Category: the Rant Board
Hi. I have cingular as my cellphone provider, and I'm not happy with the minutes I get every month. I am on a family plan with five other lines. The total amount of minutes we get on the family plan is 850. That's every month. I don't know about you, but That's not enough! I can't call anyone on weekdays because free night and weekends start at 9 o'clock. That's rediculous since the friendsI call are an hour ahead of me and they go to bed quite early, and we eat supper quite late. Phone calls don't fit into my daily schedule. I wish cingular would change their night and weekend minutes and take time Zones into consideration! The phone is the major means of communication with my friends, not to get off topic, but the night minutes starting at nine is plum rediculous! What are your oppinions?
P.s. To add more fuel to the fire, I don't have long distance on my home phone! That sucks!
Katie, I know that sprint and nextel do the same thing, however you can purhase ninght/weekend minutes starting at 7:00 for $5 a month, or at least that's what it was before I canceled my minutes. I'm assuming, of course, the cingulare offers the same option. With a multiline plan, I'm not sure how that works, and it would be something you'd have to discuss with the company, and the other members of your contract plan to see if everyone feels the same way.
Lou
You can add nights and weekends for your plan, think it's $7 a month, but not sure if it's $7 per line or not.
You can also use a OneSuite calling card www.onesuite.com it's 2 cents a minute, I think, long distance, or just use Skype, I mean, Skype Out you pay $15 a year for unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada (land lines that is) and you're done.
go with a voip provider for long distance.
Or encourage your friends to get skype or something.
hey cingular does not offer the 7 minute starter thing.
thats why i love nextell. I get 500 minutes free nights and weekends and all incomming calls are free!
Cingular does offer the 7 plan. It is 8.50 per line and goes fro 7PM tell 7AM I have the service, but they are calling themselves AT and T now period. Also the skype suggestion is a plus to. I have it and it's great. You can call regular phones, so the person doesn't have to have Skype you're calling. It's $30 or $40 I'd have to look,a year now if you don't already have it. Another thing to do is get a single plan and pay say $40 a month plus taxes for a 500 daytime, if you add the $8.50 to that you're paying about $49 plus taxes, but you have your own, so it all depends on your budget here. A TAnd T is not alone, so this is a industry stand.
Good suggestions. I'll se if my family approves of that. As with skype, I don't even have a microphone. And who knows how much they cost.
dl, a head set with a mic will cost you between $10 and $20, $20 will get you a perfectly fine one that works. $30 to $35 would get you a wireless one so you don't even have to be at the computer. Then for $90 to $150 you can get a Skype phone that hooks to your wireless modem directly and will ring and you can call from without even turning on the computer, those phones are getting cheaper now too, might be able to get one for less than $100.
cheers
-B
Some laptops have a built in microphone but it's still better to buy one.
I hate cingular, I think it sounds crappy.
I pick Cingular over Verizen.
Them guys, are crooks!
cingular rules and verizon sucks ass for sure.
well cingular does still order the thing where you pay 8 bucks extra and your nights start at 7.
Cingular over verizon anyday if I had to chose.
Part of how people sound is there phone as well as ther reception.
Let's face it singular is better.
Wow I didn't mean to turn this in to a Cingular Vs. verizen debate. lol
I'm so opposing cingular at this moment. Today I got an $80 phone bill. This is because of my daytime calling. Dang! I should get more minutes than that!
Only $88 for five lines?
No, just for one line itself. I have a family plan, but the 80 dollars was just for me.
Damn! Who the fuck are you calling? Or where the fuck are you calling. shit!
Dude. Singular also supports an individual plan with 400 daytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, and possibly free mobile to mobile calling for just about 50 dollars a month. If that's too expensive, they also carry the same plan for 30 dollars, but one's daytime minutes are reduced by half.
You can get family n/w minuts starting at seven for $17--I just looked today. 450 minutes with 5000 n/w is $40, 700 is $50 I believe and so on and so forth. Of course with family plans the above is not the case, but you could start nights and weekend minutes earlier for $17 for all lines--almost nine dollars for your line alone.
Shanda
Well, I call people in boston, west verginia, new york, connecticut, and arizona. I'll talk to my family and see what they say about these ideas.
shit!
you can get night and weekend minutes starting at seven, but it's 8-99 per line per month
Dang! That's too high! I might as well switch to my own plan. Does anyone know of any good wireless providers that are cheep, and there night and weekend minutes are around 7, and you don't have to pay extra for it? I know that's a lot to ask for, but I really miss calling my friends, and I can't call them all in two days.
