DROID won't work if you have Alltel plan??

[crspang]

So, I was in a VZW store this evening with my wife and son trying get an issue resolved with my son's phone and while waiting on the manager to help us we were chatting with the CSR that had been "helping" us. I mentioned that my wife and I had ordered DROIDs and were expecting them to come in tomorrow. Since we were trying to resolve a crapped out phone issue, the CSR was familiar with our account (we're former Alltel customers and still on an Alltel plan). He looked confused at us when we mentioned the DROIDs and said that since we still have an Alltel plan the DROID won't work for us. I didn't believe he was truthful with this issue because I believe he and another manager had already LIED to my wife earlier in the day while I was at work and her and my son were trying to get his phone fixed (but that is another story).

I have been browsing these forums for a month now (debating with myself as to whether or not I wanted to take the plunge into another two year contract) and I think I'm pretty up to date with the typical problems/issues people are having with their DROIDS. So, just to make sure, when we got home I did several searches for Alltel plan issues in these forums and wasn't able to come up anything relevant to us, ie. we don't live in Florida.

I fully expect the DROIDs to function with our Alltel plan, so I guess my real question is;

What level of education is required to be a VZW CSR?? Or do they troll halfway houses and hire recently paroled convicts and scam artists?? What exactly is the deal with these supposed customer service reps, I can only think of maybe once or twice that I've been satisfactorily helped when I've gone to a cell phone store in person.

 

[Benton]

Just as is the case in any company, CSR's will vary in skill and customer "caring" but I wouldn't paint the picture with too broad of a brush. Through my years of mobile phone purchasing I have run across the full range of CSR skills ranging from poor to superior. There also seems to be a correlation or trend between poor individual CSR skills and the overall store skill set so don't be afraid to walk out of one location and drive to another store if you feel the service you are receiving at one shop is bad. My wife and I went to three stores before upgrading her Omnia to a Droid last weekend and it was well worth the effort.

One last point, maybe the most important - if you have a choice of CSR's to work with, find one that carries/uses the device you are interested in. Nothing like getting first-hand information. If the CSR you are "assigned" personally uses a non-smartphone then they most likely are not very technical and lack knowledge about the feature set the smartphone device has, especially for the details you want to know before making a significant $$ committment.

 

[MrBaz]

Let us know how the Droids work out for you.

 

[crspang]

Let us know how the Droids work out for you.

I will. I'm like a kid on Christmas eve waiting.......lol

 

[crspang]

@Benton. You're right about finding the right person to talk to, I was just venting. BTW I've had better service from VZW by calling the 800#.

 

[KeepInitReel]

Of course the droid will work with your alltel voice plan, all that's needed is to add the verizon data feature $29.99. The alltel data feature will not show as an option anymore. There are many alltel/vzw people using the droid.

 

[MrsDebbi]

I has to upgrade my plan by doing a full switch to verizon to get my droid fully opperational.

 

[crspang]

So I've had my DROID for a couple hours now and everything is working just fine (I knew it would) I've downloaded a few apps and synced my e-mail and tested the GPS. It all works! So far the UI experience has been easy to navigate and I'm happy. I have plans to return to the VZW store tonight to pick up my son's phone and while I'm there I'll have show it off to those VZW CSR's that said it couldn't be done. lol

 

[crspang]

Of course the droid will work with your alltel voice plan, all that's needed is to add the verizon data feature $29.99. The alltel data feature will not show as an option anymore. There are many alltel/vzw people using the droid.

We already had Alltel's unlimited data plan and the DROID seems to work just fine with it. We have NOT changed our plan's features at all.

 

[Mojo]

Of course the droid will work with your alltel voice plan, all that's needed is to add the verizon data feature $29.99. The alltel data feature will not show as an option anymore. There are many alltel/vzw people using the droid.

We already had Alltel's unlimited data plan and the DROID seems to work just fine with it. We have NOT changed our plan's features at all.

You better double check that... ALL VERIZON SMARTPHONES OR ADVANCED VERIZON DEVICES REQUIRE A VERIZON DATA PLAN! Do not mean to shout, but this is VZW policy. EROS will not even allow a droid or any other smartphone to even be activated with out adding this feature.

 

[Spectral]

Feel lucky that you were able to do that. The system should have automatically put you on a Verizon Nationwide plan with the data package.

 

[crspang]

Well, I'm posting this reply using the DROID. I'm not sure why I should feel lucky cause it only makes sense that it would work. If it didn't work you would have seen hundreds of posts complaining about it when they launched the DROID. I think the VZW CSRs get a commission to switch people to more expensive plans.

 

[crspang]

I has to upgrade my plan by doing a full switch to verizon to get my droid fully opperational.

Do you live in Fl?
If so and you're referring to the GPS issues then go back and read what actually solved that. It had nothing to do with being former Alltel.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/tech-issues-bug-reports-suggestions/777-apparent-gps-failure-48.html

see post 478
read that entire thread and you will see that VZW made people jump through unnecessary hoops to fix a problem that was a simple programming error.

 

[crspang]

Of course the droid will work with your alltel voice plan, all that's needed is to add the verizon data feature $29.99. The alltel data feature will not show as an option anymore. There are many alltel/vzw people using the droid.

We already had Alltel's unlimited data plan and the DROID seems to work just fine with it. We have NOT changed our plan's features at all.

You better double check that... ALL VERIZON SMARTPHONES OR ADVANCED VERIZON DEVICES REQUIRE A VERIZON DATA PLAN! Do not mean to shout, but this is VZW policy. EROS will not even allow a droid or any other smartphone to even be activated with out adding this feature.

My plan did go up by $2.00 because the insurance is higher but that is all it went up. I am looking at my plan on VZW's website right now and the only change is the insurance.

 

[saywhat2365]

my plan did that too the only thing that went up was the insurance still have my altell plan and altell data plan with my droid.