Which Cell Phone carrier do you use?

[Lechte]

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@guiness56 wrote:

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@Lechte wrote:

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@guiness56 wrote:

I use Straight Talk.  $45 a month for unlimited everything, no issues with dropped calls etc.

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Hahaha....I knew we had something in common.   Dad blam Straight Talk makes me mad sometimes...but I think it's mostly my iPhone I brought from AT&T.   The Customer Service is horrible...I bought my gf a Galaxy s3 and she's havin all kinds of problems with the service...it's a freakn SPRINT PHONE....those dummies sent her a SPRINT s3.  Those stupid idiots.   I get pretty good service...I love the no contract.  Been with them for probably 2 years....I think i've only had 2 issues with them so far.

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Lol.  I have a non-smart phone and never any issues.  My daughter has the Straight Talk iPhone 4 and has issues with the phone itself but not the service.  She wants the Straight Talk Galaxy S3 but isn't willing to pay $600 for it.

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I paid $399 for my gf's on ST's website.  You can get an unlocked used one on amazon.com for around $250 I believe....if she wanted to go that route.

[Open123]

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@Revelate wrote:

Not certain on the T-Mobile pricing structure but I've generally been pretty happy with Sprint over the past decade and short of a substantial discount I'm not likely to switch over $100/yr or whatever.  So many other things which cost me more in my life to fix than that.

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One of the obsessions I've developed over the years is this overwhelming compulsion to cut costs and inefficiencies wherever I can find it.  

Perhaps, it's from the mindset of having to build and run my own business with every single expense coming from my own pocket, which was in stark contrast to when I was with Corporate America.  I saw and participated first hand in the careless waste and spending when it isn't one's own money.  It's so easy to spend shareholders money, but once it's your own, everything changes.

From that mindset, even if I'm overcharged by $100 for a commodotized product or service, I'm going trim it.  I've got this fanatical obsession for *NEVER* overpaying for anything, ever again.  Branding and marketing has little to no affect on me--will never pay extra for scatalogical bovine.  Sure, it's fine when it makes me feel good, but the moment it costs me extra, I'll replace it with a more cost effective option.

The 17% or 18% tax & levy on cell phone bills irritates me to no end.  On general principle, I'm going to reduce the montly bill, if only to eliminate this sort of waste.

[Galaim]

Open123 I understand and respect that completely. I'm a senior accountant for a Fortune100 company. While my particular company is relatively good compared to similar companies, there's still waste which drives me nuts. Not to mention cutbacks in places that don't actually save anything in the long run because they create higher costs later. You can't just stop fixing machinery, for example, or you will have to replace it later. That $100 repair just became a $15k capital expenditure.

Anyway. You and I are similar in mindset. My only variation from the "save whenever I can" philosophy is with my computer, tablet, phone. I'm cautious about getting a plan that makes sense for me and where I'm not overpaying, but it's my sole form of entertainment (no tv in our home) so I'm ok with paying for the higher tier in this one area. On the other hand, heaven forbid I pay full price for tp or mustard or clothing. :-)

[fltn]

VZW

3 phones on my account. Each on a seperate loyality plan after I called them to close all phones down.

 2 brand new iphones and 1 htc dna for free.

No contract, and unlimited talk, text, web for life for $45 each per month including tax.

I have had them for 9 years.

2 phones contracts were up and mine had 4 months left, they canceled my last 4 months and switched each to own line/ no more share plans.

Plus I get 25% off for work.

$135.00-33.75=101.25 for 3 lines.

Set this up around black Friday. When they offered the $45 per line to stay if I got smart phones, I say not unless I get 3 free phones overnighted to me and no extention of any contracts. Placed on hold for 5 minutes....approved!

My cell phone recon!

[Open123]

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@Galaim wrote:
Anyway. You and I are similar in mindset. My only variation from the "save whenever I can" philosophy is with my computer, tablet, phone. I'm cautious about getting a plan that makes sense for me and where I'm not overpaying, but it's my sole form of entertainment (no tv in our home) so I'm ok with paying for the higher tier in this one area. On the other hand, heaven forbid I pay full price for tp or mustard or clothing. :-)

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You make a very salient point here, and I agree.  

