The Cingular/AT&T Merger

M

Megan W

New member
Hello to everybody. I'm Soundblast and I'm new to the forum.

The reason why I am here is that I'm here is that I'm a college student in a Business Communications class who has been a project that is writing a business report. The topic I was given was the merger that took place between Cingular and AT&T a few years back. Which has some relevance to me due to myself being a former Cingular, and now AT&T, customer

I've decided to focus this report on how the merger has affected the customers. My research so far has shown that there were quite a few instances of customers being left in the wind in a variety of circumstances.

So my question is, if and how were people here affected by the merger? Was anybody in your family or one of your friends affected? Be it positive or negative.
 
Mine was a very positive experience. The original AT&T used the 1900 band & had poor reception indoors. After the merger we got the best of both worlds 850 & 1900. :)
Palm850/v0100 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11)
 
As a customer I loved it, felt it was great. It happened I began working for Cingular as the merger began, we didn't finally change the name around work and start using At&t's name on the phone til after I'd been there six months. I have a unique position on it I guess because of the department I worked in, basically dealing with trouble customers or ones that had major issues and called in constantly whether they needed to or not.

Most people were receptive to it, recognizing that it would only bring better service, etc. Then quite a few people went into utter panic once their phone stopped showing Cingular. I got/still do get complaints that since the merger their service has been horrible and so has their customer service. I do know in every company some people really don't want to be there, but I really like my job and I'm the biggest nerd with really knowing what I'm doing and talking about...other people just make stuff up to rush people off the phone or transfer them somewhere else. Since the merger we have done a ton of hiring and still are one of the companies that hire on a continuous basis because of our growth...all in all I would say any merger/changes you are going to have some critics or people that just don't like change.

Another thing that just happened to be a coincidence was that technology changed and 3G became the new way and all the old GAIT/TDMA phones were costing the company just way to much to keep on...we announced having to turn off those towers which meant making people change their phones and plans which met with huge opposition.

If you really want some insight into more of the company, there many hot issues between At&t and the CWA as most of our contracts are expiring and rumors of striking abound, check our their site and watch the updates: Bargaining and Mobilization
 
bleh i had AT&T in new york city was so disappointed with reception so I switched to Tmobile.
When that contract was done I went with Cingular, avoiding at&t.
What! got mergered? I was sad but reception is ok in Texas so no big deal.
 
Our family was effected greatly.

I, personally, have been part of the new AT&T, but not the old Cingular/AT&T combo.

My other family members have been effected. Customers who had an AT&T Wireless TDMA device were forced to get new devices within 6 months of the completion of the merger. That was not a huge deal. When offered a good Cingular device, you had to pay FULL retail price with your upgrade credit you were granted early.

That wasn't a huge issue. They merged over happily...service was and still is not the best...but oh well.

THEN, Cingular decided they were going to file chapter 11 bankruptcy. They became the "New AT&T"...which is their current company. They forced us to get brand new AT&T devices or at least an AT&T SIM Card, which was $50. They eventually forced us to get a new phone, so everyone else switched to Verizon, like I have been.
 
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