Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

Bad Customer Service
No Portability of Numbers
False Advertising
Higher Prices

So today I got to experience first hand personally getting screwed by the Cingular / AT&T; Wireless consumer unfriendly merger.

After going back and forth about buying a new cellphone I finally broke down and purchased through Amazon.com the Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone. Scoble seemed to feel almost sensual about his and after seeing it firsthand at a geek dinner and playing with several others I thought it was finally time to take the plunge.

So what went wrong.

First, after buying the phone I called up my current provider Cingular Wireless to have them move my cell phone number over to my new phone — remember that big victory with consumer phone number portability and all? Nope. They won’t do it. Strike one. It’s bad enough that at one point you couldn’t move your number from one competing cell phone company to another but now you can’t move your Cingular phone number to their own company, AT&T; Wireless. The rep then proceeded to tell me that I would have known this if I’d purchased my phone through them and called Amazon.com a “flea market,” and suggested that I cancel my service and send the phone back to them.

Second, I asked them to cancel my existing Cingular service then and add my wife on to a second line on my new AT&T; service per their internet advertising. Even though they advertise this they would not do it.
When I asked for an explanation on how they could advertise a shared plan and then not offer it the sales rep responded, “it ain’t gonna happen.”

So now I am stuck with paying AT&T; Wireless $49.99 per month for my new phone and paying Cingular $29.99 per month for my wife’s phone for a total of $79.99 per month instead of the $59.99 I was paying before. Nice trick on their part. Now I see how they plan to squeeze value out of the merger – screw the consumer.

All this and only 48 minutes on the phone and more fun with their crappy voice response unit.

Unfortunately it does not appear much can be done at the moment.