Review of Cingular Cell Phone Service

All of us have seen the Cingular ads, and I'm pretty sure just about everyone knows who they are. Cingular provides cellular phone service and claims to have "the most bars in the most places". All in all, the actual service isn't that bad, the cell phone will work in most places but, as usual, will struggle inside large buildings like schools. Their prices are what I would call average for the industry, which means they charge to much.

Their customer service is by far their downfall. I have worked for a cell phone company and am well aware of what most companies can and cannot do. My brother had Cingular for three years. He had his first phone when he was 16, under a family account in my dad's name. My brother and dad share the same first and last name. When my brother turned 18 he started an account of his own with them. At this time he also got a new phone. He gave Cingular back his old phone and gave they in turn gave him two discounts, one for signing a new contract and one for returning the old phone. The Cingular representative told him that they would ship his old phone back to headquarters and that he could get the discount now. At this time my brother also picked out a plan that included 5,000 text messages as he used them a lot. By the time his first bill arrived, he had a charge of over $100 for text messaging because this was not added onto his plan. He called their customer service and after several minutes of arguing got them to back date the text messaging plan and add it on for the future.