My son opened his first cellular account with AT&T at college 15 months ago. (2 year contract). Over the Thanksgiving break he mentioned that his phone doesn't work as well anymore. In the latest issue of Consumers Report then mentioned that a lot of AT&T customers are having reception problems ever since the merger with Cingular.

Questions....

1. Do you think Cingular would allow him to renew his contract early, and therefore let him get a new phone?

2. Should he just buy a new "Cingular" phone on e-bay?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

1st off, wht model phone does he have?
is it tdma or gsm, if you do not know let us know the model and we can tell you.

if it is tdma, they are replacing the bandwidth with gsm or not turning it back on.


my att gsm works fine for me,

the average life of a cell phone with cing/att was about 1.5 years, give or take a couple months.

 

Get a phone on eBay or ask around. More than likely your son settled for a free phone it almost sounds like. People complain about poor reception with their free phones all the time. They pay for what they get. Just get another phone.

 

your son can upgrade...contract does not make a difference anymore. no termination fee would be applied.

 

If your son logs into his Cingular account over the internet he will be able to see if he qualifies for a free upgrade (with contract extension). After 15 mos. I think that he does.

BTW, our free Motorala V180 seemed to lose reception after about 8-9 months. We bought a slightly used Nokia 6102 on e-bay and the reception improved tremendously. mobilezen is right, you get what you pay for. Nokia has a reputation for good reception.

 

v180 is probably the worst cingular phone