infinite improbability

I don't trust cell phone companies

So, last week I sign up for a cell phone with Cingular. I decided to go with Cingular because that's what the rest of my family has, which saves minutes because with certain plans, you get free calls to other Cingular customers. I signed up for the cheapest plan that gave free mobile to mobile calling, which was apparently an internet special because that plan doesn't normally give those minutes for free. Well, I get my phone yesterday and everything seems to be going without a hitch, it activates itself automatically, and I don't have to worry about dealing with any real humans. Until, I hit glitch numero uno. I try to set up my voicemail and when I enter my phone number to access my mailbox, I get the "mailbox not recognized" error message. I'm like, ok, fine, it should be an easy call, it's probably something minor. When I called up Cingular today (after navigating half a dozen menus before getting to a real person), the lady on the other end tells me that they "forgot to include voice mail when they set up the phone," and goes ahead and activates it for me. That's when I start worrying because if they forgot that, what else did they forget? So, I ask the customer service rep what features are activated, just to make sure they didn't miss anything, and sure enough, they forgot to include unlimited mobile to mobile calling. When I told her, "wait, I'm supposed to have mobile to mobile calling" she acted dumb like she hadn't heard of the concept and then told me that my plan didn't include it. I replied that no, I was supposed to have it, my order confirmation said it was included, but she just repeated back to me the number of minutes on my plan and said that it wasn't included. This went on, back and forth, for another minute or so, with me insisting that yes, it was on my order confirmation that I was getting it, and her insisting that no, that was impossible. By that point, I had dug through my papers and had found my confirmation print out and told her I had the order confirmation right in front of me and that it said "unlimited mobile to mobile" and did she want the confirmation number. Immediately after I said that, she miraculously discovered that I was supposed to have it and activated it.

I'm convinced that Cingular leaves things off people's bills or adds things to them, to make the customer pay more, in hopes that the person doesn't notice, doesn't bother to call, or if they do call, they buy the claim that the customer service person feeds them and doesn't bother to argue.