Cell Phone Hell
 

If anyone is considering changing their carrier ar getting a cel for the first time, whatever you do, do not sign with SunCom or AT&T wireless. I was with them for a year and became very upset with my service. They charged me for time I went over on my nights and weekends plan. This was strange because I had unlimited nights and weekends. They have a hard time understanding the deffinition of UNLIMITED. Well anyway I decided to cancel my service with them and pay the early $25 cancelation fee. I told them in May that I wanted them to take my final fees out of my $150 deposit and send me the balance. The person that I spoke to said that would be fine and I should expect to get my check in around 4-7 weeks. Well it is now november and no check. I have called them at least twice a month to make sure that they are completing my request. The last person that I spoke to told my that I had never requested my balance to be sent to me. WHAT!!! That person told me that now I have requested my money that it would arrive in around 10-15 weeks. Do not do business with these people. They are out to steel your money!!!

While we're on the subject of cell phones, let me tell you about a neat li'l trick Cingular slipped into the "small print" on the back of the contract.

Night minutes start at 9 pm so I think most people would assume if you make a call at 8:55 pm and talk for an hour that Cingular will deduct five daytime and 55 nighttime minutes from your balance, right? Wrong!!!

If you start your call at 8:55 pm, you will be using day minutes for the entire duration of the call, even the time you're talking after 9 pm.

Legal? Yes, well, it's in the contract. Shady? Definitely. Do I plan to re-up when my contract expires? Not a chance in he**!

this happened to me w/voicestream my weekend minutes are supposed to start at midnight on saturday, well i made a call at 11:58..ended up talking for over about an hour and a half. yea i was pretty PO'd when i found that out

Hmmm...that was made pretty clear to me when I signed up for Cingular. I've been very happy with them so far.

I have Cingular and one night I remember looking at the clock and wondering if I could call at like 8:59 and have it switch over to night minutes at 9pm... but to be safe I waited another couple minutes; they hadn't said anything about it to me... but apparently I was right to wait! Other than things like that I've been pretty happy with Cingular *shrug* They sure ain't perfect... but then, I'd sooner build a snowman in hell than find the perfect cellular service, right?

And on AT&T or whoever from earlier... when I had been digging around for info shopping for my service it seems like I had read some fine print about the "unlimited" that said it was up until your regular minute plan--that right there pissed me off that they'd say "unlimited" yet put a limit on it--how can they call it unlimited then? :eek: That does not make any sense!:confused: I thought it seemed shady and decided to stay far away from messing with "unlimited" and go for a solid number like 3000 :D At least then I know what I'm dealing with! Geez!

Ah, well.

My post says the stipulation was spelled out in the contract; I don't dispute it. I still think it's shady.

I have Verizon Wireless, and in college had a part time job as a sales rep for United States Cellular, SunCom, and Sprint PCS. I can tell you that all of them have the same rules regarding night/weekend minutes having to start after 9 pm. But as far as I know, none of them make it very clear that the call must be placed after 9. As a sales rep, I tried to make sure I told all my customers all the between-the-lines stuff, and that's what a good sales rep should do. So I would blame whoever sold you your service because they should have told you. And I think that service providers should make it more clear to begin with.

Verizon sucks!

I was with them for almost two years and NEVER had a problem until I added long distance onto my calling plan (which was last year when Will and I started talking more seriously).

First things first...I seemed to be getting charged when Will would call me. My bill would list it as an INCOMING number yet post a charge next to it. ODD! Then I noticed when I'd check my voicemail it'd say something like TOLL CHARGE on my bill and then list a .30 charge. WTF?!?!

So I stopped paying my bill. I started disputing it last December but after I moved to Austin, they kept mailing my parents and not ME...so because they assumed I didn't want to pay up or resolve the situation they turned it over to collections.

Well that wasn't the case at all...I even wrote them a disputing letter and mailed a copy to myself.

Then when I talked to a representative finally about my bills he claimed that I was NOT charged at all for incoming long distance calls or for checking my voicemail. HOW COME IT'S LISTED THERE THEN!!!!!!

