Cingular and Blogger should get together and make useless babies

I've already talked about my issues with Blogger. Well, let's talk a little bit about Cingular and their lack of options for issues with my phone. A little over a year ago, (a year and 3 days to be exact), I switched from Verizon to Cingular because my hubby was on Cingular and it just made sense for us to be on one network. So two and a half weeks after I had a baby we went to get me a new phone. I ended up with this an LG C2000. I had the normal New Phone Euphoria, but it ended quickly. I couldn't hear on the thing. So I go to take it back to Cingular and they won't let me return in because I am missing the manual. By the time I get around to getting back to them to return it (keep in mind I have a new baby), I am past the 30 day return policy by 2 days. They tell me the only thing I can do is to send it in under warranty and get a new phone--the same kind of phone. This is after when I tried to take it back the first time, one of the sales people told me they had been hearing a lot of complaints about that phone. Great.

So I send the phone back and get the new one and it seems to be working better. I still have problems hearing sometimes and the volume does nothing to help. I sometimes have to call someone back and that will fix the problem, but it's really annoying.

So about two weeks ago, my phone decided to quick ringing when I had an incoming call. Not all the time, but on occassion. And to add to that fun, when I tried to make an outgoing call, I got "Channel Not Available". No, Cingular's tagline right now is "The Network with the least dropped calls." I don't think so. They just like to call them other things. Like, "Call ended," or ," Call Failed," or "Channel Not Available," or my personal favorite is when the phone acts like you didn't even hit SEND. So, imagine, the phone doesn't ring, all of a sudden I have a voicemail. I try to call voicemail to find out who called and can't because there isn't a d&$n channel available. Rinse. Repeat. My hubby has finally just resorted to text messaging me with "Call Me."

I called customer service last week and the chipper girl on the other end told me to take the phone in to get the sim (sp?) card replaced and that should fix the problem. So I went to go on Saturday to our local corporate store. We actually have 3 Cingular "stores" in our vicinity, but 2 of them are only retailers, so they are useless really. So I go to where the corporate store used to be, and it's gone. So, we scratch that. I go on Sunday after looking up their new location. Ironically it is 2 doors down from where we had dinner last Friday night. I take in the phone, they replace the sim card. I ask, "Is this going to fix the problem?" Her response, "We hope so." That's comforting.

Well, the phone is still not working correctly. I call customer service again today. Guess what? The phone is no longer under warranty. Guess when it expired? Go on and guess? Sunday, three days ago. My options: 1) Get a new phone (same model; because it's such a good phone right?) for $65; 2) Get an upgrade to a new phone with a small discount. I asked what it would cost to upgrade to the phone my hubby has that normally retails for $239.99. With discount $184.99 with $79 rebate. Sounds good, but why should I have to pay to replace a phone that pretty much has been a piece of crap. 3) wait until November when I am actually eligible for an upgrade. Crikey, what to do?

I am going to have hubby call later and see what we can try and fanagle out of them since technically, I was in on the last day of my warranty and they didn't fix my phone, and we (really hubby, has been a customer for over 10 years) and it all just sucks a big fat toe.

So, I think that if Cingular and Blogger got together, they could make really useless babies. Maybe we could use them to create new reality shows?