Cell Phone Providers

[Henry]

Does anyone use a provider other than verizon/att/sprint/tmobile? Someone I know swears by google fi. They pay $35 a month and I pay more than double that.

[BeerAndPoker]

If you are in the 2% of Americans that don't use data then it might be alright but at $10 per gig their is no way I'm getting that shit even if they refund you for unused data.

[Dan Druff]

Tmobile and Sprint suck.

I would suggest going with either AT&T or Verizon, even though they are more expensive.

[lewfather]

Tmobile and Sprint suck.

I would suggest going with either AT&T or Verizon, even though they are more expensive.

I've had both services and T-Mobile is NOWHERE near as bad as Sprint.

[abrown83]

Tmobile and Sprint suck.

I would suggest going with either AT&T or Verizon, even though they are more expensive.

This is totally subjective on where you live. There are parts of the country where their service is on par. You just have to do your research about your neighborhood and where you travel frequently.

I am on Sprint pay $70 for two lines and 3 gigs of data. That saves me about $30 a month over the big two and I would say my coverage is 10% worse than Verizon. Since I am on wifi 95% of the time it doesn't bother me.

[FPS_Russia]

Verizon's the devil, avoid at all costs. When they had a monopoly in our area there was a eerie silence all thru town on billing day. Followed by the screams "the salesman told me bla bla bla unlimited bla bla bla per month bla bla bla owe $700 instead bla bla bla. Over and over and over for years.... Cricket's solid imo.

[chinamaniac]

Tmobile and Sprint suck.

I would suggest going with either AT&T or Verizon, even though they are more expensive.

This is totally subjective on where you live. There are parts of the country where their service is on par. You just have to do your research about your neighborhood and where you travel frequently.

I am on Sprint pay $70 for two lines and 3 gigs of data. That saves me about $30 a month over the big two and I would say my coverage is 10% worse than Verizon. Since I am on wifi 95% of the time it doesn't bother me.

THIS

I am on Tmobile and it is by far a better option than any other carrier for me although down the line I may switch to Cricket which is the same service as ATT because the plans are cheap

I was paying $100 a month for 4 lines and it was a great plan - was getting 2.5 gb per line of LTE and then when that goes was getting unlimited 3g


Rewind to this past September, I was offered this option and I accepted.

I gave them 2 Iphone 6s and an Iphone 6+ as trade ins

In return they gave me an LG tablet with unlimited LTE and they gave me 2 Iphone 7s and a 7+ with unlimited LTE

All I had to do was agree to pay $140 a month for 2 years


So I guess over 2 years I pay an extra $960 total but I got a tablet out of the deal which has $200 value which leaves me stuck $760 which easily covers the value of the upgrade in phones and the Unlimited LTE

But once this 2 years deal is up I will certainly be shopping for a new plan as I think I can find something cheaper than $140 a month that works for me


Also once you go to a 7+ screen size there is no going back

[Mintjewlips]

Virgin has a $45 a month plan, 10 gigs of fast 4g lte then 3g after that, unlimited talk and text. They run off the sprint network, for some reason better then cricket and boost in my experience.

I have a Samsung j7 with them and it works amazing, I've dropped 2 of them since last year and simply called their customer support and told them it didn't work, after pretending to follow their procedures and acting like my phone was fucked up due to a manufacturing issue, i simply paid $25 to have a new one shipped next day.

Their customer support is decent, definitely a great deal imo.

[Mintjewlips]

Virgin has a $45 a month plan, 10 gigs of fast 4g lte then 3g after that, unlimited talk and text. They run off the sprint network, for some reason better then cricket and boost in my experience.

I have a Samsung j7 with them and it works amazing, I've dropped 2 of them since last year and simply called their customer support and told them it didn't work, after pretending to follow their procedures and acting like my phone was fucked up due to a manufacturing issue, i simply paid $25 to have a new one shipped next day.

Their customer support is decent, definitely a great deal imo.

https://www.virginmobileusa.com/#!/cell-phone-plans/

[Dan Druff]

T-Mobile and Sprint have horrific customer service.

AT&T and Verizon aren't perfect, but are far better than those two.

