Day 1 of Engadget's Five Days of Holiday Giveaways: We'll help you switch wireless carriers
posted Dec 12th 2005 2:55PM
You didn't think your ol' Uncle Engadget would forget ya during the holidays, didja? Well, we're having five
straight days of giveaways this week, so there! We'll be finishing on Friday with a gadget that you'll all be freaking
out over, but today we're going to get things rolling by helping you switch wireless carriers. We're giving away three
phones — a Samsung A680 from
Sprint, an LG VX8100 from Verizon
(pictured at right), and an unlocked
Motorola RAZR V3 — so no
matter which carrier you're with now, you'll be able to switch to another one.
Here's what you have to do to win one of these handsets: post something in the comments below about why you're sick
and tired of your current carrier and why you're itching to switch to Sprint/Verizon/T-Mobile/Cingular/etc. The writers
of the three best stories, as judged by the editors of Engadget, will win the phone they need to make the jump. You
have 24 hours!
I am currently a T-Mobile customer. I like T-Mo fine - tons of anytime minutes at a good price, good coverage area, decent customer service, and their TV commercials are less annoying than those of the other carriers. I'd stick with T-Mobile, except for one small detail: the building in which I work is owned by Cingular. By some act of black magic, Cingular managed to ensure that everyone that is NOT a Cingular subscriber will find it nearly impossible to make or receive phone calls if they are not standing in the immediate vincinity of a window. Even then, the signal strength is less-than great. Please help me not fog up the windows with my breath.
Thanks,
John
Verizons phone selection sucks. I would love to have something alot nicer and not have to pay 600 bucks for it. Verizon has the high end pda phones but if you just want a stylish everyday phone like the RAZR they have nothing. VERIZON GIVE ME MY RAZR OR ENGADGET WILL. you have 24 hours.
I want to switch to Cingular, because even though T-Mobile has great reception everywhere else, it has next to none where I need it most: my house, which is right next to a military academy that's sending out all sorts of interference.
I hate Cingular!!!
Live outside Parker, CO and cell coverage sucks!
Friends of mine have Sprint and it works good. Verizon is also supposed to work well.
HELP ME!!!!!!!!!
NEED NEW PHONE!!!!!
Because on my original SPV, GPRS doesn't work, texts often dont get sent or recieved and I had to spend over half an hour for them to 'fix' it when it broke a week later. I hate virgin :(
I have boost mobile, so we'll start there. Their service is ok when it works but, I mean in my house, I am on a call and *click* it cuts off, no service.
I was on an important call for a job, I gave out my cell number because, I don't answer the phone in my house, it's not mine, so I recieved the call and I was speaking for about 10 minutes, they were just trying to get a feel about my skills and abilities and weather I would be suited for the job, so I was explaining my current situation where, I am out of school and then *click*, now, because my phone is so terrible it didn't record the number they called me from, so I couldn't return the call, plus I had no service for the next 20 min, I had to go outside, all the way down the block to get 2 bars back on my signal strength, it was terrible to say the least.
My walkie-talkie features doesn't work reliably either, because most of the time, its says network busy or not available. So, I am cut out on that. Hurray for pre-paid phones that don't work...
So let me begin, I was one of them, yes, one of the many who was duped into believeing that Verizon was coming out with a bluetooth phone. I have my bluetooth laptop, my bluetooth pda and can't forget my music that I was ready to transfer. I wait months to get this phone that is going to change everything and low and behold I get it to only find out that it's crippled. So good bye transfer of music, and good bye saving my contacts. So now that the class action suit is over all I get to show for it is my $25 that verizon feels is justified. This is why I want Cingular because there is a company that gets great phones.
I'm sick of Verizon because I can't get service at my house. It's rediculous. As soon as a I leave my driveway, I get tons of voice mail and missed calls. I don't like having to walk down the driveway to see what my friends are up to. I need a new service provider. RAZR please!
I am a Verizon customer. I now hate them for two reasons:
1. the "can you hear me now" guy is driving me crazy
2. crippled bluetooth phones. Verizon forces me to pay them to get contacts, pictures, etc. off of my own phone. just sell me a phone without OBEX crippled!
Give me an unlocked RAZR so I can use MY phone HOWEVER I please and I will be ecstatic!
