New AT&T customer X-Verizon customer

[p010sp0rt8]

Well, i decided to get out of the Verizon plan using the info posted on this board! Thank you very much!!!!
When u call into verizon let them know you want to cancel BECAUSE of the late fee change from 1.5% to $5.00
Let them know this at the very beginning and they will not hassle you much (unless u've never missed a payment)
When i called in i played dumb, and asked about it, they gave me the run around the mill and after being put on hold 3 times,
i was transffered to a cancellation clerk.. a very pissed sounding lady... in the end, she asked me if it was just a reason to get
out of my agreement, and i said, YES. And my cellphone was immediately cut off...

Anyways... Basically i have been fed up with the customer service and their representatives talked to me, not to mention the fact that
all verizon phones had antenna's which stuck out and breaks off within a few weeks of usage...
Granted, verizon has AWESOME reception, even w/o the antenna on my V120c i still was able to make calls... On verizon i went through
roughly 3 or 4 phones... The V120c, The Startac and the old Flip Microtac... all very good phones...

What i've noticed to far, is that at&t has OK reception, better than cingular, but definately not as good as verizon... Especially in my house...
But at work, where verizon was only so so with reception i have full reception with AT&T... also my gf has AT&T at davis and gets much better
reception than i did with verizon...

Onto the plan...
Right now AT&T has a pretty good deal on their national plan... 34.99, i get 500 anytime minutes, 500 mobile to mobile (local), unlim night/weekend
(start at 9 end at 6 what kind of n/w is that crap!), unlim incoming text... i did have to sign up for a 2 year contract which i am kind of iffy about, but
so far so good!

i ended up with the 8265 nokia, and i'm pretty happy with it so far.. no antenna to break off! =)
feature wise it has just about as many as my 120c, but no voice activated dialing... i am also pissed that i can only use NOKIA headsets with it
even though it's a 2.5mm jack.. they have some extra line on the jack that i have no idea what it is for...

Overall.. i'm getting a much better plan with AT&T than i had with verizon for the same price... the reception, though a little sparse in my house compares
with verizon.. so i am happy...

[Rasputin]

Does your phone work consistantly down to 1 bar, that is what I did not like with ATT. I have been lucky the only phone I break off antennas on is my old Startac which does not matter because I have a friend ( so to be laid off) at Motorola and he gave me 8 antennas and the tool, they normally only bend on my when I let my 18 month old daughter play with my phone. The LG phone my wife has the antenna has been fine, the Samsung she had before was the same thing.

I have had good experiences with Customer Service with Verizon, maybe it is just the west coast call center I am routed to I believe it is in Merced area? Good luck with ATT are you on the TDMA or GSM, and what city?

[p010sp0rt8]

oh yea.. forgot..
i'm TDMA AT&T, in the Bay area.. i will spend most of my time in the sacramento area during the school year.. but i use the phone in the Tri-Valley/ SF/Palo Alto, everywhere in the bay basically, with verizon, i never had problems with reception.. anywhere.. i'll let u know where at&t has problems... heheh

But i'm pretty harsh with my phones.. i liked carrying phones in my jeans pocket or the pocket of my cargo pants... for the startac and 120c, whenever i was in my car in a rush to get my phone out.. i'd pull to hard, the antenna would bend and snap off... the antenna are only 5 bucks a piece and easy as hell to replace, but still it was a hassle... my parents both have startacs and only have broken the antenna once.. so it's not HORRIBLE.. but in my opinion, motorola should make them sturdier... we college students are pretty rough on our phones... gimme something i can toss around!!!

[Rasputin]

I agree the Motorolas antennas are the worst of the lot, I have had no problems with either the Samsung or LG, where the antenna does not stick out like the Motorola antenna. Let me know how your coverage is with the ATT system when you are down to 1/2 bars any lost calls/dropped calls/weird static, or you can hear the person but can not talk to them.

[TNDan21]

Rasputin, I use SunCom (Triton PCS) over here in the South which is a member of the AT&T Wireless Network and uses the same network technology as AT&T Wireless and sells many of the same phones and I have made and received calls with a weak signal and had success. That may be your experience with AT&T but its not everybody's.

[Rasputin]

I can only testify to what I have seen, maybe it was my phones I went through 5 of them 3 Nokias, 1 Ericsson, 1 Panasonic. Maybe it is the equipment they use in some markets, Bay Area, San Diego, Los Angeles, Boston. Unfortunetely I did not look into the RSSI signal on the phone or look at with my service monitor to look for signal deviations, multipath etc. I always wondered if it might be a noise floor issue at 800Mhz if you ever look at the noise floor of 800Mhz compared to 1900Mhz, even after the filtering I remember the noise floor being 10Db higher. That could cause problems with weak signals, but I never did any real analysis on it.

[LabMonkey]

when did u sign up for verizon? they said that if u signed up prior to june 1st, u can do it. i called several times. the first time, the lady said yes. the second time they wouldn' t let me do it...

[p010sp0rt8]

hey rasputin
at my house i only get 1 bar at sometimes, and this usually means i have pretty crappy reception, gettin dropped calls occasionally and even no calls... for some reason.. this only happens in my house and right by my computer... everywhere else it's ok... When i have 2 bars, the calls are stable, have good quality and always work... what i noticed is that with AT&T i can listen to music over the phone e.g. my gf plays a song through her phone and i can listen to the whole thing on mine... That , i was very impressed with, for some reason i was never able to do that with verizon at my house... (it's just something about my house and reception =p)

[p010sp0rt8]

Lab Monkey - i've been with verizon since they were GTE and my last plan i signed up for was around a year ago or so ago.. my plan was not up till feb, but i was still able to switch..

[viciousV60]

Cancel because of the late fee going up? Do people pay bills on time anymore?