VH and I have been with Verizon for years now, but that may very well change soon. After performing my own version of a telecom audit, I discovered that VH and I have only been using 36% of our monthly minutes. But until recently we’d been paying an average of $42 per month more than the cost of our monthly plan.
Why?
It’s those damn text messages. That $10 per month I paid for “unlimited” text messages really meant unlimited messages only to other Verizon customers. There’s a definite limit on the number of messages I can send or receive outside the network, after which I’m charged 10 cents a piece. Of course, if I were a new customer — or if I’d be willing to sign on for another two years — I could get their new unlimited message plan which, apparently, actually is unlimited.
Seriously, where do cell phone companies get off charging for text messages when we’ve already paid for monthly minutes? Why should I be charged at all for receiving text messages when I have no control over the sender, and when I’m charged the instant a message is received on my phone… regardless of whether I read it?
So I’m shopping for a new cell phone provider. The way our bills have been going, I’ll still save money if we pay the $250 contract cancellation fee after signing up for a more affordable service.
Who do you recommend?
Monday, June 11th, 2007, 10:56 am | 
My Venomous Life | 
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June 11, 2007 at 11:09 am
We have Sprint with Treos and unlimited texting and web. Free calls to each other as well. Hubby uses his with work too. The Treo’s qwerty keyboard is great for texting!
June 11, 2007 at 11:23 am
I don’t have a recommendation… although I have had issues with AT&T in the past… so I would never use them. (YMMV) T-Mobile seems to work well in populated areas – but tends to be bad outside of major cities. You’d have to check their coverage chart (I haven’t done it in years) maybe they’ve increased their coverage area by now.
Good luck – cell service is always a crapshoot. *sigh*
June 11, 2007 at 11:32 am
I think I’ve used close to every cell service there is and broken each one’s contract because of poor coverage, ridiculous charges, or something. It IS cheaper to break the contract than continue to pay monthly charges on service you’re not happy with.
We actually use our phone company’s cell service (it’s Cincinnati Bell, but I believe they use the AT&T network somehow). Anyway, it’s been the most reliable, best coverage, and best cost of any of them and moreover, no contract. Like I said, I’ve tried other services but inevitably end up back with this one. I hated both T-Mobile and Verizon and will NEVER use either of them again. Not just bad phone service but customer service was a nightmare.
June 11, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Don’t you have “number portability”….that is, the ability to move your cellphone number from service provider to service provider? If you do, I would tell Verizon that unless they give you this or that refund/deal, you will move your business elsewhere.
June 11, 2007 at 6:29 pm
being in monetary dire straights for several years, I started looking at how cheap I could get. I use too many minutes to save with most prepaids, like TracFone, but their .10 a minute version, Net10, would do me well. If I could scrape together the money to buy a phone from them. My current Cingular-cum-ATT casts me $35 and the Net10 would be $13-$22 depending on my slightly fluctuating service. I don’t tend to use many minutes as you can tell. The other .10/minute versions end up costing me nearly exactly what I pay now(I guess they look good to someone who can’t get a regular contract due to rotten credit). They all charge connection fees, monthly service fees or other fees that drive the actual price up. Add your texting and minutes up and see if you would come out cheaper with the prepaid. Net10 charges .10/text I think (I don’t send text at all receive few, so it wasn’t high on my list) so it would be a “Minute” of use. The purchased minutes “last” 30 days, but left overs are kept active by purchasing more minutes. Where the TracFone makes sense is for low usage types who can buy 200 or less minutes and not need to use them in a month.
When I first moved here to Texas, I kept my Cingular and also had a Nextel through my job. There were plenty of places where I had no service on one phone and strong signal on the other. Sprint has bought Nextel so They may have better service than they used to with the expanded tower count. Sprint used to be solely an interstate highway service. If your town or city had no interstate running through it, forget getting service…at all. Supposedly it has gotten better.
T-mobile, Altell and the rest I know little about, other than they had nothing that drew my eye when looking into services.
June 11, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Kim, I do love my Treo but the camera sucks. And it’s really too big for my purse. It’s also a Verizon-locked model.
Teresa, you’re right about it being a crap shoot. One night we had six people over to watch a movie in our basement. Each had their cell phones, plus VH and I both had ours. There were 5 different carriers involved. Only 3 had reception, though. WTF?!
Jae, you’re right about it being cheaper to break the contract sometimes! Wish I had a company cell phone to use. Well, I guess I do: I am the company. Guess I need a smarter boss, eh?
Steve, the number is indeed portable. However, Verizon could not possibly care less about losing our business it seems.
JP: First, my friend, let me introduce you to the “Enter” button, which allows you to break up unwieldy paragraphs into several manageable chunks of text.
Second, TracFones won’t work for us. But you’re only paying $35 for an ATT/Cingular phone? That’s half of what each of ours costs!
June 12, 2007 at 8:16 am
I’ve been with Cingular/AT&T on and off since 2003. I’ve occasionally had service outages inside buildings, but never have I been denied service or had something I didn’t want put on my bill.
As someone who used to sell cellphones and service, I would base your decision on two things:
1. Talk to your friends. See who has the best coverage, the fewest dropped calls, etc.
2. Go on the company’s website and see what phones they offer to make sure they have one you like.
Then go to an independent retailer. No big box stores, not those kiosks in the mall. Go to a strip mall or something that has an AT&T or Verizon store in it. You’re likely to get better, friendlier service from people who work for, say, Bill’s Wireless (an authorized AT&T retailer) than AT&T proper.
My wife and I have been going to the retailer around the corner for a few years now. They spent about an hour with me when I was thinking about buying a new phone — I told them outright I wouldn’t be buying one until next week, when I was sure I had my new job — and they still knew they wouldn’t be making any money on me that day. But they promised to hold the phone I wanted when it arrived. They did, I went in, I bought it, got a few accessories, and they earned my business and kept it since 2005.