Cell phone carriers, what do you have?

[irish]

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile

I have Verizon but it's more expensive, my service has been just meh and I sometimes even lose it. I'm looking into possibly switching over to AT&T or T-Mobile.

Anyone here have either and what kind of experience are you having?

 

[rajncajn]

Verizon because AT&T blows and my company offered a discount. No longer with that company,  so now I'm paying full price. I've heard that it's the most expensive. Don't know if that's true,  but shay I pay for phones each month is ridiculous. I may be shopping very soon as well.  

[irish]

33 minutes ago, rajncajn said:

Verizon because AT&T blows and my company offered a discount. No longer with that company,  so now I'm paying full price. I've heard that it's the most expensive. Don't know if that's true,  but shay I pay for phones each month is ridiculous. I may be shopping very soon as well.  

Verizon is the most expensive and the very uneven connection lately, really has me ready to jump ship. Have already called both AT&T and T-Mobile to get plan and pricing ideas. 

[Riffraff]

Had to move away from AT&T earlier this year.

Spent many personal hours on the website and on the phone troubleshooting the ability to call out. They upgraded their 5G towers and my service dropped. The actual techs (Philipines) were fine on the phone; the online chat service members just did the basic steps and passed off to the supervisor to disconnect or they would say it takes 24 hours to take effect to get you off the chat. 'Call back' tomorrow... umm, I can't call out. That's my issue!

New 5G towers work well with AT&T bought phones and AT&T 'network unlocked' phones - Bring your own device.

If you have 'factory unlocked' for all carriers - Bring your own device, it didn't work. But they wouldn't admit to the issue. Charged good $ to provide a broken service though.

Had been using them forever before this though, not all a bad company prior.

 

Family = T-Mobile, lowest price - with taxes and fees built into the set price.

Work = Verizon, most expensive - but I know they work in my hospital.

I may transition my Verizon to T-Mobile after my 'bring my own device' rebate is over - currently still free service (~6 months) until my rebate is used up.

 

[rajncajn]

The problems I had with AT&T:

1. Price for what you get.

2. Horrible reception at my home and my job.

3. Wife and kids have iPhone, I have Samsung. Very often we would either get each others texts very late or not at all.

4. Somewhat often calls would not go through and go straight to voice-mail.

5. Their customer service is HORRID to say the least. Their store employees can't help you past selling you a phone and a plan and when you call Their service line, if you can understand them, pack a lunch and be prepared  to get no help there either.

[stevegrab]

I had Sprint for years, then they were bought by T-Mobile and when I got my last new phone (current one was acting up really bad and already 4 years old) they switched me over to T-Mobile. Before the new phone (5G, old one was not) I had lots of trouble with texts, and sometimes no signal for calls either. My brothers and I would do a group texting watching football games, and sometimes mine would go so haywire I would just drop out (missed and massively delayed messages).

Costs are reasonable, saving money compared to my old plan, and coverage around home (which is also work) is great. 

Most people I know have Verizon, and their coverage generally seems to be as good or better, though that's become more equal lately. 

Customer service in all these companies is probably pretty bad, too many foreigners who are hard to understand too many pat answers that get you nowhere.

[irish]

6 minutes ago, stevegrab said:

I had Sprint for years, then they were bought by T-Mobile and when I got my last new phone (current one was acting up really bad and already 4 years old) they switched me over to T-Mobile. Before the new phone (5G, old one was not) I had lots of trouble with texts, and sometimes no signal for calls either. My brothers and I would do a group texting watching football games, and sometimes mine would go so haywire I would just drop out (missed and massively delayed messages).

Costs are reasonable, saving money compared to my old plan, and coverage around home (which is also work) is great. 

Most people I know have Verizon, and their coverage generally seems to be as good or better, though that's become more equal lately. 

Customer service in all these companies is probably pretty bad, too many foreigners who are hard to understand too many pat answers that get you nowhere.

Thx for the info. I just switched over to T-Mobile. We'll see how it goes...

[rajncajn]

When it's time I'm probably going with Cspire. I used to have Cellular South and left when I was traveling a lot. Their network was great in our area,  but had issues when is travel, so I switched to AT&T who my company had a discount with at the time. When my company switched to Verizon, so did I. Cspire bought out Cellular South and went national, but their pricing is much better than Verizon and everyone I know that has it seems satisfied with it.

[stevegrab]

To me one of the most important things is coverage while traveling. Many of my motorcycle rides are on the back roads thru various states including OH, WV, VA, TN, NC, KY and there used to be a lot more times I'd stop somewhere and check my find only to find "no signal". I remember being on a trip staying in Sparta NC and I'd get back to the hotel to see I had a text, but no coverage to check it or respond. That rarely happens. But recently I visited my sister at a campground they were staying at, and my phone had no coverage, could not text or call when I got there to have them direct me to the camp site, luckily another person was along and their phone (Verizon) had coverage. I was there again recently and kept trying to check my phone as I approached and once I was there it worked for a bit then stopped again. Tried to look on a coverage map later, nothing obvious, no dead zone, in fact it appears to be entirely 5G.

I expect to have coverage at hotels where I stay, and that's far less of an issue these days. 

[darin3]

3 hours ago, stevegrab said:

To me one of the most important things is coverage while traveling.

This is my main concern.  I travel at least once a month for work and rely on my phone quite a bit (to call my site contact, map to site, SiriusXM in the rental car).

If my connection dropped it would be an issue.

I've only had two service issues w/ Verizon:  one in BFE South Dakota and one in farmland Iowa.  Was only like 3-4 minutes of no service then it flipped back on.

As I said on FBG, we have Verizon because of the family plan w/ my mom, sister, and aunt.  It saves us some $ and they've been fairly decent w/ customer service.

[irish]

The service with T-Mobile seems better than Verizon so far. My phone is always showing 5G with 3-4 bars, whereas with Verizon it was mostly 4G and if it flipped to 5G it had 1-2 bars and was short-lived.  Also, as mentioned earlier, with Verizon, service would drop every so often and was happening more frequently recently. Getting a free 3rd line, phones for free, Netflix for free, other perks and paying $100 less than when I had Verizon certainly makes me/ us happy!