Arrived at the Cingular store in
Me: “415…”
Rep: “Excuse me? Where is the 415 Area Code?”
Me: “
Rep: “Uh, I can’t sell you a phone, because I can’t access your account.”
Me: “What? You can’t access my account!?! Why? This IS a Cingular store, right?”
Rep: “Yes, but company privacy rules don’t allow us to access your account unless you’re in our authorized area.”
Me: “Not to malign your company, but that’s STUPID! I own the account, I want to buy a phone, and I want to roll-over my AT&T contract to a new Cingular contract! And you’re telling me you can’t DO that?”
Rep: “Uh, yeah, uh…” followed by much hemming and hawing.
It was all down hill from there, lemmee tell ya. I thought we had a work-around if I got new service with a
Then it was over to the Mazda store, where I find they only have one new Miata available for test drives and it’s being driven by the Business Manager, and she’s not in the office today. Besides that, they only had two Miatas on the lot, period. All that made it pretty easy to maintain my sales resistance, so I’m thankful in a small, very small, way. I did sit in one, however. The new Miatas have a bit more room inside than mine and generally appear slightly larger in all respects. And there are a lot of cool new features plus 20% more horsepower. More horsepower is always good! But the Green Hornet has one outstanding virtue the new Miatas don’t have: it’s paid for.
So, I’m back home and may or may not have a bad phone, still. I have to wait and see if the new battery solves the “sudden phone death” issue. If it doesn’t I may have to get local cell service, and that is REALLY gonna suck. It might be the straw that makes me move on down the road, to mix a metaphor. Who’d a thunk it?
I've had the urge to throw my phone through the US Cellular store window several times. But hey, The Hub city - what fun!
ReplyDeleteI have a Cingular phone, and have NEVER heard that my calls had to be within the Cingular network. And I was able to update my phone and plan online. Something sounds fishy about that whole conversation.
ReplyDeleteI could have updated my phone and plan on-line as well, Becky. In fact that's what I did the last time I bought a phone, but I had to drive to Albuquerque (or another location served by AT&T at the time, I chose ABQ) to activate the damned thing, because I am not "on-net" here in Portales. The same thing would be true for Cingular.
ReplyDeleteI, too, questioned the "50% of your calls on our towers" contract clause, telling the guy that I have been using 100% of my air-time in roam mode for the past three years and haven't heard from AT&T/Cingular. He said he didn't think the clause was regularly enforced, but it was there.
I appreciated him telling me that; he knew he was giving up the sale of a new Razr and a two-year contract, and yet he did the right thing.
Hmmm, when I activated mine, all I did was call the toll free number listed in my activation instructions. But maybe things are different out West. Well, good luck with your new battery. I hope it solves your problem.
ReplyDeleteThings work exactly the same in NM as they do in MS, Becky. You have to be on-net to activate your phone. Here's a part of item 11 from the Cingular service agreement, taken from their web site (note the bold bits):
ReplyDelete11. Use of Service/Device/Identifier. (...) Internet Protocol ("IP") addresses for services provided on the Cingular Wireless GSM/GPRS, EDGE or UMTS networks will be assigned dynamically per session from a private pool and not all protocols will be supported. Other IP addressing options are available for additional cost. (...) Your Device has been manufactured to operate exclusively with Service provided by us. The Device cannot be activated with any other wireless carrier and if your Device utilizes a SIM card it will only accept a SIM card provided by us.
The issue I have results from living in a sparsely-populated rural area with very limited cell phone service availability, e.g., Cingular and other MAJOR service providers (Verizon, etc.) don't operate here, the major provider is a locally owned company called Plateau. I don't want service from Plateau, they are LOCAL in nature and I want NATIONAL coverage, without exhorbitant roaming charges. I'm still exploring my options, including the option of buttoning up the RV and leaving Portales for South Texas.