Signal problem! I just bought Straight Talk... Help!

After reading all these reviews it gives me pause for thought.

A friend told me about Straight Talk and said they used the Verizon wires.
..but I wonder if there are tiers like mentioned earlier in this thread.

The phone selection looks limited. I just bought a new GSM Nokia A-177.
Not a bad cheap phone if you don't count that stinkin' camera.

I was listening to Leo Laporte the other day and he was talking up Google Voice which I have had for a couple years. I had the old Grand Central setup so we got to use it early.

That customer support sounds like a nightmare. I never knew that they all had American names.**snicker**. Also, the scripts these people read over and over again, NO MATTER WHAT YOU ASK THEM it's the same thing over and over again.

I have told CS reps before to QUIT APOLOGIZING every other sentence and let's get to work. So what do they do, APOLOGIZE again..
If their support is like this, and it sounds like it is, I'll pass.

I bought a Samsung 451C through Walmart a couple of months ago, and have been quite pleased with it. I do, however, live in a large metropolitan area ... with 4 bars almost all of the time.

In contrast to the above I do have one major complaint - SERVICE. I cannot get a knowledgeable English speaking support tech. I agree 100% with your statement "Being able to speak English is NOT the same as being able to converse in English." I simply cannnot understand their accents. However, I have the same problem with other company tech support techs.

For every question I ask they have to go offline and read the book before coming back with any response. Their response seems to indicate they don't know the phone.

Example : The 451c apparently has no key to do a carriage return or line feed. I want to txt "Hello Mr. Doe;" ... then do a line feed to start a new line ... without doing a bunch of "spaces". No one at their tech support has been able to tell me how to do this ... or even understand what I am talking about.

Other than this I am quite pleased with my Straight Talk phone.

Geezer235711

I also purchased a Straight Talk Samsung R355c and with no problem. I am saving since I was expending almost $90 a month for talk, text and minutes overage, that was extra and received a bill for $300 for going over minutes during the holidays. I am pleased with the savings, with the phone and with the overall experience I have had with my Straight Talk. Good luck to the persons that are having all those problems.

I Thought straight talk was an amazing deal and very affordable. I purchard my prepaid card and phone online. I recieved it a week later. When I tried to activate this phone and port my verizon number to straight talk, my verizon phone was disconnected within one hour. However I could never get my straight talk phone activated, even after spending hours with CSR"s in india, speaking only broken english and scripted apologies. After more than ten hours of speaking with CSR's I was informed that my phone was no good and they would be sending me out a new phone. I have since spend five hours trying to find out where my new phone is, more than a week later. Called verizon and had my old phone re-activated and number re-ported within 5 minutes. Re contacted straight to tell them that i was no longer interested in their service and to refund all charges back to my account. They have refused to give me a refund. I told the indian that we call that FRAUD in the United States. Still trying to figure out how I am going to get my money back. DOES ANYONE WANT TO BUY A STRAIGHT TALK PHOME?????.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, WHICH FOR ME WAS NOTHING.
KEEP OUR JOBS IN THE UNITED STATES

While I sympathize with your dilemma, you didn't do your research before the whole process began.

It's never a good idea to actually port the old number until you have already set up the new service and have ascertained that it works sufficiently for your needs. In some cases this may require a few weeks (or longer) if you do not have time to properly evaluate the new service/hardware/features/etc. Once it's working properly, *then* you make the call to port over your old number.

Regarding your comments on keeping jobs in the U.S., this complaint is getting old. Which would you prefer, the opportuntity for your small business to stay afloat, or some draconians measure by right wing nut jobs to force companies to *always* use American labor(?) It's just not realistic since there's no such thing as a one-size fits all unfortunately. The global economy is here to stay.

Keep in mind that certain jobs will simply not be present in the U.S. again in the same numbers (if at all) as they did during our parents and grandparents generations. You can use the shipbuilding industry as an example from this century. The large vessels that used to be made in the U.S. are now (mostly) made in China/Korea, closer to where the labor costs are lower and manchurian/australian iron ore is plentiful. Perhaps someday they will be produced in Africa when some of those economies advance as well. The truth is much of this is a natural progression, economically. There have been suggestions that our progression to more of a service based economy is necessarily a bad thing, which is incorrect. In fact, economies often progress to a point where you become exporters of (much more expensive) advanced goods and services such as consulting work for large multi-nationals, along with computer software/services and networking technologies. These are high value services that actually do create additional jobs back home. The real problem is how we have few built-in ways on a national scale to properly adjust and deal w/ employment re-training, along with providing affordable health care for all. Some have suggested that our economic job prospects could be improved by reforming our higher education system. Instead of forcing young adults to go the academic route of 4 year higher education they could enter a codified tradesman/apprenticeship type program of varying length depending on the industry they happened to choose. To create a path for skilled workers that we require in today's economy mind you, instead of a whole raft of unemployed poetry majors working as waiters or cab drivers .

Straight Talk handsets are either CDMA *or* GSM, so you only get one 'footprint' at a time. It truly depends where you are trying to use the phone, and which 'flavor' of Straight Talk is being used/marketed in your specific area. Verizon & ATT *do not* cover 100% of the U.S., FWIW.

If roaming bothers you, just remember. its 50 bux a month. no matter how much you roam. its mainly verizon towers. i heard they may do att towers. i think those phones might would take a sim card. i think verizon is a stronger network than att personally, but to each his own. ive had st for a year or so, had the problems with the teck support, number swaps on accident, all that good stuff. it sux when i have problems, but only needing one phone it works fine overall. sorry for those who had really bad experiences. you cant teach a dumb dog a good trick, but that dont mean the trick aint good. there are family plans with some providers that are cheaper than straighttalk. but I think hands down, straighttalk is the best plan out there for the single adult with a life. Yes, they have a crappy selection of phones, but they do have decent phones for good prices, and god phones for decent prices. Good luck!!!

p.s. shortly after i bought my first st phone they shut me off. it took over 4 hours talking to them to find out that they shun the use of the the phones built in modem to get online with my desktop and stream hours of video. :-D so i had to stop the indulgence of mega web browsing. but all in all im happy with it.

...the el cheapo ST service would permit tethering? (ROTFL)

I highly recommend Page Plus Wireless if you can't afford post-paid but want/need more of the bells/whistles. It would allow you to bring in many of the Verizon branded handsets (even some wifi enabled smartphones) without such limitations of ST.

First, keep in mind that the frequency used by a carrier at a specific location may differ depending on where a person using the service lives, etc. Also, it's hard to generalize from your specific situation that some one else would also get good indoor service simply by choosing GSM technology. For example, in some areas Verizon (a CDMA/EVDO carrier) does better at building penetration, and that can also be true even if they are using the 1900MHz frequency band instead of 850MHz. It depends a lot on the individual structure at a specific location as well as the buildout of the network at a specific place. In this sense a carrier using 850 over 1900 at one specific site might not necessarily be the one to choose. There are some variables involved that makes coverage, especially indoor, somewhat a function of trial and error. Straight Talk is certainly no exception.

The FCC has not yet approved the ATT buyout of T-Mobile.

Also, simply because Straight Talk uses ATT, Verizon or T-Mobile (mind you, never all three at once), doesn't necessarily imply that their service would be superior to Boost at a specific location. That will most certainly vary.