Burned by Cingular II: A pattern of poor service, and sales sleaze?

Well, well, well. Remember Fidelity Observer's post in April, complaining about poor service from Cingular ("Customer disservice: Burned by Cingular")? It seems that this is not an isolated incident. A Federal lawsuit claims that millions of former AT&T Wireless customers (such as myself) were the victims of a deliberate effort to force them to upgrade to more expensive plans, but degrading service. Ars Technica has more details.

Is Fidelity Observer surprised by Cingular's alleged sleazy treatment of inherited customers from AT&T Wireless? Not at all. Promises to give us the same service levels we experienced under AT&T are typical corporate P.R. speak, designed to lull customers and regulators into a state of trust and acceptance.

Will the legal activity right the wrongs? Fidelity Observer is doubtful. I think we all know what will happen when a class action lawsuit is filed on our "behalf", and it actually succeeds. A bunch of lawyers walk away with millions, customers get $25 coupons to use for future Cingular services, and Cingular gets to walk away without admitting any wrongdoing.

Caveat Emptor!


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