If you’re thinking about switching to Cingular before the iPhone is released in June - think again. What I discovered is that Cingular isn’t interested in your business…just yet. Read on (the short answer - wait until June).
I’m a long-time Apple user, since the Apple ][ in 1981, and I have tried a number of smartphones over the years from the Palm to the BlackBerry to Windows Mobile to the Sidekick. Nothing has really clicked with me, and I’ve always hoped that Apple would release its own smartphone. Many years of hope coupled with many years of frustration with existing phones meant that I was elated last week with the announcement of the Apple iPhone. I was down in San Francisco for business meetings, and made arrangements to be at the keynote this year. This was a great year to be at MacWorld (at least for the keynote).
After returning home from MacWorld a few days ago, I started planning a switch to Cingular. My rationale on moving to Cingular sooner than later was that the process of getting out of my T-Mobile contract might be more difficult in June when the majority of people were making the switch. By switching to Cingular now, I would be ready to go with the iPhone in advance of the public release, and possibly avoid any changes to my existing contract terms by T-Mobile, dealing with the loss of a large number of iPhone converts down the road.
The first step in switching was to call T-Mobile customer service. I explained that I intended to cancel my contract sometime before June and wanted to understand the various options to avoid paying an early termination free. With a family plan and three phone numbers with T-Mobile (self, spouse, and child), I was informed that I would need to pay $600 to terminate the three phone numbers ($200 per number), and pay the full balance of the two-year contract for each. If I were to walk away from T-Mobile right now, the amount due would be $2,800. Heh. Not an option. The T-Mobile customer service agent asked why I was interesting in canceling my account. I told her about my interest in the iPhone and she tried to convince me that the iPhone would work on the T-Mobile network. Nice try, but Apple intends to lock the iPhone using software to limit access to Cingular only. It’s not clear to me whether the agent was simply misinformed or if there was an internal stance from T-Mobile on customers calling about the iPhone.
I called back again and spoke to another T-Mobile agent, this time asking about how to transfer my contract. The second T-Mobile agent explained that I had three separate phone numbers, and even though all the phone numbers were part of a single family plan with one payment, I had to transfer all three phone numbers to get out of my contract. Not only that, contract transfers were not eligible for number portability, so I’d have to get new phone numbers with Cingular. What a pain.
I had my answer, even if I didn’t like it - it was time to promote my contracts on the Internet. I posted entries on the three main mobile phone switcher sites - Resellular, Cellswapper, and CelltradeUSA. I offered a $100 cash incentive for anyone taking over my three-number contract, and also posted to Craiglist, offering a T-Mobile BlackBerry Pearl as part of the deal. In less than a day, I had a good response from my Craigslist posting. I thought I might as well just switch to Cingular now, to free up the BlackBerry Pearl right away for a potential buyer. I’d buy my wife a replacement phone and move the unlocked phones for my son and myself to Cingular. In June, my wife and I would both purchase iPhones from the Apple Store. This sounded like the best plan under the circumstances.
This afternoon, I visited the Cingular retail store, but failed to notice the “authorized retailer” tag underneath the logo. A few minutes into an description of my switching plan, I could tell I had made a mistake. This wasn’t Cingular Corp I was speaking to, but a local merchant who had licensed the Cingular brand. Working through an authorized retailer on this switching plan might be a problem, and I left the store after thanking the employees for their time.
I then drove over to a Cingular corporate retail store. I explained the situation to an employee - I was a T-Mobile customer with a family plan and three phone numbers. I wanted to get a comparable plan, two SIM chips for my two existing, unlocked phones, and a new phone - totaling three phone numbers under one family plan bill. I wanted to do this in a way that would not limit my ability to purchase two iPhones in June under the two-year contract requirement. The employee explained to me that any plan I chose would require a one-year contract minimum, and that I might not be eligible for the iPhone at the $499/$599 price points in June due to the fact that I would only be under the first contract for five months. Providing me with the ‘discounted’ iPhone price in June would be at the discretion of the store manager, and the store was currently without a manager. She couldn’t help me. I was out of luck. I left the store frustrated with Cingular - I wanted to become a paying customer and the company was erecting barriers in front of me. I had no choice, though. The iPhone required service with Cingular.
