no reason to use VZW any more?

[diablo]

Originally Posted by ruddy64

No amount of Verizon's greed will make me switch to cingular. I kind a like the ability to make calls.

Have you even used Cingular in NYC? It works pretty well. Verizon fanboys are so funny. Of all the things to be a fanboy of... a cellular phone company?

[Fathead]

[moonrequiem]

You know...i kinda sit in the middle of this feud. Both Verizon and Cingular have their strong points and their weaknesses. Verizon has excellent coverage great package deals and numerous phones to choose from, however, the are greedy not allowing OBEX on Bluetooth enabled phones, and the NE2 deal is VERY deceptive.

Cingular on the other hand has great phone selection (with OBEX enabled mind you), great coverage, and good family packages, however, their phones tend to be expensive and the single user packages aren't as strong as VZW.

[ruddy64]

Originally Posted by diablo

Have you even used Cingular in NYC? It works pretty well. Verizon fanboys are so funny. Of all the things to be a fanboy of... a cellular phone company?

Actually i did. And it is nowhere near Verizon's. Circuits busy, calls dropping or going directly to VM even though the phone is on and showing "full bars". Only cingular fanboys can claim that is good. Because acording to cingular CS, 3 dropped calls out of 10 is normal. I guess for cingular it is.

[diablo]

Originally Posted by ruddy64

Actually i did. And it is nowhere near Verizon's. Circuits busy, calls dropping or going directly to VM even though the phone is on and showing "full bars". Only cingular fanboys can claim that is good. Because acording to cingular CS, 3 dropped calls out of 10 is normal. I guess for cingular it is.

3 out of 10? Are you being serious about that or exaggerating? When I've used my friends' Cingular phones it's been fine, but I have never had a long conversation on one... Did a Cingular CSR actually tell you that 30% dropped calls is normal???

[ronnieg56]

Originally Posted by diablo

3 out of 10? Are you being serious about that or exaggerating? When I've used my friends' Cingular phones it's been fine, but I have never had a long conversation on one... Did a Cingular CSR actually tell you that 30% dropped calls is normal???

The CS agent probably did say that.You hit on one of Cingular's largest problem, their customer service sux.

Their upper level techs are okay but hold your breath if you think you are ever going to speak to one of them.

Either Cingular has the largest amount of OTJT agents or they are just clueless.

A book can be written about the incompetency of their CS just from the notes logged in on my account alone.

[ruddy64]

Originally Posted by diablo

Did a Cingular CSR actually tell you that 30% dropped calls is normal???

Yes he did. But personally, i did not have that big of a ratio. It's the "circuits busy" and calls not connecting that made me p****d off and drop cingular after 10 days trial.

[Fullstrength]

Originally Posted by agentHibby

One of the reasons is security. There are security holes with full bluetooth. That is how Paris Hilton's phone number when on the internet.

2nd loss of potential revenue
Verizon does not care if you go to another website and get something. But when you get something from another source and VZW could be making some money on the deal like GET-IT-NOW, then they don't like that.

The only security hole in bluetooth, is verizons revenue, Second someone called t mobile pretending to be paris hilton. It was all social engineering.

[Steven2420]

Originally Posted by ruddy64

During the NYC Blackout, Verizon was the only provider working. I was stuck at work for 32 hours and my phone was the only one working. I guess Verizon was getting through, unlike others. T-Mobile, Sprint and cingular couldn't get a signal. BTW, i work in Midtown (40th and 2nd). As for Hurricanes, ask people who were in Florida during the last one.

OK, since you brought up Hurricanes, be ready for the truth. I live in Miami, and have been blasted for the last 2 years. Katrina and Wilma were killers in every way. I have to tell you that CINGULAR was the ONLY network up and running after the storm cleared BOTH TIMES. Not only do I know this from personal use, but I run an answering service for Doctors, and only Cingular was able to get through to hospitals, as well as sending text messages to surgeons. I am a little out of my league posting in a VZW forum, but you asked for a Floridian to chime in, so here I am!

[Steven2420]

Originally Posted by macsesso

Ever have any original thoughts?

