Well, Sprint’s finally managed to get me to rethink keeping my four cell phone plans (I share minutes with friends and family) with them; not only did they not shift their “insurance” thing to the expensive phone when I asked them to, not only will they not insure it for any reason now… they won’t even credit my account for the charges for the “insurance” on a really cheap phone I didn’t need insured at all.
I am in the market for suggestions about where to get good cell phone service. Key feature is some way to provide high-speed networking to a laptop – actually, Sprint doesn’t officially support this, because they want to sell their piece of shit “connection cards” instead of just selling bandwidth like a real phone company. sigh Biggest priority, really, is a company that won’t consistently lie to me when I call customer service. This may be harder to find than I’d like.
Comments [archived]
From: PlaidMan
Date: 2005-05-03 14:20:57 -0500
I’d go with Verizon or T-Mobile… both of which consistently do better than the rest in SectorPulse studies ( http://www.vocalabs.com/about/pr30.html ). Consumer Reports found the same thing in their most recent study.
Personally, I’d go with T-Mobile because I find it stanky that Verizon funded Tom DeLay’s legal expense trust. ( http://dropthehammer.org/donors/ ) Mind you, that was $5000 four years ago, but the whole point of a trust is that you can set it aside for use years later.
From: beoba
Date: 2005-05-03 14:39:29 -0500
I’ve liked verizon, no idea if they do what you mentioned. I just use my phone for calls, and they have good coverage in Boston.
I’ve heard Cingular is great too, and might be switching to them once my contract is up with V.
But yes, Sprint sucks. Even in Kansas City, in which they’re headquartered.
From: LibbyChic
Date: 2005-05-08 20:37:57 -0500
I use Cingular, and for the most part have no complaints. Their shared minute and rollover plan are excellent, and I get good coverage nearly anywhere I am. Don’t chince on the phone if you do go with them, however. We’ve discovered that dropped calls happen more often with the cheaper phones.
From: Spherical Time
Date: 2005-06-15 14:40:51 -0500
I was applying for various jobs when I first got my cell phone with Sprint, and someone used my SS# from a job application to steal my identity.
It was a nightmare trying to get Sprint to deal with it. They had no way to trace changes to my account, and I had to speak with three people to deal with the issues that arose. They were unable to credit my account or issue me another bill for almost a month.
When my contract comes up, you can be sure that I’m moving somewhere else.
BTW, I have a 305 number (see bizzare phone call from Miami entry above). I love it, all of the wrong numbers are in Spanish.