Switching providers... share your experience

[Fitseries3]

Hey guys,

my Tmobile contract has FINALY come to an end. after being with them for 6 years i think its time to move on.

my options are Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, Altel or stay on Tmo.

i live in a remote area that has only EVDO and EDGE data service at this time.

signal is mediocre at best for all the carriers here in town but strong in Kansas City where i work.

right away i can tell you verizon charges A LOT more than im paying now for a good bit less so im probably not going with them.

the MOST attractive one to me is Sprint so i can get a EVO 4G as a friend of mine can get me a super good deal on the phones and a plan.

what i need is
2phones
shared plan
700min daytime or more
unlimited data and text
free nights and weekends
monthly bill under $140 with tax.

what i want to know from you is your experiences with the companies and whether or not im going to go through and excess crap/fees/tricks/etc.

thanks in advance.

[Movieman]

Well since you asked but it is a bit personal
My first wife didn't provide all that well so I switched to wife #2..
That lasted 16 years put in the end she turned out just like wife #1..

[zanzabar]

att dose not do unlimited data but they do have the 2GB bucket so its like $20 or some thing and that gets u 2GB then if u go over u get another 2GB for what i think is $15 if u dont do data much that could be good. as of now for unlimited that leaves verizon and sprint, were i am on the west coast sprint is crap its got worse coverage than metro and the data is slow so i dont like them and verizon has slow data but a solid coverage range but they are both cdma so call quality can be a little low. for phones the evo is nice but so is the incredible and they are basically the same so i would go with verizon if u want data and u want to change. u could though stay with tmobo and get a nexus one as its a nice phone and tmobo has gsm so the call quality is great and they are rolling out high speed hspda7.2 so they should be the fastest other than att (if u are in a good att data zone) and they have the best pricing so if u dont have problems currently i would stay. tmobo also has preferred planes that u can ask for if u are a long time customer and they will cut your prices if u have been a good customer.

[CmB]

yeah, I switched from t-mobile to verizon las t november. I called t-mobile and notified them i was not re upping, emailed them AND sent t-mobile a certified letter [once the late notices came in] yet they still continue to send me late charges after my contract was over and are sending my account to collection. I paid up, was never late, this really pissed me off. verizon has its problems, and so does att and everybody else but i would NEVER recommend T-Mobile. And I have been a t-mobile customer since 2005.

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I had AT&T for about 8 years as I wasn't old enough to really force decisions on my cellular plan. After having really sever issues w/ AT&T's service, I dropped the carrier for Sprint and so far, I am very happy. I've only had it since Friday, so I really need play with it more to figure out if the service is better. I'll be making some phonecalls on a drive today to test it in the area where I lost signal w/ AT&T before.

I can't recommend AT&T at all since, I think their network in my experience is broken. The non-limits of sprint for voice, data, txt kicks ass.

[Fitseries3]

i called TMO today and they REALLY pulled out the ass kissin lips.

they realized they were doomed to loose me after i told them my reason for leaving is because lack of decent data service where i live, terrible reception, and because other companies have better plans.

they tried to offer me a mytouch slide for $130 and wanted to try and match sprints 1500min+unlimited data/text but for $20 more.

good attempt i suppose but they cant do anything about reception or the data service. (tmo only has GPRS where i live. sprint has 3G)

looks like im going with sprint.

tmo said i have 2 months left in contract but since i been with them for 6 years now i can cut the contract early for $50 a line(2lines). not sure if i want to fork over money to end the contract. the lady said she'd rather bribe me to stay than pay me to leave when i asked her to wave the $50 a line since i been with them for so long.

so do i pay $100 to end now or wait till aug 16th to do this? im tight on cash at the moment...

[-=DVS=-]

Are you really so indecisive that you need opinion of random strangers for such a trivial matter

[Fitseries3]

i requested the opinions because i dont want to sign a 2yr contract if many other people have had a bad experience with these companies.

[-=DVS=-]

Was referring to your last post

tmo said i have 2 months left in contract but since i been with them for 6 years now i can cut the contract early for $50 a line(2lines). not sure if i want to fork over money to end the contract. the lady said she'd rather bribe me to stay than pay me to leave when i asked her to wave the $50 a line since i been with them for so long.

so do i pay $100 to end now or wait till aug 16th to do this? im tight on cash at the moment...

[ExodusC]

My experience with AT&T has been okay. In my area, it's definitely faster than Verizon's EVDO, however, Verizon's coverage is much better.

For example, at home I get spotty 3G coverage (not an issue since I'm on WiFi 100% of the time), but out in town I pretty much always have full 3G signal. When I'm up at university, I have constant 3G.

More often than not, when I'm in areas that AT&T doesn't have signal, Verizon does seem to have signal. However, it would be unfair to say that in some places I get signal where Verizon's coverage is spotty at best.

AT&T's lack of Android devices is disappointing, but I bought a Nexus One out of contract. The only device they actually sell is the Backflip, which has outdated hardware and a low resolution screen. I suppose if you want an iPhone 4, however, AT&T is where you'll have to be. That being said, Verizon has some great Android devices through sale via contract (Droid, Droid Incredible, etc). Sprint right now seems to be doing pretty well with the EVO 4G, it's definitely a nice phone. T-Mobile of course has the Nexus One.

I don't know if this helped at all, but it's just my two cents.

Edit: As far as AT&T's customer support has been, in my case they're pretty straightforward. No real problems here...

[Fitseries3]

thanks everyone.

i switched to sprint and got the HTC evo.

sprint is SOOOO much faster than tmo and has way better signal everywhere i've gone so far. 4g is amazingly fast as well.

[iboomalot]

I was with voicestream I mean T-moble over 10yrs and now have my EVO and it rocks.

I get a BCBS discount and only pay 105 a month for the 1500 unlimited plan and alreay Iam close to 2gigs of data useage.

might see if your company has a discount with sprint.