Made decision to upgrade phones and migrate to Cingular from AT&T Wireless 5/13/05

Russell went to Cingular store on Ridgedale Drive and was told they were not able to assist him with the migration in the store, he needed to call to complete that transaction.

Russell went home and looked at phones online to decide which phone(s) to switch to – Russell chose Siemens S66, and Trista chose Siemens CT66. Russ called Cingular customer service and was told to call a different number, 888#. After he hung up and did this he was informed that those phones were not available for the migration. He hung up and did more searching – found two other phones that would suffice and called back – was again told the phones were not available so he hung up and did MORE searching. Settled on the Nokia 3220 which is a camera phone, and called a third time to inquire whether they were available and was told they were. Hung up to contact Trista and verify that they should go ahead with the process and order the Nokia 3220’s – Trista agreed. Russell called again and went through the entire process of ordering the migration and phones, only to be told at the end of the process that the Nokia 3220 was NOT available. In his frustration he indicated to the CSR to forget the whole thing and the call ended.

Trista called back and before getting into the process of setting up the migration asked yet AGAIN if the Nokia 3220 was available or not – first she was told it was not, so she said “okay, never mind we aren’t going to make the change at this time.” The CSR who introduced himself as Vincent said “well wait, what area are you in?” Trista responded that she was in MN and he said “oh, I guess it is available now.” She asked him to check and make sure and he assured her that “it must have been out of stock or something but it’s available now.” She said “great then we want two of them” and then proceeded to set up the migration, ordering the $69.99 Family Talk plan plus an additional line for $9.99. She was informed of the one time migration fee for each line and also received confirmation that the original phone numbers would be kept for the new phones. At the completion of the transaction Trista was told that the phones would arrive within 3-5 business days and was given an 888# to call to activate the phones and to process the migration. She was also told that the cost for the phones and the new services would appear on the next billing statement. All of the preceding conversations/orders took place Friday, May 13, 2005.

On Thursday, May 19, 2005 the phones had still not arrived, so Russell called to check on the status and look into getting a tracking number. He was told that no order was indicated. Obviously frustrated, Russell asked the CSR (Aaron) to check into it, and when Aaron came back they stated that it looked as if Vincent had filled out all of the paperwork but had not actually submitted it so the order was never processed. So Russell AGAIN went through the process to set up the migration and upgrade the phones, and he was told at that time that the Nokia 3220 was available and had it confirmed that they would arrive within 3-5 business days. To insure confirmation of the order he asked for a tracking number so that he could be sure the phones were on the way and that they would receive them, the number he was given was Q060-0-18162.0. After getting off of the phone Russell went to the FEDEX website to track the order and the tracking number that he received was not an actual tracking number. A few days go by and he checks on the status at FEDEX again, once again not a tracking number so he calls Cingular back to confirm the order. He was notified that the order was placed and that the number Q060… was actually the Cingular purchase order number, and was given the actual tracking number for FEDEX 701600899775. While on the phone with Cingular Russell checked the status of the package on the FEDEX website to insure that the number he was given was real, it was the right one.

On Tuesday, May 24, 2005 the phones arrived. They were the Nokia 3120, NOT the Nokia 3220. The Nokia 3120 is NOT a camera phone, and the reason the 3220 was ordered was specifically for that function. Russell called Trista at work and asked that she follow up because he was too angry and frustrated to deal with the situation.

Trista called the number Russell provided 888-867-4384 and spoke with Doug. She explained the situation as described above and indicated the obvious disappointment and frustration that she and Russell were feeling. Doug apologized for the inconvenience and indicated that he was unfortunately not able to make changes since it was the migration line that Trista had called. He did check and indicate that he did not show the 3220’s as being available. He gave her the number to Customer Care 800-331-0500 and recommended that she call and explain the situation to them and find out what they could do for her to rectify the situation.

Trista called the new number 800-331-0500 and after going through the various prompts ended up speaking to Amy in Sales. Trista again explained the situation. Amy offered to send out prepaid labels for the return of the 3120 phones and indicated that she showed the 3220’s as available but the skew (sp?) number that came up was incorrect so that may have played a part in the wrong phones being sent out. She indicated that she wasn’t able to make adjustments to the account because she was the sales department and said that she would transfer Trista to Customer Care. What Amy actually did was put Trista BACK into the automated prompt system. Trista finally ended up selecting Canceling an Account and ended up with Brandon. When Brandon answered, Trista said to him “before you ask me any questions or I tell you the situation can you please tell me if you are Customer Service?” He indicated that he was, and she explained the situation AGAIN. Brandon checked and said he did show the 3220’s as being available. When Trista asked for clarification as to why she had been asked about her location when placing the original order, Brandon explained that availability and pricing vary by location. Brandon asked Trista what she had paid for the phones, and she indicated that the charges were supposed to show up on her next statement. He indicated that usually phones can be billed to an account only when they are free, so he wasn’t sure why she was told it would show up on the next statement. He also indicated that unfortunately since the migration was already in progress he wouldn’t be able to set it up as a new order to process – he wasn’t able to change anything. He placed her on hold to speak with another Rep about the situation.

