March 7th, 2005

Dear Cingular Wireless,

I have just undergone a singularly unhappy experience with your
companies' policy and customer service system.  Please let me
describe the experience in full as best as I can objectively
describe it, and then I will follow up with some of my personal
feelings and commentary.

I used to be a happy Cingular customer -- I got my first cell 
phone in June 2002, and used the phone happily for more than a
year.  In April 2004 I renewed my contract and received a new 
phone, the Nokia 1100b.  (The main motivation, actually, was
not because of any problems with the phone, but because the
belt clip broke.)

Around January 2005, my phone (1100b) started having problems.
The main symptoms seem to be best described as the phone not
realizing that it is in a bad coverage zone -- instead of 
saying "No service" when I drop out of coverage, it tends to
show full antenna bars and act as if the call is still working
when it obviously isn't.  After a few seconds it will drop 
the "call", without any explanatory messages.  This happens
with both outgoing and incoming calls (and many incoming calls
go straight to voicemail, but with my phone immediately 
beeping notifying that I have a missed call).  It has gotten
worse over the last month, so in February I decided to do 
something about it.

On February 26th, 2005, I went to the store that I purchased
the phone and contract at.  (Cupertino Village shopping
center in Cupertino, CA)  This store is a 20-minute drive 
from my place of residence.  They told me that they wouldn't 
be able to troubleshoot the phone, and that I had to call 
Cingular Customer Care at 1-866-227-0742, but that they would 
solve all my problems.

Later that week (I think it was the 28th, but I don't remember
for sure) I called the Customer Care line.  The automated 
system required me to enter the phone number for my phone, and
then I had to go through 3 more menus to attempt to describe
what the problem was.  Eventually I got to a live, human, 
customer care representative (named Tiffany), who then asked me
many questions, including what my phone number was and what the
problem was with the phone.  She had me take the battery out
of the phone with the phone still on, and then replace it.
This did not make any obvious improvements in the phone.
She then gave me a phone number that she claimed was a direct
line to Customer Support, 1-800-331-0500, and said that I
should call that.  I thanked her and ended the call.
This whole process took about 15 minutes.

I called 1-800-331-0500.  Instead of the direct line I was told
to expect, I got an automated system, which required me to
enter my phone's phone number, and go through 3 more menus
to describe what my phone's problem was.  I then was put on
hold for about 2 minutes, and then a human (Jose, JB3007) 
answered.  He asked my what my phone's phone number was and
what the problem with the phone was.  Then he had me take the 
battery out of my phone with the phone still on and then
replace it.  No visibly improvement.  He then tried broadcasting
some sort of reset signal to the phone, which my phone received.
This seemed to help (although since my problem has been 
intermittent I couldn't really tell for sure).  I asked what
to do if the problem recurs, and he told me that if that
happened I could call the Warranty department at 1-800-580-2758
and they would look at the notes on the account and be glad to
replace the phone for me.  I thanked Jose and hung up.
This whole process took about 20 minutes.

On Saturday, March 5th, the phone started having problems 
during a very important call (I was trying to coordinate 
an equipment pick-up).  Eventually I had to give up, which meant
that I needed to resort to a landline and a long-distance calling
card.  After the frustrating experience with the phone, I
wanted to call Cingular again, but I had left the phone number 
at work and didn't know it.  So, I looked on-line for a
phone number, and called 1-866-227-0742.  The automated 
system required me to enter the phone number of my cell 
phone, and again I went through the same three menus to 
describe what my phone's problem was.  I then got through
to a human (didn't write the name down this time), who then
asked me for my phone number and what the phone's problem was.
She then asked me to take out the battery from the phone with
the phone still on, my protests about having done this before
not really being heeded.  I also mentioned that the last time
I called the rep had told me that they would replace the phone
if the problem reoccurred.  She said that she had no record of
that, and insisted that I remove the battery from the phone with
the phone still on.  I did so, and the phone had no
obvious improvement.  She then urged me to call Customer
support at 1-800-331-0500.  I didn't recognize that this was
the same number I had written down a few days before, as my
notes on that were at my office at work. This
took about 20 minutes, and I was late to my pick-up, so I 
did not follow up that day, instead opting to head out so that
I wouldn't miss my appointment.  However, I had trouble finding
the location from the address.  Normally I would call the person
on my cell phone for directions, but my cell phone was having
the problems I described in the second paragraph, above.  
Eventually I found the place, 15 minutes late, and I felt 
obligated to pay a little bit extra for my equipment because 
I kept the vendor waiting on a Saturday.

On Sunday, March 6th, after my mother had tried to call my
cell phone with no success, I had some time at night and
tried to follow-up.  I called 1-800-331-0500, and was met
with a recorded voice saying that that number was out of 
service.  This really confused me.  Remember that I didn't
realize that I had seen that number already, so I thought that
maybe the representative from Saturday had given me a wrong
number.  

