Help this new member

[RJB]

All-
I am going to move this post into this section her name is Dr.Dorothy and she needs your help this is what she posted:

Hi, folks...

I'm Dr.Dorothy, and my husband and I are looking to change our rate plans and possibly wireless provider -- probably also our phones, and frankly, we need some help.

We use our cell phones as our only phones -- we do not have any "land line" phone service and don't want it. I still have the first cell phone we got some years ago now -- my husband lost his and has a replacement now. We went with AT&T Wireless when we first got our cell phones and service, and I guess we still are AT&T customers officially, even though our bills now say Cingular.

We have old digital phones and service, and quite frankly, we should have investigated change years ago, but didn't get around to it. We really did NOT like the customer service AT&T provided in the past. But even more important than that, we find we are paying far, far too much for our phone service. Having talked to folks at Cingular, I know that we can get GSM (?whatever that is?) service and a rate plan and pay about half of what we are paying now, by going to a shared plan with rollover minutes.

Thing is, we are almost certainly looking at having to agree to a one or two year contract, no matter what company, phones, or rate plan we go with, and ... things have changed -- a lot, it seems since we got our phones years ago.

The technology has changed (at least -- hopefully progressed!) and there are a whole lot of new versions of alphabet soup achronyms with which we are totally unfamiliar, not to mention a plethora of companies, etc.

The salesperson at Cingular said that GSM is the new technology, and digital is outdated. I think he said there had been something else between the two of them... I don't know what the heck any of these things are and whether I'm hearing sales hype or reality when he said that there is better reception and coverage with GSM than digital. He also said that Cingular, since the merger, has the largest coverage network in the US, but just a scan of posts on this forum suggests that that is not the whole picture.

We live in Portland Oregon, and we don't need a lot of bells and whistles -- but we do need good coverage and reception, voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, shared minutes and rollover, nationwide coverage without long distance charges or roaming. (My husband has family in the Midwest, and I have family in Colorado, Georgia and other areas of the Pacific Northwest.) We would like to have better coverage in our own state than our digital phones/plans currently give us, as we like to go to the mountains and the coast where we currently do not often have service.

One of the posts above in this thread mentioned a glossary -- where might I find that? ...and is there a repository of useful definitions and commentary on the various different technologies?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. I'm very glad to have googled up this website today!

Thank you all for taking the time to read this.

Dr.Dorothy

[Tony E!]

maybe it's better to reply to this thread where it was originally posted just in case the O/P looks for replies there.

how long ago was this posted? i searched the Western forum and did not find anything.
can you link to where it was posted....thanks Ryan

[Matt]

It's in the bottom of the Welcome thread. I don't think there is a way for us to clip one post and move it into a new thread. Ryan did what is the only option. It's from today, and Ryan left a link in the Welcome thread.

[Etorres777]

Well if you don't have any problems signal wise, then you should call Cingular and threaten to cancel. When I was working for an authorized dealer, I had a lady that had left AT&T Wireless (Cingular) for T-Mobile. So she activated and ported her number, an hour later she calls me back that she's going to be coming to cancel because Cingular offered her a phone at a lower price that was better (she got a v300) so Cingular gave her the v551 cheaper and also for $39.99 gave her 1000 minutes free nights, weekends, and mobile-to-mobile. Try retentions and see what they can offer you. Good luck and I hope I've helped.

[RJB]

I am sorry for posting it here I just wanted to help them out I also sent them a PM letting them know it was here.

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by RyanB

I am sorry for posting it here I just wanted to help them out I also sent them a PM letting them know it was here.

on the contrary, you're just trying to help, thanks for pointing out the thread, it would have probably drowned where it was....

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by Matt

It's in the bottom of the Welcome thread. I don't think there is a way for us to clip one post and move it into a new thread. Ryan did what is the only option. It's from today, and Ryan left a link in the Welcome thread.

i thought there was a feature for Mods where you can join a thread with another, when i was a Mod at cdmangels we had that option....

[larry]

Originally Posted by Tony E

i thought there was a feature for Mods where you can join a thread with another, when i was a Mod at cdmangels we had that option....

There is a way to merge threads together but I don't think you can take a single post and move it to another thread. But I haven't really looked for that function yet.

[Tony E!]

Originally Posted by larry

There is a way to merge threads together but I don't think you can take a single post and move it to another thread. But I haven't really looked for that function yet.

yeah Matt is right i'm sure.
that was an "invision power board" so it was a bit different...

Splitting a topic allows you to select posts to be moved into a new topic. Please specify the title and description for the new topic and its destination forum before continuing.
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[Dr.Dorothy]

Howdy, All!

Dr.Dorothy here. Thank you for all your comments so far!

I've found and read the glossary (thanks for the info re: where to find it). I can't say that I really understand the differences between GSM, TDMA, CDMA, 3G, Edge, etc, or even whether we have analog or digital service currently, anymore! (I'd gotten the impression from the Cingular salesman that digital and GSM were different, but now I see that GSM is digital! ) Anyway, I don't think I really need to know the technical differences -- just which one works best in our area.

As I mentioned in my original post, we would like to get as much coverage in as many places as possible -- here in Oregon there are often dead spots in the mountains and various coastal areas and remote inland areas. The fewer dead spots we have to deal with, the better. Judging from coverage maps on company websites, that narrows our choices down to Verizon or Cingular. But I really don't know which one works better in practice in our area -- judging from posts elsewhere in this forum, theoretical map-based coverage isn't the whole story. Dropped calls and such can vary between companies in differing areas, and I really don't know which company has better service from that point of view in Oregon and Washington state. I'd sure appreciate hearing from folks in this area as to what your experience has been with differing companies.

