Alltel Contract's (PLEASE HELP!)

Hopefully somebody else can give some better news, but from similar posts in the past, one of alltel's downsides is that if you move out of an alltel-native area, alltel will still hold onto you as long as possible and enforce the ETF if you want to cancel and are under contract. Alltel also generally doesn't cancel customers for roaming too much so I really don't see an easy way out of it other than to either use alltel for another year with FL area codes, or pay the ETF and sign up with a new provider.

I'm not sure if this will be worth a try or not... but see if you can get a phone number based out of Litchfield County, CT. Zip code 06790 is for Torrington, CT. It's been reported that those customers in alltel's only island of coverage in the Northeast are being sold to Verizon. When that transition is complete you may be a Verizon customer which is supposedly very strong in the Northeastern U.S. Since you're moving to upstate NY, it should sound like a very reasonable request that they may grant.

If that doesn't work, just try to find out who you're roaming on in upstate New York. Probably Sprint, possibly Verizon, since alltel doesn't natively cover the area and avoid them in April 2009 when you're shopping for service. Good luck.

 

You can do what Alltel calls a "change of responsibility" where someone else would take over your account and fulfil your contracts. You just have to sign it over to their name and have the account put into their credit.

There are a few websites that will facilitate such a change if you don't know anyone off hand but I can't vouch for how easy they are to use or anything as I have never used those services.

 

Moving does not remove the responsibility of running out your service agreement. Think about it: if you sign an apartment lease and move in the middle of the lease, you are still responsible for the rent for the duration of the lease (unless they find some other person to rent it to during that period). Just because you moved does not mean you can cancel without ETFs being enforced.

As for changing the number to a CT number - won't work. It would involve a market tranfer, and Alltel is not allowing new account creations in that market as it is being divested. That means you can't do a market transfer to that market and get a number for it.

Bottom line: you can either continue to use the numbers you have in NY until the service agreement expires (and hope they don't cancel you due to the roaming clause) or pay the ETF now and move on.

 

I wasn't saying that any wireless company is legally or otherwise obligated or even should let customers out of a contract because they move anywhere. But it's just a fact that other carriers (not all but some) reportedly do it frequently and even actively cancel the service of customers that roam more than their determined limits. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on if the customer wants to stay with the given provider or not. A customer can very easily cost the company more than the bill they pay if they rack up enough roaming minutes. It also probably greatly increases the chances of customers returning in the future if they ever move back into a service area. But maybe he can follow up on MOTOhooligan's advice and find somebody to take over his contract, or even talk somebody into taking over his contract that he knows, and get a 'change of responsibility.'

I figured they might have already thought of this so that numbers couldn't be transferred to the area any longer.

 

Well if they do it then you have that option.

Or you can also force your phone over to verizon's network instead of sprint in upstate ny. Where are you going exactly? I didn't have too much trouble near albany and up to a little town called greenwich. Didn't work too well indoors in a basement. And off the road it acts like sprint normally does.

 

seems to me the TOTAL FREEDOM plan would also be an answer to your problem if you receive your bills on line and if the phone works in the new area. There's no roaming in the US under that plan.

 

The only cdma carriers in upstate new york are free roam sprint and verizon. So national freedom will be fine. The issue the op is having is the fact that Sprint is ahead in the priority above VZW in the PRL. And Sprint coverage up there is not as good as vzw or att even.

 

I am surprised to hear that Alltel is activating numbers in Torrington CT. I thought the sell-off to Verizon was a done deal. Anyway, when the accounts are finally switched to Verizon, it will work out well for the OP, as they can then switch to a local NY number.

 

This is a new question that I thought that I would never come across. But I am sorry for the inconvenience. But with any wireless company, this is what I would do call Alltel and make them clear your current situation. And see what they can do for you because Alltel is not the leading CDMA Network, so they probably get this often. Best of luck

 

Leading? That's gotta be a joke. None of the networks are leading nationwide. It's all local.

 

They probably got Verizon CS masquerading as Alltel CS (common during transition periods).