Thursday, January 13, 2011

Fun in Wisconsin

The transition of customers from Alltel to the new Element Mobile in central Wisconsin has been a rocky road. As an advocate of smaller carriers, we initially feel staying with Element is a good idea. However, if you're sitting there with no service on your phone, we can understand how difficult it is to stick with ideals.

We take our wireless service for granted and it's more than just an inconvenience when our phone doesn't ring or our data doesn't download...instead there's a hole in our life. The Alltel to AT&T conversions have gone much better, but they've been there/done that. Element is new to this.

The 'New' Alltel network and customer service is still being operated by Verizon Wireless, so there may be an unpleasant day of reckoning waiting for those customers, too. But we expect those things, if they don't happen, all the better.

Element is working through the problems and if they handle it well, their newly-inherited customers will eventually love them for it. If they don't do it quickly, we don't blame you for taking your dead phone elsewhere. Some competing carriers are taking advantage of the situation with promos like paying your ETF. However, don't cut your nose off to spite your face. Element may have the best coverage in the area, and you may be even more unhappy with the alternatives. It's kinda like a good spouse going through a bad patch...you need to keep the faith.

Now, about Element's higher-priced plans. We'll keep our old Alltel plans until Element fixes that, too.

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