Not to bring up a bad subject..... I was very frustrated a few days ago when I was sent to get a Verizon phone and open a new line for my use on our business account. (I waited 2 hours to be waited on but that is another issue) I have 6 lines on my personal Altel account and live in an area that will certainly be divested by all reports by the maps and a few friends I have that work at Alltel. The Verizon rep that finally helped me watched me answer my personal phone and asked how many lines I had with Alltel. I absently told him 6 as I wrote down my message after hanging up. He then proceeded to ____ily inform me that Verizon was buying Alltel so I may as well jump ship and sign up now. I told him that our part of Ohio will be divested to another carrier because Verizon and Alltel are the only carriers. He shrugged and said he didn't know anything about that and tried to change the subject when he saw that I did. I told him that was too bad and held my tongue about trying to influence me with information that he didn't know anything about. Unfortunately they have put me on as the soul handler of our Verizon business account so I guess I will have to continue reading the forum and staying on top of the current news since I can't be sure that the people selling me plans and equipment are doing the same. It's unfortunate that everyone doesn't take the responsibility to stay on top of current events when it effects their job and the people they help. Sorry for the rant ---
There is no certainty of divestitures yet. The DOJ is still reviewing the proposal so NOTHING has been approved. Any info you get regarding it is just gossip and "what I heard" type of information. Until you hear this officially from Alltel, don't believe a thing you hear. Frankly, any info you are getting from Alltel employees is dangerous. NO information not released to customers is supposed to be released. It is considered classified and is basically just heresay. I won't go into any details, but the only recent announcement to employees is that the divestiture list is still under review and Verizon does not have FCC approval either. THAT is the freshest information available.
Dont do anything yet, Alltel made a really stupid mistake sending out a letter that said Alltel and Verizon have joined together. Well they haven't, they would like to, but this hasn't even been approved yet. We can make fairly educated guesses what areas will get divested. If your in you home Alltel area and spending 2 hours in a Verizon store most likely you will get divested. But nothing is set in stone yet. The whole thing may not even get approved and most reps have no clue how licensing or divestment works or that the word even exists.
I guess I was most upset with the long wait then this kid telling me that "we're going to own you" so you may as well dump Alltel and give me the commission now. The deal hasn't even gone through and I know this and he should also know this instead of throwing some incomplete information out to sway me from my obvious happiness with Alltel. Our city is listed on the divesture map I've seen posted on the internet so I am 99.9% sure that will be the case as we have no other coverage in this area other than Alltel and Verizon so I was drawing from that in hopes that we aren't going to be forced to only have one Cellular company in our area.
I kinda think this won't go through with all the things I have been reading. I've heard Verizon has worse CS, worse prices, and they remove features from phones (the Touch Pro won't have a G sensor and has half the RAM of the Sprint version for example). If they were gonna do this right they would change but I doubt it.
According to this map, It looks at though Kansas (Wichita area) would be turned back over to US Cellular or some other company other than Verizon. That would suck big time!!
Wrong. The western half of Kansas would get divested. You must be looking at the colors wrong. Even I would be a Verizon customer.
I see that now. Thanks for the info! I was on Cellular One years ago before making the switch to Alltel. In our area (Newton), Alltel is rock solid. I actually live in a small town about 15 miles NE of Newton and we have an Alltel tower located in town (pop. 1200) and I enjoy my EVDO. I would hate to see all that go away. Just signed a 2 year agreement about 2 months ago.
Spoke with a Alltel tech support rep today on another issue. We got to talking about the merger. He directed me to the following link he received from someone: Verizon Wireless and ALLTEL - WTB Docket No. 08-95 Interesting reading.
ok, i know i have said a lot of things on here that have made a lot of people upset, and this will probably be another so here goes, this merger is a dune deal,i know it, most of you guys know it, alltel knows it, vzw knows it, and the fcc is just going though the motions, in my area there is but 1 alltel store within 150 mile in any direction,the manager of this store is a good friend and has been for many years,now here is what my friend is doing and has been doing for a little over a month now, my friend drives 3 hrs one way to a vzr corp. store for training once a week,my friend recieves a check once a week from VZW in the amount of 300.00 after tax's and also gets paid for that day missed from the alltel store. even though there are two vzw retail store's in town my friends alltel store will become the vzw corp.store just as soon as the name change's, and it will change.and i'm sure that my friend is not the only alltel manager being trained by vzw.so anyone here that was holding out hope that this deal would not go though can let go of that now, and start making up your mind weither your going to move your service or stay with the most expensive cell phone service in america.(based on the vzw web site price's)
Yeah in looking at the FCC's latest information, everyone is saying it will probably be approved. I will probably stay since I bet the store here will still have good CS and I know a lot about my phone anyway and plan. Maybe Verizon will make some changes to appease us. The one thing I want to do is make sure I get a new phone before the changeover that I want as the Touch Pro that Verizon will have will be crappier.
