If it were possible for me to take a picture of my middle finger and MMS it to the VP of Cingular, I'd do it.

On 11/9/04, I tried to migrate my, then AT&T, account over to Cingular (at a Cingular - ex-AT&T store) and pick up the new v3. The sales guy at the store said that there was a note on my account that required me to call "Business Care" AT&T folks before I could migrate my account. Basically, they just wanted to make sure that I wanted to leave AT&T for Cingular (which, didn't really matter because Cingular was in the middle of acquiring AT&T at the time). So, they (supposedly) lifted the note on my account and I go back to the store. The sales guy tries again, and still the note blocks him for migrating my account. So, I call back, I get a new rep (of course), who tells me that my account is not eligible for upgrade through the store, and I would have to do it over the phone. Not only that, but it would take at least 10 days to ship the order after 2-5 days of processing. So, I go ahead the place the order. About 5 days into it, I called to see if the order shipped, they tell me that unless it's been 7-10 business days, they won't even check to see how the order is progressing, so call back later. (That didn't impress me) on the 10th business day, I call back, and they tell me they "lost" the order somewhere between AT&T and Cingular; I would need to start over and wait again for a new order to go through the system. So, I did.... (I should have walked off at this point, but I didn't). Ten more business days go by, and then I'm told that the second order is missing – so they asked if I would like to try a third time. After politely telling the rep that I was not interested in pursuing a third order, I asked them to cancel everything - any open orders, my old account, number, phone, everything. They assured me that everything was cancelled out, and that the orders were "dead" or rather "lost" so there really wasn't anything to cancel. Keep in mind, this was around, or on 11/30/04.

12/1/04 - Thinking I could put that cluster behind me, I go out to Amazon and buy the v3 (with a $150 rebate - so I paid a lot less than what I would have paid had the migration worked out) with new service, number, etc from Cingular. I thought, "How on earth could a phone company screw up a new order for new service? No strings to AT&T or old account to deal with." I get the new phone/service delivered to my door the next day - it's all perfect and works great. No complaints what-so-ever with the Amazon/Cingular transaction.

12/9/04 - I check my credit card statement online. It’s Christmas shopping season, so I'm checking to see how perfuse the bleeding is from my credit card (CC). On the list of items, there's a charge for $598.49 from Cingular. There's also a charge for about that much from Amazon, posted a week prior. The Amazon transaction is correct, but the Cingular one, shouldn’t be there. So, I call Cingular and ask them about it - whilst waiting on hold for a rep, I notice on their website an option to look up orders by your SSN #. I enter mine in, and see that they shipped me a v3 (using my old account/order) on 12/6, which arrived on 12/8 (the day before). They shipped me a second phone using the orders they said were lost and they assured me were cancelled from the week prior. It was at that moment, in the middle of saying some expletive out-loud, that the Cingular rep picked up ...

Fast forward to 12/18/04 - After spending every day since 12/9 on the phone with Cingular and AT&T (I stopped counting at 40 calls and 16 hours) of sitting on hold, getting no answers as to why the phone was shipped, where it came from, who shipped it, how to return it, etc I got the BBB and my CC company involved. Both AT&T and Cingular said that the other was responsible for shipping the phone - because neither of them could find the order that supposedly shipped the phone. (Which is funny, because I was able to look the order up on Cingular's website and Cingular was on the shipping label of the second phone). Since neither side could figure out who sent it, or rather, didn't want to claim responsibility for a shipped phone which came from a order that was lost twice and then cancelled a week before it shipped - they didn't want to take the phone back. Literally, they were fine with me paying for the phone and not having it returned because they couldn’t figure out the mistake their system made. Oh, and since I cancelled the service and order for the phone, I couldn't use the phone even if I wanted to.

1/1/05 - BBB scared Cingular into sending me a pre-paid return label. (Did I mention that once Cingular said they'd take the phone back, which was around 12/22 - they wanted me to pay to ship it back to them? Somehow I didn't think I should be responsible for having to pay money to ship their “mistake” back to them) I'm also not calling the usual Cingular/AT&T reps, I now have the Office of the President reps (provided by the BBB). These are supposedly the folks that “get stuff done right” when it hits the fan. I’m happy because I think that at this point, they’re going to get everything squared away, and I send the phone in on 12/24 (yep, I drove the phone to the FedEx hub on Christmas Eve so I could hand deliver the package to someone behind the counter). Cingular’s return dept. received the phone on 12/28, and said it would take about 2 weeks for the return to show up on my CC.

Today (1/30) - Just got my refund - after, again, having to deal with the "Office of the President" people "loosing" my return information and other mistakes on their part. Yep, they returned $598.48 of the $598.49 they owed me.... Now, I know (or would hope) that chances are slim that Cingular isn’t f*ing with me and it’s probably a mistake, however the .01 difference doesn't make me happy. Yeah, it's only a penny, but why, pray tell, would they go through all this to still make a mistake??? One would think that by now, they'd want to get it right...

Tomorrow - Calling my friends at Cingular back. I don't care if it costs them $5 or some percentage of $$ every time they move funds via a CC transaction, they are going to post another refund to my account in the amount of .01. It's the principle of the thing. I refuse to let this go and they will get this right. I will not pay them even one cent for their mistake.