I currently have Sprint.. I'm disguntled at the fact
1: Sprint rolled out their own Expensive! multimedia service, when I was hoping for an Itunes phone, but can kiss that goodbye.
2: I live in a well covered area, but my last apartment in the middle of the city, either was roaming all the time (roaming charges were incredible) or calls were not coming through.
3: Every other month there is some unknown charge on my account and have to call customer service to take it away.
4: When the Sprint/Nextel network service is ready to go, Every Sprint and Nextel customer will have to get a new phone. (next year or two I was told)
Those are my top four.. Why do I put up with this? Well my John Hancock on that two-year agreement.
Well, my story goes back a couple of years. I originally had Sprint PCS, which was OK, but when Cingular switched to using a GSM network, I decided to give them a try.
Well, to say the least, it was terrible. I rarely had service, and when I did I was constantly being overcharged. At the end of my contract term, I moved to AT&T, only to have the company bought up by Cingular, who I had just gotten away from. When they switched me, I was duped into getting a two year contract with them with promises of $300 rebates. Instead of an "instant credit" I got an "instant debit". So the $350 phone that was supposed to cost me $50 ended up costing me $650. To make matters worse, when I pointed out their mistake, they promised they would rectify it, and immediately credited my account $300. $300. Not the $600 that I was owed, but only the $300 they "accidentally" debited.
Anyway, fast forward a year. I'm now half way through my contract. Because of some poor decisions in the management of my company, I found myself out of work earlier this year. Three days after being told of my situation at work, my land lord called and told me that he was selling my house, and that I would have to move out. So here I am, unemployed and technically homeless. I decided to move across the country and live with a friend of mine in LA who had an extra room.
As a side note, I'd been working for this company for seven years, and the job entailed a fair amount of travel, so I've always had a national plan on every phone I've bought, as long as national plans existed.
The first two months that I was here in California, I had no problem with my Cingular bill. Then suddenly in October, they charged me nearly $900 for my monthly service. I knew I had gone over my minutes, but not by much. This seemed ridiculous. After pouring over my account activity I became aware of the reason for the ridiculous bill: All of my overage minutes were being charged roaming costs. First of all, my plan should not require me to ever pay roaming fees. Second, if I AM supposed to pay roaming fees, why had I not been charged them for the first two months here? Third, WHY WOULD THE ROAMING FEES ONLY APPLY TO THE OVERAGE MINUTES?!!?
This makes no sense to me. Anyway, I desperately want to switch to Verizon. I can't make it through another year of Cingular sticking it to me. Please help!!!!
I currently have Sprint and its a pain to call customer service for anything. Either they dont know what their doing or they have an attitude. I was thinking about switching to Nextel then they merged and now I decided not to even waste my time. Alot of their phones look cheap. I like their plans but their signal is bad in alot of areas I use it. I have tried other carriers like Verizon and Cingular and found that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
The RAZR would make me the coolest kid at my college. (Utah Valley State (Information Systems Major... Man am I a nerd...)) I have been clinging to AT&T for almost a year and half now. I like my X426. Good, simple clamshell. But I think that it is time to upgrade. I guess that I could probably shell out the $199 for the RAZR, but as I have been a dedicated Engadget reader for some time now, free is always better than fee. So the RAZR would be my choice.
Thanks Engadget for the phone.
If Verizon really does have America's best network, then Stanford is not part of America. I get none, read: ZERO, coverage on campus. In fact, our scatter band never fails to make at least one Verizon joke during every home game half-time show.
I thought that I could put up with it at first, but no longer. Last weekend I was coming back to my dorm from a party at 4am, but since I didn't have my keys, I couldn't get in. So I figure that I might call someone, but looking at my phone, I of course have ZERO reception. After sitting on the sidewalk for 10 minutes trying to think up of all the curses I can to describe Verizon, I see a beam of hope in the form of a first-floor room with the lights on and curtains up. Five minutes later, I am in the bushes, knocking on the window of this poor couple whose make-out session I had so rudely interrupted! Thankfully, Stanford kids are nice, and though I received two dirty looks, I was able to get myself back in bed.
