Looking to switch services

L

Lyndsay <3 J.

New member
I currently have tmobile and next week is my 18th birthday i was looking at getting a motorola Q but i dont know which service to get between Sprint and Verzion but i have a couple of questions

1. Which one has better plans
2. Which has the best service
3. Best customer service
4. Which do yo think would be best for me going to college next year?
 
Plans and customer service are important things, however I feel coverage is the most important. Your plan and cs won't mean anything if you have no service at college. Check to see if you even get good coverage at whatever college you're going to. I have full service at home with tmobile, but once i go to college, i get no service. Make sure whether you go with sprint or verizon.. check their coverage. And based on my experiences, verizon has better coverage.
 
A lot of it has to do with where you're going to college.

Blanket quotes for coverage like Verizon is better than Cingular, or Cingular is better than T-Mobile really serve more to mislead rather to inform in most cases unless you're at least talking about a specific region in a state.

If you're just comparing plans, Sprint's are almost identical to Verizon except that Sprint offers nights @ 7pm instead of 9pm. But Sprint's Customer Service is very poor. Verizon and Cingular's plans are almost identical also, except Cingular does have Rollover.

I do agree with others that you might want to expand your options, T-Mobile's plans are very good and I often find they build very good networks with good Customer Service. Their network is far better than Cingular in my area, but again, that really depends on where you are. Also, the plan that worked out perfectly for me in college was an Alltel plan. My Circle allowed me to call back home for free anytime of the day where basically everybody else uses landlines. It really worked out well because I later found out that I get coverage in a number of places on campus that Verizon is horrible, but Sprint and T-Mobile do alright. So you really just never know. Some of the research you might want to do is first finding out what all carriers are available, and then get reviews on service specific to your zip code/city or at least area. Out of all the services that you think would be acceptable, then compare plans to find out who offers the best plan for your calling habits. Just the strategy I would use in your situation.
 
I agree with the other posters. You really need to do some homework up front and decide which carrier has the best service where you will use the phone - where you live, work, travel, go to school, etc. Look at the coverage maps, but the real key is talking to people and find out what works for them. Maybe the school has a discount plan with one or two of the carriers. Check it out. Talk to other students and find out what they have.

My daughter's college has a T-Mobile repeater on campus, but Sprint provides the best service. Try to figure that one out!
 
The absolute best way is to ask the locals or friends how their service is. What they've heard about other carriers in the area, etc. I know the school I'm at now sent me a packet to get acquainted with the area, and on one page was a review for all the cell phone carriers in the area submitted by students.

Online there are several sites. eopinions has a few reviews, www.cellreception.com can be a good site. But the main problem with online review sites, is that 90-95% of the time, people go online looking to write a review because they're having a problem with a carrier. It might be a legitimate complaint, but it also might have a problem to do with billing, customer service, or a problem that was repaired a day later. There are also a number of reviews that will give a carrier a horrible review and zero bars, but they will judge the service at a particular location, probably in their brick house or in the basement. So most of those reviews must be taken with a grain of salt.

I also understand the reason why you wouldn't want to, but if you listed your new college, zip code, or city on here, somebody could look up the carriers available in that area and throw in their thoughts or their experience of how coverage is in the area. You could at least be directed to another forum to ask about coverage if nobody that frequently visits here has been in the area.

Hopefully that gave you some better ideas on where to start! Good luck
 
Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with Marietta. It's not that far from Atlanta and I've been through it few times on my way to Columbus, GA and several trips to Fla but that's about it. But it's a pretty large school, I'd be surprised if it was a dead-spot with any provider.

I can tell you after looking at the licenses that Sprint, Cingular, and Verizon all provide service to the area. Considering the size of Marietta and the school, I do believe you'd be safe with any of those. T-Mobile also does, but I've not heard great reviews of T-Mobile in many parts of Georgia. But if you're already with T-Mobile, you could try using them in that area and see how they do. That might save you from having to get a new phone, a plan with fewer minutes with another carrier, etc. if you're interested in holding onto T-Mobile. Southern Linc also serves the area, but I probably wouldn't go with a local carrier if you're in school and going to be doing a lot of traveling.

Maybe somebody else can throw in their cell reception experience from the area and be a little more detailed than I'm able to be. Good luck though. Also, if you'll be traveling back to your current location a lot, you might want to consider what carriers work well and what carriers work poorly there. But you probably already know all about that.

edit: going back and reading through the thread, if you're looking to switch to get the Q and don't want to stay with T-Mobile, I think you'd be fine with Sprint or Verizon. Sprint will give nights at 7 pm and that might help you out being a college student though.
 
right now i am on a family plan where we have about 1,000 mintues but since i alwas have some sort of event i only talk after 8 so its pretty goood also i dont like tmobile because of the slow broadband
 
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