Well my contract with alltell is up and i am thinking of switching over to verizon. I live in the country and verizon's service right by my house is not too great where as the alltell (actually got it when it was still cellular one) gets good reception at the house. I am looking for a good reliable phone with good reception and some bells and whistles. My current phone is a nokia 6015i and i definately want to upgrade. I want to be able to download cool ringtones especially. I was just looking @ verizon online site and was wondering what you guys have to say about there phones. I thought of the razr @ first because it was only $49 to my suprise but i was told by a friend that he has heard of a lot of people having problems with them. So then i thought about the lg chocolate ($99) but i havent heard anything about it so i dont know. I am looking for a reasonably priced phone that will be reliable and have good reception. Looking @ there site i have been looking at the chocotlate, razr, lg vx8300, samsung a930, samsung a870, etc. I dont need all those crazy features but some bells and whistles would be nice. I know this is kind of vague but i really dont know a whole lot about phones so i am basically hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. Thanks alot guys
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Need a new reliable phone
- Thread starter jasemus
- Start date
surfkatie2000
New member
seriously. If you get a reprogrammed phone and you're planning on moving, you're asking for problems. That is if they'll still even reprogram it because the Alltel/Verizon relationship appears to have really soured as of late with Alltel preferring Sprint and VZW turning toward USCC. I've only heard of this reprogramming in Western Virginia and Eastern North Carolina but I also know of somebody living in Culpeper, VA who they wouldn't do it for just last month.
Unless all your friends are 'IN' you're just making a move to pay more for service that sounds inferior at your house. In most places they will still free roam off of each other, but not if you are holding onto a very weak Verizon/Alltel signal that's too weak to use but too strong to switch over. To me, it just doesn't sound like a good idea to switch to a more expensive provider that doesn't cover your area that well. Even then, what good are IN minutes if you can't pick up a usable signal. But another important question is where are you moving to? You might find that Alltel is very good there or Verizon isn't so good there. It just sounds like you've been listening to a lot of the advertising and haven't considered everything that you might want to. However, Alltel is consistently judged as having built very good networks and is the king of rural/'country' coverage. You can download cool ringtones with any phone on any provider, there's nothing that special about that. I just recently looked at a friends phone with VZW to find that we both downloaded ringtones from Sony Music Box. The only difference was his phone was crippled so he couldn't transfer them from his computer like I can. If you're getting good service it just looks like you're setting yourself up to be either a disgruntled future customer or one that's spending more for the same service. Take a look at the Samsung U520 or my personal favorite, the E815.
Unless all your friends are 'IN' you're just making a move to pay more for service that sounds inferior at your house. In most places they will still free roam off of each other, but not if you are holding onto a very weak Verizon/Alltel signal that's too weak to use but too strong to switch over. To me, it just doesn't sound like a good idea to switch to a more expensive provider that doesn't cover your area that well. Even then, what good are IN minutes if you can't pick up a usable signal. But another important question is where are you moving to? You might find that Alltel is very good there or Verizon isn't so good there. It just sounds like you've been listening to a lot of the advertising and haven't considered everything that you might want to. However, Alltel is consistently judged as having built very good networks and is the king of rural/'country' coverage. You can download cool ringtones with any phone on any provider, there's nothing that special about that. I just recently looked at a friends phone with VZW to find that we both downloaded ringtones from Sony Music Box. The only difference was his phone was crippled so he couldn't transfer them from his computer like I can. If you're getting good service it just looks like you're setting yourself up to be either a disgruntled future customer or one that's spending more for the same service. Take a look at the Samsung U520 or my personal favorite, the E815.
If your going with alltel get the e815 was best phone ever verizon had very dependable if your gonna go with verizon get the lg8300 good solid phone and its pretty cheap the samy a930 dont get cant play mp3s only wmas the lg can play mp3s if later you decided you wanted to listen to music.