The next day I find out that apparently Stanford has a deal with Cingular. In exchange for giving all students discounts, ONLY CINGULAR CAN BUILD TOWERS ON CAMPUS. Hence the reason for my plight. PLEASE HELP ME SWITCH TO CINGULAR! I really don't want to have to interrupt any more of my dorm mates hooking up at 4am.
Ever try to actually add data and web related services to a Verizon phone? Here's my favorite, $5/month Mobile Web charge. This charge exists so that you can "gain access to" the "Mobile Web". Once you have "gained access" you are charged for each minute you use the Web. Puh-lease.
And, why can't Verizon figure out a way to offer a real instant messaging platform that doesn't use SMS (at some ridiculous cost per text message)? I'm guessing it's only because they love charging the text messaging costs -- and nothing more.
Come on Verizon -- get with the program!
Verizon really sucks you in with the infinite minutes to anyone in your "in network" and they say they have the largest coverage in the universe. Well I signed up for the 2 year deal with my significant other while still in college with the idea, hey we'll still be able to use this service no matter where we end up after we graduate and we can talk as long as we'd like. Well I ended up in upstate New York, no problem there but she is in Mendocino, California where there are no Verizon towers only Sprint so my thinking ahead backfires because now she really has no use for her cell phone and we're stuck with a cell phone bill as well as she needing a land line and my calls to her land line are still charged because no in network. So switching to Sprint would be the ideal situation so no archaic land lines are necessary.
I have NoTel (Nextel). my i305 is an 8-pound brick that has no service frequently, ESPECIALLY in my @#$@ house!!! I drop calls constantly here, and can almost never place a call. I have to walk outside my house and check my VM to see if anyone has called. So basically if they don't leave a VM I'm screwed. I can either MOVE, or switch crappy service (AS THE CSR SO LOVINGLY PUT IT). Please help me.
I've got your story! I work for T-Mobile and they can't even get my bill right! I'm on an agent employee plan with a nice rate and package and I've been overcharged by 500% and 400%, respectively, on the last two bills. They're charging me for txt messaging, internet, and MMS! I'm supposed to have all of that included. You'd think they could straighten this out for their own employees, but no!
Not to mention the fact that I can't even get reception in my store in the mall! How am I supposed to sell T-Mobile service if I don't even trust it? I'll keep the job (it's pretty decent money), but I'd love to change my service to Cingular, and an unlocked RAZR would be a great start!
Hook me up Engadget.
I hate sprint. They have given me two phones in the past year. Both of them have broken, and I am stuck with them for the next two years. They turn off randomly, and the sprint store refuses to realize that there is a problem. HELP ME.
Sincerely,
an angry Sprint Customer
I'm a Verizon customer, but not by choice.
First off, I HATE the VZW is CDMA and not GSM, so phone selection sucks.
Second, I own some great GSM phones from when I was an AT&T customer (and Rogers in Canada before that), like the T68i, the RAZR, a Pocket PC phone, etc... can I use them with Verizon? Hell no.
So why, pray tell, would I have switched to VZW?
Simple. One word.
Wife.
She wanted Verizon (because in her opinion, the reception in and around NYC is the best of all the carriers).
So since she wanted VZW, that means I get stuck with it.
I'm counting the days until my contract expires. A new phone would give me the incentive to just buy out the contract and go back to a GSM carrier.
I use cingular and for the most part it works well. But I moved to florida for a disney internship (not as magical as some might think) and had just about everything crap out. First my original phone went kaput so I never got a signal unless I was under the transmission tower. I had my parents send my old phone to me because cingular won't replace my broken one unless i cough up a hundred bucks. Now the one I do have barely works with my hearing aids, confuses the hell out of me, tells me I have a message two days late and to top it off still has lousy service. I just want a phone thats easy to use, works with my hearing aids or is loud enough to use without hearing aids, and gets a steady connection. Also if it could play some decent games that would be stinkin' GREAT.
I currently have Verizon Wireless and live in the Boston area. Because I live in a populated area, my service is great, unfortunately, that is where the positive comments about my carrier stop.
Unfortunately, being an early adopter, I had the (tragic) luck of buying a Motorola v710 cell phone when it first arrived on the market. Suffice to say, you know, as well as I do how miserable I felt once I bought it and realized it did not have “real” Bluetooth (http://engadget.com/search/?q=v710&submit=Search+%BB).