Reception is also an issue. My husband is a voice and data electrician, working in construction, and often he's in buildings where our current phones and service just don't work at all (concrete and steel structures, etc.) The Cingular guy said that GSM would get much better reception than our current phones/service -- to quote, he said that with GSM, we could get calls "in a bomb shelter." Comments?

As may be apparent, I have done some research on the various companies offering service in our area, and their plans. The only one offering Rollover minutes seems to be Cingular, and that seems like it would be a very desirable option for us. (We are currently paying for far more minutes than we actually use, but with elderly parents, use can spike in months where something happens - rollover of unused minutes from one month to another would certainly help with that!)

But AT&T Wireless, in our experience, had terrible customer service and putting up with terrible customer service is just not worth it, so I'd like to also know what experiences you folks have had with the customer service of Verizon vs Cingular. I'm interested in not only over-the-phone customer service (give me a knowledgable, friendly, helpful human being, please!) but also a website that is easy to use and gives me the information I want about my account -- including account history (of use, not just amount due and payments) etc.

Expense is, of course, a significant issue, as are such disgustingly bad things as hidden fees -- reading about the unexpected and very poorly documented $225 "equipment beyond reasonable repair" charge that Cingular has slapped some of its customers with leaves a very sour taste in my mouth! I would like to hear what your experiences have been, please.

I know that I'm asking for a lot, but hopefully the information you all might choose to share here will help others besides my husband and I, and promote useful discussion.

Again, I greatly appreciate whatever help and input you all might provide.

Dr.Dorothy

[wgray8231]

I like the statement about "...GSM is new technology, and digital is outdated...." It's funny how much some salespeople don't know. (Or is it scary that all they do know is the marketing slogans/phrases they're given by management.)

Dorothy (if you ever get to read this), you've found the right place to get your information.

Since VZW's coverage in Orgegon is limited to Portland, Salem, and Eugene, you'll probably be better off with Cingular. However, they may not give you the best deal unless they think you'll switch carriers. My grandfather-in-law talked to a Sprint rep about renewing his contract. The rep said he offered the best deal available, but to come back after he's talked to the other providers (like VZW and Cingular).

[Etorres777]

Originally Posted by wgray8231

My grandfather-in-law talked to a Sprint rep about renewing his contract. The rep said he offered the best deal available, but to come back after he's talked to the other providers (like VZW and Cingular).

Like I mentioned before, threaten to cancel and i'll bet they'll give you one heck of a deal, but first, go around and compare the prices of plans and other feautres to Cingular and then threaten to cancel and let them know that you know what kind of deals other companies have and most likely they'll top any deal just to keep you.

[Fire14]

Another suggestion for you to try. Get a prepaid phone from both Cingular & Verizon, travel around with the phone in your area for a couple of weeks or month & try them out, see which one will give you the better coverage of the 2 where you need it.
Yes you may spend an additional 60 to 100.oo for the month doing this, but you will have a better idea who is the best to go with & save you time & aggravation in the future.

As for the TDMA to GSM, Cingular is starting to phase out TDMA & building out there GSM in the same locations & locations where there was no coverage.
It's newer to us here in the US & has been around longer in Europe & other parts of the world, and with a World phone you can use it in other countries, and you have some additional choices like unlocking the phone & buying a prepaid SIM in another country to avoid paying higher roaming fees.

[Etorres777]

Originally Posted by Fire14

Another suggestion for you to try. Get a prepaid phone from both Cingular & Verizon, travel around with the phone in your area for a couple of weeks or month & try them out, see which one will give you the better coverage of the 2 where you need it.
Yes you may spend an additional 60 to 100.oo for the month doing this, but you will have a better idea who is the best to go with & save you time & aggravation in the future.

As for the TDMA to GSM, Cingular is starting to phase out TDMA & building out there GSM in the same locations & locations where there was no coverage.
It's newer to us here in the US & has been around longer in Europe & other parts of the world, and with a World phone you can use it in other countries, and you have some additional choices like unlocking the phone & buying a prepaid SIM in another country to avoid paying higher roaming fees.

Most prepaids won't let you roam though. So in a way you're not going to know where it can can't work.

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by Etorres777

Most prepaids won't let you roam though. So in a way you're not going to know where it can can't work.

Yes, that is true, but at least the OP can get a little better Idea of native coverage.
Also they can Migrate over to Orange GSM & if the coverage is worst, do a reverse migration, they would lose all promo's they have though.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Tony E

yeah Matt is right i'm sure.
that was an "invision power board" so it was a bit different...

Splitting a topic allows you to select posts to be moved into a new topic. Please specify the title and description for the new topic and its destination forum before continuing.
Note Long posts are reverted back to code tags and shortened to prevent long pages

I'm an admin on an IPB board. I like that software. VBulletin 3 is nice too.

FYI, there is a "Split Thread" option here. I just found it. Maybe it's new in 3.0. Larry - it's in the same "Thread Tools" option we use for moving and closing threads, etc. It's at the bottom.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Fire14

Another suggestion for you to try. Get a prepaid phone from both Cingular & Verizon, travel around with the phone in your area for a couple of weeks or month & try them out, see which one will give you the better coverage of the 2 where you need it.
Yes you may spend an additional 60 to 100.oo for the month doing this, but you will have a better idea who is the best to go with & save you time & aggravation in the future.

As for the TDMA to GSM, Cingular is starting to phase out TDMA & building out there GSM in the same locations & locations where there was no coverage.
It's newer to us here in the US & has been around longer in Europe & other parts of the world, and with a World phone you can use it in other countries, and you have some additional choices like unlocking the phone & buying a prepaid SIM in another country to avoid paying higher roaming fees.

At least for Verizon, prepay isn't gonna give you the true picture, since Verizon's America's Choice plans also include USCC and various other carriers in OR/WA that Prepay cannot use.