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General discussion

Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?

Jul 20, 2004 9:29AM PDT

Currently I have Sprint, which is just terrible. I can't even begin to tell the problems I havehad with them in just the past week. I have been over charged on my bill way too many times and the customer service just cant seem to explain why my current bill is double what it should be. And what I cant even understand is how I can go from a negative balance to way over $200 in less than a week. That can't really explain that either and what gets me is that they say they never saw a negative balance on my account. My new billing cycle just restarted. Lucky for me I have the printout from the website that shows a negative balancne. But enough of my problem, can anyone help me with finding a new carrier?? I would like something similar to sprint but without all the hassle of terrible customer service. Are there any plans out there that have unilimited web access and txt messaging that isnt extremely costly in addition to the monthly plan?? All advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

Discussion is locked

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Jul 20, 2004 6:17PM PDT

It might help readers to know where you're replying from. Service varies from market to market. I live in Gary, Indiana and I'm in the Chicago market for Verizon Wireless. I've had them for 2 1/2 years and have been happy with them. They have a plan for unlimited internet, which I believe is $100. text messaging is 2 cents to receive and 10 cents to send. I hope that's right. I don't use text messaging since I chose to have it disabled to avoid spam. I have a friend on AT&T Wireless and he gets spammed via text messaging, but he doesn't pay to receive text messages like I would if I had it. That's why I have text messaging disabled. The network in my area is well built. My area had an advantage. There was GTE Mobile and Ameritech Cellular, then GTE Mobile was renamed Verizon Wireless, and Ameritech Cellular was acquired by Verizon Wireless after the FCC made SBC sell off Ameritech Cellular since then Cellular One (now Cingular) and Ameritech Cellular served the same markets. I can't say that Verizon Wireless works fine in other markets, but the Chicago and Milwaukee markets are good choices for Verizon Wireless. Some people on here have complained about Verizon Wireless's service. I haven't had too many problems with their service. Unlike my mom and sister who had lots of customer service problems that they paid the early termination fee in order to get out of their contract with Cingular. They're now with Verizon Wireless and like the service too.

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Jul 21, 2004 12:56AM PDT

I live in Maryland but I also go to school out of state and like to travel so I need a good national plan!

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Jul 21, 2004 3:47AM PDT

Verizon has the best coverage, hands down.

However, the phone selection is not comparable to the GSM phones, and they also have several user policies that I just about can't stand. But when you travel a lot it is nice to know that you will be able to get coverage regardless.

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Jul 28, 2004 2:35AM PDT

I just got a bill for $539.27 from Verizon. Every single month my bill is too high and I call them and spend an hour or two and eventually get the extra charges reversed. (I signed up in January.) Other charges I'm sure are wrong but I can't prove it, like a long "incoming" call received when I was sleeping, downloads we never made, etc.

Many of the customer service people I talk to are nice, but they seem to be under pressure not to give any money back.

Here is the most outrageous incident. We get many charges for in-family calls (we have 4 phones) even though that's supposed to be free on our plan. You'ld think that would be easy to get reversed, and it usually takes me only 20 minutes to do so. But last time the woman insisted that one of our 4 phone numbers was actually a Sprint number (even though Verizon is billing us for that number)! She put me on hold and we got disconnected (happens often) before we could resolve this. She didn't call back. So I called back and by the time I got connected (after 20 minutes) it was after 11:00 pm -- too late!

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Stick w/Sprint. Why? --->
Aug 1, 2004 1:04AM PDT

Only carrier using videophone service.

I have also heard Verizon customers complain about same as previous poster.

Nextel has awful performance record and horrible choice of low tech phones (makes sense- since they they are, after all, NASCAR's main sponsor).

Remember that T Mobile (Deutsche Telekom)cannot text to Vodaphone customers. And service is sketchy in U.S.. But, my phone (Samsung 715) sounded the best when I was in Montreal last weekend and it picked two Canadian networks: Microcell and Rogers.

If not Sprint, try ATT (soon to be absorbed by Cingular). They have a very good network now.

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don't stick with sprint
Aug 3, 2004 7:42AM PDT

what if you don't care about videophone? either way, it's hard to overlook sprint's crappy service. Out west Verizon is okay, but not the best. AT&T / Cingular is the best out here. But I'm not sure if you'd ever be out here anyway...I can't say much about the East Coast, but Cingular has pretty good national plans.

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Re: don't stick with sprint
Aug 4, 2004 2:39AM PDT

From my experience in the midwest, Verizon Wireless has done great for me. I don't know about other areas of the country, but where I live, there was an advantage at the time Verizon Wireless was created, there was GTE Mobile already in parts of northern Indiana and then around the time the company was renamed Verizon Wireless, they acquired Ameritech Cellular after the regulatory commission wouldn't allow SBC to acquire Ameritech Cellular since their then Cellular One division served the same markets. The only time I have problems using my phone is when I roam on Alltel's network (Verizon's extended coverage), where Alltel in Michigan has spotty coverage, and parts of Alltel's network near the Indiana/Michigan line are still on analog. Other than that, I've had few problems with Verizon Wireless. But if you get Verizon Wireless, I recommend getting a tri-mode phone as other CDMA wireless networks have not completely eliminated analog where I almost never get an analog signal while on Verizon's network.

