I should go with T-Mobile/MetroPCS but don't want to spend a lot for a phone

[Kahroo]

Cept T-Mobile /metro

I should go with T-Mobile but don't want to spend a lot for a phone...

 

[DirtyDee]

I should go with T-Mobile but don't want to spend a lot for a phone...

How much were you willing to pay? You could go MetroPCS...

 

[bg4m3r]

How much were you willing to pay? You could go MetroPCS...

Metro PCS has a horrible reputation

 

[DirtyDee]

Metro PCS has a horrible reputation

Really since when metro is a part of tmobile and was getting better than sprint mvnos. We were getting the s3 when you guys got the s2. So if tmobile is bad in your area then metro is as well

 

[bg4m3r]

Really since when metro is a part of tmobile and was getting better than sprint mvnos. We were getting the s3 when you guys got the s2. So if tmobile is bad in your area then metro is as well

I'll admit that our area only just got MetroPCS, and that my statement is based on research online when I was considering switching, but here's an example of what I'm talking about. 157 reviews, maybe 30 over 3 stars.

http://www.phonedog.com/carriers/metropcs/

Even if the phones and service quality is good, their business practices seem to be on the underhanded side.

 

[DirtyDee]

That link is so out of date check out our forum then check out the other pre-paid, metro isn't cdma anymore it's GSM along side tmobile, I never got underhanded but I did as much as I could without the brick and mortar stores and at 60 bucks a month unlimited 4glte No cap at all..on MetroPCS I would tether quite a bit 40 to 50 gbs on tmobile more of the same I just pay more for it.. :\

 

[bg4m3r]

Out of date? There's plenty of reviews from this month/year. Did you even look at the reviews? I imagine they added the carrier years ago, but the reviews are current. Also, that's just one site... Plenty of other examples out there. If you're getting good service from them, great for you, but in the whole their reputation isn't that fantastic.

 

[DirtyDee]

Out of date? There's plenty of reviews from this month/year. Did you even look at the reviews? I imagine they added the carrier years ago, but the reviews are current. Also, that's just one site... Plenty of other examples out there. If you're getting good service from them, great for you, but in the whole their reputation isn't that fantastic.

I didn't see a single review on that site, what are people saying

 

[bg4m3r]

I didn't see a single review on that site, what are people saying

http://www.phonedog.com/carriers/metropcs/reviews/

 

[DirtyDee]

http://www.phonedog.com/carriers/metropcs/reviews/

Except it doesn't exist for me

So il take force desktop mode..

Desktop had no changes for me I don't see this reviews button.. Which I'd why I asked what are they saying that makes you say they are shady

 

[bg4m3r]

Well, now you have a link to the page.

 

[DirtyDee]

Well, now you have a link to the page.

Most people on metro are very happy and If you just got it in your area then its gsm if. I get great phone service, phone choices, true unlimited everything and a reasonable price.. I want to know what they are complaining about.. I can't see it on my phone and you feel its unessary to copy and paste and pm it to me that I'd fine...

Back to the volt, in my honest opinion the S4 processer is crap compared to the snapdragon 400 quad core, my moto g makes me regret my xperia tl and atrix HD it is far snappier than my buddies note 2 but that could be due to touchwiz, but doubt it. Mind you I am referring to the stock moto g

 

[DirtyDee]

Most people on metro are very happy and If you just got it in your area then its gsm if. I get great phone service, phone choices, true unlimited everything and a reasonable price.. I want to know what they are complaining about.. I can't see it on my phone and you feel its unessary to copy and paste and pm it to me that I'd fine...

