Soliciting Advice for New Mobile Phone and Carrier

[hurley842002]

^^ Funny! That's exactly why I like my S5 so much...I thought it was very intuitive and easy to use. Never had to restart it or pull the bat-tree so far after about a year and a half of using it. I can't even remember ever turning it off. But I've never used an iPhone.

Yeah I've never had to restart or pull the battery, although I've been known to pull the battery from time to time as recommended by many "phone geeks". That reminds me of another point worth noting. The S5 is the last of the reputable removable battery phones, which is what has kept me on the Galaxy series for quite awhile. Also had multiple batteries and standalone charger for my S4, VERY nice feature.

[Irving]

I currently have service with Verizon and Sprint. Verizon works pretty much everywhere. Even in some of the remote areas where my job takes me. Sprint... not so much. The only reason I switched to Sprint for my family service was they had an "unlimited everything" plan at the time. With a wife and two teenagers on the plan it was nice not having to worry about minutes, texts, or data usage. Been thinking about canceling my Sprint service and moving everything back to Verizon just for better coverage. The Sprint works fine as long as I'm in the city along the front range but head the slightest bit east and you might as well just turn the phone off.

Pretty much this. I had Verizon since high school but they were so much more, and wouldn't deal with me so I switched to Sprint and pay $38/mo for unlimited everything on a smart phone. At the time, I was paying $90/mo for a dumb phone with Verizon. Verizon has hands down better coverage though.

[Bailey Guns]

... now that I'm used to it I don't have any issues doing things on it. Most of the time. Lol.

Yeah. I can take pictures and make phone calls without too much trouble. I can even send a text message now and then. I've grown to tolerate texting because that's how my company communicates mostly. I'm hardly a phone/tech geek.

[brutal]

Just a few things I can add specifically because no one else has. I'm not a rooting expert, but offer what little I know. My experiences are also based in having been on a corporate plan for as long as I can remember. I do have a rooted (not unlocked) phone (S4) and corp has no admin rights on it.

Short Story:

Moving from ATT to Verizon.
Will also be needing new (new to me, so used are OK) phones.

Questions for Which I Need Advice:

VERIZON

1. What are the Pros/Cons with Verizon
   
   1. Coverage ? I've always been impressed by VZW coverage, esp when friends/family lose coverage with ATT, Sprint, etc. and I can still make calls. Remote areas can be iffy though on any carrier.
   2. Customer Service ?
   3. Plans ? (Note: As of 2 weeks ago they now only offer no-contract plans and full price phones)
   
   
2. Any recommended Verizon MVNO's that offer better plans ?
3. Pros/Cons of getting a plan at a Verizon store vs a re-seller ?
4. Any 'deals/promotions' that you know of ?
   
   PHONE
5. Looking at Samsung S-series (4, 5 flavors) What are the Pros/Cons ?
6. Recommended place to get a used phone ?
7. Consideration with a used Phone
   1) I understand about making sure the IMEI is not blacklisted
   2) I understand about making sure the LTE data works on Verizon if using an unlocked phone from another carrier on Verizon
   3) I understand the battery may not hold a charge and may need to be replaced
   4) Make sure I see the phone work (text/Phone/LTE 4G) before purchase
   Unless it's someone you know and trust, take the phone and seller to a Verizon store.
8. Can an S4/S5 be rooted to allow apps to run from the Flash Card (I did this with my Tab 7 2.0 and 4.0)
   Short answer yes. Long answer, the bootloaders have been locked down on all recent firmware revs so custom ROM use is questionable AFAIK. I overlooked an OTA update that was allowed to run on mine days before I decided to root that would have otherwise allowed an unlock. Some later firmwares may not currently have a Knox safe root but they usually follow by a few months of release. If you trip the knox e-fuse, you void the warranty. I've been extremely pleased with my S4 and have had it rooted for about two years now with little ill effects. It does lock up once in a while and needs a reboot and not often a battery pull.
9. I tend to keep my phone for a long time, so I'd like to get something reliable
10. What else ?

