ALL CINGULAR CUSTOMERS READ: 7 Confessions of a Cingular Rep

[treorookie]

The need for cell phone sales reps to cleanse themselves in the healing waters of the Consumerist is nearing an all-time high. Reps from all over the cell phone universe are flooding the tip line, a tidal wave of lost souls begging for redemption... Ok, not really, but a guy who works at Cingular just wrote us with some tips for the readers. Why should Verizon have all the damn fun?

• Avoid contract extensions by changing your rate plan at a store. "If you want to change your rate plan, do it in a retail store instead of on-line or over the phone. Officially after 1/2 of your contract is over a rate plan change results in a contract extension, but I've never once seen that rule enforced in the store."

• Features are your friends. "You can just about get about get a rep to do anything you want if you offer to get a text package or a data package, and they can be cancelled on-line or over the phone the second you leave the store. The same goes for accessories. Offer to get accessories if it will get you a deal, they can be returned no questions asked within 30 days. (Let me put it this way, if a customer came in looking to get a treo w/the data package and accessories I would have sold a Treo 750 for $100 after rebate)"

• Upgrade more often with a higher priced rate plan. "[Cingular's] upgrade policies are similar to Verizon's, if someone's rate plan has been 75 dollars or higher (including features, but excluding taxes) for the last three months, they can upgrade 1/2 way through their contract."

• Get the rebate in the store, and at home. "Try to get the rep to give you the rebate in the store, they'll be likely to do this if you agree to get accessories. You can get go on-
line and print out the rebate form from Cell phones and cell phone plans from Cingular Wireless and send it in anyway."

• Make the store compete with the website. "Remember that the retail stores can match prices for the cingular website, so check those prices before you go into a store."

• Get credit for your mistakes. "If you go way over on your text messaging one month, go into a store and ask if they can credit you the difference if you sign up for a bigger text package. They should be able to do this, and you can always drop your text back down after you've gotten your credit."

• Use the internet for $20. "Also, regardless of what kind of phone you have a $20 mediaMAX data package will give you unlimted access to the web that will not use your minutes, whether you're using a phone, a PDA, or even a laptop card."

[brandon]

dude... awesome post.

[comiken205]

You are sooooooooo fired! But, awesome post, like brandon said

[DjXCaliber]

Dude, treorookie, awesome awesome post. Now I'm gonna go into the corner and kick myself for a few hours thinking about the $ I could have saved

[bgattis]

• Use the internet for $20. "Also, regardless of what kind of phone you have a $20 mediaMAX data package will give you unlimted access to the web that will not use your minutes, whether you're using a phone, a PDA, or even a laptop card."[/quote]

Has anyone else tried this and it work? I would love to cut my internet bill in half if this works.

[robogobo]

Man, I have wanted to kill so many Cing reps over these issues. I ALMOST changed my data plan to the $20 mediamax, and a store rep talked me out of it, saying I would get billed hundreds when Cing detected what kind of phone I had. I blew $250 last year with the f'n PDA plan. f that.

Every carrier out there rips you off.

[forgot]

My question is...how can they detect which kind of phone you have?

[TazUk]

Originally Posted by robogobo

Every carrier out there rips you off.

Yep, they have that in common with banks

[jfa02]

maybe through the iemi or whatever its called.

[forgot]

Originally Posted by jfa112851

maybe through the iemi or whatever its called.

Well yeah, there's that....

Most of the time I've noticed they don't look unless you give them a reason.