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Giving thought to a new cell phone/carrier

dave06457

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I'm preparing to get a new cell phone in the next few weeks. My current contract has been fulfilled, so I am free to contract with a new carrier.

I was curious what other Tuggers' experiences have been with Cingular and/or Verizon? Living in CT, these two seem to have the best all around coverage in this area.


Also, has anyone bought a cell phone through a website like Letstalk.com or MyRatePlan.com? If so, what has been your experience and would you recommend them?

Thanks in advance for the responses.

David
 

dmharris

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We have four Verizon phones, one is located in college in VA, the other 3 are here in western PA. One key reason we went with Verizon is they don't charge minutes if you're talking to other Verizon phones and lots of students at the college my daughter attends have Verizon. We've never run out of minutes. I travel lots on business and get good coverage most places. No complaints, we'll re-up with them when our contract is up. And (my teens love this) a free phone up to $200 every 2 years. They're already shopping for their next one, and it's not available until May. We have gobs of hills and valleys here and we get blanked out occasionally, but not nearly as much as we used to or with other carriers, Nextel in particular.

Hope this helps!
 

Gerie

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David,

I got my first cell phone plan a little more than a year ago, having relied on prepaid until then. I found myrateplan.com by googling "cell phone plan comparisons." and was so glad I did. I went with a T-Mobile family plan that gave two free phone numbers and only had a one-year contract. (All other carriers had one free phone number an additional $9.99 per month for the second number and 2 year contracts.) This worked for me. MyRatePlan then links you to Let'sTalk.com for the phone purchase. I was offered two phones for free that had more features than I would ever use, but made my son quite happy (pictures, video, e-mail, etc.). The best part of that was I was offered $100 rebate on each free phone, meaning I actually made $200 for selecting the phones. They also threw in free hand's free headsets. The people at Let's Talk were very helpful. I had many questions since this was my first experience with purchasing a cell phone plan, and they took lots of time to explain all that I asked.

When I got the phones from Lets Talk, the connection to T-Mobile was seamless. T-Mobile has also provided excellent customer service for me. T-Mobile has worked just fine on Long Island.

So yes, a happy customer of myrateplan.com and letstalk.com

Gerie
 
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Pat H

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I have Cingular now. Had Verizon years ago and it was awful. Switched to AT&T which was better. I now have Cingular and it seems to be fine. Still have some dead spots in the area where I live but not as many. BTW, if you work for a large company they might have a deal with Cingular/Verizon for employee discounts. Mine does and I get 11% off my monthly rate. I also got extra discounts for signing up and getting a new phone online. They actually paid me $25!
 

Glynda

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My experience

Sprint was the worst I've ever had. I now have Verizon and hubby has Cingular. He gets more dropped calls than I do.
 

abbekit

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Be aware that if you do any international travel and want to use your cell phone Cingular/AT&T has international GSM technology, Verizon does not. T-Moblie also uses GSM, Sprint does not.

We just renewed our Cingular/AT&T contract and got two new phones that can download MP3 files. We're going to use them on our upcoming trip to Italy to listen to music in our unit and listen to walking tours of Rome and Florence.
 
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Kozman

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Pick Verizon

I had Spint and hated it. There never seemed to be a signal in places I traveled to. With Verizon I've had absolutely no problems. As mentioned above Verizon to Verizon is free.
 

Kay H

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Pat, will you be able to use your phone in Cancun? I have Cingular but it is pay as you go since I use it so seldom. Last year they told me it would work in Mexico but it didn't. That is one time I would like to use it. Maybe I'll call and ask if I can buy one week's use in Mexico. I don't even have service in Vermont with my pay as you go, which I had with my Cingular contract plan. See you in 2 weeks and 1 day.


I have Cingular now. I now have Cingular and it seems to be fine.
 

Timeshare Von

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I've had Sprint for years and have not had trouble where I lived (Milwaukee or here in Iowa) nor anywhere in the USA where I have traveled including Hawaii and Alaska.

Yvonne
 

dmharris

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One thing I've learned is that the cell phone industry is young and growing. Range and connectivity was awful a few years ago, but has improved as more towers are added and technology evolves. With that said, I suggest looking for a short term contract (no longer than 2 years) so you can be flexible if unsatisfied and/or a better product comes along.
 

bogey21

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I have Cingular, not because I think it is the best but because friends I have extended conversations with around the country have Cingular. Since all Cingular to Cingular calls are free any time of day this works for me. I guess my point is that you should take into account the free Cingular to Cingular, Sprint to Sprint, Five Favorites, etc. deals when making your decision.

