Cingular bans the word "engadget" from its customer forums
By Peter Rojas 
posted September 13th 2006 7:15AM
posted September 13th 2006 7:15AM
Oh, Cingular. We know you're pissed at us -- you stopped returning our phone calls a while ago after we posted that product roadmap we got our hands on -- but banning all mention of our name, as well as our URL, from your user forums is a little cheap and heavy-handed, don't you think? Guess you don't want your users making informed decisions about your service. Anyway, we must be doing something right, because here's the message users get when trying to post anything to Cingular's customer forums with the word "engadget" in it:
The message body contains the following prohibited content: 'Engadget' You must remove this content before submitting your post.
When writing your message, remember to keep the language clean.
Then again, from what we understand "engadget" is now a swear word in Albanian, so maybe we're being unreasonable.
[Thanks, David K.]
Update: There is one Engadget mention in an old forum post, but as of Thursday, September 14th, the word "engadget" is still banned!
Update 2: It took about a week, but we're unbanned!
The reason why this happend is because it seems that Cingular is going to shut off people who use Cingular's Ogo service. And the information has leaked before Cingular made any kind of announcement.
As a former Cingular customer service represenative I can tell you that Higher Ups in that company absolutly hate sites like engadget. They are far to informative. People learn about unlocked phones and future products(osborne effect) and both of that hurts cingular when it comes to increasing their average revenue per user. ARPU. They have blocked sites like this and most forums from all company computers even though I always considered this site and others like phonescoop and mobility today incredible resources. That often hurt me when talking to Power Cell phone users like most visitors to engadget. Its all about the money. Think about it. They still charge an $18 upgrade fee when customers change handsets even though all we are doing is updating the imie # in the system. They also actively try to terminate service with LTV1 (life time value 1) customers. Those are customers that generate less than $50 in Revenue per month. They are never elegible for upgrades. We were told to never adjust their bills. We never sent them to our Customer Retention Team (SAVE Team) and they never got the benefit of hearing from a Cingular customer care advocate after a bad experience. They always were and continue to be screwed over. So FYI if you pay less then $50 a month and your a Cingular customer and you are wondering why you continously recieve horrible customer service, you now know why. You are unwanted. LOL. I'd like to thank you for choosing Cingular Wireless. The network with more bars in more place. Have a great day.
As a former Cingular customer service represenative and a current T-Mobile customer I can tell you that Higher Ups in that company absolutly hate sites like engadget. They are far to informative. People learn about unlocked phones and future products(osborne effect) and both of that hurts cingular whenit comes to increasing their average revenue per user. ARPU. They have blocked sites like this and most forums from all company
computers even though I always considered this site and others like phonescoop and mobility today incredible resources. That often hurt
me when talking to Power Cell phone users like most visitors to engadget. Its all about the money. Think about it. They still charge an $18 upgrade fee when customers change handsets even though all we
are doing is updating the imie # in the system. They also activelytry to terminate service with LTV1 (life time value 1) customers. Those are customers that generate less than $50 in Revenue per month.
They are never elegible or upgrades. We were told to never adjust their bills. (we could transfer to Fraud) We never sent them to our Customer Retention Team(SAVE Team) and they never got the benefit of hearing from a Cingular customer care advocate after a bad experience. They always were and continue to be screwed over. So FYI if you pay less then $50 a month
and your a Cingular customer and you are wondering why you continously recieve horrible customer service, you now know why. You are unwanted. LOL. I'd like to thank you for choosing Cingular Wireless. The network with more bars in more place. Have a great day. and FYI(Cingular may not have the best network but they DO have the largest digital voice and data network in America. Its significantly larger than Verizon's)
John Doe- CSR1
Lubbock Call Center - Currently Servicing the Southeast Region
As a Cingular Customer Service Representative and Professional, I'm commited to one call resolution. I am determined to keep our promises, follow through, and exceed customer expectations!
This e-mail, and any attachments, are intended only for use by the addressee(s) named herein and may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. It is the property of Cingular Wireless. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this email, any attachments thereto, and any use of the information contained is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify me at 888-552-4171 and permanently delete the original and any copy
LOL F you Cingular
I must say, what a bunch of girls on here posting crap! Every mobile carrier sucks. Every mobile carrier has better/worse service in certain areas. I have been with At&T/Cingular for over 9 years now and I have no issues.
Maybe if you cheapskates would buy a phone instead of always going for the free deal phone, you would have better luck. But more importantly, who gives a $h!t about this banned forum word.
You people need a life.
YOU GO ENGADGET!
Simple solution! Just write "N-Gadget" or "3ngadget"...gotta love simple ways of getting around blocks...@$$|-|013$! ....sorry XD
I am not a fan of that forum, not only because of the forum software they use (archaic and unfriendly) but also because there is too much censorship. This ban simply means Engadget is an important and credible entity on the Internet that Cingular doesn't want its name on.
Cingular is horrible and now im stuck with them for 2 years. I get horrible signal and call quality is horrible even with a decent signal.
Pretty funny how so many people jump on a stupid band wagon of blind hate, and over exaggeration. I GET DROPPED CALLS ALL THE TIME!! ALL DAY EVERYDAY!!
Being someone with a Novatel U730 aircard in the Seattle area. I have never had this fast or reliable connection, yes sometimes I don't have a lot of bars in my apartment, but that's with any Cellular network. In cities.. coverage is gonna be approximatly the same with all carriers. Difference in providers is gonna be Network reliability, pricing, roaming, and if you travel out to the backwoods.. coverage out there. I have T-mobile for one reason, unlimited mobile to mobile with friends/girlfriend. I have a Cingular Aircard because HSDPA is amazing, and I have always good customer service from them.
Oh BTW
http://forums.cingular.com/cng/search?submitted=true&q=engadget
So not sure that this news post is at all valid. I love Engadget, And I browse this site all day at work. Wouldn't you think putting up a post about Cingular being petty is kinda redundent? And it doesn't look to good now that it isn't even true.
It's still a problem. Check the screen shot:
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5059/cingoppressionwy1.jpg
As stated above, there is only one post on their board with "Engadget" in it.
Thanks Chris Miller:
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/4563/cingfunnyfs7.jpg
As if anyone actually goes to Cingular's forums?
LOL that is so lame that they did that
Engadget you!
I sense bad cingular reviews in the future.
I've been a Cingular customer and I'm not crazy about some of thier policies but my phone works great. My wife however, has had many, many dropped calls. I would also say that since I don't live near a major city that the coverage would be suspect anyway. But thier claims of "least amount of dropped calls" is at best a sham and the customer service is frustrating. I don't blame the poor guy at the counter in my local store but some of the policies seemed to be aimed at having the customer commit to more fees and services rather than tayloring a usage plan to serve us.
I can't use my real name for obvious reasons. I'm on the inside of the company. You think that the ban of the word "engadget" is bad!.... You ain't seen nothin' yet. You would not belive the hostile workplace that is created on the inside by banned words!!! This outfit is insane. I hope to be able to comment further in the near future (If you folks desire to know the lowdown).
CE
I just replyed to the one post that included the word "Engadget". I quoted the post. It wouldn't let me post the quote because of the unacceptable word "Engadget".
I tricked the system by editing my message in HTML mode and inserted a < font size tag > that enclosed "Enga" and a duplicate < font size tag > that enclosed "dget".
Screw the petty bastards.