So the other day Cingular calls me. I had just helped my little brother sign up for a phone with them using my own account as financial responsibility because he did not have enough credit established to start an account. The lady on the other end called my brother, but then asked for me.

She began asking me questions to confirm my account. It was an unusual amount too, like not just name and social - it' was name, social, address, phone number, etc. She even asked me what my birthday was so she could send me a "birthday text message" which is stupid.

Once she established that I was indeed who I said I was, she asked me about 3 questions about how good my service and phone were. I told her the service was crappy and she went into an explanation about how they're expanding their network, yada yada.

First of all, I don't care. I didn't call to complain about the service. Yea, it's crappy, but it's not so crappy that I would even consider taking time out of my day to call and tell them so. What would they do about it anyway? I didn't want an explanation of how their service is going to get better, she asked the question, after all.

The entire time I was wondering, "What is the point of this stupid conversation?"

And then it came.

"Okay, sir, thank you for your time today, I'm just going to go ahead and get your on our 7's plan. It's really great so I'll just go ahead and add that service to your account."

Of course, I was caught by suprise; "What? What is that?"

"Oh it just means your nights start at 7PM now instead of 9. You will gain 2,000 extra minutes a month - which you will see on your bill. It's really great."

I cut her off - "What? Why would I want that? Doesn't that cost money?"

"Well it's 2,000 extra minutes. It's only 20 cents a day and you get 2,000 extra minutes."

I told her I didn't want it. She insisted on signing me up anyway for a few free months to see how I liked it. I told her no again and she tried to convince me one more time before giving up and ending the call.

What a piece of crap thing for a company to do. It reminds me of AOLs cancelations department that is well known for manipulating the hell out of people. Cingular was just calling to let me know they were adding service to my plan and wouldn't have even mentioned the fact that they cost money had I not stopped them and asked. I wonder how many people fall for this?

I related the story to a coworker who said Cingular did the exact same thing to him when he signed up for a plan with them.

The rep said she had looked at me account and found that this plan would really be "great" for me based on my usage history. She obviously didn't look close enough because she didn't seem to see the fact that I never used all my minutes, and that they were rolled over into a big clump of available minutes on my account. Why would I pay for more minutes when I don't use the ones I have?

Cingular, you're retarded. I suggest that you forcibly insert an extendable baton into your nether-regions. Good day.