GEORGE
 

T_R_Oglodyte

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If you do consider T-Mobile, be sure to check their coverage map. They have the smallest geographic coverage area of any of the national coverage cell phone companies. Basically, they cover major populated areas and major roads. Once you are off a major road outside a populated area, you're likely to lose coverage.

If you don't travel in rural areas it's not an issue. But if you do rural travel, the T-Mobile limitations are significant. (BTW - I am a T-Mobile subscriber, as is most of my family. And one of my children works for T-Mobile providing corporate support for the call centers.)
 

ricoba

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I had at&t and hated it and the service.

So I ended up switching a couple years back to Cingular....

Well guess what....Cingular is now the "new at&t"....I guess for me this is proof of Murphy's Law..... :doh:
 

teachingmyown

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I've been with Verizon for years and years. We've had good customer service, excellent call quality, VERY few dropped calls (like less than one a year with four phones on the family plan) and we feel they offer a good value. In our area we could probably switch to a different company and get more minutes for less dollars but haven't been tempted because we are satisfied with what we have.
 

Icarus

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I was with AT&T for years. They always had back office problems. Doing simple things was not always simple with them. When they merged with Cingular there were really two sides to Cingular, Blue (AT&T) and Orange (Cingular). The blue side continued to have issues. They kept trying to get me to switch to the Orange side, but they never offered a plan that was as good as the one I had on the Blue side.

I finally switched to Verizon, and I was amazed at what a difference it was any time I needed to call customer service. It was like dealing with a real company, that didn't have any internal problems fulfilling your request.

I purchased the phone and plan from amazon.com in a double rebate deal that ended up netting me $50. (Well, it would have had I submitted the $50 Moto rebate, but I never did.) I had some problems getting the big rebate from amazon, but a few emails with amazon customer service fixed that.

If you want GSM, so you can use your phone in GSM countries, you're probably better off going with t-mobile or cingular. If that's not an issue for you, you can just pick the best deal among the various providers without worrying about the technology.

I have to say, that I liked my older Sony Ericson t616 a lot better than the Moto phone that I have now. Verizon criples the bluetooth capabilities of the phone with their firmware, but that's defeatable to some extent, but you still won't get the bluetooth in the phone to export the right profile so you can exchange phone numbers with somebody else by bluetooth. My Sony t616 was so old, it started having some problems, so that's what made me look around for something else.

My company has discount deals for personal phone plans with all the major providers. The amazon rebate deal was only valid on plans of $39.95 a month or higher. I checked with amazon to make sure I was still eligible for the rebate if I applied my corporate discount to the $39.95 a month plan, and they told me I was, and the fact that they told me that was accessible to amazon CSRs later when I had the rebate problem. I think the rebate problem was unrelated to the discount, but it was good knowing that it wasn't like the airlines where one agent tells you one thing and another agent denies it and has no idea what the first agent told you. I was impressed that they actually kept a record of what other amazon CSRs told me at any point. I think that also helped get the rebate in the end, because they had a record of my problems with that and in the end they just instructed their rebate provider to cut the check and send it to me.

Even with the corporate discount on equipment, the cheapest place to buy the phone for me was on amazon. Once activated, I followed the corporate instructions to get the discount applied to the account.

-David
 
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Glynda

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Cingular

Hubby travels a great deal in Mexico, Central America, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Cingular phone service works well for him in those areas (and worked when in China as well) but he has trouble getting data on his Blackberry when in Honduras and Costa Rica.

He dislikes Cingular for phone service in the US.
 

Linda74

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Cingular in Mexico

Cingular has worked well for us in Mexico (and in Spain and Greece)...just call ahead to let them know you will be overseas. For Mexico, we pay the $5 fee for the month and that reduces the calling rate to $.59 per minute (from $.99).... And then we take the plan off when we return.
 

dave06457

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Many thanks

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my initial question of last week. I appreciate hearing your opinions and experiences. It's good to hear that so many of your experiences mirror mine.

I've certainly learned a lot about this industry in a short time.

FYI--I have decided to stay with Cingular. We have been with them now for about 5 years and have been very satisfied. My wife has some travel plans overseas this summer and we like knowing that she can stay connected through the GSM network.

Scanning the Cingular website, I found a number of phones offered for free with a two year extension. It has been three years since I got my last new phone, which is only now showing signs of age and becoming a small problem.
When I went to a Cingular store to inquire about available phones and the costs (or for free), the salesman offered to match the website price if the phone was in stock. That is advantageous since I will get the phone immediately and have a local contact if there is a problem.

