My mom has a Cingular account and a Cingular 4010 phone. There was a
family medical crisis recently and my own cellphone was having a
mechanical problem, so I borrowed my Mom's (she's had it for two years
and has NEVER used it other than when I showed her how to use it a year
ago). I'm returning it to her on Monday, but I wanted to be able to
give her another tutorial on HOW to use it. She'll have trouble with
anything beyond SEND/END, but if there is another crisis (HIGHLY likely
to be sooner, rather than later), we need to have her voiceJail
situation straightened out.

Her voicemail does not work and I have been thwarted at EVERY turn in my
efforts to find out why. FYI, her cellphone is based in Fremont, CA
(510 area code). When I try to access her voicemail from her cellphone,
I get a greeting that asks for me to enter the 10-digit number, which I
do. It then asks me to do the same thing again ... and again ... etc.,
and/or it tells it me cannot find a mailbox for that number; I can NEVER
get past that point. I thought maybe the access number was wrong, but I
get the EXACT same message if I call her cellphone (from a completely
different phone and carrier) to LEAVE a voicemail message (her phone
DOES ring, so it IS the right number). I KNOW she had a working
voicemail box a year ago. Do they yank them if they aren't used for a
certain period of time? We don't even know her password anymore (but
she gave me a good guess to try), but since we never get anywhere NEAR
that far, it's a moot point at the moment.

I went to the Cingular website and tried the customer service number
(around 11pm on a Saturday night) both the toll-free and 611 versions,
but they say that their are closed and to call back during business
hours M-F. I tried the after-hours number and am told that the customer
account database is temporarily unavailable and to call back another
time.

I then registered for their customer forums on-line, but their on-line
tech support is "closed" and chats are apparently only by invitation and
are marked "closed" in any case. I cannot set up an on-line "My
Account" because their databases are currently "closed". A search shows
that some other people DO have the same problem from time to time, but
helpful responses from other users always tell them to call Customer
Service to straighten it out. I can't find anything OFFICIAL addressing
the endless loop of voiceJail hell (which was also happening during
regular daytime hours last week, but I didn't have the time to
investigate it then). There are plenty of people complaining about
this very problem in their customer forums, yet there is NOTHING that
even remotely addresses it in any of their FAQs. Virtually ALL support-
related voicemail links on the Cingular site point to the same
instructions, which simply say to call the voicemail access number and
follow instructions -- again, USELESS since it's simply goes to a
voiceJail. There is apparently no way to check on-line to see if the
voicemail access number is valid, and all roads point to calling the
ridiculously inaccessible Customer Support numbers. Their "Contact Us"
link says you can send them email, but it just directs you to log into
their "MY ACCOUNT" area, which is, of course, inaccessible.

It's not urgent that I get this fixed tonight, but it's INCREDIBLY
frustrating to TRY! What if the medical crisis happened again TONIGHT
and I was unable to access the voicemail to coordinate things with other
family members (you aren't supposed to use cellphones in the Emergency
room, so messages would have to wait until you could take a moment to go
outside)? I cannot BELIEVE that such a large conglomerate doesn't have
ANY way to contact them if there's a problem after traditional business
hours. Can't they at LEAST have agents to answer the phone on the
weekend, even if they CAN'T access customer info? It's one thing for
their database to be down, but this smacks of having no intention to
EVER answer their phones after hours for ANY reason. I'm sure people
have off-hours issues that can be resolved without having Cingular
having to delve into their account databases in order to answer them.

I have a different carrier for my own cellphone, but if I ever decide to
switch carriers, you can be sure it WON'T be to Cingular!