Finally!

I almost didn't believe it. After six or seven months, Cingular has finally gotten stuff straightened out to the point where I don't owe a balance on the phone numbers we had for 20 minutes or the phones we had for a week. So long, in fact, that they aren't even the same company that they were when all this mess started. Hooray, the AT&T saga is over.

Can I Keep It?

I tried, I really tried. Either Amazon, Wirefly, RebatesHQ, Cingular, etc., have really bad record keeping, bad customer service or they're just happy to give away money. So, we're going to cash the check. Thank you, everyone!

My submission to Amazon:

So I bought two cell phones through Amazon(Wirefly) and
applied for the refund. Then one of the phones broke so we returned
the entire order to Wirefly. I e-mailed RebatesHQ 3 times telling
them to cancel the refund and they just kept e-mailing back to tell
me it was in progress. So I made a new order for 2 phones, this
time making sure to go through Amazon(not Wirefly). It, too, had a
rebate. So now I've gotten two rebate checks. So should I just
throw one of the checks away (or I can deposit both of them? -smiley
face-) If you want me to destroy one of them, do you need the check
number? Thanks, James

Their response:

Thank you for writing to us at Amazon.com.

I have checked your orders and see that this rebate is been offered
by Wirefly, one of our registered third party merchants.

Because promotional offers are not shared among sellers, and your
purchase for this item was from our partner, Wirefly, you need to
contact the merchant for any clarification regarding the rebate.
I'm sorry if this was unclear when you placed your order.

If you have any questions regarding your order, you will need to
contact the customer service team of Wirefly with your inquiry.
You can reach their customer service using the information below:

customerservice@wirefly.com (or)
1-888-843-2485 (6am-6pm EST)

We are very sorry for any inconvenience that this situation may have
caused and would like to thank you for your understanding and
patience.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Thanks, Cingular

I wasn't quite sure of the correct way to blaspheme on SMS. Thanks for making it so clear. You could have just as easily said OMG=Oh My Goodness or Oh My Gosh. Sheesh...

(If you've been following my Cingular / Wirefly / Amazon / Rebate-Headquarters saga, it's getting even funnier. Now I've gotten a $50 rebate ($25x2) on the two Wirefly phones we had for a week. And I just got an e-mail saying that the $50 rebate ($25x2) for the Amazon phones had been approved. Both offers were supposed to be on a single phone and only after 180 consecutive days of service. On top of that, Cingular has made so many refunds on the two sets of accounts that we ended up not paying activation on *any* of the phones. We did have to pay $105 on the first account, but they said we'd end up getting most of it back. The last statement I got now has a $176 credit on the account. I've called Cingular explaining the undercharging and they said I was the first person that rep. had talked to in 4 years who had ever called to say they were undercharged.

So if we add it all up, Wirefly - free phones, $10 shipping paid with a gift card. Zero. Cingular account. Credit balance of $176. $50 rebate received. Amazon - 1 cent per phone, $25 shipping. Paid with a gift card. Cingular account - no activation fees charged. $50 rebate on the way. Only thing not accounted for was the time my wife and I spent on the phone with everyone and all the aggravation, but I still think we come out way ahead.

Famous Last Words

I think I might finally be done with the Wirefly / Cingular mess. So much time has elapsed that one of the companies has even changed their name. So, I won't be getting the $176 credit that was on the account, but I am getting the $108 back. Or rather, they're transferring it to my still active account, which is a great deal, since we're just going to give it back to them again anyhow, this saves printing and mailing a check, me scanning and depositing the check and then them charging my credit card for it.

But man, oh man. Props to Drederick Jack of AT&Tingular for patiently trying to figure out what the heck was going on, dealing with me when he couldn't get a manager on the line* and finally figuring out that the best option was to give me the money back and then proposing that method of transfer. And then backing it up by reminding me that I can dial *BAL# within a day or two to confirm that it's been done.

(*Where'd all the managers go? Or is that new policy? Let them sit on hold for awhile until they calm down and/or hang up.)

Stupidity in Advertising

Ok, so I caught a AT&Tingular commercial tonight. A woman is calling her husband (who's away on a business trip) to tell him they're expecting. His phone cuts out. She thinks he's stunned, dismayed even. But it shows him literally jumping all over the hotel lobby telling everyone within range. He is jazzed.

