Cricket: The Most Frustrating Cellular Phone Service in the Business
Written: Oct 17 '06
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Local Coverage: |
 |
|
| Plan Flexibility: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
|
|
|
Pros: Well....it's prices are low
Cons: Customer service is awful; Calls drop constantly; Service can be cut without notice
The Bottom Line: Until Cricket corrects its long list of customer service issues, I will not be using its services again.
|
|
|
| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: General Reviews of Cricket Communications Wireless... |
Cellular phones and the companies who provide their communication services are both growing in popularity and the competition for your monthly service fee is fierce. I have used a few different service providers in my time and most of them have been very similar in quality of service. There are, of course, a few exceptions to my general satisfaction and one of them is Cricket Communications, a wireless phone service provider.
What Does This Service Offer:
Cricket offers cellular phone services for both businesses and individuals. There are usually several plans to choose from (not all plans are offered in all areas- you need to consult with a Cricket rep first or check the web site) with offers such as:
Unlimited Basic- Allows unlimited local calls, but charges for any long distance calls.
Unlimited Classic- This plan is a notch better than the Basic service, but still offers only local calls free of charge.
Unlimited Plus- This option includes both unlimited local calls and unlimited long distance calls (expect for Alaska).
Unlimited Access- With this option, you get unlimited local and long distance calls plus added features like voice mail, caller ID, text messaging, picture messaging, and call waiting.
Customer Service/Product Information:
To find out more about Cricket products and services, the place to visit on- line is the web site mycricket.com. The web site should answer most of your questions, like differences among the calling plans, plans available in your local area, etc. If you need to speak with customer service, the phone number to call is 800-CRICKET (800- 275-2538). If you already have Cricket, you can reach customer service by dialing *611 from your Cricket handset.
Final Thoughts:
Cricket is one of the many cellular phone communication service providers and it is also one of the least expensive. It has made a name for itself by promoting the fact that it doesn’t require commitment to a contract to start a new plan. With other cellular phone services, a new customer has to sign a contract and remain a customer with that company until the contract expires or else pay a penalty. But with Cricket, there is no contract to sign. Customers sign up and pay for the service on a month by month basis and can quit whenever they please.
Cricket is often selected by those who don’t want to get locked into a plan but it is also known for its low prices. It is a possible option for those who want to save money and/or who don’t have any need to call long distance. As you can see from the above descriptions, three out of the four plans mentioned do not offer long distance (you can still make long distance calls, but it will cost you- even if the calls are made at night). This could be an inconvenience for some, but it also means the prices are less expensive than with other plans. Each plan varies in price by about $5 as you go from Unlimited Basic up through Unlimited Access. Basic is the least expensive, costing about $30 per month; Classic costs about $35; Plus costs about $40; and Access costs about $45. State, local, and federal taxes are added to each bill increasing the total cost by about ten to fifteen percent. And there is an activation fee of about $25 for all plans.
Having a company like Cricket is nice for those who don’t need the added services that some cell phone companies provide. But when it comes to customer service in general, Cricket is one of the worst companies in the business. Getting through to a live representative is a nightmare, with message after message advising the caller to press a button for more instructions. If you can get what you want through the automated system, then that is great. But if you need to talk to a live rep, it can often get more frustrating than it’s worth. The toll- free line doesn’t even offer a button to push to speak with a rep. I have called many times and tried pressing ־” at different points, but each time it responds back with “I didn’t understand your response”. It does this over and over again. If you don’t press any buttons at all, it will connect you to the voice activated command system. Again, you are stuck going in circles. No matter what button you press, you cannot get to the option to speak to a live rep. And if you purposely start pressing random buttons hoping that it will result in a direct connection to customer service, the automated system will likely respond with “I’m not sure what happened…I still didn’t get your response…why don’t you try again later”. You will then be disconnected.
In an effort to solve my customer service problems, I even tried speaking to a local Cricket store. The person at the store gave me another number to try and the same thing happened. Only when I insisted that she try to connect me with a live rep was she able to get me through to an actual person. And once I got the live person on the phone, she seemed to lack general knowledge on Cricket and on cellular service in general. These types of problems were not isolated when I used Cricket- they happened all of the time. If I had a simple question (like an inquiry into the current month’s bill amount), I could get what I needed from the automated system. But getting answers to more complicated questions was next to impossible and I often gave up trying.
Want to know another annoyance with Cricket? If you don’t pay your bill on time, they will disconnect your service without warning. They will not give you a courtesy call or e-mail to remind you to send in a payment or to suggest using the on- line bill pay or some other method to keep your account current. They will just shut you off without notice, leaving you with the sudden surprise of having no phone service. This has to be a common occurrence for all Cricket customers because I noticed that, if I call the customer service line and listen to all of the automated selections, one of them says: “If you are calling to reactivate an account that has been disconnected for more than 30 days, press…”. This shows that disconnections are a daily occurrence with Cricket. If the payment is not received in their hands on the day it is due, your service is cut off. Cricket will allow service restoration using the automated system and it can sometimes be reactivated in less than one hour. But who wants to deal with an inconvenience like this? What if an emergency comes up and you really need your cell phone? What if you reach in your pocket, pull out your phone, and discover it has lost its service because your payment was received one day late? This aspect alone is enough to make me not use Cricket again. I always strive to pay my bills on time but I’m not going to take the chance that my payment will get lost in the mail and I will suddenly be without the use of my cell phone.
Are there any other annoyances with Cricket? You bet there are. Another issue I have with them is the limited calling area. If you place a call outside of your small, local area, you will be charged for a long distance call. The calling areas vary by city, but they are often very tiny- too tiny to avoid the inevitable problem of roaming outside the local area and getting charged for a call. There is also a good chance you will go too far from the area and the calls will not go through or will get dropped. Where I live, Cricket’s local area extends only about two miles south of my house. That means if I travel just two miles in a southward direction, I will likely not be able to use my cell phone. The call may or may not go through and there is a good chance it will drop if it does go through. Again, this is something I find unacceptable. Cricket even points out, in its web site, that weather, buildings, terrain, and other factors can affect making calls and that it does not guarantee coverage. Who wants to deal with a cellular phone service like this?
I got fed up with the customer service issues and poor coverage issues with Cricket and finally cancelled the service. What do you suppose Cricket did? They continued to send me monthly bills regardless, showing current charge amounts that needed to be paid for phone reactivation. Repeated calls to customer service could not resolve this problem. The bills are still sent each month. I am told that I have to visit a Cricket store to solve the problem, but I don’t see why I should have to do this. There should be a way to cancel service and resolve all problems over the phone.
Overall, my experience with Cricket cellular communications and its customer service department has been terrible and this is one company I will not work with again until it corrects some of the its obvious customer service issues and provides at least a minimal amount of satisfaction. I realize that Cricket service is inexpensive and that the primary reason the customer service stinks so bad is because they have to limit the number of reps in order to keep prices low. But this is one instance where paying a little more for better service from another provider is worth the expenditure. We all like to save money, but I don’t think a savings of $10 per month is worth it when a service has so many problems.
Poor customer service, weak coverage, countless dropped calls, and other miscellaneous annoyances are enough to earn Cricket the lowest possible rating I can give. Zero stars aren’t an option, so I will give Cricket a one star rating overall. It offers little in the way of customer service and its collection policies and billing procedures are terrible. It is the worst experience I have had with a cellular service provider thus far.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 35
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.