I must retract my recent statements about Cingular. (With the exception of being annoyed that the closest store is 20 minutes drive for me now even though there are four stores in the area and I live in the central part of this metro area and the part about being on hold for hours.)

So after getting them to send me a new phone last night it got here today. And they are not making me pay return postage -- they have even included a strip of tape to seal up the box with so my cost for this whole ordeal (aside from the cost of gas to drive out to the Cingular store 20 minutes away) is $7 for express shipping. I don't even have to use my own tape.

And the phone works. I was a little worried that it was going to turn out to be the battery since the replacement didn't come with a battery but it works! Now I just have to program all my phone numbers back in.

The Samsung X497 is stupid. You can't copy all addressbook entries from the phone to the SIM in one fell swoop. You can't chose to view either the phone entries, the SIM entries, or both. You only view both. So if you have all your numbers stored on the SIM and the phone for protection against loss you will have two entries for each person (in addidition to multiple entries on the SIM for people with multiple numbers). Stupid. I hate that about this phone.

Thursday night I spent an hour entering the numbers into a txt file on my comptuer though so at least I have them all.

And now my car insurance company is being confusing. I have received four bills for the next half year. Three have different totals. I paid the first and highest bill already so I should be set... Not sure what is going on there.
- posted by Nick @ 11/29/2006 05:28:00 PM | 0 comments

 
Called again today. Got through in about 10 minutes (I miss having the speakerphone on my cell when I call these stupid CS numbers...) and have processed the return (while no other Cingular place seems to have record of my having renewed my contract and getting a new phone in Feb the warranty returns office does have reccord that I got the new phone in Feb so they are sending me a replacement. I paid the $7 to get it express (they should have an overnight option...) and it should be here by the end of the week, then I will send back the old one. (Watch me have to pay shipping on THAT also...)

Cingular's instore deals suck. If you buy a phone from them do it online. I can get a number of phones for free or cheaper than the in-store deals online. Also if you go to RadioShack check multiple locations. I was at the one in Martinez and they had a Nokia (6102 or something?) free with the two year contract but it was out of stock. The phone looked good so I figured I'd get it and screw returning my phone for an exchange (as I said, no one seems to have record of my renewing my two year contract just 10 months ago) and I went to the North Augusta Radio Shack where the same phone was going to cost me $45.

Go figure...
- posted by Nick @ 11/28/2006 06:53:00 PM | 0 comments

 
GROWL!!!

Cingular is evil.

I went out to the closest Cingular store, which has moved out to Evens now making the three closest Cingular stores 20 minutes or more drive away and I live in a pretty major population center. Saw Cingular stores in towns on our trip this weekend that were smaller than North Augusta alone and that doesn't include the downtown Augusta area which is just as far from these stores as I am...

Can't process the warranty return online because the computers apparently have no record of when I got the phone. Called the 800 number I had and they put me on hold with a hold time of 15 minutes which turned into 40 minutes. I did that twice. Then I got a hold time of 5-10 minutes which turned into 30 minutes. Then I called in and got a hold time of 15 minutes and was cut off at midnight saying the offices were closed.

My phone died on Thursday. It is now Tuesday. Even if I get the warranty return taken care of tomorrow it will probably be Monday or later before I have a working phone again.

What happened to the days when there were people at the store who could work on the phone? What the happened to those days? Instead I gotta send the thing off to who knows where. I hate having to mail things off to get them fixed. They aren't going to fix it they'll mail me a new phone which will not have all my numbers in it.
- posted by Nick @ 11/28/2006 12:27:00 AM | 0 comments