Cingular cell phone service

[misbehave]

Anyone use Cingular cell phone service?
Are they good in the coverage, customer service, and billing?
How do they compare to T-mobile?

I am using T-Mobile right now but thinking about switching to Cingular cause they have cheaper and better family plan deal cause I am going to need an extra line for my wife. But since Cingular is merging with AT&T, which has the worst customer service (along with Verzion) in America, so I worry about the service quality of Cingular.

 

[Sir Nuke]

My wife and I have been using cingular for a long time....we have never had any problems....there are two outlet places in the little town (pop. 18,000) I live in and any time we needed anything they were on top of it. How they compare to T-mobil....I have no idea. the only problem we ever experience out here in the middle of nowhere....is finding a dead spot once in a while....but that is the plight of EVERY service with the exception of some satelite services here.

Anyone use Cingular cell phone service?
Are they good in the coverage, customer service, and billing?
How do they compare to T-mobile?

I am using T-Mobile right now but thinking about switching to Cingular cause they have cheaper and better family plan deal cause I am going to need an extra line for my wife. But since Cingular is merging with AT&T, which has the worst customer service (along with Verzion) in America, so I worry about the service quality of Cingular.

 

[jersey_emt]

I used to have Cingular before I switched to Verizon.

Verizon's coverage, and customer service are much better than Cingular IMO.

I've been with just about every carrier now (except for T-Mobile...I've been with Verizon for 3 years now, and they popped up in that timeframe)

 

[Katya4me]

I've got the T-Mobile family plan and love it, share w/ my mom and sister. It's nice because calls to T-Mobile customers are free, so if you have friends or family who have T-Mobile you save money and minutes there. I've got the 800 min. plan and the only time I've gone over is when my mom's landline was dead and she used it as her only phone for 2 weeks.

My old roommate has Cingular and she liked it while she was living here, but they kept getting her bill screwed up for several months. They'd bill her, she'd pay it, they'd decided they'd overbilled her and would mail her a refund check. It was bizarre. Also, she had a GSM phone in CA, but here in VA the system hasn't switched to GSM yet, that happens in a year or so. But in order to get a VA phone number, she had to turn in her GSM phone, get a CDMA phone and sign a new 2 yr. contract. So she did that and now she is back in CA.

 

[misbehave]

Thanks for the input, guys!
I guess I will stick with T-mobile for the family plan then.
On top of bad customer service and coverage, I also hate billing error very much.
Verizon used to over bill my service every 2 months or so. It's like they think if they over charge me with a small enough amount, I won't go though all the trouble to claim it back. And they just keep doing it months and months.

 

[iLisa]

Verizon has the best coverage area of all the cell phone places..

 

[LaserBlueMSP]

verizon is great i have it now. i sell cell phones and i absolutely HATE cingular. i have had nothing but bad experiences witht hem so i actually stopped selling them. sprint suck cause half their employees are located in india and dont speak english very well. verizon is expensive. tmobile is a good median of all of them. they have good pricing, decent phones, decent service. but my particular customer demographic area in order of call clarity is verizon, sprint, tmobile, nextel, att, cingular.

 

[scorch70]

But since Cingular is merging with AT&T, which has the worst customer service (along with Verzion) in America, so I worry about the service quality of Cingular.

Cingular is merging with AT&T? I hadnt heard that. I have been happy with Cingular, but may look elsewhere if this is true.


scorch70

 

[Katya4me]

Actually, Cingular bought AT&T and will be sharing towers w/ them. DoCoMo looked into it, but Cingular had a higher bid. This happened at the beginning of the summer.

 

[benimal]

Anyone use Cingular cell phone service?
Are they good in the coverage, customer service, and billing?
How do they compare to T-mobile?

I am using T-Mobile right now but thinking about switching to Cingular cause they have cheaper and better family plan deal cause I am going to need an extra line for my wife. But since Cingular is merging with AT&T, which has the worst customer service (along with Verzion) in America, so I worry about the service quality of Cingular.

(Lumberg) Yeah I'm gonna have to...sort of... disagree with you there.... (/Lumberg)</LUMBERG>

I have had AT&T wireless service for many years. I have never once had a problem with their quality of coverage or customer service. I've also had Sprint PCS. Their customer service was horrific. I wouldn't wish that my worst enemy called Sprint PCS to resolve an issue.

I don't have any fears/concerns about Cingular service. I haven't investigated T-mobile or Verizon, mostly cause I get a decent deal on a family plan through my employer.

Ben

 

[PHILLY-ORANGE]

I work for AT&T Wireless and Cingular did buy AT&T because Cingular sucks in NY and out west and they don't have a data network thats as good as AT&T + Cingular doesn't have as many overseas network. In the end AT&T is better but now since the 2 combined will be the biggest network here in the US and overseas. They did sign the agreement 2 days ago and already seeing changes in the store. And if any of you need service I can give you the BEST deal out the you can't fine. I will hook you guys up discounts off monthly bills more bonus mins. and discounts on phones. PM me for details.

 

[chuyler1]

All I have to say is that no matter what you pay, you buy a cell phone and a service so that you can use it when you need to. If you get bad service whether its at home, work, or when you're on vacation, the phone becomes useless.

