Cingular Took My Phone

So a couple of years ago, I was a Verizon customer. I’m not going to link to their homepage, because a) you can probably figure their web address, and b) I’m still mad at them.

I was having phone problems (it was not working) and I still had three months before I could get a phone upgrade, and Verizon offered no help, even though I was not able to use my phone service. So, I calmly waited for my contract to expire, and walked over to a friendly Cingular store. I have since learned a few things about the meanings of the contractual obligation, and the eBay options for getting a new/used cell phone, but that is for another day. As well, I’m sure there are several people who have just as tainted view of Cingular, as I have of Verizon, but whatever, this is my blog.

The main thing I learned in my Verizon experience is this: the warranty on a new cell phone is for one year, but the commitment to the cell phone company has grown to two years. So for that second year, please, please, please, little cell phone, please don’t break. Otherwise you’re hosed, and need to find a solution with no help from the service provider.

So, on my switch to Cingular, I first got a Nokia phone and was not satisfied. Inside of two weeks, I exchanged it for a Motorola V551 That was 11 months ago. In general, I’m very happy with the phone, but for a couple of minor quirks.

V551 problem number one: I could no longer hear the person calling me.
V551 problem number two: the screen sometimes didn’t work.

But, here’s the good news. I am still within the one year warranty. So I thought I’d try something. I thought I’d get a new cell phone for the second year of my commitment. And Cingular made it so frickin’ easy.

I clicked on a link on their web site, and faster than I could have ordered a new book on Amazon, I had requested a replacement phone. Two days later, the UPS man dropped a little brown box on my porch. Check out these contents. New (well, reconditioned…) phone, return shipping label, reprogramming instructions… everything. They even included a strip of tape to reseal the shipping box. They solved my problem and didn’t even make me work for it. Sweet.

Cell phone companies get a bad rap, frequently because they tend to be large uncaring corporations that are only concerned with their absolutely huge bottom line, and the occasional spurned customer will not really have that large of an impact. And even if someone at Cingular was not personally concerned with me and my phone problem, they’ve got this thing down. They’d rather send me a new phone immediately, rather than deal with the ten half-hour telephone calls that would have ensued. One visit to their web site, and a happy customer am I.

Let’s pencil it out:
Happy customer with problem immediately solved = cash in the bank and good karma for all.
Satisfied customer with problem talked about, bantered about and marginally solved = Cash until contract runs out and bad blog entries-o-plenty.

Looks like Cingular has won a customer for at least another year or so. At least until my contract runs out in May 2007. Even then, I’ll give them first right of refusal…