Then I saw a second ad. This daughter calls her mom and say she's in Vegas with "John." The mom says "Just don't get married." When there's no response, the mom gets more and more scared. Finally at the end, the mom says "Don't make same mistake I made!"

Then it flashes up a still showing a new phone and says "Great for Dad!"

So It's Not Just Us

FEELINGCINGULAR.COM -- So here we were thinking that our Motorola RAZR v3i's where somehow special. Put them near a speaker -- at home, in a conference room, in the car, and a buzzy clicky sound emits from the speaker. Turns out it was just that now we're on GSM and in the past we'd been on Analog (L.A. Cellular/AT&T Wireless), PCS (Sprint) and CDMA (Verizon Wireless). And according to this guy, the phone left by the speaker can actually blow the speaker.

New Phones

The new phones are here! While the interface is just as clunky, the outside casing looks fresher. I note that these are made in China (the others were made in Singapore) so hopefully these should work better (aka not break) due to superior manufacturing.

Because they came within the 30 days of the first account being opened, Cingular's treating it like the original account wasn't closed. So we pay the outstanding bill, get a credit back for the days the service was cancelled -- when FedExTurtle finally delivered the phones to StinkFly, rather than when we sent them or even when we let them know we were sending them or when the phone stopped working. Then the new service starts on the first, so we do get a few free days. Whatever. Just so long as the Wirefly mess is all behind us.

Of course, even Amazon couldn't get the area code right and shipped 206's. Is this a sign? Should we move to The City? Sadly, they were out of good numbers so our numbers are nowhere near each other. E-mail me for the new number.


So to figure out the billing and get the numbers changed, that's #1 and #2 for the new round.

But It's Only Been a Week

Hey, look, it's been a week and here I am with my first Cingular Wireless, or AT&T if you will, complaint. It's actually Wirefly's fault, originally. When we bought the phones from Wirefly through Amazon.com, they were set up in the wrong area code. To be sure, 206 is an awesome area code to have, but if we don't live there, it's no good to ask our friends and family to call long distance. When the confirmation e-mail arrived from Wirefly, I called Cingular Wireless (#1). He couldn't figure out what our phone numbers should be and suggested I call the local Cingular Store (#2) which I did. Then I called them back (#3) and they were happy to get the phones set up for the correct phone numbers. The phones arrived a few days later via Fed Ex and when we turned them on they immediately recognized the correct phone numbers.

Saturday night I was playing around and signed into Cingular's website. It showed what I currently owed, and listed all four phone numbers, each with a charge listed next to it. I used the Contact Us (#4) form to contact them and asked what the charges were. I got a nice e-mail back today explaining the charges, but it wasn't enough information to be helpful. So I called Cingular (#5) and the woman who looked at my bill said that they were number change charges and because the mistake wasn't Cingular's, there wasn't anything they could do about it. So I asked to speak to a manager.

I was transferred and got the voicemail of someone. So I explained everything again and am now waiting for the promised call back.

Everyone I've talked to at Cingular (with maybe the exception of #5) has been super-polite and helpful, but it's kind of annoying to feel like I've been ripped off for $62+taxes on phones we've had less than a week is a little frustrating. Hopefully the woman whose voicemail I got will
understand and do right.

The Great Cingular Experiment, Day 3

Amazon has dropped one phone, now offering 42. I've reduced the choices to four:

LG CU400
LG CU500
Motorola KRZR K1
Motorola RAZR V3i

Lori's concerned about her propensity of dropping phones or having them stolen by toddlers who drop them in toilets. Will have to research cases.

The Great Cingular Experiment, Day 2

I eliminated two phones for not offering Bluetooth. It wasn't intentional, I was just looking at their reviews. They were also described as "cute" by female reviewers and "too small" by male reviews. I also consolidated models with the same model number (but of differing colors) into single entries. And I eliminated the Smartphone because it's actually too much phone... would require a fancier plan to really take advantage of all of the phone's features. And two of them at $75 a piece plus tax would be a little more on the pricey side. I also researched the rebates, because some phones on Amazon are listed as negative $100 final price. Those are mail-in rebates. So that means I pay nothing for the phones and then file for mail-in rebates and get cash back. Of course, we know how those work... probably only valid on the first phone and takes about 32 weeks to get the rebate check. There's 3 Samsung models, 1 Nokia, six Motorola models and 3 LG models. I'm hoping to not get a Motorola, but I'm going to try to keep an open mind. Looking just at the little photo of each phone, I'm drawn to the LGs.