So, I called 1-866-227-0742.  The automated system then asked
me for my phone's phone number, and I went through three menus
to characterize the problem with my phone.  I then got a 
recorded message that said that the customer care center was
closed and that if I had a problem with using my phone, I 
should call the After Hours number at 1-866-801-3600.
This took about 5 minutes.

I called the After Hours number at 1-866-801-3600.  The
automated system asked me to enter my cell's phone number.
Fortunately, this time I did not have to navigate through
a menu system that asked me what the problem with my phone
was.  I was on hold for maybe a minute, and then talked
to a human who asked me what my phone number was and what
the problem with the phone was, and of course she also asked
me to take the battery out of the phone with the phone still
on.  This time we actually tried something different, too;
she asked me to walk around with the phone and see if the
antenna bars changed.  I told her this could be difficult
if I still had to talk with her on the land line, but she was
willing to wait while I did the experiment.  But again, no
substantial progress.  The human told me that she believed
that the SIM card for the phone needed to be replaced.  I
was skeptical, since the problem seemed to me to be with 
the phone and not the card, but she repeated her claim
several times.  I gave in and asked what I should do.  She
told me that I should go to a Cingular store, not an 
authorized reseller, and ask them to pull up my account
number, read the notes she's putting on my account, and 
then replace the SIM card.  I expressed concerns over my
stored phone numbers getting lost, but she assured me that
the Cingular store would have people who would be glad to 
make sure that wouldn't happen.  She then looked up the 
closest store to me, and gave me an address of 600 Showers
Drive, Mountain View, CA.  Still skeptical, I looked up the
address on-line, and told her that that seemed to be an 
address of a Wal-Mart, which I remember having a Cingular
kiosk but doesn't really seem like a full store.  She was
not really convinced by that, and I wasn't sure either, so
eventually I surmised that maybe there was a Cingular store
nearby and maybe all stores in the shopping center had the 
same address.  I asked her for the hours of the store and 
she responded "nine".  I said that didn't seem like the 
full hours; I would like to know when they close and when
they open.  She then had to look that up in her computer
again, which took a while, and she finally responded
that it was nine to six.  I thanked her and hung up.
This process took about 30 minutes.

On Monday, March 7th, I attempted to drive to 600 Showers
Drive, Mountain View, CA.  After wandering around a crowded
shopping center for 15 minutes, I determined that there was
only one store with the address of 600 Showers Drive, and 
that it was the large Wal-Mart.  I parked the car and
entered the Wal-Mart.  It was 12:20.  I made my way to the
back of the store, where the Cingular kiosk was.  There was
no one there, but there was a sign saying that they would 
be back at 1:40.  Frustrated, I tried calling 1-800-331-0500
on my cell phone.  I got the automated message asking me to 
enter my cell phone number.  I did so, but the system said
they didn't understand the entry, and then my signal ran
out (with the symptoms I mentioned in paragraph three, above).
After giving it two more tries and failing, I realized that
I could use a pay phone.  So then I went to a pay phone and
called 1-800-331-0500, went through the automated system
that asked me for my phone number and three menus of options,
waited for about a minute, talked to a human who asked me
for my phone number and to describe what was wrong with my
phone.  But I knew I didn't have much time from a public
phone, so I tried to avert the part where he asks me to take
out the battery from my phone with the power still on,
by describing my predicament and just asking him to find me
a real honest-to-goodness Cingular store that I could drive
to so that I could get a working phone.  The man was very
cooperative despite my snippyness and rudeness.  He was
unable to find any stores nearby, so I asked him to expand
the search, and eventually he found one at 476 University
Avenue, Palo Alto, CA.  I asked him to call that store and 
confirm that they were able to help me replace the SIM card.
He did so, putting me on hold for two minutes, and came 
back saying that everything was set and that the store was
expecting me.  I said great, thanked the man, and hung up.

I arrived at 476 University Avenue at 1:20 (traffic and
parking was bad and I had to park and walk two blocks
to the place, which was in a bustling downtown area).
I was the third customer in line and there was only one
agent in the store, so I began to wait.  At 1:40 the
first customer was finally dealt with, and there was one
new customer behind me.  The agent asked me if what I 
needed to do was quick, and I explained that I was the 
person whom Cingular had called about earlier.  The agent
looked confused.  Eventually we figured out that the Cingular
representative had called this place, asked if they sold
Cingular phones, she answered yes, and he hung up.  (I had
assumed that he would actually check if this store was
a "real" Cingular store that could help me, but in retrospect
I realized that there was no way he could have done so 
so quickly.)  So the agent told me that this store was
just an authorized reseller, and that they get this problem
often because the database the customer service people are
working from don't distinguish between resellers and 
company stores.  (Or something like that; I don't know
the precise terms.)  They went on to say that they would
be able to replace my SIM card, but they would have to 
charge me the price of a new SIM card and that I would
have to asked Cingular to get reimbursed.