I had nightmarish experiences with both T-Mobile and Sprint and will never go back to either.

[NaturalBornHustler]

LOL at you old fucks who get hard limit data plans. Don't go over!!

[Sheesfaced]

T-Mobile and Sprint have horrific customer service.

AT&T and Verizon aren't perfect, but are far better than those two.

I had nightmarish experiences with both T-Mobile and Sprint and will never go back to either.

That's so ridiculously anecdotal it's laughable. Especially since you are notorious for getting into disagreements regarding service issues. Pretty sure T-Mobile has been top rated JD Power customer service carrier three out of last four years.

Anyways, I've used Verizon, T-Mobile, and currently have AT&T. Can't say I've experienced a huge difference with any of the three. I need to look into Cricket though as it does use AT&T's network(they own Cricket) and it's a lot cheaper. They do throttle data speeds though once you hit your max.

[Hockey Guy]

I don't have a cell phone. I would not change a thing.

[shortbuspoker]

I don't have a cell phone. I would not change a thing.

I graduated high school in 94 and I can remember having a pager and a cb in my Camaro. The Zack Morris cell phone hadn't even made it to Alabama back then.

[Dan Druff]

T-Mobile and Sprint have horrific customer service.

AT&T and Verizon aren't perfect, but are far better than those two.

I had nightmarish experiences with both T-Mobile and Sprint and will never go back to either.

That's so ridiculously anecdotal it's laughable. Especially since you are notorious for getting into disagreements regarding service issues. Pretty sure T-Mobile has been top rated JD Power customer service carrier three out of last four years.

Anyways, I've used Verizon, T-Mobile, and currently have AT&T. Can't say I've experienced a huge difference with any of the three. I need to look into Cricket though as it does use AT&T's network(they own Cricket) and it's a lot cheaper. They do throttle data speeds though once you hit your max.

Not anecdotal. There are reports all over the web that these two have horrendous customer service. These two are the Comcast of the cell phone world.

Besides, my "getting into disagreements regarding service issues" is a perfect test for how good the customer service is. I've had years of experience with each of these (except Verizon), and while AT&T hasn't been perfect, their ability to resolve problems fairly and competently dwarfed the other two, from my experience. Regarding Verizon, I know others who have it and have told me the same thing -- that their customer service totally beats T-Mobile and Sprint.

It should also be noted that T-Mobile's ads about "99% the coverage of Verizon" are misleading BS. They may cover 99% of the population, but they are ignoring the unpopulated areas which you will likely be driving through, and where it's arguably most important to have service.

For example, for the majority of the drive between LA and Vegas, the population is zero, but you sure as hell don't want to be out of service for most of that time.

[Dan Druff]

You want anecdotal, though? Okay.

My last experience with T-Mobile was buying a full price phone from them, and having the phone go bad at the 25-day mark. The return period was at the 14-day mark. It was an expensive phone at the time. It was an antenna malfunction, and there was no damage to the phone. There was no question that it was a manufacturing failure.

At first it seemed great. They sent me a "new" phone, and I sent the old one back via a prepaid label.

Except the new phone was even worse, with different issues.

I called T-Mobile, and they reluctantly admitted that they gave me a refurbished phone.

"Our warranty allows us to replace your defective phone with a refurbished phone," they argued. They ignored my counter argument that my phone was 25 fucking days old and I had just paid hundreds for a NEW phone, not a refurbished one.

After arguing until I was blue in the face, I got nowhere and simply settled for another replacement refurbished phone...

... which also had issues, this time with powering off abruptly for no reason.

I then got a fourth phone, which again had issues (screen would go blank at times).

After the fourth bad phone, I called up and tried to get them to make an exception and send me a new one. They refused. I moved up the chain of supervisors and managers, and they got progressively nastier. The last one I spoke to made a snide comment making fun of me. I asked him, "Is this T-Mobile's policy to mock the customers?" He answered, "If the customer won't accept what we're telling him, then yes."

I complained about him and had them pull the call recording. Nothing happened, never heard back.

Finally gave up and dealt with the crap phone until my contract was up, then switched to AT&T.

How did AT&T go?

