Wanting to change cell phone carrier

[SandmanGStefani24]

Who do you have, and why do you like them?

I have had sprint since 2001, but the coverage has been so bad lately i am ready to switch. I looked at non contract but the phones are never as good as the contract ones. I've sold phones in the past so I know a lot about devices and who owns/uses who. What I'm looking for is REAL WORLD experience, since sprint's coverage map includes my home, but it aint cutting it.

Virgin/Boost/Sprint/Cricket are out bc they use the same networks mostly.

TMobile has a decent prepay plan, but i don't like their pp phones. Coverage however looks iffy.

Verizon of course looks amazing but is also double what I'm paying now. Dont think i want to spend the money.

ATT looks a little better than Tmobile, and i am neutral on the plans.

So, who's your phone buddy? Any experiences good or bad are welcome info. Thanks!

[TinkerbellT421]

Had Verizon ions ago. Had to switch because my ex had a friend who worked for them that would give him my information....long frustrating story, but that made me mad enough to swear them off forever. But, several friends recently have ditched them because their customer service is apparently awful among the fact that their plans are ridiculously expensive.

I hate tmobile with a passion had them for four years, refuse to use them, ever again. Their service is awful. I had to leave my house to use my phones (I had several because they would all die on me by the 6th month). Their customer service was so bad I couldn't believe it. I work in customer service. I know when customer service is bad, theirs is horrid, for a million reasons if you have time and want specifics later. But I know some people that love them...

I currently have sprint, have had them for several years, and had them before Verizon. They have always been my preferred service. Being in Rhode Island, I can't say I have really ever had any issues (knock on wood), as far as reception. Even in disney I have really good service, usually I am the only one to have service out of my friends when in woodsy areas. I like their plans and their customer service has always been really good. I have one friend though that hates them.

I think unfortunately with cell phone providers you are always going to get mixed opinions and varied experiences by a lot of people for a lot of reasons. And it's one of those things like cable companies, hate them all eventually so which one is the lesser evil? :thedolls: lol

[Itchy]

I have been with Verizon for ever. Well before the became Verizon, I don't recall the name before but I started with the bag phone..

I love the coverage with Verizon. We I worked for my police dept before I retired we had ATT phones. I would get into areas where ATT did not have any service and had to use my phone which did have service.

As for plans I do not like the share plans as they are expensive. I have a 450 min plan, which I have had for a long time. I was told the other day at the Verizon store that they can get the 450 and 900 min plans at the store but not on line.

I also get a discount for working for a government agency in the state of Missouri. My daughter gets a discount for working for a major hospital in St Louis.

Which ever carrier you use check into discount for the business you work for. You might be pleasantly surprised. I get up to 20% off on phone plan, phones, and accessory's.

Hope this helps...:mickey:

[BrerGnat]

I've had AT&T for 15 years. They are not perfect and we have had some minor issues here and there. However, they have the right combination of good service where we have lived and decent plan pricing. They have good phones to choose from as well. I have not had a compelling reason to leave this company after all this time.

[Capt_redshirt]

Ive been using AT&T since it was Cingular wireless (almost 12 years now) the only reason i keep it is cause i get a great discount for where i work... that being said 90 % of the time i get a good signal (just not at home) i would switch to verizon for the better signal but the discount i get is so much better

[Dopey's Girl]

I've had AT & T for a while now. Never had any trouble with them phone or service wise, and would be more than ok recommending them to anyone.

[JRocker]

I had AT&T for twelve years. The last two years of my contract with them were the worse. Dropped calls, unable to use the phone inside my house, would have a mass download of missed texts and phone calls when I stepped out on the front porch, etc.
Their customer service is consistently rated the worst in the business and my personal experience with them has only validated that for me. I once had a CS rep call me a liar about my dropped call complaints, "You've been on the line with me for fifteen minutes and it hasn't dropped".

I switched to Verizon last year and it has been nothing short of excellent. It is more expensive than AT&T, but I guess you get what you pay for.

A good friend of mine has Sprint, he gets no reception in our office. I tease him by making phone calls on my cell while he is holding his phone in the air like an offering to the cell gods in hopes that a text will send.:thedolls:

[DizneyRox]

Well, I was sorting in the same boat, wanting to switch, but not knowing who...

Here's the problems...

The USA has two different types of networks. AT&T and T-Mobile use one and for the most part, phones are interchangeable between the networks. You might not be able to get the fastest data on T-Mobile with an old AT&T phone, but voice should work.

Sprnt and Verizon use a different type of network which is totally incompatible with AT&T/T-Mobile phones.

I know Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint network, not sure about the lesser carriers. Expect the same coverage with VM as you get on Sprint.

I have AT&T and have since they were Cingular. I get really bad coverage in work, but outside of that they are pretty good. I have a grandfathered unlimited data plan that they will need to pry from my cold dead fingers, which is my number one reason for not switching. I have a family talk plan and no texting. We use Google Voice for texting which saves us like $20 a month.

When I looked at switching it would have been to Virgin Mobile, but now I'm glad I didn't. Their data, while unlimited seems to be really slow for most. AT&T LTE speeds have been amazing for me, faster than my business class Internet service. They have been accelerating their LTE rollout it seems, at least in my neck of the woods. Data is very important to me and will be for many in the not too distant future. There's a reason why the big boys stopped offering unlimited (yes I know it's not), and it's not because people didn't need it.

I have Verizon Home Connect (essentially a cell phone) which I'm dropping once we confirm our new Bluetooth enabled phone system works as advertised. Home connect works, but it's not any better than just using our normal cells for the price.

You may be able to save by going with something like a Nexus 4 (if you can find one) on T-Mobile off contract.

[dnickels]

I go the T-mobile pre-paid contract route. Bought the phone I wanted on ebay and pay $50 a month for unlimited talk/text/data. I'm not into streaming movies or tv or youtube so I can't speak to that, but for what I do I've been happy with the whole thing, coverage, customer service, etc. I lost a phone last summer, stopped into a T-mobile store and rather than charging me anything they gave me a new programmed SIM card for free, and told me where I could buy the same phone they had in their store 2 miles down the road cheaper.

Like someone else mentioned though, people hate and love individual carriers in equal amounts so take our reviews with a grain of salt. You're probably better off making your decision based on broad surveys like consumer reports rather than a dozen anecdotal reviews on Intercot.

[kakn7294]

I have Verizon because I get a work discount and the coverage is better in my area. I used to have AT&T but switched after their service tanked in my area with all of their switches between AT&T and Cingulair, plus I was paying about the same for lesser service and fewer phones.