Cell phone companies!! ACK which way to go!

I've been with Verizon for 3+ years now. It's got pretty damn good range, that is if you haven't dropped your phone about 100 times like I did =x I just upgraded to a new phone for free, Veb upgraded for 40 (tax+shipping included). I'd have to say their plan is pretty damn nice. I pay 5 bucks for unlimited text messaging. 100 bucks total for both veb and I to share 500 mins, but free phone calls to each other and other verizon customers. There's no home network here in alaska, but it works great for the most part. Definitely look into them. The phone customer service is exceptionally good.

I had voicestream before they turne dinto t-mobile, great customer service and decent plans too.

My husband and I would LOVE to switch to Verizon, except...they want 400 dollars PER line due to our credit. /boggle. It's bad, but not THAT bad...

So...we are stuck with sprint for awhile.

Ouch =(

I've got Sprint also. Been using their service since 99 and usually didn't have problems until recently when I had battery charging issues with my phone. I was there the Monday before Labor Day, they told me they were ordering me a new phone and it would take 3-5 business days and they would call me when it was in. The phone was supposed to be identical to mine. But by new they meant refurbished. And by identical they meant the same model but not the same color. And by 3-5 days they apparently meant 3-5 weeks. Oh, and no phone call.

I'm stuck choosing between staying with cingular or going to t-mobile / verizon. I'm most likely going to stay with Cingular. Rollover minutes 4trawk. :)

We've had sprint for years but as of lately (last 3-4 months) the service has absolutely sucked. We thought it was just our phones but my brothers business phones are all through sprint and they are having trouble as is my husband's sister. Missing calls, having no service etc etc. They blamed the problem on fixing towers and etc but it still hasnt gotten better in almost 4 months. Not to mention my husbands phone is a pos and he has had it fixed and gotten "new" (see description of what a new phone to cell phone companies is above) several times. Cant wait to get rid of sprint.

Sonya

PS woohoo found the option to change the color of the boards and now i can see!!

PSS Mother in Law has cingular and loves the rollover too and hardly has problems, when we make the switch thats most likely what we'll go with

Thanks guys for the input!

I'm thinking verizon.

Nods sprints customer service is iffy at best, I've had a nearly identical story as Ryala.

Roll over mins is not a selling point for me cause I talk way to much to have mins left over.

My biggest selling point would be coverage and recption, living in the mountains i have lots of dead spots, signal fades, dropped calls and its making me go GRRR.

When I upgraded my phone while I was in washington in august, they told me I'd have to do the software update thingy (call *288) in home range. So I said ok send it to my parents, they'll set it up and then send it to me in alaska since I was leaving in 2 days.

Dude sent it to me, free of charge, the next day.

Verizon store service is questionable, but I've ordered and upgraded thru their phone customer service and have gotten nothing but incredible service.

Something you might want to consider.. Sprint and Nextel have recently merged. This might bring out new plans or this might be why their service has sucked lately...but who knows.

I have had sprint and Metroc PCS here in Atlanta. The flat rate for Metro PCS is nice but Sprint had better service and more coverage. Linking with Nextel is likely to increase that and hopefully they will come up with new plans if they haven't already.

BTW mom had a similar phone problem with Verizon and now they are trying to charge her for the old phone that she sent back to them saying they never received it. So customer service is likely crappy where ever you are.

Yea the Nextell / Sprint merge was their reason for the crappy service, its kinda funny cuz right after posting that message I went and got my mail and there was a thing from Sprint saying the merge was complete and all should be good now.

heh I used to work for Nextel. I wouldn't expect many improvements. My best friend is on his last leg there seeing as the merger means they no longer have a need for his QA department since the people he's monitoring are losing their jobs.

But Nextel always had a nice free incoming plan.

X worked customer service for Verizon for a bit. I can't stand that they literally have to read you this script as a response, they can't improvise. If I wanted a robot I'd talk to one.. Give me a laughing, joking, off the cuff person any day.

Oh and we had AT&T now Cingular.. Customer service there is OK, only had to call once or twice. We haven't had many problems and our 2 year contract is up next month. The sucky part is our plan is way cheaper than anything they offer now, and we're going to need to buy new phones since 1) they're AT&T ones so they won;t be supported much longer I'm told and also mine is already giving me problems not wanting to charge. Rollover minutes seem sinlly since we have never come close to using the like 500 or 1000 we share now, so it would just be wasted. I want another deal like we got when we signed up.. free 1st phone second phone for a penny and $300 rebates on the phones (since that was retail but CarToys had em on special) And two phones with roadside and free to each other calls for $65 a month after all the fees and taxes. They don't have deals like that anymore *sighs*

I called Sprint and told them I was leaving and they "checked my credit with them" and then threw free stuff at me, so i guess im with them for another year

i got a $250 camera phone for $50

same plan i had 500 anytime plus unlimited night and weekend mins nationwide long distance starting at 7pm and if i go over is $5 per 100 mins old price was $49.99 now $34.99

plus free mobile to moble and unlimited picture / camcorder messaging for $15
and 100 text messages a month * i had 10 a month before

so my bill is now $49.99 same as before but lots more stuff!

i shopped around with verizon / tmobile / and cingular and i think i got a good deal

Thanks guys for all your input!

oh and with the new phone i get soo much better reception, which was the reason i considered leaving in the first place!

i have nextel, and i have shitty service in some places, but amazing service in some places. I like nextel because i can talk to my mom, my dad, my sister, and a lot of my friends at any time free, without actually calling them, gogo direct connect. The problem right now is the fact that they're upgrading the towers. Since sprint and nextel merged, you've got twice as many people on the same number of towers. So i would imagine they have to make all the sprint towers work with the nextel service or the other way around.

I love my nextel, but i hate it at the same time because i randomly lose service in my house (its not nextel specifically that causes that though, my area is just in a dead zone.)

heh Seems they always throw the goods at you when you're leaving, Mira.

Your bad reception was probably your phone. I dropped mine so many times that I couldnt complete half my calls. =( Once I upgraded, I haven't dropped a call since. Sounds like they gave you the 'dont leave, i love you' deal. Right on!

Just to put in my two cents. We have cingular and while the service is discounted and we have lots of cool stuff because my husband works for SBC (who owns Cingular and now AT&T Moblie), the customer service stinks. Mostly because teir 1 AKA the people you call the first time, is off-shore out-sourced. Most of the calls are taken in India. There are some call centers still in America, but those are mostly for SBC land line customers. SBC IS, Cingular, and Yahoo! CS are all off-shore out-sourced.

Though I do like my Cingular phone, plus we have the insurance so if we drop it and break it, it gets replaced, free.

This is the first I'm hearing SBC owns Cingular...my understanding was that SBC owned Verizon and that Cingular owned AT&T Mobile. I've been with Cingular since I moved to the States so about 6 years and haven't ever had a single problem with them. I went with Cingular to avoid SBC because SBC used to be called Ameritech and Ameritech sucks donkeyballs. It must be fairly recent that SBC got holdings with Cingular unless I have the whole thing screwed up... Ameritech had the worst customer service of any company I've ever had contact with. Cingular I always get great service with. God just knowing they're associated makes me want to switch even though I've never had any issues with them hehe. I swore I'd never give Ameritech another dime.