Do cell phone companies really want to succeed?

My wife had a cell phone with ATT for the past 4 years (a CDMA one) with 1000 nationwidew minutes for 39.99/mo. I'd a cell phone with ATT as well (GSM) for past 1.5 years with 450 nationwide minutes for 39.99/mo. Recently I wanted to have the ability to rollover my minutes and she wanted a newer phone as her's was an older phone.

We started shopping online and came across Cingular's shared family plan and the deals for Motorola Razor v3. The phones were free after mail in reabate for a 2 yr contract term and the plan consted 89.99/month with 1400 shared minutes. Looked like a great deal- both of us get new phones, decent number of minutes with bluetooth headsets.

The only big deal for both of us was that we wanted to keep our old numbers.

Now starts the trouble. We complete the online application on a1wireless.com and provide all the details about porting of number. After completing the online application, in a few hours the status of application says that we need to call and additional information is required. I call the number which goes to a call center in Mumbai, India. The lady tells me that for porting of one of the numbers there is no fee, but for porting of the other number , we need to pay a $59.99 fee. I asked WHY to which she had no answer .

Except for saying that ATT has merged with Cingular and this is really not porting but migration and that Cingluar decides what the migration fees should be for different numbers, she didn't have any concrete answer.

Well I cancelled my order and am wondering who won in this situation? I didn't as I got frustrated at the end of the experience as well as felt a little cheated. Why did they not write on the webpage itself that there will be a fees if you had a cell phone with ATT before and try to buy the Cingular phone now.

But I feel in addition to me losing time and money, Cingular cost 2 customers who could have been promoters of the product and service had the experience been better. Was $59.99 really that big a deal for Cingular for losing two customers and associated positive word-of-mouth.

Are these cell phone companies really setup to succeed? Do they really want to succeed?