Sprint, Verizon or Cingular?

[White92]

I currently have a T Mobile family plan that I love. I've never had one single problem with service or billing in the 6 years that I've used them.

Through my work, we get a discount through Sprint, Verizon or Cingular, but not T Mobile. They all have similar plans and prices to what I have now, with a few added perks, free phones, discounts of monthly service, etc...

What service do you guys use and who would you stay away from? This will be for a 2 line family plan that gets used alot more than my home phone. I would hate to switch and end up hating their service and getting screwed on my billing every month just to save a few bucks, so I might not make the change at all. Just tossing the idea around.

Any feed back on these companies?

 

[Acura NsX Pilot]

I think its best to ask the people you work with and people at places where you would think you would use the phone most.

You can also try and post this over at Howardforums.com you will find there is alot of info there as well as programs and apps for your phone.

 

[the0ne]

I hate my Verizon service, so many hidden charges and fee's.

but I guess thats because my plan is about 2 years old, A friend of mine only pays $30-40 a month for his verizon phone with a ton of features and free nights/weekend/other verizon phones (IN plan).

 

[queenlives]

I think its best to ask the people you work with and people at places where you would think you would use the phone most.

You can also try and post this over at Howardforums.com you will find there is alot of info there as well as programs and apps for your phone.

good advice.

1st time i'd ever seen howardforums.com - pretty impressive, even if you're not in/interested in that biz. they're currently showing >5k users online. woof!

 

[H-carWizKid]

Love Cingular-

1. Good phones- they usually have the latest/greatest phones available
2. Nights and Weekends start @ 7:00pm
3. Free cellular to cellular calling to other Cingular and AT&T customers
4. Excess minutes "roll over" every month-

With this plan I was on the phone for over 4000 minutes last month without a single charge outside of my plan.

I am pleased with signal strength everywhere I have traveled-

PA, OH, UT, CA, WA, TX, LA, AZ- I have been through all these states with this phone, and never had a problem with signal strength.

Every person uses different parts of their plan- the best questions to ask yourself are

1. When do I talk on my cell phone the most?
2. What additional features do I (or we- family plan) use most?
Text messaging?
Photo- texting?
Internet access?

3. who are we calling?- If all your family members have Verizon, and you are usually calling them- then the Verizon "in" deal might be good, Cingular/AT&T has something comparable, as does Sprint.

Lots of things to consider, but in my personal experience I whole heartedly endorse Cingular/ AT&T

Philip

 

[ss_md]

I would hate to switch and end up hating their service and getting screwed on my billing every month just to save a few bucks, so I might not make the change at all. Just tossing the idea around.

Any feed back on these companies?

Most mobile providers allow you a "trial period" which varies between providers. So you could activate with another company while keeping your current service. Then, at the end of their "trial period" make your decision to stay or switch. You will return their phone and will have to pay the usage charges, but should not be billed for an early disconnect. Check with each provider for thier "trial period" policy.

I have t-mobile and like the service. Their CS personnel and procedures SUCK, and they have a "shady" (IMO) warranty return procedure. I was billed for a water damaged phone that I know never had any water damage (before I returned it anyway) - Fricken cost me $70.00. Trying to dispute, but it's like hitting your head against a brick wall.

 

[Vega$ NSX]

In my very extensive research of phone here's what I've found.

Sprint - Very Good rates. Good customer service. Good coverage in certain areas, poor/spotty in others. Averages out to okay depending on where you live and how much you travel. Good selection of phones.
Cingular - Good rates. Poor Customer service. Poor coverage although the merger seemed to have helped a little. Very good selection of phones.
Verizon - Poor rates. Good customer serivce. Great coverage. Poor selection of phones. Basically you pay for great coverage with really expensive plans and crappy phones.

Personally I have Verizon (for nearly 10 years) and the exceptional coverage is great. I know I pay more than others but to me it has been worth it. If only they had a better selection of phones... :frown:

 

[White92]

I won't be using this for anything other than a phone. I don't care if my phone takes pictures or video or plays mp3's. Although chances are, the phone I get will just happen to do those things simply because alot of the phones out there will have these features.

I've had At&t before years ago. The phone service was ok, but the customer service SUCKED! I signed up for one plan, but was billed for another. I'd call can get transferred all over the country after being put on hold forever at each office. One person would say it was fixed, but when the next month's bill came, of course it wasn't. I ended up paying $300 or so to cancel the whole thing early because it was cheaper and less frustrating to do so.


