ATT, Cingular and Frustration

My wife's cell phone is old and almost broken. The calling plan we have from ATT is not as cost effective as newer plans. ATT & Cingular have just merged. Seems like a good time to upgrade the phone and move to a more cost effective plan. So, off to the ATT store we go -- same old store, new Cingular signs.

Youngish guy greets us, asks what he can do for us. We tell him. We want a bar phone (not flip) with blue tooth capability. That's the phone over there, he says -- but its not available anywhere in Illinois -- backordered, he says. You can have flip and Bluetooth, or no flip and no Bluetooth. OK, we say, let's get the new Cingular plan on the old phone until the new one comes in. Can't do, he says. Your old phone is locked to ATT, and we did not want to force anyone to convert, he says.

HUH? The phone is locked to the chip by software. ATT knows how to unlock it. Once again, ATT arrogance comes to the fore, even though the company was bought by Cingular.

The outlook is bleak.