Follow this rule of thumb when speaking to Sales Reps (of any carrier) about mergers/technology/tower locations/coverage area..........THEY USUALLY HAVE NO CLUE. Most sales reps honestly don't know about the network & business side, but talk a big game when trying to impress customers. They do know what phones seem to work best and what plans work great for your need. Just remember to take their gossip with a tiny grain of salt, as they usually don't understand the spectrum issues, divestiture and all the stuff that goes along with mergers.
You said it..... My mom's friend was telling me she ran into the same thing at a Verizon store in a nearby town. She was there with her son and the salesman was laying it on thick when she mentioned she had Alltel. He kept telling her that Verizon will own Alltel in a month and he would be happy to help her with the transition. I'm glad her son told him to back off and deal with the customer he already has since he was ignoring him in hopes of fresh meat.
This is something I have also been thinking about. My alltel contract is up, and I have been thinking about getting a smartphone BEFORE the merger. Or would it make sense to wait till after?
Alltel puts the least amount of restrictions on their phones of all CDMA carriers in the US. If I had a choice I'd get an Alltel phone now, rather than a Verizon phone later. -Jay
If it were me I would wait until the DOJ gives approval as the FCC is usually right behind. This will give you max time on a new contract. Normally a buying company will honor a contract but you have to remember phones nowadays tend not to last 2 years anymore. Getting a new Alltel phone 18 months from the day of the buyout on Americas Most Reliable Network will most reliably be a NO. I dont think Verizon will let Alltel customers milk their accounts the way Cingular/ATT does with the old ATT Wireless which is now going on 4 years now and theres still alot of ATTWS plans out there.
I am limping by with my phones until final word comes that the ax will fall. With the possibility of divesture I don't want a brand new phone that I may not be able to use if the aquiring company requires new handsets to be purchased. After using this Verizon phone for work I have discovered the meaning of the words "crippled phone" and would definately be getting new ones from Alltel if I knew I was going to be stuck with Verizon at the end of this deal. But unfortunately all of my lines are not up for renewal (only one of the 6 )
I did some checking with Alltel. I was looking to go to a smartphone. My plan would raise $30.00 a month. I have 4 phones piggybacked on my plan. They would each go from 9.99 to 20.00 per month. I would get 200 less min. per month. I have not had a contract since 1997, my Star tac phones treated me very good. Last year they gave me a new Razr V3m with no contract because they didn't want me using the Star tac (no 911 GPS) any more. Another 70.00 per month plus 2yrs is not worth getting a new smartphone.
I'm pondering purchasing a Q9c off of eBay to keep from having to get a new contract & the Smartchoice plan that goes along with it. I hate to think what VZW will do with me since i'm out of contract.
But at least with Verizon you can remain contract free and still purchase/change phones. Also, there full price(remain contract free) for phones is a lot cheaper than alltels.
Their phones didn't seem cheaper to me when I was in the store. Not to mention majorly locked down as far as ability to personalize without a huge hassle or expense. At Alltel I just buy off Ebay and change my phones online using myaccount so I can still remain contract free as well which is good.
I mostly compared smartphones.. Phone -------- Alltel ----Verizon BB Pearl---- 479.99---- 399.99 BB Curve---- 519.99 ---- 429.99 Touch ------- 499.99 ----449.99 6800 ----------579.99 ---- 539.99 q9c ------------429.99 ---- 379.99 Centro -------------------- 349.99 ebay is always going to be cheaper but also more of a risk, used phone and lose out on stuff like warranty from the carrier and so on
You don't lose out on the "warranty from the carrier." The Carriers don't provide warranty on the phone, the manufacturer does.
I was talking about Ebay to stay away from renewing contract when I needed a replacement phone not the pricing. There is a risk with any phone, new or used. I know that you can't compare apples to oranges with most of the phones Alltel offers and Verizon offers but signing a new contract with Verizon I ended up walking out of the corporate store with a lower end phone that still cost 189.00 out the door (mail in rebate for 50.00) To get a better deal I found you have to order online where you can get a decent price on a phone when signing a new contract at Alltel.