When he came back he had Jennifer on the line, and she took the call from there. Jennifer indicated that she showed the 3220’s as available. She offered two suggestions, either that Trista charge the 3220’s to a credit card and receive reimbursement for the amount of the 3120’s once they were returned OR that she could set it up for the 3220’s to be sent out as soon as the 3120’s were returned. Trista asked what type of guarantee there was that the 3220’s would ever be sent since she had heard conflicting stories AGAIN about whether they were even available. Jennifer was not able to offer her any type of guarantee. Trista said she would try the route where the 3220’s would be sent once the 3120’s were received back – Jennifer then gave her another 800# to call for Secondary Sales 800-866-1514. Trista said “wait a minute, why do I have to call ANOTHER 800#?” Jennifer replied that she was only customer service, Trista would actually have to speak with the sales department to process the order.

At that point Trista said “you know what? Can you just tell me how long my current contract goes?” Jennifer said she didn’t have access to that information and Trista said “and why is that?!” Jennifer asked Trista to hold on and then came back to let her know she actually WAS able to find the information, and that the terms of the current contract (which was with AT&T Wireless) were 1/23/04 until 1/22/06. Trista said “okay, at this point I have had it. I am not going to call ANOTHER 800# - I have been on the phone with you guys for over an hour and haven’t gotten anywhere and I am at work! We are just going to finish out this contract and when it is done we are going elsewhere for our wireless service.” Jennifer asked if there was anything they could do to keep them as Cingular customers and Trista said “at this point, not really.” Trista asked that Jennifer confirm that the prepaid labels were going to be sent out for the return of the phones and Jennifer indicated that nothing was noted on the account (remember that Amy had said she was taking care of that!) but that she could transfer her to Secondary Sales to get that set up. Trista said “no, you are not transferring me again.” Jennifer placed Trista on hold while she attempted to contact the Sales department herself. Jennifer checked back several times and finally asked Trista if there was a number she could call her back at. Trista gave Jennifer her work number and the call ended.

About five minutes later Jennifer called Trista to inform her the everything was set for the prepaid labels to be sent out, and also offered the suggestion that Trista could actually take the phones in to a Cingular store and exchange them for the 3220’s, but that they would have to pay the difference on the phones. Trista indicated that she actually did know a way for Cingular to retain them as customers. She stated that for the trouble they have had with Cingular she didn’t feel it was out of line to request that they receive the phones free of charge. Everyone had apologized for “the inconvenience”, however not one person offered them anything to remedy the situation. Jennifer indicated that she would have to check with her supervisor on whether that was a possibility and placed Trista on hold – again. Jennifer came back and said they were unable to offer them the phones for free. Trista reminded Jennifer that she had asked what they could do to keep them as Cingular customers and THAT is what they could do – Jennifer again said no. Trista indicated that she would follow through with what she had said before and simply return the phones with the prepaid labels, stick out the original contract and look elsewhere for their wireless needs.

When Trista got off of work she and Russell went to the Cingular store. They waited for 20 minutes before someone assisted them, and asked to speak with a manager – the manager had already left for the day. The chose to go ahead and speak with the service individual and see what he could do, however they asked to sit down and discuss the situation rather than standing at the counter since it would take a while. The individual hesitated to take them somewhere to sit down and they again indicated it would take a while and they wanted to sit down to discuss the situation. The individual ended up taking them to the break room where they all sat down at a table. Trista and Russell explained the above situation to the individual and again expressed their extreme disappointment with the service of Cingular. They pointed out that they had not chosen to become Cingular customers; the company they were a part of – AT&T Wireless – was bought by Cingular. The experiences they have had with Cingular have been absolutely AWFUL, and not once had anyone offered them any type of compensation/discounts or SERVICE to remedy the situation. Trista again stated that she felt that Cingular should offer them the phones at no charge to make up for the trouble that she and Russell had gone through. The individual indicated that he could return the phones for them but that he couldn’t credit the account, he could only credit a credit or debit card OR they could exchange them for another phone in the store – none of which were what Trista and Russell wanted. He indicated that the 3220’s wouldn’t be in the store for about another month. Trista indicated that they would not be leaving with different phones, because that did not solve their issue in any way – the account was still messed up and STILL no-one was making any effort to remedy the situation! Trista and Russell obtained the name of the Assistant Manager, Jason, as well as what time he would be in and indicated that they would come back to speak with him since the service individual had indicated that the Assistant Manger would be able to credit the phones to their account rather than just a credit or debit card (he said only managers have access to that).

On Thursday May 26^th, 2005 Russell went up to the Cingular store on Ridgedale Dr. to speak with Jason, the assistant manager. He arrived there at approx. 9:35 am, as he was walking towards the door an employee that was outside notified him that they weren’t open yet, because the person that has the key to get inside the store was late. The store’s hours of operation are MON-FRI 9:00-8:00 ,SAT 9:00-7:00 ,SUN 11:00-6:00. So he got into his car and proceeded to wait for 15 minutes and since no one had shown up he left.


UPDATED: Russell went to the Southdale Eden Prairie Mall Cingular store and talked to the store manager there that same day. They finally got somewhere, "Tim" the store manager helped them out enough that they stayed with Cingular and have the phones that they found acceptable. Russell a Nokia 6230 and Trista a Motorla V551