MA BELL CALLING

Recently Cingular Wireless -- owned solely by Southwestern Bell Corp (now simply known as SBC) -- bought out AT&T Wireless.

I have always been an AT&T customer since the court ordered disvesture of the Bell families because it was the parent company.

Wireless service, internet service, cable television and now home Broadband based phone service.

Never a problem of any sort.

Comcast bought the internet provider and cable television franchise and that is still relatively trouble free, especially the internet service.

So Ma Bell rears its ugly head and buys AT&T under the pseudonym of Cingular.

A bad telephone company under any other name is still a bad telephone company.

How long, I wondered, would it take SBC to louse up what AT&T had built?

Didn't take me long at all to find out-- not long at all.

Last month, the first under the Cingular name, I went to the wireless company's website -- just as I had been doing for years with no problems -- to log on and pay my bill.

My user name and password -- which had always worked -- was rejected. I was told that if I was a former AT&T customer I would have to re-register my phones to use online bill payment.

I put in my phone number, filled in the appropriate information, hit the send button and was immediately told there was already an account established for that phone number.

So I re-registered using my wife's phone number and got the same response.

Thinking this might have triggered something I once again tried to logon and pay my bill only to be told once again I had to register something it would not let me register.

I called customer service three times -- the third time getting an operator I could understand and who spoke basic English.

"I tried to pay my bill online and it won't let me." I told him.

He advised me I could pay him over the phone.

"I don't pay on the phone -- I pay online." I replied.

"Well," he said, "we have been experiencing problems with our website but we are working to get it straightened out soon as possible."

"Fine," I said, "I'll mail my payment."

"Then it will be late," he replied.

"That is your problem." I said, "I tried to pay on time and you won't let me."

This month the same thing happened.

The entire system AT&T built that worked has been totally trashed by Ma Bell and it only took her 60 days to do it.

When this contract expires I intend to switch to Sprint or Verizon -- they can't be this bad.

So when you see that Cingular propaganda on TV saying how they are trying to "raise the bar" -- believe it.

But the bar they are trying to raise is one that prevents the customer from receiving good service.