Overall I wasn't very happy. I realized that I did go over my minutes and would be happy to pay that...but I'm not certain I can trust a company that tells me I wasn't charged for something when it lists it as a charge. If I really wasn't charged then why do they have it there at all?

I have CRICKET now and I love it! I get UNLIMITED calls ALL DAY AND NIGHT! Basically, it's my home phone! I do have to pay to have caller ID, call waiting, and something else (I forget) but you get a discount if you get all three. And my phone bill is never over $50...and I can talk ALL I WANT!

Ya can't beat that!

My friends and I were talking about this at work they all have Sprint and they hate them! I heard things from charging to make payment by phone, even if there automated system is down. Losing calls in your own home, Always trying to make you sign up for another contract, not giving you the phone you want, I can go on and on. I am very happy with Verizon!

i had at&t and i didnt like it, i was always on roaming in the city and the coverage area in general isnt that good. i switched to verizon, and ive had problems with my bill, but if you go and bitch about it they take care of it without a problem. i have had problems with the phone itself, i got a new one two weeks ago for free b/c of the warranty, and now i need another one b/c my phone keeps turning itself off for no reason. but thats not service related.

If you are in a good service area for it, the Voicestream/T-mobile national plans kick a$$. No roaming, no long distance anywhere.

yeah, i think that was it, it was a horrible phone, and my faces always would break

I had SunCom and the service was *horrible* My living room was sometimes Extended area. We would call to complain and they didn't care. They finally were going to let us out of the contract, or we could wait 2 months for them to build a new tower. Well, they never built that tower. Still haven't as far as I know.

And did they ever screw up our billing...first month's bill was $900 - why? Because they didn't credit any of our package minutes, or any of the mobile-to-mobile minutes (which were unlimited)

I had a Nokia 5100 and it would sometimes turn itself off for no reason.

Now, we're with Alltel. The service has been okay. They screwed up our bill again. I got charged for roaming when I was in Baton Rouge, even though I have a national plan. And their phone selection is sucky. I got a free Nokia 3285, which is the bastard child of the 3300 and the 5100 series. Its just plain ugly.

As a dealer of both Sprint PCS and Cingular I've noticed several things about most cell phone customers...

1. You expect it to work everywhere.... Well in fact it does not. No cell phone does. They work off of towers that are placed in ways that ***SHOULD*** cover a given geographical area. There are also areas they are not licensed to be in or place towers because of local restrictions. Cell phone signals or any other type of Radio Frequency device is NOT something that can be relied upon 100%. If you get a crappy signal or dropped call from time to time or always in a certain place just adapt or switch carriers.

2. The lowest rate plan is always the best... I suggest to customers that they estimate what their usage PER DAY would be... 15 minutes for example. Multiply that by 30 and then choose the plan that is ABOVE that one. It's a lot cheaper to pay $10 more one month than $100 because your plan was too small.

3. You expect great customer service directly from the company... Customer service for these companies is done in HUGE call centers. The people who take your calls work a VERY monotonous job and are paid very low wages. There is high turnover so training is ALWAYS an issue. Note that they are now hiring many people that have inadquate skills with english to work these call centers.


These are just 3 things... Now if you want good customer service go back to where you bought the phone OR log on to the internet and fix it yourself. Your best bet is always face to face. That's where all of these companies have their best people -- usually these people are more experienced, they're ALWAYS better trained. They sell phones most of the day so their attitude is generally better..

Read the fine print and be patient with your service. Your expectations may be too high and you need to allow these carriers some leeway. No cell phone product is perfect.

True. But I've noticed that different phones and different services work differently. My brother had MCI, and using the phone in the house was horrible. He had some kind of Nokia flip phone. When I had Voice stream and a Nokia 3390, it worked ok, sometime. Now I have verizon, and first I had an audiovox, and it would cut a call for no apparent reason in my room or the living room. Now I have the Mototola T720, and it works just fine everywhere (it better for how much I payed for it!!) So I guess it just depends.

