DO NOT USE CINGULAR GO PHONE!! I had a lot of problems with GO Phone and know another two people who are getting ripped off.
I bought the phone early June 2005. They told me no roaming charges free long distance and I pay just 10 cent a minute and $1 on a day I use the phone. So I bought it from my TX home. Then I visited to CA and I could not use the phone. I tried calling my friend with cingular plan who was sitting next to me. His phone rang but got disconnected right after he answered. It said "check service status" even though signal was very strong. I tried several times sine I pay nothing if I call within cingular network. Guess what! They charged me $1.30 for every try I made even though connection did not last one second. Basically I could not use the phone the whole time i was visiting there. It was so much trouble.
When I called customer service they are very rude. They told me I could not use the phone anymore since my $25 balance was depleted. They ignored the fact that the balance was depleted due to overcharges and not bother looking into it the problem. I had to call customer service several times (at least 5 times) hoping somebody will notice the problem. I was told that technician will look into it and call me back. And they never call me back!
Finally I called again and talked to supervisor directly (I had to beg to talk to supervisor). I obtained detail billing and calculated total charges which is not summing up to the balance I added. When I point this out, she, who was in total denial about their problems, said it was just a glitch in their system and agreed to make balance adjustment. A glitch! A glitch that took away $25 balance was not noticeable to several people in customer service department! Were they just trained how to ignore their problem and how to make customers miserable.
I cannot return the phone since it is over 30 days now so I am stuck with the phone. They still not acknowledging the problem that I cannot use the phone in CA even though I should be able to according to their plan description. Be aware guys. If you are patient and can spend a lot of time calling customer service to get your money back, you are sure to lose your money with this Cingular plan.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You could have been telling my story. I have _two_ Cingular phones; the one works okay with an _Independence, KS_ 620-330 number. The other phone is a former AT&T (now Cingular Prepaid phone I think it is called 'Free to Go'.) Both phones are the older digital Nokia 5165 phones, the difference is only that one is prepaid via AT&T, the other is a 'regular' cell phone. Starting Friday, the prepaid phone quit fuctioning. It has a Wichita KS 316-841 number on it, with, I might add, twenty dollars in credit. Cingular customer service, which appears to be located in India these days, absolutely insisted I could not have a prepaid wireless phone since they had no wireless coverage in my area. They said "as soon as you get back in the Wichita area, your phone will start working again." I asked them if that was so, then (if the towers could not reach me) why wasn't voice mail kicking in to take the messages? They just kept repeating their stupid answer: because we have no service in your area. I finally said 'being an ignorant ##*@ based in your native land somewhere, you probably would not know much about our cell phones here.' They had just a few minutes earlier taken a twenty five dollar payment from my credit card. Those Cingular/AT&T/SBC customer service reps are so incredibly stupid it is beyond my comprehension. I said well, if you do not have service in my area, then please arrange to refund the twenty dollars you just now took on my account. And wouldn't you know it, the sweet dear little Indian lady who referred to herself as 'employee ID 627' insisted 'we do not give any refunds on prepaid service'. You will this time, I told her, Small Claims Court here in Montgomery County is just four block down the street from my house, and I do not have to sue you in California or Texas or India or wherever, _I just sue your local resale agent here in Independence_. Hopefully your superiors will screw up and not make any response to the suit. She finally came up with a post office box address (no phone nor fax nor email address available) for some entity called 'Cingular Free to Go' in Anaheim Hills, CA and I fired off a letter to them yesterday making demand for the return of my money _or_ preferably, a working phone with my 316-841 number since someone else told me the only service they will now initiate in 620 is GSM. I will tell you, if Ignorance was Bliss, then Cingular customer service people would be the happiest in the world. PAT]