Long Story:

I've been with ATT since BEFORE it went to Cingular (first phone was the old Moto PT550 era). All was good.
My wife has a new job and is unable to get an ATT signal at work. ATT gave us a new uCell, but since it needs to be
placed by a window for GPS Lock (FCC requires the registration of the location of the TX's, thus the uCell uses GPS to do this)
and no windows are anywhere near where she works (nor does it have an external GPS antenna), it is not an option. So we need to change carriers.
ATT verified that there were tons of uCells near her workplace (thus they confirm there is poor coverage) and the nearest tower is pointing away from her workplace.

She 'surveyed' her co-workers and found that other ATT users have the same issue.
T-Mobile and Sprint are better at work, but not stellar.
Thus Verizon seems to be the best, per the informal survey.

We will also need to upgrade phones. Both of us are thinking Samsung S-somethng. She's more inclined to the S5, I'm OK with something a bit lower/older, but prefer something small in size (S4-mini ?).
Would prefer NOT having to get brand new phones at Full price, so looking at used or refurbished.
Verizon recently (13AUG15) did away with their discounted phones w/ 2-year contract and only sells no-contract plans and full price (payments spread out over 24 mo) phones.
So, I'm thinking I can do better, dollar-wise, by getting a used phone somewhere.

Features I am interested in (not in any order):

• Use the Phone as a Hotspot for a tablet (occasionally) My S4 - Yes, there are also root apps for hotspot
  
• Can make WiFi calls (when at home/office) My S4 and TabPro use Google Hangouts
  
• GPS (for navigation) Yes, I also use an app on my S4 when hunting. Carry a spare replaceable battery and large sdcard installed make this a good choice. Add a waterproof case (I use a Seido Obex)
  
• Expandable Flash ( slot can be under the cover) S4 yes, S5 yes, S6 no (but there are add-on covers that hook into the USB port)
  NOTE: This is one of the reasons we don't want an iPhone
  
• Decent Screen (do not need Top of the line; want to be able to see screen in sunlight) Samsung screens are great but they can't seem to get their auto brightness right.
  
• Waterproof (afraid I may accidentally dump in in the toilet etc.) S4 no, need case, S5 is "resistant"
  
• Camera w/ Flash (For Snapshots; does not have to be Top of the Line) S4 is OK, but not impressive IMHO
  
• Sync w/ Outlook - If your corp allows it, latest Outlook app works (mine does not allow) but I use mobimail for an off-grid (no admin) OWA client
  
• Android ( I am a developer, so another test platform would be handy) S4, S5 fer sure
  
• BT LE (I think going fwd most BT accessories will be BT LE 4.x and up)

If you read through this lengthy post, congrats for making it through and thanks for taking time to do that.
If you take some time to offer advice... thank you again.

[sniper7]

We are Verizon and have been for about 13-14 years. Only company we have had except for a brief stint at t mobile. I wanted international calling and data and they have a great plan, unfortunately the service here at home sucked., poor reception, dropped calls all over the place, no signal in the house but the booster they gave us worked great, and about 15 minutes north of town it went to roaming where instead of unlimited data, you got 50MB which I used in all of 45 minutes of sending a couple pictures and needing gps. That was the final straw on top of being sold into a plan that wasn't available to us and was going to be $40 more a month than promised.

we were always droid until this last time around we went with the iPhone's so not much help there, but the integrity of the iPhone compared to droids and other phones I have had is a lot better. We sold our iPad 1 not long ago and the thing still worked great. I can't say that for any droid phone or windows based device I've owned, they seem to have a 2-3 year life expectancy with us.

We have unlimited everything plan and more data then we could use in a month and it about $170 for the two of us. Coverage is great, call reception is great, no roaming, tons of data and good phones to boot.

[james_bond_007]

Some Verizon Info:

They have done away with contracts Online and are soon to do so At the Stores.

