Cell Phone Advice

[damnMikeBrown]

Ok, background:

I'm a first time cell phone user/buyer. Actually only used a cell phone twice in my life. I'm moving up to Oxford(college) to finish off my last year, and intend on using the cell in lieu of local phone service. Apparently, it's an extremely common practice. I do not make a large number of long-distance calls, perhaps 2-3 hours per month tops.

Things that scare me:
Roaming charges
Getting excess minute charges
Random fees tacked on
Cell phone salesman
Paying too much for that muffler

Of note, I'm also buying a laptop this week. If I was buying a car, I could complete "The Sleazy Salesman Triumverate"

Any thoughts, suggestions, coments, or concerns?

[Hurst2112]

Some companys actually have better deals online than in the stores. Also, if you have time, look around each of the major's websites. Places like AT&T actually have a user forum where you can read all of the bitching about the company.

[samifan24]

I am actually in a similar situation, as I will likely be getting a cell phone next week for the following year, maybe two. I need the phone because it will allow me to call home free of charge from both my summer internship in VT and school in PA. I'm afraid of two things: roaming charges, and the costs associated with changing the number if need be after I graduate in a year. I'm glad somebody else had similar questions because I wanted to ask. Many of my friends have Verizon and have not had any problems with them. Any ideas?

[JeeberD]

I have a Sprint phone and no land line and have no problems with it. Well, except for the fact that my apartment complex is in a semi-dead spot and sometimes I can't get reception...

Sprint has nationwide long distance, I rarely go over my minutes limit, and unless you go out into the countryside you shouldn't have to worry about roaming charges...

[sovereignstar]

My only recommendation is that you should stick to the larger services as they have more towers nationwide (and probably locally as well). I use Verizon and I'm sure Sprint would be a good option as well.

[terpkristin]

I have used AT&T and Cingular and currently am with Nextel.

My experience with AT&T is that their service sucks and your phone doesn't always tell you when you're roaming..case in point, my sister went to Ocean City, Maryland and used her phone a lot. It never said roaming, she figured that OC being a pretty major place to go in MD and since her phone in theory had "national coverage" and was purchased/registered in Maryland, that it wasn't roaming. A $400 bill later....let's not get into their customer service and the fact that when my sister tried to switch from AT&T to Sprint and carry her number with her, AT&T took over 6 weeks to do the switch over, we were calling them daily to get them on it. NEVER EVER WILL I GO BACK TO AT&T (I know, I talked about my sister's experiences, because hers are more recent. Mine are similar).

Then I had Cingular. I only had them because they were cheap. Coverage is ok, I'm not sure if they do the no roaming thing anymore. They do have that rollover which is kind of neat, you don't lose your minutes if you don't use them...which is nice. On a 300 minute/month plan, sometimes you might use only 200 and then the next month use 400 and you'd get hosed when you used 400 minutes on overage charges. Generally, their service is expanding but their customer service sucks and I've not been impressed with the quality of their phones (mostly the Nokia ones, I think it's a general Nokia problem).

My parents have been using Sprint for years, and love it. They seem to have a few bad areas local to where they live and travel (mostly along the I-95 corridor in New Jersey and sometimes between Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC) but the phone DID work in Elkins, WV, so that's saying something I guess.

I currently use Nextel. They have the walkie-talkie feature which is nice but honestly I don't use...not a lot of my friends use Nextel, so I can't talk to them. I hate their text messaging service. I have it, it's not too expensive, but it's kind of a pain in the ass to send a text message from your phone. Very easy to receive. Overall, since they use more or less only Motorola phones, they are of a very high quality. Nextel's rates have recently become more competitive with the other big names out there. I love them & their customer service, which is probably good because I'm in a contract for another 2 years. ;) I travel all over the country and in some quite remote areas due to search and rescue activities, and have never had a problem with coverage, and since there is no roaming with Nextel, that's never been a concern.

