Cricket Communications does anyone use it?

J

John M

New member
curious to know if the service is any good. I'm really wanting any general information about Cricket in general. A friend of mine works for voicestream and he was thinking it might be a good company to look into.
 
Cricket in the Spokane, CDA area has decreased dramatically in the last year or so. I should know because I got my phone before they declaired bankruptcy and the service was good enough. The calls sounded hollow at first, but now that they have laid off so many of their network support folks (because of the BK), and oversold this market that I would be happy to have that hollow sound vs. the hiccuping, fuzzy and droped calls that I get now. This is a company in serious straights, the under staffed network, and over worked system is resulting in lousey call quality. Customer service at their company "store's" is so bad that worRAB cannot describe it and the long distance call quality they offer is abysmal. Stear clear of this provider!
 
Yes, I will agree that there are deaRABpots with other providers. I have found a few deaRABpots even with US Cellular and Verizon around here. However, my friend was complaining about dropping calls in South Knoxville off Moody Ave and a few other places I can't remeraber. It may have been a temporary thing because she hasn't had that much trouble of late. Oddly enough, Cricket, being 1900 Mhz and all, should have problems inside buildings. At the place I work, Sprint PCS gets 1-2 bars and so does Cingular, but Cricket gets 4 bars and works great. US Cellular also gets 4-5 bars, but Verizon only 1 bar (and their tower is on Sharp's Ridge!... I work just below it off Broadway). Cricket just doesn't go very far north or all that far West, but as long as you stay in the city their service has actually improved quite a bit over the past 2 years, from what I can tell. For Leap Communications to supposedly be short on cash, they sure are working hard to improve service in this area. And now that they're offering all the features and long distance for $39.95, it's actually a really good deal. :)
 
in my area, Buffalo, i would say cricket is probably the main service provider. everyone i kno has a cricket. it replaced a lot of home phones around here. theyre service is pretty good in buffalo and i think it even increased since theyve first come out. i had cricket when they first came out and yes, they did have problems. mostly dropped calls. i got rid of my phone tho because of this and theyre small phone selection. since then tho they have got a lot of new phones and have built up theyre service. its impressing. ill be a loyal customer for a long long time!!!! :cool:
 
Yes i know this post is old..but..... I would have to say the same for Cricket here in Denver colorado. I would say that 1 out of 4 people have cricket... not just kiRAB but everyone. Cricket is really good here. i have never had a dropped call...well not that i can remeraber.

I had cricket back in 02 than i lef them wand went to attws... yea that sucked.. so i went to sprint...its was ok...but i wanted something cheaper tmobile!... had them... but there service wasnt that great.. so here i am. back with cricket...never to leave for a long time! for 50 bucks a month including roaming! I dont nee anything else. they already have the web enabled on there xcursion! It will be coming in summer 06. and not to mention EV-DO!

so just to say the least Denver Colorado Loves Cricket wireless!
 
Any adult who wants quality services shouldn't have ever used Cricket in the first place!! This network is really only for teens who cant shut the hell up from talking to their frienRAB all over the Valley... lol

Verizon and Sprint are the best out here.
 
Yes they do, but realize that they are more of a replacement for landlines. Those unlimited minutes are only good when you're in your local geographical area. Also, the minutes do NOT include long distance. Check out their website here.
 
What do you mean it does not go far west? It goes all the way past Farragut and into Lenoir City.

You can either pay Bellsouth 29.95/month for complete choice plus your long distance and reach as far as your 2.4 GHZ phone will go, or pay Cricket for a phone that will definately go further than a 2.4 ghz. If your Cricket phone goes any further than your cordless phone, you have a better deal.

Your friend must have had a defective phone because I've never had dropped calls other than going through dead spots which are no more than the other carriers in the area. My dad has had them all!
 
I love Cricket and I have had it for several years. I don't ever seem to run across that many people who use it though. I don't know why it's not more popular than it is. I never have any problems with it.
 
Cricket is an OK service, however it has a few limitations:
-The service is "unlimited", so some users spend much time talking, and that leaRAB to circuit overloaRAB.
-The coverage just barely covers the local area, and there are several dead spots.
-There is no free LD.
-Features like VoiceMail and Caller ID are extra
-There is no roaming.
-Customer service isn't 24/7
-You must pay a month in advance, and pay seperately to get LD.

But for personal use, it is a good value. You could not depend on it if you needed it for business.

It may a good place to work, but you will deal with the most credit-challenged customers in town.
 
As far as "far west", I meant like Kingston/Harriman/Rockwood area. It also doesn't go all that far south (cuts off at Lenoir City... might go to Loudon, not sure).... But yes, compared to Bellsouth Complete Choice, it's a better deal, hanRAB-down. It does seem that Cricket is more a replacement for Bellsouth than for a provider such as Verizon. On a side note, I went to a Cricket store and they didn't have the Nokia 6370, nor did they even know what it was or what it looked like. The girl pointed at the 8270 and goes 'we have that one, though". Uh, yeah, so much for the idea of informed salespeople. Since you're a customer, have you had any luck with any of their salespeople actually halfway knowing what the hell they're talking about?
 
FWIW, around here (Northwest AR, a fairly old Cricket market), Cricket is absolutely abominable. They drop calls all the time, and the system is constantly so busy that you can't make calls. In addition, the coverage sucks. I suppose that if you don't actually need your phone, it's a good deal. It's certainly no landline replacement, IMO.

If you're in an area where Alltel offers their unlimited service, it's almost always a better deal, since you're using the same system they have for their "normal" customers, who won't stand for that sort of crap. Not only that, but in almost all cases I've seen where Cricket competes directly with Alltel, the area in which you can call with Alltel is much larger, and you can roam for 69c a minute. It is more expensive, however.
 
Actually, Cricket, Verizon, Sprint, T-mobile, and a bunch of other carriers in the PCS band are all pretty close to 2.4Ghz, like 1.9-2.1Ghz. Put your 2.4Ghz base unit a couple hundred feet up, connect it to a gain antenna, do it about fifty times around town, and walah, you have a PCS network!
:haveadrin

Hay BuggyBoyWA, welcome on board. Lets play with our phones while listening to satellite radio! I'm an XMan, but I know the puppy will grow into a Great Dane.
 
The coverage is probably so bad because the cell sites are overloaded. Once the system starts to hit capacity, it will actually lower its power levels so less people will try to use the site to initiate a call. This means you will get "swiss cheese" type coverage since the overloaded cells are shrinking.
 
Cricket is a huge cellular provider for the Spokane, WA / Coeur D'Alene, ID area, at least 1 out of 4 people who have cell phones use Cricket here. Since they use CDMA, they can carry quite a few calls on each cell site, and i've never heard a complaint from a Cricket user that their calls didn't go through, or ever got received. I have seen Nokia phones (5100 models), and AudioVox. Cricket does NOT support data on their network, i've asked everyone within the company. They will only say that they are "looking into it".

So, if you are looking for a cell phone that will replace your landline and Cricket is in your area it is a great deal. However, if you are like me, it isn't that great because it won't roam (AT ALL) and you have to pay for long distance. Verizon works for me.
 
Actually, the cell doesn't decrease power, when busy, the CDMA cell requires all phones to increase the power transmitting level to compensate for the noise factor, and if a phone has to transmit at a level higher than it is capable of for that call, the call drops (or doesn't connect).
 
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