I know that a settlement has just come about and I could get a new phone, but chances are, I am probably going to get some other lame-tech phone that Verizon offers.
In addition, I will have to fill out forms in triplicate and because I have to deal with these big companies, they will probably “lose” my form, call my form unacceptable because I forgot to dot one my “I”‘s in my name, or wait a year before I can actually get another phone valued way below what I paid for the v710 originally.
I also have been ripped off lately with their increase in text messaging service. They increased their charge on receiving text messages from 2 cents up to 10 cents.
Imagine the post office suddenly charging 5 times the amount they do now to send a letter. This is outrageous! They do not even offer any decently priced text messaging packages.
I would love to go to a more geek loving cellular company like TMobile or Cingular.
Engadget, can you hear help me now?
i just want a treo 650, but i dont want to spend $600 for a new one
that and every ounce of service from store to phone suck worse that it did the last time. why do i have to make a 45 minute phone call to get a handset changed.
I would seriously eat lasagna out of Santa's neck flap if you promised to give me that unlocked RAZR. I'm currently on Verizon Wireless, for one reason: my dad pays. I would glady pay out of my moth-ridden, poor college student pocket if I had an incentive like a free phone to switch to another carrier. My coverage is absolutely horrible, I drop calls left and right and don't see anything amazing about the EV-DO that they tout every 5 seconds. V-Cast is an absolute waste of money at $15 extra a month and the Get-It-Now service is piss poor with some of the worst apps/games I've ever seen.
The only way I could think of staying with a carrier that causes me so much trouble would be if they had an absolutely amazing selection of cellphones or even atleast allowed me to use any unlocked phone that I choose. Too bad VZW is stuck on old skool CDMA (I can promise it ain't OG!) with phones that don't use SIM cards. The phone selection is absolutely atrocious. The best thing we get is the old RAZR a year after the craze? Don't even get me started on the standard Verizon user interface they are pushing. Isn't it bad enough that they have crippled my Bluetooth OBEX out of box and charge 25 cents for each picture upload to PixPlace? Atleast with older phones unlocking the features wasn't a big deal with some seem edits but with this new VZW UI you can bet it is near impossible.
Please save me, for the love of God. I am a gadget geek stuck with the most utterly useless brick of a cellphone that gets little to no service and prevents me from getting all the ladies. Man I would look sooo stylin' with that Moto RAZR.
Happy holidays guys!
I'm currently a VZW customer - and because of their coverage, am hesitant to switch. I don't know which I hate more about them, though - the shenanigans that go on any time I need to make a change to my account, or the fact that they are so behind the times in releasing new hardware (crippled, nonetheless) which they still sell at a premium price. I have heard mixed reviews about Sprint's coverage / reliability (I plan to do some comparison testing as my current contract reaches expiration), and have not heard anything positive about T-Mobile. All I want for Christmas (Hanukkah, really) is a brand new RAZR that I can use with VZW without having to sign my soul to the devil and trade my first born to do so.
I signed up for T-Mobile about a year ago when I purchased my Blackberry 7100t. Well the year has come and gone, the one year contract is up but yet I'm stuck with this horrednous piece from RIM. I hope they get sued for every penny they have, which it looks like they will be. Anyways, my plan is crazy expensive for a poor college kid like myself, at $59.99 a month I get 1000 minutes, unlimited email, web and sms messages. I RARELY go over the minutes, but two months I did..Something about a $400.00 cell phone bill really ticked me off. The $59.99 really isn't all that bad, but when you tack on all of these fees and taxes, it bumps it up $20 more dollars! Seriously, if I call 9-1-1 I'll pay for it, but til I do, don't charge me $4.95 for it. I understand that specific tax is with any provider, but this is a mere rant. The service isn't too bad, but I do get periods of drops which is a little bit more then usual since I've just moved. Driving home each day from CompUsa, where I work I like to talk it up with my fiance, but I'm always timing the conversation by what road I am on and what exit. I have friends with Sprint, and apparently it's a great overall service for the money. I would love to keep the whole PDA/Phone/Smartphone thing going, but I'm pretty sure I can do without if it will save me some money. Angelina Jolie was the primary reason for me choosing T-Mobile, I thought I could get her digits and holla at her...boy was I wrong.