LMAO!

My 3360 was free and I haven't ever had any problems with it like others have had before. After reading through this, it's interesting how things are seemingly different everywhere.

Wow, I didn't know that that was actually a problem with the model... I just had to have mine replaced a while back, for that exact same problem....

Well said, ktsnake! People are so clueless when it comes to cell phones, and then they go and think that the company sucks just because they're ignorant! And for the record, I've never heard of a service provider that DIDN'T charge for EVERY time you use your phone, even if someone calls YOU. They charge you for airtime, not just the calls that you make.

Here are some things that are true for just about every service provider:

-They charge for airtime. ANY time your phone is used, whether you called someone or someone called you.

-Night and weekend minutes generally start after 9 pm. If you place a call at 8:59 pm, it counts off of your anytime minutes. If you want it to count off your night minutes, you must wait till after 9 to make the call.

-No service is going to work everywhere you go. You have to choose what is best for your area. If you live in the middle of nowhere, Sprint PCS for example is NOT going to work for you. LOOK at coverage maps before you buy, that way you know where it works and where it doesn't. In my experience, Verizon Wireless is the only thing that has worked for me almost everywhere I go.

I thought this stuff was common knowledge, but apparently not... :rolleyes:

SPRINT PCS SUCKS

i worked for them for a year, and they trained us not in how to deal with customer service issues, but how to dodge them and send the customer elsewhere, only to get dodged again.. they charge for EVERYTHING including calling customer care (which you have to do cuz we won't help you in the store- if we do, we get in trouble). the new 3g network is very unreliable.. and the phones break very easily unless they are Sanyo or some Samsungs. it it was rare i didn't see problems with new customers...

www.sprintpcs-sucks.org

don't go to pcs.

That's actually the way most of these companies work. I'll tell you that I've actually never had a problem with customer care on Sprint. They have always been fairly professional. They *do* sometimes give people a bit of the 'ol run around but it usually gets handled when I send them into the actual Sprint Service Center.

Personally I had a problem a few weeks ago with Sprint. I have a web service that sends me the scores to certain football games. The service went haywire and started sending me about 50 pages every time one of the teams scored. Sprint credited my bill for something that wasn't even their fault!

I'm not calling you a liar but I don't think that your story is ENTIRELY accurate.

Sprint made it pretty clear to me about how that works when I got my cell phone. Only problem I have with Sprint is their phones are expensive and don't even last a year. :p

So go with another carrier:D

Actually they're comparable. If you look at the features that Sprint phones have vs the free phones you get elsewhere you're getting a decent deal. Sprint usually gives their new customers a pretty big break with tons of rebates and incentives. If you sign a 2 year contract you get a $100 credit with which to purchase a new phone.. It's called the "technology assurance program".

If you go with Cingular and want a phone in the middle of your contract period just add $200 to the posted price of the phone and it's yours. For example a $.01 phone becomes $200.01. Or at least until you have gone 1 1/2 years and are able to upgrade by signing away 2 more years.

Quality on cell phones is a tough thing to have. They take a beating that most devices would never withstand. We carry them around in our pocket all day bumping them into things. We drop them on hard surfaces.. splash them, etc... Not many electronic devices are able to withstand that. Besides their technologically obsolete in a year or two...

They're all very similar when things balance out. You just have to be careful to choose what's right for you.

ktsnake - that is the honest truth of it.. i hated working at sprint... maybe it was just my store and the management of it, but it was hell. he was only 23, and the oldest one in the store.. the manager was super sexist too, i was the only female in the store and he treated me like the store maid. i eventually left for better employment, at verizon. i'm still training but it seems like a much better atmosphere and company to work for.. in the last quarter sprint actually net LOST customers.. which is super bad.

This definitely sounds like a good plan, especially for people who love to talk! I visited their web site and they don't have service in Texas. :(

Cricket is great if you never leave home... If you leave home with it the service just doesn't work (at all).

