Straight Talk Support Experience

[RJM62]

A couple of days ago I took another step toward a Google-free life by retiring my Android and buying a BlackBerry. Mind you, the phone worked fine. It was the Google aspect that I was seeking to remove myself from.

I use Straight Talk as my carrier because it's cheap and it works well. But where I live, VZW is the only game in town; so I have to use one of Straight Talk's "CDMA-V" phones. That narrows down the offerings quite a bit. Neither the GSM nor the CDMA-S phones will work in my sparrow-fart town.

The only thing I really care about on a phone (aside from its performance as a phone) is mobile email. I don't give a rat's about apps, and I almost never use the mobile Web. I don't even test my own sites on my phones anymore because I have emulators for that. Straight Talk CDMA-V phones that have good email support are mainly Androids, one model of BlackBerry Curve made for ST, and several iPhones made for ST.

I didn't want an Android, and I'm much too cheap to buy an iPhone (nor do I particularly care for the iPhone's mail handling: More than 90 percent of support calls I get from clients have to do with getting mail working on iThings).

In theory, Straight Talk service will also work with any smartphone made for VZW that is not 4G capable, but I didn't feel like farting around looking for a second-hand, non-4G Windows phone on eBay. Besides, I've always preferred BlackBerries to any other phones. So I called my favorite Wally World and asked if they had the BlackBerry in stock before I made the 45-mile trip.

Much to my disappointment, they told that they hadn't had any in stock in months, and doubted they'd be getting any. They suggested that I try online, but they didn't sound too hopeful. So with a heavy heart, I logged onto Wally World dot Com.

Lo and behold, they not only had the ST BlackBerry, but it was on sale for $49.99 at that precise moment! Woo-hoo! Clearly the timing of the sale at the exact time that my dislike of Google had put me on a mission to replace my Android was a message from the Almighty.

Or maybe not. But one way or the other, I ordered the BB online from Wally World and selected "Ship to Store." In my glee and great delight, I even splurged for the extra $6.50 for the two-year insurance plan. Sometimes being overcome by happiness leads to that sort of extravagance.

I expected to wait at least a few days before the BB was ready for pickup, but much to my surprise, I received an email from Wally World an hour or so later informing me that the BB was ready for pickup. I guess they drove one there from a neighboring store to fulfill the order, which may also have been a sign from the Almighty. Or maybe not. Whatever the case, I happily set out to pick up the phone, along with six or seven pounds of eggplant and a gallon of vinegar.

Upon returning to my abode, I exported what little I actually cared about from the Android and imported it to the BlackBerry. Then I activated the phone, set up my email, and all was well -- until I borked something playing with it last night and wound up losing the data connection. I think I installed an incompatible application that I'd had on my last BB. Or something like that. I'm really not sure what I did. But I broke it.

Whatever the cause, I put it down and went to bed, thinking maybe it was a BIS outage, or that the BlackBerry fairy would come and fix it for me. It wasn't, and she didn't. So I tried a few other things this morning, up to and including a hard reset and restore. No joy.

Finally, downhearted and filled with gloom, I called Straight Talk support. I punched through maybe three layers of prompts, and was immediately connected to a very nice lady in the Philippines. She listened to my tale of woe, and immediately transferred me to another lady in the Philippines who is a "specialist." A specialist in what, I wasn't told; but presumably she is a specialist in BlackBerries or data problems. Or maybe both.

Whatever the case, Nice Lady In the Philippines No. 2 listened to my story, refrained from calling me an idiot for breaking my BlackBerry so soon after buying it, and tried a few simple things to fix it. They didn't work, but apparently they gave her clues because she told me she would have to basically re-create my account and re-activate the phone. That did work. After a few minutes on hold, another activation, and another reboot, the data connection was back, and the BIS services were connecting and working again.

I was grateful and impressed.

What was impressive to me (aside from the fact that the support tech knew what she was doing, which is an increasingly rare thing these days) was that I wasn't on hold for more than 15 seconds to talk to the first rep, nor for more than another 15 seconds to talk to the "specialist." All told, I spent maybe 20 minutes on the phone, mainly because of the need for several BlackBerry reboots. They're not exactly the quickest phones to boot up.

