Phone company rant.

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KenB259

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Dec 24, 2017
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My wife and I both had IPhone 7s. They were getting to the point where they weren't holding a charge very well so we decided to upgrade. Went to the Sprint store intending on getting IPhone 11s. Once there we were told they were running a special and if we got iPhone 12s, that they would give us 200 dollars each for our iPhone 7s. That deal wasn't available on the 11s. With that deal the cost difference between the 11s and 12s was very small. I asked the guy specifically that we were getting the 12s for 800 dollars and he assured me that we were. So after the contract was signed and he handed me the receipt, the 400 dollars was no where to be seen. I questioned it and he said not to worry, it will show up on my bill. Looked on my account this morning, both phones are there and at 1000 dollars each. So I called customer service and the bottom line is yes I will get them for 800 each, but they way I get the money is they discount the monthly charge by 8 dollars a month per line. Not real happy about that. Also I asked why can't I just pay the phones off at 1600 dollars, was told if I wanted to pay them off, it would be 2000 dollars and I'd forfeit the 400 dollars. Feels like there's no honesty left in the world and customer service is a relic of a better world.
 
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Kenny Durrant

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Between TV and Cell Service I think it's a race to see who's the biggest crooks. I had a really hard time with AT&T. Same kind of stuff. I switched to T Mobile and have been pleased ever since. $130 a month cheaper than AT&T and haven't gone up a cent in 3 years. Cable TV is about the same. When the time is right I'll drop all of that and go with the boxes and stream. That should save about $200 a month. If you have the time and want to fight you have to stay with it. They think you'll get tired snd quit and they'll win. Good luck with whatever you decide.
 

Dieseldoc

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Livermore, Ca 94550
Phone company are not the only crooks. My GE stove top need work, had GE factory repair it, results he broke the internal gas line, his answer need new stove top. Got new stove top, applied for rebate with address given by GE. PO box wont't accept cert mail. Contacted customer service, after four hours and three hang up. got info to get rebate. This was in Dec 17 2020 as of today after several emails my rebated is approved but still no money, answer it takes time. By the way GE appliance division was sold in 2017 to china. YUK
 

magpens

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Thanks for this thread and all posts so far.

I have never owned a cell phone. . Family wants me to get one .....

..... . I don't think so !!!!
 

mark james

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Sep 6, 2012
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About 3 years ago I had a similar (not exact) experience. I finally went and sent a message/complaint to a regional VP for Verizon. I actually got a prompt response, and after a bit of hustling, it was resolved and stupid charges rescinded. I learned that there are 'official' stores, and '3'rd party stores'. It makes a big difference it the store/retailer is connected to the service provider, or a reseller. I can't imagine the number of folks that cannot navigate this mess... Same with health Insurance... (I'll stop my rant now).

Yea, I understand Ken.
 

Kenny Durrant

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Mal I understand the way your thinking. I remember the day when there were no such thing as cell phones. When I was working the cell phone replaced the 2way radio. I was fine with the first flip phones then my bosses wanted me to check emails several times a day. I only checked them twice a day. In the morning and in the afternoon. That's when I got a smart phone. Now that I've had one for many years it's a convenient tool. Although it's made life somewhat easier it does have its drawbacks. As mentioned earlier I haven't had any issues with T Mobile. I didn't want to go too far off topic and I apologize for doing so. Businesses are run on a profit basis and don't seem to care about customer service.
 

leehljp

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Feb 6, 2005
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Tunica, Mississippi,
A few years ago, ATT's sales and marketing were totally separate from billing. Home/Business phone and Internet - Sales and Marketing made deals, but Billing billed differently every month; I spent 3 to 4 hours every month getting the bill reduced by as much as $50 and a promise that it was fixed. Next month, same all over again. After my contract was up, I got out of that and did not look back. The arguments would start off - OK, here is your bill and why it is what it is. I agreed that the math was correct for what was written on the page, but the page did not reflect what I contracted to accept, or requested from them.

I'm in MS, my daughter was in TX and setting up a home soon after her marriage. She called ATT and asked for a home set up and agreed on a price. Every month it was about $50 more than she requested; Every month 2 to 3 hours on the phone getting it corrected with the reduced price. Next month, it started over again. After 1 year she left ATT and has not looked back.

2 different States, one residential and one business - same problem for a whole year long every month.

