pissed off.
fifth sigma, inc.
Here's one (very long) experience.
I just signed up for a new phone with my carrier, AT&T. I chose a refurbished Nokia phone (a 6820, if it matters). When it arrived, two of the buttons were completely broken and one more was hard to push. This made using the menus (and thus the phone) pretty much impossible. I called in and after a brief discussion, they told me they were going to ship me a replacement phone of the same model (still refurbished).
It arrived the next day. This time, all the buttons worked, but when I tried to access the phone's IM (instant messaging) feature, it popped up a Java error. Now this is when I got a real taste of customer service.
I called them and explained the whole situation (how I just signed up and how the first phone I got was broken so I needed a replacement, and how the replacement was broken too). The guy then put me on hold (the first of many, many holds) while he looked into the situation. When he got back, he started to walk me through the AIM-via-text-message setup procedure, which is something completely different. I explained to him that I don't think he and I were talking about the same thing, and that the first phone I got did not have this Java error. But apparently, that info was all he could find. Apparently, their databases didn't even have an entry for the IM menu on my phone, so he had no idea what I was talking about.
I suggested to him that it seemed to be a software/firmware problem with the phone since the first one didn't have the problem, and I asked him if they could simply ship me another replacement like they did the first time. But he said no, they were all out of stock on that phone (but I just ordered it three days ago...?). After putting me on hold some more, he told me to go to a local AT&T Wireless retail store to "get the phone re-flashed".
So I did. I found an AT&T Wireless retailer, but the lady there had apparently never seen the problem before. When I explained that customer service told me to go and get it re-flashed at her store, she just gave me a blank stare and asked "Reflashed? What's that?". Then we spoke to another guy at the same store, possibly a manager, and he said "Oh, wow... you need some high-tech stuff to do that. USB cables and such. We don't do that here." The lady chimed in, "In fact... none of the AT&T Wireless stores do." Then I asked why Customer Service sent me to them, and they didn't know either.
So when I got home, I called customer service again and explained the whole situation all over again. This time, the technician on the line didn't know what re-flashing was either. He said it was a very strange suggestion for the original tech to have made. Then I asked him whether he could just ship me a replacement. He said no, they were out of stock. Then I told him that they were still available at the webpage, so they did have some phones left, and I asked if he could please check to make sure. He put me on hold for a while to talk to his manager, and when he got back, he told me that they didn't ship replacements out like that. I asked him how I got the first replacement, then, but he couldn't explain it. He did suggest, however, that I can go online and order another phone and they would pricematch it after I was billed. I told him my credit card's limit wasn't that high and so that wasn't an option. Then he just told me to call Warranty Exchange. I just thanked him and gave up for the night.
Annoyed at the entire situation, I ignored it for few more days. I finally called back a few days later. This time, I was sick of explaining everything so I just asked the tech to look at my account notes. She did, and thought about it some. Then, to my surprise, she actually sympathized with the situation and offered to ship me a free replacement phone -- a new one this time, since the past two refurbished ones were both broken. I didn't ask for it; she just offered. I was glad, of course, but then she looked up the phone and foun