With that said, I use Verizon and will never switch to anything else because Verizon always works...and if for some reason it doesn't work, no other phone will work either. Whether I'm in down town Boston, upstate NY, or the mountains of New Hampshire I never have to worry about breaking down on the side of the road and having a phone with no signal. The few times I have left the Northeast it has worked also.

My father has Nextel (free for work) and he gets disconnected all the time. My sister had Sprint for a while and couldn't even get a signal in our house. My other sister had Cingular and had very inconsistant results with getting a signal and keeping it.

What it boils down to is: do you want a service that works or do you want to save money?

 

[misbehave]

Well, after reading all the advice here and hear some from my friends, looks like T-mobile is the better choice but here is a problem.
I took my extra phone and went to a T-mobile retail store on Friday trying to upgrade my plan into the family plan and add a line to it.
I've always thought that if I am not getting their new cell phones with those rebate (sometimes 100%) offer, I won't have to sign a one year contract with them. But I was wrong, the staff there told me regardless I get their phone offer or not, I'll need to sign the one year contract whenever there is a new line or new service plan activation.
So that will be just plain stupid if we don't get their new phones with the plan.
Another problem is, the family plan that comes with their phones offer always isn't the cheapest family plan they have. My wife and I never really spend that much time on our cell phone so those plans with more minutes are basically just a waste for us.(headshake

Anyway, we are now back to where we started again trying to pick the cheapest phone+plan combinations.

 

[chuyler1]

I am paying 65/mo I think for two phones on a family plan with Verizon. Unlimited nights/weekends and 150 daytime minutes (which is perfect because my fiance and I work all day and don't need to use the phones during the day). 150 seems low but we use our work phones when we're at work and our home phone when we're at home before 9:00PM...so the only calls we make during the day are of the "Honey I'll be home in 30 minutes can you start dinner?" type.

 

[digitalricepape]

I live with my friend in Irvine currently and ive got Verizon service and he's got Cingular service. He doesn't have service a lot of the times, and uses my phone instead. Ive heard that Cingular doesnt work well in buildings, but thats just from my experience.

 

[Dynotrick]

I had cingular for 2 years and hated it, it was totally useless. it seemed like the only time i got a good signal was when i was at work (>5000ft and a direct sightling to the tower). and the customer service was so-so. when i get a cell phone again it will be verizon, they seem to be the best in my area.

 

[Katya4me]

Here's how I added to get my family plan the way I wanted it. I bought my phone originally in January through Amazon to get the rebates. In March, I decided to add my mom and sister since my mom had a really crappy plan through CellOne. So, I went back to Amazon, found 2 phones that cost $0.01 each and had $100 in rebates on each of them. In order to do this, I had to purchase them as single plans. I then called T-Mobile, explained that I'd bought them as individual plans, but that I wanted to create a family plan w/ all 3 phones and also wanted the phones to have matching numbers. They said to call once I got the phone numbers activated and emailed to me and they would switch them over. I did that, never got any single bills, got my rebates and renewed again in March for another year contract because they hadn't offered free nights when I got my plan initially. This is part of the reason I love T-Mobile.

 

[PHILLY-ORANGE]

I am paying 65/mo I think for two phones on a family plan with Verizon. Unlimited nights/weekends and 150 daytime minutes (which is perfect because my fiance and I work all day and don't need to use the phones during the day). 150 seems low but we use our work phones when we're at work and our home phone when we're at home before 9:00PM...so the only calls we make during the day are of the "Honey I'll be home in 30 minutes can you start dinner?" type.

That plan sucks I work at AT&T Wireless for 59.99+9.99 -25% for 800 mins +unlimited night & weekend nights start at 7pm till 6am +free long distance + free unlimited mobile to mobile + you can add you to 4 lines for 9.99 each and no roaming what so ever + you get the internet for free the first month + 50% off acc. and phones and only a 1 year agreement with no activation fee for any of the phones. So Verizon took you money and laughed when you left the store. Not trying to knock you

 

[chuyler1]

Yes but did you read my first post? First off, I would never use 800 minutes, my last plan I had 300 minutes and I barely used that. Second, I get unlimited mobile to mobile also (forgot to mention that). Third, what good is 800 minutes when the phone never works. My fiance's mother had AT&T and the phone worked nowhere in New Hampshire roaming or not. Forth, the rest of the crap you mentioned is just gimicks. I don't need accessories, I don't need free internet for a month, I don't need additional lines...I need a phone and service that works. I don't think you understand that. I am willing to pay for a phone and service that works.

 

[misbehave]

I am paying 65/mo I think for two phones on a family plan with Verizon. Unlimited nights/weekends and 150 daytime minutes (which is perfect because my fiance and I work all day and don't need to use the phones during the day). 150 seems low but we use our work phones when we're at work and our home phone when we're at home before 9:00PM...so the only calls we make during the day are of the "Honey I'll be home in 30 minutes can you start dinner?" type.

Thanks for the tips.
My usage of cell phones is exactly the same as yours.
But I don't think I will ever use Verizon again, not after how they overcharged me for 2 years and the bad and lazy customer service I have had with them.