I tried calling Cingular from my cell, which didn't work.
So I asked to borrow the agent's land phone so that I 
could call Cingular.  The agent was very nice and even
dialed a number from me.  I was very surprised that I
was talking to a human representative from Cingular 
without needing to enter my cell phone number into an 
automated system.  So I talked with the representative, and 
explained the whole thing.  I expressed concern that I needed
to pay and get reimbursed for something that wasn't my 
fault.  She assured me that she could give me the credit 
instantly just over the phone if she could talk to the
agent.  So she and the agent talked, and the agent got
a new SIM card, replaced the one in my phone.  I then
tested out a call.  No improvement.  I was also a little
bit worried that my stored phone numbers weren't on the 
phone anymore.  The agent then put the new SIM card into
a different phone, tested a call, and it worked.  So the
agent concluded that it must be my phone was that 
faulty, not the SIM card.  (Note that that was what I
thought three paragraphs ago.)  She talked with the
service representative on the phone, and gave me a phone 
number to call, 1-800-801-1101, Cingular Warranty 
Exchange, and said that I should ask them for a 
replacement under the warranty program, or that I could 
wait a few more weeks and get a new phone when my contract
came up for renewal.  I expressed concern as to whether
I could do both; get a replacement phone now, and then
get a renewal with a new phone later.  The customer 
representative checked and said this would be perfectly
fine.  I told the agent that I wanted my stored phone numbers,
so we put the old SIM card back in the phone.  The 
phone showed a message saying "SIM card not registered", and
with a menu option labeled "Quit".  None of the other 
buttons worked.  I started to feel some panic, thinking that
the only fix we had tried not only failed to fix the phone,
but had also made my numbers irretrievable.  The agent
looked sympathetic, and mentioned that some stores (but
not hers) had a SIM card reader that could copy information
like that.  While she was looking up nearby stores, I
experimented with the old SIM card and discovered how to 
use the phone as a buffer for copying numbers between 
SIM cards.  However, the phone could only store 50 numbers, and
I had to move them one at a time (because if I selected
"All" it would only copy the first 50 in alphabetical order.)
I told the agent to stop the search, and then spent
some time in the store copying my phone numbers to the 
new SIM card.  It was 3:00 pm.  I thanked the agent,
and left the store.

As a lark, I tried calling 1-800-801-1101 on my cell phone.  
To my surprise, it seemed to work (although there was a lot of 
static in the signal).  The automated system asked me for my cell 
phone's phone number, which I keyed in.  Then it gave me a very 
long recorded message emphasizing that this was the warranty 
exchange line, and if I was calling for any other issue, that I
should call 1-866-227-0742.  Then it transferred my call to another
automated system, which again asked for my cell phone's phone
number, and this time my ZIP code.  Then, after another (different
but still long) recorded message about how this was the warranty
exchange line and not for other Cingular services, I got to 
listen to some on-hold music.  I listened to this music as I 
drove to work (which I was of course very late at).  After
about 25 minutes of being on hold, I talked with a gentleman
named Earl, who did not ask me for my phone number.  However,
he did ask me to remove the battery from my cell phone with the
power still on.  After determining that this was no help, he was
willing to let me go through with the warranty replacement program,
although with a very scary terms and conditions agreement that
seemed to say "if we discovered that the phone is broken because
you dropped it, we will charge you $150 in processing fees."
I felt I had no choice but to agree, and he then gave me the 
option of paying extra to have the replacement box and
instructions send speedily, which I declined.  The request
number is RMA 292-4232, by the way.

It was 4:00 pm.  I am now awaiting the replacement box, and
crossing my fingers hoping that this will finally fix everything
and that there will be no more hassle or lost time or money on 
my part.  I spent about another 90 minutes typing this letter up.

I thank you for being patient enough to read this far.  Now I 
will venture some opinions, which is namely that I feel that 
there are many points in this process that have caused rather
unnecssary strife and hassle on my part, including rather
substantial amounts of lost time (fortunately my employer
is rather forgiving in that regard as long as I make it up).

The number of numbers I needed to record and number of times I 
had to enter my cell phone number seems to go rather beyond the 
pale, especially since I had to repeat it verbally most of the 
time anyway.  It certainly feel like to me that your company is
trying to do everything it can to discourage me from getting
a replacement phone, forcing me to jump through many hoops and
work on many details.

Quite understandably so, if your company does not make visible 
improvements in how it processes customer issues, I am wary of
continuing business with you ever again.  Which is a shame since
I have had zero frustration or complaints since before this 
incident.  I am also seriously thinking of possibly letting this 
letter be read publically and to distribute it widely.

Also, let me mention that at no point in the entire process did
I have any reason to believe that the actual human employees
were being deliberately malicious; throughout they have all been
cooperative and understanding.  Your people are fine, well-mannered,
and polite, which I find very impressive especially after realizing
the horrible computer systems they need to deal with.

Sincerely yours,

 
Wei-Hwa Huang