From One Cell to Another

Finally had to bite the bullet and confront the need to switch cell providers. The phone I was using was tied to a legacy service: ATT Free2Go. Cingular took it on when they bought ATT Wireless a while back. About a month or so back, when I was talking to customer service (somewhere in India), I was told that Free2Go was going to go bye-bye by the end of March 2007, and that I couldn’t recharge it after December 2006. Well. I’d toyed with the idea of changing my plan, but this certainly served as a great motivator to see what my options were.

I narrowed it down to being a prepaid plan with either Cingular or Alltel. While Cingular would let me keep my number (prepaid plan phone numbers don’t generally get moved over when you switch companies), Alltel had the best deal and a better rep in town. The real deciding factor was that Cingular forced me to switch quickly because in the span of a month my phone went from very useful to mostly roaming, and it was becoming essentially useless to me. Customer care means something to me, and despite having to change from a very user-friendly phone number, I decided to switch.

And the switch could have been easier. The phone I wanted, which was listed online, wasn’t available at my local Alltel stores. So I ordered online. After a wait, I’m told the phone is no longer available…period. Great. So, I go to the Alltel store and pick out a basic phone. I figure I can always buy a snappier one later (the downside of pre-paid plans is that you don’t get that sweet discount on phones like you do when you’re under contract). The whole situation was saved when I got a really, really user-friendly phone number…well, that and the fact that I can once again make calls and text all around town again. Woohoo!