vB Easy Archive - eWEEK.com story about Cingular data problems with the Treo650

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eWEEK.com story about Cingular data problems with the Treo650
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Posted by: eschuman

At eWEEK.com, we just ran a piece about data problems that Cingular has been having with the Treo650. Have any of you experienced similar problems? Any feedback or insights would be appreciated. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1771603,00.asp

Posted by: JPVann

I bought my 650 direct from Cingular - as an ATT customer I was treated to all the deals a new customer would get.

I walked in with three web deals for $349 and Cingular rep matched the price, sold me the correct unlimited data plan for $24.99 and I had my number switched and the phone working in under 20 minutes.

It was a breeze. The writer of this article seemed to me that he was looking for problems. I had none.

Posted by: dpike

This reviewer was not "looking for problems." Problems exist all over the landscape with both Cingular and Palm (650).

What's clearly happening is that some people, bless their souls, are getting phones that largely work fine out of the box.

But there are plenty of people with phones that are, to put it mildly, glitchy, and the people with the working phones don't seem to believe the tales of woe of the unfortunate.

As for Cingular, everything is true: the CS reps, who strike me as much better trained and competent than they were 3-4 years ago, are very, very ill-informed about most things, and the Cingular website is a bad joke.

I could never figure out what's so difficult for a multi-billion dollar company about maintaining an effective website.

But Cingular can't do it.

Posted by: NoelEiffe

This article is pretty consistent with my experience of Cingular. It's amazing how everyone knows nothing about data services. I have a plan and still don't know what I have or how really to access it all. No one can really tell me. Furstrating.

Love the 650 despite all that.

Posted by: eschuman

FYI: eWEEK.com just posted this follow-up to the Cingular data story, which quotes lots of Cingular users discussing their experiences:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1773135,00.asp

Posted by: mikemj23

My experience was also a breeze. I own a RAZR phone with unlimited Media Works ($19.99/month), purchased in 11/04. Decided about 2 weeks ago that I wanted a Treo 650 for business purposes - email, calendar etc. - instead of an Ipaq. Called Cingular customer service and asked a very simple question : If I buy a 650 from the PalmOne site, can I hot swap my SIM between my RAZR and Treo and have all the voice and data capabilities without having to change my plan? For the rep who I spoke to, it was a pretty easy question. He said that my unlimited data plan was "grandfathered" and that I should have no issue hot swapping the SIM for voice and data purposes on both devices. I'm happy to report, I ordered the Cingular Treo w/out a new voice activation on a Thursday night and had the Treo in my hands working with no issues on Monday morning.

Guess I got lucky . . .

Posted by: dpike

You probably were a little bit lucky - I've had Cingular reps who were so nice, polite, and (seemingly) informed that I couldn't ask for me, and that does distinguish them from the people who worked for Cingular as CS reps 2-3-4 years ago, I think.

On the other hand, I talked with no fewer than 3 a couple weeks ago, and all were polite, articulate, "seemingly" well-informed, and every one of them was wrong.

One told me, in direct response to my question, that the 650 over Cingular had all the features. I was asking SPECIFICALLY about Dial-up Networking over Bluetooth (DUN). Well, it does NOT because Cingular crippled it. The rep. was just reading of a website description of this phone, apparently unaware that Cingular and other companies tamper with these phones all the time.

So I cancelled my phone order - had a great and competent Cingular rep - and ordered the unlocked GSM from Palm at Palm's outrageous price.

The first one had such low level call audio is was virtually unuseable. I got Palm technical support and then customer service to admit to me that they "were just finding out about this issue" (which I believe), and they promptly sent me a new phone. I have NOT had any noticeable problems with it, though the call volume level at its maximum is still just barely sufficient (i.e., in a noisier environment I have my doubts about whether the phone can be used easily.