Cell Phone Hell

[Kevin]

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.