20
Jan

New Phone Service?

   Posted by: MotherHen   in Moving House

There’s a giveaway at the end of this post!  But it’s not a phone.

I love my cell phone.  I have an unlimited minutes kind of plan.  Watching minutes makes me nervous, so I love this plan.  I’m a grown up, so I don’t text much.  I have texted in my life, I’m just not proficient.

phone

Thing is…

When we move I will have to change service providers and texting might become more prominent in my life at that point!

My little phone I use gets no service where we are going!

GRR!!!

How is that even possible?  Have you looked at what year it is?  I mean, it starts with a 2 for cryin’ out loud!  And we’re already in the double digits!  Not only do I not have a flying car yet, my cell phone can’t get service in the Hill Country!  I suddenly feel like we’re moving to Mars!

So, here’s the deal.

I need your advice.  Good, bad, indifferent.  I need to learn about other cell phone service plans, providers, roaming, blah, blah, blah…

Who do you use?  What does it cost you?  Do you like it?  What kind of phone do you have?  Should I spring for the iPhone?  ’Cuz I totally could have some fun with a gadget like that!

This is de-lurking day!

Everybody has an opinion on cell phones, right?  Lemme know what you think!  Leave a comment!  I promise it won’t hurt!  And then, next Wednesday, January 27th, I’ll give a prize to the last person to leave a comment with cell phone advice, by 2 p.m. cst! That is, the last comment posted by 2 p.m., no promises on what time I’ll reveal the winner, but it’ll be sometime after 2 on Wednesday afternoon.

Fun, huh?

Here’s a hint, you can comment more than once if you have something fresh to offer, up to three entries per person.  But spamming or just being annoying will get you deleted.

Would you like to know what I’m giving away?

Well, it’s something you’ve always wanted!  Even if you already have it, you want another one to give to your girl-friend.

It’s a copy of the book Passionate Housewives Desperate for God by Jennie Chancey and Stacy McDonald.

This book is provided by my wonderful sons, Tex and Hank.  I can only ship this to addresses in the continental U.S., so if you live elsewhere and still want to enter, you’ll have to have an address in the lower 48 for me to ship it to, ‘k?

Related posts:

  1. and the winner is…
  2. Did You Forget the Giveaway?
  3. Phone Home
  4. Re-tweet, re-defined.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Moving House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

24 comments so far

KimC
 1 

[crickets chirping]
So, is everyone waiting until next Wednesday at 1:59:57 to offer their advice?
I’ve already got my *signed* copy, so I’ll speak up now. Sprint is best out here. AT&T is passable. Verizon works, though I don’t know exactly how well.

January 20th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Lynnet
 2 

We’ve been with AT&T for years now and had a variety of different phones. We don’t care for sliders – they seem to break easily. Honey and Oldest have Samsung BlackJacks (a type of smart phone) that is Windows based. You can store Word documents, excell, and power points on it. Easy to use with a QWERTY keyboard. It is easy to set up ringtones and pair your contacts with Outlook.

I now have an iPhone and LOVE it! I love the touch screen and the many apps that are available. Many of them help me with organization (groceries, prayer journal, Bible, car repairs and gas mileage,recipes, shopping, debt tracker, GPS, and of course games… There is even an application that helps me see who has posted to the blogs I read! Most apps are free, but some are not. Most you can try the trial/lite version and buy the full version if you want. The screen color resolution is great, you can enlarge the screen. You can edit what apps are on the multiple screens and moving from screen to screen is as simple as the slide of your finger. It works off the heat from your fingertip. The camera is fantastic, no zoom though. A button on the side easily can silence the phone when you are in church, meetings, or where you need it quiet. I got mine at Best Buy.

I know this is kind of long. If you can find an AT&T store that has working phones for you to explore on, I suggest going there, explore the various phones after some research. Just remember if you get a smart phone or iPhone, you must have a data plan.