So I'd recommend Sprint or Nextel. The only thing I know about Verizon is that my friend has them and hates how they extend your contract for everything. Apparently their customer service leaves something to be desired, but since I've never used them I have no idea. :p

Hope that helps!
~tk

[jander]

I have had Verizon (well at that time they just took over here for Alltel) and I hated the coverage, but that was years ago.

Have had Sprint for 2+ years now, been very happy, plans are very competitive for the $ and they just introduced a new plan Fair & Flexible. Which is their answer to rollover with Cingular. Basically if you chose that plan you pay a base like $35 for 300 minutes and then after that whatever you use just ups your rate by 50 minutes. Personally I think that is better than rollover, if you never use your minutes with Cingular they will just sit there.

I am really not looking to change. I know there are alot of opinions out there, but my vote is for Sprint.

[Robbiero67]

Having previously worked for one of the larger cell phone companies in existance just wanted to throw out a couple things to hopefully clear up some confusion (or as people with cell phones know to add some confusion):

1. Roaming charges: A national plan does not necessarily translate to free roaming across the nation (as others have hinted to earlier). In fact, for most cell phone companies, there are only a few premium plans which disallow any possible nationwide roaming charges. Most call themselves national plans and will only cover you in the larger cities of the continental U.S. Roaming charges are usually expensive so make sure that when you get a plan the areas you live in and plan to travel to often are included (as these charges usually run from .49-.99 per min.). If you are not going to travel much out of your local area then go for a local plan, often times they give you a much better rate for more options (anytime minutes, mobile to mobile minutes, etc.). In the case you go with a local plan and need to travel, most cell companies will change your plan for a certain amount of time to work around your travel arrangements. However, if you are on a retired/expired plan at that point be careful as you will not be allowed to return to that plan...most people are shocked at that one. Last thing with roaming: The vast majority of cell companies do NOT bill off your alpha-tags (these are the tags which says home, roam, cell company name, etc.), so just b/c your phone says home it is not always the case.

2. Excess minutes: When first getting a cell phone get a plan that will be more then enough minutes. Some people don't seem to realize that minutes are eaten away quickly on cell phones b/c some charge a full min. by going a second into a call and others up to 30 seconds, either way they tend to go fast if you use your phone often. Getting a good number of minutes for a month or two will allow you to see an average of how many minutes you usually use and when you use them. You may pay above what you normally would for the first month or so, but it is a lot better to do it that away and find your preferable usage rate while avoiding excess min. charges.

3. Random fees: Most fees are of course taxes and the cell phone reps will be happy to tell you to go speak with your local government representative with any complaints regarding such subjects. As for other fees, look out for some programming/long distance/roaming fees, when in question make the rep. explain everything in detail. If they can't answer it to your satisfaction goto the next level of assistance...they will attempt to block your request for a supervisor, but can't deny it so continue to ask...

4. Salesmen: They suck and most lie. Be careful and ask a lot of questions about coverage, minutes (when you are getting them and how much), equipment warranty, battery life, etc, etc. I'd recommend looking at the phones in the store, finding your favorites, comparing possible rate plans and go online...like people have said before, online deals are usually the best.

Just go in, knowing your stuff and being confident in that knowledge and the sales people won't walk all over you, in most cases, you'll know a lot more then they will.

Good Luck...

[Lathum]

This works for me.
I use T-Mobile pre paid minutes. No roaming charges. What I do is buy pre paid calling cards for minutes. I pid about 60 dollars for the phone and I buy the minutes ate walmart or staples. I love iit because there are no roaming charges and I am not tied into a contract with a monthly bill. If I run out of minutes and am broke, nobody can call me, thats about it.

[Hurst2112]

As much as I don't like the customer service by AT&T, I can say they did real good and gave me an extra 100 minutes per month for free. It was a circumstance where I paid for a plan and the next week, they had the same price plan with 100 more minutes. I emailed them and told em that I was thinking about sending my phone back (AT&T gives you 30 days to try your phone). They were nice enough to add the extra minutes on. They even waived the overage for the first month.

Customer service can be the difference in phone plans when they are all pretty much the same.