The other impressive thing was that the support experience, including the extremely short wait time and the tech's skills, was better than I've gotten from any full-priced provider. Straight Talk costs me $45.00 / month for "unlimited" everything. (Some say there's actually a 2 GB soft cap, but I've never come close to using that much data, so I don't know.) For such a low price, I expected the support to be horrid. But it was better than I've gotten with companies that charged me almost three times that much.

I had even sat myself in my office with a corded phone to make the call, anticipating much too long a time on hold to use a cordless. But they answered almost immediately after I pushed through the three layers of prompts. It was almost scary, actually. I didn't even have time to get into my grumpy voice.

So what can I say? For $45.00 / month, I expected support from hell. But it was quite excellent.

-Rich

 

[poadeleted21]

Thank your local congresscritter and corporate lobbyist. We spent tons of taxpayer money training those folks so that corporate America has access to good, cheap outsourced tech labor.

USAID is the program.

 

[RJM62]

Thank your local congresscritter and corporate lobbyist. We spent tons of taxpayer money training those folks so that corporate America has access to good, cheap outsourced tech labor.

USAID is the program.

I have mixed feelings about outsourcing tech support. I don't like to see the jobs disappear, but for something like cut-rate phone service, I don't think there's much of an alternative. A 20-minute talk with a U.S.-based tech probably would eat up a year's worth of profit for whichever company in the triad (VZW, TracFone, and WalMart) is responsible for providing it.

The other thing that softens me a bit toward overseas techies is that in my experience, they tend to be pretty good, once you get past the fact that they talk kinda funny.

I really don't need a while lot of tech support. I've probably called Verizon's tech support fewer than half a dozen times while I was their customer, which was more than ten years. Generally, those calls were not happy experiences. More often than not, I knew more than the techs I was talking to.

So yeah, it was nice that VZW provided U.S.-based tech support on their full-priced, postpaid, business plans. But it would have been even nicer had the techs been competent.

The reason I switched from VZW to prepaid actually had to do with a CSR. Long story short, when Kimberly was living with Jeannette and I, I used to toss her my phone to keep her occupied on long car trips. It turns out that she was watching television (of sorts), listening to music, and re-aiming the Hubble for all I know; and she ran up a huge bill for data.

When I called VZW, I pointed out that I didn't even subscribe to the services that Kim was using, and that in my opinion, they shouldn't have provided them. The CSR told me that for $12.00 a month more, I could have upgraded to a plan that would have included the data she used; but that because my contract had expired years prior, she couldn't offer me a retroactive upgrade.

Fine, I said. I paid the bill. Then I took a walk over to my friend's cell phone store, bought a prepaid phone, transferred the number, and never looked back.

Verizon called me for more than a year "offering" to take me back, and offering to do the retro upgrade. They told me the CSR made a mistake. Maybe she did. But I doubt it. I just think that they don't offer you any deals until you utter the word "cancel."

So screw 'em. The first prepaid plan I took (on Boost or T-Mo, one or the other) cost about a third of what I was paying VZW, and worked just as well. When I moved to this place, I switched to ST (also prepaid) so I could tap a VZW tower, and am still paying about a third of what I'd pay VZW for the same service.

-Rich

 

[poadeleted21]

I work mostly with Indians and Malaysians, most we bring on site and toss little jobs to the offshore people. I prefer to work with them.

On the flip side, I don't mind competing in a global market, but don't take my tax money to train my replacement.

 

[RJM62]

I work mostly with Indians and Malaysians, most we bring on site and toss little jobs to the offshore people. I prefer to work with them.

On the flip side, I don't mind competing in a global market, but don't take my tax money to train my replacement.

No argument with you on that point.

-Rich

 

[CJones]

Thanks for sharing about ST. We are actually looking at switching to ST when our VZW contracts expire next year. I was doing some research a few weeks ago and found out that our current phones will work with ST, so there won't be any 'capital' investment for the switch. The only thing holding us back right now is the early cancellation fee for VZW.

 

[RJM62]

Thanks for sharing about ST. We are actually looking at switching to ST when our VZW contracts expire next year. I was doing some research a few weeks ago and found out that our current phones will work with ST, so there won't be any 'capital' investment for the switch. The only thing holding us back right now is the early cancellation fee for VZW.

