Wireless phone in bay area (San Francisco, Oakland: home, tax, price)

[infoseeker29]

I just moved to bay area from east coast. My cell phone is verizon and I had a great service from verizon back in east. But I am getting a poor signal here in bay area. Does verizon has a good service in bay area. If not, which company would you recommend in terms of quality and price? Thanks

[Joe_Ryder]

Because of the terrain in this area, there are lots of dead spots and dropped calls are common.

Look at the bright side. When you're listening to someone who won't stop chattering, you can simply hang up without offending anyone.

[gizmo980]

Lots of people I know have had problems with Verizon, though I think it's mostly their customer service rather than signals. But the most popular carrier here is probably AT&T, which is what I use. Never have any major problems with it, and dropped calls are rare - it just doesn't work in certain buildings, which is likely the case for any provider. Definitely don't go with T-Mobile, since in my experience (I did a trial with them) it drops a LOT of calls anytime you're near a hill... which we have an awful lot of, LOL.

Oh, and I pay $39/month for the lowest plan, which includes more than enough for the average person - I've never exceeded my minutes, but I'm not the type who chats on it for hours. Here's what my plan includes:

Anytime Minutes 450
Night & Weekend minutes 5000
Mobile to Mobile minutes Unlimited
Long Distance $0.00
Roaming Charges $0.00
Additional minutes $.45 per minute
One-time activation fee $36.00
Contract length 2 years

[gizmo980]

Oops... I forgot that I actually pay for the media package, which is $19.99/mo, bringing my total monthly bill to about $65/mo (with tax & my government-worker discount). So if you want the unlimited text-messaging, internet, etc., plan on paying at least that much every month. And if you happen to be a government employee like myself, make sure to ask about the discount - they don't offer it unless you inquire!

[Mercutio02]

I have Cingular and don't have more problems than is expected when dealing with cell phones. Although it seems like almost no one does Cingular anymore.

[artemis78]

Verizon is lousy in our home in Oakland (flatlands near downtown!), though I'm not necessarily convinced anything else is much better. Coverage seems decent in Berkeley and San Francisco.

Even more lousy (though apparently not enough to make me switch yet!) is that Verizon's customer service structure is such that, if you hang onto your East Coast number (as I did with my New England number), the East Coast customer service folks will have to make any changes or modifications to your account, rather than California customer service--supposedly because underneath "one company" is actually several different infrastructures (vestiges of the pre-Verizon days). Why care, you think? Because they *charge* you ($15 a pop!) if the California people have to talk to the New England people. (Like when, say, you hypothetically lose your phone and have to go get it replaced at your local Verizon store, but want to keep your not-local number....) I fussed and they took the charge off without any grief the two times this has come up, but I still think it's nuts that this is even an issue in the first place. Ah well.