I really love how my T-mobile phone gets better reception in Europe than my own apartment in Boston. This crummy HP 6315 phone is poor as a Pocket PC with so little CPU power and far worse as a cell phone. The Sound quality is terrible and The Reception is non-existent. What I really love is how it shows 5 bars of reception until I try to make a call at which point it drops down to 1. Or how I send an SMS message, it displays send 2 minutes later, followed immediately with my friends response. Quality product & service I have over here...
Wow- Cingular's service is killin me for 5 (count 'em) reasons (so far...)
1. Their "customer service" is terrible. I needed to make frequent calls to the UK for 2 weeks. I went into the store, spoke to one of their Customer Service reps, explained my need and they pointed me to a brochure which explained how the cost would be no more than 25 cents a minute. Not highway robbery, not a deal either.
Along comes my phone bill. Wouldnt' you know it....$1.70/minute for those calls, including incoming. So their "customer service" guy tries to tell me that because I failed to sign up for a 3.95 monthly payment for their world service I wouldn't get the rate I was shown- yea, nice try.
2. The Voicemail features have become so complex and byzantine that my mother no longer can leave me messages- she just keeps calling and calling. You know how moms get.
3. I had to try 3 handsets to find one that could complete calls- maybe it's a function of being in an urban environment, maybe it's that they all suck, but their service is especially crappy. So, instead of getting aphone with features I like, I'm stuck with a Nokia from 63 B.C. - but it does complete calls
4. I live in South Florida, which is blessed with not just great beaches, fantastic plastic surgeons and gorgeous women (again, FANTASTIC plastic surgeons) but unfortuately we are afflicted with hurricanes as well (you may have seen something about them in the news in the past few months). Cingular service was so spotty that I couldn't make/recieve a call for about 3 days after Wilma, while my friends with Verizon were chatting away during and after the storm. Not cool.
5. Cingular is EXPENSIVE. The rollover promotion seems enticing but has proven to be a total joke- i have like 4000 rollover minutes left for the last 3 months of my plan, but if I try to change the amount of minutes in my plan, I lose the rollover minutes. I'm considering leaving my phone connected to Moviephone for a week straight just to spite Cingular.
How would it effect Cingular's bandwidth if everyone did that?
Ok gentlemen- I'll take the Razr.
My first carrier was T-Mobile. Thank God I only signed on with them for a year. I had no reception in most of where I went in New Jersey. In the places where I had reception it was horrible, full of static. I got tired of always having to tell people to repeat themselves so many times I just hazd them leave a message so I could decipher it later. I was finally freed from my bonds a month ago, and hurriedly embraced Cingular's buy 1 RAZR get one free on Black Friday. I had great coverage everywhere I went. However all my calls dropped. I had two RAZR's talking to each other within 50 feet and I lost the call within 3 minutes. I called up cingular and was greeted by the message "Please leave a number you can be reached at if the call drops". That wasn't a good sign. Neither was being told that Rollover minutes are a kind of apology from Cingular from always dropping calls. So I am now finally ready to embrace Verizon. I plan on buying one RAZR, $199 is twice what I paid at Cingular, and getting a different phone for myself. The lg vx8100 may not be as slim as a RAZR, but with more feautures and better service, it's pretty sweet.
I hate the damn T-jingle tone on my phone.
Well, I'll be switching to Rodgers/Fido in Canada if it's possible for me to win the phone. I'm currently on Bell (a CDMA provider) and oh, my, they do stink. I had the Samsung slider, which was an OK phone, but when it broke I had no choice but to either pay full price for a new phone or sign a new 3-year (!!) contract. Plus they wanted to charge me extra for upgrading early. Neither option is very attractive since I only use about a hundred minutes of airtime a month. I was using the phone number on my resume at the time, so I couldn't just drop it altogether and since we don't have number portability yet I couldn't switch carriers either. Having landed a new job, I'm going to drop Bell like a hot potato - although it would be nice to do so without having to pay for a new phone. I should mention the phone was just over a year old and I didn't drop it or anything - it just stopped getting a signal one day. Forever "Searching..." for some sort of signal (or meaning) it could never find.
