Cingular Wireless still sucking the life out of desperate New Orleans residents

This past weekend, after I was in a car accident on I-10, I sat alongside the road trying to call 911. Of course, this was futile, because I'm still subscribing to Cingular wireless, and as readers of this blog know, they have some kind of unwritten policy against providing working service to anyone in New Orleans. Okay, maybe it isn't a policy. Maybe they are just inept. But the problem has been going on for quite a while--five months--and at first they tried lying to everyone and saying that no one was having any problems. In December they convinced me that buying a new phone would do the trick. Of course, this also required a new contract. When the phone didn't work, they insisted I swap it for another, and when that didn't work, they tried to refuse to allow me to return it. Today I called to report the problem reaching 911. Silence on the other end of the phone, like they weren't sure why I thought that was a problem. They told me that there are no problems in the area. Funny, I said, last week I was told that there WERE problems and had been for months, but they didn't know when they would be repaired. In either case, they refuse to let me out of the contract, refuse to give their names, and claim they have no obligation to fix the problem. Today I discovered that they want to hold me to the NEW contract, that I only signed in order to get the new non-working phone that I have long since returned. They put me on hold to call to confirm that it had been returned, and then we were disconnected. Whenever I call we are disconnected or they cannot hear me, but this isn't sufficiennt evidence that there is a problem. I waited, thinking they would call back. No call. I called, and the records indicated that the previous manager HAD called me back. Funny, I said, the phone didn't ring. I guess that means my phone doesn't work. Or that Cingular employs a bunch of incompetent liars. Or both.