"I have had Verizon for ten years, but I needed phones that would roam in Europe, and decided to go to Cingular," the reader wrote. "After telling the folks at Cingular that I needed the phones for trips being made in the next two months, and being told 'no problem,' I shelled out some $600 for four high-end quad mode phones from Motorola. I confirmed with Cingular and Best Buy (where I bought the phones) before signing that the phones would work when I showed up in Europe, no additional activation charge or notification was required."
The reader then gave one of the phones to his teenage daughter to take to Sweden. "The phone didn't work there," the reader wrote. "I called Cingular to be told that they won't activate the phones until I have established a one year history with them. (I am 50 years old and I have excellent credit.) I told them when I bought the phones I was told that my credit history made this unnecessary. Nope (not sorry, 'nope'), not true. No exceptions. Don't even ask."
I almost switched to Cingular for this trip to Australia (and a trip I'll be making to Europe later this year). It was laziness that stopped me, but it seems just as well - a one year waiting period???. That's just a sick joke. This is exactly the sort of word of mouth story that loses more customers than a company ever realizes...
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