LoL .. yea that's true ... I don't think I would ever switch though, Sprint PCS has been good to me! I've never had problems getting a signal (except maybe that one I was randomly driving around a wooded area in Missouri :p ) My cell phone bills are generally less than $35/month too :)

In 2 or 3 years you'll be able to switch carriers and keep your phone number. I may be switching at that point depending on what's available. I've been with Sprint now for about 5 years.

I was with Sprint for about 5 years and had to give up my cell phone to save some money. When I do get another cell phone, I will probably go with Sprint. There aren't many carriers to choose from down here and in the 5 years I was with Sprint, the only problem I had was when I was cancelling my phone.

I am glad I have created a place for people to bitch about their cell phones. I believe the bitching is very therapeutic. I spoke to SunCom the other day again and told them that I had a close friend that works with the Wall Street Journal. I said he is more than willing to release a story about my troubles with your company. Their next words were, “we will be sending the check out tomorrow.” I love lying.

How it's going to work I don't know. It think it's an FCC mandate or something to that effect. There will probably be some fee involved.

Revisiting that idea, if you call right before night minutes end, will it all go on night or are they quick to pull a double standard?

You want to call someone at 6:59 AM and find out?:D

Ktsnake, are you the spokesperson for SprintPCS or something? :D :p
j/k

Anyway, I have been a Sprint PCS customer for about 3 years now and of all cell phone companies, they are the best. But don't get hype....I think all of this cell phones companies are bootleg, its just that Sprint PCS is the least bootleg of them all.

And I y'all remember when night-time minutes started at 7pm, instead of 9pm? Straight scandelous for companies to change that. And when first signed up with sprint, checking voice-mail was FREE, calling customer care was FREE (BTW I despise CLAIRE! :mad: ), and the first incoming minute was FREE. I notice on my bill last month that they are no longer FREE :mad: And I do get a LOT of dropped calls, but the guy at the store said that I need to purchase a new phone (mine is about 3 years old - I have the Samsung 3500 flip)

But given that fact that my bill only comes to $30/month and I get 4000 night and weekend minutes I don't complain.

d'ha ha ha ha ha
 

doubtful. but i'll bet my grandma knows with the hours she keeps... eesh!

yeah, my grandma has a cell phone, and she also chats with me on instant messenger... did anybody else's grandparents successfully transition into the next millenium? :D

wow that could probably be an entire other thread haha :)

~april

I don't think I get charged for all those little things... the first incoming minute maybe but goodness... checking voicemail, calling customer service, etc... but most of the time i'm not using my cell FOR those things if that is what you mean?

My bill is 40/month for 3000 n/w minutes and 400 anytime that rollover at the end of the month. Some people need more minutes than that; I've found that I'm not the type that calls up everybody I've known since I was five when I'm drunk to tell them what I think--so that probably helps LOL My roommate last year on the other hand... one of those crying on the phone for three hours drunk. ALWAYS over on her minutes... oh boy.

I do remember the days of 1st incoming minute free and 7PM Nights and Weekends minutes. I recall that we went to 8PM then to 9PM.. All the while Cingular was jumping between 9PM and 10PM for their minutes.

Fact is they ALL want your money. That's what they're in business to get. There is a move to give you flat rate service (finally). AT&T here in our area is offering $99 for UNLIMITED anytime minutes. Very nice. But I think it's only local coverage..

With Sprint, checking voicemail was never free.. it used airtime. It would be free if you do this:

1. Call your cell phone # from a landline.
2. As your away message starts playing hit #
3. Enter your voicemail passcode
4. You're into your voicemail (and it's free!)

That 3500 you're sporting must be 2 years old! Check out some of these new Vision compatible phones. The A400 is pretty nice (and $199). My theory though is that it is probably the one thing in your life that you carry with you EVERYWHERE and you probably use it more than any other electronic device you own...

So why not get one that you like?

:eek: wow that's a lot of $$ for a cell phone for a month!

amycat, I echo what texas*princess said. :eek: :eek: