I am not sure if Cricket Wireless has stores nationwide, or if their coverage is just nationwide. (Which leads me to assume they have stores nation wide). About three days ago we had to switch from AT&T to Cricket, due to our financial situation. At first I was angry, because ten years ago when I tried this cell phone company, I was not able to receive a signal in anything with four walls and a roof. Now I can say, their service has improved greatly, though there are still some places I do not get service. And their phones are reasonably priced. Switching to Cricket is going to save us about $120 each month on our cell phone bill. For unlimited everything it is $45 per line. We dropped the mobile web, since the phones we purchased are awful with the internet, so we are paying $70/month for two lines with unlimited talk, text, and data transfer. When we were paying close to $200/month with AT&T. While I am excited about this, I have to say the sales representatives are not knowledgeable. I was able to receive more information and intelligent answers to my questions via the website and the customer service number.
Don't get their wireless internet if you plan on moving. I had a really bad experience with them in Sacramento, CA where somehow the wireless didn't work because they do not have nationwide service. When I tried to call and get my money back (since I had just purchased it and had moved from Phoenix, AZ) I got several Indian customer service representatives that refused to help me, it was a really bad experience and I will avoid using Cricket again any time in the future.
They are fairly good company and customer service generally does a good job, but you might want to call and check about service avaliablity if you happen to be going on a trip.
Was Boost Mobile not available in your area? You would've gotten the same thing, probably a better phone and Nationwide service since they run on Sprint's network starting at $55 a month that would drop down to $40 after 18 months of on time payments.
Virgin mobile is also a good company. I am canceling my monthly sprint which is costing me $100 a month to go back to virgin mobile which is about $45 a month less.
Their cell phone service is much better than the internet service. I tried it a few months back, and it was slower than the old dial up AOL. Nut their phone service is a great deal better than their internet. if you get internet for your phone, make sure your have a 3G phone, or it will take 3-4 minutes for the web page to load.
I have thought about switching to them. However, I was doubtful of the service, but with the way my service is nothing can be worse then what I am dealing with now.
We don't have Cricket here. But, we have Metro PCS, which sounds like the same type of deal. Service can be hit or miss depending where you are and where you live. I think a better alternative is Walmart's plan. Unlimited everything for $45 a month, and they even have smart phones. They are using Verizon Service, which down here is the best for service.
The biggest down fall we are finding with Cricket is their wireless internet for the phones. They claim it is unlimited, which it is, but once you hit a certain amount of usage on a smart phone Cricket then throttles your internet service. Farrah, my father uses Metro PCS, and he says the service he receives through them is much better than the Cricket wireless we have in here.
A few of my friends are using cricket wireless and love it, but I didn't have good luck with it. I used it a few years ago, but my reception was always awful. I had a lot of dropped calls. Currently I'm using a Virgin Mobile pay as you go plan. It's 25 dollars a month for unlimited text, internet, as well as 300 anytime minutes. I feel it's a fantastic deal. However; if you use your phone a lot, the 300 anytime minutes probably isn't enough. The good thing about the Virgin Mobile plans is that they use sprint towers, which are always pretty reliable. I get reception most anywhere I go. The downside is that since they use Sprints towers, it's hard to get decent customer service if you are having any reception or lost call problems. After reading about how cricket has greatly improved; I will definitely give it another try if Virgin Mobile goes sour on me.
I've had Cricket for 2 years now, I like that it's cheap but that's about it. The phones suck, they are very basic and even their versions of the smartphones have bad quality. The customer service is also horrible, I always get someone foreign on the line and I can't understand one word they say to me. One time I was calling to change my account into my dad's name and they had no clue what I wanted so I ended up just leaving it the way it was.