I called the main Cingular phone number from the retail store’s parking lot. I explained the situation again to the sales agent on the phone. She suggested that I take this issue up with customer service instead. I was transferred, and after waiting on hold for a few minutes, the call was disconnected. I called back and explained the situation again to the customer service agent. She told me that I needed to speak with the ‘Review Team’ and supplied me a different 800 number. *sigh* I called the Review Team and explained my situation, yet again, to another employee of Cingular. The agent explained to me that yes, this way an issue that was at the discretion of the store manager. I explained to her that I did not plan to buy my iPhones directly form Cingular, but the online Apple Store. The Cingular store manager was unlikely to assist me if I wasn’t going to buy the phones from Cingular directly. I made it clear to the Review Team agent that what I was attempting to do was going to be a common request among a large number of future iPhone customers and asked her to escalate this issue to her managers for review.
What confuses me about this situation is that Cingular would penalize me for switching early. I tried to become a Cingular customer today, paying a total of at least $600 in monthly service fees between now and the release of the iPhone, and purchasing a new phone in the interim. Cingular really isn’t interested in having me as a customer right now. I have more buying power if I wait until June and become a new Cingular customer at that time, committing to a new, two-year contract. So now, my plans have changed. I will keep my T-Mobile accounts active until June and then look for someone to take them over when hundreds of thousands of other people are trying to do the same. Switching early isn’t going to happen, and I’ll be lucky to get out of my T-Mobile contract without problems.
UPDATE 01/14/07: I emailed Cingular CEO Stan Sigman yesterday and have already received two personal responses from representatives of “HQ - Office of the President” (over the weekend!). I have been informed that someone will be contacting me on Monday. I’m not asking for anything personally from Cingular - I just want them to make the process easier for iPhone fans that are willing to switch early.
UPDATE 01/14/07, #2: I submitted this blog entry to digg.com yesterday and am surprised to see that it (so far) has reached a digg level of 1,100+, is one of the top ten stories on digg, and has resulted in over 16,000 visitors to my blog. I am disappointed by some of the comments (see my digg comment log), especially those that are passing judgement on either my motivations or my intelligence. I posted this blog entry because I wanted to document the process of switching to Cingular. My hope was that others thinking about switching (prior to the release of the iPhone) would learn from my own experience and be better prepared. This will be a common issue for many future iPhone owners attempting to switch early. I want my experience with Cingular and Apple to be the best it can be. I will post any response I get from Cingular on Monday.
UPDATE 01/15/07: I just approved all of the comments on this post that were suck in the moderation queue. I had turned off auto-posting due to problems with SPAM awhile back. Similar to the comments on digg, the responses here range broadly from support to contempt. 
UPDATE 01/16/07: I received a response from Cingular by email, but the information given to me (e.g. contract requirement, phone pricing, etc.) was mostly a rehash of the news from MacWorld last week. The Cingular rep gave me her phone number and I will plan to call on Wednesday for more information.
UPDATE 01/17/07: I wasn’t able to call the Cingular rep until late in the afternoon. I left her a voicemail and sent an email asking her to call me. Nothing new to report. All I am trying to accomplish at this point is to explain my experience over the weekend and see if Cingular might have some better path for customers that want to swtich early. I don’t expect much, and plan at this point to switch in June as a new customer.
UPDATE 01/18/07: The story is over. I received a call today from the Cingular customer representative that was assigned my case. She has read this blog entry and the advice given to me is to wait until June. The customer representative was polite, but it was clear that Cingular had a set of policies in place regarding a one-year contract minimum and didn’t see much value to the customer in creating any special offer for future iPhone owners wanting to switch early. Her point was that by waiting until June, iPhone customers will be eligible for the 30-day no-questions-asked money-back guarantee if the service or the phone is not to the customer’s liking. A fair point, if you buy the phone from Cingular. What if you buy from the Apple Store? I suspect that a considerable number of early adopters will opt to buy directly from Apple, and the return policy should, in all likelihood, resemble the return policy on an iPod or a Mac, which I believe is more restrictive. Anyway, we have an answer - Cingular doesn’t want iPhone ’switchers’ just yet, the title of this blog entry has been validated by Cingular directly. I’ll see you in June, AT&T Wireless Cingular AT&T.
UPDATE 01/20/07: One last note…I found someone to take over my son’s T-Mobile contract on Craigslist. I bought my son a cheap Cingular Go Phone with no contract yesterday. Reception at my home and work are both excellent on the Cingular network, which was one of my concerns. When June rolls around, I will now only have two contracts to worry about, instead of three. One of the two remaining contracts expires in November 2007, and other expires in June 2008. I found it easier to transfer a contract than expected, although the buyer and I were on the phone for over 30 minutes with T-Mobile dealing with various departments and all. If you are going to do this, make sure that you can be on the phone with the contract buyer during this proess, as there are issues for both parties to address.
