[geek_riot]

Hey all,
I am currently with Cingular and am looking to switch because of their horrible customer service and constantly screwing up my bill. So... I love my 8700c, but because of my dissatisfaction with Cingular, I am willing to switch to a non-qwerty model. What are your experiences with the other providers?

Also.. the 7130e with sprint.. those of you who use it, are you happy?

[mymitsu3kgt]

I've had some issues with my past cell phones with TMobile. Sometimes there's a little argument on the phone, but with enough convincing, their customer service has always solved the issue, given me credit on my bill, or given me the warranty replacement.

[NJBlackBerry]

You can unlock your 8700c and move to T-Mobile. No problems with customer service and the phone works perfectly on it. I had one (then I got an 8700g and gave the 8700c to our CIO).

I don't touch Sprint because I travel outside of the US and they don'yt play there.

[geek_riot]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

You can unlock your 8700c and move to T-Mobile. No problems with customer service and the phone works perfectly on it. I had one (then I got an 8700g and gave the 8700c to our CIO).

Now that's an idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that!

If there was one thing I was not looking forward to, it;s migrating to a whole new phone.

[Dubdub]

Originally Posted by geek_riot

Now that's an idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that!

If there was one thing I was not looking forward to, it;s migrating to a whole new phone.

Just make sure whatever service provider you choose (T-Mo it seems in this case) provides adequate coverage where you live, work, travel and play. Just because someone says so or because it might be cheaper is no reason to bolt. No matter how cheap or how good the service is, if ther eis no coverage, you are SOL.

What sort of billing problems have you had? I have Cingular and have had very few problems. I manage th ebill online and life is good.

[secrecyguy]

I say go for the T-mobile. I have it and I am happy with it.

You will also notice the monthly payments will be little bit cheaper.

At T-mobile, they do have the 8700 but it is known as 8700g. Some people don't like the color of the case though.

[secrecyguy]

I say go for the T-mobile. I have it and I am happy with it.

You will also notice the monthly payments will be little bit cheaper.

At T-mobile, they do have the 8700 but it is known as 8700g. Some people don't like the color of the case though.

[BES admin]

I'll weigh in here on my experiences:

As the BES Admin for my company and the go-to guy when it comes to porting numbers from one carrier to another, I have talked to customer service at almost all the carriers and have done so ALOT!

Each are equal, in my opinion, with respect to their customer service. Each time you call for support, it's like spinning the wheel of fortune, and every now and then you get a duffus. Hang up and call back! no sense in getting upset about it I have determined.

As recently as last year I was ready to take out an advertisement with the New Yourk Post (not really) stating how utterly useless Cingular was. I got over it and I am still with Cingular and today, I recomend Cingular over any Carrier.

Of all the carriers I have dealt with they seem to have the best coverage, customer service, and willingness to please.

Again, just my opinion, based solely on 2 years of continuous contact with all the carriers.

Good Luck.

[option94]

Wirelessly posted (Cingular 7130c: BlackBerry7130/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

Billing is only as accurate as what is entered in to the system. Minute usage is all calculated automatically. But and add on features have to be added on. That's where I usually have problems with my bill from Cingular. The people they have answering the phones making 9 dollars an hour screw up and then I hey a huge bill. Usually I can call and have it adjusted. They don't want to piss off data users.

[takeshi]

Originally Posted by BES admin

Each are equal, in my opinion, with respect to their customer service. Each time you call for support, it's like spinning the wheel of fortune, and every now and then you get a duffus. Hang up and call back! no sense in getting upset about it I have determined.

Our experience has been very different. While TMO has some CS reps of dubious quality they're usually cooperative and are generally able to resolve most issues with a single call. Every call we place to Cingular is a struggle and calls always seem to take much longer than comparable calls to TMO. Cingular is the only carrier we've been with where accounts have randomly had their provisioning screwed up even though we made no changes to the account (probably due to integration). Cingular is also the only carrier that has flat out argued with us that an issue was not their problem (without even bothering to look into the matter) when all symptoms pointed to the issue being unique to Cingular. What's really ridiculous is that a large majority of our Blackberries are with TMO and yet we place more support calls to Cingular.

IMO, the quality of training of Cingular CS reps varies significantly more so than TMO -- especially when you're calling for Blackberry support. It seems that a large number of Cingular's level 1 reps have very little idea of how to provision a Blackberry properly. I can't recall ever running into a level 1 TMO rep that couldn't get it right on the first call. For a while we didn't have a Cingular business account rep but nothing has really improved since we were assigned to one as our rep is completely worthless.

