Which is your cell phone provider and are you happy with it?

[Zavulon]

I'm at my wit's end with my provider and want to switch. I'm looking for any and all advice.

If you have any concrete examples of why your provider is great or why it sucks, I'd really appreciate them.

If it matters, I use pay-as-you-go. I refuse to sign a two-year contract with anyone, and based on the experience I'm having with my current provider my stance on this is the best idea I've ever come up with.

[hobbit709]

1. Tracfone

Used them for years. Of course I only make calls, receive calls. Don't care about texting, etc. Does what I want, when I want and costs me about #10/mo. And works anywhere in the country I've used it at.

[elocs]

11. Tracfone has worked well for me for years. I make & receive few calls.

Reception has been good across the country.

[caty]

14. I'm a Tracfone user too.

All I wanted is a phone to make phone calls on and get voice mail. I've been very happy with it. I bought an extra card that doubles my minutes for the life of the phone. I pay an average of $10 a month and I have never had a problem with reception either. It's perfect for me.

[Tom_Foolery]

16. Another Tracfoner here!!

[mia]

2. Metro PCS

Love it!
http://www.metropcs.com/

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. I was a latecomer to cellphones.

.
Never needed any kind of phone whatsoever for most of my adult life. Was
living 30 miles out in the desert from Tucson and traveling back and forth
into town almost daily. Ate a lot of takeout. Started REALLY resenting the
wait in the restaurants' lobbies while they cooked the meal I just ordered,
so I got a cellphone so I oculd phone ahead.
THAT is what finally motivated me. My bellicose belly. :rofl:
.
Not prepaid... but Verizon Wireless. I've never had a dropped call. I've
never had "no service" anywhere. Always worked when I needed/wanted it. The
ONLY problem I've had is when I lost my phone, but I had been eligible for
a free upgrade for quite some time and they replaced it immediately.
.
More expensive than most and since I don't really travel anymore, I may
go with a cheaper, lesser service since I only use my phone about 50-100
minutes a month.
.

[bigwillq]

4. ATT, happy (nt)

[Kali]

5. Verizon, meh

it's a cell phone company

could be that I am basically paying for 4 of the damn things - one kid pays her bill, two work for me and then there is me and the husband, but it has saved me walking enough times I don't care.

[guitar man]

6. AT&T

Marginally happy. I like the phone ( iPhone 3g) better than I do the carrier. If/when other carriers start handling iPhones, I would entertain switching carriers if the deal was right.

[quakerboy]

7. Agreed

Reception is generally far superior to what I had with T-mobile. But I lose more calls and have more calls that go straight to voice mail without ringing with them. And I seem to be having a several hour delay on text messages from certain people.

[kas125]

8. I've had tmobile for five years and have no complaints.

They have been helpful and friendly when I've had to call them and have always tried to solve problems. They've sent me new and upgraded phones for free a couple times when we couldn't figure out if the problem was the phone or the network or Yahoo sending my phone fifty text messages for each one that I wanted an alert sent to my phone. They gave me free minutes when my teenager went over the minutes of our family plan, too. I saw tonight on tv that adding a line is five dollars and I'm paying ten for each of my two kids. I am going to call and ask why it's less for new customers than for old, loyal customers tomorrow and I'm sure they'll lower my monthly bill now, too. Their customer service reps are here in the US, which is important to me, too. I have no complaints about my t-mobile service.

[SKKY]

9. Orange...

...and I'm generally happy, although the coverage could be better.

[mcctatas]

10. CREDO

and for the most part I love it, the only downside is the technology is always a little behind the big companies (my blackberry curve is about the highest tech they have)

http://www.credomobile.com/Mission/Progressive-Social-Change.aspx

[FloridaJudy]

28. Seconded.

And I love my Blackberry.

[sarge43]

12. US Cellular

Satisfied. Good service and customer service.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. T-mobile, with 2 year plan

I have phone and text, no 3G internet. I mostly just use it as a phone, very little texting.

A pre-paid phone might have been a better deal, since my phone calls are usually to-the-point brief. I don't use many minutes.

:hi:

[Initech]

15. I absolutely hated Verizon. Switched to AT&T and haven't looked back.

[BlueJazz]

17. Metro PCS Cell phone) 44.00 bucks a month and I love it.

:)

[CBR]

18. Been with Sprint for 8 years, no problems at all. nt

[supernova]

19. Virgin Mobile prepaid

I've been with them for about four years now and have been very satisfied. It works well if you don't have a lot of calls and aren't much of a chatter. You only have to had $20 every business quarter for a minimum.

You can get a cheap phone or one with more bells and whistles that is better for texting and web browsing. I have a phone with text, pics, and web browsing that didn't break the bank. And I'm almost always in network. The only time I was in a dead zone was in western Va out near Winchester, VA.

[Melissa G]

23. Our Virgin Mobile ate minutes regularly.

My very careful teen used it and it frequently ate up more minutes then she had used. Too much hassle for how little we used it. I use Sprint with out a contract but that was from 12 years ago. I think they are all contracts now. My husband uses working assets but he has a contract.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

24. Virgin Mobile $49.99 unlimited minutes. Pretty happy for the most part; I wish

the phones were better, though, and occasionally the calls drop, but I'm on a budget and I don't text, so for now, it works for me.

[Melissa G]

27. Cricket seems to be about the same.

Poor phones. Coverage so so but only 30 bucks a month without texting, 35 with. No Contract.

[old mark]

20. Net10. We used Tracfone, found Net10 is exactly as good, cheaper.

We just use our cells as phones, not entertainment devices, never have any problems with the service, cheap, reliable, no contracts, tons of time to talk, no extra charges.

I would NEVER buy into a phone contract.

mark

[baldguy]

21. None, and I am extremely happy.

:P

[MorningGlow]

22. AT&T and I'm happy because they don't mess with my ancient contract

I've had this contract for about 10 years. It's only $36 a month with 1,000 minutes (more than enough for me). I just bought a new Nokia phone ($80, will be $30 after the $50 rebate), and they STILL haven't pressured me into a higher-cost contract. Of course, I don't have online access and texting is charged by the text, but I don't care. I'm an old lady and don't need either feature.

[Shell Beau]

25. Cellular South. It is iffy at best.

[Alexander]

26. Sprint. It's way better than the crappy Verizon I used to have.

Sprint often gets really good signal in places where other people's phones die out, and they've never given me any guff about replacing or repairing phones.

With Verizon, my phone broke, it was covered under their warranty, and they refused to replace it. :grr:

[Zavulon]

29. Thanks for all of your responses, I appreciate them all.

I've seen a couple new companies I never heard of before mentioned, I intend to check them out ASAP.

I bought a phone from one of the major carriers I listed and had it activated at the store. When they heard my street address, they gave me a 301 area code - even though I work in 202 and spend 28-29 of every 30 days in 703 (I use my apartment for storage and live with my girlfriend of 11 years). When I asked for that to be changed, I got a phone number which obviously once belonged to a prostitute, and they want to charge me to change it again. So I either shell out, or pay for every one of the lewd texts I'm getting, and they can't cut me a break here?

Worse still, the customer service isn't 24/7.