Ken, I almost got into a situation like you did but with my experience with ATT earlier for made me ask questions out loud in front of their customers - as to when would I get my discount for trading my old phone in? How does it appear and by what specific date? I was told I would get a gift card for the discount.
I said good, apply it to the price.
Them: can't do that, it is for merchandise in the store.
Me: So the case you offered me for half price if I bought it with the phone will go back to full price if I buy it with the gift card, right?
Them: yes.
Me: So my trade in is a rip-off! I'll keep my old phone and sell it myself.

I have grown very skeptical of many companies sales in my aging.
 
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Charlie_W

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Sterling, VA USA
Today's trend is for businesses to get you to basically give them an interest free loan for a period of time through rebates and such.
Then you get your money back.....without interest while they are investing your and thousands of other folks monies and getting the interest themselves.

Yup, we have our stories too.
 

KenB259

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Today's trend is for businesses to get you to basically give them an interest free loan for a period of time through rebates and such.
Then you get your money back.....without interest while they are investing your and thousands of other folks monies and getting the interest themselves.

Yup, we have our stories too.
Exactly what they do.
 

Curly

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My buddy has been working in Australia for the last 2 winters. He gets a plan with unlimited data and long distance calls for between $40.00Aus and $50.00Aus a month. Cost double that here without the international calling. We're getting the shaft.

Pete
 

jjjaworski

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Las Cruces, NM
Sorry to hear about your troubles with the new phone purchases.
So many of the ads I see have hidden conditions that make the great deal they advertise pale quickly.

I am so glad I switched to Consumer Cellular years ago.

As long as my iPhone 5 keeps working I am a happy camper.
 

KenB259

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My buddy has been working in Australia for the last 2 winters. He gets a plan with unlimited data and long distance calls for between $40.00Aus and $50.00Aus a month. Cost double that here without the international calling. We're getting the shaft.

Pete
I always thought as cell phones became more widely used the prices would come down, but that doesn't seem to be happening. At least not with the big providers.
 

studioseven

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I know I am in the minority, but I believe the cell phone was the worst invention ever. I have a cell phone but I don't carry it. Except for my wife and sons, I don't give out the number. I am also seeing more and more registrations that ask for a mobile number with no option for landlines. I see so many drivers with a cell phone glued to their ear. Couples at restaurants sitting across from each other on their cell phones. People at the check out counter on their phones. I suppose it was an emergency. Language as we know it could be endangered.

Seven
 

KenB259

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I know I am in the minority, but I believe the cell phone was the worst invention ever. I have a cell phone but I don't carry it. Except for my wife and sons, I don't give out the number. I am also seeing more and more registrations that ask for a mobile number with no option for landlines. I see so many drivers with a cell phone glued to their ear. Couples at restaurants sitting across from each other on their cell phones. People at the check out counter on their phones. I suppose it was an emergency. Language as we know it could be endangered.

Seven
I agree, I have a love/hate relationship with mine.
 

Larryreitz

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Salem, CT USA
I have a cell phone for 2 reasons--processing credit cards at A&C shows and emergencies should one happen on the road. And then I forget to take it with me on short local trips to the store , etc. I don't like talking on them and answering a call has been problematic at times. When people or online stores ask me for a number I do not give it out unless I really have to and then I tell them it is pretty much a waste of time trying to contact me on it. About that the only other thing I have found it useful for is as an alarm clock. I was sleeping through a rather faint alarm so my daughter showed me how to set up the alarm on the phone. Ring tone is an obnoxious rooster which will wake me from a very sound sleep. I too use the old folks plan, ie. Consumer Cellular.
 

monophoto

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Saratoga Springs, NY
I always thought as cell phones became more widely used the prices would come down, but that doesn't seem to be happening. At least not with the big providers.
Most people today, especially those under 60, have cell phones. And I do think the the prices for comparable phones have come down over time. But at the same time, cell phone manufacturers are constantly improving their products, and adding functionality. And they are able to charge more for a new phone because it can do more than a simple one-for-one replacement phone could do. My first cell phone could only be used for spoken communication - no texting, email, calculator, wallet with 'contactless' credit cards, web searching, photography, navigation, TV, etc. My current cell phone has all those functions, and also counts the number of steps I take when I mow the lawn, and serves as the clock radio that wakes me up each morning.

