[pioneerchica16]

Originally Posted by stodie6321

Yes, there are plans for service to cover the entire state thanks to Governor Douglas. As for coverage now, I live in Vernon and I have no service whatsoever in Vernon, but I have perfect signal in Guilford and have pretty good signal in Brattleboro.

so what plan do you recomend for someone living in vernon,guilford.northfield ma area? cuz my family is thinking bout getting a plan but idk wut plan to get. i wanted to get t-mobile but idk if it works?

[yclapp]

We are moving to the St. Johnsbury area in May and have a two year contract with T-Mobile for our cell phones. Does anyone know if T-Mobile works up there? I know I can ask the T-Mobile people, but lets face it they will probably lie and tell me "yes you will be fine" just to keep us in the contract. Considering they charge you $200.00 to cancel service I can get off cheaper just canceling instead of paying them $130.00 a month for phones we can't use anyway. LOL call me paranoid, but I trust people who actually live in the area who may have had issues with their service to be honest with me more than some sales person whose job is to keep people in those contracts. Thanks for all the other cell phone info. Single mother with three teens, I like to have one if they need to get ahold of me.

[vter]

I am not sure about T-Mobile in StJ. I do know that they do have some towers in the Burlington area.
I have had good luck with Unicel (which may be under a different name by the time you get up here - probably AT&T) in that area. Keep in mind that cell service is spotty in many parts of Vermont due to terrain, lack of towers, etc.

[yclapp]

Thanks for the information. I hope the T-Mobile will work around the St. Johnsbury area since we have that two year contract. I guess we will have to wait and see. Spotty service may be a hassle, but it is better than no service at all. In the mean time I will keep thinking up questions for everyone so I will be as prepared as possible.

[GypsySoul22]

We've had Uncel (bleh) and 2 Trakphones so far--hated them all. Also we kept our other prepaid phone from NY (Virgin) which we use exclusively now we live near NH and can get cell coverage.

We rarely go deep into VT anymore so I am just keeping the Virgin phone and we'll probably get another one of those. It never worked at our old apartment so we HAD to have a VT friendly one.

[Sherylcatmom]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

We've had Uncel (bleh)

Was Unicel service unreliable where you do most of your cell phone talking?

I've had Unicel since 2006 and love it. It's as reliable in Vermont & elsewhere as anyone else's service I've heard about. The customer service has been outstanding -- and I've tested it with all manner of requests, changes, and problems!

[GypsySoul22]

Originally Posted by Sherylcatmom

Was Unicel service unreliable where you do most of your cell phone talking?

I've had Unicel since 2006 and love it. It's as reliable in Vermont & elsewhere as anyone else's service I've heard about. The customer service has been outstanding -- and I've tested it with all manner of requests, changes, and problems!

The service wasn't bad but I kept forever having to buy cards and found the phone not very user friendly. I like the Virgin phone/website/interface online much better.

[arel]

I have Sprint. I had Sprint the last two years I was in New York and did not change companies ater I moved. I could have changed, without penalty, since I am finished with the contracted 2 years.

I did have to change my number to a Vermont number. Otherwise I would have had to pay taxes in both New York and Vermont.

I live in Brattleboro and the coverage is pretty adequate in most places. I have found myself unable to use the phone in Guilford, though.

I often get roaming messges, i.e. messages saying a roaming charge will apply and do I want to continue? Fortunately, with my plan (Fair and Flexible), I don't have to pay roaming charges.

Regarding land-line phones, I have the Comcast promotion where I get internet, phone and cable TV for one price. Service is fine. Thankfully, the cable connections existed in my rental and the cable guy just had to connect them.

In Brooklyn, soon before I moved, I got the "Triple Play" from Cablevision. They sent me an installer who drilled through an 80-year old window molding and who did nothing to install the phone service. I had to call for a second installer. This guy drilled a hole though a window screen. I had to get a third installer to come and get the phone to work properly. I realized later that I could not get incoming faxes, but I was moving so I didn't do anything about it. Too much hassle to get anything done there. Just about every time I needed something done, I had to threaten to disconnect before anything was done. It got to the point I started calling the disconnect department directly.

Finally, the day before the movers came, the guy who was suppposed to pick up the equipment didn't show up. I called and was told I could bring the equipment in. I told them I was under time pressure and was unwilling to be inconvenienced, and (if I remember correctly) that if they didn't send someone to take it, I would take it to Vermont with me. Someone eventually came, but he seemed surly.

Meanwhile, I complained about the damage. A supervisor came over, looked and took pictures. He seemed horrified. He asked me to get an estimate. I struggled to get an estimate - no one wanted to come over, or wanted a lot of money to come over. Finally, I got an estimate. The estimate was about $2500 to replace the damaged molding. The supervisor then failed to return almost all of my calls. I got an other supervisor who came, looked and took pictures, and who took a copy of the estimate. Then, eventually, after several calls, I was told that I would get a letter saying they wouldn't pay. I still haven't received it.

I refused to pay my bill and it was sent to a collections agency. I told the collections agency rep what had happened. She seemed sympathetic. At her request, I wrote a letter saying I was disputing the bill and why. I have heard nothing since.

I looked up Cablevision on the Better Business Bureau's website. It's rating was Unsatisfactory. I wonder why.

I have also had bad experiences with Verizon. Once I had to make a repair appointment. I scheduled it for the morning and no one showed up. I called. I was told the appointment was scheduled for the afternoon. When I protested, the rep got huffy. There was nothing she could do about it. I rescheduled for another morning. Again, the same thing happened. It happened about 4-5 times in a row. The last time, I said they had better come that morning or I would switch to the cable company. They came. They also sent me bad modems for the DSL. The phone wait for customer service was close to an hour. So I want to avoid Verizon as well.

Maybe things are done more competently up here in Vermont than they were in Brooklyn. There's less population so there is less congestion. So far I have been happy with Comcast.

[tkln]

Does anyone know when the whole Unicell --> Verizon --> AT&T sale is going to go through??? I heard that it would be sometime in 2009 but not sure...I know now when I go up to Stowe, my phone (AT&T) works fine in most places, but I know if we moved, I'd probably eventually get dropped by AT&T since they had no towers. But I'm glad they did that deal (Unicell I think is selling their towers to Verizon who is in turn selling them to AT&T or something like that) so now when we move I should be okay....

[Sherylcatmom]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

The service wasn't bad but I kept forever having to buy cards and found the phone not very user friendly.

What cards? Am I missing something?

I got to choose my cell phone from a selection of over a dozen. I picked the one that was easiest to use, took the best photos (my digital cam is a 2000!), and had the longest talk-time per battery charge. Or are we talking about some other kind service?

Sorry, I think I'm confused here. :-)