Talk all you want for $35, huh?
well....
for the most part.
I figured what the heck, their promotion sounded pretty decent -- $35 a month and you get the first month free with purchase of a phone. For $3 extra bucks, you get voicemail which is a neccessity since I don’t answer my home phone (which I wouldn’t even have if I didn’t have to have DSL, but that’s another review to write), caller id (which is kinda crappy because it only shows the names you’ve established in your contacts list), and call waiting (and I don’t like answering my phone to begin with).
For the most part, their coverage area covers the metro Atlanta area and surrounding major interstates about 15 miles in each direction and also includes downtown Athens. Just like other reviewers have said, getting a signal really depends on where you are. I work in a midtown ATL high rise and don’t get reception anywhere except in the downstairs smoking area (how convenient) and at my desk (which is luckily close to an outside window). Don’t even think about getting a signal in an elevator, or in even on any of the higher floors though. I didn’t have problems at Music Midtown with 70K people milling around me getting a signal in a wide open area, which was pretty damn impressive... but if you’re stuck in a Marta tunnel, you’re probably screwed. My phone likes to cut out when I’m on 75/85 North, right under the International Blvd bridge.
I can’t collaborate on any of the complaints about the poor customer service. Yes, I had to stand in line at one of their corporate locations on a Saturday, but I normally stand in line at the grocery store and post office too. After nearly a year of having the phone (I had the Kyocera 2235 originally), I started having problems seeing the LCD screen so I took it in and they happily replaced it free of charge with the current Kyocera 1155 model (which seems to have a more stable screen, but no voice activation features). I haven’t had any problems with their online billing or payment locations not posting my payments in a timely fashion. The only time my phone wasn’t activated within 2 hours I wasn’t able to find a ’’customer service’’ extension on their 1-888-8-Metro-8 telephone number, so I dialed the extension for sales, gave the rep my confirmation number and they had me reactivated within minutes.
Nationwide long distance is .05 a minute and when I signed up I had to prepay a minimum of $5.00 at a time, but I still haven’t used the $20.00 I paid initially when I first signed up for the service in February 2002. They apparently have some regular long distance plans now, which seem to be cheap at as low as .017 per minute.
All in all, if you don’t mind the same quality service that you get when paying more to other carriers and can tolerate your phone not ringing every time someone calls (but you will get the voicemail), this could be the right service for you.