How to Get the Most Out of a Cingular Contract

Yesterday was a very nice day... for ex Verizon employees to give out tips on how one can get everything possible out of a contract. Everything until the last drop! Today, a Cingular former sales representative walked the same path its fellow ex Verizon rep took a day before, giving away seven useful tips on how the Cingular customers could use the piece of paper they signed to their own advantage.

First one teaches you how you can avoid any contract extensions by going to a Cingular store to change your rate plan: "If you want to change your rate plan, do it in a retail store instead of on-line or over the phone. Officially after 1/2 of your contract is over a rate plan change results in a contract extension, but I've never once seen that rule enforced in the store."

Get everything you want from a sales representative by offering to get a text plan, some accessories or a data package because you can cancel them on-line or over the phone the second you got out the store, or return them in 30 days (in the case of accessories): "You can just about get about get a rep to do anything you want if you offer to get a text package or a data package, and they can be cancelled on-line or over the phone the second you leave the store. The same goes for accessories. Offer to get accessories if it will get you a deal, they can be returned no questions asked within 30 days. (Let me put it this way, if a customer came in looking to get a treo w/the data package and accessories I would have sold a Treo 750 for $100 after rebate)".

Upgrade your handset more often than your friends using Cingular by having a higher priced rate plan: "[Cingular's] upgrade policies are similar to Verizon's, if someone's rate plan has been 75 dollars or higher (including features, but excluding taxes) for the last three months, they can upgrade 1/2 way through their contract".

Get your cellphone at the website price in the store because they have to match the two prices (if you tell them to and know what the website prices are): "Remember that the retail stores can match prices for the Cingular website, so check those prices before you go into a store."

Get a rebate when buying a handset by convincing the sales representative you will also get accessories for the device (accessories that you can return in 30 days anyway :) ): "Try to get the rep to give you the rebate in the store, they'll be likely to do this if you agree to get accessories."

Surf the web or do anything you want on the Internet from your mobile phone without paying a dime for it by getting a 20 $ mediaMAX data package: "Also, regardless of what kind of phone you have a $20 mediaMAX data package will give you unlimited access to the web that will not use your minutes, whether you're using a phone, a PDA, or even a laptop card."

Get more credit than you should by using your mistakes to your advantage (I never thought this would be possible but it seems it really can be done): "If you go way over on your text messaging one month, go into a store and ask if they can credit you the difference if you sign up for a bigger text package. They should be able to do this, and you can always drop your text back down after you've gotten your credit."

I think every Cingular customer will find these advices very useful and for that, we have to give a big thank you to the guy that wrote them down for us and to the website that published them.

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