Poindexter

I know we have a few cell phone company reps in the Mid-A, and I'd love to hear from them......hopefully they won't feel as though they're being put on the spot.

I'm frustrated with what is going on today

I have been out of the cell phone market for over a year now since airgate hooked me up with Suncom . After 6 years of putting up with Sprint in customer service and billing I pulled the plug and was sitting on cell phone cloud 9 enjoying my Suncom Unplan and my Hiptop service - life was great. As of March 18th Cingular has started their VA Suncom customer switch and life is looking grim ......not because I'm afraid of Cingular or any other service provider - I'm afraid of the prices

Like I said, I signed up with Suncom over a year ago and have become completely dependent on my cellular services. I do not have a home phone or an office phone - everything.....absolutely all of my phone usage is through my cell phone.

My current voice bill is $49.99 and my digital bill (for the Hiptop/Blackberry devices) is $29.99 so with tax and what not I'm at a typical $100 a month bill right now. My usual month is somewhere around 3,000 minutes with a heavy month being just shy of 5,000 - if I am to continue on with the same type of coverages I'm looking at a $400 a month phone bill no matter which service provider I go with - I put most of my minutes on between 9 AM and 5 PM.

I'm curious as to what has driven the prices up so much in the past year? Even when I was with Sprint I paid $59.99 for voice services and over the years of being with them they enhanced my minutes up to 3,500 (without night and weekend) by the time I left.

Also in my research I've discovered that nTelos is dropping their "Unplan" customers as agreements come to a close - this will start within the next 2 months. If you didn't know, Sprint bought up Nextel (I'm not sure if this is just VA) and current Nextel customers may be facing this same frustration in the near future

ciccone376

Monopolies....you gotta love them;-)

Chug-A-Bug

you should definitely try to negotiate with your current provider...

when AT&T started their GSM service a few years back, I jumped on the "charter" offer of 2 year contract, $99 a month, unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited roaming, unlimited long distance. It's been more than 2 years but they (now cingular) have not been keen to drop me and my buds on that sweet sweet deal. why? well, the metrics of the cell business are brutal. the cost to add a subscriber is huge, and there's tons of churn esp. now with number portability. so while they're not interested in any new customers at that rate, they're also not interested in losing me.

you're a car dealer, d00d.... negotiate.

Poindexter

Trust me - I've been trying. I feel like I'm getting the "so sorry Virginia " from Suncom and the "welcome " from Cingular

ciccone376

I found that walking into a store and calling the companies 'phone sales associates' tend to yield different packages and pricing.

Just as in buying a car, its good to ask around and investigate all of your options

papa5murf

i've been using cingular for like 2 to 3 years now... and i haven't had any problems... i got like 700 day time minutes roll over and unlimited nights and weekends for 40 bucks..

Poindexter

This really sucks

I'm ready to make the full switch to Cingular and discuss my options with them, but Cingular is not talking to current Virginia Suncom customers over the phone right now

We have to go to a store and the lines are still ridiculous! Funny thing is the local stores don't carry the equipment that I need so I have to do this over the phone ..........

Where is dkhl?

w1ngman

You kiddin'? You think [Cingular] stores are the only ones with lines presently? All this "FU Consumer" (politely, of course) from Cingular is undoubtedly creating shitloads of lines with Verizon folks too .

I liked googling "SunCom Cingular Merger" last night and coming up with a news link (read 'market whoring effort') on Cingular's move into our markets: >> article here <<

What killed me [most] in the article was the comment, "During the weekend of March 12 and 13, teams of Cingular employees converted more than 44 SunCom company-owned stores into Cingular Wireless stores. Storefronts, in-store displays and point-of-purchase materials have all been updated with the Cingular look and feel, allowing for a seamless retail transition from SunCom to Cingular."

As I drove into work today, I passed by the local b&m [Cingular] office...aaaaaand the storefront signage has a vinyl banner roped in front of the SunCom lighted signage . Oh yeah......classy "Cingular look and feel" there . Ironically, listening to the radio driving in, it was being reported on the news that Cingular's Help Desk support staff [of 30 -- which is of interest to me since I manage a support desk myself] is presently dealing with 20,000 calls per day. PER DAY!!! ...and handled by 30 employees. Holy schnikies!!! .

Poindexter

We've got the vinyl signs too - they're professional vinyl signs though

They certainly weren't ready for this. I spoke to a lady at Cingular on the West Coast and apparently they are going through the same thing over there with a different merger. You'd think Cingular would have this merger business down by now

We have 3 people who are the "help desk" in my company that handle just 700 employees, it is funny to think that a company who services millions and is taking on thousands more (and promoting this achievement) would devote a bigger staff to handle the new flux.

Why send out all this mail and start the panic, but act like it is another day in the neighborhood

CrazyCracker82

I love my Nextel. I have free incoming minutes so that always helps. I can have clients call me and it's free. my usual bill is like 65-70.

the whole sprint/nextel merger isn't affecting the phones or rates at this time. i got a memo from nextel recently and they said everything will only be getting better as the companies mesh together. so it looks like they're not going anywhere.