My sister has Verizon and likes it alright. The only problem she had was paying her bill over the phone with her credit card. The person taking the info stole her info and paid all of their own bills with her credit card. They never found out who did it, but of course she was protected by her credit card company. But that was a fluke. So I won't say the whole company is bad based off of that.

Honestly the Cingular plan is the one I'm leaning towards as it is the best fit for our needs. Are you sure that nights start at 7? Their site says 9.

 

[DV8]

I went from Sprint to Cingular because Sprint did not have a comparable family plan and Cingular had the $9.99 additional line and this was at the time of the merger. My experience is this: it was THE biggest mistake I have ever made in terms of service plans! Coverage did not improve in my area even after the merger. Customer service... don't get me started!! I signed up through one of their stores and later had a discrepency with my bill. Turns out the customer service reps at the store don't even know how to read the bill! Dont' know how the customer service line is now but it was fully voice automated back then, it took me forever to get through to a customer rep! Tried to cancel but since I was on the family plan I would've had to pay the cancellation fee for ALL the phones!! Long story short, I should've waited and stuck with Sprint. They (Sprint) were a bit hazy at first but they really started to ge their act together at the end and also their bills are ALOT easy to read. Everything is laid out in front in clear english unlike Cingular whom I've contacted and have gotten no clear-cut answers as to what those charges are... I've had serveral friends who have had positive experiences with Cingular - of course they've never had a discrepency with their bill and never had to call customer service... just wait til they do! They are the biggest... but then again so is AOL

 

[evof575gtc]

ive had horible experiences with sprint. everything from automatic software upgrades that scrambled my phone that went on a few years back to billing and customer service.
sprint had add a line for 10 dollars. my bill at each end of the month pretty much tripled because of all the hidden charges and fees after this.
my bill started out as 29 a month when i first sign up. but when i went to add a line, even staying under my minutes, after all hidden fees and charges, it came out to be 98 some dollars.
sprint also charges for incoming calls that are unanswered. i used to get loads of unwanted calls such as telemarketers from unknown numbers.... some bills came out to be 200 a month....
though i didnt answer these calls, i got charged for it. my statement that came showed pages of incoming 1 minute charges for this.
six months after my contract had ended with them i switched to cingular. sprint sent me a 400 dollar cancelation fee. i had called them to tell them about this and they said that they no longer have any records in their data base because it was sent to collections and i was to wait for a phonecall from collections to deal with it. they did not have contact information with the collection agency when i had asked the rep.
i have cingular now even though the reception isnt as clear, but im happy with rollover minutes and my bill is small.

long story short. sprint is horrible. stay away from them

 

[DV8]

long story short. sprint is horrible. stay away from them

Hmm, my experience with them was a little over a year ago and had no problem with them back then... I guess they crossed over to the dark side as well...

 

[White92]

I've also heard that Cingular has been dealing with the merger with At&t, that they have kind of slacked on upgrading their systems and such. Don't know if this is true or not.

 

[jimmycinla]

I currently have a T Mobile family plan that I love. I've never had one single problem with service or billing in the 6 years that I've used them.

Through my work, we get a discount through Sprint, Verizon or Cingular, but not T Mobile. They all have similar plans and prices to what I have now, with a few added perks, free phones, discounts of monthly service, etc...

What service do you guys use and who would you stay away from? This will be for a 2 line family plan that gets used alot more than my home phone. I would hate to switch and end up hating their service and getting screwed on my billing every month just to save a few bucks, so I might not make the change at all. Just tossing the idea around.

Any feed back on these companies?

Find anything and everything about cell phones and providers at >>> www.howardforums.com.
Tons and tons of info there.

 

[redshift]

I've used all three providers in the Phoenix metro area. Sprint was by far and wide the worst in terms of reception. Cingular was slightly better than sprint, but had the advantage of the coolest phones. Verizon has the worst phones but have THE ABSOLUTE BEST coverage/reception. I currently use Verizon for reasons of coverage - they do have some decent phones now too. This probably does little good for you in UT though... you'll just have to ask around locally - or use the great online resources posted by earlier repliers. :smile:

 

[Pacemaker Kid89]

Love Cingular-

1. Good phones- they usually have the latest/greatest phones available
2. Nights and Weekends start @ 7:00pm
3. Free cellular to cellular calling to other Cingular and AT&T customers
4. Excess minutes "roll over" every month-

I use it too, the phones are always the best and stay in style and particality untill the term is over. Plus, I get better reception then most of my friends who do use VERIZON.

