Carrier Cricket vs AT&T for iPhone 5

[Derek87]

Any update?

thanks for asking. i've done several things and i can't say that the problem has been solved. it seems better, but without sitting around in our dining room watching the phone continually, i think its going to take a few days to see how bad the problem is.

things i did: (a number of times and in different combinations)

- reset network settings
- removed the sim card and let it sit out of the phone for 10 minutes and put it back in.
- booted up the phone without the sim card and then reinserted it.
- set up the phone as new with sim card and then restored my wife's settings from iCloud backup.
- tried to send APN profile from unlockit.co.nz
- rebooted and hard booted many times.

after all of this: it seemed better yet, in that things seemed better behaved when switching on/off the "enable LTE" option. (i.e., it behaved similarly to what i encountered with ATT). yet, i did encounter a no service signal this morning which disappointed me. since then, i decided to try something out: leave it with LTE off and only use 4G...so far so good.

my wife used it today out and about with me in various places, and the signal was always there whenever i took the time to look and check (and not drive her nuts). also, whenever i did the same while here at home, i saw a signal which was always there.

i'm not convinced the problem is solved yet...if its truly "rare," i think i/she can live with it. it certainly, today outside and when i checked at home, seemed more consistently connected. the other night (and last night after doing the sim card pull trick, it would go to "no service" pretty regularly."

so, i do think the complete rebuild did the phone some good. but time will tell. i'd love to get Cricket involved again on some day when my wife is willing to go without a phone.

 

[Derek87]

Any update?

So another round of updates after working hard on this yesterday. after all that is said and done, i'm not convinced that the problem is solved. i'm only convinced that maybe, just maybe, it will be livable.

here's the recap of yesterday:
- my wife was trying to text someone and it kept failing on delivery. i looked at her phone and it was showing a really low signal (-109db) and then dropped to "No Service."

- i realized that Cricket had a 7 day a week chat support, so i went online just around their closing time (7ET) and amazingly, spent 90 minutes with them trying different things out.

what the rep did was:
1. confirmed that my SIM and device were properly registered on their network (check IMEI number, etc.)
2. had me shut down the phone and pull out the sim.
3. she reset the sim from her side of things: essentially, she said she re-registered the device on their network to correct for any errors in the sim programming.
4.she then resent activation codes over the network.
5. she also then looked at the towers in my area and verified that my wife's coverage should be there. there were two "weakened towers" but far away so she didn't think they should play any role in the problems we were seeing.
6. she also verified that there was no reason we should see any behavior different than what i was seeing previously on ATT.
7. finally, she had be perform a "connection test" and roam our house for about 20 minutes to see if the call got dropped (between my verizon iPhone and the cricket iPhone) if i went to the area of our house (family room/dining room) where we had previously seen the "no coverage pop up." after 25 minutes, i didn't drop. she suggested that maybe we have solved it, but to test it over the next few days, and if the no service issue came up again, it would need to escalated higher up to "back office team" which would need to take additional steps that she couldn't. i'm not sure what those steps would be, nor did she elaborate. but since i know i had kept her well beyond her working hours and had already given me 90 minutes of her time, i ended the chat session.

i kept this connection between our iPhones going for another 90 or so minutes (i.e., 2 hours plus and the call never failed or dropped with me periodically checking signal level which at worst hit -98db (3 bars)).

but in the hours that followed, i did see the "no service" thing crop up twice in the course of the evening (with me nervously checking the phone regularly)...the no service flag never lasted for more than 5-10 seconds before resuming to a stronger signal.


so, the problem doesn't appear completely solved, but let's see how the phone behaves in day to day use: i.e., does my wife miss calls? does she have problems sending SMS?

it seems better than it was: overnight, her phone only dropped 3% in battery from what i could see, so clearly, it didn't struggle with signal in a bad way overnight like it did last week.

time will tell. i'm not sure what escalating the issue will do with the "back office team" will do and what will be involved (again, the logistical problem is this is my wife's phone (and she's not tech savvy), so i'm not sure how i can be involved with this on a week day or when they may need me to have access to the phone)

but i have to say i was impressed with the attention i received yesterday from the Cricket rep. i hadn't heard the best regarding customer service from them, but yesterday, i was impressed, even if the problem wasn't necessarily solved.

 

[pvmacguy]

Do you have a cricket store near you? If so go get a new sim card. I think you might have a dud card.

 

[Derek87]

Do you have a cricket store near you? If so go get a new sim card. I think you might have a dud card.

do you think they'd give me a new one for free? (i.e. a replacement)

 

[pvmacguy]

do you think they'd give me a new one for free? (i.e. a replacement)

They should. We used to at AIO. If not, I'm sure customer service has many notes on your account and they may be able to issue a customer credit to your account in the amount of the sim if you have to pay.

FYI: At AIO BYOD sim kits were only $9.99.

 

[Derek87]

They should. We used to at AIO. If not, I'm sure customer service has many notes on your account and they may be able to issue a customer credit to your account in the amount of the sim if you have to pay.

FYI: At AIO BYOD sim kits were only $9.99.

yeah: my BYOD sim cost me $9.99+ tax from the website. just not sure how the brick and motor store works in conjunction with having an account set up on the internet. there is a cricket store not too far away, but just talking aloud and thinking about what effort is involved, especially given some of the other posts on the forum about how it costs $25 for activating a sim.

anyway, as i noted, my current plan is to let my wife use her phone this week and try to be less anxious about it myself. if she's happy/content with it, i need to stop worrying about it not working perfectly and just let it be. (hard for this anal retentive guy who likes things to work perfectly :roll eyes: )