Whats The Best Cell Phone Service In SA? (gated, pricing)

[firstclassflyer]

Originally Posted by rd2007

I'm counting down the days until my sprint contract is over. I've had them since the PCS (CDMA) phone was invented and they have slowly become one of my most hated companies in the world. I'm hoping they go out of business before my contract is up and I can see how they're losing so many customers Sprint still losing customers but at a slower rate: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research. only reason it isn't still a million per month is they're running out of customers to leave them

Have to concur with RD here...had terrible terrible service with Sprint/Nextel. So much so..that I had to open a ticket and have a tech come out to verify that I indeed had "weak to no" service at my home. Once they documented that...they were forced to let me out of the contract sans early termination fee.
Have since switched to Verizon (Both for my Blackberry and my wife's phone) and have had no problem. Good luck. Sprint/Nextel sux.

[scuba steve]

AT&T + unlocked European phone = happy Scuba.

I still have the one they gave me when I signed up as a backup / smaller phone to carry around when I go out so that's cool too. There's no way I'd go with a CDMA carrier.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by KY Filly

My suggestion is that instead of going into your carrier's store that you call the 1-800 number and ask to speak to a supervisor etc....demand that you've been a loyal customer for xx years and you expect them to satisfy you or you will drop them like a hot potatoe!

We actually did this a third time and got THEM to get a supervisor on the phone for us at the store. He was "escalated" and then allowed to WAIT 40 minutes on hold in the store to get a recording that said "Please leave your name and cell number and we will call you back between 9am - 6:15 MOUNTAIN TIME." Yes....it actually said 6:15 MT!! Ummmm.... The phone doesn't WORK! He couldn't leave his number....plus he works during those hours and can't hassle with this stuff during work hours! It was convenient that he couldn't negotiate with voice mail. The response from the techie at the store was to give them MY number and have them call me. Second guess? They have yet to call back!

Of course this XYZ Company says that the phone he purchased was their BEST selling model....yet three stores didn't have ONE available. One could argue that they are so popular that they are flying out the door....however none of the stores were busy at all. DS did some research and this particular model showed that about 1 in every 4 reviews were negative and experienced the exact same problem he is having within 1-6 months of use. Best selling model is total BS.

Can you tell I'm frustrated?

[catriona]

We started with Cingular, which is now AT&T. I never experienced any bad customer service with Cingular. AT&T's customer service experience has been marginal to pretty good.

When my son's brand new phone started to malfunction, I called and the store told us to take it to the AT&T service center and they would get us a new phone. Trouble was that at the service center, they told us that since the phone was out of the 30 day warranty (by about 2 weeks), his replacement would probably be refurbished. It griped me to no end that the salesperson told me one thing and the SS told me something else. Not to mention the fact that they had sold us a defective phone! My son even told them so! We decided to just keep the old phone and he would deal with the issue. It involved the front display and the ability to text, so it was actually a minor problem. He just doesn't use the front display. Still...

On the other hand, my daughter's phone was stolen -- the insurance we pay each month is $4.99. I reported the phone stolen on a Wednesday afternoon, and by Friday afternoon, she had a brand new phone, but it did cost us $50. If you didn't have insurance and were still under contract, you would have to buy a new phone, so $50 didn't seem so bad. New phone arrived and everything was good...or so we thought. The phone developed this weird yellow blob on the front display within a week. I checked online and found that this was a common problem with her model. I was back on the phone to AT&T and complained. Customer service transferred me to the insurance section, who apologized and said they would send me out a new phone within 2-3 business days. The cost for the this phone, zero.

One other thing, when we purchased the phones, you have to mail off the cut off part of the box plus the form and receipt copy in order to get your rebate. For some reason, the rebate center sent letters saying that neither of the rebate envelopes we sent in had the box part. The first time we figured it was just an oversight. A quick phone call to the rebate center fixed the problem. But the second time sent steam coming out of my ears!
Another quick phone call fixed things, but I made sure to inform them that this was the second time this had happened. Just be wary of the A&T rebate center if you decide to switch!

Overall, we are satisfied with AT&T.

[42JetSet]

I've been very pleased with AT&T thus far... more than anything, reception is great and data transmission quick (with 3G). We had Sprint for a number of years as we got a corporate discount and it was rather miserable. When we had to decide on a new carrier this summer, AT&T won.

[ashbeeigh]

I've had AT&T in San Antonio & in Dallas and have been satisfied. My only gripe is them taking my sim card when I switched from a Dallas number to a San Antonio number. That was probably my fault for not realizing it happened though.

I have the insurance like catriona has and haven't had to use it (although I contemplate it every few weeks because I have an ancient phone). I never have any dropped calls and have rarely had to use customer service. I do remember one time trying to make payment arrangements in between switching jobs an that took about thirty minutes to do, but they were very nice after I got one the line with them. They have always removed unwanted charges when I bring them up as well (some random ring tone a day charge and roadside assistance the salesperson tacked on when I activated).

[dmmjsm]

We have 4 phones with ATT and have been very happy with them and their service. Teens text all the time, send pics, call, and have basically dropped kicked the phones and they keep working!

[svg210]

Originally Posted by rd2007

I'm counting down the days until my sprint contract is over. I've had them since the PCS (CDMA) phone was invented and they have slowly become one of my most hated companies in the world. I'm hoping they go out of business before my contract is up and I can see how they're losing so many customers Sprint still losing customers but at a slower rate: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research. only reason it isn't still a million per month is they're running out of customers to leave them

Agreed, RD I havent paid for my Srpint service for the past 4 months! I keep getting free months service because I call to cancel every three weeks. I seriously dont want to have them anymore, but who could refuse free service?

[hadleyzoo]

If Sprint were the last cell provider on earth, I would live without a cell phone. I won't go with Sprint ever for the simple fact I was a victim of identity theft, crook opened up a Sprint account in my name, when I discovered it Sprint was a bunch of jerks about it and was going to put me on the line for the bill (nearly $1000 for a 2-month old cell phone). Then I told them about lawyers and we are military and their lack of assistance wasn't going to look good when I took the story to the media. And to top it off they refused to give me copies of the cell phone bills citing "privacy act laws"--but if I paid the bill I could get all the copies I wanted. Bunch of carp! And what about my privacy too?

We've been Verizon customers and have been satisfied with the service...except the insurance is a joke as with all the others from what I hear. I have had 1 phone replaced 4 times this year due to the crappy refurbished ones they keep sending me.

[hoddys2]

I've heard good things about Virgin Mobile, plus their prepaid plans are cheap.