well let me clear up the signal/service. It is basically just not good immediately around my house. I live in the country (10 miles from town). For w/e reason like a mile or so around my house verizon doesnt work but alltel does. I guess i am in a hole or something. Once you get a little ways away from the house it works fine. I plan on moving into town where signal wont be a problem at all. I didnt think there was much of a price difference between the two of them. I may be getting my own plan w/ low amount of minutes because i dont use it a whole lot or i may be going in a family share thing with the family. We have had issues with alltel also
synfulpinion
New member
Go T-MOBILE if is available in your area and if the signal is not strong give them a call (Tmobile Technical support) they make adjusments on towers to make good signal available being customer of Alltell,cingular,att,sprint,qwest some very expensive bad customer service and rip you off finely got T-Mobile and very pleased
LIVELONGANDPROSPER
New member
The price difference really does depend on the plan you're looking at and I'll try to explain it a little better. For the most basic nationwide plan, you're right, there's not a lot of difference, for $39.99 Verizon offers 450 minutes and Alltel offers 500. But if you do end up getting a family plan, the difference really starts to show, for $70 Verizon offers 700 minutes while Alltel offers 900 minutes + My Circle, the unlimited calling to 10 numbers. The next step up for a Verizon plan is $90 for 1400 minutes, Alltel has that same plan with My Circle but also has an intermediate plan for $80 with 1000 minutes, My Circle, and nights at 7 or 1000 texts on each line. Because of My Circle and the other options, many people can save money on a plan by going with an Alltel plan because they won't have to bump themselves up to a higher priced plan for additional anytime minutes. For me, most of my calling is done to the same 7-10 numbers so I'm on a $70 family plan with Alltel. I generally get about 3000 mins on My Circle and would be paying at least $109 for the same minutes with Verizon.
If around the house is the only place that has trouble with a VZW signal, you're probably in an area where you would be extremely lucky to find a rep that would reprogram your phone to prefer Alltel because it sounds like VZW does good for the most part, so that might be a place you will sacrifice coverage if you plan to go back to visit family. The only way a rep can reprogram your phone is to prefer the VZW signal all-over, not just at your current house, and most are under strict orders never to do so. But good luck on finding one if that is the route you take, I do hope you find the company and coverage that works out best for you.
Issues with a company is always something to consider. I've tried both Alltel and Verizon and both have done a great job IMO. I couldn't be happier with the customer service of either. Issues have come up with both and issues have been dealt with swiftly. But you'll run into good and bad reps for each company. I think both have good reps and do a good job overall so I wouldn't base a decision between them on customer service but that's just me with the history I've experienced from each, I also try to be forgiving and base my decisions mainly on price. If you were a former Cell One customer and went through a buyout, that fully explains it. Buyouts are tough situations for customers but also sticky situations come up for the buying company on how to handle those customers. Who's plans, phones, etc should they be on? I know some of the Cell One customers Alltel recently acquired had GSM phones but Alltel doesn't even sell GSM service so I would say that you experienced some unique problems and probably got a sub-average customer service experience that you probably wouldn't experience again. But I do think that it would be unfair to base an experience on something like that if that was the root of the problem. But also look at the TDMA customers that use to be with AT&T now with Cingular how they've been treated now that TDMA is about to be canceled. I'm assuming you were at least treated a lot better than they were.
I agree with Nokiaman on the phone selections for VZW and Alltel with the addendum of the U520. But what problems have you heard from the V3m? Most people I've talked to with it have loved it but I have heard of some people not being able to send a pic message and there are some alarm clock issues because of the Motorola programming.
If around the house is the only place that has trouble with a VZW signal, you're probably in an area where you would be extremely lucky to find a rep that would reprogram your phone to prefer Alltel because it sounds like VZW does good for the most part, so that might be a place you will sacrifice coverage if you plan to go back to visit family. The only way a rep can reprogram your phone is to prefer the VZW signal all-over, not just at your current house, and most are under strict orders never to do so. But good luck on finding one if that is the route you take, I do hope you find the company and coverage that works out best for you.
Issues with a company is always something to consider. I've tried both Alltel and Verizon and both have done a great job IMO. I couldn't be happier with the customer service of either. Issues have come up with both and issues have been dealt with swiftly. But you'll run into good and bad reps for each company. I think both have good reps and do a good job overall so I wouldn't base a decision between them on customer service but that's just me with the history I've experienced from each, I also try to be forgiving and base my decisions mainly on price. If you were a former Cell One customer and went through a buyout, that fully explains it. Buyouts are tough situations for customers but also sticky situations come up for the buying company on how to handle those customers. Who's plans, phones, etc should they be on? I know some of the Cell One customers Alltel recently acquired had GSM phones but Alltel doesn't even sell GSM service so I would say that you experienced some unique problems and probably got a sub-average customer service experience that you probably wouldn't experience again. But I do think that it would be unfair to base an experience on something like that if that was the root of the problem. But also look at the TDMA customers that use to be with AT&T now with Cingular how they've been treated now that TDMA is about to be canceled. I'm assuming you were at least treated a lot better than they were.
I agree with Nokiaman on the phone selections for VZW and Alltel with the addendum of the U520. But what problems have you heard from the V3m? Most people I've talked to with it have loved it but I have heard of some people not being able to send a pic message and there are some alarm clock issues because of the Motorola programming.