ot: mobile phone companies

Andy · March 15, 2005

totally off topic but i feel *so* good about what i just did.

i just gave my mobile company the sack after a 16-year customer relationship.

why?

i spent 5 hours in the past week trying to order new equipment (blackberry 7100), they kept me on hold, transferred me, held me, xferred me, on hold again, got cut off, blah blah blah. they shipped the wrong phone for my wife. then they shipped the wrong phone for me. tonight was the capper. i'm on hold for 45 mins. finally i say to the guy: can't you call me back when you are ready to help me? he said yes! 45 mins later, he calls me back: "blah blah blah sir, may i put you on hold?" well i was gonna blow a gasket but i figured the best way is to go "click."

i'm switching to a new company in the morning.

wow, i feel good. the power of the consumer. we shouldn't have to put up with crappy service, eh?

thanks for listening.

wxwax · March 15, 2005

They don't deserve you, Andy.

BTW, you should also let the company know what you're doing and why.

Tim Kirkwood · March 15, 2005

wxwax wrote:

They don't deserve you, Andy.

BTW, you should also let the company know what you're doing and why.

And maybe share what the company is, kinda a buyer beware for the rest of us.

Tim

Andy · March 15, 2005

wxwax wrote:

They don't deserve you, Andy.

BTW, you should also let the company know what you're doing and why.

oh i will, as i have to return two phones to them tomorrow. there'll be a letter in the package.

thanks sid!

Mitchell · March 15, 2005

After spending 2 hours in the phone store trying to upgrade my service to a family plan and replace my dead phone, the "helpful" counter jockey informed me that I would have to wait 30 days to activate my new phone on my new plan! I asked him what I should do without a phone for the next 30 days? His response? "That is a good question." After being a customer for 12 years, I just looked at him in disbelief and walked out the door.

mitch

ian408 · March 15, 2005

We deal with Verizon at work though their service blows goats (can I say that
here?). Even with the super-secret customer support number. I have Sprint
for my personal use and their service is on the border. I used to be an AT&T
customer but their CS is why I said good bye.

Ian

luckyrwe · March 15, 2005

andy wrote:

i'm switching to a new company in the morning.
wow, i feel good. the power of the consumer. we shouldn't have to put up with crappy service, eh? thanks for listening.

So are you selling your old cell phone?

Andy · March 15, 2005

ian408 wrote:

I used to be an AT&T
customer but their CS is why I said good bye.

Ian

Andy · March 15, 2005

luckyrwe wrote:

So are you selling your old cell phone?

palm treo 600, already sold thru craig's list -

ginger_55 · March 15, 2005

I have been a customer of Verizon Cell phone since they opened a store in Mt Pleasant years ago. They were the nicest people.

Their customer service was nice, even in the middle of the night. Everything was so cool, I told everyone how wonderful they were.

Now their customer service switches from so/so to "sucks", their store is upscale with not enough people to wait on you.

I have a two yr contract with them for reduced cost of my phone. I didn't think most people could ever change companies. I still feel loyal to Verizon, don't think anyone else would be that much better. The cell phone business got too big............. Now just another outsourcing company.

ginger

dragon300zx · March 15, 2005

For what its worth here is my 2cents.

All the phone companies suck (as well as the cable company (I am on dial up while waiting for the dsl to be installed as I told comcast something I wont say here) but thats another rant) the trick is finding the one that sucks the least for you. I have had Nextel for about 5 years now. Their service area is decent although not the best (i dont get reception at home worth a crap) but at least when I want something done it gets done. Thei phone upgrade policiy sucks but so does every other phone companies. Oh and those super secret customer service numbers they give business'

. (yeah I know I have worn alot of different hats in the type of work I do but I have ADD and can't stand doing the same thing all the time so have a tendency to get bored with some jobs) I used to work for ONSTAR as a Cellular technician. Basically when your onstar doesnt work you call OSTA (Onstar Services Technical Advisors) and that was me. I had access to the highest level of support there was at verizon. I would usually get results within minutes instead of hours or days when I was dealing with them and days if I had to deal with another company through them. But Where I work now I deal with there general tech support. It is so dissappointing because it takes them 3 hours to fix what should only take 5 minutes. So what is the point of my rant?

Andy sorry to hear you had a bad expeirience with your Service Provider and congratulations on the change. But let me serve as the downer and just simply say that although I hope you find better service elsewhere (get a nextel) don't get your hopes up to high. Because like the moral fortitude of this country customer service from service providers has been flushed so far down the preverbial toilet I wonder if we will ever get it back.

Charlie Brown · March 15, 2005

ive had t mobile for about 9 months or so and have had no problems with them at all. even when i needed to password protect my account due to a personal problem with an associate of mine, and the password is very very very long might i add, they fixed the problem and quickly. i like em. if you know what my favourite movie is youll be able to figure out the password, but you better not get anything wrong.

charlie

Andy · March 15, 2005

Charlie Brown wrote:

ive had t mobile....(snip)

Angelo · March 15, 2005

Let me guess; Verizon?

