Ad on Facebook:
Want to be Unlimited
sprint.com
Switch to Sprint for unlimited data, text and more. Restrictions apply.
Duh! If there are restrictions then the service cannot be unlimited!
I have Virgin Mobile on my iPhone, which uses Sprint towers. True, I don't worry about how many phone calls I make, how many people send me unsolicited texts, and how often I am online. In fact, accessing the web with the iPhone through a tower beats using sporadic wi-fi hotspots.
On the other hand, Sprint has dead spots where one wouldn't expect them, like on I-35 at mile 175 between Duluth and the Twin Cities. That is a restriction and a limitation.
Showing posts with label Virgin Mobile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virgin Mobile. Show all posts
Monday, March 18, 2013
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Free market and the Internet
Like lots of people, I'm looking for faster internet or even internet. One thing I can say for certain that it is not a free market - few sellers and very little useful information.
At our cabin, we use dialup on our phone that costs us about $37/month. Periodically I dig around Frontier's web site to find information. The latest pricing is $50/month additional for "up to 6Mbps". If I had a internet-dependent business this might make sense. But not for 4 to 8 evenings a month.
In Duluth, our phone bill is $58/month, but I can't break it down at the moment. My wife doesn't save the detail pages of our bill. Given that we used to pay $23/month for land line, then we are paying about $35/month for "up to 7Mbps". I just did a CenturyLink speed test that showed 6Mpbs at 12:50 on a Sunday. Other speed tests in evenings have shown 4Mpbs. Trying to determine what higher speeds would cost is a big hassle. See http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=787754 for some users experiences with CenturyLink.
When I bought my iPhone, I switched from Verizon to Virgin Mobile because the pricing was more advantageous to me, only $30/month including data. When we visited our daughter at her lake house near Grand Rapids MN, I thought I would be able to use my iPhone to access the web. I was, sort of. I would get a one-bar 3G signal, then without moving I would get a roaming signal, then no service, then searching, then back to one-bar 3G, even standing by an upstairs window. Our daughter's house is 10 miles from Grand Rapids and less than 2 miles from a major highway. Granted that there are many trees, but can waving leafless trees cause that much variation? The second surprise was that we thought with the iPhone and a low-power FM-to-car-radio cable that we would be able to listen to Minnesota Public Radio all the way back to Duluth without changing the dial. No such luck! On the major highway we were on, the cell signal kept coming in and out. Oh, well, at least the Virgin Mobile/Sprint coverage map doesn't claim that that area is covered.
I knew that AT&T had put up a couple of towers in the Brimson area where we have our cabin, but I've heard many complaints that many AT&T's customer are not satisfied. I checked AT&T's coverage map and did discover coverage areas in Brimson; they are a whole bunch of small islands that make no sense. Besides telling me that our cabin address is could not be matched (other web sites can find it), it shows a coverage area that starts just west of where our cabin is and ends less than a mile farther west. That's too iffy to make a decision with.
The lesson is that you have to make a long checklist of all the features you want in a product and then spend hours and hours to find out what portion of those features are available to you at a price you want to pay. Nobody else is going to help you. And of course, after you buy the product, you'll find a new feature you want but your choice doesn't provide – like listening to public radio without switching stations.
At our cabin, we use dialup on our phone that costs us about $37/month. Periodically I dig around Frontier's web site to find information. The latest pricing is $50/month additional for "up to 6Mbps". If I had a internet-dependent business this might make sense. But not for 4 to 8 evenings a month.
In Duluth, our phone bill is $58/month, but I can't break it down at the moment. My wife doesn't save the detail pages of our bill. Given that we used to pay $23/month for land line, then we are paying about $35/month for "up to 7Mbps". I just did a CenturyLink speed test that showed 6Mpbs at 12:50 on a Sunday. Other speed tests in evenings have shown 4Mpbs. Trying to determine what higher speeds would cost is a big hassle. See http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=787754 for some users experiences with CenturyLink.
When I bought my iPhone, I switched from Verizon to Virgin Mobile because the pricing was more advantageous to me, only $30/month including data. When we visited our daughter at her lake house near Grand Rapids MN, I thought I would be able to use my iPhone to access the web. I was, sort of. I would get a one-bar 3G signal, then without moving I would get a roaming signal, then no service, then searching, then back to one-bar 3G, even standing by an upstairs window. Our daughter's house is 10 miles from Grand Rapids and less than 2 miles from a major highway. Granted that there are many trees, but can waving leafless trees cause that much variation? The second surprise was that we thought with the iPhone and a low-power FM-to-car-radio cable that we would be able to listen to Minnesota Public Radio all the way back to Duluth without changing the dial. No such luck! On the major highway we were on, the cell signal kept coming in and out. Oh, well, at least the Virgin Mobile/Sprint coverage map doesn't claim that that area is covered.
