Caller ID - a cell phone saga

May 19, 2004 · Comments

First of all, I really do like “Cingular”:http://www.cingular.com as a cell phone company overall. There is no better coverage in this part of Connecticut. Besides, I’m indentured to them for another 2 years so like it or not, I’m stuck with them.

But what I thought was a simple matter has been dragging on for months, and I have to vent about it. Because if you can’t vent to the world on your blog, where can you vent?

I have a cell phone with Cingular. Eric has a cell phone with Cingular. We have a home phone with SBC local and long distance. At one point, Cingular, SNET, SBC or whatever were all the same company. So we have what is known as “combined billing.” The bill for both cell phones and our home phone local & long distance come all in one package. On some months (particularly when we were out of the house last year and using our cell phones constantly) the total on this one bill could pay off part of the national debt, but it’s been reasonable the past few months as I’m home more often and using my cell phone less.

The good thing about combined billing is it’s all in one place. The bad thing is that I can’t check my minutes online and when I call someone from my cell phone it appears as “Eric Sohn” in the caller ID. This bothers me. I love my husband, but if I’m calling a client from *my* cell phone I want the call to appear as coming from me. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

About 3 months ago, just around the time I got the “new phone”:http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/misc/who_said_convergence_is_everything.php I called Cingular and asked them what would it take to change the caller ID on my phone. “Well, it’s not your phone. It’s your husband’s name on the account. He has to make any changes.” Okay, fine. I have Eric sign a piece of paper giving me the authorization to make changes on *our* account. I call back. “I’m authorized. Change the caller ID on my phone to my name.” I would have been happy if it at least said “Eric & Judi Sohn” or just “Sohn”. No, can’t do that because it’s a combined bill account. The only way to change the caller ID on one phone line is to separate it from the account. Fine, I say. Separate it. “Well, even though you are authorized on the account you can’t make this change. It has to come from your husband because the account is still in his name.” Fine. I have Eric call Cingular. Eric tells me that they’re mailing the necessary paperwork to transfer my cell phone account only from his name to mine. About a week later we get the paperwork, fill it out and send it back. Then nothing. Weeks go by. I can’t face calling Cingular again, so last Saturday we stopped by a Cingular store. I explained the situation to the nice woman at the store who pulls my account up on her computer. She has a record that I called to ask about the change, she has a record that Eric called, she has a record that the paperwork was mailed to us. Nothing after that. The woman at the store was very nice, and she ran interference for me. She called the line sales people can use and went through all the hoops that I did. I filled out the paperwork *again* and 20 minutes later she assured me that I would receive a fax on Monday confirming the transfer. Monday, no fax. Tuesday, no fax. Today I had a meeting near the store so I stopped in afterwards. The same lady was there. She was surprised I hadn’t received anything, so she called again. It took another 20 minutes of sitting there while the sales person spoke to her call center, and I was finally assured that the account was separated. Sure enough, I now have a separate account number and can check my minutes online. When I log in to the Cingular website it shows the account as being in my name.

But when I call someone, it’s still showing as “Eric Sohn” in the caller ID and the person at the Cingular Store can’t figure out why. ::sigh::

Update 5/26/04: Yesterday I received a phone call from Cingular that the Caller ID issue had been fixed. It now says “Judith Sohn” when I call someone from my cell phone. Yah!

But now my Fast Forward doesn’t work. :-( I get the green light when I put the phone in the cradle, but calls are not being routed through to my home phone even though “Fast Foward” does appear on my account as added service.

Is Cingular really a house of cards, or am I just “lucky”?

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