I have no complaints about ST. However, there's no roaming, which matters not in the least to me, but might matter to you.

They're also rumored to have a 2 GB / month soft data cap which, if violated enough times, can get your account terminated. I don't use anywhere near that amount of data, so I can't say. But some users on Howard Forum report that it's happened to them.

Other than the soft data cap, if it's true, I can't come up with something not to like about even pseudo-unlimited service on Verizon's network for $45.00 / month.

-Rich

 

[EppyGA]

Thanks for sharing about ST. We are actually looking at switching to ST when our VZW contracts expire next year. I was doing some research a few weeks ago and found out that our current phones will work with ST, so there won't be any 'capital' investment for the switch. The only thing holding us back right now is the early cancellation fee for VZW.

I know nothing about them, but saw an office while out to dinner last night.

http://www.aiowireless.com/home.html

 

[Arbiter419]

I've been with straight talk on an At&t LG Thrill for a bit over a year now. No complaints.

 

[retailguy]

I know nothing about them, but saw an office while out to dinner last night.

http://www.aiowireless.com/home.html

This is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. Basically equivalent to Boost/Virgin on the Sprint side.

No roaming, but if AT&T works for you, it's a good option. Unlimited plans from $50 a month.

 

[teamcoltra]

Not to go off topic, but getting rid of your android device to get rid of Google is silly. There are plenty of options (including the most popular cyanogen mod) to root your phone with to get the benefits of android without having GAPPS (Google Apps) installed. Actually the ones that are following the rules are not allowed to include GAPPS at all, you need to install it separately.

Plus, Android ROMs without your carrier provided bloatware are super fast.

<3 I will take your old phone... if nothing else to tie it to a weather balloon and take high altitude pictures with.

 

[poadeleted21]

Not to go off topic, but getting rid of your android device to get rid of Google is silly. There are plenty of options (including the most popular cyanogen mod) to root your phone with to get the benefits of android without having GAPPS (Google Apps) installed. Actually the ones that are following the rules are not allowed to include GAPPS at all, you need to install it separately.

Plus, Android ROMs without your carrier provided bloatware are super fast.

<3 I will take your old phone... if nothing else to tie it to a weather balloon and take high altitude pictures with.

I have a verizon grandfathered unlimited plan. no contract. What's you recommendation for a phone that can be rooted/jailbroken with LTE? I won't be signing a contract.

 

[RJM62]

Not to go off topic, but getting rid of your android device to get rid of Google is silly. There are plenty of options (including the most popular cyanogen mod) to root your phone with to get the benefits of android without having GAPPS (Google Apps) installed. Actually the ones that are following the rules are not allowed to include GAPPS at all, you need to install it separately.

Plus, Android ROMs without your carrier provided bloatware are super fast.

<3 I will take your old phone... if nothing else to tie it to a weather balloon and take high altitude pictures with.

I may already have a taker (my niece), but if she doesn't want it, you can have it.

Frankly, the "benefits of Android" are non-existent for me. That's not saying that it's a bad OS or that the phone didn't work. It worked just fine (except for the email client). I just don't care for touch screens. I like keyboards, as in the kind with real mechanical keys. The Android in question has a slide-out keyboard, however, so that problem was moot -- except for the annoying fact that if I forgot to lock it before sliding it into its holster, it would set an alarm for whatever time it happened to be.

On that note... why hasn't it occurred to anyone that it would make more sense to unlock the screen using a slide-down gesture rather than a slide-up gesture, just to solve that annoying little holstering problem? Maybe there's an app or setting to do that.

The other reason I prefer the BlackBerry is that the most important thing on a phone for me (other than how it works as a phone) is email, and no one does mobile email like BlackBerry (especially when running Dovecot on the server).

The native Android mail app sucks. I mean, it truly sucks. It stopped working so often (maybe from Google reading my mail before I even got it?) that I finally switched to K-9, which at least was stable. That made it bearable enough, but still not as good as a BlackBerry in terms of mail handling.

