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Consumer Reports: Cingular, Sprint Bad Performers
dcgirl20006 writes "It's that time again, Consumer Reports is out with the annual cell phone review. And Verizon has risen to the top. And, Cingular, with the most subscribers (post AT&T mega merger), claims it is the company with the "least dropped calls" but consumers say otherwise. What can be done? Provide risk-free 30 day trial period; realistic coverage maps, upfront price disclosure, and end early termination fees."
Damn right they're typing their best.... marketing and fine print to make sure users are screwed and get charged as much as possible for the least possible amount of service.
I don't need TV, radio, phone, MP3, blah blah blah on my phone (and get charged for it up the wazoo)... I want *SERVICE COVERAGE*
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I had Sprint in 2000 in OH - when they had 500 min. for $50. I had a StarTac and was near the OSU campus - someplace you might figure would be covered by cell. At one point, nine out of ten calls I made (and well over half) were dropped - I could receive but couldn't call. Between being put on endless loops to try and get help and having a website that would only load if you enabled all cookies on (and wouldn't allow access otherwise), I was told that I was in a "medium-coverage" area and that some drops would be expected. When I bought a Samsung phone, the drops went away, but their customer service was still abysmal. When my contract was up, I dropped the phone until I met my wife and needed another one - then I got Verizon, which despite their landline rep, has been good to me.
As a side note, cellular providers can't get away with dropping termination fees - otherwise they would have to charge up front for the phone (and people would expect to be able to use it with other providers) and they would have to compete with one another on price rather than offering periodic savings which lock in a portion of their market for two years.
I've had Sprint for MANY years and found their voice quality to be quite good wherever I've traveled. I almost gave them up when my contract recently ended and my new boss gave me a Blackberry to use on Cingular.
Then, I turned on the Blackberry and actually tried to use it for a phone call. What was I thinking??? It sounds like cr*p, it drops calls and does so in a slow, painful noisy way. And, what's up with that d*mned noise I hear whenever it's near anything with a speaker???
I have to admit, 3 out of 3 times when I've tried to do anything significant on Sprint's web site (like order a phone, or change plans), I had to spend a couple of hours on the phone to correct what they ultimately did to my orders. And, the last time I renewed my contract was like buying a car - it took 2 hours and numerous transfers and one call back. However, I now have a phone that sounds good, works well and, well, I only have to deal with Sprint once every 2 years.
I almost went with Verizon, but Sprint gave me some goodies to stay that changed the economics of the deal significantly. I briefly looked at T-Mobile, but it has a reputation (around Houston) for having the coolest phones and the worst coverage of all the carriers.
My 2cents.
I hate cell phones. I won't belabor the pros and cons of having one, no one ever convinced me it was worth it, but I did end up getting one for me and one for my wife. Virgin Mobile pre-paid. Costs about $7/month, and no complaint with service.
Beat that!
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Ask your local real estate agent. Someone commented asking a trucker for coverage, but usually highways are very well covered, even by the worst providers because it is easier to towers very near highways. Your local real estate agent will have traveled all over your area, and probably would even be able to tell you which service doesn't work in what particular neighborhood.
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I agree with the chap who said they have the best customer retention dept... One year ago, I was going to leave (I had no contract) and they convinced me to stay by giving me 1500 day minutes, ul night/weekend, nationwide roaming, etc. for $49 a month -- no contract! I was going to switch to Cingular anyway a few months later, but ended up staying because 1) T-Mobile significantly improved coverage around Dallas-Fort Worth and 2) switching to Cingular, for a plan with similar minutes and text messages, would cost me at least $20 more each month AND that would be with a 2 year contract! I recently called T-Mobile about upgrading to a Blackberry... not only were they willing to give me a good deal on the phone (I told them I wanted no contract -- not having a contract gives you a HUGE bargaining chip), but they said I could keep my sweet minutes deal and get the unlimited data plan for only $15 more a month -- again, way better than Cingular. If I wanted to be an ass, I imagine I could call T-Mobile every few months and threaten to cancel and they'd probably comp my account $50 each time for staying. They're really working hard to keep their subscribers happy. I have no plans to switch to anyone else now.
Cell phone service providers are extortionists and crooks, plain and simple.
Here in Canada, I got a Rogers cellphone once and the evaluation period was 30 minutes (of airtime) not 30 days!
I was told that calls to their support line would not count as airtime minutes for the evaluation period. They lied. (surprise, surprise)
I was lucky if the phone could hold a call for more than 5 minutes. I went over the evaluation period by five minutes (the bulk of calls to their own support line to try and figure out why I could not get a signal). I learned later that they did not have digital transmission towers in place yet, but were advertising and selling the service as if they did.
I returned the phone but they insisted I owed them $250 dollars to cancel the contract. I would not pay, they would not take the phone back.
