Anyone have experience with Cricket Wireless?

[zinfamous]

So they have some current plans that seems rather amazing

https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans

2.5gb, unlimited talk/text for $35, with autopay. That's the cheapest/least offering

I believe they use ATT towers, so it would be ATT's coverage.

I'm thinking of switching to them from my T-Mobile non-contract cheapo plan that I have had for years. I've never had data, so this would be a huge step up for me, assuming they are an easy provider to work wirh.

 

[Phokus]

Get 4 other people and it's only $20 a month for that same plan. It's great. Works well for me.

 

[zinfamous]

Get 4 other people and it's only $20 a month for that same plan. It's great. Works well for me.

I was reading that, and it does say that the data allotment is per person--so does that mean 2.5gb per user?

...that's ridiculous.

How long have you been using Cricket?

 

[Strk]

So they have some current plans that seems rather amazing

https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans

2.5gb, unlimited talk/text for $35, with autopay. That's the cheapest/least offering

I believe they use ATT towers, so it would be ATT's coverage.

I'm thinking of switching to them from my T-Mobile non-contract cheapo plan that I have had for years. I've never had data, so this would be a huge step up for me, assuming they are an easy provider to work wirh.

Cricket actually is at&t; it's not just an MVNO using their towers.

 

[RossMAN]

Cricket Wireless, formerly AIO Wireless is owned by AT&T. It's not the old ghetto CDMA carrier it used to be.

I've been a customer about 6 months and love the recent upgrades 20GB LTE for $55/mo total with $0 fees/taxes/surcharges.

https://slickdeals.net/f/7630482-cr...for-40-bucks-as-low-as-20-with-group-save?v=1

 

[Phokus]

I was reading that, and it does say that the data allotment is per person--so does that mean 2.5gb per user?

...that's ridiculous.

How long have you been using Cricket?

Yeah, per person, i think about 4 or 5 months.

 

[zinfamous]

Cricket Wireless, formerly AIO Wireless is owned by AT&T. It's not the old ghetto CDMA carrier it used to be.

I've been a customer about 6 months and love the recent upgrades 20GB LTE for $55/mo total with $0 fees/taxes/surcharges.

https://slickdeals.net/f/7630482-cr...for-40-bucks-as-low-as-20-with-group-save?v=1

well dang, that's the only authority I need.

thanks all, sounds like the way to go.

 

[bamx2]

I also use Cricket Wireless . This is a very good deal.

Things to note - 1. ATT native network coverage only (no roaming) so check coverage map . 2. Maximum data speed within the plan high speed data allotment is capped at 4mbs (HSDPA) and 8mbs (LTE) -data run through their server. Sometimes their data speed is well below those #s (congestion?) 3- Customer service is terrible (outsourced, non-US) but might get better (new rapidly expanding company with growing pains). 4- Limited online account management, no call history etc available. 5- YMMV on getting their phone rebates without a fight.

more info here - http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/336-Cricket-AIO

 

[evildoc]

I've been lurking on this forum for the past two years, finally registered.

I've been a satisfied Cricket Wireless customer since last june after having been with Verizon when it changed from Airtouch Cellular. I'm in the Pacific NW, in the greater Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Everett area, I've had no problems with cell or data coverage. I was paying $75 a month for 300 min talk 250 texts and 1 GB of data with Verizon. With Cricket, on the $40 plan ($35 with autopay, taxes included), I get unlimited talk and text and 2.5 GB data (the data started out last june with 500 MB on this plan, was bumped up to 1 GB last fall to 2.5 GB just this month for no extra charge). I'm not a heavy data user, so I have never even used 500 MB a month. With Cricket I'm saving $40 a month, with unlimited talk and text and more data.

 

[zinfamous]

I've been lurking on this forum for the past two years, finally registered.

I've been a satisfied Cricket Wireless customer since last june after having been with Verizon when it changed from Airtouch Cellular. I'm in the Pacific NW, in the greater Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, Everett area, I've had no problems with cell or data coverage. I was paying $75 a month for 300 min talk 250 texts and 1 GB of data with Verizon. With Cricket, on the $40 plan ($35 with autopay, taxes included), I get unlimited talk and text and 2.5 GB data (the data started out last june with 500 MB on this plan, was bumped up to 1 GB last fall to 2.5 GB just this month for no extra charge). I'm not a heavy data user, so I have never even used 500 MB a month. With Cricket I'm saving $40 a month, with unlimited talk and text and more data.

cool. that's pretty much where I am, except paying only $45/month after taxes/fees with TMobile.

I'll check the coverage maps again, regarding roaming. I travel to NC and Florida from CA Bay Area, so I'd like this coverage to remain the same. TMobile roams in NC, or it used to, but whatever it is, my service tends to do funky things over there--calls straight to voicemail, or never to voicemail, etc.

 

[evildoc]

Crick uses AT&T's network, there is no roaming with Cricket. I have a buddy who lives in Martinez, Ca. He is on Metro PCS (T Mobile network). He sometimes drops calls where he is but if you google "cricket wireless coverage in SF area" it seems like most people are happy with the coverage. I brought my own device to Cricket, got a used GSM iPhone 4S off of craigslist, Verizon 4S iPhone is not compatible with Cricket

 

[Sheep]

Been with AIO/Cricket for 15 months now with very little to complain about. Even topped out at 8mb/s LTE, their data speeds blew away any Sprint speed in the city of Chicago at the the time I switched, and for less than half the price (I'm on the $50/month plan that's $45/month if you enable auto-pay).