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Veriaon VS Sprint
Nov 1, 2009 1:04AM PDT

GO to SPRINT .. Hands down.


Here's why folks. . .
I did notice that a lot of these posts were dated 2004 and 2005. . . .

Here we are in November of 2009. I have been with Verizon Wireless (my first cell phone), since August of 1999. The service and reliability has been about flawless!

For about the last five years, I have had three phones on a family plan including one Blackberry curve that I got about a year ago and was replaced by Verizon 5 times since.

My company has been paying my phone bill and through the years, I have received several notes from accounting that my bill was through the ceiling. I would deal with it a little, call customer service and make revisions to my plan.

Now at 1400 minutes per month and three phones, paying the bill my self, I feel like I am being held up by Verizon Thugs. $300/mo. on the average with not a whole lot of added features. Ridiculous and absurd to say the least.

Verizon if they don't know it already better realize that there is more than one act in town. Sprint offers unlimited, I mean completely unlimited mobile to mobile service and free nights and weekends, no additional data fees for BlackBerry and Navigation, unlimited texting and messaging. As a matter of fact, no additional fees at all except for things like insurance and so forth.

Sprint utilizes the Sprint, Verizon network and any other available network. If you are calling any mobile number on any service, it is not counted toward your plan minutes. The quality of service in terms of phone clarity is identical to Verizon. I do travel a lot all over North America small towns and large cities. No problems at all.

With my wife's university employer discount (23%), the same three phones that were costing $300+ /mo. with Verizon is about $150 /mo. Gross with Sprint. ($115.+ two additional phone lines & taxes.). There are simply no extra fees. My Verizon bill is supposed to be $180.00 + taxes & fees /mo for the same thing but for whatever reason even customer service doesn't quite understand, it is about $300.00 / mo.

Save yourself a lot of money, have the same quality of phone service, many features without charge... Go with Sprint. Let Competition do it's thing and let's see what Verizon does if they start losing a lot of business!! Sprint has evidently come a long way since a lot of these posts were written. I have had to pay pro-rated cancellation charges with Verizon, it still pays to make the switch even with buying three new phones.

I will report back periodically and let you know How Sprint is working for me over a period of time. Stay tuned...

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Aug 1, 2004 10:54PM PDT

Do NOT use T-Mobile. I got a new phone a month ago with an area code in a different state than I live. I've called them over and over and over and over and over again. I still do not have an area code in my state.

They have promised to call me back and have not done it. They have denied me access to supervisors by telling me that a supervisor will call me back (and the supervisor never does).

Most telling is that their customer service department does not have a phone number. The customer service is HORRIBLE (and that's being kind) and the coverage stinks.

I left AT&T and I am very sorry.

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AVOID AT&T AT ALL COSTS!
Aug 3, 2004 6:33AM PDT

I have had AT&T for the past two years and they are truly terrible. I've been on both their digital and GSM networks with multiple phones and nothing seems to work. Their customer service is awful too, so don't waste your time or money.

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Re: AVOID AT&T AT ALL COSTS!
Aug 4, 2004 2:47AM PDT

That's what I heard too, though a friend of mine who has AT&T insisted I get AT&T, but he's on the TDMA network. With Cingular acquiring most of AT&T, I don't know if he'll be one of those customers that will be acquired by Cingular since a few markets will be divested since AT&T already has plenty of coverage for the Chicago market as well as Cingular, though spotty. I'll be surprised if Cingular acquires Chicago market customers of AT&T. My friend said he'll drop his service if he does become a Cingular customer. He said he'll change to Sprint. I don't know why he thinks Verizon is a disease, but he does and hates my decision for going with them. But I've had fewer dropped calls than he has.

