How Can We Break Ties with SBC?

fenriq — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 15:14:33 -0800

BadServiceFilter: My wife has been getting truly atrocious customer service from SBC recently and has decided that she wants to explore other options for phone, dsl and cellular service. What happened is they disconnected her business phone without sending a notice first, the disconnect notice arrived five days after the disconnect. They give her the runaround on the phone support (telling her it will take 2 days for a supervisor to call back) and basically treating her like dirt. Yesterday she got a "courtesy call" from the billing department letting her know that her bill was due (it wasn't due until today).

So, the question is: How can we extract our phone, DSL and cellular from SBC without paying their ridiculous disconnect fees (which amount to more than the year of service would cost) and what are our other options for phone, internet connectivity and cell?

Or, alternatively, does anyone have a better route to getting decent customer service from SBC?

Help me get the cell phone company to fix my phone before I turn into Russel Crowe

kyleg — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 20:12:55 -0800

Mobile phone frustration: How can I get my current phone to recognize a new network? I have a GSM phone, the Sony Ericsson t610. I got it last year with a one-year contract. At the end of the contract I got it unlocked and switched to a new service provider last week. This phone has all the features I want and need, and I want to keep using it, so I put the new SIM card in the phone. It worked, at first.

This new company is a local operation that partners with other companies for nationwide service. When I put the new SIM in my phone, I was out of the local area where the company is based, and the network said "Roam 2," but I was assured at the beginning that there would be no extra charges because they are in the process of transitioning from CDMA to a GSM network.

I drove back home a couple days ago, and as soon as I entered the local network, I had no signal. The phone does not recognize the network, it is like I placed it in a cement box. I have talked to two different customer service representatives at two different stores, and neither of them is competent enough to help me. The first guy tried to tell me it's a hardware problem. The woman I talked to tonight was rude and condescending to the point that if I was the sole account holder (I'm on a family plan), I would have cancelled the contract right there. Her attitude was that because I didn't buy the phone from them, it's not their problem.

Now I know that my phone should work on the new network, that's the whole point of having a GSM phone in the first place. What can I tell them to convince them that they need to fix the problem? Is there anthing I can do to fix it myself?

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How Can We Break Ties with SBC?

Help me get the cell phone company to fix my phone before I turn into Russel Crowe