Cingular/ATTWS Unlimited 8PM Off Peak "For Life"

Recently, "John Navas" <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote:

> >As also has been noted on many of the groups, Cingular/ATT has been doing
> >EVERYTHING under the sun to try to convert TDMA customers to GSM, other
than
> >offering them the same plan they have always had under TDMA, but with a
GSM
> >phone.
>
> Three simple facts:
> 1. AT&T Wireless is no more, due in part of bad business like that.
> 2. AT&T/Cingular has no obligation to continue AT&T Wireless deals.

It probably does on a multitude of levels, legal and otherwise; generally,
service contracts survive post-merger/acquisition (bankruptcy issues being
one area of exception) in such cases. (I have not studied how ATTWS was
"merged" with Cingular and then rebranded themselves as AT&T, but generally,
two existing companies can not form "NewCompany" to escape contractual and
other liabilities of the respective incipient firms. Indeed, many states
have specific statuatory requirements outside of the UCC/common law/etc. for
specific (generally regulated) industries, such as insurance, for example,
which specifically iterate this.

Regardless, my argument was not prefaced upon a perceived -contractual-
obligation (not that I disclaim it; there may be issues with the "for life"
approaching a contract in perpetuity and other issues which are not
pertinent with respect to the instant issue), but rather than given that
AT&T/Cingular made a business decision to migrate to TDMA, they have, to an
extent, engaged in deception and failed to fully disclose what the
conversion will mean to existing TDMA accounts, and that they are in a
not-so-on-the-level way trying to get TDMA customers to sign up for GSM
contracts, making it APPEAR as if the GSM accounts will effectively be a
continuation of the TDMA service with just a different phone, when in fact
there are certain material and potential adverse changes to the TDMA service
attached to these new contracts which needn't be so.

For example, a recent bill insert indicates (usual verbiage about how TDMA
is going to be disconnected soon and how you need to switch right away to
maintain your account) that TDMA customers should move over to GSM to
preserve all their current features, like voicemail, text messaging,
nationwide roaming and "Rollover" minutes (of which we as TDMA customers
have none).

What they do not say is that IF you do enter into a new agreement for GSM
with them and bind to a 1 or 2 year contract (which is required), you will
loose the following:

1. Roaming on certain carriers in RSA-ish type areas (and analog fallback as
well,
useful as a last resort for 911, assuming that post 1Q 2008 some
carriers still maintain
analog ofr the FCC extends the deadline)
2. Unlimited reception of SMS and E-Mails from anyone at no additional cost
3. Unlimited off-peak starting at 8PM.

As many other people have mentioned, other than the analog fallback,
provisions could be made to facilitate these issues in furtherance of a more
seamless TDMA to GSM migration, but ATT/Cingular opted not to. There is no
technical NEED for ATT/Cingular to not offer these options to TDMA customers
as long as they migrate to GSM and stay on such plans; ATT/Cingular simply
chose not to do so and appears to be trying to get people to convert without
effectively full disclosure.

(And please don't suggest that they "read the fine print"... People should;
they don't, and the the law generally recognizes this in terms of what are
effectively consumer adhesion contracts. In any case, material changes which
affect service should not be hidden in the fine print (if at all), and if
carriers like Verizon can offer essentially full disclosure, so can
Cingular.)

(Verizon's termination of analog service notices indciate clearly the old
plan and features and what the default new plan will be, and is very clear
as to the difference if any which the new/default plan will offer. The
_default_ plan also carries no contractual obligation (if the customer
provides his own digital phone or if nothing is done in terms of older
dual-mode digital equipment. We have some problems with how Verizon is
trying to push their analog shut down as well, but it is nowhere as bad as
Cingular...)

> >1. Cingular has totally messed up the conversion from TDMA to GSM. ANY
other
> >company, us (Interpage), Volvo, Macy's, Joe's Fish Store, whatever, would
> >all come up with a plan in the event that a service had to be changed or
> >eliminated which mitigates the net effect to the customer and tries to
> >preserve as closely as possible (or even improve upon) the levels of
service
> >previously enjoyed.
>
> Nonsense: All businesses make decisions about what makes good business
> and what doesn't.

Gee... Thanks, I never knew that...

Regardless, I think one of the points I made was that it was hard to
understand what business sense this made, as it is treating old customers
like they walked off the street, and gives old customers who would, with a
better transition process, never think twice about continuing with Cingular,
reason to pause and perhaps investigate other carriers. Perhaps Cingular has
some reason for this (and "SMS" provided an interesting one in that it
lowers ARPU, which makes more sense than any other rational explanation I've
heard before; however, I think they are currently signing up new users even
at the $29.95 per month level, and thus it is baflling why they would not
want to keep old-TDMA subscribers at the $50.00 level...)

> >2. Cingular doesn't appear to care about the reportedly 5 million or so
TDMA
> >customers. ...
>
> Nonsense: It offers them the same deals it offers to everyone else.

Ummm... yeah, right -- "Hi, you're very important to us; we would LOVE to
offer you, our loyal customer for 5 years, the EXACT same deal that we are
going to offer this bum off the street who managed to scrape up enough cash
for a pre-paid SIM card and "subsidy" phone..." Makes me feel REALLY cared
for and that the years of service with them are highly valued and
appreciated...

> >3. Cingular seems to think that TDMA customers should in part fund the
> >conversion to TDMA: ...
>
> Nonsense: Those customers must buy their own phones just like everyone
> else.

You see, nornmally when you say "nonsense" you are supposed to say something
in opposition, while in this case it appears to be in apposition as thus
substantiates my point. But whatever..

> AT&T Wireless is over. TDMA is over.
> You're beating dead horses. Time to move on.

No one here is suggesting that they need to remain, or even that TDMA
service should be maintained; the points raised in the previous post and
here are that the "transition" is beng poorly handled, Cingular's/ATT's
representations are in part deceptive (or lacking in full disclosure), they
are onerous on existing customers and do not seem to indicate that they do
not fully appreciate TDMA customers' tenure with ATT/Cingular, and generally
does not seem to encourage customers to stay on by making it easy for them
to do so. And that's it.

I've seen no evidence in the previous post to the contrary, and from what
many others have written, it appears that other are suffering similar fates
and are not too happy with the way Cingular/ATT is handling the process
either.

Regards,

-Doug

abcwireless@interpage.net (remove the first three letters of the alphabete
to e-mail)

Interpage Network Services Inc.
(510) 315-2750
http://www.interpage.net