Cell Phone Rant

Long story short, My Company is no longer requiring us to use Blackberry and their network of thieves.

So I skip into Sprint ready to pick up a new HTC Hero and throw the BB at the brick wall on the way out!

Well, the dream ended when the dweeb behind the counter says I am not eligible for an upgrade until January.

Sprint wanted $400 for a new phone without the upgrade. Feeling the puke hit the back of my throat I asked him “How much to cancel my account??” It got silent behind the counter and a female worker standing next to the dweeb said “Why would you want to do that?” I said “I can cancel Sprint account for $200, go to Verizon or AT&T for the same monthly rates and get a new phone for $45!!” I said “I would think Sprint would value a long term customer more than that!” They were silent as I left. I wonder what the other customers standing in line thought??

So now I am mad and shopping.

I would strongly suggest you steer clear of AT&T. They have so many network issues it’s not funny. And they are the most expensive the last time I checked.

I just had a hell of a weekend trying to activate my new hero with sprint. The kid doing the activation couldnt get it done and in the end had both phones so screwed up I had to go to a sprint store to have the issue resolved. I had 2 people tell me they were going to call me back and never did. Was working with one guy until 12:00 am Friday night and we go “disconnected” and low and behold the phones switched over to after hours messages. Went 2 days without a phone I’m waiting on a call form the “escalation team”. I wonder if they will call me back. Getting ready to find a new carrier. The only thing holding me back is the wife’s heavy corporate discount. Thanks for starting the thread so I could vent too!

Verizon has been great for me on my travels. I end up borrowing out my phone to guys on TMobile and AT&T all the time and I’ve never once had that reversed where I had to use someone else’s phone when they got reception on a different network and I didn’t.

Tuck, shoot Ryank a pm or email. Even if he can’t help you out he can relieve your frustration by talking fishing with you.

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Tuck, shoot Ryank a pm or email. Even if he can’t help you out he can relieve your frustration by talking fishing with you.

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Ditto!

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Verizon has been great for me on my travels. I end up borrowing out my phone to guys on TMobile and AT&T all the time and I’ve never once had that reversed where I had to use someone else’s phone when they got reception on a different network and I didn’t.

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Unfortunately, when I left Verizon 5 years ago I was told my crappy signal with Verizon was due to my house being geographically dead center between the Cities and Red Wing’s towers and I would have no signal or dropped calls constantly. I have no idea if that has changed. And Kooty, yes, AT&T is $20/mo. more than the other two. Sprint has been the best for me for connectivity wherever I am.

Thanks for the advice guys!

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Verizon has been great for me on my travels. I end up borrowing out my phone to guys on TMobile and AT&T all the time and I’ve never once had that reversed where I had to use someone else’s phone when they got reception on a different network and I didn’t.

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Unfortunately, when I left Verizon 5 years ago I was told my crappy signal with Verizon was due to my house being geographically dead center between the Cities and Red Wing’s towers and I would have no signal or dropped calls constantly. I have no idea if that has changed. And Kooty, yes, AT&T is $20/mo. more than the other two. Sprint has been the best for me for connectivity wherever I am.

Thanks for the advice guys!

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I would bet a lot has changed in 5 years.

Ya, I’d be very surprised if VZW still has issues there Tuck. Worst case, VZW has a 30 day guaranteed happy customer clause.

Not sure about where you live Chris. But I can tell you that Verizon is the best I’ve had (regarding signal) over the last 5+ years. At&T is god awful regarding coverage. I have many friends who loose cell signal when we are out away from major metro areas.

I am in Montana, North Dakota, Iowa, Canada, Michigan and Wisc every year and I’ve found Verizon to have the best coverage. Especially in remote areas.

Just and FYI.

I have always been with Verizon and what blows me away is that I have reception like I’m standing in the middle of the cities when I’m just south of the Red Lake Indian Reservation like I was last week.

dd

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I have always been with Verizon and what blows me away is that I have reception like I’m standing in the middle of the cities when I’m just south of the Red Lake Indian Reservation like I was last week.

dd

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Heck I even had reception up at Pasha Lake last week. Very impressive. The only place I really don’t have reception with Verizon is up at the deer camp near Crane Lake. Once we leave Orr, MN. We loose all cell service regardless of carrier.

