Complaint Review: Cricket Wireless - Katy Texas

 Hi Katy texas. You can download another messaging app that will allow u to send pictures for example, Google hang outs or sns messaging app that you can download from Google play. This should fix your Problem. I had the same problem and that's what I did to fix it. Now I can send and receive picture messages with no problems. Shawna Ohio

I did my research and bought a Motorola Q9 phone that was fully flashed for MMS, SMS, AND INTERNET for 130 beats any phone cricket sells and cheaper! Bought through E Bay Works GREAT. no problems good reception that is better or close to the same as T-Mobile or sprint maybe not as good as Verizon. Internet is WAY better then any carrier i have had. I would definately recommend cricket if it is in your service area. But i would buy a phone that is already FULLY FLASHED for MMS, SMS, and INTERNET. I am saving HALF of what i use to pay and I use to not even have unlimited minutes. Now I do I can use phone or internet ALL DAY 24/7 365 and my bill stays the same. I LOVE CRICKET!!!!

Alysha, I have to repeat it AGAIN....Cricket does NOT flash ANY cell phones. Neither does Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, AT&T/Cingular, or Alltel. NO cell phone service providers flash phones!! If a sales rep says "We can flash your phone for [cell phone company name here] service", you are at an AUTHORIZED DEALER and NOT at a corporate-owned store. BEWARE OF AUTHORIZED DEALERS as they tend to only sell products to get your money and can do NOTHING if something goes wrong. Yes, you can get a Sprint phone flashed for Cricket's service, but many of the features will tend to NOT work...therefore you CANNOT complain when the service your order for your "flashed" phone doesn't work. One more note: complaining to the corporate office of the cell phone service provider about their service will NOT help you when you state you have a FLASHED phone. They will discard the complaint.

Personally, I've had a couple of phones flashed to Cricket. They DO NOT unlock them, they simply run your phone through their system and after paying close to $50 it's done. You can't really unlock a phone, you have to buy them that way.

Personally, I've had a couple of phones flashed to Cricket. They DO NOT unlock them, they simply run your phone through their system and after paying close to $50 it's done. You can't really unlock a phone, you have to buy them that way.

Personally, I've had a couple of phones flashed to Cricket. They DO NOT unlock them, they simply run your phone through their system and after paying close to $50 it's done. You can't really unlock a phone, you have to buy them that way.

Personally, I've had a couple of phones flashed to Cricket. They DO NOT unlock them, they simply run your phone through their system and after paying close to $50 it's done. You can't really unlock a phone, you have to buy them that way.

I am a vendor that flashes CDMA phones to Cricket. I am Certain had you asked the flashing company if your internet or pic mail would be compatable. You would have been told that it would not. It is just as much the customers responsibility as the service providers to clarify what will and will not work. If I ask my cable company to add cable internet I cannot assume i will be given an email address with my account or that i will have a static IP address. I need to clarify what I will be receiving. It's my duty as a smart consumer. Now I personally make sure to tell my customers whether their phones will be compatible with cricket internet. But it's not my responsibility to do so a google search would reveal this information and a smart consumer would take the time to seek that knowledge and make a decision based on that.

Thank you Rita for posting that information. I've heard a LOT of Cricket customers that have been burned by "authorized dealers" who do the "unauthorized" act of flashing phones from other wireless companies. However, the customer NEVER knows that they purchased a phone that was NOT manufactured for Cricket's service. However, there is hope. Cricket's system is able to determine if an ESN number from a cell phone is actually a phone manufactured for Cricket's service or not. This is what's known as a "never been Cricket" phone, and it requires a payment full month's of service upfront payment when you activate them. Therefore, if you are asked to pay for a month of service upfront when you activate a Cricket phone, you better believe that it HAS been used before, or that it's been "flashed for Cricket". You're right, Cricket (as well as any other wireless company) doesn't make much off of the sales of cell phones, even though they are sold at retail price. Where dealers make their main flow of income is in activating phones - and they'll take it anyway they can, even if it means ripping the customer off!!

I worked for Cricket at a corporate store in Houston,Tx Cricket Wireless is owned by Leap Wireless Corporate Headquarters 10307 Pacific Center Court San Diego, California 92121 Tel: 858-882-6000 Fax: 858-882-6010 SCOTT STUART is the corporate customer service manager, his contact number is 858-882-6000. You should call him to complain he may be able to help you. All dealers should and probably do know about the problems customers have with phones that have been flashed. You could have purchased a new cricket phone with a free month of service for $110.00. Basicly the dealer charged you for a service he provides that makes him money, not cricket. Cricket does not flash phones because of this problem. Cricket doesn't make money from the sale of handsets however you do need a handset in order to use their service so they sell phones with their software on it for customer Convenious. SOME DEALERS ARE CHEATING CUSTOMER OUT OF THEIR MONEY SO BE CAREFUL AND ALWAYS GO TO A CORPORATE STORE. Cricket does have a local corporate office located at 9 Greenway Plaza Houston TX. Corporate rep from this office service dealers in the Houston area however they may not be much help to you because dealer activations contribute high numbers toward quartly employee bonus HINT if they help you the loose bonus money. Hope this helps and good luck!

Just as a heads up, your complaint against Cricket in itself is being directed to the wrong party. Cricket Corporate stores do not flash or reprogram anything. You visited an Authorized Dealer location. Grab the name of their business and that's who told you your phone would MMS (picture mail, email etc). I've worked for both sides, indirect and direct. The $110 you spent, half of that was for activating a "used" phone with a new plan therefore it is required you pay your first month up front and taxes, it's called a CPE, Customer Provided Equipment, and another $15 bucks for the activation fee, essentially, you only paid $35/$40 for the reprogramming of the phone.

