AT&T - still sucks. The rant continues

[[AK]Clay]

Secret AT&T phone resetting?

So yesterday, the wife comes home and says she’s done. The phone lies to her too much. She was in an accident the other day, had 3-4 bars, and every time tried making a call, got a “no service available” response. This happens all the time. Between it cutting out all the time, dropped calls, and most damning, the lying by saying it has service when it doesn’t, she’s had it. Everyone else gets service on their cell phones in certain areas – why can’t she or I with our AT&T phones?

So I call AT&T and say this isn’t going to work. The wife has had it, is going to throw her phone in the river and is going to drop AT&T – damn the costs. I need help.

So they're trying to help - sort of. First we got the lame power cycle reply. That’s crap, I’m not going to power cycle my phone every time I want to make a call. And while driving, it still isn’t going to jump towers anyway.

Plan B – they supposedly sent a “boost” signal to her phone, and mine, upon my request. Aha, this is more like it, sounds like the phone needs some setting adjustments to be more aggressive about jumping towers. But to activate that, we have to dial #002. Okay, so we dial #002 – and get a message saying can’t complete call as dialed. Wtf is that? Aren’t we supposed to get some kind of “boost activated!” message or something? I don’t think this worked. So the battle continues. The frustrating part is there’s really no immediate feedback diagnostics. The problem is the reliability is so sporadic, it sucks. And it lies, so you don't know if you really have service or not until you actually try placing a call. But how do you test that, other than using it over a week and then concluding it’s still sporadic? What if it’s just a good week? So you can never really trust it, even if they fixed it. Grr. .AT&T sucks.

Oh, and btw, don’t get AT&T, they suck.

[[AK]Swae]

Yup. That's the only reason Billy and I didn't go with iPhones. My mother has AT&T and often has to walk into her backyard to make a phone call.

Seriously, I can't say enough good things about T-Mobile. At least in my area and anywhere I have travelled, reception has been spotless - I even had service in Yellowstone. T-Mobile, last I heard, shares towers with many, many providers, including government towers. So far, I have not found a place where I don't have coverage, including some middle-of-nowhere locales that I have visited for work.

I know that carrier quality varies greatly by location, but I can give T-Mobile a hearty recommendation.

[[AK]Hylander]

Don't tell Squidly - he gets upset when you dis AT&T.


My wife just got a LG Dare at Verizon last week and she loves it. Being on Verizon, we never have connection issues at all. She says the touch screen seemed a little touchy at first - but now she is use to it and very happy with the phone.

I've been very happy with my Motorola Q9C which surprised me. I wasn't thrilled about going to the Windows Mobile platform - but it's worked out very well. I only paid $79 for the Q, so I'm very happy with the result. Although the new Blackberry looks killer.

Speaking of which - Anyone want to buy a Palm T/X handheld? Works great, in great shape - I just don't have a use for it anymore.

[[AK]Bojan]

Im no phone tech guy, but it may be hardware issues with your actual phone vrs the service. As with any good sales you can probably go down and play hard ball and get new phones (try a different model)

Maybe that will help and save you the cash of cancelling early.

Myself just left AT&T last month.

[[AK]Brorlis]

I've had AT&T for years now and have asolutely no complaints.

It really just depends on your area of the country. Verizon sucks here like AT&T does where your at Clay.

To each his own I guess.

[[AK]Squidly]

Don't tell Squidly - he gets upset when you dis AT&T.

I don't get upset. I simply point out that I have never had the problems you're describing.

So while it may suck for you, it does not suck for me.

The same is true for every phone provider, so "AT&T sucks" or "Verizon sucks" or "T-mobile sucks"...whatever. They all suck to someone.

[[AK]Bojan]

Thats an awful lot of sucking.

Just wanted to let you know I have refrained my self from making unappropriate comments

[[AK]Swae]

Thats an awful lot of sucking.

Just wanted to let you know I have refrained my self from making unappropriate comments

I've missed you Bojan.