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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

 

WTF moment of the week...

I know I said I wouldn't post until after tommorow, but I have to get this out because I am beyond angry right now.

For the past week I have been getting horrible service on my Crackberry. I could not make or receive a call without the call being dropped. Today I finally got fed up and called Cingular after every single call would drop or fail to connect. After getting through all the prompts to a person, I told the CSA what was going on. CSA tells me to hang on and leaves me sitting there for like 5 minutes. When he gets back he tells me "Okay so I was looking at your service area and it looks like the towers around you have been shut down."

Excuse me, what?

He continues, "The towers have been shut down since May 14 because we are degrading the service in preparation for an upgrade. The closest tower for you to connect to is 25 miles away from you."

Are you kidding me?

I ask, "Shouldn't customers have been informed about this?"

He responds, "Yes, you're right, I apologize as that should have been done. For the inconvenience I am going to issue you a $25 credit to your account. Thank you for calling Cingular."

Gee, thanks. So I get a $25 credit to my account but piss poor, practically unusable service. Here's hoping I don't have an emergency or anything and can't get my phone to dial 911. I don't think that $25 credit will be very much use then.

I wonder if all the executives sitting in Cingular's corporate headquarters less than a mile away from where I live are having the same problems. I venture to guess the answer to that question is no.

Comments:
I understand what's going on. mUp in the remote climes of Cincinnasty, Cingular and Cincinnati Bell Wireless had s sharing agreement of sorts - if you're in a Cingular area, the Cingular towers picks up and connects the call. Tehy had ownership and financial aggremments. In Feb of 06, Cincinnati Bell bought out the rest of the 20% ownership that Cingular had in Cincinnati Bell Wireless - $83 million. Here's a quote from the release:

"Cincinnati Bell Wireless customers will continue to receive the same high-quality service and will not be impacted by the transaction."

- Then, WITHOUT TELLING ANYBODY, Cingular disconnects its service from the Cincinnati Bell Wireless. Shut down 40 towers in the Cincinnati Area. I lose all my services, and had no idea why. Trips to the Phone Centers - folks at the centers weren't told. The customer service repds weren't told. Then the stories get good. I found out from ther child of a CBW employee. I start calling. No internal memos, but a $25 credit on the bill. A CBW CSR tells me today - oh, it was in the paper (not). It was not, and never was. No release on the website, but I talk my way into another $50 off my phones bill.

The Cingular towers carried ONLY 2% of the total traffic for CBW - but I think that's a lot. 18,000 customer affected, but no letter to cusomters, no news release, no FCC filing, no SEC notice. I was told by the CBW reps to go get Cingular service.

Again, and I quote from http://www.cincinnatibell.com/corporate/news/news.asp?page=20060217.asp

"Cincinnati Bell Wireless customers will continue to receive the same high-quality service and will not be impacted by the transaction."

I share your pain. My three phones are still under warrenty, and I need to go buy a new service.
 
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