They are the ones who broke the contract by failing to provide service and by entrapping me into going over the 30 minute evaluation time by charging for calls to their support line.
Yet Equifax credit reports and various collection agency goons take Rogers at their word. I am wrong, they are right. Why? Because I am not a corporation, I am an individual.
I am pretty much unemployable now because this shows on my credit record, making it abysmal, as it is nearly 5 years since the dispute. I have no recourse whatsoever.
Rogers will never get their money from me - they lied and failed to provide service, yet somehow I am in the wrong.
Cellphone service providers are all crooks extortionists and thieves, Rogers in particular.
Evil, evil I say.
Rogers cellular has ruined my life. NEVER, EVER trust these crooks.
I went through a similar experience. I live in the DC Metro area, not exactly the middle of nowhere. And yet, ever since the ATT->Cingular switch, my cell phone hardly works ANYWHERE. People suggested trying a new phone, I tried it, it doesnt help. What is really fun is, apparently the new tower I use is so far away that my apartment is now on the very edge of the cell bubble, so I can watch as my phone (not moving) goes from some signal to none at all. Weee!
Okay, this is getting ludicrous. But as someone who has done some long (2000+ mile) treks and several more multi-state (~500 mile) bike trips, you get a pretty strong sense of coverage, particularly because if you're in the middle of nowhere and your phone doesn't work, this could be a Bad Thing. My Sprint service was good in Cali, non-existent throughout Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and South Dakota, good in Iowa and Illinois, bad in rural Michigan but fine in the cities.
Online citizen journalism from the inner city: The View From The Ground
- As a downside, the phone has a Virgin Mobile logo on the front. :( I don't think 30s engineer is their target demographic, so their company image doesn't exactly match what I'm trying to express all the time.
:-) I'm not an engineer, but I am technically-minded and in my 30s. Virgin Mobile has continued to be an easy choice for me for a few reasons, including...
... that with my particular phone's ability to assign specific ringtones to specific incoming phone numbers (provided there is callerID information), I could store the phone numbers of the fax machines that were calling me under a special group, say, "SILENCED MORONS", and then assign the silent ringtone to each one of them. At that point, if they ever call me again, sure the phone will light up and display the incoming call and phone number, but the phone will play the special ringtone -- COMPLETE SILENCE! That's about as good a blacklist as anyone could ask for.
:-)
I had to post a reply after reading that.
1. Near-perfect anonymity. You don't even have to give Virgin Mobile a name when you activate your phone. Buy the phone with cash at a physical store, complete the activation of the new cell phone using another phone and their automated system (use a payphone and dial Virgin Mobile's 800 number to do that for a paranoia level of anonymity), and you're as close to being a completely anonymous cellphone owner as is possible today. Continue buying "top-up" cards with cash at physical stores, and you'll maintain that anonymity.
2. Awesome service reps. Let's face it, few places are perfect, but I've had the best luck with VM's call centers amongst those I call with any regularity. The staff are typically a younger bunch, but they're the bright kind of younger, you know?
3. They actually understand local number portability, and how to make it happen for their customers. I transferred my land line number (so long, Verizon bastards!) to a second VM cell phone. The transfer was completed in less than a week, and it worked flawlessly. The service rep (see above) I spoke with when arranging the transfer was absolutely on the ball.
4. Some of their phones have an easy hack for blacklisting incoming callers. Here's the cool part: if your VM phone can download ringtones, you may be able to set up a blacklist...
After I started receiving faxes from a pool of about 20 different phone numbers at all hours of the night, I phoned VM's customer service and asked if either the VM service itself or my phone supported blacklisting (i.e. block the fax machines that were calling me). The rep was apologetic and told me that no, unfortunately, neither the phone nor the service had that capability. So I asked him if my particular phone supported downloadable ringtones. A bit confused by the sudden change in topic, the rep said that yes, it indeed supported that. And so I asked if by any chance -- amongst the collection of thousands of ringtones VM outlines on their website -- if they happened to have one that played complete silence. The rep immediately got where I was going (see my comments above about bright service reps)
Anyway, the representative immediately got what I was trying to do, thought it was a pretty damn cool approach, and then proceeded to take about 15 minutes hunting through VM's massive database of ringtones. And guess what? He found one -- a ringtone consisting of pure silence. The rep pointed out that the only downside was that, like all their basic ringtones, it would cost $2.00 to download. I told the guy that was the best deal for some silence I'd ever been offered! Now I have my blacklist.
Seriously. Virgin Mobile is awesome. I don't normally go out of my way to offer much praise for any corporation, but I've been so impressed by what I get for the money I spend with them, that even the occasional glitch I experience (rare) just
Whoever designed level 61 in Frozen Bubble is a sadistic bastard.