Mystictrust
08-31-2007, 07:12 PM
*firm handshake*
Hello, I'm Mystictrust... or Mystic... or "that new guy" or whatever you want to call me. Pleased to meet you. I'm obviously new to these forums and if you don't care for a little backstory then you are advised to stop reading now because I'd like to introduce myself in more than a few sentences.
*ahem*
It all started when I was about 1 year old. I was crawling around the floor in my mom's house when a thought occurred to me, I... meh okay this is stupid, 'sup guys I only recently found this place and you guys seem like a friendly group of people. I'm coming from HowardForums, where I've grown a little sick of people flaming everyone who asks the simplest of questions - not to mention it doesn't come off as friendly of a place as here. *Note: I do recognize some names here from HoFo and of the ones I know of you're all cool in my book*
I've been with T-Mobile since December 2003, after having grown tired of limited minutes with prepaid through Virgin Mobile [a friend selling me his old TMO handset also helped push me]. Before Virgin, I was actually signed up through the company it is an MVNO for, Sprint [pre-merger obviously]. I had one of their better Sanyo phones but their reception sucked and I dropped at least 10 calls per day, which oddly enough never happened on Virgin; fortunately, I had paid the extra $10/month for their contract-free option and therefore left after putting up with the service for a few months. Before Sprint I was with Cingular [pre-AT&T obviously] and unfortunately I was on contract with them and had to cancel after 3 months of bill screwups. I can't believe I was getting charged for M2M on a family plan, and each month for 2 months they corrected the charges until the 3rd month, where they only "agreed" to correct half. I happily paid ETF for two lines plus the overage so I was free & clear for $650 [including phone subsidy diff]. Much to my surprise, I was tracked down in 2006 by a collection agency that told me I owed $200 per cancelled line on my old 2001 Cingular account due to a tiny little clause in the contract that stated I owed this money to a 3rd party Cingular USED TO DEAL WITH
[I was told they had numerous complaints and Cingular stopped working with them, but they weren't hesitant to transfer my unpaid amount to four different collection agencies to track me down 5 years later]
Before Cingular I was with Verizon... back in the days when you could choose your own number and I had the last four digits of my dad's easy-to-remember number. The only complaint I ever had with Verizon was the high cost of service, and I left them due to a TV promotion advertising a lot more minutes through Cingular. I opted to pay the ETF with my deposit, but they waived the fee and gave me my money back stating, "You'll be back". I briefly considered switching to them while I was living in Virginia, but borrowing a friend's phone, getting somewhat choppy reception, and hearing about his complaints now and again, turned me away from the expensive "you should get what you pay for" carrier.
Now I'm with T-Mobile and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. I am in love with GSM, though seeing as how the only other GSM carrier is AT&T, I would rather switch to expensive Verizon or a month-to-month on Sprint than risk the billing nightmares of the orange blob infested blue and white globe. [I have AT&T broadband for $30/month, but seeing as how my first two months came to $127, I see they still have crazy stupid billing systems/hidden charges] Fortunately for me, I am moving from San Diego, CA to Austin, TX which I hear is great with T-Mobile, as is San Antonio which I plan on visiting every so often... plus there is the wonderful addition of H@H so I'm settling in for the long haul.
I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable on mobile phones and T-Mobile operations so I foresee myself participating here [though currently 482 posts on HoFo since Jan 2004 doesn't exactly say I've participated a lot over there].
Thanks to Nwahs for the kind welcoming words in my profile before I even had the chance to make my first post....
And thank *you* for reading! I'll see you around the forums:beerchug:
Hello, I'm Mystictrust... or Mystic... or "that new guy" or whatever you want to call me. Pleased to meet you. I'm obviously new to these forums and if you don't care for a little backstory then you are advised to stop reading now because I'd like to introduce myself in more than a few sentences.
*ahem*
It all started when I was about 1 year old. I was crawling around the floor in my mom's house when a thought occurred to me, I... meh okay this is stupid, 'sup guys I only recently found this place and you guys seem like a friendly group of people. I'm coming from HowardForums, where I've grown a little sick of people flaming everyone who asks the simplest of questions - not to mention it doesn't come off as friendly of a place as here. *Note: I do recognize some names here from HoFo and of the ones I know of you're all cool in my book*
I've been with T-Mobile since December 2003, after having grown tired of limited minutes with prepaid through Virgin Mobile [a friend selling me his old TMO handset also helped push me]. Before Virgin, I was actually signed up through the company it is an MVNO for, Sprint [pre-merger obviously]. I had one of their better Sanyo phones but their reception sucked and I dropped at least 10 calls per day, which oddly enough never happened on Virgin; fortunately, I had paid the extra $10/month for their contract-free option and therefore left after putting up with the service for a few months. Before Sprint I was with Cingular [pre-AT&T obviously] and unfortunately I was on contract with them and had to cancel after 3 months of bill screwups. I can't believe I was getting charged for M2M on a family plan, and each month for 2 months they corrected the charges until the 3rd month, where they only "agreed" to correct half. I happily paid ETF for two lines plus the overage so I was free & clear for $650 [including phone subsidy diff]. Much to my surprise, I was tracked down in 2006 by a collection agency that told me I owed $200 per cancelled line on my old 2001 Cingular account due to a tiny little clause in the contract that stated I owed this money to a 3rd party Cingular USED TO DEAL WITH
[I was told they had numerous complaints and Cingular stopped working with them, but they weren't hesitant to transfer my unpaid amount to four different collection agencies to track me down 5 years later]
Before Cingular I was with Verizon... back in the days when you could choose your own number and I had the last four digits of my dad's easy-to-remember number. The only complaint I ever had with Verizon was the high cost of service, and I left them due to a TV promotion advertising a lot more minutes through Cingular. I opted to pay the ETF with my deposit, but they waived the fee and gave me my money back stating, "You'll be back". I briefly considered switching to them while I was living in Virginia, but borrowing a friend's phone, getting somewhat choppy reception, and hearing about his complaints now and again, turned me away from the expensive "you should get what you pay for" carrier.
Now I'm with T-Mobile and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. I am in love with GSM, though seeing as how the only other GSM carrier is AT&T, I would rather switch to expensive Verizon or a month-to-month on Sprint than risk the billing nightmares of the orange blob infested blue and white globe. [I have AT&T broadband for $30/month, but seeing as how my first two months came to $127, I see they still have crazy stupid billing systems/hidden charges] Fortunately for me, I am moving from San Diego, CA to Austin, TX which I hear is great with T-Mobile, as is San Antonio which I plan on visiting every so often... plus there is the wonderful addition of H@H so I'm settling in for the long haul.
I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable on mobile phones and T-Mobile operations so I foresee myself participating here [though currently 482 posts on HoFo since Jan 2004 doesn't exactly say I've participated a lot over there].
Thanks to Nwahs for the kind welcoming words in my profile before I even had the chance to make my first post....
And thank *you* for reading! I'll see you around the forums:beerchug: