DFW - Cell Phone Service

Ok my Nokia 8390 has been having some real issues lately as in it seems to work 50% of the time. Tried to call the wife on the way home from TMS yesterday and It never did connect... :x

I have been with AT&T wireless for years, but come to find out they don't want to cut me a break on a replacement phone unless I sign up for a long term contract. My last contract expired and I went month to month at the same rate as the original contract. So that opens the doors to competition.

What do you guys think what company has the best deal running these days?

Your choice of AT&T or Cingular... Odds are they'll be the same beast by December...

I think you generally wind up with better phone choices from AT&T. To get the goodies from a new provider, you've still got to sign a contract.

Just be sure to find out any additional fees for getting a new phone. One of our customers is a large reseller for Cingular, and I hear people complaining all the time about fees that they are never told about. Now that Cingular owns AT&T wireless, it may be the same with them.

Also tell AT&T you want a new phone with the same rate as before and no new contract... and if they don't that you will walk.

RJ

I've been with Verizon since they were PrimeCo (!) and I've never had any bad issues to deal with and I've traveled every inch of this country with my various phones on their nationwide plan. Love the service, only downside is the lack of phone choices.

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Originally Posted by channelmaniac

Also tell AT&T you want a new phone with the same rate as before and no new contract... and if they don't that you will walk.

RJ

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Been there done that, but I do plan to try one more AT&T store to see if I just got a bad one on Saturday. :wink:

I've got Verizon as well. I had Cingular up until about 6 months ago, and ran into the same thing you are running into with AT&T... no real interest in keeping current customers.

I had been a Cingular customer for about 5 years, was on a month to month plan, and had some old phones. I just wanted to get two new phones for a nice discount. They said "Sure, just sign this two year agreement, and we'll give you $14.95 off the price of these to $600 phones..." or something like that. :? I said, "No, I'm on a month-to-month plan, and have been with you for 5 years. Surely you cut some deals for your loyal customers?". He said, yeah, just sign this two year commitment...

I looked at Billy Saleswiz and said something like "Look. I'm not signing a long term agreement with you. I have your service now, and I've been with you for many years. If you won't cut a deal on new phones, I'm going to go see what the other companies will do. You really don't want a current customer to go do that... do you?" He looked blankly back at me. I walked out of the door.

And right into the Verizon shop, where I promptly changed service and got two brand new phones for a song. :) And the best part is, the coverage is hands-down superior to the coverage I had with Cingular. I've never been anywhere that I couldn't get a signal, which was not the case with Cingular, which often left me out without a signal.

So far, I have no regrets with Verizon... Can you hear me now? :lol:

Watch for the hidden fees with Cingular/AT&T...

crafty bastards.

WASHINGTON (AP) 10-25-2004 -- Justice Department antitrust regulators cleared the way Monday for Cingular Wireless LLC's $41 billion acquisition of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., a crucial step toward creating the nation's largest wireless telephone company.
Verizon wireless has worked for me everywhere but inside my house. Works fine outside. Could it be all that lead shielding to protect me from the alien rays.

Brother just changed to Cingular. He changed just to get 3 new camera phones and to save a few bucks a month.

Remember the portable number option if you switch.

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Originally Posted by general default

Verizon wireless has worked for me everywhere but inside my house. Works fine outside. Could it be all that lead shielding to protect me from the alien rays.

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I don't care who ya are, that's just funny! :lol:

I've used Sprint in the past and I'm currently with T-Mobile. I'm not that impressed with T-Mobile's local coverage (I had to borrow TC's phone to call my wife when we were in Muenster), but ironically our phones work perfectly in the UK, which - tri-band GSM availability - was one of the reasons we went with T-Mobile (formerly Voicestream) in the first place a couple of years ago.

When you approach the store look closely at the front to see if you can find "authorized reseller for", "registered agent", or something of the like. These guys make more money on new activations, or contract renewals than a corporate store.