Cost w/o Contract:
$40 Activation (New customer)
$20/mo/line
$45/3G shared data (They have other sizes such as Small $30/1G, Med $45/3G, Lg $60/6, and XL $80/$12 ...& more if you need it)
Phones - BYOP or buy at Full Retail (EX: S5 is $552)

Cost w/ Contract
SAME Activation
$40/mo/line
SAME Data
Phones - BYOP or Buy at discount (EX: S5 is $150)

Both about the same for 2 years with Verizon purchased phones.

So I went with NO Contract and bought 2 S4 Mini from a non-Verizon dealer.
Monthly will be 2x$20 + $45 = $85 + taxes/fees (That was about what I was paying at AT&T with 1G Shared Data)

My wife now has reception at work and is now happy with the phone situation.
Did I mention my wife is now Happy ?

[james_bond_007]

Something else I should mention: I believe the customer service at Verizon may be a bit better. Why ?
While I was waiting to signup, I talked to another customer about the poor coverage of AT&T at my wife's location.
He said he had issues early on when he lived in the boonies with coverage from Verizon, but Verizon came out and adjusted some things on the tower to provide him great coverage.
He said he later moved and had issues at his new place of employment. They again adjusted some things and he had coverage.

When I got to the counter, I asked the guy about it and was told that Verizon has and will attempt to adjust things if possible and the HE also had this happen to him.
He asked me to make sure I ASK about it, if I find myself having poor signal strength. He said they can rotate the antennas and boost the signal strength (a bit).
He was surprised that AT&T did not offer to do anything like that, since they are actively trying to retain customers.

[Monky]

Honestly I'm fed up with verizon. I'm sitting at Inverness east and can only get analog. I get no 4g at my house in englewood. I've talked to my business rep and he's baffled. They can see ALL and I mean ALL the dropped calls. There is a tower not far from my house.

Granted this is an iPhone and I didn't have these issues prior, but there are HUGE dead spots outside of downtown that I can find anywhere. 225 & alameda. 225 and Parker. University and bellview. Arapahoe and Broadway all the way to race.


Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.

[buffalobo]

Honestly I'm fed up with verizon. I'm sitting at Inverness east and can only get analog. I get no 4g at my house in englewood. I've talked to my business rep and he's baffled. They can see ALL and I mean ALL the dropped calls. There is a tower not far from my house.

Granted this is an iPhone and I didn't have these issues prior, but there are HUGE dead spots outside of downtown that I can find anywhere. 225 & alameda. 225 and Parker. University and bellview. Arapahoe and Broadway all the way to race.


Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.

^This^

We live in the sticks and Verizon used to have half way decent coverage/service for us, that was the reason we selected them.

About the time the Lollipop update came out the wife started to complain about no service. Spoke with CS and they sent tech to area to check and he said a network extender would be required.

When I bring up that the service has deteriorated CS dances around issue and pretty much blows us off.

We will be changing at least the wife's service.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[james_bond_007]

Corporate Discounts:

I understand that some are better than others; however, the Verizon store indicated that going forward, most will only apply to the Data Plan...and nothing else.

Some Verizon Info:

They have done away with contracts Online and are soon to do so At the Stores.

Cost w/o Contract:
$40 Activation (New customer)
$20/mo/line
$45/3G shared data (They have other sizes such as Small $30/1G, Med $45/3G, Lg $60/6, and XL $80/$12 ...& more if you need it)
Phones - BYOP or buy at Full Retail (EX: S5 is $552)

Cost w/ Contract
SAME Activation
$40/mo/line
SAME Data
Phones - BYOP or Buy at discount (EX: S5 is $150)

Both about the same for 2 years with Verizon purchased phones.

So I went with NO Contract and bought 2 S4 Mini from a non-Verizon dealer.
Monthly will be 2x$20 + $45 = $85 + taxes/fees (That was about what I was paying at AT&T with 1G Shared Data)

My wife now has reception at work and is now happy with the phone situation.
Did I mention my wife is now Happy ?