Also, see who else(you friends and family) uses Cingular and other companies and see who you call the most and then from there, you can figure out what you want by who uses it that closest to you.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Personally I have Verizon (for nearly 10 years) and the exceptional coverage is great. I know I pay more than others but to me it has been worth it. If only they had a better selection of phones... :frown:

Ditto. The coverage is awesome. I have a corporate discount I use to get $10 off any plan, they are very liberal with who they let join this plan. So I'm on the 300 Minute plan with free nights and weekends for $19.99 per month. Hard to beat price as it matches my usage perfectly.

Their phone selection does suck and I wish there was some kinda of combo phone for CDMA and GSM because I have to carry a separate phone for when I travel outside the states. All the cool phones are GSM too.

 

[RP-Motorsports]

I have Cingular, and my rates have gotten much better. Yes CS does suck, but the service is usually good, and the prices are low enough that I don't need to actually call about errors if there is any. I am also seeing them putting up new towers like wildfire. I travel all over the US, and the coverage with the GSM phones is clear on most hwy's and cities. Ity does suck when off the beaten path, but I would rather pay 1/2 as much with worse backwoods coverage, than having a roaming tri-mode phone with double or triple the bill.

 

[White92]

Does someone know for sure about Cingular's night and weekend minutes? Somebody above said it starts at 7 pm. Their site is showing 9. Is it wrong? 7 would be alot better.

 

[Pacemaker Kid89]

Does someone know for sure about Cingular's night and weekend minutes? Somebody above said it starts at 7 pm. Their site is showing 9. Is it wrong? 7 would be alot better.

Then they must be thinking of T-mobile. I know they have it at that hour.

Also I want to say about the phones, you could go and get the free phone and what not, but you can absolutly find GSM-UNLOCKED phones online. For those who are cluelsess. Its YOUR SIM chip that was put in youre FREE phone that you are putting in ANOTHER phone which has the capability to use your SIM chip

 

[NSXrebel]

another website to check out is http://www.hofoufn.com
some members/mods had some issues with howard from howardforums.com and broke off to create their own site.

Personally, I have T-mobile for the past 2 yrs and i'm happy with the service. Specially the sidekick plan. 1000anytime,free nights/weekends, unlimited text, unlimited email, unlimited web browsing, i can recieve email from up to 5 email accounts, camera w/ unlimited picture sending, aim/yahoo msgr. $59/mo

I am thinking of upgrading my Sidekick2 to a magenta Razr since I dont use the sidekick's features as much anymore (ok, its pink, T-mobile doesnt carry the black Razr. And if I get an unlocked Cingular Black Razr, I will lose internet capability.) That or go back to Nextel, since alot of my friends are on it.

 

[White92]

I am thinking of upgrading my Sidekick2 to a magenta Razr since I dont use the sidekick's features as much anymore (ok, its pink, T-mobile doesnt carry the black Razr. And if I get an unlocked Cingular Black Razr, I will lose internet capability.) That or go back to Nextel, since alot of my friends are on it.

They don't have the black Razr, but you don't have to get Magenta. They carry the silver Razr though. http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?phoneid=255520&class=phone

 

[ak]

Their phone selection does suck and I wish there was some kinda of combo phone for CDMA and GSM because I have to carry a separate phone for when I travel outside the states. All the cool phones are GSM too.

You mean like this?

http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/Web_...29608&strPrimaryOption=FS&lSecondaryOption=-3

service seems kinda $$ tho...

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/mobileoptions/internationalsvcs/globalphone/mot_sch_a840.jsp

Moto is also coming out with RazrV3c for Verizon if you want a better phone

http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/web_producthome.asp?Country=USA&language=ENS&productid=30321

Anyway, to me, mobile phone service is all bad. You just have to pick whichever you think is less worse. Coveragewise, Verizon definitely has the edge. GSM(Cingular/T-mobile) definitely is more benefitial if you travel overseas. If you like the PTT(push to talk, direct connect) then use Sprint/Nextel.

-ak

 

[docjohn]

My cingular service is good to marginal in NE Pa.I often get cut outIn the same spots,which means they are not too keen on spending $ on more repeaters or boosters

 

[rickysals]

all i know is Cingular was the only service that had the Razor. Never had ANY service problems with the phone/service

So I have Cingular

 

[White92]

After this reading through the responses on this thread and talking to friends and co-workers, I'm finding that the coverages are pretty much the same in this area. It's the customer service that is the deal breaker. Like I said before, the Cingular plan I'm looking at is the best deal for me, but I'm just hearing way too many horror stories about their customer service and repeatedly having errors on their bills every month. Now I'm leaning towards just staying where I am with Tmobile because I know I'm safe.