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Archived: New Carrier/New Phone

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New Carrier/New Phone

01/22/08 9:10 am | #1

Well, long story short, after a long night of partying I ended up needing a new cell phone (The old one damaged beyond repair due to water damage...don\'t ask...) I had a hybrid phone from Sprint/Nextel which I never had a complaint about. I never had a problem with service, and a lot of people at work have nextel so it was nice to have the walkie talkie.

Well, after finding out that it was beyond repair, the Nextel store wanted me to pay full retail price for any phone (the expensive price). So, the phone that I had, which I paid $80 for once before, they wanted $315. After calling customer care time and again it was determined that nothing could be done otherwise.

Now, being the cheap guy that I am (and actually thinking about a smart phone) I went online and looked up plans and phones from other companies (my alternative being to pay the $200 termination fee and porting my number to another carrier). T-Mobile seemed to have the best offer comparable to what I had: With Sprint I had 300 anytime minutes, free nights and weekends, and free incoming calls for $50 a month. T-Mobile offered 1000 anytime minutes and free nights and weekends for $40. With Sprint I also had the web add-on for unlimited web email and 1000 text messages. T-Mobile\'s was $20 a month for unlimited text, IM, Email and web. Basically I\'m paying the same price for even better services (plus a shiny new SideKick).

I\'m trying to get T-Mobile to credit my account for the termination fee from Sprint (they told my mom they\'d do it for her one time if she switched from Verizon), but I\'m not holding my breath on it. Anyways, the phone is really sweet, comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, and only cost me $50 instead of $315. If Sprint would have just given me a replacement phone (I was willing to pay the cheaper price for the phone, I didn\'t want it for free) they would still have a customer. T-Mobile FTW!!!

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/22/08 10:35 am | #2

You could always buy a used Sprint phone and then program your phone info into it....Thats what both Hoch and I did (we have the same smart phone running Windows Mobile 6)

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/22/08 12:21 pm | #3

I thought of that, but the only reason I hung onto Sprint was Nextel's Walkie Talkie. As far as service goes down here Sprint's service is fairly crappy. The free incoming calls was a nice perk, but after looking back and taking out nights and weekends (which was free on both carriers) I never went over 1000 minutes. The other nice thing with T-Mobile was that I can upgrade every year as opposed to every two. It was time for a change, so I guess things have a way of working out in the end

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/22/08 4:25 pm | #4

I got t-mobile and find its service to be exceptional. I have the Blackberry Pearl (wish i would have waited and got a Curve) and its pretty tight. Lately I have been thinking about switching to Verizon because of that new touch screen phone (the Voyager) which I got to demo at a store. I must say it is pretty f'n cool. So does anybody know if phone companies will pay your termination fee to switch to their network? If so I may switch soon!!!!!

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/22/08 6:50 pm | #5

All they want to do is screw everyone over some way or another. My contract is up from Nextel. Worst two years ever. I'll check out T-Mobile.

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 8:44 am | #6

I used to like Nextel, but they are god-awful now that they merged with Sprint. Nextel service has been getting worse and worse since Sprint is tearing down iDEN towers. Definitley check out T-Mobile; I compared all of them and Verizon and Cingular plans were fairly expensive, but T-Mobile was a lot cheaper (1000 minutes for $40 as opposed to Verizon and Cingulars 900 for $60), and the coverage is stellar. I haven't not had service once.

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 8:47 am | #7

a lot of the time you can find phones on eBay that are like brand new and way cheaper and as long as you have the logo of the phone company you are switching to they'll activate the phone

i've had a phone broken due to water damages before.. i just said i lost it so that way i'd just have to pay the 50 dollar insurance fee for a new one

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 8:48 am | #8

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Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 8:49 am | #9

Quote by Hektic Juggalo:

I thought of that, but the only reason I hung onto Sprint was Nextel's Walkie Talkie. As far as service goes down here Sprint's service is fairly crappy. The free incoming calls was a nice perk, but after looking back and taking out nights and weekends (which was free on both carriers) I never went over 1000 minutes. The other nice thing with T-Mobile was that I can upgrade every year as opposed to every two. It was time for a change, so I guess things have a way of working out in the end

I doubt that, I'm pretty sure they don't. Yeah they would like you to switch but I don't think hey are going to pay your 200 dollars for you. You could always call and ask though.

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 9:33 am | #10

I have verizon it's pretty good i only lose service when im out in the country but i really can't tell you how much it costs because my dad pays for it xD

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 10:19 am | #11

Quote by meg a destr0yer:

I doubt that, I'm pretty sure they don't. Yeah they would like you to switch but I don't think hey are going to pay your 200 dollars for you. You could always call and ask though.

