We have both Cingular and Verizon phone service at the office,and my advice is to avoid Cingular at all costs!

There were three extended Cingular service outages last year at critical times...none at
Verizon.

Recently, with contracts up, I checked out both companies. Verizon offered two free phones and no activation fee. When one of the Cingular phones began to malfunction I visited a local office (not a reseller). They wanted $100.00 for two phones and $36.00 ($18.00 per line) for activation. When I told them about te Verizon offer, they said "You'd better go to them". Then, they suggested I call Cingular Marketing and try to negotiate a better deal. I was running, didn't have time to play around and needed the line, so I paid the $100.00 for the phones. The activation fee (it takes about a minute to switch out the chips) was to be included on my next bill. When that bill came, it was 16 pages for $169.00. It was normally $90.00. I had purchased a $59.00
plan instead of the $69.00 plan I was on, because I was unsatisfied with the purchasing experince. There was no balance forward, so the maximum the bill could have been was $90.00 (the old plan, including all fees and taxes), plus the $36.00 activation fee. I went back to the store, and after looking at te bill, no-one could make any sense of it. After disapearing for 1/2 hour, the salesperon came out with a hand-written total of $135.00. It was still more than it should have been, but I was late for a meeting, so I offered to pay it right then. I was told there would be a $2.00 fee if I paid it then instead of mailing it in.

The Cingular culture seems to involve deceptive marketing practices, confusing billing, marginal service and an extremely combative attitude.

When the time comes, I'll switch the two Cingular lines to Verizon. Over two a two year contract, that will cost Cingular
$2200, and I am adding two additional Verizon lines next week. I'll then have 6 lines...eventually, none of them Cingular.

My advice...RUN AWAY!

Russ