I have AT&T, and I have never had a dropped call with them.
'Course, it’s a land line.
For cell phone service, my wife has Sprint with 200 minutes per month for about $40, my daughter has iwirelesshome (that’s the one that’s affiliated with the local supermarket) with 200 minutes per month plus unlimited text and 200MB of internet page views for $25, and I have a prepaid Virgin Mobile phone that lets me roll over my unused minutes every month, as long as I reload 200 minutes for twenty bucks.
Never dropped a call with those carriers, either. Except in Food4Less, where I think the entire building is a Faraday cage.
Part of the reason they can afford to sell a $99 phone with a $50 rebate is because they know a certain (industry standard) percentage of people won’t send in the rebates and of the people that do send them in, a certain percentage of those will do it improperly. That’s just how it works. They can’t afford to give you a $50 phone unless three people forget to send in the rebate (just guessing, I have no idea what the magic number is) and end up paying full price.
Maybe they could sell the phone to everyone for $80 and end up making the same amount, but then someone else is going to sell it for $99 with the $50 rebate. Even though most of the people aren’t going to get the rebate they’re still going to want the phone that they perceive as being cheaper.
It’s also a sort of credit check. It’s also a way of recouping if you violate your contract and stop paying you bills. I’m pretty sure you’ll find in the fine print that, if you miss X payments, you won’t be getting the rebate.
I had a billing dispute with AT&T circa 2001. It ended up I was right, but it took way too long to reach that point. I swore I’d never give them my business. Been happy with Verizon ever since.
I have talked to lots of other Iphone users here in the Bay Area, and I am an outlier- there are a few days I have had lots of dropped calls, and I have zero reception in parking garages and elevators, but normally, I love them! They are actually better in reception than my phone line from work which is NOT VoIP- standard optics…
AT&T is dead last in customer satisfaction surveys.
My friends who have “dumb” cell phones on AT&T do not seem to have much problem. Move up from there though and things get steadily worse.
I had an iPhone and my AT&T service (had no choice back then) was dismal. Dropped calls were a regular occurrence (as in daily and often several times a day). Certainly there were “black holes” that I could guess I’d lose service but I’d often lose it other places as well for no apparent reason (even with full bars on signal strength showing).
I live in Chicago so not like I am in some rural area.
My data on the iPhone was beyond bad. If I was on the train going home I recall on numerous occasions trying to pull up the SDMB on the phone and it’d take 5 minutes or more. Didn’t matter if I stopped and restarted or waited or what. Not like I was even a heavy data user. Not by a long shot.
As a result I switched to Sprint and an Android smart phone and the difference is night and day. I occasionally get a dropped call but they are few and far between. Data works lightning fast. In the same situation described above the SDMB loads in about 10 seconds or less. Video streaming is smooth.
So yeah…fuck AT&T. I liked my iPhone fine. I despised AT&T and that is why I binned the iPhone.
Among iPhone users they are notoriously bad and till very recently every iPhone user was stuck with them.
Can you PM me the details on the kid phone?
We are in the market, and while the cheapest option is to add her to our plan, I am NOT giving an 8yo an iPhone…
That is why they should call those things customer dissatisfaction surveys - because dissatisfied customers are far more likely to respond to surveys. Just look at the 'tard who started this thread, not to mention yourself. You probably started reading the survey articles to finally convince yourself you were right all along. :rolleyes:
Better companies with broader customer bases also have more dissatisfied customers. I suppose sometimes the obvious is just beyond comprehension.
There is good reason AT&T initially got the exclusive iPhone deal and once the merger is complete they will stand clearly head and shoulders above the competition in every respect.
mind = blown
company XYZ with 1,000,000 customers is more likely to have more dissatisfied customers than say company ABC with 100,000 customers..thats not exactly anything worth citing
what about % of dissatisfied customers? wouldn’t that level the playing field?
As opposed to what, % of survey respondents? :rolleyes:
I been an AT&T customer ten years and I never took a survey. What about the percent of THOSE customers?
Better yet, what about the percentage of new AT&T customers that bought an iPhone, lived in a bad coverage area and performed the death grip with it subsequently got all pissed off and responded to a survey?
Ah. Maybe this is the difference and why I can’t understand the fuss. I have never had anything more than a basic phone (whatever Verizon will give me for free) and I never get dropped calls despite driving all over the country. I once even got a call inside a lead lined box!
I was thinking about getting an Iphone - maybe not…
I take a bit or razzing from Verizonbot acquaintances for using AT&T – sorry to disappoint, but they simply work for me. One guy in particular drives me bonkers – we talk, and the call drops. We reconnect, and he goes into a tirade about how it’s because I have AT&T.
Funny thing…he has that same complaint with multiple people, yet his are the only calls that drop for me. If only I could figure out the common factor here…
Wow, there is so much wrong with this statement I don’t even know where to begin.
The reason AT&T got the iPhone deal is because Verizon rejected the iPhone when initially offered in 2005. With good reason–AT&T’s network took a dramatic hit when the iPhone was released and they are just now starting to recover.
Let’s ignore the Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey linked to earlier in the thread and look at the latest J.D. Power call quality performance study. Verizon scored highest in five of six geographic areas and scored second in the other. AT&T scored above the regional average in three of six areas. In other words, AT&T’s call quality is significantly worse then Verizon’s nationwide. How can they “stand clearly above the competition in every respect” if their call quality sucks compared to the competition?
And before you throw the merger out there, take a look at T-Mobile’s ranking in that study. T-Mobile scored the lowest in all areas. This merger is going to add to AT&T’s issues, not help solve them.
Yep, Verizon didn’t want to take the risk. Sometimes it’s not clear how you get to where you’re going with all steps in between there and where you are now when all you can focus on is the present.
So tell me then “cell guy” are you familiar with tower install, backhaul, trunking and other infrastructure aspects of growing a nationwide cellular data system? Your screen name might seem to suggest that…
:rolleyes: Did you even read the article I linked to? If so you need some remedial reading comprehension.
Well, “Nadir,” I have worked in the telecom industry in one form or the other (both equipment provider and service provider) for the last 15 years, so I guess my answer is “yes.”
What are your qualifications since we’re on the subject (unabashed AT&T fanboy does not count)?
I’m probably too cheap to do it - at this point all I have is the phone that Verizon gives me for free.
Maybe it’s because Verizon thinks AT&T is beneath them?
Seriously tho, the only reason I have Verizon is because they bought Airtouch, who had previously purchased LA Cellular. However, the reason I still have Verizon is because they are rarely any problem, it is extremely rare for me to have dropped calls and on the few times I’ve had trouble with them they respond very well to complaints. OTOH, it’s freaking expensive - I pay almost $100 a month for two very basic phones.
I am a satisfied T-Mobile customer (though apparently the only one, if Cell Guy’s citation is anything to go by).
How do these provider merger deals work? Will they just stick all the towers on the same network? Or will they shut down enough to keep the user per tower numbers the same as before?
I got an AT&T rebate card recently and solved this by buying gas with the last of the balance. You can’t use them at the pump, but you can go inside and request $17.56 on pump 5, or whatever. There’s a website where you can check the balance.
I was determined to use every penny of it, which I’m sure they count on a lot of people not to do.
