Re-up with Alltel and upgrade phones in a retained but not yet integrated area
OK, looking for advice from a knowledgeable Alltel rep who knows actual facts about the upcoming integration. I had a "not so good" experience today, and it's making me rethink which carrier I will be with in a few months. As such, I apologize in advance if this sounds too much like a rant.
I'm with Alltel in Appleton, Wisconsin. Our current plan is the $89.99 SmartChoice 500 pack, with my HTC 6800 as the primary phone and my wife's HTC 6800 as the secondary for an additional $40 per month. Our "early upgrade" dates are coming up... around June 22 for mine and July 20 for hers, give or take a day or two. This plan works great for us, since we do a lot of texting and very little voice... generally less than 300 minutes between us even counting M2M and MyCircle.
My original plan was to hope that our area would still be Alltel on our early upgrade dates, so that we could re-up for another two years on the same plan we have now, and in the process be able to each get an Alltel branded Touch Pro. However, I went into the local corporate store today (just planning ahead) and there is an awful lot of red there ... even though they officially haven't moved us to Verizon, the Alltel part of the store is very downplayed. Lots of Verizon phones and flyers, and very little Alltel. We are not officially part of Verizon yet though... looks like late summer for the transition in our area (which is why I thought I had time to do this!)
The rep I talked to told me that they had no more Alltel branded Touch Pros in stock, and if I wanted a Touch Pro at this point my only choice would be to port over to Verizon (with a shiny new Verizon plan of course) and get the Verizon branded Touch Pro (which is not my first choice for a number of reasons). Not to mention that the Verizon Touch Pro is $349 with a two year agreement, while the Alltel version still shows on the Alltel website for $79 (yes, this was after entering my zip code, and yes, I know that Verizon is offering $50 off the first phone and $35 off the second to port... yada yada...). I mentioned the online pricing to the rep, and she went off to talk to her manager and came back with something about not matching "third party" online pricing. Um... this is the Alltel site we were looking at! I know that it's handled through Let's Talk, but I don't believe for a minute that the Alltel site would be considered a "third party" site for something like this!
Plus, the rep tried to tell me that we would have to get new phones anyway after the integration is complete... that our 6800''s wouldn't work on Verizon's network. Now, those of you who know me from HoFo know that I am the wrong person to tell something like that to... heck, I have flashed and customized more custom ROMs for Windows Mobile than, well, most of you here... I am intimately familiar with my 6800 at an OS and radio level, and there is absolutely NO reason that it would not work on the Verizon network. A CDMA phone is a CDMA phone, and with the correct programming can authenticate on ANY CDMA network. This stinks of misinformation, and it left a very bad taste in my mouth. To be fair, this may be misinformation that she was handed from higher up, and not her fault, but still...
So... I guess my question would be: is there any way (after June 22 of course) fulfill my original idea of getting new Alltel branded Touch Pros with an Alltel plan? Perhaps over the phone, or through the Alltel website? Or with a different store? Because if not, then the whole reason for my upgrade and lock-in of plan becomes "not so imperative" at this time and we may just wait things out, and/or see what other providers like USCC or (gasp!) AT&T have to say once we are at the end of our contract. I'd like to become part of the "new Verizon" but today's experience did not get our relationship off to a good start.
The Answerman - owner of the HTC Droid Incredible!!! And yes, we have achieved ROOT and NAND unlock!!!
For generally helpful stuff like my SID finder, PRLs, and more of my rants and observations on the world in general, visit http://www.the-answerman.com.
You could venture away from Appleton towards the corporate Alltel store in Decorah, Iowa and get Touch Pros. And they'll work fine after billing system integration. They only thing they won't do is run the Verizon-native applications that come on a Verizon-native phone.
You could venture away from Appleton towards the corporate Alltel store in Decorah, Iowa and get Touch Pros. And they'll work fine after billing system integration. They only thing they won't do is run the Verizon-native applications that come on a Verizon-native phone.
Right... and I could not care less about VZNavigatorCastWhateverelse. All I need is a Touch Pro that I can use for voice, text, and data. I'll install my own applications, thank you very much
Perhaps you could PM me with any insight you might have about that store...
wtf? they told you your phone wouldnt work on verizon after alltel becomes verizon? thats bull. freaking all the papers you get in the mail say all alltel phones will work. well the ones that OTA. im just waiting for alltel to hopefully come out with the tp2 and thats the last phone ill get cuz verizon cripples there phones so badly.
Curious... whats the difference between the Alltel and Verizon Touch Pro's? I'm possibly picking up a Verizon TP, then doing an Alltel update to the data settings, and flashing a 6.5 build on it. Is there a difference in the hardware, or just the general software setup that will be unlocked when I do this anyways?
D.
Mick662: "Someday, you will meet people on the internet who are so dumb, you will find it hard to comprehend. They probably got beat up a lot at school for being this dumb. And they deserved it".
Gotcha. Makes sense...lol. I think I'll hold off on the trade then, and try to look at other avenues. I really want to try out the 6.5 WinMo for a while so I will figure something out.
Thanks!
Answer, you should be able to call up Customer Service and order through them without an issue as long as your area has not yet converted. Since it'll be still going through Alltel's system. Otherwise we're not converted down here and I can ask a store rep friend of mine if they have it in stock and maybe he can call you up when that time comes or something. I dunno... best of luck.
I don't know how the merger affects the plans but I was able to price match the online price by calling Alltel direct. I believe that the on-line store part of Alltel is run by Let's Talk or another third party.
Answerman, I'll call my buddy at the stevens point store and see if we can't figure something out for you. PM me if you want to discuss further
This Verizon/Alltel merger has become a giant "Jump to Conclusions!" mat. We don't know what's going to happen, and when we do, I'm sure we'll all be surprised.
mary. does that include less memory on the smart phones or just picture sending via bluetooth? i could care less about that as i need meomory for my phone.
Then why have they underclocked the CPU and cut back the user avalible RAM on the VZW of the Touch Pro? Verizon worried about too much power in the user's hands?
mary. does that include less memory on the smart phones or just picture sending via bluetooth? i could care less about that as i need meomory for my phone.
I was asking in the verizon forum because, I currently have a V3m with alltel and have full access to my phone via bluetooth. The answers on the thread I pointed you to seem to be confusing.
... even though they officially haven't moved us to Verizon, the Alltel part of the store is very downplayed. Lots of Verizon phones and flyers, and very little Alltel. We are not officially part of Verizon yet though... looks like late summer for the transition in our area (which is why I thought I had time to do this!)
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Originally Posted by kch50428
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