The "letstalk.com" and "myrateplan.com" sites are very appealing, if you are interested in and willing to change cell phone providers. IN their FAQs, they acknowledge that if you are choosing to stay with your current carrier, you are apt to get the best deal from the carrier directly.
It would certainly be a consideration if I were changing to Verizon.

Thanks again to all those who posted and offered their advice.

David
 

short

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Cingular in China

Hubby travels a great deal in Mexico, Central America, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Cingular phone service works well for him in those areas (and worked when in China as well) but he has trouble getting data on his Blackberry when in Honduras and Costa Rica.

He dislikes Cingular for phone service in the US.

I have a Cingular service with a SIM card that has worked in the UK. We are going to China in a few weeks.

Will the phone also work in China and/or do I need a different SIM card for it to do so.

Short
 

Glynda

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China

I'm sorry but I don't know. Hubby has a Blackberry via his company with Cingular service and all I know is that it worked in China.
 

Rod in Louisiana

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Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond to my initial question of last week. I appreciate hearing your opinions and experiences. It's good to hear that so many of your experiences mirror mine.

I've certainly learned a lot about this industry in a short time.

FYI--I have decided to stay with Cingular. We have been with them now for about 5 years and have been very satisfied. My wife has some travel plans overseas this summer and we like knowing that she can stay connected through the GSM network.

Scanning the Cingular website, I found a number of phones offered for free with a two year extension. It has been three years since I got my last new phone, which is only now showing signs of age and becoming a small problem.
When I went to a Cingular store to inquire about available phones and the costs (or for free), the salesman offered to match the website price if the phone was in stock. That is advantageous since I will get the phone immediately and have a local contact if there is a problem.

The "letstalk.com" and "myrateplan.com" sites are very appealing, if you are interested in and willing to change cell phone providers. IN their FAQs, they acknowledge that if you are choosing to stay with your current carrier, you are apt to get the best deal from the carrier directly.
It would certainly be a consideration if I were changing to Verizon.

Thanks again to all those who posted and offered their advice.

David

I've been with Cingular for 18 months now. Other than the problems which are common to all mobile phone companies, I only have one issue with Cingular. Both my wife and my daughter have Cingular phones. Our daughter lives 140 miles from us, and we're unable to put her phone and my wife's phone on the same plan because they're in two different Cingular billing areas. I must admit to my being shocked that a company as large as Cingular/AT&T could not work out this administrative problem. Because of their inability to do this, I have a separate calling plan for each phone.
 

Luanne

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I've been with Cingular for 18 months now. Other than the problems which are common to all mobile phone companies, I only have one issue with Cingular. Both my wife and my daughter have Cingular phones. Our daughter lives 140 miles from us, and we're unable to put her phone and my wife's phone on the same plan because they're in two different Cingular billing areas. I must admit to my being shocked that a company as large as Cingular/AT&T could not work out this administrative problem. Because of their inability to do this, I have a separate calling plan for each phone.

This doesn't sound right. We have Cingular and I have 4 phones on my plan, 3 of us are in California and one in Virginia. They are all billed to me. Are you trying to get a separate bill for your daughter? We were even told that the phone in VA could have an area code and prefix for VA, but we opted to have another local (CA) area code and NPA.
 

Rod in Louisiana

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This doesn't sound right. We have Cingular and I have 4 phones on my plan, 3 of us are in California and one in Virginia. They are all billed to me. Are you trying to get a separate bill for your daughter? We were even told that the phone in VA could have an area code and prefix for VA, but we opted to have another local (CA) area code and NPA.

Believe me, I've had many phone conversations with Cingular "customer service" on this issue. All I want to do is add my daughter's phone number to the same plan on which I have my wife's phone, thereby making it a family plan. The two phone numbers do have different area codes, by the way. Cingular tells me (and has always told me) that Lake Charles, LA and Baton Rouge, LA are in different Cingular billing areas, so it cannot be done. I'm hoping that the recent AT&T acquisition will make this possible.

FWIW, I've also been told by Cingular customer service representatives that it could be done, but they were either inexperienced or misinformed. When it came time to actually do it, Cingular could not pull it off.
 

Rod in Louisiana

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This thread prompted me to revisit this issue with Cincular, and I just had a phone conversation with one of their customer service representatives. She informed me that, as a result of the Cingular/AT&T merger/acquisition, they have changed their billing policies, and they will have the ability to combine my two numbers in a single family plan account as of this coming Monday.
 
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