We have a very small number of Verizon and Nextel devices so I don't think our experience is really all that useful statistically but our experience with their customer service has been good so far.

Of course, as they always say, YMMV. I'm personally using Cingular, but it's for coverage reasons. I would love it if Cingular would really work at improving the customer service end of things.

[hailer]

I am with Cingular because of coverage issues. I do not like the Cingular bill and the CS I get with Cingular. About the only times I get calls from Cingular is if a bill is overdue. Never a call when my bill jumps to an obscene amount of money.

I just added a data plan as I got my Blackberry and will watch my bill carefully as some have stated their "unlimited" data package with Cingular isn't exactly "unlimited" if you use third party apps.

It better be unlimited or I will be pissed. I have had it with $300-$500 monthly bills from Cingular because of data usage costs with syncing to outlook and another program that was grabbing content from the Internet daily.

I also worked at Cingular as a temp during the Orange and Blue convergence days of 2004. They were very unorganized as a company and still seem to be this way after talking with some CS people.

I wish I didn't need a cell but unfortunately with my business I need to have one and stay connected as I travel a lot. I wish Cingular would get a clue and give their customers a break on the bills.

[orgullodemexico]

Originally Posted by geek_riot

Hey all,
I am currently with Cingular and am looking to switch because of their horrible customer service and constantly screwing up my bill.

I think customer service as a whole in this country needs revamping. I have T-Mobile for my Blackberry (data only) and Verizon for phone communication. Both services and equipment are terrific but I cringe whenever I am required to call customer service. NEXTEL was the absolute worst I ever had.

The new ATT (formerly SBC) is also pretty horrible as I struggle thru some DSL issues.

My advice, if you know you've been wronged and you don't like the answer you get the first time, keep hammering them and keeping asking for a senior supervisor or responsible manager. An insider once told me CSR's get dinged if they allow issues to escalate to the next level. So they would promise snow to an eskimo if it means the issue won't go to the supervisor.

I once had a Nextel CSR tell me there were no managers period, on the floor or on shift.

Yea, right.

[OldTimer]

I have had Nextel for about 3 years and I have had some bad and some good, some absolute idiots who only screwed my account up and some that were excellent. I will say I think it has gone down hill since Sprint took over.

Cincular I had for 10 years and they screwed me on a phone and plan and would not change so I left them for good!

As has been said, check coverage, if you do not have it the phone does you no good and bad CSR or not you need to use it when you want to.

[option94]

Basically, the grass is only greener over the septic tank. Customer service sucks, if you switch providers, customer service will still suck.

[BES admin]

Originally Posted by orgullodemexico

My advice, if you know you've been wronged and you don't like the answer you get the first time, keep hammering them and keeping asking for a senior supervisor or responsible manager.

Originally Posted by option94

Basically, the grass is only greener over the septic tank. Customer service sucks, if you switch providers, customer service will still suck.

I think the above comments speak to the point I was trying to make.

As was said, coverage is probably the single most important thing to consider. Regardless of Cost or CS experiences, if you can't use your phone where you are, all the rest is completely unimportant.

A lot of my user base travels internationally, to places like India, Asia, and Europe. We decided a long time ago that Cingular ruled the international market for a number of reasons, the top one being coverage, second being cost.

I love TMO pricing, but the service is utterly and absolutely horrible here in upstate NY where I use cell phones. Verizon & Sprint CDMA service is also inferior to GSM service quality.

Basically: make sure you verify coverage for users and take advantage of all the carriers based on that first, then consider pricing and CS.

Good Luck

[egale]

I have had Verizon and T-Mobile in the past and now Cingular. Have had problems with all three.

Years ago I had a data card for my laptop with T-Mobile. During the trial period, the service did not work at all 75% of the time. There were network problems and setup problems. At one point, CS told me to log off and try again tomorrow night as they were doing some changes that wouldn't take effect till then. When I finally tried again the next night, it still didn't work.

When my evaluation period was over, I called and asked if they would extend the trial period as I had had so many problems. The CS I spoke to said she would do it and give me one extra day! I cancelled service and went with Verizon. A few days later I get a call from T-Mobile asking why I cancelled. When I told him, he offered to extend my trial service an additional 30 days. By then I had already Verizon set up and although it was a lot more money, was a lot faster.

Cingular has not been without its problems too. I have spent tons of time on the phone and have had to write to the office of the president to get things resolved. But coverage wise, Cingular has better coverage than T-Mobile and that is what is important to ME.

You really need to determine who has the best coverage for you. Because no matter how good a deal you got, if you don't have good service in your area, it is not worth it.

[option94]

all the minutes in the world dont matter if you cant use them.