Hi Download,
I tbhink you need to start thinking about getting on your plan, and supporting yourself. Get your own phone, and quit complaining about the fact that you have a phone. Phones were rare with teens about ten years ago. So, count yourself lucky. And, not to sit and talk about offtopic things all day, Sprint is the cheapest with the plan at seven. I am personally with TMobile on a family plan paying about 80 dollars a month for two lines. We get 1000 minutes for daytime, and unlimited night and weekends. That is good enough for me. If I were you, I would get something like Skype. It might limit you to a computer, but at least it would be cheap. thirty dollars a year for unlimited long distance is cheap.
Thats not going to hapin, with her. haha!
Yeah, that's true.
Well, how cheep is sprint, and will I have to buy a different phone when I switch providers? I have a nokia 6620 with talks software.
I know i am changing the subject here but in the USA have you got what we have in europ called pay as you go? I think for people who don't work this method is better because you add credit in your phone so you know how much you can spend. When the credit run out you can't call any more untill you top up your account.
When i am in England i use a network called o2 and i have pay as you go.
They have a nice tarif called favorite place. You tell them your postcode or zip code as you call it in America and when i am in my postcode area i have got 500 minutes every month to call any other o2 number or landline day or night.
But Anyway i never heard anyone in America having pay as you go. So i was wondering about this.
My sister has trac fone, wichch is a pay as you go service, but I want to keep my phone, and I don't know what providers this phone supports, or if cingular has pay as you go.
If your phone is not locked to singular it means that you can put any sim card in it from any network and it will work. if it is locked it might be possible that you can unlock it by visiting a phone shop but some phones cannnot be unlocked.
I may get an opinion from my mom and dad before switching providers.
You want my opinion? Don't get pay as you go. If you're complaining about not enought minutes, you're going to have a lot more to complain about with pay as you go, especially seeing as it's more expensive.
I have verizon, and love it! Yes my free minutes start at 9:00 but I'm cool with it.
Troy
Well, thanks for the advice about pay as you go. Well, there's a whole lot to consider before switching providers. Like, the quality of service, what payment plans they offer, what minutes you have on weekdays and weekends, then, about what kind of phone you will need. That's crucial if you need an accessible phone.
One thing that makes me so dang mad is that cingular also charges you for checking voicemail, and checking email. There may come a time that I'm away from the computer, and I get an important email. These cell phone companies are so dang money hungry!
Probably because the mailbox number your phone calls is not an 800 number and as for Email and texting, i'm on a family plan.
I got a bil in the mail, and it said 30 outgoing data transfers. I don't know what their talking about. I texted a few times, but not that many, and have sent one email from my cell phone. I sware That's all I did besides calling. I'm so ticked off because I have to pay $5 for these data transfers that I know I didn't do! They do anything to take your money!
how long was the email? It may have been broken down in to segments. It also charges for incomming messages too.
It wasn't very long. The bill did mention text messages, but data transfers I think is something different. I think the email was about 1 line or so.
Do you lock your keys when you are not using your phone? Maybe you are sending and not realizing it. If you are not intentionally sending data transfers, then ask Cingular to block such transmissions to and from your number. I have text msg blocked on mine, because I do not want to pay for ones I received by mistake or from advertisers or such.
Why are you complaining about your $80 bill from Cingular. You know the terms of your plan and if you talk over the minutes it shouldn't be a surprise that you got billed more. Either add minutes, get a different plan entirely or keep better track of how much calling you are doing.
If you check your voice mail from a land line phone, Cingular does not charge you. So, if you are where you can check from a different phone, use that method to save a few minutes.
Did you download ring tones? That would show up as a data transfer. Did you have TellMe or 800-free-411 or another service send you info? If so, that would show up as a data transfer.
If you are talking to a friend with whom you normally have mobile-to-mobile calling, if they call you, confirm that they are using their cell phone. My son ran up a bill because he assumed his friend was calling on their cell phone. They weren't billed for the local call to his cell phone, but he paid for every minute. Now when they talk, the friend uses the cell rather than the land line.
I lock my keys. I didn't have anyone send me info. I didn't download ring tones. Messenger, email and my cell phone are my only means of communication between my friends since they live so far away.
All the data transfers on my bill show up as outgoing, which means coming from the phone. I'd know if I was sending something because my phone talks and it would tell me.