The mail client on iThings is no prize, either. Although I've never used it myself, at least 90 percent of my support calls have to do with mail problems on iThings that previously had been working fine. They just stop collecting mail, for no apparent reason. The only pattern is that the iThing complaints seem to come in clumps over the course of a few days, so maybe the problems are update-related.

As for "apps," I really have no use for them. I know people who like to use their phones to do multiple jobs, and that's fine. I don't, and that's fine, too. I like having separate devices that are optimized to do whatever it is that they do, not one device that does many things, but none of them optimally.

Just as one example, I used the Android's navigation feature once, and I didn't like it (even aside from the Big Brother aspects). Not that it was a bad app, mind you. It did work well enough as long as I had a cell signal. But I didn't care for the smallish screen, the display was too busy for my liking, and the fact that it needed a cell signal to function was a deal breaker out here in the boonies. My standalone GPS units need only the sky.

I also don't use any aviation-related apps. Almost all my flying is in ultralights these days, and frankly, one of the things I like about the kind of flying I do is getting away from things electronic. I'm semi-retired, I'm not going anywhere in particular, I have no schedule to keep, and I know these hills well enough that all I need is eyeballs to find my way around them.

Again, that's not to say that I think aviation apps are bad. They're just not my cup of tea.

Another thing I like about the BlackBerry may seem silly, but it's the "Phone Calls Only" ringer setting. I never could figure out an easy way to do that on an Android. I have two elderly parents who may need me at any time, day or night, so I want the phone to ring if they call, without the constant cacophony of beeps and chimes every time an email from overseas or a text message from an insomniac friend arrives. On the BlackBerry, before I go to bed, I just set it to "Phone Calls Only."

So really, the BlackBerry is the best device for me. It works well as a phone, it has a real keyboard, and it handles mail beautifully. Those are the things that matter to me, which is why BlackBerries have always been my favorite phones. My only concern is whether or not RIM will be around long enough for me to keep enjoying them.

-Rich

 

[RJM62]

The other thing I'd forgotten about is how good the battery life is on a BlackBerry. If I don't make or receive a lot of calls, I easily get two days on a charge. I suppose that's because the device isn't so busy keeping track of my whereabouts and reporting back every time I fart, pee, or blow my nose.

-Rich

 

[poadeleted21]

The other thing I'd forgotten about is how good the battery life is on a BlackBerry. If I don't make or receive a lot of calls, I easily get two days on a charge. I suppose that's because the device isn't so busy keeping track of my whereabouts and reporting back every time I fart, pee, or blow my nose.

-Rich

Back when blackberrys weren't on the brink of extinction 10 years ago or so, I used to program them for corporate outfits. Back then, they didn't have to report back anything since it all originated from a server in Canada. They knew what you were doing before you did. Unless the blackberry was chained to a corporate BES server, in that case your company got the data first.

 

[SkyHog]

No other phone does email like blackberry?

That's true. Text only email became passe a few years ago, and service books (the things the rep had to reset to get your data working again) corrupt so easily that you might as well memorize the phrase "can you please reset my service books" for even faster tech support service.

 

[teamcoltra]

Aren't the new BlackBerry's being built on android?

I have a verizon grandfathered unlimited plan. no contract. What's you recommendation for a phone that can be rooted/jailbroken with LTE? I won't be signing a contract.

The cheapest and probably best option is to get yourself a Nexus 5. No contract for under $600. I believe they run on LTE. There are a few different options out there. I know the HTC One has been rooted on Verizon and I paid around $600 for mine when it was new you could probably pick one up used for $500 if you are interested. Pretty much any Android phone has a big group of developers developing for it. If you need help just PM me (I don't check back on these threads as much as I should)

 

[RJM62]

No other phone does email like blackberry?

That's true. Text only email became passe a few years ago, and service books (the things the rep had to reset to get your data working again) corrupt so easily that you might as well memorize the phrase "can you please reset my service books" for even faster tech support service.

Actually, the one thing I've never had a problem with on a BlackBerry has been mail. With the exception of two or three system outages in more than a decade that I've been using BlackBerries, and the recent problem with all my data services which ST corrected (and which was the topic of this thread), the mail handling has always been flawless.

-Rich

 

[RJM62]

Aren't the new BlackBerry's being built on android?

No idea. I have a Curve.

