Cingular calls class action suit "without merit"
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jul 11th 2006 3:23PM
posted Jul 11th 2006 3:23PM
And now we take a moment to visit our "obvious corporate response" department, going back to the class action suit filed last week against Cingular alleging deterioration in the quality of AT&T Wireless' legacy network following their acquisition. It seems Cingular is in staunch disagreement with the grievances, citing a laundry list of post-acquisition improvements in infrastructure totaling "nearly $10 billion." Though we don't have a lot of sympathy for TDMA users still trying to limp along with their prehistoric handsets, Cingular's rebuttal appears to be peripheral to the case at best, bringing up catch phrases like "fewer dropped calls" and "improved churn." Moreover, Cingular is talkin' some smack back at the class action's lead lawyer, saying "we are considering our options with respect to the false and misleading statements made to the media" -- sounds like a countersuit in the making to us. Who knew TDMA could get folks so worked up years after its obsolescence?[Thanks, Dave]
To be fair, most current TDMA users are content with just making and receiving phone calls. And if that's the primary benefit of their service, then they should receive a consistent level of service, assuming that the complaint's valid.
/previous TDMA-user, only was transplanted to CDMA up to a month ago.
My name is D and I'm a former TDMA user. I was forced to give up my habit last month when my supplier (you can guess who) decreased the service area. I switched to GSM but my RAZR v3i broke. Now I use POTS.
F*ck TDMA, why dont you guys just switch over to GSM? and cingular will take all that spectrum that TDMA was using (after all TDMA towers are off) and use it for more important services such as UMTS/HSDPA. seriously.
I am a former cingular customer. More then 50% of calls got dropped. When I could finally make a call it was choppy and people complained of echoing. I had never had a problem with cingular untill around the time they merged with At+t. Not to mention the horrible slow edge connections that they charge the same or more for then much faster evdo. I am now on verizon and the voice quality is 10x better, the data is fast and I get treated with respect by their customer service.Cingular's customer service would lie to me, hang up on me, and were so clueless it was bordering obsurd. Take some advice, and if you are on cingular's GSM, try CDMA, either verizon or sprint, you will be blown away at the difference of quality, coverage, speed, and support.
Former AT&T customer that moved to Sprint after AT&T didn't do squat when it came to customer service. I moved from them before the Cingular merger, but now have an additional phone that is on Cingular for emergency purposes. My original SIM card was branded AT&T Wireless, but after crapping service (even under GSM), I had to get it switched over to a Cingular SIM card.
As for the TDMA network, I can see the reduction being business related, since there are probably not that many customers left (at least when compared to Cingular customers), and it makes sense to eventually shut it down, even though there are still customers that are using the network.
When I was on TDMA, service was good, but I wanted other features like data that CDMA and GSM provided.
I hope this lawsuit can get settled, but I have a feeling that Cingular is doing what they can to make the transition for these customers as easy as possible.
We were in Montana and Wyoming, parts of Utah and Idaho on a two week trip by car. We had no service at all, while our traveling friends who had Verizon had excellent service. When I showed 2 bars strong (ha!) I called Cingular and they tried trouble shooting for us, but the service remained the same awful nothing! If it continues like this, I will happily remove myself from the contract and hook up with another service.
I am still an AT&T customer trying to decide what to do. My service has consistently gotten worse and worse. I am not up on all the new technology. I have a siemens phone and a samsung flip phone (they have a similar number being offered at stores in this area that is just like it so dont tell me its because of my old handset) that I interchange between by sliding my sims card out. I used to have the best service ever. I could get receptioni anywhere and had hardly any call drops. I now deal with my calls not going through and having to dial multiple times before getting a line out, dropped calls on a regular basis, and the worst connections of static and echos. I went on a vacation down to corpus and my phone went back and forth from saying tmobile, cingular, and verizon. My brother who has cingular, said verizon the entire time and no service problems. The thing I absolutly hate about being forced to switch, is I get nothing. For being a customer for seven years, I get nothing. I can go get an 8125 in the mall for $100 if I am a 'new' customer, but I have to pay $300 dollars because I am a loyal customer (that and I dont want to give up a phone number I have had for seven years). How fair is that? Where is customer service? What is wrong with this company? The customer service rep's try to get me to switch every time I call. I get 1300 minutes for 59.99 and nights start at seven. I dont want to pay 79.99 for a similar plan plus an extra 7$ for the nights to start at seven. That is over 25 dollar more a month!!! I will probably be swtiching and probably to verizon. They give a discount for another phone to customers that stay with them. Come on Cingular, get with it!
