What Company to go with...

NewAwakenings · Posted: Sat, 08 May 2004 16:10:53 Post Subject: What Company to go with...

Ok Gadgiation is almost upon me, and with work I will be doing alot more traveling, so want to get a cell phone since I dotn have the best car(99 Escort) you guys ahve any luck with any of the cell phone plans? What is the best bang for the buck?

Thanks in Advance Smile

T-shirt · Posted: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:28:51 Post Subject:

99 escort is a fine car Wink

, (better get AAA deluxe towing too!) depending on your needs/expected usage, the best plan/phone will vary. A couple things to look for
Wall to wall coverage where you intend to travel (and even a little off track in case of a wrong turn)
no roaming charges unless it's an emergency only phone (then buy the phone you like that takes prepaid service/phone cards. free inbound calls and plenty of minutes (even a few extra minutes a month cost a fortune)
Plans that include a (usually crappy) phone you are often better off buying your own phone full price (but you might get a rebate) that works with the provider you choose.
Verizon general gets highest overall marks for wide area / nationwide service. but smaller companies may work better in the area you'll be in.
avoid a long term plan with a no name reseller, cause if the dissappear you'll lose any advantage and service tech support usually isn't there when you really need it

BeerCheeze · Posted: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:46:22 Post Subject:

I have used: Sprint, AT&T and Verizon personally, and used NexTel for work.

NexTel area was teh sux.... I had good luck with Sprint coverage area, but I had some problems with their service (They wanted to charge me an activation fee on a new phone becasue the one I had for 3 yrs broke.... I have been told they don't do that any more though). AT&T was ok... I think they were more expensive though. But I also have an Anti-AT&T thing so.....

The coverage area I have with Verizon seems very good. I have only had 2 problems with them. The first one I only got solved after filing a complaint with the FCC. They kept billing me for cell-to-cell min's even though they are unlimited in my plan. They gave me some credits, but never what I was expecting. At first they claimed it was a problem with their system because we ported our phone numbers from our AT&T account. After that was solved they said that we were making calls in the "extended area" which was not included in the cell-to-cell min's. That is when I filed a complaint with the FCC... and low and behold I got all the credits I was supposed to after that.

The other issue we have is dropped calls... they don't seem to do to well when we change cell sites. We had this problem both on the road between Calif and Colorado and when we we're driving around Sacramento. It doesn't happen A LOT, but enough that I noticed it. We never had that problem with AT&T or Sprint.

NewAwakenings · Posted: Sun, 09 May 2004 10:54:01 Post Subject:

thatsk guys excellent information there:)