I too will say my reception is very good with Verizon. But, more importantly to me is the fantastic customer service I receive when I go in to the store.(I have 2 teenage daughters that use the heck out of there phones, and the staff is always helpful and knowledgable)

Although $200.00 is a hard pill to swallow just to change carriers.

Is that what they mean by “bricking a phone”?

Just kidding. I’ll also give Verizon a thumbs up, so hopefully things have changed in the last 5 years.

I agree that VErizon has the best coverage I have experienced however I do not know about your location. That being said, when I was having major issues with my Motorola Q a couple years back. Once I had enough trade outs and momentary fixes I asked the salesperson 2 questions:
1. When does my contract expire?
2. What is the most bare bones inexpensive plan you have?
Turns out that option was far less expensive than cancelling my plan. Additionally, it allowed me to shop other carriers. The salesperson got the message. If i am not mistaken the lowest monthly plan based on a family deal was less than $10. The cancellation was $200 or something, 6 months remaining cost me $60. I woudl have been out and free to go shop.
Within minutes we figured out an alternative and I now own a droid with Verizon and it has been fantastic.

RE Verison and coverage.

I was impress with Verison ever since I meet Realtor Ron. He had what he called his “transplant phone” that he kept with him at all times waiting for “THE” call. It was Verison and it worked flawlessly at the location of the cotton wood tree.

Since then Sprint, Att and my T-mobil phone have worked…sometimes.

I have a war story about Verison too, regarding the 30 (it was 14 days at one time) day return policy…in a nutshell, if you do return a phone make sure it’s trackable and someone signs for it. Might save $800. and a few headaches.

craigslist….. sell BB, hero should be cheap to find one used, meet ata sprint store to check the phone is ok, and have them set the phone up right there on the spot.

I’m starting to get pretty good with the wife’s hero myself, just flashed a custom rom this morning, so far I haven’t heard any complaints…. then again she hasn’t called me all day…..

Joking seems to be working good, we’ll see how this rom holds up, I think I’m going to put andriod 2.2 (froyo) on the phone next and see what it does. Should be interesting Sprint doent really want hero’s running 2.2

You could probably call retentions and ask real nice, maybe they get you a refurb, replacement phone (I wouldnt worry about the refurb part myself) and if that doesn’t work, try talking real nice to the escolated (sp?) people… (who ever the person a post or two above me mentioned, they have made things happen for me.)

If you try a store, and I’m not claiming it would be a better option… make sure it’s a corperate store, Apple valley is the closest I know of off the top of my head, some sprint stores are just franchises, usually you can tell the difference right away, corp. stores have pretty much every phone and they all work, unlike the fran. they may have a couple that work.

Sorry I can’t be more clear right now, posting from my phone and I can’t really look things up and post them like on a computer….

Every one of them has strengths and weaknesses. I went from Verizon to AT&T because I was tired of climbing a tree to place my calls at the cabin….

My big question is why does anyone sign a contract? I haven`t had a contract in 4 years. I decide what company I want my service with and shop the internet for phones for that carrier, buy the phone myself and just have them activate it. Phones can be bought so cheap it can be disgusting. My last Motorola Verison wanted $279 and I bought a brand new one over the internet for $69. Beat part is I can tell them to go to H-ll if they screw up, and it doesn`t cost me a dime.

Edited to add……Do you realize if you die your family is still responsible for your contract.

verizon 2X

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Every one of them has strengths and weaknesses. I went from Verizon to AT&T because I was tired of climbing a tree to place my calls at the cabin….

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Same here…. and I rarely make calls from the cabin…

big G

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My big question is why does anyone sign a contract? I haven`t had a contract in 4 years. I decide what company I want my service with and shop the internet for phones for that carrier, buy the phone myself and just have them activate it. Phones can be bought so cheap it can be disgusting. My last Motorola Verison wanted $279 and I bought a brand new one over the internet for $69. Beat part is I can tell them to go to H-ll if they screw up, and it doesn`t cost me a dime.

