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Jesus Consumerist... With all the stories about Verizon, Sprint, etc. Where does one turn to for an actually respectable cell phone company?
I've been using Sprint for the past several years, but it seems like they've been getting pretty desperate to pinch costs... Where should I jump ship to?
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Just go for a prepaid cell phone if all the billing and contract war stories scare you. It costs slightly more and you'll have to cough up your own phone, but it seems to me prepaid users have a lot less hassle with reloads and customer service.
Does anyone have a copy of the Sprint contract? I'm curious to know how they'd go about doing this (legally). Things like this aren't friendly for us road warriors who practically live on the road. It's not the end-user's fault that the cell co's don't have towers where they plan on using the phone. Even within your \"home\" coverage area, there's plenty of tower sharing/roaming going on.
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So if you want out and dont want to pay an ETF, you should use your phone to roam. That is easy.
This has been part of the Sprint contract (and every other provider's contract) for years. Why is it all of a sudden news???
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I'm not sure I understand why its news either. Cingular does this as well. Its a simple business decision. These telcos are in it to make money. When they have to pay roaming fees on 50% or more of your calls, chances are that they aren't making money.
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Because now they're actually going to act upon it.
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I'll have some of that brown goo with a touch of the white goo on top. I think i'll skip seconds on the lumpy yellow goo for now.
And yes, I am speaking about Sprint/Nextel service in case you are wondering.
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Shoegazer has got it correct.
Not to sound like Gwyneth Paltro, but the Euros are way ahead of us in this respect. Their model is generally buy your own equipment and either flexible contracts or prepaid. It's loads cheaper. I don't know if given how compact Europe is geographically it's cheaper to run a cell provider there, but they seem to have that shit cracked while we're flailing around over here.
Rowdy, that's not really their model. And it isn't loads cheaper. You're lucky if its cheaper at all.
Orange UK? 20 cents a minute to other Orange mobiles, 70 cents a minute if you call \"cross net\" (roaming), 40 cents a minute to a fixed line and non-Orange mobiles, 20 cents per text! And don't forget, incoming calls aren't free, the caller pays, so if you call within Orange, it's 20 cents a minute to the caller, 20 cents a minute to the callee.
Maybe I'll just pay $60/month for 325 anytime minutes and 300 evening and weekend minutes (and 150 text messages). Note if you call a landline, its 25 cents a minute, even for \"free\" minutes. And 25 cents each time you answer your phone! Don't forget 70 cents a minute roaming fees.
On Orange, a Sony-Ericsson W810i is free with a monthly contract but its $300 on pay-as-you go. So they subsidize equipment too.
The reason people say cell phone service is so much cheaper in Europe is because their landline service is so expensive in Europe that it makes cell phone calls seem cheap.
In reality, in general you're getting a pretty good deal in the US on cell phone calls.
Cingular does the same thing. We need something to protect the consumer against these rip off cell phone companies. My advise is read your contract very well and be sure to keep a copy of it. Cingular sucks just like all the others.
On the other hand, an easy way to get out of your Sprint contract - just hit a roaming zone and rack of 12 hours of non-prime roaming time.