I've been able to add an additional gig of data on high usage months through their website with no problem. I haven't had any issues that required customer service intervention but I hear it's not so great.

 

[ControlD]

I guess this is slightly off topic, so I apologize ahead of time.

How can these companies offer plans like this for so cheap? I mean, this is getting close to an order of magnitude cheaper than being on contract with one of the big carriers. I understand that availability can be suspect, but still, how are these companies doing it?

 

[ImDonly1]

I guess this is slightly off topic, so I apologize ahead of time.

How can these companies offer plans like this for so cheap? I mean, this is getting close to an order of magnitude cheaper than being on contract with one of the big carriers. I understand that availability can be suspect, but still, how are these companies doing it?

well the contract plans are a rip off so they want you to think that offering service is that expensive.

Anyway few reasons
You have to bring your own phone. They don't subsidize the cost.
No roaming (don't have up pay competitors for use of their network)
Out sourced/slower customer service.

 

[dlock13]

If any of you are interested in trying Cricket Wireless, they have a referral program that gives both parties a $25 credit after 60 days of continuous use.

PM me if you're interested in joining up.

I really miss when it was just Aio though. Aio was a 100% US company that did not outsource any of their staff. All of the support people I talked to were Americans and native speakers of English. After Cricket and Aio merged, their support went downhill so ridiculously fast. They've still got fantastic service. It is just hard to get a straight answer if you have any kind of question for support.

 

[pm]

I used Cricket for several months - I switched over from AT&T. In general the service was fine, but I had several support issues and I really struggled with communication issues with their support team. We had a bunch of minor issues (visual voicemail never worked despite listed as supported and several phone calls), and then my wife got really frustrated by the lack of any international roaming at all and told me to find someone else where her phone wouldn't be utterly dead in an airport in Germany. This particular problem probably doesn't apply to anyone else, but you will undoubtedly run into the customer support issues if you ever need to call... the people seemed to want to help (they were friendly) but no one actually seemed to be able to fix our problems.

I decided to switch to T-Mobile, where I have better customer service, tethering and international roaming data. T-Mobile service locally (Colorado) seems on par with AT&T's most of the time.

 

[cpacini]

I guess this is slightly off topic, so I apologize ahead of time.

How can these companies offer plans like this for so cheap? I mean, this is getting close to an order of magnitude cheaper than being on contract with one of the big carriers. I understand that availability can be suspect, but still, how are these companies doing it?

I'm sure they operate on fairly thin margins, but the main reason they are a lot cheaper than on contract rates is mostly due to the lack of phone subsidies. The prepaid carriers for the most part sell low end devices close to out at normal retail cost. They also tend to have poor customer service which saves them money.

I can only speak from experience with metro pcs which I had for a while, but their customer service was all outsourced to India and mostly useless. Customer service on T-Mobile has been significantly better.

 

[zinfamous]

Update:

I switched last week and so far so good. Well, I've only traveled the great distance from the East Bay to SF in that time...Thanks for the referral, dlock.

Going to try and get the GF referred and maybe some office people, and the Pyramid grows! (seriously, that's what it feels like when I start talking to people about it. )

One question: I set up autopay but on my account page, it still shows $40 owed instead of the $35 with autopay activated. Does that only show up as a credit after payment, or should I walk back down to the store and talk to them about this? I'm hesitant to call customer service, based on reviews. ....could it be that Autopay through cc does not garner the $5 credit?

I'm sure they operate on fairly thin margins, but the main reason they are a lot cheaper than on contract rates is mostly due to the lack of phone subsidies. The prepaid carriers for the most part sell low end devices close to out at normal retail cost. They also tend to have poor customer service which saves them money.

I can only speak from experience with metro pcs which I had for a while, but their customer service was all outsourced to India and mostly useless. Customer service on T-Mobile has been significantly better.

Added to this, I think they save on tower licensing fees, as some of these services do not work on providers' roaming networks. It is normally an embedded cost from the big 4 (or it just says "free roaming!") that most people don't consider.

 

[evildoc]

You will get the $5 credit on your payment date

 

[soccerballtux]

I used Cricket for several months - I switched over from AT&T. In general the service was fine, but I had several support issues and I really struggled with communication issues with their support team. We had a bunch of minor issues (visual voicemail never worked despite listed as supported and several phone calls), and then my wife got really frustrated by the lack of any international roaming at all and told me to find someone else where her phone wouldn't be utterly dead in an airport in Germany. This particular problem probably doesn't apply to anyone else, but you will undoubtedly run into the customer support issues if you ever need to call... the people seemed to want to help (they were friendly) but no one actually seemed to be able to fix our problems.

I decided to switch to T-Mobile, where I have better customer service, tethering and international roaming data. T-Mobile service locally (Colorado) seems on par with AT&T's most of the time.

straight talk used to have bad support, has been really good lately

 

[funboy6942]

i have cricket, i have 4 phones on it, 2.5gb of data per phone, my phone bill including all taxes and fees is $105 a month, nuff said....