Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Goodbye AT&T, Goodbye Cingular

My first exposure to Cingular was actually at an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in 2001. A two day tournament in Birmingham, Alabama, Mud Bowl, was celebrating its 20th anniversary, and was sponsored by a company I had not heard of, named Cingular Wireless. The tournament logo was wonderful because it was composed of two rounded exes, which, together, looked like the roman numeral equivalent for 20. They looked like two jacks. You know, the kinds with which you play Jacks. The two exes, I found out, were the icons of Cingular's logo. Well, that sure is nice! What a cute, friendly little icon! Hi, Jack!

Fast forward four years. Cingular has purchased AT&T Wireless and is now my provider. Long story short? They gave me poor technical support, and repeatedly have done nothing to make me feel good about the product they sell. My wife will tell you I'm very nice to customer service representatives, particularly those I deal with on the phone, and I'm no longer nice to Cingular. They want me to repeat why I'm frustrated with them every time I call, even though I was guaranteed it was documented on my second call. I believe that support representative. I'm more inclined to believe that it's the support staff down-the-line who won't read my cast history.

While I'm on the subject, try using their automated phone system. I've heard that some automated phone systems can detect stress levels and will route angry customers directly to a human being. I'm trying to find out if Cingular's automated phone system has this feature.

Where's my nice summary? I have none, really. Blogs are free. You get what you pay for.

[Epilogue] Here, you want a summary? Cingular can shove its jacks right up its ass. Bye, Jack! How's that for a summary???!

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