Edited to add……Do you realize if you die your family is still responsible for your contract.

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Tom, it all depends on what you want to do, I want high speed internet access and I want my phone to do everything, play movies, mp3’s you name it. Good luck finding a phone that can do all of that for $65, even if you did so, you’d need an appropriate plan, in which case you need to sign up for a 2 year contract extension.

Frankly I look at the contract as a little gamble, do you want to save some money in the next year or two or not? worse case you end up paying a pro-rated cancellation fee. And it doesn’t really bother me either, I mean even at $200 it only takes them a month and a half to lose more than $200. Chances are even through the bad, I’ll probably just stay with sprint, cause I don’t think any other other are any better…

AT&T works well for me ( where I go anyway). And if I’m chasing around way up north I don’t want to be bothered so no reception fixes that. I have sprint for work and that phone sucks. It doesn’t get very good reception in alot of places

tell them BS. I just use my upgrade for my verizon account that was not due til december for a $20 fee. I hooked up a new Droid and oh baby. All it needs is an IDO app.

Chris,

I live in town, and Verizon works just fine for me, everywhere. there was a dead spot by applebees, oreilly’s, the bar, that area right there, but it was fixed last year sometime. I have zero dead spots anywhere in town, and my phone now gets full service all around welch, treasure island, red wing, even in the hills around welch and vasa, i get excellent signal for the most part.

I have had verizon for 7+ years now as my personal phone. I have always gotten superior overall reception, versus any other carrier in the remote areas.

I have had AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile blackberry’s for work.

AT&T was fine in the metro, ok in the rural, not close to the verizon signal though.

Sprint: was pretty close to verizon for rural signal, but i got stronger signal with my verizon phone, and areas my sprint phone got nothing, i usually had reception with verizon.

T-Mobile: Great in the metro, absolutely worthless in rural if you are off of a major highway/freeway.

Sprint was hands down the best in Western wisconsin though. if i spent a lot of time over there, i would probably have a sprint phone.

just recently i gave my work phone back, and am using my verizon account for work. using google voice on my Droid Incredible.

there are other reasons besides cell reception that i like verizon.

better customer service IMHO, much much better 3G internet coverage, better phone selections, especially for the droid phones.

and when Verizon’s LTE 4G service goes active this late fall/early winter, holy crap, lookout! this service is capable of carrying up to 100mb service! it is leaps and bounds ahead of sprint’s 4G service.

i currently average 1mb+ download rates on my droid with just 3G, and it works all over. I was able to stream audio for the Twins games this past weekend on the north shore with my phone!

also chris, i would not go with the Hero, it is old technology. get one of the newer droid phones. if you go with Verizon, there are a few new ones out right now. If you want, i can show you in person my Droid Incredible, so you can see how fast, and how good these phones are, plus the things they are capable of.

Chris, did you ever get this sorted? eitherway I’m pretty sure they are wrong about the termination fee, I just asked about mine, first gal said $200, I reminded her my contract was up in 5 months, asked to talk to someone else, the verified It would only cost me $50 at this point to cancel…

I may go elsewhere frankly I’m tired of poor phone selection.

I’m still stewing…I do have the best reception with Sprint in the territories I run in.

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I’m still stewing…I do have the best reception with Sprint in the territories I run in.

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when was the last time you compared coverage in your areas with verizon?

and if you decide to stay with sprint, go with the Evo. it is a little bigger phone, but 10 times the capabilities.

yeah IF you can get one (evo), local sprint store screwed me twice yesterday….

I have always said, service wise, that if anyone has service in an area, the people with Sprint will, historically this has always been true for me. Last year going to URL my sprint phone worked 98% of the time, my buddy with verizon, had some spotty issues with service.

I can’t say it’s true across the country, but here in the midwest Sprint has been great for me.

My phone will do both cdma (sprint/verizon) and GSM (any other cell phones)

Chris, you could look at a touch pro 2, I but they run windows mobile 6.1/6.5 , I think you can find a used one cheaper, personally I’m really happy with mine.

I have ATT and have not had any problems,of course I Don’t have a BB or any kind of high tech device.

Could I be Technologicly inept?