January 20th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
MotherHen
 3 

I know, Kim, I can’t wait till the blizzard of comments next Wednesday! ;)

January 20th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
MotherHen
 4 

Thanks, Lynette. Looks like you know all the stuff I need to learn. thanks for the tip on going to the AT&T store with working phones. Sounds like good advice.

January 20th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Cyndi L
 5 

We have had verizon. We currently have AT&T. Don’t like AT&T we drop all sorts of calls. Personally I don’t know about phone types. I don’t go in for all the gadgets and functions and “APS”. I just need a phone to phone people.

January 20th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Lindsey
 6 

I and my boss both have Verizon. We get excellent coverage in this area. But he has a Blackberry, and gets terrible reception while my phone is working fine, even if we are both in the same room. So, I would say no to the Blackberry.

January 20th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Lindsey
 7 

Okay I have one more idea. I was “showing” a rental house out in the boonies for a while, and every single person pulled up, got out of their car, and tested their phones! So, I would suggest you find some very nice friends who would lend you their phones for a day, and drive around the new area and just test it out.

January 20th, 2010 at 7:28 pm
MotherHen
 8 

You’re a genius, Lindsay! Loving that idea! Ok, real life friends! Fork over some phones! :D

January 20th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Michelle B.
 9 

Okay. We have pocket at the moment and I know that I can get service almost all the way to Kim’s parents house but it takes until I get back on HWY 16 before I get service again. Now they have updated some but service going that way is iffy. Now we are planning to move to Sprint in the next few months. It is hard to tell you prices without looking them up because hubby gets a good discount with work. But my cousin has sprint and it goes everywhere. She txts and calls. She also has a blackberry. This is what I am hoping to get a blackberry curve. Then I can keep on top of my e-mail from my phone, also facebook. Do you need a plan for you and hubby? Is it going to be your main phone and therefore no house phone? Sprint has an everything plan. Do you plan to txt alot. Just go play around on there site and see what options are available for you. Sprint has a plan with any mobile any time. So no matter who you call, when or with what cell phone company they are with if you are calling a mobile phone it will be included in your plan. Then if you want a plan with all the data capabilites than you get x amount of minutes for talking to others on land lines. My cousin uses her cell phone as her main phone, no house phone and because of the any mobile and free nights and weekends she and her husband don’t go over the minutes included in her plan. Now there is also a plan that is mostly for talk you will have to go look. We had verizon for awhile 10 years ago. Couldn’t stand them of course alot has changed in 10 years. Sprint seems to be the best price wise for what you get. Now I love the blackberry curve. But if you don’t want/need a phone that does all that can be done on that phone another good one is an LG Rumor. That is what I have now. It has a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out for txting (must have a QWERTY keyboard if you are going to do alot of txting) Is simple and easy to use and you can get online if you want. It is a pretty nice phone. You can also download some MP3’s on it. I can say as far as Sprint I don’t know of anywhere I have gone with my cousin that has a problem getting signal. OF course on occassion her phone might possibly drop a call while in the elevator at SAC.

January 20th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Michelle B.
 10 

I would love to win the prize (I would like to read that book) but wanted to make sure to let you know what I do about cell phones and I just know that I would forget if I waited.

January 20th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
MotherHen
 11 

That’s a lot to chew on, Michelle. I’d like to have a look at your phone on Sunday, if ya don’t mind. And remember, you can have 1 more entry. What am I saying? I’ll bring you a copy on Sunday. I also have some other books you and the kids might enjoy. They’re set aside for y’all, now I just have to remember to put them in the ‘Burban! :D

January 20th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Michele
 12 

Oooh, I’d love to win this one! I have an iPhone right now, and we’re in love. ATT does occasionally have service issues, but I love my phone. I want to marry it and have little iPod nanos with it. ;)

January 21st, 2010 at 12:56 am
MotherHen
 13 

Oooh, that kinda sounds serious, Michele. ;)