What I did in the end was to buy a used, out-of-contract Bell slider off of eBay and get it reprogrammed for me account (another $20!!). That was cheap, but there's something off with the power circuitry, so neither my old battery or the new one lasts more than a day... so how about a little pity on Canada - where mobile operators are even worse than the US!
I am completely fed up with Verizon Wireless!
We’ve been with them for the last 3 years and while their coverage is excellent, the quality of their customer service is abysmal. Even when I trek down to the storefront to try and resolve a billing issue, which seems like a monthly occurrence, the “Customer Service Manager” acts like I’m asking for him to perform a miracle.
Come to think of it, since they’ve screwed up my bill more often than they’ve gotten it right, I may be asking for divine intervention.
So, PLEASE pick me for the RAZR & I’ll jump to T-Mobile of Cingular.
Les
Hi, my name is Erik and I bought a RAZR. Boy is this the worst phone ever. I really hate cingular for tricking me into buying a big POS that gets horrible service, bad menus, crappy battery. Oh and cingular is the devil for FORCING me to unlock the RAZR on my own because I won't switch from my ATT contract. Which dominates there slutty contracts. I'm pretty much jealous of any of my friends who have T*Mobile and Verizon. I'm not going to lie I'm desperate and if you pick me I'll videotape the execution of my RAZR.
Good day,
I SAID GOOD DAY,
EG
I've only recently gotten myself a post-paid plan with VZW. I'm generally happy with their service, except for the subpar reception at my home. However, that's not why I'm entering this giveaway "contest". I'm doing so in the hopes of winning a phone for my parents so that I can keep in touch with them under a VZW family plan. Thanks, Engadget, for the opportunity.
T-mobile slept with my girlfriend :( Do you think verizon would do something like that?
I have had Cingular (my current carrier), Verizon, and Sprint and they all suck. I don't have any reason to think T-Mobile is any better. I just go to where I can get the coolest phone. In that spirit, if you guys can just hook me up with a cool phone, its gonna be all about me and the hardware without any extraneous relationship with a carrier getting in the way. Also know that you will be free to shamelessly exploit my name and image for the betterment of Engadget. Please pick me.
So I've been a loyal Sprintite for 5 years now. I have a great retention plan with them, but at this point it's not even worth it. I have the PPC-6600 and for over one month now I have been waiting on a replacement 6600. It is under warranty (and I even pay the $6 insurance) and I have the known echo issue, where most everyone I speak with hears their own echo. So first I go into the Sprint store and drop off my phone. An hour later I come back and she says the tech found nothing wrong with it. I said, "well why don't I call your phone and we'll see if you hear your echo." She says 'ok, but I'd still need a tech to order a replacement, and he's gone for the day.' Fine, I say. I walk to the other side of the store to call her and while I'm over there, a guys says, "are you having that problem now?" It was the TECH...so lie #1. So she then says they will order a replacement and to come back in 2-3 days. A week later I go by the store and she says, "they sent a Treo because they're out of the 6600s." Not going to work...turns out she lied and knowingly ordered a Treo as a replacement. Two stores later, and I still don't have a replacement 6600, and while they acknowledge that the only suitable replacement for it is a 6700, they "can't" replace it with it because it's an upgrade...HUH? So the 6600 is discontinued, they have no refurbished models to give me, AND they won't put me into the only acceptable replacement?? I'm so sick of this circle of lies that Sprint has me in. I'm under contract, but currenly I can get out of contract with no fees because Sprint has changed the contract and now charges for ESN swaps (aka switching #s to a new phone). I'm tired of them taking my money and spitting me lies. Please get me out of this torture!
I currently have Sprint. I almost wrote $print, but I realized that would be horrifically lame.
1) I hate the phone selection. I'm just sick of how we never get ANY of the coolest phones, if just because of the ridiculous choice to not use SIM cards.
2) I hate the fact that I had no service for 28 hours over Sat/Sun in Philadelphia because of a problem with the network.
3) I hate the fact that I have to pay seperately for so many services.
4) I hate their habit of crippling bluetooth (including my current lg325).
Basically, the only thing I like about my service is my phone number.
Please Engadget, pimp my wireless service!
