I originally found Straight Talk on the Clark Howard website and thought it sounded to good to be true- use of the Verizon Wireless infrastructure for $45 a month- with unlimited talk, text and data? Where do I sign?
What I didn't realize is that it would lead to unlimited problems for me. I'll summarize to make this short:
- Customer support for me was minimal- almost non-existant. It was the company of, "no."
- When my phone broke on the first day of a week long business trip, I was deseprate to get it working again. ST support told they would be glad to send me another one- but only to my home, in 9-14 days, and only once they'd received my broken phone.
- I missed several meetings as a result, and was unable to keep in contact with my company until the end of the day.
- You also can't upgrade your phone when it breaks- you can only get a replacement of the same model as the broken phone- even if you're willing to pay more. Didn't have a good experience with your phone? Too bad, here's the same one, right back at you.
- Customer support will kindly thank you for your complaint several times before they again inform you that there's nothing they can do.
- The phones were mostly 3G CDMA or other basic models with slower coverage than most current phones today. In some areas such as voice, it didn't matter- but in other applications such as navigation, the functionality was spotty (if at all). Have a critical meeting you need to go to, or a place you have to be? This can matter. Other apps wouldn't work at all, or were extremely slow to download as a result of CDMA technology.
- I wrote to two senior customer service executives at Straight Talk asking for them to get back to me about this horrible experience. Neither of them bothered.
- Overall, while the price is low, you really are getting what you pay for, and less. Dated phones, slow speed, poor service, some applications that won't work that require high speed.
If I had known these things prior, I wouldn't have gone with Straight Talk. If they matter to you, I would seriously suggest you fully evaluate your wireless service provider before you make a low-cost decision like I did.