The other confusing factor here is that the way we pay for cell phones has also changed. When I got my first cell phone (back in 1999), the phone came as part of a contract. There was a monthly base charge plus a usage charge (minutes). Wife and I purchased our current phones outright, unlimited minutes are included in the base monthly fee, and the only variable is the adder if we exceed the monthly data usage allocation (which we don't).

But there is another consideration here - most of us are old enough to remember the days when 'the telephone company' was a regulated monopoly, the telephone itself was provided by 'the telephone company' and lasted forever. Or at least until we decided that we no longer wanted the chunky old black phone and preferred one of the newer models that featured a sleek design and colored plastic housing. In those days, the telephone system was its own power source, and the telephone on the kitchen counter was a totally passive device. So it was very possible to use the same phone for decades. Cell phones are fundamentally different in that they aren't passive, and instead must contain a power source - the battery. It is theoretically possible for cell phones to be designed to use replaceable batteries, but considerations of weight and energy density have led phone manufacturers to opt instead for built-in rechargeable batteries. All batteries have finite lives, even rechargeable batteries which have a finite number of recharge cycles. In the early days of cell phones, it was very possible to replace the battery in your cell phone when it reached the end of its life. And at least in theory, that is still possible except for the fact that manufacturers today choose to design their phones around specific batteries, and after a period of time, original-equipment batteries may no longer be commercially available, and aftermarket replacements may not be as good. As a result, when the battery ages to the point where it will no longer hold a charge, the owner of the phone most likely will opt to purchase a new phone to get the sexy new features rather than replace the battery and live with the old phone for a few more years. There is data that shows that the average life span of a cell phone battery is 3-4 years; Apple claim that the average iPhone is owned for a bit more than three years.

In those old days, 'the telephone company' was vertically integrated and had a subsidiary (Western Electric) that manufactured telephones. Today, telephones are manufactured by one group of companies, while another group of companies provides phone service. Phone service is an ongoing service business, but the business of manufacturing phones relies on users periodically buying replacement phones. If cell phones lasted forever, the market would eventually saturate and the manufacturers would go out of business. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest that cell phones are designed with obsolescence built in (although there are 'throwaway' phones that certainly aren't designed to last a long time), but the combination of technology innovations and finite battery life effectively force periodic renewal.
 
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I have a cell phone, an LG3 from Verizon... so far the service has been totally acceptable, no hassles, no problems... but my cell phone and my wife's are part of my step-son's package that he pays for each month... to date I've not heard him complain any about the charges. He's been on the current contract for over 4 years (I think) ... he's a long haul trucker and uses the phone constantly to keep in touch with his dispatcher, his mother and me, to look up internet, watch movies, play games, etc....
I use mine to make calls occasionally, answer scam calls, take credit cards at my craft shows and receive texts from the wife when I go to the grocery store... Primary reason I have one is back in 2001 my wife was in a small auto accident on the Sam Houston Parkway in Houston when a pick up truck clipped her as they were entering the tool booth, sending her spinning across the Parkway then back to her original lane... I was at work 40 miles away, without contact and found out about the accident when I got home.... decided that since we worked 60 miles apart in Houston, we needed to have contact during commutes. We got a flip phone service that was a stand alone phone only.... after we retired here, Step son wanted to help with expenses and bought the Verizon service with 2 extra lines.
Other than making/taking calls on it and processing the CC at shows, I rarely use it... I don't want to be all that connected with the world.

All that said, I would like to drop the land line and only use the cell as it would save us about $150 per month in expenses, but our internet is on a DSL and if we drop the landline, it also drops the DSL and since my wife is partially handicapped and unable to do much, she spends a great deal of time on the internet... to drop the DSL would deprive her of most of her contact with the family, friends and/or the rest of the world.

My complaint would be with the satellite company for the TV... we've been with Dish for over 15 years and lately they keep jacking with the bill, service, etc.... about ready to put up an antenna and kiss them good bye... except again the wife does watch lots of TV.... personally I could live totally without it.
 

