Saturday, November 03, 2007

Can You Hear Me Now?


Now that I am in Nebraska, I have run into a minor dilemma. My T-Mobile is not being very mobile. There is not any decent coverage anywhere around. T-Mobile doesn’t even have a store here in town. There are a zillion Verizon, Cellular One, Alltel, ATt&T,…, just no T-Mobile. I was more than happy with my carrier in Utah and in Lubbock. I am a consumer that is having a hard time consuming. Changing carriers is the easy solution. However, my situation cannot work with such a simple solution. The main reason we went with our current carrier is because my MIL beat us to the picking of the carrier. So when she went with T-Mobile, we had to go along for the ride as well due to the whole mobile to mobile thingy. So if we change carriers, we loose that mobile to mobile feature that we all enjoy. I’m pretty sure that the same situation was the whole reason why the Hatfields and the McCoys started feuding. They were drawn into the whole “which telegraph company was the best” If the telegraph companies would have just allowed the Hatfields and McCoys to take advantage of each other’s services, without extra surcharges, be one big happy family and not two disgruntled families carrying on generation after generation of hate and misgivings.

So my question for my faithful [and not so faithful] readers is: How can I overcome this problem and still get the same bang for my buck and make both parties happy?

11 comments:

wendysue said...

We have Alltel, and with it you get "circle of friends" and can choose 10 numbers for free minutes. Most of the rest of our family across country is with Sprint, but Alltel also has a discount program with Matt's work, so it works well for us. You could check with ITI and see if they have any company discount programs set up.

p.s. fun to have you here for dinner!

Lyle said...

What wonderful Lincoln hospitiality...even though y'all didn't let me win the game....sniff ;-). I don't think I'll ever forget the bat wings. Those were awesome.

I've looked into Alltel, and from what I saw on their website, their "cirlce of friends" plan was more expensive than what I am paying right now. But let's assume that that is not a factor; if my MIL was a part of our "circle of friends", would she be using her minutes [being with T-Mobile] if she calls us?

However, you do have a point about a company discount. I had forgotten that they do have special deals with a couple different carriers. However, how do you convince the MIL to change carriers?

Megan said...

You can not have all three. It's a plain, darn, yucky fact. You will have to choose the lesser of evils. I wish you luck good sir, good luck.

Christy said...

Welcome to Nebraska (I'm a friend of Wendy's).

I don't have a good answer for you...just wanted to say hi.

wendysue said...

Yep, she'd use her minutes. . .Hmm. . I'll have to think up an answer for the MIL.

Cari said...

I hate cell phone companies so I'm of no help, sorry.

Good luck figuring this one out.

Pappy Yokum said...

I know- call T-mobile (hahaha) and ask them (hahaha) if they can help (hahaha0 you with a solution. (hahahahahaha) Sorry, I couldn't help it - that is laughing as I typed out that sentence. My first thought was that you should simply call but even as my brain thought it, the laughter started welling up in my throat and I had to let it out. How sad it is.

Lyle said...

So, so far my best hope is to convince my MIL to change carriers once my family and I get squared away here in Nebraska.

Isn't there a law that is supposed to keep cell phone companies from having such stupid rules?

Can't T-Mobile just build a tower and make their customers happy. After all, it's not like I'm living in some two-bit town that has more goats than people. We're talking about a major metropolitan area. Puxa Meu!!!

Anonymous said...

Do people really use their minutes? I will never, ever use all my minutes. Or even come close. And I'm on the most basic of basic plans. Too bad I can't donate them to your MIL>

~j. said...

I'm not certain, but asking T-Mobile to put a tower up in your area might not be a bad idea. If nothing else, they may just add you to a list of people requesting their service in that area.

My husband and I use T-Mobile and we love it, but I also have a verizon phone I use to speak with my parents, siblings, etc., since that's what they all have. In actuality, my mom simply ordered an extra phone line, which tacks only $10 on to her monthly bill, and mailed the phone to me. I don't pay for it, but I also don't use it except for calls to other verizon phones.

Good luck!

Lyle said...

I recently received a communication from T-Mobile and one thing they suggested [as part of thier trouble shooting] that I try was: Go to my nearest T-Mobile dealer and see if changing out the SIM card helps, or if placing my SIM card in another T-Mobile phone changes anything.

Hello!!! The nearest dealer is 100 miles away in Missouri.

Anyway, the odds of me changing carriers within the next month is rising at a steady rate.