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Aug 5, 2004 10:44PM PDT

hi i will tell u the truth.
to be honest u cant get better than sprintpcs reason why. the price. if ur bill is double u better look at the phone call etc... sprintpcs has a way that u cant go over ur credit. so lets say u have 800mins and u pay $60 n total including everything etc.... ur credit should b $120 i think, so once u waste ur mins and the month is not over then u will use xtra mins that u got to pay for then once u use the mins xtra and ur balance hits $120 ur service will auto shutdown with a notice a few mins before getting cuttoff, i think is a great thing that way ur bill is not $200 or thousands like other ppl. look at ur bill see every call every number etc u do the math then complaint. there isnt any company that is going to give u free unlimited internet mbs msg all that stuff for free like i do have with sprintpcs. AT&T is horrible their voicemail dont even tell u what time or number they call u from lol something like that. verizon charges like an arm and a leg for internet and their cell phone suck compare to the stuff sprintpcs has, unless u get new motorolla coming next month but still think of this, u get a phone with camera and video etc... u wanna use the feature but if is going to cost an arm and a leg why even get a phone like that get me.my gf LG has so much feature but everytime she use any of them her bill is like $100 and she like spend 10mins online maybe dl one ring tone wich i can dl for free or even make or even convert a mp3 to ring tone and upload to my phone i can even open anyyyy website on my cell phone. sprintpcs has the worst customer service because they dummmm like no other. only way to find someone that knows their stuff is if they transfer u to the person that works making sure ur internet service works n the phone, now they know more than anyone there but their regular customer service employee dont know jack thats why i never call plus there is no reason to call everything is logical if my bill comes high i will find out where is the mistake and period. my gf has verizon service is good i would recommend it also including nextel but u not going to get internet cheap, righ now i dl and upload stuff from my pc to my phone for free i can shoot a million picture and email them or anything and is all free record video send free be online n my laptop free i wish that verizon can give me that. btw there is so many things sprintpcs has hidden that regular useless employees dont tell u, like which has never happen to me since i join sprintpcs 6yrs ago. u talking to someone and ur phone gets cutt,drop phone call. u dial a code n ur phone and u get those mins back for free instantly i bet u didnt know that. my reception with sprintpcs is best loud and more clear 20times better than my gf LG verizon phone. day of the blackout here n nyc, her bill was high cause i use text msg and she gets charge. internet is very impotant. day of the blackout after cell phone finally runout of service, u can still use the internet send msg etc.. just to bad if is not free for some.

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Please spell correctly
Aug 18, 2004 3:15AM PDT

With all the "i, u, n and ur" and the like plus misspellings as well it's quite difficult reading your post. It looks as though you spend most of your time in IM not in a professional arena.

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oh can u watch tv like ONLY sprintpcs customer can :)
Aug 5, 2004 11:00PM PDT

for the newbies here, just so u know, sprintpcs is so advance that since last yr i been able to watch tv on my phone thats righ watch tv on my phone cable channels music channels even there is a channel of the yankess only but i hate the yankess so i watch the mets. all this is all free at least for me n my plan. yeah i watch tv at the beach wth audio or watch some nice cool muisic videos freee i get channels i dont even get on home tv lol btw it does NOT waste the battery like if i were talking on the phone that i love. i can either watch or listen to the game etc... with phone close. sweet. ppl need to stay update. i am after this samsung i500 still waiting on price to go down lol 2 yrs already. mmm i like the new treo

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Re: oh can u watch tv like ONLY sprintpcs customer can :)
Sep 2, 2004 3:51PM PDT

I just want to make a good phone call. If I want to watch tv, I'll buy a tv, not a telephone.

Sprint needs to establish good phone service before they try to sell me mobile tv. As of right now, they still suck.

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Re: oh can u watch tv like ONLY sprintpcs customer can :)
Sep 7, 2004 1:54AM PDT

people cry too much about charge etc.... if u broke dont get a phone is not for u, a cell phone is a luxury not a necesity, thats why there is public phone. i current have sprint verizon and nextel in my place and i cant complaint not one bit for any of them, other than sprintpcs has unexperience customer service when i call them i talk to the tech guy not the regular stupid woman customer service. in fact sprintpcs has very coverage in us than the rest. if i get a bill overcharge i will look at every single numnber in and out and bring it to the main store and u see how the charge is gone, if is not gone is because u full of bleep simple as that. they can not overcharge u for no reason since u canpay $20 fee to take them to court and get ur money back etc.... everytime someone complaint about any overcharge with any company and they come to me i ask for every number etc.. if is wrong i help them get it fix but 99.9% u all full of bleep. $200 one is not much, 2, if u righ then go to main store and make sure u look at every number in and out and see if u righ cause if u were righ u wouldnt b posting this comment, most likely u would say u going to sue them and not pay anything period. thats why there is $125 credit limit so u dont go over ur minutes and get charge so much and later cry so much about it. how u get a negative balance? u pay xtra? righ so them look at the sheet if u righ u righ

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Sep 10, 2004 6:37PM PDT

Hey, just saw your note... I can advise against Verizon who I have been chained to and remain unhappy with because of the mega charges and their lack of customer service. All the negative comments are unfortunately right on. They truly don't seem to care. I don't know if you have Qwest in your area but it's been the answer for our business cell (even when we had to pay the early termination fee). I'm awaiting the end of my personal contract and I'm switching myself. Only $104/mo. for unlimited calling, anywhere, anytime - absolutley no extra charges! Their reception is getting better all the time and their customer service is awesome. I haven't found better and this is our 4th carrier. We've been with them for over a year for cell service and home for over 10+ years and are still as happy as can be.

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Re: Need a new cell phone carrier!! Who should I go with?
Sep 11, 2004 1:19AM PDT

you've probably already chosen a new provider... I was looking for a new one, too, and stumbled across workingassets.com. I don't work for them, so this is not a "planted plug" but they are *wonderful*! Very competitive plan rates, super-friendly customer service, and no overbilling. I love them! Also, they contribute a percentage of your monthly rate to good causes, and you get to weigh in on which causes they contriubt to. Phones are decent; they use the Sprint network, but, thankfully, not Sprint customer service.
Can't say enough good things about this provider! good luck!

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Verizon Activation Fee is being waived
Jul 10, 2009 5:33AM PDT