David_S85 · March 16, 2005

Just as OT: my thoughts about cell phones
:soapbox

Am I perhaps one of the only humans living today who has never owned a cell phone? If so, all I believe I am missing is yet another $40/month bill and the problems Andy mentioned at the top of this thread.
Unless a company I work for tells me "here is your cell phone that we're giving to you and are paying for" there isn't much besides big bribes (or a 20D and several lenses) that will push me to use or buy one of those things.

Mind you, the SO, and just about everyone I know is now or was once employed by Motorola or Lucent or any one of several other telephony/tech companies that are headquartered within miles of here, I have successfully dodged this cell phone thing altogether (but we also do not have kids to keep track of

).

I'll admit the tech is pretty and kewl and all, but gads-zooks, I'm trying to simplify my life now. And there seems to be a real phone that always works wherever I go.

Charlie Brown · March 16, 2005

david i agree with your sentiments. the only reason i got one in the first place is because i got a motorcycle and didnt want to end up in a ditch or stranded with no coms. now i dont have a home phone, no long distance to pay, a phone wherever i go, its also a pda, an mp3 player and well its cool to. plus i got it for $50 on ebay. now its not all PDA pimpy like adnys TREO, but it has a calendar which is good enough for me.

charlie

DavidTO · March 16, 2005

my only question is how you can have an off topic post in a forum that has no topic?

David_S85 · March 16, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

my only question is how you can have an off topic post in a forum that has no topic?

That is a good point. I don't know.

Now, are we speaking off the record?

Andy · March 16, 2005

DavidTO wrote:

my only question is how you can have an off topic post in a forum that has no topic?

you got david_s85 to post 2x in this thread! holy moly!

Andy · March 16, 2005

Angelo wrote:

Let me guess; Verizon?

:nono read the clues here in this thread.

canonguy · March 16, 2005

andy wrote:

totally off topic but i feel *so* good about what i just did.

i just gave my mobile company the sack after a 16-year customer relationship.

why?

i spent 5 hours in the past week trying to order new equipment (blackberry 7100), they kept me on hold, transferred me, held me, xferred me, on hold again, got cut off, blah blah blah. they shipped the wrong phone for my wife. then they shipped the wrong phone for me. tonight was the capper. i'm on hold for 45 mins. finally i say to the guy: can't you call me back when you are ready to help me? he said yes! 45 mins later, he calls me back: "blah blah blah sir, may i put you on hold?" well i was gonna blow a gasket but i figured the best way is to go "click."

i'm switching to a new company in the morning.

wow, i feel good. the power of the consumer. we shouldn't have to put up with crappy service, eh?

thanks for listening.

Just curious, what carrier? I am in the industry. Hopefully your problem is not with a carrier I am affiliated with, but, even so, I like to use customer feedback to suggest improvements for my organization. Telecoms are notoriously bad with customer serviece. I get the feeling that most people are wait for a better alternative and when one comes along, they'll switch in a heartbeat.

wxwax · March 16, 2005

Sounds like he's switching from AT&Tto T-Mobile.

Andy · March 16, 2005

wxwax wrote:

Sounds like he's switching from AT&Tto T-Mobile.

and let me tell you my new experience

at 11:55am i walked into t*mobile store at madison and 42nd street, manhattan. i say "i'd like to switch to tmobile from att." sales guy comes over and says "sure, have a seat. like a soda?"

in five minutes, i had given him what he needed. i needed to take a kodak potd for kodak, so i jammed over to times square (five mins away). i shoot the pic, have ribs at virgil's and head back into the tmobile store at 12:45pm.. my phones (blackberry 7100 for me, tiny motorola flippy for wife) are in a shopping bag, charged up, and activated on the new service, same existing number i've had for 15 years.

t*mobile rocks

Angelo · March 16, 2005

I had service for years with the same carrier. Started out as AirTouch but was bought by Verizon. First few years were fine but recently Verizon has become the cellular server from hell. I had myriad problems with them, especially over the past 2 years. Finally gave up and switched to TMobile. Great prices, great service.

Now I just have to deal with having paid penalties for early cancellation. I'm considering a law-suit... a class action suit might be in the offing since I caught them in several billing irregularities and lies about recording incoming numbers on my monthly statements.

Andy · March 16, 2005

re: pricing
my comparison showed tmobile to be the lowest price, too.

