iPhone & AT&T - Older Brands are Not Always Better Brands
June 29th, 2007 by Michael Gray in Random ThoughtsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
So it’s iPhone day and the only way you can get it with a Cingular AT&T deal. I know lots of people will call me crazy but I think using AT&T instead of Cingular was really stupid.
AT&T has been around forever, and back in they day they were innovators and quality, heck I remember that from when I was a kid. However somewhere along the way the paper clip factory mentality took over. The MBA bean counters won out and customer service became an unknown foreign concept.
I can tell you I’m currently in collection with AT&T long distance. They charged me $5 a month for a long distance service I never ordered. We tried to cancel and got nowhere. Eventually after we stopped paying they cut us off and started adding late fees. After not paying we were referred to collections and to this day still get harassed calls about this.
AT&T has been around longer than the Cingular brand but older doesn’t always mean better. In fact I know a lot of people with similar AT&T customer service nightmare stories. Don’t believe me Guy Kawasaki has a similar story.
Takeaway here older isn’t better, stronger isn’t better, more visible isn’t better. The only thing that is actually better is being better …
Sphere It
June 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
Wasn’t it not too long ago when they were telling everyone AT&T is now Cingular and now it’s back to AT&T?
A friend of mine used to use AT&T for their wireless services and as a result of her experiences AT&T is the last carrier I want to use. Sadly no iPhone for me for at least 5 years.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I agree with you. AT&T has a sour emotional aftertaste in my mind. I associate AT&T with bad phone service and maintaining a monopoly.
Cingular was a lot more cool with the kids, brandwise. It’s like Toyota v. Scion.
June 30th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I also questioned this decision to drop Cingular in favor of AT&T from a branding standpoint.
Cingular had a strong position in the market, good customer service, and an effective connection with a younger audience.
I could only guess the reasons that this choice was made; “storied old brand” restored, Wall Street more comfortable with the old brand, Cingular should pep up the image of AT&T, the $4 billion spent building the Cingular brand paled in comparison with what was spent on the AT&T brand over the years and who knows what else.
I would have chosen the Cingular brand for a competitive advantage.
July 4th, 2007 at 4:42 am
When I see AT&T… I remember a company that was providing long distance phone calls to soldiers, at cost, in the middle of the desert of Iraq.
This was during the first gulf war in 91.