Back to the volt, in my honest opinion the S4 processer is crap compared to the snapdragon 400 quad core, my moto g makes me regret my xperia tl and atrix HD it is far snappier than my buddies note 2 but that could be due to touchwiz, but doubt it. Mind you I am referring to the stock moto g

Got it from the first page I could see on legit compliant about the phone not being in use and paying over the phone ...called a service fee.. And because you weren't using a phone doesn't mean it isn't on the network its prepaid and not pay as you go, some are complaints are about CDMA shut down some due to the site being busted January through February which it was another complaint about people who can't read in store prices ...most complaints are because people don't really pay attention

 

[bg4m3r]

I can't see it on my phone and you feel its unessary to copy and paste and pm it to me that I'd fine...

Pm what? The link is right there in my post. Like I said, I got the impression that they weren't all that, at least not enough so to switch for no price difference. You stated your opinion of the company, I offered a differing opinion based on what research I did. Nuff said.

 

[mogelijk]

I should go with T-Mobile but don't want to spend a lot for a phone...

I'm not sure what you are talking about here. One of the cheapest, but a surprising good phone, is the Nokia Lumia 521, which is under $100 -- and typically can be found for less than $75. I understand not wanting Windows but it is a quality inexpensive phone.

The new Moto E is a possiblity for only $129 from Motorola.

There is the Samsung Galaxy Light, which is just over $100. HSN currently sells it for $120, including a car charger.

There is the Moto G, which you can buy direct from Motorola for $179/199; of you can buy the Moto G LTE for $219. This is a great phone for the price.

There are also other T-Mobile branded prepaid phones available for less; a couple of Alcatels, a ZTE, etc.

If you want top of the line but inexpensive, you can always buy the Nexus 5 ($349/399) from the Play Store; the OnePlus One for $299/349, the $349 version even has 64GB of memory.

There is also the Moto X direct from Motorola, in the colors you want, for $399/450.

If you want a phablet, you can get the Sony Z Ultra from the Google Play store for $449 -- very cheap for a phone with a 6.4" screen with 342ppi (1920x1080).

And if those aren't enough possibilities, or cheap enough, there are plenty of used phones out there that you can purchase that are in good quality from eBay or Craigslist. Any GSM unlocked phone with the needed frequencies, basically AWS (1700/2100 Mhz), will work on T-Mobile.

 

[mogelijk]

Pm what? The link is right there in my post. Like I said, I got the impression that they weren't all that, at least not enough so to switch for no price difference. You stated your opinion of the company, I offered a differing opinion based on what research I did. Nuff said.

If you look up a post from yours, you'll see DirtyDee responded to you here. I'll even mostly agree with DirtyDee, most of those recent complaints were very suspect.

The one from the person who shut their phone off for two weeks and expected to be credited for service is downright funny. Sure, try telling your cable company your TV was off for two weeks and see if they refund your money. Try telling your landlord that you didn't stay two weeks out of the month and see if they will refund two weeks of rent. Or even try to get any other carrier/MVNO to credit you for turning your phone off for two weeks of your monthly plan.

Their was a complaint about a store -- hard to count that against the Metro. Most Metro stores are franchise locations and, just like any other franchise, you will sometimes run into bad stores. It is unfortunate but true -- but that is when you complain to MetroPCS about that store.

The one about being asked to go into a store sounds like it is bogus. My best guess, the customer service rep was unable to verify that the person who called in was the owner of the account; they wanted him to go into a store, so they could verify his identity, before they made changes. Regardless, while I understand the inconvenience, they gave him the method to get his problem fixed but he wasn't willing. That one isn't on Metro.

A couple of others, as mentioned, were CDMA network issues; and the users with CDMA phones are being encouraged to move to GSM phones. The CDMA network is due to be turned off in less than a year, and a couple of locations (Vegas is one I can think of) are already being turned off. Since Metro hasn't sold CDMA phones for about a year, this isn't an issue for new customers.

There are some oddities about Metro, though they don't belong in service issues. One example is the person who complained about the charge on some forms of payments, such as paying in a store. That is understandable, again, most stores are franchises so it is a "service fee" so that the store makes a profit from handling the payment. MetroPCS is very upfront about the fees and how you can avoid them (such as through auto-payment).

