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Cell Phones


Dave A

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I am having a real problem with cell phones in my area this last half year. Left Verizon because of crap customer care, arbitrary raising of billing for nothing until you call them on it and then they say OOP's and lower it back. Then service became so bad I could rarely complete a conversation without being dropped. 15 years or so I have been with them and their concern was to bad so sad. So I go to T-Mobile and after a month and a half drop them because I can't even make calls to begin with. So much for best coverage. I drive down the road and see tower after tower and nothing. They sold me stuff and as I finish cancelling my service the counter guy admits to huge network problems and he sure hope they get them fixed by years end. So, I ask him, why should I continue to pay for something that MIGHT work by years end? No counter offer to even try to keep me as a customer.

 

  I don't need latest and greatest. I do not tweet or any of that other phone social media crap I just want to be able to talk on occasion. No iPhones or any of that overpriced smart phone stuff either. I was looking at phone prices at T-Mobile and they want more for some of them than the Workstation I use to generate CAD and CAM files and those require serious horsepower and graphics.  Anyone happy with their service and phone who lives in a mostly rural area? Flip phone preferably.

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I use ATT. It's fair. It gets the job done. I use a Samsung S7 phone that I bought here on the forum from @avguytx . It's been really good. It's a few years old now. I wonder if he has a newer phone for me to buy lol. Smart Flip phones are out, but very expensive.

 

My dad is 81. He uses an ATT plan where you pay $100 for 1000 minutes. They sold him a flip phone to work on this plan too. When ever he needs more talk time, he stops by there and hands them a hundred bucks + tax.

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40 minutes ago, JL Sargent said:

I use ATT. It's fair. It gets the job done. I use a Samsung S7 phone that I bought here on the forum from @avguytx . It's been really good. It's a few years old now. I wonder if he has a newer phone for me to buy lol. Smart Flip phones are out, but very expensive.

 

My dad is 81. He uses an ATT plan where you pay $100 for 1000 minutes. They sold him a flip phone to work on this plan too. When ever he needs more talk time, he stops by there and hands them a hundred bucks + tax.

Att and Samsung here too.

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Verizon for me with outstanding results... but I live in a dense city environment. I must say its probably your location that is the issue with service. I've never had Verizon arbitrarily raise my service cost once I commit to a service level, as a matter of fact I have been grand fathered into service levels that have long been changed with no questions by Verizon until I change that level.

 

If cost is an issue with equipment, maybe you can look into pay as you go from walmart... works for many folks. 

 

I just got the a samsung a71 for the old lady and it's blazingly fast for not much miiney when compared to the top of the line phones... about 20 bucks a month with zero finance charge. I am about the upgrade my old Samsung edge 6 to the note 20 ultra... 

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I've used AT&T for the past 1r yrs. Almot zero problems. Been using Samsung pbones, stupidly high priced. Wife has iPhone and Apple Watch  very few problems.

 

Company uses Verizon, tried various phones (I manage all the cell phones, and we work with a State contract.) Mostly have used Samsung, S10e is currenly free, $30 month for line. In past used Motorola phones, have used LGs.

 

Last Fall, got Motorola Moto Z4 for my work phone. Love it, solid and been very reliable. Camera is very good, very little bloatware. You can buy them unlocked for around $400.

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5 hours ago, Dave A said:

  Anyone happy with their service and phone who lives in a mostly rural area? Flip phone preferably.

 

 -in TN  Verizon-AT&T -T-Mobile  and all others share the same infrastructure across the State  - so no better or worse -

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My boss, the head of our IT department,  retiring at the end of this month, never had a cell phone until late last year. He has learned to manage it pretty well. He only uses it as a phone (novel idea), but he is learning how useful it can be. Like the flashlight onit... maybe the camera every once in a while.

 

Without all the social media that younger people use them for, they have still become a tool you use all the time. I have an app that allowed us to track down a messed up access point, etc. See MAC adreeses and signal strengt of wireless devives.

