phone question

Called my landline company a few days ago to complain about a dropped call and according to them ALL long distance carriers are attempting to cut costs and service is suffering for it. Our problems started about 11 months ago when Verizon bought out All Tel, then removed towers and or antenna's, service has not recovered. None of it looks promising.

This site not only carries good data, the local user comments are invaluable! Att has been screwing us over with assurances of coverage - now we can see exactly what's up.

OP's original question: "I got my second replacement phone from AT&T today but it is doing the same thing as the first one did. I can make calls and text but incoming calls go to my Alltel phone's inbox EVEN when the battery is out"

I'm not a techy person but for those of you who are, does this sound like it's not getting enough signal power? or something wasn't changed in the Alltel-AT&T conversion on the company end?

We here in Montana transitioned the same time as you and I have had no problems, the neighbors did not like the phones or the data service and have already switched to Verizon. I am staying put. sis

__________________
www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm

Sound's tom me like the phone number is configured into two different systems, at least partially.

Sometimes you need to be transferred from "Customer Support", to "Techncial Support", if the OP has not already been there.

two cents worth, yes, it's ok. We've had problems since someone hit the connection box at the end of our road about 15 years ago. At one time we had absolutely no service from 10 pm until the sun dried the moisture in the box. My Verizon service is so much more reliable than the land line. Hard to believe but unfortunately true. I lost a call on the land line 3 times Friday.

UPDATE- I drove an hour one way and took all three phones to ATT, my old Alltel one that is still working and the two new ATT ones ( identical with the same problem). The manager called whomever he talks to at ATT and was told that I should wait for my phone to finish transitioning- something to do with a port. He told them that I have been waiting since MAY 3rd and nothing has changed. He removed the battery from my old phone and told me to call his direct number in the AM if the new phone doesn't start receiving calls. He said that my phone is still active with Alltel and ALSO partially active with ATT. I had BETTER not get billed from both as I am about ready to let some heads roll as my bro- in - law called tonight on the landline and said my sister is in critical condition in southern Il so I will be traveling down there and had better have a working phone! I had NO problems with Alltel. After they get my phone to disconnect from them I am going to Verizon.

Alltel is Verizon. That is what is confusing me on this whole conversation. Verizon bought them out almost a year ago. Any transistioning should have been already completed. if you had Alltel service then you should have Verizon service

on the phone with AT&T now figuring out why they charged us for DD's replacement phone- we felt we hadn't done anything wrong for it to break but here without warning they have charged us for a new one. (they now say- unlike when we handled the issue- that maybe we are being charged because we didn’t mail it in but went to a storefront) (As I vented to the poor lady on the phone asking ‘anything else I can do to help you’- ‘let them know I don’t appreciate having to spend half an hour of my time keeping them from cheatin me!’ and no issue is not YET resolved- how many hours do we spend on phone keeping all our various billers- tel cell cable internet- from nickel and dime or Lincoln and Benjamin cheating us… and I can’t even recognize when the elec co does it!)

They swapped alltel to ATT last fall and it has been fine with better coverage for us in our rural valley since then (we tried ATT a year before and the coverage here was crap- guess when they have the alltel towers too their coverage improved).

I suggest if you can juggle all the money and cancelling in time you get a 30 day trial of verizon or whoever else

charmd2 not all alltel is verizon- it went to att some areas to bar monopoly

__________________
US Army veteran, military retiree spouse, and military; civilian; British NHS; and VA doctor.

see if there is an external antenna for your phone try a truck stop they usualy carry them for truckers that is just one of the may antennas you see on trucks these days
that can help greatly with signal strenght , or have freinds with other cell phone brands come to your house and try them.

like ohio gary said it's a location specific problem , so specific that i can tell you that if at my desk at work if my phone is below the divider wall the call is choppy and drops but if i stand when a call comes in and get the phone higher than the wall then it is fine metal building metal in the cube divider walls.

I have been a long time customer of AT&T but only because that is the only signal I can get. AT&T is great with proper phone etiquette but very poor with follow through performance when issues arise. Old customers mean nothing to AT&T. Only new potential customers get program rebates, discounts or other bennies. If there was another source for what I am paying a premium for at AT&T I would drop them immediately. I would like to have the opportunity to find out if the devil I do not know is as bad as the one I do know.

__________________
Agmantoo
If they can do it,
you know you can!

I have AT&T and have had it for years, it's the best service for where I go. Where I live it used to be the only service that had a signal, but over the years they all pretty much work here now.

We have family all the way from Barnesville to Ada to Warren to Hallock. I have NO coverage in Barnesville which is right on interstate 94, gets better by Ada, gone by Warren and depending on where you stand it works in Hallock. My guess is it's a new area for AT&T and that's why they are expanding to the area.

The whole "port" information is odd though, never heard of something like that before. Whenever people change phones it's just switched over in the office.

Yesterday after many more calls to AT&T and going to the store in person once again they decided to try to "port" my phone again. It finally started working at 2 PM. The way they explained it is that when the phones were transitioned on May 3rd, Alltel sent the phone information via cyberspace to AT&T but there is a " port" that it goes through midway. Part of my information got stuck in the port so my Alltel phone never deactivated. They had actually told me to carry both phones and keep checking to see if I had messages. Anyway, when I got home there was a bill in the mail from At&T dated from FEBRUARY 2nd! The transition date was May 3rd and my phone only started working YESTERDAY! So, I was on the phone once again only to their billing department this time asking them why I was getting billed as I was with Alltel in FEb and our account with them has always been paid up AND if the transition was indeed on May 3rd why I was getting a bill after two weeks! Supposedly they credited my account but of course couldn't provide a confirmation. As soon as my DH is done with field work we are going to Verizon as I foresee nothing but problems with At&T.

Also FYI in case anyone else has had this issue the "PORT" department is officially called the Zodiac team AND all of the folks in India that I have talked to over the past two weeks no nothing about the Alltel buyout.