Cell phones. Mobile communications. Coverage, contracts and pricing. Today I am going to free myself of a three year contract I couldn't cancel three days after signing up. If possible I am going to resurrect one of my old GSM tri-band pay as you go Nokia and if I can get a SIM card for it, and woe betide any bumptious sales person who tries to sell me what I don't want. I'd rather not have a cell phone at all than another bloody 'contract'.
Current contract is with Bell.
Coverage; Can't get a signal in my own home. Phone isn't even good as a paperweight.
Pricing; Very poor bang for buck.
Contract; onerous and expensive for what it is.
Customer Service; Poor, verging on dire. Chocolate teapot territory.
My verdict; About as impressed with their service as with a discarded rotting cabbage leaf for breakfast. Mrs S is under strict instructions to shoot me down like a dog if I go anywhere near one of Bell's sales outlets.
I think if Orange were to venture over this side of the Atlantic with their level of customer appreciation and 'Top up' pay as you go service they would wipe the floor with all the other service providers. Back in the UK I had a total of nine mobile phones, eight with Orange, one with 02 (BT Cellnet, as it was then), and the only one I ever had real problems with was with O2. They were rubbish too.
Getting grounded
1 day ago
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2 comments:
Same problem here. None of the telcos seem interested in investing in full network coverage of the middle of the Simpson Desert, the selfish bastards. You want to go bush and stay in touch, you have to rent a satphone. Being serious, I've really only got coverage in major cities and on long road trips I'm basically out of touch shortly after leaving the outer suburbs. The best network is Telstra and even that has limited coverage. I suppose this will always be so in very large countries with large areas of very sparsely populated land. The upside is that with a few hundred dollars of camping gear you really can get away from it all in a way that you can't in Britain, and that makes up for a lot.
There used to be a cell tower over on Gabriola Island, about 5 klicks away across the channel, which gave a first class signal in the area. However, the new SIM card works with my 8 year old GSM Triband, and I get a usable signal having changed service providers.
At least I'm not shelling out thirty bucks a month for nothing.
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