Cingular Screwing The Little Guy
Aliciana learned a valuable lesson today, which was that big companies only care about the customer while it is in there interest to do so. She spent all morning on the phone with Customer Service at Cingular and ended up being told to stick her problems where the sun don’t shine.
She had applied for two $50 rebates when we got our new phone. One rebate was for recycling our old phone and the other was a promotion. When we got our new phone, we also got a large envelope to send the old phone back to them in. We called to see what the story was and the girl on the phone said all we had to do is stick the old phone in the mailer and mail it. We also filled out the promotional rebate form, attached the needed bar codes and a DNA sample, and mailed it as well. At that point, we felt pretty good, thinking we would be getting $100 in the mail.
Well, it has been months since then and still no money. We did receive a letter stating there was a problem with our rebate so Aliciana gave Cingular another call. They said that with the old phone we should have sent a form, which they failed to provide us, and some magic bar codes. Unfortunately, that magic bar code was attached to the other rebate. They had no explanation on why we weren’t told this the first time we had called when we received the unexpected envelope. We were also informed that we could only receive one $50 rebate, since that is all we had spent on the phone. So, at that point, she said there was nothing we could do without the bar code and we were screwed out of $50.
Next Aliciana decided to inquire about the other rebate, thinking at least we could get one $50 check. The whole reason for upgrading the phone was largely because the phone would be free, after rebate and with a one-year contract. We were contract free before. Unfortunately for us, that second $50 rebate had magically disappeared and we were told to go screw ourselves. Aliciana got so made that she hung up on the girl.
I think the one-year contract we got tied into with the new phone is responsible for Cingular’s degraded customer service. They use to bend over backward for us when we were without a contract and could leave them whenever we felt like. Now, being locked into a one-year contract for a phone that has ended up not being free, they seem to not care that it is their fault the rebate went missing and we were never given the proper forms. No one at Cingular seems to want to do the right thing and just give us the damn rebate we deserve. We now will definitely be switching providers in one year, but somehow I doubt that will effect their bottom line. Maybe everyone who reads this blog will also consider switching from Cingular?