The cheapest and probably best option is to get yourself a Nexus 5. No contract for under $600. I believe they run on LTE. There are a few different options out there. I know the HTC One has been rooted on Verizon and I paid around $600 for mine when it was new you could probably pick one up used for $500 if you are interested. Pretty much any Android phone has a big group of developers developing for it. If you need help just PM me (I don't check back on these threads as much as I should)

Thank you very much. I sincerely appreciate the offer and I'll surely take you up on it if RIM goes under. But for the time being, I'm happy with my old-school Berry.

Call me an old fart if you want, but I like it.

-Rich

 

[poadeleted21]

Aren't the new BlackBerry's being built on android?



The cheapest and probably best option is to get yourself a Nexus 5. No contract for under $600. I believe they run on LTE. There are a few different options out there. I know the HTC One has been rooted on Verizon and I paid around $600 for mine when it was new you could probably pick one up used for $500 if you are interested. Pretty much any Android phone has a big group of developers developing for it. If you need help just PM me (I don't check back on these threads as much as I should)

That was my first thought, but I don't believe the Nexus 5 and Verizon want to play with each other.

 

[teamcoltra]

Thank you very much. I sincerely appreciate the offer and I'll surely take you up on it if RIM goes under. But for the time being, I'm happy with my old-school Berry.

Call me an old fart if you want, but I like it.

-Rich

The second part was for bart... geesh thinking this is all about you.

 

[RJM62]

The second part was for bart... geesh thinking this is all about you.

Touche. But at least I was polite about it.

-Rich

 

[tinerj]

I have no complaints about ST. However, there's no roaming, which matters not in the least to me, but might matter to you.

-Rich

That's a strange statement about "no roaming." Sometimes it means "no roaming charge." Sometimes it means "no roaming outside of your designated carrier" (such as AT&T or Verizon), and sometimes it means "no roaming outside of your area."

I have a Straight Talk phone, or rather Straight Talk service on my Nexus 5 phone (I used their bring your own phone program) and it seems to work just fine about anywhere.

So that "no roaming" may mean it works everywhere without need to roam.

 

[RJM62]

That's a strange statement about "no roaming." Sometimes it means "no roaming charge." Sometimes it means "no roaming outside of your designated carrier" (such as AT&T or Verizon), and sometimes it means "no roaming outside of your area."

I have a Straight Talk phone, or rather Straight Talk service on my Nexus 5 phone (I used their bring your own phone program) and it seems to work just fine about anywhere.

So that "no roaming" may mean it works everywhere without need to roam.

Pretty much, at least in my case, on CDMA-V. I get service everywhere VZW has a tower; and frankly, VZW has better coverage than any of its roaming partners, anyway.

I imagine it would be the same case with ST on ATT. With ST on Sprint or T-Mo, maybe not so much.

I do have a friend on ST ATT who swears he gets voice and text roaming on T-Mo. I suspect he's right because he gets service in an area where I know for a fact T-Mo's the only tower in town. Whether or not his good fortune is an anomaly, I can't say.

-Rich

 

[denverpilot]

The other thing to remember about Blackberry, or more specifically Research In Motion, is that they were complicit with U.S. Authorities in handing over emails headed for Arab States a few years back. Bunch of tech news on that one but I forget how it ended up.

The BIS server is the choke point and any expectation of privacy of anything that passes through their BIS servers, is wishful thinking.

I knew one of the principal engineers at RIM back in the "we are a fancy two way pager" days... He made a lot of money on his inventions and patents there. Sadly he's passed away now of cancer.

Hosted BES was the way to go for security, as long as you are the host... Or really really trust the vendor who's hosting it for you.

As far as roaming goes nowadays, it's whatever the carriers negotiate. I have VZ service but during my rural drive home I am on e border between VZ and Viaero towers. Almost every tower hop is a dropped call they either don't have their trunking right or they purposefully aren't paying to jump from one regional controller to the other.

I see "Verizon" and "Extended" coverage most often. Never "Roaming". But there aren't any VZ towers out past a certain point on our main access County road. I also get the joy of "Five bars, but the call always drops right where you have five bars." out here.

Viaero also has agreements with VZ that allow going the other direction onto VZ's network.