Thursday, February 11, 2010

Page Plus Reaction

After our recent article about the Rise of Page Plus, we heard from Page Plus users who have not been so happy with their service. We already knew about the inability to reach Customer Service in a timely matter, but the mysterious loss of minutes and service and the failing of their number porting abilities are a new twist. Let me share what we know about Page Plus.

First, we became a "dealer" to see what the inner workings were about, and we found competent, hard-working people. They admit, though, they are growing faster that they can really handle. Among other concerns, they're having trouble keeping enough phones in stock and have cancelled some marketing programs until they can catch up. However, in our opinion, the improvements they have made in their plans and fees, have only made their problems worse. It chokes me up to say this, but they shouldn't lower their prices until they're ready to handle more customers. However, if I were sitting in the Page Plus office and a better deal became available, why would I want to hold the business back? It's a tough decision.

It's really easy to become a Page Plus dealer, and while that may put some unqualified people into their marketing stream, these dealers have actually been a lot more helpful and accessible than Page Plus itself. Last year I switched over a family member to Page Plus and he has been a very happy user, except for the idiosyncrasies of prepaid. I wanted to switch over my wife, but she didn't want to be limited to Page Plus's fewer choices of phone models.

More than one reader uses their cellular phone for business exclusively, and probably shouldn't depend on Page Plus, or any wireless reseller. There's no one to complain to when there are problems beyond your own handset. Mobile professionals need someone to go to bat for them, and Page Plus currently can't do that. But we still feel Page Plus is a great choice for less critical uses and as a 2nd or 3rd phone in the family. This is why we said we were considering bringing Page Plus to the top of our recommendations. Not yet. We actually dropped their Rating on our PayAsYouGo pages.

For the time being, Page Plus isn't quite our Top choice. I'd also like to address how Net10, TracFone and Straight Talk compare, later. Just let the buyer beware.

6 comments:

William said...

First, i'd like to respond to Mike's last comment from the other thread- you hit the nail on the head about T-Mobile. Where they have coverage, you get a great overall experience. Where they don't...eh...at least they have the UMA calling feature. If I was traveling cross country all the time, I don't think T-Mobile would be my "preferred carrier," but as long as i'm in my home area blanketed by coverage, it's great.

After reading the article about Page Plus, i'm considering using it as a plan B phone for when I travel in fringe areas. I had forgotten they existed when that last article came up, and they've got some compelling options. I've got an old Verizon phone from when I tried them out two years ago, and i'd just activate that. That's what I love about Mountain Wireless. It has just about everything you need to know about cell phone service and making informed decisions. It's the only phone website I know of where you can talk like adults and actually enlighten yourself about the cellular world.

Now...it's time to take a look at the prepaid section!

Benjamin A said...

I had been meaning to post to the last comment and by the time I had a free moment this post was here LOL. I to had the same problem as Mike as my phone went out on the 22nd of January and by the 26th I said enough and went back to VZW. My situation was a little more strange though as my outbound calls were identical as Mikes but my incoming were greeted with the welcome to Verizon message if the phone was on but if it was off people got my voice mail and could leave a message. I to lost my number as I called VZ on the 5th and just kept the temp number they had assigned to me. I was going to just re-use my old phone but it was locked to my PP account and so I ended up with a new phone. At least I was able to change the greeting and tell people to call the new number just in case I missed someone and whenever the account finally dies I will have a backup phone.

Between this and the incoming call drop issue that others are experiencing where incoming calls are disconnected between 35 and 45 seconds into the call it does seem like Page Plus has bitten off more than they can chew and I would personally like to see them pull a move from Toyota and take a step back and fix their issues but that may be wishful thinking.

Trucker Mike said...

Thanks for the update to your previous article Bill. Benjamin to your post that is strange about the Voice Mail. I wish that would have been the case here as that would have been added protection just in case there is anyone I forgot to give the new number to. Also as to the lost call issue from talking to others it seems to be happening to both Page Plus and Straight Talk users and have heard about that since September. I guess I was one of the fortunate ones not to have that issue though that would have been the lesser of the 2 evils to get stuck with. Lastly to William UMA was cool and it was a nice concept however the only non Blackberry left is the Open Box Nokia 6301. Since my wife is not a BB user I just picked up one as a backup last week for $125 since everyone I spoke to was uncertain about if they would be any more non BB UMA devices made. Since my wife already has a 6301 that makes things easier whenever her current one dies. If you use the UMA and don't want the BB I would suggest you do the same.

William said...

Mike, you can still pick up T-Mobile's old UMA phones all over the place online. I still see advertisements for new/used Samsungs that had the UMA feature. However, I didn't know the Nokia 6301 had it...which is strange because one of my coworkers has the phone and complains about the signal in their house...they must be oblivious about it like I was.

Trucker Mike said...

We actually tried the Samsung T409 and T739 I think it was called the Katalyst but they had issues connecting with my ActionTec Router. I also tried a 2Wire 2701 but though they would connect the phones would loose the WiFi for no reason even if the phones were sitting directly in front of the router. We found the Nokia 6086 and the 6301 do not have any problems connecting to either router. Other than wishing the ringer was louder the 6301 has been a solid phone.

Anyway back to the PP topic at hand believe it or not I got a response today from the online trouble ticket I filed about 3 weeks ago. The message told me that they had tried to call me today but could not get ahold of me and they considered the ticket closed and if I had any more issues to call them back at the 800 number. LOL Now that things are getting back to normal here and everyone I am talking to has gotten the new number I can just kick back and enjoy the stupidity of it all.

Anonymous said...

**** WARNING *****
DO NOT USE PAGE PLUS!!!!!!!

THEY WILL DISCONNECT YOUR SERVICE FOR TALKING TOO MUCH ON THE "UNLIMITED" PLAN.

IF YOU HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN TO YOU THEN CONTACT:

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray
30 E. Broad St., 17th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Help Center
(800) 282-0515
Monday – Friday 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.

AND FILE A COMPLAINT THEY ALREADY HAVE SEVERAL FILED COMPLAINTS AGAINST THEM THE MORE THAT GET FILED THE MORE WE CAN SHOW THEN THAT THIS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!

Go here to read the full story:

http://www.phonenews.com/on-eve-of-ctia-cracks-in-page-plus-reach-critical-mass-10565/