Some examples:

Me: "The service isn't good at my house. I need one of those M-Cell devices to make calls through the internet, but don't want to pay the $200 for it. Can you send me one for free?"

Them: "How about we give it for $100?"

Me: "I really want it for free. You sold me a phone contract where I don't have service. I feel this is a reasonable compromise."

Them: "You're right. We will send it to you for free."


OR

Me: "I don't like your current upgrade plans for iPhones. Your plans allow customers to pay over 24 months at zero interest, but that doesn't help me. I just want a discount."

Them: "Sorry, that's our current promotion and there's nothing we can do."

Me: "Look, I want to renew my contract, but this isn't giving me any incentive to do so. Maybe I should just switch to Verizon and take the bonus they are offering."

Them: "Hang on.... Okay, we can give you a $200 bill credit if you purchase the new phone now."


I have tons of other examples where AT&T was reasonable or more than reasonable, even if it took a bit of arguing.

Also, nearly all AT&T reps I've spoken with have been respectful, even the ones who couldn't/wouldn't help me. The T-Mobile ones always tended to have an attitude and a derisive tone toward the customer. Same with Sprint.

[Dan Druff]

BTW the smartest thing is to get a family plan. Doesn't even have to be actual family -- just make it a group of people you trust not to screw you.

[Henry]

I have a Note 4 with Sprint from 2+ years ago.

If I want to upgrade phones with them, to say an Iphone 7 plus, it would cost $750 or $32 a month for 24 months. Add in the $65 a month for the unlimited plan with them and that's $100 a month.

Or as Mintjewlips noted, I could switch over to Virgin Mobile, who uses Sprint's towers apparently, and save hundreds each year. I'm curious why more people don't do this?

Also, does anyone have anything to say about leasing vs buying?

What about insuring?

[Crowe Diddly]

That's so ridiculously anecdotal it's laughable. Especially since you are notorious for getting into disagreements regarding service issues. Pretty sure T-Mobile has been top rated JD Power customer service carrier three out of last four years.

Not anecdotal. There are reports all over the web that these two have horrendous customer service. These two are the Comcast of the cell phone world.

There are bad CS reports around the web about every company, but for real, t-mobile is at the top of just about every single customer service list out there. To call it the Comcast of the cell phone world is just completely incorrect.

from Consumer Reports:

For customers with traditional cell-phone plans in this survey completed by 100,000 Consumer Reports subscribers, Sprint earned some of the worst customer-satisfaction scores in the survey for customer support, value, voice quality and connection, texting, internet reliability, and data service.AT&T fared no better in the survey, while Verizon did only slightly better.
That leaves T-Mobile. And that carrier performed notably better than its biggest competitors for customer support and value.

JDPower, ranking mobile carriers on Customer Care

T-Mobile ranks highest among wireless full-service carriers, with an overall score of 802. T-Mobile performs particularly well in the ARS, then CSR channel and performs above the full-service average in three of the four service channels.

Even random review sites like toptenreviews.com rank t-mobile the highest among the big carriers.

[Dan Druff]

Unless T-Mobile changed in the years since I used them, these rankings are BS.

I read the same crap around the time I had them ("T-Mobile ranked best in customer service"), and yet everyone I knew, both in real life and on the internet, seemed to have similar horror stories about T-Mobile.

After dealing with a company for a few years, you generally get an understanding of their corporate culture, whether it's customer-friendly, fuck-the-customer, or somewhere in the middle.

I would rank AT&T as somewhere in the middle, though probably more leaning to customer-friendly, while T-Mobile definitely had a fuck-the-customer environment.

Unfortunately these "customer satisfaction" surveys are very flawed, because they often include satisfaction with the product or the price. So the guy who pays less on T-Mobile than he did on AT&T will often report "satisfied" simply because he hasn't had an issue with their customer service yet, while at the same time the guy who is paying a lot for AT&T and getting a shitty signal will report "unsatisfied".

If there's one thing I'm an expert at, it's assessing the customer service culture of various corporations and figuring out which ones are most likely to screw you when something out of the ordinary happens.

Zero chance that my nightmarish situation with T-Mobile would have occurred with AT&T.