Someone needs to start a plan where they give you a discount of so much every year you stay with a company and pay your bills on time and so forth. I would never leave the company. Where the hell is customer service?
Link no good on ATT's site now...hmmm...
I would agree with the fact that that the NEW At&t needs to figure out a better way to keep current customers and give the loyal ones a better deal. I can tell you that there focus is on new customers only right now and that their upcoming focus is on offering land-line services. Having their wireless sales reps sent to training and such for those products(u-verse, dish ect..). Almost like they are trying to shore up the mobile division by offering other products. They offer deals and discounts to new customers but expect old reliable, loyal customers to pony up the dough. A lot of has to do with the pay structure to agents. Forcing independent agents to charge more requiring data packages with their devices and not offering a non-decked out handset free for upgrades to the stores for retail for customers who don't need anything in their handsets.
Its irritating to sell-some one a music capable phone when all the want to do is make a call. 80 year old ladies do not want to have a handset more complicated then their televisions. Until they pull their heads out of each others a**es and stop slapping each other on the back and change out their pay structure you can expect things to get more and more expensive until the bottom drops out on them. As for customer service, well I'll let you in on a not so secret, secret. Every section of the company is competing with the other part. Online sales is competing with tele-sales(i.e. customer service) who are competing with corporate stores, who are competing with Independent agents store, who are competing with box retailers. This creates a company that has no clue what the other hand is doing. Everyone of these are given different rules and contacts. With out a uniform cost for handset, pay structure, and less competition in the wireless sales divisions of AT&T you can expect things to stay the same. By not being on the same page as each other it creates a "What can you do for me?" customer service attitude instead of "What can I do for you?" attitude. Meaning that if your going to make me some money I'll play nice, if not, then its why are you bothering me?
i was a former at&t customer on tdma march 2004, i had good service. but i had my drop calls here and their but awesome cust. service. when my contract was up at&t was convincing me to upgrade to the new GSM technology and that it was the next generation. and they had more coverage they any provider on gsm. i eventually closed the account that i had inherrent from my mom & brother who had been with at&t since 1996. i relized i made the biggest mistake in leaving i guess i was scared because i didnt want to be apart of cingular and dispised them alot. i ended up with april 2004 - feb 2006 with sprint horrible exp. with service was never crystal clear and cdma was a pain in the ass. one thing i did like if the phone acted up take it to the store and you get it replace right there on the spot i wish gsm provider did that instead of calling customer care going throguh that hassle. then i left and joined t-mobile feb 14, 2006 til aug 14, 2007 breach contract got it waived and relocated to a diff. state.
im with at&t mobility now, aug 15, 07 im curr. travel from fl to va every other week. and the coverage and service is 100 times better than t-mobile ser. i have recep. all over my house in miami, fl and i use the service in va. where my sister lives and but i roam over there but its covered in the National Plan.
i was a former at&t customer on tdma march 2004, i had good service. but i had my drop calls here and their but awesome cust. service. when my contract was up at&t was convincing me to upgrade to the new GSM technology and that it was the next generation. and they had more coverage they any provider on gsm. i eventually closed the account that i had inherrent from my mom & brother who had been with at&t since 1996. i relized i made the biggest mistake in leaving i guess i was scared because i didnt want to be apart of cingular and dispised them alot. i ended up with april 2004 - feb 2006 with sprint horrible exp. with service was never crystal clear and cdma was a pain in the ass. one thing i did like if the phone acted up take it to the store and you get it replace right there on the spot i wish gsm provider did that instead of calling customer care going throguh that hassle. then i left and joined t-mobile feb 14, 2006 til aug 14, 2007 breach contract got it waived and relocated to a diff. state.
im with at&t mobility now, aug 15, 07 im curr. travel from fl to va every other week. and the coverage and service is 100 times better than t-mobile ser. i have recep. all over my house in miami, fl and i use the service in va. where my sister lives and but i roam over there but its covered in the National Plan.