I switched to T-Mobile from Sprint five years ago.
Sprint was a nightmare.
My girlfriend at the time wanted Sprint because her family was with that company.
Sprint is one of the crookedest companies on the planet.
My experience with Sprint was so bad that I actually threatened them with legal action if they didn't allow me out of my plan.
You see, Sprint would add new fees to your plan without ever asking.
They would also renew your plan every time you called them without telling you.
Not kidding - I once was told by a Sprint customer service rep that I had agreed to a two-year extension to my plan by calling them up and asking questions about charges for a text messaging service I had never ordered or used that they were charging me $75 a month for.
Before Sprint, I had AT&T - forcibly. I was with another company that was bought by them and suddenly one month I got a $345 bill - AT&T decided that I no longer had free long distance calling with my plan.
They did all of this without telling me, of course. Again, I had to threaten to sue and file a claim with both the NY State Attorney General and the NY Consumer Affairs Office to get justice.
When I moved to T-Mobile, my bill was always the same every month, no matter what. No mysterious charges, no fees that I was unaware of, no added services that I hadn't asked for and was now being charged for.
And the customer service was fantastic - I was switching from a family plan to a singular plan back in 2008 and they said to me "Hey, did you know you should be getting a 15% discount because you're a union member?"
I did not know that, but suddenly my bill was even lower after that phone call.
What a refreshing experience after the crookery that was Sprint and AT&T.
So when I see that AT&T is merging with T-Mobile, leaving the U.S. with two large cell phone companies (AT&T/T-Mobile and Verizon) and one small one (Sprint), the first thing I looked for is my wallet - because you know my bill, if stay with T-Mobile, will go up to AT&T prices,
On top of that, I am sure AT&T will bring it's horrible customer service to the mix, find ways to squeeze profit out of customers and just generally take what was a pleasant consumer experience with T-Mobile and wreck it.
I hear some good things about Virgin Mobile.
I think I'll be checking those things out.
Because if my choice is now between a T-Mobile run by AT&T or plans run by Sprint or Verizon, I would rather go back to the preternatural days of telegraph or tom tom.
UPDATE: Oops - check that, I see Virgin Mobile is connected to Sprint. So nix that.
Any suggestions?
Verizon is awful about crooked practices, although I had my biggest problems with Verizon DSL. At one point, when I cancelled my plan, they told me that they had sent me an e-mail seven months before (I didn't remember receiving it) telling me that unless I responded, my contract would be extended. Note; the e-mail was also one of the kind that you can't respond to directly. So, the burden was on the customer to call and inform them that he didn't want the plan. Failure to reply to this unsolicited e-mail was deemed acceptance.
ReplyDeleteLook at Verizon. In Texas, we have Verizon, and pretty much nothing else. If you are in Houston or Dallas or Austin, you can receive your AT&T or Sprint signal okay, but travel between the 3 .....well forget it. Never had a cost problem or hidden cost with Verizon. Hell, we like it so, much we got rid of our land-line and DSL with AT&T and switched everything to Verizon. ( All except cable.) Got a satellite dish and love it.
ReplyDeleteSo far, fortunately or not, Verizon has been our best cell phone carrier, with the least dead zones in rural areas we've traveled.
ReplyDeleteRBE, Check Credo Mobile. They use the Sprint towers and their rates are comparable to Sprint, without the crookedness. They partner with progressive/liberal groups to pressure Congress on key issues and donate part of their profits to progressive causes. Nice thing is if I make changes to my plan, my contract doesn't start over.
ReplyDeletecredomobile.com
I've had Verizon cell service since 2000 and have not had a problem with them. The service has always been good and they've never made changes without my authorization. That being said, I've never called customer service - always use online access - and do not have their service for anything but cell service.
ReplyDeleteThe bill is the same every month without fail, unless I changed it.
i do know it's a big money maker. an individual plan runs from $70-$120 depending on the phone....times tens of millions of customers.
ReplyDeletei use verizon....very few problems and they were resolved. went to the theater this weekend and at intermission 30% of the audience took out their smart phones. are we addicted? angry birds anyone? go figure...