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angeltek · 03-06-2005, 07:44 AM

Because of my job, and what I do, I can leak out great information.

so here it is.

All of the Former Att Wireless plans are considered old, and expired. What this means to you, is that your grandfathered into the plans, aka stuck. You are allowed to go up and down in price though ie: go from one local plan to another, or one national plan to another. What really sucks though is that if you have Mobile to Mobile, Night and Weekend Minutes, or any Promotion whatsoever including free Long distance on a local plan, you will lose it if you change your plan.

Also, you may have noticed that you can't seem to ge tyour voicemail. I learnt that they sent a reprogamming signal to make all phones change to saying cingular instead of att. What this has done to you is actually make it so it connects to a cingular tower at all times unless one is not available. If you have GSM, this won't really effect you, but if you have the older phones that use Digital aka TDMA this means your phone will be connecting to Cingular TDMA towers, which cingular no longer maintains, nor has any intention on maintaining. This Reprogramming signal also erased some pertinant date for being able to use your one touch connect ot voicemail function on the phone. Basically the part that has your phone enter in a few auses, the # sign and your voicemail password.

Now, Cingulars Official response is that no it'snot the service it;s the phone, and that oops, we didn't mean to wipe out any of your voicemail info like that. However the Unofficial story is that cingular knew this would happen and that it was so people would call in to complain and they could offer the cingular plans and phones to them.

Also, if you call in to get a new phone, outside of warrenty replacements and insurance claims, you will have to change your rate plan too. It's not that they don't hav ethe phones that will owrk with your plans, it's that they don't want to sell them to you. Cingular wants all it's customers on current Cingular plans with Current Cingular phones. they don't want to have maintain different technologies. they would like to have everything unified, and simple. This is the same with wanting to get a better rate plan.

You should also know that the Care reps are driven to "upgrade" or "Migrate" you ot a cingular plan. Between the incentive program they have (which is a point system, where they get x amount of points and then can redeem those points for various goodies) and the heat that comes down from management if they don't, you can be assured you may get some misinformation. My best advice is that you look at the plans online first. Pull up a couple of your bills to see what your past usage is like, you can do this online if you don't keep your invoices. Also, the better prices for the phones are almost always online. very rarelyt will a store or over the phone option give you better prices then online. Cingular will not give you any discounts based on tenure as a policy by the way. Use www.phonescoop.com to research the phones. This is what I and my co-workers use. Most importantly, there is a one time $18 migration fee for every line that you migrate or upgrade. Be aware you will aalmost always be quoted the 2 year contract price on phones.

well, I think that's enough for now. However keep your eyes peeled, beause as I learn stuff, I will post it here and keep you all a little more informed.

Oh and feel free to ask me questions. I'll be mor ethen happy to give you advice if you have any quarrels with the company I work for.

03-06-2005, 07:44 AM	#1 (permalink)
angeltek Crazy Location: Regina, sk, Canada	Former ATT Wireless Customers Because of my job, and what I do, I can leak out great information. so here it is. All of the Former Att Wireless plans are considered old, and expired. What this means to you, is that your grandfathered into the plans, aka stuck. You are allowed to go up and down in price though ie: go from one local plan to another, or one national plan to another. What really sucks though is that if you have Mobile to Mobile, Night and Weekend Minutes, or any Promotion whatsoever including free Long distance on a local plan, you will lose it if you change your plan. Also, you may have noticed that you can't seem to ge tyour voicemail. I learnt that they sent a reprogamming signal to make all phones change to saying cingular instead of att. What this has done to you is actually make it so it connects to a cingular tower at all times unless one is not available. If you have GSM, this won't really effect you, but if you have the older phones that use Digital aka TDMA this means your phone will be connecting to Cingular TDMA towers, which cingular no longer maintains, nor has any intention on maintaining. This Reprogramming signal also erased some pertinant date for being able to use your one touch connect ot voicemail function on the phone. Basically the part that has your phone enter in a few auses, the # sign and your voicemail password. Now, Cingulars Official response is that no it'snot the service it;s the phone, and that oops, we didn't mean to wipe out any of your voicemail info like that. However the Unofficial story is that cingular knew this would happen and that it was so people would call in to complain and they could offer the cingular plans and phones to them. Also, if you call in to get a new phone, outside of warrenty replacements and insurance claims, you will have to change your rate plan too. It's not that they don't hav ethe phones that will owrk with your plans, it's that they don't want to sell them to you. Cingular wants all it's customers on current Cingular plans with Current Cingular phones. they don't want to have maintain different technologies. they would like to have everything unified, and simple. This is the same with wanting to get a better rate plan. You should also know that the Care reps are driven to "upgrade" or "Migrate" you ot a cingular plan. Between the incentive program they have (which is a point system, where they get x amount of points and then can redeem those points for various goodies) and the heat that comes down from management if they don't, you can be assured you may get some misinformation. My best advice is that you look at the plans online first. Pull up a couple of your bills to see what your past usage is like, you can do this online if you don't keep your invoices. Also, the better prices for the phones are almost always online. very rarelyt will a store or over the phone option give you better prices then online. Cingular will not give you any discounts based on tenure as a policy by the way. Use www.phonescoop.com to research the phones. This is what I and my co-workers use. Most importantly, there is a one time $18 migration fee for every line that you migrate or upgrade. Be aware you will aalmost always be quoted the 2 year contract price on phones. well, I think that's enough for now. However keep your eyes peeled, beause as I learn stuff, I will post it here and keep you all a little more informed. Oh and feel free to ask me questions. I'll be mor ethen happy to give you advice if you have any quarrels with the company I work for.