I do not understand why Jones would get attacked here when he is quoting factual and statistical information. I have made more points with "Cut and Paste" then anything that could ever come out of my head, or in some people's case, out of their a-- Jones happens to have more knowledge then most people on most forums-IMO.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by Steven2420

OK, since you brought up Hurricanes, be ready for the truth. I live in Miami, and have been blasted for the last 2 years. Katrina and Wilma were killers in every way. I have to tell you that CINGULAR was the ONLY network up and running after the storm cleared BOTH TIMES. Not only do I know this from personal use, but I run an answering service for Doctors, and only Cingular was able to get through to hospitals, as well as sending text messages to surgeons. I am a little out of my league posting in a VZW forum, but you asked for a Floridian to chime in, so here I am!

So of my post is off-topic (only bits of it so bear with me).

Well since Steve gave his opinion, my opinion as a Floridian is that in my area on the west coast, Verizon was the best provider.

I was up throughout the entire event (the worst part of it) when I was watching the eye come closer to land and the power kept going off and coming back on (10 times) before it finally went off. I had my trusty 1000 channel dual trunking scanner with the police band on (I heard no activity on this since the emergency teams cannot go out once the winds were sustained from 45 and above) so I tuned in to NOAA. The channel that I usually listen to went out a couple of hours later, so I scanned the available NOAA channels and found one so I could listen to all of the severe weather reports. At 5:30 am, the power went out for good, and I flipped on my scanner and we were under a tornado warning. Anyway, I feel asleep after it sound like something was being ripped off (I mean this was LOUD). I later found it that it was our neighbor's lanai cage above their pool. Our house only had minor damage (a tile was ripped off our roof and thrown/flew about 15 feet away from the break off point and some aluminum siding around the top part of our cage was literally bent inwards from the strong winds. Our house can withstand 139 mph (3m film on all of our windows and glass in our house (even the tiny windows on our garage door). We also have a double tressed roof (basically tied down twice with steel reinforcement ties) and a cement and stucco house with reinforced columns in certain parts of the house going down into the ground.

Anyway, after I was up for the day, I turned on my parents Verizon phone and my Cingular phone. Both of them had a useable signal so I turned them off to conserve battery life. I turned them on later that evening, and our Verizon phone had a weak signal, so I forced it to Alltel, and presto full signal. My Cingular phone was basically a paper weight at this point. I sent a few text messages out of Buickman and Tony E on this forum to tell them my status, and after that I couldn't use my phone until the day the power came back on (fours days later around 12:15 pm). When we went to one of the only grocery stores in my area that was open with power to get a few things, Verizon again was the only one working (this time it was native and not extended on Alltel).

By the way, the winds were recorded at 129 mph about a mile or two from my neighborhood.

The below pictures are shown just to give some idea of what I was trying to convey to everyone.

Here is a picture of the tower down the street from my house (notice how one of the poles (I am assuming it is needed for my walkie talkies) is hanging there and the other pole is where it should be (it is immediately to the left of the downed pole, which is to the right side of the tower)):



Here is another view of the tower at the base with tree damage:



Here is a picture of the winds steady at 60 mph when we went outside to assess the damage and when we took a quick drive so my sister and I could get pictures (my family's house is to the right and our neighbor's is to the left):



Note: When I took the above picture the winds were steady at 60 mph (by this point the hurricane was either on the east coast, or exiting into the Atlantic and it was still this windy.

[Gamer03]

Originally Posted by diablo

I don't know if there is enough data on that to make that claim. How many hurricanes and blackouts have you been in? During the blackout in NYC a few summers ago, most people's phones still worked, Verizon or otherwise. It was just hard to get through because all the lines were in use...

I will have to agree with ruddy64 on his comment. I can't vouch for blackouts (unless you count a hurricane as one), but as for hurricanes, I have been through two major hurricanes (which directly affected my area (Charley which was a Cat. 4 when it made landfall on August 13, 2004 around 3:45 pm approx. 60 miles north of us (we still had winds of 100 mph reported 1-2 miles from my neighborhood)) and most recently Wilma (which was a Cat. 3 hurricane which made landfall on October 24, 2005 at 6:30 am EDT just north of Everglades City, Florida, near Cape Romano))). I have also been through other hurricanes (which have or have not (scraped) affected my area, and several tropical storms, one of which happened 4-5 months after we moved into our house (in June or July of 1995, we had 18 inches of rain in a 24 hour period)).

Currently, we are in the third year of a 20 year cycle for the United States. And every year, we are supposed to have more major hurricanes.

