Don’t Buy an AT&T Wireless Plan in Greater Binghamton – You’ll Be Sorry
By Jim Willis on Oct 31, 2008 in Reviews, Stores | Printable Version
A new rant, and this time not related to politics! My advice to you, if you live in the Greater Binghamton area: Never, ever, under any circumstance use AT&T Wireless as your cell phone provider. Ever! My family and I have had a miserable experience over the past two years. Yes, I fell for the trap and signed a two-year contract in December of 2006. I’m counting the days before that plan expires and we can dump AT&T Wireless. The main reason? Extremely poor coverage around Binghamton. Dropped calls. No signal.
Two years ago I was getting ready to go to London and at that time AT&T (then called Cingular) was one of the few wireless companies whose phones would work in England as well as here in the U.S. I periodically make trips abroad and thought it would be a good idea to have a phone that works in both North America and Europe. We previously had bad experiences with Verizon Wireless–not their network coverage, but their customer service. Very poor customer service at the local Verizon Wireless storefront on the Vestal Parkway. I did not do my homework and assumed (wrongly as it turns out) that Cingular’s network would be equivalent to Verizon’s. Wrong!
So I signed my family up for Cingular (now AT&T) thinking that was the solution. And if you sign up for a two-year plan, they virtually give you the phones for free. Free? Wrong again. It’s built into the cost of the monthly charges, but only now do I know that.
The phones we purchased are now failing. Two of them don’t work properly and you can’t make calls with them. We don’t want to buy new phones and didn’t buy the exorbitant insurance originally offered to replace them. So now only two of the four phones we bought are functioning correctly. If we cancel two of the four lines before the expiration of our contract in December, we get charged $175 per line. Welcome to the “gotcha” land of cell phones. Buy a new phone for $175, or cancel the line for $175. Those are your two “choices.”
When our contract does expire, I’ll be looking for a prepaid plan or a plan with no annual contract. Can anyone who reads this blog offer me a suggestion? Are you on a no-commitment plan that you like, and has good coverage in Binghamton and the surrounding hillsides? Let me know in the comments.
Technorati Tags: Greater Binghamton, cell phones, cell phone providers, wireless providers, AT&T Wireless, customer service
WHB | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
Jim, feel your pain. I despise contracts which all of the big providers require. I have been using virgin mobile for 2-3 years now. Get into the boondocks and the coverage declines but if you stay in civilization it works pretty good. I think it works off the Sprint network. Lots of plans to choose from, no contracts. I have had the same phone for 3 years with no problems. No, mine did not work in the UK when i was there last year, though I think they offer an international calling plan. Check out their website; virginmobileusa.com. WHB
Jim Willis | Nov 3, 2008 | Reply
Thanks WHB! I had actually taken a look at Virgin a few months ago in anticipation of changing plans–but did not know of anyone who has it. Good to hear from someone who does have it, and it works (especially on our side of the valley). I will be taking a very close look at them now.
PrepaidWirelessGuy | Nov 3, 2008 | Reply
That’s horrible Jim! Did you try escalating when you called to their manager to see if they can replace the defective phones? If they’re not damaged from user abuse, and are not too old, with enough effort, you may get them to agree to replace them. Though, I have no doubt that will be an unpleasant and potentially lengthy experience.
I have a list of the prepaid provider plans (by type…per minute, daily, per month, and unlimited) listed here. Feel free to check it out to help you discover your options:
http://www.prepaid-wireless-guide.com/compare-prepaid-plans.html