* best deal for family plan ($10 add'l fone and share the main minutes)
* unlim data on my blackberry only $30 / month
* unlim hot-spot (wireless internet from starbucks, etc) $20 (a $10 per month savings on that already for me)

so far, very please.

oh: and the bonus factor: i put "brand new day" by sting on wife's new fone, called her, she about peed her pants in excitement

Andy · September 21, 2005

just an update on t*mobile customer service
well, for some reason, yesterday afternoon, my blackberry stopped receiving emails. i called t*mobile support line, they answered in 2 minutes, live body, trained in blackberry email support.

rep: "has anything changed with your email server mr. williams?"

me: "well, yes - as a matter of fact, apple did a major upgrade to .mac (where i have my email) just 24 hours ago...."

rep: " okay - that's it - i just need to go in and resubmit your email address, they probably did some email server changes on the .mac system..."

rep: ... (1 minute later) "okay, all done and i've sent you a test email, let me know if it is received on your blackberry."

me: ... (2 minutes later) "got it!" thank you so much

now *that's* what i call great customer service

wholenewlight · September 23, 2005

Late post on this thread but . . .

I've had ATT/now Cingular forever. Good coverage in my area but I wanted a new phone a few years ago. They wouldn't make me a deal so I looked elsewhere but my wife still uses the number.
I went with T-Mobile on a rebate deal through Amazon.com (Amazon always beats the local affiliates on rebates, accessory pkgs, etc).
For me, TMobile stunk big time! Horrible coverage in central PA and even poorer (is that a word?) phone support. I gave that phone to my daughter. I sure liked the hotspot coverage though. But spent too much time in the bookstores/coffee shops!
My company now pays my bill for a Treo 600 phone with Verizon service. Fantastic reception and coverage in central PA - the best I've experienced. I haven't needed any support in the past year so ?? I'm not a big fan of the Treo phones but that's another subject.

Coverage and reception are most important to me so I would probably stick with Verizon unless something changes.

Good luck with your new program, Andy:gone

Andy · September 23, 2005

wholenewlight wrote:

Good luck with your new program, Andy:gone

several months into it, and i'm a happy camper

ginger_55 · September 23, 2005

I have been with Verizon since it was born, practically. It has changed a lot. It has become big business whereas it used to be "small town friendly". It has really changed if there is an issue or something and you have to call them.

At the same time, I am locked into "two year plans", and I don't think any of these companies would be "small town friendly" anymore. Verizon does work for me, but I don't like them much anymore, if that makes any sense.

Whenever I read about problems with cell phones, it is pretty much industry wide. So as far as I can tell, the major difference might be where you live and what is available in that area.

ginger (we no longer have a landline except for emergencies. I have major reception problems in the house, but that is a choice I did make. Landline vs cell.)

Jane B. · September 23, 2005

Adventures in cell service for the hearing impaired
I have a sever hearing loss and first got a cell phone (a Nokia 918 - an analog phone) after I discovered the PVCO (Pocket Voice Carryover) by Krown that straps to the listening end of a phone handset so you can read what the other person is saying on a call through a Relay Service. (Run by the states in the US for the hearing & speech impaired. When it is between a hearing person and someone hearing impaired the hearing person on the call voices their end of the conversation and a CA types what is heard from that end to the person with the hearing loss so they can read it on a TDD/TTY. The person with the hearing loss either types their end of the conversation on their TTY and the CA voices it to the hearing person or, if they have good speech skills, voices their own end to the hearing person. The only thing to watch out for is that you can’t both talk at once but have to give a GA (go ahead) when you are ready for the other person to respond.) Since I wanted the cell phone to have service available more than to use regularly, I went with Tracfone — a prepaid service. It is great peace of mind when on the road alone as even if someone did stop to help I don’t know if I would understand them.

That worked fine until the latch that holds the piece on that is both the back and the battery broke. While looking for something else I used a rubber band to hold that piece on. I knew the early digital models were not compatible with TTYs and analog ones are getting rare. What I decided on was the Nokia 1100, a GSM phone, which works with a PocketComm (also by Krown and just slightly larger as it can work as a full TTY via a thumb keyboard.) Working all the pieces out was a nightmare between Krown (the mfg. of the PocketComm), Nokia (the mfg. of the phone — which is a special model of the 1100 for Tracfone) and Tracfone (I pay them for the service and they sub-contract to different carriers all over the country). It included the matter of was the phone TTY compatible and did I need an adapter in addition to the cable that comes with the PocketComm? It turns out I did need the adapter but never did get a clear answer from Nokia — Krown says that most phone manufacturers are not very assistive device aware. Then there also was the question of if Tracfone’s version of the phone supported the use of the TTY. They too are not assistive device aware and besides that their call center can be noisy and as an English speaker you may get someone who’s first language is Spanish with questionable fluency in English. That also made for repeated long calls to get my units (minutes) transferred from the old phone to the new.

It did turn out that in the end all the pieces work together well. Also, since I only use that phone once in awhile it only runs me about $7.00 per month to keep it active (That is buying a one year card that includes at least 150 minutes and sometimes more if you happen to hit a special.). Only about a week ago I found my first dead area just south of town. (Two of us with Tracfone (me GSM band and other on an older digital phone) couldn’t get a signal nor could one of the other two people in the car. The fourth phone worked and I don’t know which carrier that person is with.)

Jane

ot: mobile phone companies

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