Good Service, Poor Phones
Written: Apr 04 '05 (Updated Apr 06 '05)
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Pros: Great coverage.
Cons: Poor phone selection and phone quality.
The Bottom Line: If you want great coverage with an average phone, Alltel is a good choice.
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| emcgusty's Full Review: Alltel Mobile Phone Service in Tampa/St. Petersbur... |
Alltel has the best coverage in Tampa. Unfortunately, they have very few phones to choose from. Is there a cool phone on the market that most of the mainstream providers carry that you want? Don't come to alltel, they don't have it. Want a Blackberry? Look elsewhere. Want a Pocket PC based PDA phone? Sorry. Want a Palm based PDA phone? That they can accommodate ... they carry a 33mhz palm based phone from a few years ago - those of you who keep up with technology know the current palm based PDA phones have processors that are ten times faster! Do you like the poor quality of Motorola? Your in luck - Alltel will lock you into a 2 year commitment with a phone that will last just over a year if you are lucky. Of course your warranty expires at the one year point, and you have to fix the phone on your own or buy a new one at FULL price. Did you get the extra warranty that you pay each month for to cover this problem? Alltel will replace your phone with one that you don't necessarily want, take it or leave it.
Hopefully Alltel will get acquired soon so that I can replace my crappy Motorola phone (that now hangs up after answering every other call) with something nice. Oh, beware, if you change your Alltel plan, they DO reset their little internal contract clock. I am going to give someone a reaming now to see if they will change it back to when I bought my phone. That's a new policy they instilled since I did my last contract - a little unethical if you ask me ... sounds like a class action suit in the future waiting to happen.
I have been with Alltel for many years now. My Motorola phones typically only outlast the warranty, but not always. My last Motorola phone was under warranty when the external caller ID screen stopped showing up. Even under warranty, neither Alltel nor Motorola would fix it without charging me. My replacement phone for that has started hanging up on calls after about a second ... it only does it every several calls though ... I have had that for about a year - talk about planned obsolescence, motorola doesn't mess around. The other line I pay for, the Motorola phone stopped being able to charge a few months after the warranty expired. That person went with a different brand for their replacement, as will I. Unfortunately Alltel does not have any phones that I want to upgrade to, so we will see what happens. I might have to buy a phone off eBay to get by for now.
Bottom line - in Tampa and its surrounding areas, Alltel coverage cannot be beat. For the good, you have to deal with the bad. I think Alltel is the lesser of "evils" here in the Tampa market, making it the best choice despite its shortcomings.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200 Phone
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Epinions.com ID:
emcgusty
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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