The latest oxymoron – Cingular customer service

After purchasing a new mobile phone a couple days ago, I quickly realized that the new service that I ordered wasn’t functioning.

Let me start at the beginning. I switched my service last year from Sprint to Cingular. The main reason that I switched is because my phone no longer worked at home or the office. That only left the car and that accounted for only 30 minutes per day. I was long overdo for a new phone service.

I switched to Cingular. I selected the Motorola V551 phone. I went through 3 phones in the first 3 months. Not a very good start. I went to upgrade my phone and I discovered that I missed the deadline by two days. Then I found out that it was one year from the first phone (V551) NOT the second, or even third phone. After spending an hour on the line with Cingular I grew tired with getting the run around and just ponied up for a new phone.

I went into a Cingular store and bought a Treo 650. I found out that my 4,800 minutes of rollover minutes didn’t, well… rollover. The good news is that my plan was adjusted from $110 per month for 1,100 minutes to $75 per month for 1,350 minutes. Okay, I’m happy again. The customer service rep said he would give me an unlimitted internet plan.

I get home and attempt to access the email only to discover the I can’t connect. They never activated the internet plan. So I have to get on the phone and set it up. I spend another 45 minutes just activated my new plan. You know, the one that they should have activated at the store.

Bottom line. Mobile phones are no fun when it comes to dealing with service. I love my Treo 650, it’s a great phone. For an existing customer, Cingular could have created a better user experience for me. I should’ve been able to upgrade my phone a lot easier. Cingular should want to keep me happy. Maybe they forgot the old adage “It’s easier to keep an existing customer than to find a new one”.