I knew that AT&T had put up a couple of towers in the Brimson area where we have our cabin, but I've heard many complaints that many AT&T's customer are not satisfied. I checked AT&T's coverage map and did discover coverage areas in Brimson; they are a whole bunch of small islands that make no sense. Besides telling me that our cabin address is could not be matched (other web sites can find it), it shows a coverage area that starts just west of where our cabin is and ends less than a mile farther west. That's too iffy to make a decision with.
The lesson is that you have to make a long checklist of all the features you want in a product and then spend hours and hours to find out what portion of those features are available to you at a price you want to pay. Nobody else is going to help you. And of course, after you buy the product, you'll find a new feature you want but your choice doesn't provide – like listening to public radio without switching stations.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Another inefficient corporation
When I bought my iPhone in September, I cancelled my Verizon Wireless account in favor of Virgin Mobile. I was told at the time by the Best Buy representative that I would have a cancellation fee of around $80 from Verizon.
When Verizon notified me in early October that I had an online statement, I thought I would pay that cancellation fee. Ha! Even though the statement showed an outstanding balance of $89.46, in the "Pay Bill" section, the amount was $0! The site wouldn't even let me pay the true balance online with my debit card. The site did say I would get a paper statement.
The due date was October 23, and so I had plenty of time to get the paper bill and write a check. And the paper bill did not come, and it did not come. Finally, about October 22, I looked up the phone number for "Contact Us". The woman that responded said that I could pay at such and such URL.
Surprise, at that URL I could pay, and I could pay with a debit card. I did and the payment has cleared my bank.
Yesterday, October 29, six days after the payment had been due, I received the paper bill. The paper bill states that I owe $89.46!
From my posts about Netflix, you know the Postal Service can provide next day service. If the sending post office is not within a day's drive of Duluth, Netflix states a DVD will be delivered within 3-5 days. If memory serves me right, the actual delivery is 2-3 days.
The Verizon bill was dated September 28. The only mail that takes over a week to arrive is mail that gets mis-delivered, stuck in a crevice somewhere, or is never sent promptly by the sender. I will go with the last. Is this a deceptive practice to hit me with a late payment fee or is this extreme inefficiency. I think the latter. Of course, if I were actually late with a regular payment, Verizon or many other vendors would promptly charge me with a late payment charge.
Thank you to Netflix, Best Buy, and many others for giving me counter-examples that show corporations can provide efficient customer service. It just goes to show that the management/ownership form of any organization doesn't predict its efficiency or effectiveness; the real guide is the kind of people in the organization – from top to bottom!
When Verizon notified me in early October that I had an online statement, I thought I would pay that cancellation fee. Ha! Even though the statement showed an outstanding balance of $89.46, in the "Pay Bill" section, the amount was $0! The site wouldn't even let me pay the true balance online with my debit card. The site did say I would get a paper statement.
The due date was October 23, and so I had plenty of time to get the paper bill and write a check. And the paper bill did not come, and it did not come. Finally, about October 22, I looked up the phone number for "Contact Us". The woman that responded said that I could pay at such and such URL.
Surprise, at that URL I could pay, and I could pay with a debit card. I did and the payment has cleared my bank.
Yesterday, October 29, six days after the payment had been due, I received the paper bill. The paper bill states that I owe $89.46!
From my posts about Netflix, you know the Postal Service can provide next day service. If the sending post office is not within a day's drive of Duluth, Netflix states a DVD will be delivered within 3-5 days. If memory serves me right, the actual delivery is 2-3 days.
The Verizon bill was dated September 28. The only mail that takes over a week to arrive is mail that gets mis-delivered, stuck in a crevice somewhere, or is never sent promptly by the sender. I will go with the last. Is this a deceptive practice to hit me with a late payment fee or is this extreme inefficiency. I think the latter. Of course, if I were actually late with a regular payment, Verizon or many other vendors would promptly charge me with a late payment charge.
Thank you to Netflix, Best Buy, and many others for giving me counter-examples that show corporations can provide efficient customer service. It just goes to show that the management/ownership form of any organization doesn't predict its efficiency or effectiveness; the real guide is the kind of people in the organization – from top to bottom!
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