Moral of the story:
1. It’s too bad that the AT&T/Cingular buyout wasn’t the other way around – I actually left Cingular for AT&T years ago because of Cingular’s non-professional practices back then. Some things never change.
2. If you’re an AT&T customer and are thinking about migrating over to Cingular, make sure you have lots of free time on your hands. I would hope that my experience is rare and most people had/have a smooth transition, but you never know…
3. Should you need to call Cingular or AT&T for anything other than saying “Thanks for the great job you do”, forget it. No one at either company has a clue, and if they say they do, they’re wrong. Oh, and they’re all “Supervisors”, so there’s no use in asking for one… Demand the number to the office of the president, or PM me and I’ll give it to you, otherwise you’ll spin your wheels and go no-where (unless you enjoy that sort of thing).
4. Cingular, no matter how high up you go, who you talk to, or who you create a lawsuit against, will never get it right unless you hold their hand and tell them what do to do, at least 6 times (or 2-3 hours) a day, everyday, for 2 ½ months (and going). It’s probably a better idea to start a complaint with the BBB and take care of it through them because chances are; you’re going to have to file a complaint at some point due to Cingular’s lethargic business practices and lack of accountability.

That said, I love my Cingular/Amazon phone. I make sure to never take my phone/network’s performance for granted – it saves me from having to dial 611, kissing my day good-bye, and dealing with Cingular’s supposed “One call fixes it all” customer support center from hell.

 

if you were receiving corp discounts, the former blue stores could not migrate b/c cing. did not have those programs in the stores. after thanksgiving they were avail. to migrate.

you experienced the same thing as a lot of customers.

everyone came in and said that they never got their phones





it is unfortunate that you had problems when the takeover had begun.

It is very difficult for cust care to track something like this. i can assure you that there were many problems with the corp discount program in the very beginning.

even sales reps in teh stores didnt have a clue what to do except forward the corp discounted customers to the 800 #.

this was a problem b/c of the merger not something they typically do, some problems did arise like this one.

i can assure you that you are able to go into a store and purchase a phone or do whatever you need to your acct if you decide to upgrade your plan or phone in the future.

 

I understadn your pissed and u just want them to correc there mistake for the 1 penny...do you really have that much free time on your hands...I mean even my time is worth more then 1 penny??

i think you should just let it slide..you pretty much got what you wanted

 

damn i didnt read the last part right, the penny they may think you are being real petty but it is a penny that is yours, but is the time you are going to bitch and complain for that penny worth it

 

Yeah, I figured that the merger played a major role in it all - but still, I don't think it should be necessary for the customer to take the hit or go through these steps to get Cingular/AT&T’s mistake corrected. It's the customer's credit rating/score that is on the line while Cingular/AT&T go back and forth on who's going to take the phone back and who's going to issue the refund (Paying twice for a sub-$600 phone is a big for me, especially around Christmas). I don’t want to think about (and I assume Cingular/AT&T wouldn’t want to either) the idea of something like this messing up someone’s perfect credit, and the resulting legal ramifications. I would think, in situations like this, it would be better, if for nothing else than the sake of customer service, to take the phone back, issue the refund immediately, and then "figure it out" during Cingular/AT&T's own time as to the specifics of who's paying for what. I would understand if I didn't cancel the order, or were not "lost", that I would be held accountable for the transaction - but that wasn't the case here.

Also, at one point while trying to get a date from Cingular/AT&T as to when the refund would post, I mentioned that my CC company would “take back” the money from Cingular if it was not refunded within 30 days of me returning the phone. I’m not sure if all CC companies have that same policy, but it’s probably a good thing to be aware of. The Cingular Office of the President rep told me to take the phone out of dispute (which would mean I would have to pay off the phone, plus interest since it had been in dispute for more than one billing cycle – there’s no way I’d be able to get Cingular to give me the money for interest) and wait for the refund (and she couldn’t even give me a date as to when the refund would show up). She said that if my CC company took the money, Cingular would “open” another account under my name with a debit in the amount of the phone. If that happened I would start a whole new cycle of headaches, again, at the customer’s expense because Cingular/AT&T lack of timeliness.


Well, yes and no. If it were just me, then I would probably let it slide. But since I still have an open BBB case that is based on me getting a full refund, I don't have to do it alone. And also, should I not get the penny back within the next business day, my CC company will take it from Cingular - which will open an account in my name that requires me to pay them one cent. At that point, I ask Cingular to figure it out, or eat the penny (as in, they just close the account and pay the penny themselves).

 

sometimes the credit can take as long as 30 days to appear back on your credit card form cing

 

That's part of my point. Cingular's not responsible for the charge on the customer's credit card, even if it's not the customer's fault (hence the ability to dispute). However, there are limitations to disputing a charge and CC companies have their own policies that protect the consumer (ie, the CC company taking the amount from merchant should a refund not post within 30 days of return), and I think Cingular (or any company that makes a mistake) should be sensitive to these policies.

If I made the mistake, then I wouldn't have a problem waiting the 30 days for the refund from Cingular, and dealing with the consequences. But, since the error was made on Cingular/AT&T's side, then special considerations should be made to fix the problem in a timely manner. Which in my case, technically, Cingular did fix most of the error in a timely manner - but that penny...

 

I am willing to pay you that penny just to get back time I wasted reading your rant about one penny.

 

migrate telesales is a mess!

 

I switched from AT&T to cingular just after the switch over, I didn't have any problems doing it.. I do think that Cingular's service, although people claim that it's the same network as AT&T now, I think the new service sucks.