AT&T and cell phone signal boosters.

[QRTRHRS]

Long story short, we bought a place with poor cell reception. The seller had an antenna rigged up with a wireless or bluetooth booster that would give me one bar. An inspector and his helper had the same phone from Verizon. One phone would work, one not? Neighbor told us that AT&T gave him a booster after he bugged them enough. I have to get back to him to get more info on that.

Anyway, I call AT&T to see if they can do anything for me. Yes, for around $150 bucks they have something. I told the rep that I would be looking into other options.

Today I get this text from AT&T asking about my call. It went like this:

AT&T: How satisfied were you with so and so's ability to assist you with your call?

Me: 1. Very DISSATISFIED. Though not his fault, likely your policies. My wife is deaf and we bought a home with low if any cell signal without some kind of booster. The neighbor was given one, no charge yet I was told no. Others have told me they also got one free after complaining. We are on a fixed budget so every expense must be considered.

AT&T: Sorry to hear. How satisfied are you with so and so's knowledge and expertise?

Me: 3. Neutral

AT&T: Thank you. Was so and so able to fully resolve your request?

Me: 2. No

AT&T: Sorry you were not satisfied. Please provide any additional feedback to help us fully understand your experience.

Me: I had a home inspector at my property. His Verizon cell had good signal. I will be looking into them for a provider.

AT&T: Thank you for being an AT&T customer. We appreciate your feedback and value your business.


Anyone ever go through this with AT&T? If so did you get some kind of help for free or have to pay? Any recommendations on boosting the signal would also be helpful to me.

 

[CountryB]

AT&T has the Micocell AT&T MicroCell Wireless Network Extender which switches your cell phone from using the local cell tower to connecting through your internet connection when in its range. It works very well in my area (for me there is no carrier that provides a signal once I'm inside the house) - so I got the Microcell. They may have a free offer (perhaps if you sign a cell phone contrtact - but i paid for the device).

To use it you need to have internet access/account with AT&T.

I previously tried a signal booster "zBoost" it was called - which was not worth the money or time to install it.

 

[newbury]

AT&T is a humongous unfeeling, loosely connected mess.
There's a thread on here about the AT&T Mobley (it gives you unlimited internet [might get throttled after 22GB] for $20/month). Almost everyone who has had to deal with "AT&T people" has had a bumpy experience. If you can get good Verizon signal why not switch?

 

[TractorGuy]

I agree. If you have good Verizon service just switch unless you're bound by a contract with AT&T.

My wife and I have prepaid Verizon phones and have been very happy. You can purchase a decent smartphone at Walmart for $100 or less and the service is about 45 per month plus sales tax. This way you don't have to worry about fluctuating bills. That includes unlimited talk and text with a couple gigs of data. Put it on auto pay and they give you an extra gig of data.

My mother-in-law just wanted a basic flip phone with minimal voice service and they have those for as low as $10 with service for $15 per month. You get something like 200 minutes talk but no text or data for that.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

AT&T has the Micocell AT&T MicroCell Wireless Network Extender which switches your cell phone from using the local cell tower to connecting through your internet connection when in its range. It works very well in my area (for me there is no carrier that provides a signal once I'm inside the house) - so I got the Microcell. They may have a free offer (perhaps if you sign a cell phone contrtact - but i paid for the device).

To use it you need to have internet access/account with AT&T.

I previously tried a signal booster "zBoost" it was called - which was not worth the money or time to install it.

That only works if you have a decent high-speed Internet connection. If you do, they can be very nice. Some people have a lot of trouble with them - seems it either works well or it does not.

If you want a good booster, get a Wilson. But make sure there is at least some signal first. They can't amplify noise very well. If there is a decent signal at rooftop level, a good directional antenna and a Wilson in the house will give you good service.

 

[boggen]

long distance carrier stop carrying long distance, went to switch back to att since they had the land line running out to the road. they wanted nearly 40 to 45 bucks a month.

i checked other cell phone companies, and non offer service in my area. well they did till i think some hail storms came through and messed up the tower.

ended up going with hugesnet satilite internet with voice service, and then google voice free service for some extra features.

i have had it for about a week. so for so good. and both internet and voice seems to be going good. the only issue i have had is when T-storm cloud is directly over me. as in the actual storm front of major clouds rolling through. which puts me out for about 10 minutes. other than that. seems to work fine.

voice package is like 30 bucks a month. 15 bucks cheaper than the old land line.

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i actually tried to see if i could find any third party folks to deal with land line. and i was stuck with att. call up various companies tech support and ask them "do you offer land line service" ya we do, hhhmm what is that again?

============
if i had actual cell phone service in my area. most likely would of went with one of the third party companies that offer some text, voice for like 10 bucks a month. with a cell phone up front cost of around 40 to 80 bucks.

 

[coldsteelva]

I highly recommend Tracfone. You can pick up one of their smartphones OR if you have one, pick up a sim card kit for $15. You then have options to install either an ATT compatible SIM or a Verizon CDMA compatible SIM (your phone choice must be carrier compatible). For $100 per YEAR, I make all the phone calls that I need to and have no contract. If you run through your texts, 1000 text msgs is $5.80 prepaid. You can never have an overage, but you can opt-in for auto-refills.

It has been 4 years I've had them (first a cheap-o flip phone, now my wife's old Galaxy S5) and they have worked perfectly.

 

[ibaj]

I also live in the country. But my metal siding and roof made my interior reception terrible. After having to go outside to use the Internet or make a call, I finally broke down and bought a signal booster when Home Depot had them on sale. I put the outside antenna outside and not under my roof. Then I ran the coax into the house and connected it to the indoor antenna and box. It works like a champ. I was able to turn off my satellite internet and go to using my iPhone. I've already saved enough to pay for the booster! As long as you have a signal outside, it should really help inside the home. It sure did for me!

 

[rekees4300]

AT&T is a humongous unfeeling, loosely connected mess. Almost everyone who has had to deal with "AT&T people" has had a bumpy experience.

Yes you are correct. They definitely have an organization cultural problem. For the past week I've been in AT&T support purgatory. Their CSR's are incompetent, poorly trained, and/or apathetic. Talked to 4 of them and all were clueless about how to get my order out of "pending" status. Their favorite "solution" was for me to make the 2 hour round trip to the nearest AT&T retail store with the promise "they will be able to fix the problem in 20 minutes". Yeah right. So I declined their "solution" and just waiting for the order to be automatically cancelled in a few days. AT&T lost a new customer.

 

[dmccarty]

... Their favorite "solution" was for me to make the 2 hour round trip to the nearest AT&T retail store with the promise "they will be able to fix the problem in 20 minutes". Yeah right. So I declined their "solution" and just waiting for the order to be automatically cancelled in a few days. AT&T lost a new customer.

We have Verizon and I can't complain. However, we have had billing issues in the past and we did go to the store to get it resolved. The store is 30 minutes away but we are in that area about once a week so in the wife went. I think it took two visits the last time but it did get resolved.

For us, and people in our county, the bad, horrible service is from CenturyLink. Not really the employees fault, they do the best they can, but the service stinks but it is the ONLY service we have.

Later,
Dan