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ATT with Samsung and IPhone. Got rid of Verizon and T-Mobile due to insulting customer service. I am somewhat rural and service can be sketchy at times and it worsens when we travel further into the wilds. There are areas by me that have zilch service from any provider. Sounds like you may reside adjacent to a dead zone. 

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20 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

 

 -in TN  Verizon-AT&T -T-Mobile  and all others share the same infrastructure across the State  - so no better or worse -

Actually no they don't according to T-Mobile's rep. On my way home Thursday I drove by at least 6 cell towers I could see and there had to be more I could not see. So I say to the T-Mobile dude how come I see all these towers and nothing happens? Well the short answer was they are not on those towers which did give me reception for Verizon.

 

20 hours ago, JJkizak said:

I don't have a cell phone so I can't answer your question. I'm too busy to be constantly interrupted by nonsense.

JJK

I am beginning to lean that way too. I have all the tools I need for knowledge and troubleshooting with the internet at home. In the 4 years I had a smart phone I used it very little like most do. Pictures and talking is all I wanted. A GPS gets me to any business. I see the giant life sucking monster these things become and I would rather watch the frogs in my pond.

  I never could convince people that the phone was for my convenience and not so they could pester me all the time. It took a lot of training but people who know me know to call the land line and if I am not there SPEAK to leave a message.

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On 10/31/2020 at 8:12 AM, USNRET said:

Oneplus (brand of phone) and T-mobile for about 9 years. I pay for the phones so I can fire the carrier if I want to; still with T Mobile. 4 lines unlimited everything $100.00


Ditto here. Oneplus 7t phone and T-Mobile. Highly rated phones for about half  the price of Samsung/Apple, etc. I also buy the phones, no BS contracts, we pay $70 a month, never a penny’s difference. 
Admittedly we had very poor reception in July/August which happened suddenly. Thought it to be the new phones but after finally gettting the right people at T-Mobile they admitted their merger with Sprint and a problem tower were the culprits.Being a long standing customer and noticing several calls about the problem they offered, at no charge, a “mini tower” which plugs into the WiFi router and uses a thin wired antenna wire to triangulate their signal using GPS. Problem solved with 100% signal all the the time. Have since moved into more of a country setting and still with T-Mobile and their mini. Customer service was always responsive, not always able to correct the issue and seems to be US based.

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Everyone I know in our area has had lots of trouble with T-Mobile, rude, never solving anything. They all switched to other carriers.

 

@Dave A
 At my last job  my boss would give me funny look when she was talking to me and my phone would ding with a message or ring and I would still  be looking at her and ignoring my phone. When we were done I would check the phone. Common courtesy seems to have gone out the window with many folks. Current boss has walked out of meetings when people spent more time checking their phones and not paying attention to the meeting. But that's another subject ...

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2 hours ago, Dave A said:

Actually no they don't according to T-Mobile's rep.

here are all the cell providers in your area -----you can get an even more precise list if you enter your specific address  ---and you can see which network is used by each provider -whether Verizon-Sprint -T-Mobile -AT&T-

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Search?minutes=300&sms=500&data=500&address=Lynnville+TN

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I can't complain about the T-Mobile local service counter people. They are courteous and try to fix problems if they can. Verizon on the other hand has become an automated remote phone support nightmare for me and the time spent wading through incompetent humans, when you finally get to one that is, can easily take hours.

9 hours ago, RandyH000 said:

here are all the cell providers in your area -----you can get an even more precise list if you enter your specific address  ---and you can see which network is used by each provider -whether Verizon-Sprint -T-Mobile -AT&T-

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhones/Search?minutes=300&sms=500&data=500&address=Lynnville+TN

I appreciate that you like to have conversations here and want to be a part of every one of them. What would be nice though is if you would not make statements just to make them. This is what you should have said the first time rather than

 

On 10/31/2020 at 11:45 AM, RandyH000 said:

 

 -in TN  Verizon-AT&T -T-Mobile  and all others share the same infrastructure across the State  - so no better or worse -

Which is not right and misleading info.

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