Okay, so a cell phone company isn’t SUPPOSED to "make you happy", but they at least should not continually disappoint and frustrate you. And I am disappointed and frustrated with Cingular.. but what’s new?! :)
Yes, it is MY OWN stupidity that creates $100+ cell phone bills. If I actually checked my remaining minutes, I’d see that I’m 20 or 40 or 150 minutes OVER my plan. But do I check? Of coarse not. And it’s easier to complain and be frustrated with the "big mindless corporation" than it is to simply say "I screwed up"… repeatedly. Yes, repeatedly. As in… several months in a row.
Each month when I get my bill and see that it is $60 higher than it should be, I’m shocked and upset. But, I shouldn’t be shocked. Yes, customers are stupid (I’m NOT the only one that does this.) Customers just click and sign and buy and do what we WANT, but we don’t always READ what we’re doing. On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter if you read – you don’t have much of a choice… but that’s a whole other rant…
When I signed up with Cingular, I loved the idea of "paying for the minutes that I’m using", rather than paying for 3000 minutes, only to find that I only needed 1800 this month – but I still had to pay for the whole 3000. So, with Cingular, they’ve got a great idea – the "roll over" minutes… if you don’t use the minutes that you’ve already paid for, you get to use them next month, or the month after, etc. However, for those months when you go over on your minutes? Well.. it just doesn’t work out well for the customer.
I KNOW there is a company that does it (though I cannot remember which one does) who allows you to sign up for an option that will automatically bump your service plan up to the next level if you go over your minutes. It’s kinda like overdraft protection from your bank. It’s a great idea, and I cannot imagine anyone being upset if they got bumped up from a 400 minutes plan that costs $30/mnth, to an 800 minute plan that costs $50 a month when they end up going over their minutes. At 40 cents per minute EACH when you go over, that adds up FAST when you don’t even realize what you are paying FOR EACH CALL. It’s such an easy solution, and would probably cut down on their "customer service" calls. How? they wouldn’t have thousands of people calling in complaining about how high their cell phone bill is, then whining about the cost. And it’s such simple math to show someone how much money the company just saved them by bumping them UP a service level, rather than pay the exorbitant per minutes fees.
Anyway, that’s my recent rant about Cingular sucking. But, as always, they don’t care. Even though I’ve gone over my minutes for the past four or more months, they love sucking that cash out of my pocket. Yes, it’s my fault, but just think how much I would love the company if they actually took care of my and gave me good "customer service?" I don’t see it happening anytime soon…