The trouble should have started when I ported my number from Sprint to Verizon, but that went fine. About two months after porting my number and switching to Verizon, people calling me would intermittently recieve a Sprint message saying "The Sprint customer you have reached is unavailable, please try your call again later." No Verizon voicemail or error message. Over a month has passed with more than 10 calls to tech support and neither company can figure out what is going on. Verizon offered to give me a new number, but that would be the biggest hassle in the world since like many people, it is my only phone and contact number. Finally they decided to allow me to cancel my contract without any early termination fees! I couldn't believe that what to me seems like such a simple problem they have decided to solve with losing me as a customer. I thought that switching from Spring to Verizon would be great, but since Verizon doesn't want me and my Sprint error messages, a new RAZR would be a great way to try out Cingular!
I use a Treo 600 on Cingular. But trying to be an early adopter last year has now made the Tobias Funke of the office. I think I'm cool w/ my Blue Man Group icon set but I'm really not 'cause all the cool kids have a Moto Razr hanging off their low rise Lucky Brand jeans wearing retro Atari shirts. Maybe if I have a Razr, I'll get invited to party w/ them at this weekend's kegger in the woods. They told me I could come if I had one...they really did.
I've got T-Mobile, I like the one year contracts but the service is a little lacking. Take for example a couple of months back I'm enjoying an unusuallly quiet week, my cell hasn't rang for days, not normal but not earth-shattering. Friday rolls around and no one is calling with the info on the nights events. So I made some calls and found that I had been getting calls, for days, but they've been going to voice mail. But that didn't make much sense, I didn't get the usaual texts and alerts. To make things stranger my roommate also has TMo and was able to receive calls and messages. So I gave the folks over at TMo a call and found out that I was lucky enough to have a certain #(product/serial/something) that the network was currently unable to create a connection. This is the kicker, the CS rep says they're working hard to resolve the issue so "people will stop calling us." And to also just call my voicemail every 15-30 to see if I have messages. Thanx a lot. It was finally fixed on sunday night.
My comment isn't really provider specific, but more a complaint on the whole cellphone business as a whole in the US. Why OH why, do all the cell providers figure once they've locked us into a plan, they feel like they have no more reason to give us an incentive to stay? They offer all the latest and greatest phones to "new" customers and basically screw the rest of us. This industry churn of stealing each other customers by enticing them with a "free RAZR" just sucks. What sucks more is that most of these phones are LOCKED and so if you're sick of your carrier, its gonna be twice the pain in the ass to convince them to unlock it for you so you can switch carriers on top of trying to get out of your 2 year contract that seems to run on forever.
I for one would like to stick it to the man, and have that unlocked RAZR in hand with its quadband capabilities, and feel no loss if I ever get fed up with a carrier because I can either a) get a gsm prepaid service so I don't have to deal with evil things like service contracts or b)pack up the wife and move to a country where I don't have to deal with such unfair business practices that while most of the country is fed up with, no one seems to have any power like those of cellular lobbyists to change the way cell phone carriers treat their customers.
I have recently redone my finances and realised I have been living above my means. With the Razr coming to Verizon I have thought of it all. Beat some kid up steal his razr, pull some old lady's wig off with a razr and then smack her with her own purse. Basically Verizon sucks due to the lack of phones. They only have cool phones when the other carriers are done with theirs. I think that Verizon has found a huge lot of Sprint and Cingular dumb stations where, Verizon Execs route through the trash to find the next Verizon phone.
On a serious not I have seriously thought about beating up an old lady for the Razr. I am sick and tired of these annoying big arse phones in my pocket. I want my RAZR..... no matter what it takes.
With my 1st born coming into the world in March,(check website) she may have to be sold for that Razr over at Verizon, hell I would even switch if I could get the Razr!!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Uncle Engadget!!