I have no qualms paying more for a service or product that isn't commoditized.  For example, would pay more to stay at the Ritz over Motel 6?  In a nanosecond, and I don't care how much it costs; I willingly pay this because after one look into a Motel 6 room, and I undertand why the Ritz costs more.  Or, would I pay more for a Saville Row bespoke suit than Men's Wearhouse?  Sure, because I understand and can vividly feel the difference in the quality and craftsmanship.

When it comes to bandwidh, much like, say, bottled water or light bulbs, the product is so ubiquitous and homogenized that I see no reason to pay more for it.  To me, all GBs streamed at "X" speed should cost the same.  There is no added quality, craftsmanship, or other intangible improvements to justify why a certain GB of data should cost more than another.

[Revelate]

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@Open123 wrote:

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@Galaim wrote:
Anyway. You and I are similar in mindset. My only variation from the "save whenever I can" philosophy is with my computer, tablet, phone. I'm cautious about getting a plan that makes sense for me and where I'm not overpaying, but it's my sole form of entertainment (no tv in our home) so I'm ok with paying for the higher tier in this one area. On the other hand, heaven forbid I pay full price for tp or mustard or clothing. :-)

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You make a very salient point here, and I agree.  

I have no qualms paying more for a service or product that isn't commoditized.  For example, would pay more to stay at the Ritz over Motel 6?  In a nanosecond, and I don't care how much it costs; I willingly pay this because after one look into a Motel 6 room, and I undertand why the Ritz costs more.  Or, would I pay more for a Saville Row bespoke suit than Men's Wearhouse?  Sure, because I understand and can vividly feel the difference in the quality and craftsmanship.

When it comes to bandwidh, much like, say, bottled water or light bulbs, the product is so ubiquitous and homogenized that I see no reason to pay more for it.  To me, all GBs streamed at "X" speed should cost the same.  There is no added quality, craftsmanship, or other intangible improvements to justify why a certain GB of data should cost more than another.

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Ah, now you're in my wheelhouse .

Latency, jitter, and packetloss vary wildly between providers.  It's why budget bandwidth is dirt cheap compared to premium ISP's service on the corporate side: if your content or services can tolerate budget bandwidth then absolutely go for it, but some infrastructures and applications cannot.

For consumer grade services, I mostly agree with you but having used Verizon FIOS after years of either cable modem or ADSL in awkward places, I wouldn't switch back short of substantial upgrades to the infrastructure in other providers.  They've effectively cornered my little neck of the woods by technological monopoly, and like the other poster I don't have TV or landline phone service, so I'm willing to pay somewhat extra for service which doesn't suck.

Completely OT - I adore your word usage: scatalogical

[-Wade-]

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@Open123 wrote:

Just curious if anyone has thought of taking advantage of T-Mobiles newly announced Uncarrier 4.0.

http://www.ibtimes.com/t-mobile-uncarrier-40-plan-how-can-john-legeres-company-afford-cover-early-te...

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Mine is AT&T

[IOBA]

I use Consumer Cellular.  It's not the best, but it meets my needs.  Two phone lines $40.  100 text messages, 10 mg of data, 500 minutes, customer to customer is free.  When we can get by with 200 minutes,  the bill drops to $36.  Sadly, 25% of the bill is taxes.  

I am much happier budgeting 40 a month than than the 140 I was paying Verizon.  The extra $4 I sometimes save, well, that is bonus.  

I don't miss Verizon.    Or the high bill.

I love that I can adjust my phone plan each month as often as I need to or want to.  Sure wish there was an option for 100 minutes... 

[RushXTC]

I use T-Mobile, However the signal is terrible at my job, So I'm planning to switch soon... I was thinking Sprint or Verizon, But Sprint's month to month is unlimited everything to other people with sprint... I know no one with sprint lol!

 Why can't all companies have the same as T-Mobile... $50 unlimited everything..

[rolangunslinger]

I was with Straight Talk for a long time, about a year ago I switched over to PagePlus, I get 1200 min, 1200 texts, and 500MB of data for 29.95 per month (more than enough for my needs). I had some internet connection problems at first but I recently upgraded my phone from an Iphone4 to a Samsung Galaxy S3, and now I have no connection problems at all.

After the fact I learned that the reason I was having problems with the Iphone was because it was a Sprint phone that was forced to connect to the PagePlus network.

Also if I decide I need more internet bandwidth, I can opt for the more expensive 59$ plan and get unlimited talk and text with 2GB of data. The next month I can switch back with no problem.