[ruddy64]

Originally Posted by Steven2420

OK, since you brought up Hurricanes, be ready for the truth. I live in Miami, and have been blasted for the last 2 years. Katrina and Wilma were killers in every way. I have to tell you that CINGULAR was the ONLY network up and running after the storm cleared BOTH TIMES. Not only do I know this from personal use, but I run an answering service for Doctors, and only Cingular was able to get through to hospitals, as well as sending text messages to surgeons. I am a little out of my league posting in a VZW forum, but you asked for a Floridian to chime in, so here I am!

My mother in law lives in Florida. And her Verizon phone was the only one working as soon as the Hurricane was over. She called us to say that she is scared but OK. Her sister's cingular showed "NO SIGNAL" Also, her neighbors were using her phone to call their families.

[ruddy64]

Originally Posted by Steven2420

I do not understand why Jones would get attacked here when he is quoting factual and statistical information. I have made more points with "Cut and Paste" then anything that could ever come out of my head, or in some people's case, out of their a-- Jones happens to have more knowledge then most people on most forums-IMO.

Because he is a cingular fanboy, his "facts" don't hold water, and his "statistical information" is twisted truth. When he was posting Telephilia "tests" on how cingular has better network than the rest, cingular had a major outage in the Northeast. And you want to believe his blanket statements to be facts? You want facts, read JD Power or Consumer Reports and see how they rate Jones's cingular "facts" and "statistic"
http://consumercenter.jdpower.com/cc...ex.asp?v1=West

[diablo]

Originally Posted by ruddy64

Because he is a cingular fanboy, his "facts" don't hold water, and his "statistical information" is twisted truth. When he was posting Telephilia "tests" on how cingular has better network than the rest, cingular had a major outage in the Northeast. And you want to believe his blanket statements to be facts? You want facts, read JD Power or Consumer Reports and see how they rate Jones's cingular "facts" and "statistic"
http://consumercenter.jdpower.com/cc...ex.asp?v1=West

To be fair, this doesn't have anything about coverage... The four categories are overall satisfaction, cost, billing, and offerings. Sure, bad coverage would probably factor in to overall satisfaction, but it wouldn't be the whole category.

Do you have any objective 3rd party studies of network coverage, reliability, etc?

[pecula00]

diablo - For the last 5 years I was a Nextel subscriber and was very happy with their service but not with their phone selection. On 2/27 I became a Cingular subscriber and bought a SLVR for me and a Razr for my wife. We live in Northern Westchester County (about 40 mile north of NYC). As soon as I activated the service I had no connectivity in my home. (I did with Nextel) Anyway during a 3 week period my wife and had MANY dropped and missed calls. I called Cingular to find that my area (10598 is Zip) is considered a low/medium to medium coverage area. The rep told me whenever I am in a building (mall, my kids school, home, etc.) I would not have connectivity. Based on this I switched to Verizon and for the last week connectivity has been fine. Cingular has great phones and their customers service was great! I called a few times during the three week period and was VERY satisified with their representatives. My only complaint was when i called to order the service back in Feb the sales rep told me my area was well covered. I am sure you will have a different experiene in NYC w/Cingular - just my 2 cents....The SLVR was a great phone!

[jones]

It was the opposite in Westchester
VZW was a weak spot in my Friends House.

Originally Posted by diablo

Have you even used Cingular in NYC? It works pretty well. Verizon fanboys are so funny. Of all the things to be a fanboy of... a cellular phone company?

Per JD Power Survey
Verizon fanboys are the Most Loyal
with Passion.

[macsesso]

Originally Posted by jones

It was the opposite in Westchester
VZW was a weak spot in my Friends House.




Per JD Power Survey
Verizon fanboys are the Most Loyal
with Passion.

Thanks for that very important piece of information. What is your friend's address so I can go there to make calls?

[jones]

Originally Posted by macsesso

Thanks for that very important piece of information. What is your friend's address so I can go there to make calls?

That's what i Meant VZW Fan Boys have More Passion.

What's your Address so i'll Go there and Make Phone Calls.

[Jake_byrde]

I've been with Verizon a few years and I'm switching because A. Verizon phones suck, B. I go over sometimes and rollover sounds good, C. People have trouble hearing me sometimes (I'm on upper westside), D. A lot of people are switching and I'll save minutes when talking to Cingular people.

[macsesso]

Originally Posted by jones

That's what i Meant VZW Fan Boys have More Passion.

What's your Address so i'll Go there and Make Phone Calls.

Sorry passionate Cingular fanboys are BANNED from that address.

[macsesso]