More Confusing Phone Plans - Comments Page 2

Unlike so many today, I don't walk around with a phone glued to my ear or texting away while tripping over a curb. I can't text anyway; I had a broken wrist that did not heal properly and texting is very painful.

I have lived with my GoPhone for so long that an X-Ray tech at a hospital looked at it and said "I haven't seen one of those in 5 years". Proud to say it is still working fine. I just buy minutes and use the phone for minimal conversation. It has served me well.

When my hubby's contract with AT & T is finished, he is going with TracFone. Phone plans are always designed to profit the company, true, so we give them as little as possible. Corporations already control most of our lives. It is possible to enjoy life without their idea of what we absolutely, positively NEED.

I have been with T-Mo for over 10 years and only changed plans with them when it made my bill cheaper. I love the customer service. I live in the SF Bay Area, so coverage isn't an issue and like someone else said, I am usually at work or home or close to someone's wi-fi and end up using very little of own my data. Not pushing T-Mo - to each his own - I just know I have loved them, and have heard many complaints from others about their issues with other carriers.

Cell providers as a group stink. Three years ago I switched from Verizon to Boost Mobile (sprint). Saved a bundle and had good service. Moved 15 miles - still in a major metro area - and the service was unusable. Their customer service was the worst. First blamed system upgrades. Then said nothing was wrong. Also tried three different phones. Finally got to their corporate customer service and they said that all three towers in my area were below acceptable levels. That was the last I heard from them as they stopped responding to follow-up requests as the service never improved.

Just switched to T-Mobile and while it is more expensive, I'm just happy to have working cell service. $70/month is reasonable for unlimited talk(including free calls overseas), messaging and data (only 500mb of 4g, then downgrades).

Cellular Phone Plans, be they contractual or pay-as-you-go ... Basically ... Suck canal water!!! Remember, all of these companies are in this ... To make money, nothing less will do. So, to think that you will or are getting a "good deal", is delusional at best.

One thing that I have learned ... Ask your friends and acquaintances that live in your area ... Which cell service is the best in not dropping calls and getting good phone reception? When, I lived in Rome, GA ... Verizon had the "best" service, for getting excellent to good reception ... I had AT&T and could easily see the difference. No mystery, Verizon had more towers in the area, than AT&T, therefore better reception.

Please, remember Verizon and AT&T use different methods of sending and receiving signals. Verizon uses CDMA ... While, AT&T uses GSM. Please, I don't understand what the letters mean, I just know and have read, that CDMA and GSM do not mix! Basically, cell phone companies are broken down to either CDMA or GSM, for phone reception. There is also, an EDGE, but, overall the other two methods are the most popular, for cell phone companies.

So, one cellular company starts an Ad Campaign on "lowering" cell plans ... To be competitive, all cellular phone companies, do the same thing. However, most of the caveats are in "legalese" ... Meaning, that most people don't understand what they have signed up for. In other words ... The "Fine Print" on the contract. Pay-As-You-Go is pretty straight up and forward, about what you can pay for or not pay for. Still in the end ... Remember, ALL Cellular Companies are out to make money!!!

As a person who has grown up in a family business business and studied business at school, your article points to something that bothers very much about business marketing these days. That is, today’s business marketing never seems geared to offer the straight deal anymore. Instead, “business marketing" has come to mean "confuse the customers as much as you can" so that you may ultimately extract more from them without them knowing it. This sort of "trickery" is dirty and low and it's why i've always said that if a company really wants to differentiate themselves from others these days, the only thing they really need do is offer a straight deal to the customer. Any marketing campaign as such would be so rare now, customers would flock to it as they would consider the company to be exceptional.