So I've been a loyal Sprintite for 5 years now. I have a great retention plan with them, but at this point it's not even worth it. I have the PPC-6600 and for over one month now I have been waiting on a replacement 6600. It is under warranty (and I even pay the $6 insurance) and I have the known echo issue, where most everyone I speak with hears their own echo. So first I go into the Sprint store and drop off my phone. An hour later I come back and she says the tech found nothing wrong with it. I said, "well why don't I call your phone and we'll see if you hear your echo." She says 'ok, but I'd still need a tech to order a replacement, and he's gone for the day.' Fine, I say. I walk to the other side of the store to call her and while I'm over there, a guys says, "are you having that problem now?" It was the TECH...so lie #1. So she then says they will order a replacement and to come back in 2-3 days. A week later I go by the store and she says, "they sent a Treo because they're out of the 6600s." Not going to work...turns out she lied and knowingly ordered a Treo as a replacement. Two stores later, and I still don't have a replacement 6600, and while they acknowledge that the only suitable replacement for it is a 6700, they "can't" replace it with it because it's an upgrade...HUH? So the 6600 is discontinued, they have no refurbished models to give me, AND they won't put me into the only acceptable replacement?? I'm so sick of this circle of lies that Sprint has me in. I'm under contract, but currenly I can get out of contract with no fees because Sprint has changed the contract and now charges for ESN swaps (aka switching #s to a new phone). I'm tired of them taking my money and spitting me lies. Please get me out of this torture!
I NEED A NEW PHONE! Here's why... (I think you'll understand). Okay, so my boyfriend (ex boyfriend I should say) bought me a phone and Verizon service. We broke up, and somehow I've ended up with both phones under my name. I tried to get his phone off of my plan- but Verizon requires that I renew my contract with them. I'm stuck with 2 phones under my name! 2 phones! I'm a poor college student, I can barely afford 1! I DON'T WANT TO RENEW MY CONTRACT! Verizon is horrible. Their customer service is practically non-existent, and here in the middle of Iowa I have NO service! What is a girl to do in a college town without a GOOD cellphone, and service! I'm LOST! I'm in a heck of a mess, and I really need your help. Okay, I learned my lesson this time- DO NOT accept phones from boyfriends. Help me? Please??? I would LOVE a new phone, and Sprint service AND I would give engadget.com mad props FOREVER!(as in i'll tell EVERYBODY I know!) Thanks!
I am a T-Mobile customer. T-Mobile has great service where I work, in downtown Buffalo, NY. Unfortunately, after work I have to go home. This is where my service decides to stop working. The only place at my house that I can get service is in my driveway. Now, for those who are unfamiliar with Buffalo (read: SNOW), we have some, let's put it nicely, rather harsh winters here. Having to stand in my driveway to simply make a phone call while it is snowing at a rate of 1"-3" per HOUR is not my idea of a good time. Having a 3 degree wind chill snapping at my face and having people that I am talking to on the phone asking if I am in a wind tunnel doesn't help either. My roommates have a mix of Cingular, Verizon, and Cricket, all of which get fair to excellent service in the house. Additionally, my phone will occasionally decide to reboot itself. Mostly while I am in the middle of a conversation. Ya. It's great. Uh-oh. My phone is ringing. I have to go put my long underwear on along with my snow shoes and hat/scarf/gloves so I can go answer that. Cheers!
I’m currently with a local contractor to Cingular, tho it's not Cingular really, so you can begin to see the problem already. I went in to get my phones switched to GSM for the new features and better phones about 6 months ago. I was looking at the GSM phones they offered (figure the oldest ones out there) they ranged from a cheap Nokia for $99 with 2 year contract up to a cheap Samsung for $299 (of course with a 2 year contract) I asked if they had the Razr, they didn't even know what that was, although they carry Motorolas. So I figure I'll negotiate it down to a one year on the Nokias for the $99. I'm flat out told by the sales person that GSM is terrible, has no coverage and no features and they right now won't even sell you a GSM phone at all, for any price, So you'll just HAVE to take a CDMA phone or leave. That's right LEAVE. Therefore I do nothing and leave, and now would like to leave all together and go with another carrier. Oh, and I later found out that their GSM is just fine, they had a spiff for the salespeople to get rid of the CDMA phones. Maybe if you give me the Razr I can go in and show my current carrier what one is and help them out.
My friend is a cheap bastard who won't get a phone and he really needs one. We always want to call him when we're going out but he doesn't have a phone, so we never have any idea where he is.
I am starving college student who will be studying abroad. I will not be able to use my Verizon cell phone anywhere else in the world, and I can't afford an unlocked GSM phone. Does Engadget want me to suffer through life without a cell phone?
Give me a phone so I can sell it on ebay. I'm happy with my treo 600, and by george, I will not give it up.
They say honesty is the best policy. I usually find deception to be less time consuming.