On an interesting note, if Softbank's buyout of T-Mobile is successful, it seems possible that Virgin Mobile customers could become Metro customers. It is sounding, the more I read, that it is the T-Mobile brand and leadership that will be kept, and likely the network converted to be all GSM/LTE. It will be interesting to see what might happen to prepaid at that point; if T-Mobile wants to continue 4 prepaid brands or if they will merge some. It is part of the reason I don't want the merger, as most prepaid customers are on Sprint's and T-Mobile's network.

 

[DirtyDee]

If you look up a post from yours, you'll see DirtyDee responded to you here. I'll even mostly agree with DirtyDee, most of those recent complaints were very suspect.

The one from the person who shut their phone off for two weeks and expected to be credited for service is downright funny. Sure, try telling your cable company your TV was off for two weeks and see if they refund your money. Try telling your landlord that you didn't stay two weeks out of the month and see if they will refund two weeks of rent. Or even try to get any other carrier/MVNO to credit you for turning your phone off for two weeks of your monthly plan.

Their was a complaint about a store -- hard to count that against the Metro. Most Metro stores are franchise locations and, just like any other franchise, you will sometimes run into bad stores. It is unfortunate but true -- but that is when you complain to MetroPCS about that store.

The one about being asked to go into a store sounds like it is bogus. My best guess, the customer service rep was unable to verify that the person who called in was the owner of the account; they wanted him to go into a store, so they could verify his identity, before they made changes. Regardless, while I understand the inconvenience, they gave him the method to get his problem fixed but he wasn't willing. That one isn't on Metro.

A couple of others, as mentioned, were CDMA network issues; and the users with CDMA phones are being encouraged to move to GSM phones. The CDMA network is due to be turned off in less than a year, and a couple of locations (Vegas is one I can think of) are already being turned off. Since Metro hasn't sold CDMA phones for about a year, this isn't an issue for new customers.

There are some oddities about Metro, though they don't belong in service issues. One example is the person who complained about the charge on some forms of payments, such as paying in a store. That is understandable, again, most stores are franchises so it is a "service fee" so that the store makes a profit from handling the payment. MetroPCS is very upfront about the fees and how you can avoid them (such as through auto-payment).

On an interesting note, if Softbank's buyout of T-Mobile is successful, it seems possible that Virgin Mobile customers could become Metro customers. It is sounding, the more I read, that it is the T-Mobile brand and leadership that will be kept, and likely the network converted to be all GSM/LTE. It will be interesting to see what might happen to prepaid at that point; if T-Mobile wants to continue 4 prepaid brands or if they will merge some. It is part of the reason I don't want the merger, as most prepaid customers are on Sprint's and T-Mobile's network.

Merger between tmetro and sprint is a whole different ball park I want it if sprint could really do something with alllll that spectrum. I expect mayo San to pay a breakup fee tho. Also could be good

 

[bg4m3r]

whole bunch of talking

Wow, OK, first, it should be pretty apparent that we were posting at the same time, hence the mix up in communication. Happens often in forums. Also, I never said every post on there was legit, but that same filtering gets applied to the positive posts as well. Again, I also never said that was singular evidence of their service quality. It was simply an example if what pretty much all the sites I looked at contained. Sorry for presenting a differing point of view. Eesh

 

[DirtyDee]

Wow, OK, first, it should be pretty apparent that we were posting at the same time, hence the mix up in communication. Happens often in forums. Also, I never said every post on there was legit, but that same filtering gets applied to the positive posts as well. Again, I also never said that was singular evidence of their service quality. It was simply an example if what pretty much all the sites I looked at contained. Sorry for presenting a differing point of view. Eesh

I am loving that quote, I am going to use that

 

[mogelijk]

Wow, OK, first, it should be pretty apparent that we were posting at the same time, hence the mix up in communication. Happens often in forums. Also, I never said every post on there was legit, but that same filtering gets applied to the positive posts as well. Again, I also never said that was singular evidence of their service quality. It was simply an example if what pretty much all the sites I looked at contained. Sorry for presenting a differing point of view. Eesh

That's fine, it is just that is what you posted to justify your claim. My issue was that the site didn't really support your claim, there were some pretty bad comments there. I could find sites that treat Virgin Mobile the same way, with little more validity. It is also true that much of Metro's online reputation is based on their service prior to being merged into T-Mobile.

