Anyone have a cell phone provider they don't hate?
 

I have been happy with T-mobile for years...

But then I switched to a family plan and put the wife and daughter on a data plan.

They kept overcharging my wife for data... after several months and half dozen phone calls to customer service things settled down.

T-mobile used to do this thing where they would bring up your history and figure out ways to save you money on your bill, now... not so much.

Went into their store and talked to the guy... thought I could tweak our plan, save a few bucks, get me a new phone with a data plan for the same price... not happening.

My contract is up but wife and daughter are under contract until December.

So I am thinking maybe cut ties with T-mobile and shop around in December.

Currently paying $140 for family plan with two smart phone with data and my stupid phone with no data.

How much are you folks paying for a family plan and who do you like for service?

Thanks

I have 5 phones sharing a 700 minute family plan with unlimited texting. Also have 4 data plans for the smart phones. Grand total is $215/month from ATT.

Edit - I don't hate ATT. They are ok - coverage is not nearly as good here as Verizon though.

I don't think many will vote, since most do hate their providers. Maybe wrong, but not a lot positive to say about any one of them. Verizon has the best coverage nationwide, but another company may fit your individual location better. I think my wife pays around $159/mo. for our Verizon service. She has an Android, and I have a dumb phone - which is all I need. We don't even have a cell signal at our house. A few years ago she got slammed by Verizon. I forget exactly what it was now, but it was a change in a single item that shouldn't have involved changing her plan. When she called to protest, they said they had her recorded authorization from her original phone call. She had asked two or three times during that call if what she wanted changed/added/ subtracted - whatever would change her plan or what they charged her and was told it wouldn't. They are like most companies offering services not days - they all suck bigtime.

I have been with U.S. Cellular for about 4 years and have no issues with them.

I was happy with Sprint and Nextel when I had them, but I ended up moving to Verizon as Sprint and Nextel didn't have coverage in two parts of the country I frequent (northern Arkansas and the UP of MI).

Verizon is about 3x as expensive as Sprint/Nextel. I've never really had any problems with them though. With Nextel the customer service was excellent. One phone call speaking with one person solved any problem. Heck, they sometimes even called me before I knew I had a problem. With Sprint it was pretty good. With Verizon, I feel like just another customer who is expected to understand what their business processes are. "You called the wrong department, I don't handle that..."

If and when you talk to another provider, you will be pleased with the service there. Until you accept a contract. Then you will be Scum of the Earth. That's how it works.

When I needed a phone, T-Mobile was offering no-contract service. That's what I use.

We're probably switching from AT&T to T Mobile in the next week or two. We own both of our phones without subsidy, and we'll be able to pick up a data plan for mine and up the cap on hers, and still come out ahead.

I've been with Verizon since they took over Air Touch.
They've always been good for me.

Usiing ATT and no problems with them. Was with T-mobile and they suck...

Verizon has been fine for our business and they have the best National coverage for traveling.

That equals $2580. per year.
Not counting increases that's $25,800. in ten years.
Over a 30 years, an average mortgage period (again not counting increases) that would be $77,400.

;)

I have lots of cell phones in my company. ATT, Sprint and Nextel. No real issues with any of them once you get the plans set up properly. We review every couple of years and make any changes available to save cash.

Out here in the mountains, Verizon has been good for me, it still is the best service even out in the San Juan Islands.

I have not gotten a smart phone yet but will in the near future with the main reason to get one is the apps for sailing.

It is easier to stay single and use a pay per minute flip phone. Have as few friends as possible. Imagine the money you can save! :)

But it brings up a good point. Monthly fees add up. $20 saved a month can make a big difference in the long run.

Cheers,

George

I like AT&T, but cell phone coverage really is region by region, city by city. In L.A., AT&T is horrible.

As long as you never go out of the country, thats correct. Verizon is terrible if not un-available out of the country in most places.

I'm happy with ATT and my iphone 4 except for my dropped calls, which may be a combo of network and phone. Verizon has better coverage in my area but is nearly double the cost for what I need. T-Mobile is the devil, over the course of almost two years they never got our billing correct. They would say we had no balance for 2-3 months then send us a bill for $350 that was due in a few days. Sometimes the bill would show up after it was already due. My wife spent hours on the phone with their indifferent SOBs, eventually bringing her to tears in frustration. We hated them so much we paid the fee to end our contract early.

That is my problem... I live in L.A. and very few people use AT&T here for that reason.

Wife was previously with Verizon and it seemed like every other month she had problems with billing. Looking at their site I don't see a family plan.

Sprint has kick butt signal in my area... unlimited family for 3 = $150 :eek: also friends have told me Sprint has terrible customer service.

T-mobile has good signal and just ok customer service so not sure if I should stick with them or not.

Kind of shocking going from a bachelor with a dumb phone @ $49 a month.

