Viewer' Response

I have received many emails about Wendy, the Resospecialist . From what I have heard, she has been helping out a lot of people with pretty high success rates in terms of customer satisfaction. Here is what one customer had to say:

I had a bad experience with Cingular that I'll keep brief. We bought 2 phones that didn't work, charges for off-peak time and incorrect basic monthly service fees. In trying to resolve these issues the customer service representatives were skilled at putting me on hold for great lengths, at times 20 minutes to an hour, and sometimes being connected to a "manager" whose phone rang and rang without being answered. I was disconnected at times which required another phone call to a another customer service rep., to whom I had to explain my situation again, starting the process over.I faxed contracts and documents to them several times in efforts to resolve my billing issues which they claimed they didn't receive and to which they expressed disbelief that I had really faxed the papers. After refusing to pay the bill a collection agency called trying to collect the bill which eventually ( in Cingular's account ) totalled close to $ 1500.This was about an 8 month ordeal. I was searching the internet one day to find information on bringing my case to the Illinois Attorney General's office when I came upon your web site, Cingular Sucks, where Wendy , a Cingular representative, Resospecialist@yahoo.com was "online" and available for complaints. I explained my billing issues to her and she resolved the situation by doing the following: 1) Recalculated my bill, issuing credits, removing disconnect and late fees to my satisfaction. 2) Sent a letter to the collection agency explaing to them that my account was sent to them in error. 3) Issued a letter to me spelling out that my account was sent to the collection agency in error. 4) The collection agency also sent a letter stating that my account was sent to them in error. 5) Wendy returned my phone calls and notified me of my account status by calling me at home at my convenience. 6) My latest Cingular bill dated 10/10/01 is completely correct. I am still a Cingular customer. If you are having a problem with your service try contacting Wendy at Resospecialist@yahoo.com. Thank You, Randy

I've also been getting some emails from people who are more technologically aware of why these problems, particularly the "Unlimited Nights and Weekends" scam, exist. Needless to say, this person wasn't too impressed with this website or the grievances it puts forth. Here is the email, posted exactly as it was sent to me (the subject comment was "stupid"):

i have read your article and i can see you are not to bright in the cellular world i am an engineer who builds cellular towers for all the surrounding companies one is cingular as well as voicestream, nextel, alltel, southern link, verizon, cellular one, etc we have used your web site in a demonstration on the lack of education in the cellular world not putting you down but to aware you that you need to educate yourself on the system you can have an analog phone which is the older module usually the bulky ones or install or bag phones which are 3 watts and be fine one fact is if you leave pretty far out where there is not to many in the population it is very hard to get a cell tower out your way because of cost and regulations 895,000.00 just for basic thats alot of money to spend on a cellular tower or repeater which on holds 35 per line so you will get send to redial around 8:00 12:00 and 5:00 because of the volume of people during these times- voicemail is not true i have one with every company just because of my business i check it from a landline. please check up on facts because theres not a cell company out there that will be 100% just because you are going on airspace many people are laughing at you not with you. - tyler

I have heard similar excuses given about the availability of cell tower and why there is such a shortage. Some reasons also include competition among the providers, and the simple fact that many residents don't want the unsightly towers growing out of their neighborhoods. These reasons are understandable but still do not justify suckering more and more people into one year contracts for a phone they can only use half the time. Cingular is STILL advertising their "Unlimited Nights and Weekends" promotion aggressively and, as of now, customers are STILL left with almost no service once the off-peak time kicks in.

Is Cingular Psychic?

Apparantly, Cingular knows that they suck and may have even known that prior to the developement of any "Cingular Sucks" webpages. If you go to www.123-free-domain-name-search.com you'll find that someone has already registered the domain names www.cingularsucks.com, .net, and .org. Also, www.cingularblows.com, .net, and .org have been registered by the same person as well. The person that registered these names is from Decatur, GA. Cingular is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. Coincidence. . . ? Please check back for more updates.