Nelson,
I have not heard of anybody having complaints of problems with TracFone's coverage area, signal strength, dropped calls etc. The do have some complaints related to their customer service when the occasional problem does arrive, but they do get the problem resolved to the customer's satisfaction although it may take several attempts. Also, most of the reported broblems occurred over a year ago, and some incidents are closer to 4-5 years old.
I never had any customer service issues with Cingular, AT&T, or Nextel because I never had any problems with the phones, connections or dropped calls. With AT&T, we did have one phone that the display screen died but it was under warranty. We called the 800 and the next day we had a new/rebuilt replacement phone and we sent the old phone back. No problems, no hassles, everything when smooth and we never had any further problems.
Cellular service is like automobile insurance. The different companies have different plans and different prices. You pay your insurance and everything is fine. Other than the price you paid, there is no difference in their performance. It's only when you have an accident or a claim, that determines if you are happy with your insurance company.
I had a lot of problems with Alltel but all my complaints were related to the local store, their customer service at the store, and the quality of the cellular service in this area because of excessive dropped calls. I have spoke with other along the East coast who swear by Alltel and hate Cingular, AT&T, and Verizon.
Caymen,
That is exacly my point. No single cellular service is necessarily best for everyone. People use more or less minutes. Some people travel more than others, some people have a need for free long-distance service while others don't and the quality and type of service varies from region to region and from provider to provider.
Everyone I spoke with, and all the reviews I have read cleatly point out that if you use less than 100 minutes of air time per month, then one of the PrePaid cellular plans can save you a lot of money. TracFone buys airtime from Cingular and Verizon, two of the biggest and best cellular networks in the USA. The selection of phones is very limited and thy do not have a lot of the fancy features, But their are also pretty inexpensive and you are not locked into a long service contract.
Darin.
All TracFones are sold as TracFones. They are the exact same phone, with the exact same packaging that you would get if you ordered them directly from TracFone. No TracFone is sold already activated, etc. You must always call or go online to activate your phone. The only difference is that with a regular cellular service, they will allways give you an activated and pre-configured phone and if there is something wrong with a particular phone, they will usually replace the phone before you ever get it. All the phones come with a 1-year manufacturers warranty, just like they do with any cellular service.
So I don't think that there is any greater risk getting your phone at Wal-Mart than directly from TracFone.
...Rich