Tristan, you're right about that...there's really nothing wrong with going to an authorized dealer (although some are quite unauthorized in what they do to get business...including activating phones that are manufactured for other wireless companies). They do offer a little more flexibility in regards to being closer to you sometimes. However, this complaint was blaming Cricket Communications for something that was NOT their fault. Neither Cricket Communications nor any other wireless company flashes/unlocks phones for use with another company. While cell phone companies are aware that customers and dealers do this, they warn against it...and do NOT provide ANY technical support for these phones. If you call ANY wireless carrier and tell them you have a flashed/unlocked phone (or even if they suspect it), they will more than likely refer you back to the person/company that flashed/unlocked the phone for you. Therefore, my point is to NOT blame the company that gives you cell phone service when you did NOT go to their company-owned store to buy your cell phone. Just because there's a big "Cricket" sign outside the store does NOT mean it is the ONLY company they sell phones for.

There's nothing wrong with buying from a local DEALER, in most cases they can offer even more help because you don't have to go very far to reach the owner of the company directly. Since 'unlocking' a handset isn't all that difficult and doesn't exactly cost the dealer anything but time, you should request a refund under the assumption you would buy one of their 'crappy' handsets instead. Honestly, one of their other handsets will probably benefit you more because their internet service is designed to work with them.

Again, you went to a cell phone DEALER, not a corporately-owned-by-Cricket-Store. He/she sold you a phone or you had a phone flashed for Cricket's service. Cricket DOES NOT flash phones that are manufactured for other wireless carriers. Do you want me to prove it to you that you didn't go to a Cricket-owned store? Go to "http://www.mycricket.com" and click on "Find Store/Payment Location". Click on Houston, TX for the city. Next, type in "Katy, TX" for the stores nearest to your city (as I took it from your post). What is the address of the store you went to? I can almost guarantee you didn't go to a corporate-owned store.

The store I went to was a Cricket store. As I mentioned earlier, they had a HUGE sign that advertised activating phones from other companies. They may not "sell" unlocked phones but they charge to unlock them and that is a selling ploy. Activating my Sprint phone with Cricket was a concern and I asked a million questions before signing up. The guy that worked there assured me everything would work the same and that I would have access to my pictures. Which was the biggest reason for me "unlocking" my Sprint phone. I made a decision based on the information provided by a Cricket employee. Prior to me walking into that store I had checked online to find more info and only found a company website that didn't mention the subject. I asked him the benefits and features of both options. So based on his information I decided to have my Sprint phone "unlocked". The "problem I created" was walking into that store and believing that Cricket and its employees were honest and had integrity.

Well, I can already tell you that there's a definite problem: you activated a phone that was made for Sprint service and tried using it on Cricket's service.....bad move. Whenever you do that, Cricket cannot guarantee that you'll get ANY service at all because you're using a non-Cricket phone. While this practice has become quite popular, more and more Cricket customers are finding out that it creates more hassles than it solves because cell phone companies have different features that only work with phones manufactured for their service. I can understand that you're upset, but unfortunately, you created your own problem by trying to use a Sprint phone on Cricket's network. More than likely, you probably went to a cell phone dealer and NOT to a full service cricket store. Cricket does NOT sell "unlocked" or "flashed" phones to use on their network. I wish I could help more....

Well, I can already tell you that there's a definite problem: you activated a phone that was made for Sprint service and tried using it on Cricket's service.....bad move. Whenever you do that, Cricket cannot guarantee that you'll get ANY service at all because you're using a non-Cricket phone. While this practice has become quite popular, more and more Cricket customers are finding out that it creates more hassles than it solves because cell phone companies have different features that only work with phones manufactured for their service. I can understand that you're upset, but unfortunately, you created your own problem by trying to use a Sprint phone on Cricket's network. More than likely, you probably went to a cell phone dealer and NOT to a full service cricket store. Cricket does NOT sell "unlocked" or "flashed" phones to use on their network. I wish I could help more....

Well, I can already tell you that there's a definite problem: you activated a phone that was made for Sprint service and tried using it on Cricket's service.....bad move. Whenever you do that, Cricket cannot guarantee that you'll get ANY service at all because you're using a non-Cricket phone. While this practice has become quite popular, more and more Cricket customers are finding out that it creates more hassles than it solves because cell phone companies have different features that only work with phones manufactured for their service. I can understand that you're upset, but unfortunately, you created your own problem by trying to use a Sprint phone on Cricket's network. More than likely, you probably went to a cell phone dealer and NOT to a full service cricket store. Cricket does NOT sell "unlocked" or "flashed" phones to use on their network. I wish I could help more....

Well, I can already tell you that there's a definite problem: you activated a phone that was made for Sprint service and tried using it on Cricket's service.....bad move. Whenever you do that, Cricket cannot guarantee that you'll get ANY service at all because you're using a non-Cricket phone. While this practice has become quite popular, more and more Cricket customers are finding out that it creates more hassles than it solves because cell phone companies have different features that only work with phones manufactured for their service. I can understand that you're upset, but unfortunately, you created your own problem by trying to use a Sprint phone on Cricket's network. More than likely, you probably went to a cell phone dealer and NOT to a full service cricket store. Cricket does NOT sell "unlocked" or "flashed" phones to use on their network. I wish I could help more....