Community poll forum: Who provides your cell phone service?

My cell phone with T-Mobile servicec wa s stolen while we w ere on vacation. The thief ran up a bill of $750+ in two days while I was not aware that it was gone. Now they expect me to pay for that even tho I have rarely if ever gone over my $19.95 monthly bill. I also had not used the phone in several months. They tell me I have to pay because I did not take out insurance with them when I signed up for service. I have not found anyone who even knows that insurance is sold by the companies much less has it. Has anyone heard of this insurance being available?

Betty K.

Had one but it was too costly. Have gone back to the old fashioned way and cut the phone bill by over 1/2.

I use T-Mobile Prepaid as an "emergency phone", and have nothing but good things to say about the company. A $25 refill card keeps the phone going for 90 days, there are no daily access fees, no hidden charges, and unused minutes roll over. The coverage in my area is pefect, and it gives me land-line-quality calls.

hutch india

I first had US Cellular and it was a nightmare................I finally chose to pay the penality rather than continue using this provider and so I was so afraid of the same experience I stopped using a cell service at all for several years and now I'm with Cingular - New AT&T and was very happy until AT&T entered the picture................

Tracfone,

I have a twenty dollar Tracfone. Most people I know have expensive phones and they laugh at my Tracfone,but my Tracfone gets true when theirs can't.

It has a reasonable amount of bells and whistles that are user friendly.

I control the costs, no long term contracts, their are no surprises and so far their support is is very good.

If your thinking about a cell phone try Tracfone no contract.

For more information go to www.tracfone.com

Recently Consumer Reports rated Verizon the best carrier in the U.S. while Cingular came in worst among the major wireless carriers. My experience confirms this: with Cingular, using a very good phone (Motorola V600) I had the worst reception no matter where I was, and the other side of the (attempted) cnversation had similar difficulties. With Verizon no such problem: crisp & clear reception anywhere I call or receive a call.

In a city of over 80,000 My house is in the worst position possible. I filed a complaint with the FCC and the Corp. Pres. Office sent the engineers out to see why I can hardly use my cingular from my house. They found that I am exactly in the triangle created by the three towers servicing Deltona, Fl. I wanted to cancel my two year contract and the president's office quit responding immediately. Typical, HUH? Needless to say I am biding my time and am telling everyone I know about the uncooperative attitude of Cingular. (They did find that the towers needed recalibration though). I wanted to be able to switch phones and they would not discuss it with me.

Jim Blythe

Have the "Pay as you Go" Plan.

We use it for Emergencies only, when camping, or traveling. Good coverage, works well for my needs.
Larry

Tracfone has been my cell phone provider for the past 3 years. I like the freedom of having the phone (primarilly for emergency use) without the constraints of a contract. I have been very pleased with Tracfone and the unit minute rollover for unused time. I bought a second cell phone from the company for my brother - who only uses it for emergency purposes.

Recently, the company offered a promotion of an additional 200 minutes for anyone purchasing their one-year, 150-minute card. I received the offer on January 30, 2006. It was advertised as extending through February 8, 2006. I tried to take advantage of the offer online on February 8, 2006, for both phones - but was given the royal run-around online.

According to the email responses the promotional offer was not available. I have not been able to contact a live person at Tracfone, and my email communications are generic, generated replies that don't come close to the obvious question. Presently, I see Tracfone in the same light as a physician who can only be contacted when you have an appointment and are physically able to visit his office. In times of an emergency you are on your own. Tough titty.

800-867-7183 all automated and 800-323-2366 'live' person..call them twice..talked to 2 different people both named BOB?

Been with them since Dec 2003 and no major problems

I was one of those North Carolina customers who had service from AT&T Wireless, were sold to Cingular and then promptly turned over to SunCom.

However, I recently found out my Sony Ericsson W600 allows me to manually switch to Cingular and I do so often. SunCom has terrible coverage in the "Triangle". (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area). I miss AT&T Wireless. Their customer service was so-so, but their coverage was way better than SunCom. SumCom drops calls ALL THE TIME.

I have been a T-Mobile user and gone thru several name changes during their transition to the name T-Mobile. I started with them when they were Powertel and then stayed with them when they changed to Voicestream and then went to T-Mobile. I travelled in the Southeast while driving a truck and they had very good reception in my opinion. They aren't too many towers if you get off in the woods in a sparcely populated area but I don't travel to those areas much anyway. I do have problems with them sometimes in certain areas and sometimes even in my house but I live in a holler and I guess that explains why the signal overshoots me.

I'm a diehard Nokia phone user and started off with the 2190 till I changed to the 6190 and still have a 8290 that I believe is the best phone I have ever had. It's probably 5 years old or older and I still have the original phone battery that lasts 2-3 days on a charge and that is with frequent use. I bought my daughter a Samsung camera flip phone a year ago for Christmas and don't like the voice reception on that phone at all. I guess it's time to get a new one but I'm still sitting on the fence trying to decide whether to switch service to Nextel.

I'd like to change to Nextel only for the convenience of having a two way but I've got an old Voicestream plan that gives me 3000 ANYTIME minutes for $49.99 and covers the 13 states (AL, LA, MS, GA, FL, TN, KY, MO, AR, SC, IL, IN and one more that I can't remember) and that rate is extremely hard to beat if you make a LOT of calls. There Get More 3000 rate plan now only gives you a calling area of Alabama/Mississippi which is almost worthless to me and that is why I don't change my plan because I'm getting a lot of bang for my buck IMHO.

By the way, I'm looking for another 8290 if anyone has one for sale. If you do, send me an email at albert.douglas@gmail.com.

I want to laugh at their commercials when they say "its the network" it should say its "only " the network.verizons taking credit for qualcomms system.I have had all the carriers so I should know.Verizon has very poor customer service. reem you for as much money as they can get,offer weak plans,low grade phones.Example why did verizon only offer a motorola razor phone recently,cingular always has the modern phones first.sum it up.

Verizon: stable network,bad calling plans,customer service poor ,outdated phones,money hungry.

Nextel: radio calling is the major success here.coverage is okay,their network seems to fail at every freeway interchange,watch and see !!

T-mobile:best callin plans but okay network,its a shame if T-mobile can change their network to the qualcomm technology they'd blown verizon in to the dark ages !!

sprint all around BLOWS !!

I loved Nextel! Then those Sprint dummies merged with them and my great service went to idiot service. The main reason we chose Nextel was because of the Direct Connect option. Do any other carriers have such an option? If so, what are the goods, the bads and the uglies of the carrier? My Nextel "I'd rather fight than switch" opinion is over and I'm shopping around. Suggestions would be great! Nextel D.C used to be immediate connection and no breaking up of the conversation. Now it's busy signals, for no apparent rest, terrible breaking up/static of voices and losing the signal in the middle of the conversation. I used to have phone service when most others didn't in 'dead areas aka cell hell' but no longer. I think I go through cell hell more than them now. No more bragging about Nextel from this previously satisfied customer!
Gee, that felt good! Looking for feedback!
Kathy