Verizon recently started throttling my data connection... really irritating. They want you to use their media apps (high bandwidth) but if you use them too much then they throttle you!

Fark, would love to get the particulars on your plan.

I have 3 lines.

2 iPhones with unlimited data.

1 dumb phone for the daughter at $9.99 for the line.

Family Messaging: Unlimited text and mobile to mobile calling.

Just dropped from 1400 minutes to 700.

I'm paying $226

That's seems high stomachmonkey

We have 3 iPhones sharing 700 mins. Unlimited texting, 3 data plans (1 2gb, 2 200mb) and its $180 after taxes.

I have three iPhones on AT&T on my plan. I have unlimited data on my phone but the other two just have 200 mb per month. They never use more than 40 MB so it is not a problem. All three have 200 text messages each per month. We have the roll over minutes and we never use up what we have and some roll off after 12 months. We can text unlimited to anyone with an iTunes account. For that I pay about $160 per month.

T-mobile, I am paying close to what you are paying for voice only (old plan), and sometimes we do get data slipped in. Sick and tired of calling in and fight. But still, T-Mobile is the best in my experience. ATT&T is even worse, actually the worst regarding signal, billing, and customer service.

Hmm, seems last bill was still under the 1400 minutes a month.

So on 700 should be less but not going to get under $200.

Only place outside of US I used it was Mexico and it was fine.

AT&T has been fairly easy to deal with. Several years ago I about fainted when I opened my bill and it was for over 800 bucks. I called them and they said for some reason all my roll over minutes had disappeared and in fact all the plan minutes disappeared. They had no idea how they all vanished. They put them all back, and fixed the bill. One year later all the roll over minutes vanished again. Un-used roll over minutes always go away after 12 months. I called them up and talked to several layers of supervisors and not one of them could understand the difference in some minutes going away each month instead of all of them going away in one lump.

I finally got the name and mailing address of the person in charge of billing. I mailed them a analogue piece of paper in a regular envelope. I explained the difference in detail and that one person at least was smart enough to see the difference. She finally fixed the problem. I have had no problems since.

We are on 750 shared and never go over (we text a lot) wife and daughter are on 200MB data and never go over.

I was thinking of trying AT&T but not getting the warm fuzzies form you guys about them.

Whoever I go with I am hoping to setup WIFI at home and run our cell phones through that (little or no AT&T signal, Verizon is weak, T-mobile OK, Sprint is strong).

So my dreams of getting under $150 for three lines are just that... dreams? :confused:

I am paying $10.- a year for my T-Mobile prepaid plan! How? First year is $100.- for 1000 minutes. You are a GOLD MEMBER now. Any unused minutes are carried over to next year and you only have to renew for minimum amount = 100 more minutes: $10.-! I use an unlocked Nokia 3110 GSM phone I also can use in Europe with local prepaid plans over there.

When it comes to phones I am cheap! and it can't get any cheaper than that!

Smart Talk Unlimited $45 mth + fees = $48 mth unlimited everything. Have to buy your own smartphone. No contract. I like them.

AT&T has helped me out with what we are doing cellwise. We travel to Mexico, and with my new plan, the minutes in Mexico just charge against out plan minutes, not $.99/min. The International data plan is also good. T-mobile was very expensive for international.

Do you text or use data? I don't use data and could continue to live without.

Wife and daughter are texting machines... can't live without that.

Like many folks I resisted the smart phone. My dad gave me his old iPhone original to use as a music player and toy. I took a sip of the iPhone kool-aid and I was hooked. A smart phone is just too handy and useful to go back to a standard phone.

We have no issues with US Cellular as well. Free nights and weekends, not contract and calls to other USC phones are free. None of us have smart phones and we don't text much and we use about 100 minutes of our 1000 shared between three phones since most of our calls are nights, weekends or to people that use USC.

who are you obama? who pays their kids phone bill after they get a job?

i think the wifi will only work on the data. not text or phone calls.

You would need a picocell or femtocell for calls.

Big advantage of my very old Nokia dumb phone... when I'm connected to WIFI the calls are free... another neat feature they took off "smart" phones :mad:

I'm also grandfathered in and get email without a data plan :eek:

On AT&T for sure (and I believe the other major carriers) all calls made on nights, weekends, and to ANY CELLPHONE are free. At least in my family (3 iPhones) that means that 85+% of the calls that we make are free. Keep that in mind when thinking about "minutes".

^ this. That is how I get by with 700 min/month spread over 5 phones. Nearly all our calls are to other cell phones. We generally bank 100+ minutes each month on the plan.

My unlimited data plan was grandfathered in for $30/month. The other data plans are capped at 300 MB for $20. Truth be told most of the data usage occurs at home over our WiFi so not much of an impact using ATT's pipe.

Yes this is a pricy endeavor but we are at the point where smart phones have become a necessity. I would rather cut something else than give up wireless service. YMMV.