We have been with AT&T (no service in parts of the country where my kids live), Cingular (dropped calls, voice mails 2 days later) and now we are with T-Mobile. My wife dropped her Cingular phone last week and they would not give her a new one or even a discounted one because we had not reached the 21 months point on the contract. It was going to cost 120 for a new one. I also needed 300 more minutes a month and they were going to charge me 20 dollars more a month. I walked up to TMobile and they gave me two new Motorola flips w/cameras for free and gave me the 800 minutes I needed for the same 69 dollars I was paying for two phones and 500 minutes with Cingular. It cost me 150 dollars to buyout the Cingular contract but financially it was a no brainer. The TMobile contract is only a 1 year which was also a selling point.

FCC has OK'd it.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/26/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes

Tried store #2 and got the same shizat. So I got online to give AT&T a deeply thought out and productive e-mail about customer service. :roll:

Guess what you can upgrade your phone on-line for a lot less that than I was being told, who knew, there are 4 phones that are free, and 5 for under $50.00!

They also have one that is Bluetooth and IR capable with a camera (that I don't want) it's a Sony Ericsson T637 that includes Portable Hands free Headset for $79.99. Is that a good deal for a Bluetooth compatible phone???

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

Tried store #2 and got the same shizat. So I got online to give AT&T a deeply thought out and productive e-mail about customer service. :roll:

Guess what you can upgrade your phone on-line for a lot less that than I was being told, who knew, there are 4 phones that are free, and 5 for under $50.00!

They also have one that is Bluetooth and IR capable with a camera (that I don't want) it's a Sony Ericsson T637 that includes Portable Hands free Headset for $79.99. Is that a good deal for a Bluetooth compatible phone???

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I'm not real fond of the Ericsson phones... If the NEC 515 (no camera, no bluetooth either, though) is still on there for <$50, I'd go with it. I'm really fond of mine, and still use it frequently. Mokey likes hers, too.

Only NEC phone available is the NEC 525 for $249.99 :shock: I'd like to spend as little as possible, I'm sure many of you are shocked! :wink:

What do you think of Nokia TC?

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

Only NEC phone available is the NEC 525 for $249.99 :shock: I'd like to spend as little as possible, I'm sure many of you are shocked! :wink:

What do you think of Nokia TC?

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Fairly pleased. I like my 6620, but it's pricey, even at the $200 discounted price we got them for...

My office manager just got one of the "free" Nokias (bear in mind that the prices on the upgrade page all require a 12 or 24 month contract renewal - but I think that's a good idea given the merger completion). It seems to be a nice phone, but it doesn't have any IR or bluetooth capabilities for syncing with your PC, handheld, etc. It's the one with the big squarish buttons.

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Originally Posted by tailchaser

My office manager just got one of the "free" Nokias (bear in mind that the prices on the upgrade page all require a 12 or 24 month contract renewal - but I think that's a good idea given the merger completion). It seems to be a nice phone, but it doesn't have any IR or bluetooth capabilities for syncing with your PC, handheld, etc. It's the one with the big squarish buttons.

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Drat! I just clicked continue to find :

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While buying a new GSM phone to replace your existing GSM phone, be aware of the following:
You are required to keep your existing rate plan and features.
You are required to sign up for a new service agreement (either 12 months or 24 months).

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Just go to Verizon and quit running around. And be sure to tell them I sent you -- I'll split whatever "Customer Referral" bonus they give me! :wink:

Since I'm hitting the road on a business trip tomorrow the importance of a working phone made it onto my to do list for this week!

I decided to stick with A T & T after getting the run around from other providers, plus when the get assimilated into Cingular that should be a good thing, but who knows!

Well I went and got a Motorola V-505 on Monday night, and returned it Tuesday Morning. What a POS it was the phone book sucked very much bad and it just wasn’t what I wanted, it had less features than my 5 year old Nokia 8390! :?

So I tell Sparky at the A T & T store why I hated the Motorola and he said gee mister why don't you try a Audiovox SMT5600 Smart phone, and you can have it for the same $$ you paid for the Motorola. :shock: This thing is Bling Bling! 8)

I don’t know how to utilize most of what it can do, but man it can do a lot! :rabbit:
http://www.attwireless.com/images/smartphone/sp_hdr.jpg