Rate Your Cell Phone Service

[Phoebe]

We are about to renew our cell phone contract, but I want to explore for better deals.

We have Cingular- The service is good. Our plan suits our needs. I rarely experience dropped calls. My phone sucks. We pay approx. $60/month for 500 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, two lines, rollover, and we got the free phones. This plan is two years old.

What about everyone else? Do you use your cell phone in lieu of long distance bills? Would you recommend your company?

Jennifer

We have Sprint - "free and flexible" I think it's called. It's the one with "cheap" rates when you go over your minutes. That part is true - the overtime is significantly cheaper than most plans. We get 800 min/month (and rarely go over - the month we moved being the exception). We have nationwide free roaming and long distance - also a plus b/c both here (KC - where Sprint is headquartered) and Cleveland we could go one or two streets over from our house and be told we were roaming.

Our reception and rate of dropped calls is worlds better here than in Cleveland (although I've heard a lot of KC residents say they don't use Sprint). I don't think I've dropped a single call since we've been here - and my phone works all through Target.

I think we pay about $85 / month and had to buy (via reduced rates) our phones. Check through your dh's hospital. The one where we did residency had a "reduced" plan through someone.

[SuzySunshine]

We too, have Sprint and the coverage here is great. I wish our plans were cheaper but we do get a 20% discount through the clinic. We pay ~$75/month for both of our phones though we might think about going to a Pay as you Go when this contract expires because we hardly use them.

[mommax3]

We got Cingular when we moved to Indiana, after having had Sprint (with no complaints) for the past five years. Sprint SAYS it has coverage where we live, but neither of us could get a signal in our house. So far, no complaints with Cingular.

Sally

[Cumberland]

We have TMobile, as does my entire extended family. We are on the mobile to mobile plan- free calling to anyone with TMobile. Consequently, I never go over my minutes which are around 1000 a month bc I use the free minutes talking to family. We also have free weekends and nights after 9p. It is 100 bucks a month for DH and I, they give us a new free phone every year ( mostly cause we threaten to not renew).

The bummer is poor service. My parents are at the beach two weekends a month with no service. The entire 5 hour drive to their house through the boondocks has no service either. There are dead spots all around our town where my calls get dropped.

My family as a group are looking to change to a very similar plan that has better coverage areas.

[DCJenn]

We have Cingular by way of AT&T. Much preferred ATT but they were purchased by Cingular. The worst was that they guaranteed service while we were in Russia (both times) but the only phone that worked was Ricks and then they cut off service during the two weeks I was there by myself due to their accounting error.

I pretty much hate them all. Sprint was fine coverage-wise, we had then for work when I travelled every week.

I just hate the customer service guys that you know aren't based in the states and they answer the call lines with "Hi, I'm Jack" and I just think, "No you're not..."

Jenn

[SueC]

I've been pretty satisfied with Cingular. There's been a time or two where I've needed some additional assistance and the customer service was pretty helpful.
I rarely drop calls, but as Jenn mentioned, I know a lot of people that drop their Sprint calls when they are actually driving by the Sprint campus. Very strange, huh?
I use my cell in lieu of making long distance calls on my land line. Right now I don't have enough minutes on my plan, but I have so many rollover minutes accumulated that I'm going to wait a few months before upgrading my plan.