KenB259

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I have a cell phone, an LG3 from Verizon... so far the service has been totally acceptable, no hassles, no problems... but my cell phone and my wife's are part of my step-son's package that he pays for each month... to date I've not heard him complain any about the charges. He's been on the current contract for over 4 years (I think) ... he's a long haul trucker and uses the phone constantly to keep in touch with his dispatcher, his mother and me, to look up internet, watch movies, play games, etc....
I use mine to make calls occasionally, answer scam calls, take credit cards at my craft shows and receive texts from the wife when I go to the grocery store... Primary reason I have one is back in 2001 my wife was in a small auto accident on the Sam Houston Parkway in Houston when a pick up truck clipped her as they were entering the tool booth, sending her spinning across the Parkway then back to her original lane... I was at work 40 miles away, without contact and found out about the accident when I got home.... decided that since we worked 60 miles apart in Houston, we needed to have contact during commutes. We got a flip phone service that was a stand alone phone only.... after we retired here, Step son wanted to help with expenses and bought the Verizon service with 2 extra lines.
Other than making/taking calls on it and processing the CC at shows, I rarely use it... I don't want to be all that connected with the world.

All that said, I would like to drop the land line and only use the cell as it would save us about $150 per month in expenses, but our internet is on a DSL and if we drop the landline, it also drops the DSL and since my wife is partially handicapped and unable to do much, she spends a great deal of time on the internet... to drop the DSL would deprive her of most of her contact with the family, friends and/or the rest of the world.

My complaint would be with the satellite company for the TV... we've been with Dish for over 15 years and lately they keep jacking with the bill, service, etc.... about ready to put up an antenna and kiss them good bye... except again the wife does watch lots of TV.... personally I could live totally without it.
Our DISH bill has steadily increased as well.
 

JBidinger

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Jan 1, 2021
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Minnesota USA
Our DISH bill has steadily increased as well.
Best thing we've done in a while was to get a Roku device and ditch DirecTV. We're saving well over $100/month.

To stay somewhat on topic ATT made it very difficult to cancel service. The CS rep on the phone tried to talk me into another plan 6 times. Whenever possible I like to deal with small companies now days.
 

penicillin

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@KenB259's experience is no surprise to me. It matches our experience with AT&T.

The term "cell phone contract" has such a negative connotation to consumers. Cell phone providers have resorted to those trickle rebates (my term) to ensure customer retention through what would have been the contract period.

We don't upgrade our phones very often, perhaps every five years or more. When we first encountered this new "no contracts" approach, it took me time to understand how it all worked. What I did figure out was that it cost more out of our pocket than in the past, mostly because cell phone providers were passing along more of the actual costs of increasingly expensive new phones to consumers. In addition, the market has matured. Very few first time cell phone customers remain, and there is less migration between providers as well.
 

KenB259

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Dec 24, 2017
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Michigan
I have a cell phone, an LG3 from Verizon... so far the service has been totally acceptable, no hassles, no problems... but my cell phone and my wife's are part of my step-son's package that he pays for each month... to date I've not heard him complain any about the charges. He's been on the current contract for over 4 years (I think) ... he's a long haul trucker and uses the phone constantly to keep in touch with his dispatcher, his mother and me, to look up internet, watch movies, play games, etc....
I use mine to make calls occasionally, answer scam calls, take credit cards at my craft shows and receive texts from the wife when I go to the grocery store... Primary reason I have one is back in 2001 my wife was in a small auto accident on the Sam Houston Parkway in Houston when a pick up truck clipped her as they were entering the tool booth, sending her spinning across the Parkway then back to her original lane... I was at work 40 miles away, without contact and found out about the accident when I got home.... decided that since we worked 60 miles apart in Houston, we needed to have contact during commutes. We got a flip phone service that was a stand alone phone only.... after we retired here, Step son wanted to help with expenses and bought the Verizon service with 2 extra lines.
Other than making/taking calls on it and processing the CC at shows, I rarely use it... I don't want to be all that connected with the world.

All that said, I would like to drop the land line and only use the cell as it would save us about $150 per month in expenses, but our internet is on a DSL and if we drop the landline, it also drops the DSL and since my wife is partially handicapped and unable to do much, she spends a great deal of time on the internet... to drop the DSL would deprive her of most of her contact with the family, friends and/or the rest of the world.

My complaint would be with the satellite company for the TV... we've been with Dish for over 15 years and lately they keep jacking with the bill, service, etc.... about ready to put up an antenna and kiss them good bye... except again the wife does watch lots of TV.... personally I could live totally without it.
Our DISH bill has steadily increased as well.
 

DJBPenmaker

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Nov 10, 2016
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539
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Cheshire, UK
I find it best to buy a phone outright and then get a monthly package which gives me unlimited calls and texts and 3Gb of Data for £8 a month.
Much simpler than dealing with tricksters
 
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