Voicestream cellular coverage?

[Gillian]

Since Voicestream seems to be the BUDGET choice, I thought I'd ask here.

Sam's club has the voicestream family plan with nokia phones & I'm just wondering if Voicestream is going to be a problem for us. We are in central NJ & the sam's club rep said coverage is good. I'm wondering where the holes in their network are - what states, cities?

Also, someone here mentioned the different types of networks. I don't quite understand it all, so if anyone can explain, I'd really appreciate it! We currebtly have Cingular & it works well for us, but they don't have a family regional or national plan.

We are looking for a national plan that allows 2 phones to share minutes. We use 400 or so, but will probably use more if we go with a nationwide plan.

 

[Jen80370]

i HAVE THE vOICESTREAM FAMILY pLAN...AND AM ALSO IN CENTRAL jERSEY. Sorry about the caps. The Family Plan we have has 800 shared minutes a month, nationwide. The nice things are: a. Unlimited weekend minutes for both phones...b. unlimited calls between the two calls, and c. no roaming charges, so you can use the phones nationwide. There is a map on Voicestream's website that shows where there coverage is best. I find it to be pretty accurate. Good luck

 

[MaggieMouse]

And have Voicestream. There are a few gaps that we discovered but overall we have really good coverage. We have the family plan with two phones and 3000 minutes a month (1000 anytime, 1000 phone to phone, 1000 weekend).

HOWEVER.. their customer service REALLY STINKS!! We have had so many problems with our phones and bogus charges and everything. We are cancelling our contract as soon as the year is up (this month!!)

 

[Gillian]

I think the customer service for most companies these days is bad. even Disney, sometimes

I have Cingular. My phone was stolen. I don't have the insurance. The person who took my phone rang up $350 of charges in 3 days (the time it took me to cancel the service because I wasn't sure if I hadn't left it somewhere). The customer service rep I spoke with almost had me in tears because he was insisting that I gave the phone to a friend to use. I'm sorry, but I don't have friends who would do that to me! I also don't have friends who would call the same number 20 times in 3 minutes at 3 in the morning!

He believed that someone I knew must have the phone because the voicemail was checked during the 3 days. I finally figured out that I had checked it myself, from home! The guy was so arrogant & obnoxious that I wanted to hit him! Eventually I was able to get a refund.

Another time I called about changing our service. We've been off contract for 1 few YEARS, but somehow they had it in the computer that DH had signed a new contract when he got a new phone & we got the family talk plan. I explained how the family talk thing had been messed up (they put DH on it by himself instead of adding him to myplan) & that there was NO WAY we had signed a contract!! Again, they didn't believe me. They were sure that I had signed a contract so they sent away to get a copy of the contract, which took several weeks. Of course they couldn't find it, because there was no contract.

Sorry for the rant, but it seems to me that the cellular companies deal with a lot of people who lie & cheat & don't pay their bills. They have a hard time trusting people like us because they assume everyone is out to get them. It's very frustrating.

 

[nuts4sn00py]

Hi Gillian, Have you considered Verizon. They also have a family plan & right now they have a plan that is for a total of 4000 minutes. 300 shared anytime minutes...3200 shared night & weekend minutes & 500 mobile to mobile minutes (250 mins. per line) Nationwide domestice long distance included! It is $35 for the 1st phone and an additional $20 for the second phone & you can add up to 3 phones (@$20 for each one). I personally find Verizon to offer the best service throughout the country. They do have holes, but minimal & I believe their service was rated #1 by Consumer Reports. JMO. Also, as far as the Networks, I believe you have to have Digital service rather than analog service in order to have the nationwide long distance. Sometimes that means you need to upgrade the phone you have. Hope this helps! Kathy

 

[Gillian]

I hadn't really thought about Verizon because I was told they don't have a plan with shared minutes. Now I'll have to check it out! Thank you

 

[zurgswife]

I have Voicestream in Philly area and it seems to be doing fine....Customer service for me has been great....Just my two cents...

 

[annie2871]

I thought I would add that Cingular does have family plan - I'm on it with my brother and recently, they were advertising a national plan where you could call long distance from any state. If you have Cingular, you might want to check it agian.

 

[Gillian]

I just double checked with Cingular, and while they do have a shared minutes/family plan (which we have), they do not yet have a National plan with shared minutes.

I have also found that Sam's club has good deals on phones. The service prices seem to be the same, but the phones there are a little cheaper.