Having said that, as I mentioned in that long post, there are several oddities about MetroPCS. One of the biggest complaints from users is that you have to call in to change phones. Granted, that isn't that big a deal for Virgin Mobile users, who also have to do that, but it is something that upsets people who like to SIM swap between GSM phones. There is also the complaint that they do charge a transaction fee on some payment types.

If you want cheap, true unlimited data (no throttling) then MetroPCS is a good choice at $60 but I'll agree they aren't for everyone.

 

[TDOW]

That's fine, it is just that is what you posted to justify your claim. My issue was that the site didn't really support your claim, there were some pretty bad comments there. I could find sites that treat Virgin Mobile the same way, with little more validity. It is also true that much of Metro's online reputation is based on their service prior to being merged into T-Mobile.

Having said that, as I mentioned in that long post, there are several oddities about MetroPCS. One of the biggest complaints from users is that you have to call in to change phones. Granted, that isn't that big a deal for Virgin Mobile users, who also have to do that, but it is something that upsets people who like to SIM swap between GSM phones. There is also the complaint that they do charge a transaction fee on some payment types.

If you want cheap, true unlimited data (no throttling) then MetroPCS is a good choice at $60 but I'll agree they aren't for everyone.

My issue with MetroPCS was the fact that when I bought my phone from them, and brought it back in a few days later to port my number over they were unable to port it because it was not a "local number". I used to live in Minneapolis, and have had the same phone number for at least 15 years. I double checked that Metro had coverage in Minneapolis before I bought the phone so they should have been able to port the number (I live in SoCal now). Their software will not allow them to port it. I went across the street (did not buy a phone from them yet) to T-Mobile who assured me that they would indeed be able to port my Minneapolis number over when I decide to purchase a new phone. Not being able to port my number was a deal-breaker for me and because Metro could not port it, I am still with Virgin.

 

[mogelijk]

My issue with MetroPCS was the fact that when I bought my phone from them, and brought it back in a few days later to port my number over they were unable to port it because it was not a "local number". I used to live in Minneapolis, and have had the same phone number for at least 15 years. I double checked that Metro had coverage in Minneapolis before I bought the phone so they should have been able to port the number (I live in SoCal now). Their software will not allow them to port it. I went across the street (did not buy a phone from them yet) to T-Mobile who assured me that they would indeed be able to port my Minneapolis number over when I decide to purchase a new phone. Not being able to port my number was a deal-breaker for me and because Metro could not port it, I am still with Virgin.

As I said, they have some strange polices that seem to date from prior to the merger. I suspect (or at least hope) that once their CDMA network is turned off that many of those polices are changed. I believe the reason they haven't yet is because the old system is still needed to manage phones on the CDMA network.

 

[kate]

All the above posts were split from this Virgin Mobile LG Volt thread.

They were slightly off topic

 

[THE W]

metroPCS phone service is good if you live in their coverage area. i've never had a dropped call and their data speeds have vastly improved since the merger.

their customer service still sucks though. NEVER go to a storefront unless its a corporate store and i wouldn't even recommend doing that. metroPCS would vastly improve their storefront customer service if they just hired monkeys.

i have, however, had good experiences with metro online reps. basically, the phone service is fine, online CM reps are solid, but try to avoid going to a metro store.

 

[N7AS]

their customer service still sucks though. NEVER go to a storefront unless its a corporate store and i wouldn't even recommend doing that. metroPCS would vastly improve their storefront customer service if they just hired monkeys.

What species of monkeys would you recommend?