Yeah, I doubt it too. I just remember one of those T-Mobile Kiosks saying that to my Mom at the mall one time. I could call them up and say that the guy told me that, it doesn't mean they'll go through with it, but if I can get a month or two of free service that would be pretty sweet

As for the insurance fee, I didn't have insurance on my phone so they wanted full retail price for any phone I wanted. All in all I'm pretty happy with T-Mobile, I was getting pretty tired with Sprint's constant loss of service and crappy customer service. Also, if anyone can answer this that would be great, since T-Mobile has a SIM Card, is it possible to get a new phone and just put the SIM Card into it a-la Nextel?

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 3:34 pm | #12

Quote by Hektic Juggalo:

Yeah, I doubt it too. I just remember one of those T-Mobile Kiosks saying that to my Mom at the mall one time. I could call them up and say that the guy told me that, it doesn't mean they'll go through with it, but if I can get a month or two of free service that would be pretty sweet

As for the insurance fee, I didn't have insurance on my phone so they wanted full retail price for any phone I wanted. All in all I'm pretty happy with T-Mobile, I was getting pretty tired with Sprint's constant loss of service and crappy customer service. Also, if anyone can answer this that would be great, since T-Mobile has a SIM Card, is it possible to get a new phone and just put the SIM Card into it a-la Nextel?

It is possible to use your T-Mobile SIM card on other networks phone, for instance you can get a "unlocked" Iphone and use it on T-Mobiles network. The key is to get it "unlocked"....which I have no idea how to do that. If you look on Ebay and search for a certain phone you like from Nextel you are sure to be able to find one "unlocked"

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/23/08 3:52 pm | #13

Quote by TH3JUICEMAN:

It is possible to use your T-Mobile SIM card on other networks phone, for instance you can get a "unlocked" Iphone and use it on T-Mobiles network. The key is to get it "unlocked"....which I have no idea how to do that. If you look on Ebay and search for a certain phone you like from Nextel you are sure to be able to find one "unlocked"

I believe any unlocked iPhones won't be able to benefit from any of the recent software updates. One of the fairly early updates caused "irreparable damage" to all unlocked iPhones. You might be able to find the software to unlock one online though.

Also, just so you know some features of it are exclusive to AT&T, like the visual voicemail. Luckily, T-Mobile is a GSM carrier like AT&T so I believe it should work for everything else.

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/24/08 10:10 pm | #14

New/interesting developments: So, I come home today and, out of curiosity, I try out my spare battery in my (now) fully dry Sprint/Nextel phone (having previously repaired a water-damaged Verizon phone yesterday by switching batteries). Low and behold, the thing worked like a charm. Interesting still, I had voice mail messages from someone who said they had called me today (on my T-Mobile phone). Trying, I can make calls with my Sprint phone...even though the number should have been fully ported to T-Mobile.

Calling Sprint (both to make sure my account was cancelled and to file a complaint about the dumb-ass repair guy who didn't think to try a different f'n battery...yeah, I'm pretty pissed...), they actually convinced me to stay by offering me the newest Hybrid for $99...retail price with 2-year contract being $300.

Agreeing to that, figuring I was well within my rights of T-Mobile's trial period, and getting a new phone for the same price I paid T-Mobile, while still having free incoming calls and walkie-talkie, I agreed. As for the number port, whoever I spoke to couldn't understand it. They said the port hadn't gone all the way through. They told me to end the account with T-Mobile and call back.

So, packing up my short-lived SideKick, I brought it back to the store, returned it, got my cash (f'n place wanted to mail me a check for the amount of my phone...arguments there, better business beaureau threats were made...$105 in my hand), he said my T-Mobile account would be closed within the night.

Coming home, I waited a while and called T-Mobile to ensure that my account was terminated. Apparently, it was not; T-Mobile told me that the Number Port went through fully and all that was needed for the account to be closed was for Sprint to port it back.

Hanging up, I called Sprint back. After being bounced around for about 2 hours, transfered to numerous people I knew I didn't need to talk to and explaining my story about 10 times, I spoke to some lady from Eastern India who told me Sprint never fully ported out the number (no reason, they just didn't...). She told me what would have to be done would be that a manual release of the number would have to be done by technical support (who conveniently isn't on right now). She escalated this message, and told me that a manual release takes 5-7 days. Once that has gone through, the number would have to be re-ported back from T-Mobile (Yeah, I'm hella confused...and hella pissed).

Thinking of my new phone which I should have tomorrow, I asked what would be done about that. I was told that I would be issued a temporary number while the number was released, and ported back. BS, but this lady didn't want to talk to me any more. So I'm left sitting here, SideKick returned but a T-Mobile account still open...and an Sprint/Nextel IC502 that should not work, but for whatever reason works fine.

I guess I can try calling Sprint back and getting some answers tomorrow. I like their plans, I like the two-way, I like their network...I FUCKING HATE their customer service. Once they do away with Direct Connect and iDEN next year, I am outtie 5000.

Re: New Carrier/New Phone

01/24/08 11:19 pm | #15

Sprint has the worst customer service. My wife had sprint for almost 10 years and when she lost her phone they basically told her that she either had to buy a very expensive phone or they couldn't do anything for her. They were very nasty so we switch to AT&T.

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