January 21st, 2010 at 1:04 am
Teresa
 14 

I have had sprint for years, I do not pay much (way less than 50/monthand have about 1000 minutes month) evenings and weekends are free, i do not text so have no idea what I have for that :) . One thing I found out though at least with sprint after you service contract is up (mine up 4+ years ago). I have not had to sign another contract, keep usuing my phone, they keep billing me but my rates have not risen :) . If I happen to need a new phone, then I can usually pick one up on freecycle for free or around $20- I am not as picky about phones as I am about spending unneccessary money LOL.
Now having said that, my dh has an iphone through work, it is a lot of fun, although I cannot read download books on its e reader (too small of script for me- to much hassel).His phone has service problems and dropped calls much more than I do, and some of the people have had to replace their phones a bunch of times…. but if I did not have to pay the almost triple service fee I would probably get one:)

January 21st, 2010 at 11:29 am
MotherHen
 15 

That’s handy info to have, Teresa! I’m starting to think the whole iPhone idea is just a pipe dream, and that’s ok. I’m not seriously addicted to fancy gadgets. I like ‘em, but I don’t like spending big money for the newest techno-gadgets, since those are rarely all that they will eventually be. I do tend to wait until the company has gotten over the initial greed associated with a particular toy before buying. Funny that. While cleaning out the garage we came across some stuff wrapped in old newspaper ads from best buy. Prices were from 2001. Stuff like a thumb drive for $100! I just bought the same thing for $14 for cryin’ out loud! :D

January 21st, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Janee'
 16 

I have at&t now, and it rarely lets me down. Most of my friends have at&t so we talk free this way since none of us have a home phone. Verizon has more area coverage, but they seem to drop calls more often. My dh has this as his job provides him a phone. I have used Sprint in the past and the call quality there was best, but you have to be in the area, we had spotty coverage, that was very odd. The only major company that I know of that I would not recommend is T moblie. Horrible customer service, and horrible reception everywhere. YUCK!

January 27th, 2010 at 9:41 am
Johnnie
 17 

We live on the east coast and have Tmobile, which bought out SunCom. We have been with them forever. We have the “grandfathered” price for the unlimited plan. I am not the happiest with our service, it does have a number of dead zones, and don’t get me started on the roaming charges when we go out of town! We have thought of switching as well, but like you, we are afraid of the minutes. I talk on the phone a good bit and my teenage daughter likes to text. For now we are sticking it out with Tmobile but I wouldn’t say I love them at all.

Would love to win the book… and posting a comment wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. :)

January 27th, 2010 at 11:50 am
MotherHen
 18 

Hi Johnnie! Glad to meet ya! :D

January 27th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Michelle B.
 19 

I told you how much I paid for my phone on Sunday but forget to say that was on Pocket. When you sign up with someplace like Sprint you usually get a phone for free or a discounted price of course all major carriers have a contract that goes with service to start with. You should just go drool I mean look at the phones available on the different carriers to find one that you think will work for what you want. I still say to go with Sprint they have some nice plans. Here’s to happy phone shopping.

January 27th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Johnnie
 20 

Thank you ;) Wishing you good luck on your phone/service quest.

January 27th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
theresa
 21 

att is best coverage for us

January 27th, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Becky
 22 

Hi MotherHen,
I know it’s just past 2, but I didn’t really have anything helpful to add anyway.
The only thing I know about cell phones is that when you get a new one in, if you stand there staring at it as if it were something written in ancient sandscript, the nearest teenager will roll their eyes, sigh really loudly, and then proceed to program your phone for you.

January 27th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Teresa
 23 

You meant last person before 3 o’clock right:) already posted my hints though. Blessings to who ever wins the book I hear it is wonderful.

January 27th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Charlsie Swadley
 24 

We use T-mobile and have been very pleased with their service. My husband has an all inclusive plan for his business cell phone and for just $20 more a month my phone gets added on with a great plan as well.
We used to be with Sprint and the service was so bad that we canceled our contract with them.

January 27th, 2010 at 4:10 pm