Ting phone service

[giggles]

I am currently with Verizon. I have a "dumb phone" but do text and make family calls.  My contract is up next month, and thanks to MMM, I KNOW I can do better than $50/mo for phone service. 

I have decided to give ting phone service (www.ting.com) a try for the next month, and I will report my experience here.  If things go well, I will port my current phone number to ting and drop Verizon.

I am choosing ting because it has the best coverage area for my location (central NJ). Ting is on sprints network.  Virgin doesn't cover parts of the boonies where I work. Metro PCS was my second choice based on their coverage map.

First, I used their bill estimate to see what my cost would be. I used about 300 minutes a month plus 300 texts.  This level will run me about $20/month. 

I used a partner code to order my phone.  Ting does not have a bring your own phone option, and I don't have a jail broken phone.  I found a partner code online for $50 off your phone purchase.  I went with the $70 Kyocera Brio based on reviews and call quality ratings.  I placed my order on Saturday, and with free fed ex shipping I expect the phone to arrive next week. Once it comes, I can active the phone and get going.

My first issue is that at the end of my online order, ting confirmed my total costs with the discount and taxes was $24.  Today, I saw they billed my credit card for $74, or full price.  So I emailed customer service, and I am waiting for a reply.  Their customer service number is only open weekends, so I will try that tomorrow as well.

Will keep you all posted!

[giggles]

Discount update - had this message in my inbox

"For some reason, our system didn't take the discount. Not to worry - I've applied it to your account, and you can use it towards your bills in the future! If you log in to your account at ting.com, you should see it under Billing History.

Sorry about the hassle!"

Who hoo!

[caligulala]

We have been with Ting for about 6 months and love them. My husband's first phone wouldn't turn on after the first cycle through the battery and they sent a replacement with no quibbles. Bills are accurate, service is good. Very pleased with our decision to switch even having to pay ETFs to get out of our ATT contract.

[KingCoin]

I have a Ting phone on the way.

When choosing a plan, is there any reason not to simply opt for the 0/0/0 plan and have them bump you up to your actual usage rather than choosing a more expensive plan and receiving credits for under use?

[rjack]

I've been using Ting for a month and it is perfect for me. They have really outstanding customer support.

[jp]

I have had it for about 5 months now.  I am pretty happy with it, and my Brio does not use data to check web email, which is nice.  The only thing I failed to factor in was that my usage while on Verizon did not reflect reality, because of the friends and family thing... I was actually using a lot more minutes than I thought I was.  So Ting has saved me about 50% off my Verizon bill and I have not noticed a difference in quality, but it is still not mustachian as I share 1000 minutes with my wife and we go over almost every month.   I had 1000 minutes with Verizon and we never went over, but I didn't think about the fact that the minutes we spend talking to each other would count now...

[giggles]

Phone arrived Saturday, a little later than expected thanks to Sandy!

Happy with the phone itself, I always have the worry that lower priced phones will be a piece of junk.  Brio is solid.

I have been testing the phone since it arrived at areas around South and Central NJ.  No dropped calls.  Good call quality on my end, and the people I called didn't notice a difference.  I am going to try some calls to relatives in other states to see how it goes. 

I get a signal equal to or better than my verizon phone at home and at work! 

My only downside thus far is I think I do need the data plan to use the email feature or send photo messages.  I know JP said his does not, but I keep reading contradictory information.  I will know for sure once I get the bill!   I also want to make sure my various travels don't have me hit with roaming.  I have not gotten any roaming alerts yet. 

[giggles]

Just got an email about this -


TING REFER A FRIEND BONUS!

"We’ll give each friend you refer a $25 credit they can use toward purchasing a device. When they activate a device, we’ll drop a $25 service credit into your account."

So if you are thinking about Ting and want the $25 credit, PM me and I can refer you!

[jp]

My only downside thus far is I think I do need the data plan to use the email feature or send photo messages.  I know JP said his does not, but I keep reading contradictory information.  I will know for sure once I get the bill!   I also want to make sure my various travels don't have me hit with roaming.  I have not gotten any roaming alerts yet.

I double checked for you and I lied.  I have mine hooked up to a hotmail account, and it uses "virtually" no data (I do have 100mb though, so maybe just the access to data allows me to do it).  I check my email at least every hour during the day, and I have never even come close to hitting 100mb (maybe use 9mb per month).  My wife has the milano, and we had to shut her data access off because it was using way more than 100mb to access her web based email.

   

[giggles]

Thanks for the update, JP.  I have lived without email on my phone all these years, so I think I am going to just test it this month and then not use it again.  I will be interested to see how much data gmail uses.

[caligulala]

I have my gmail account set up on my phone. Seems to use very little data. I wouldn't even approach 100mb alone but husband's phone habits usually push us just over the 100mb threshold.

[ellenklutz]

I have been using Ting for a little less than a month and so far I really like it.  One thing you can do to reduce your voice and text messaging costs is to use Google Voice to make calls and text messages over wifi.  According to my previous usage on Sprint I would fall in the Ting Medium Plan, but I am hoping to reduce my voice and text message use by using Google Voice so that I can keep those two in the Small plan.  This month it looks like it won't happen for voice because I had one long conversation with my mother before I figured out Google Voice, but I am on track to keep my text messages in the small plan.

Even if I am in the Ting medium plan the cost versus what I was paying on Sprint calculated over a 2-year period results in a savings, even accounting for the fact that I had to pay $100 to break my Sprint contract and I went crazy and got the HTC EVO.  I am a Ting evangelist and I am trying to get my family members to switch as well.  If anyone wants to join, let me know and I'll give you my  referral code for $25 off if you can't find a better deal on the internet (I searched and found a $50 off coupon).

Many thanks to MMM community for cluing me in to Ting - if I hadn't read the comments on the post about cheap cell phone plans I would probably still be getting hosed!

[giggles]

Can you explain about using Google voice?  Do you use this from your home computer or from the Ting phone?

I am still loving Ting, and I can't wait until next week when my Verizon contact ends and I can import my number to Ting!

[ellenklutz]

I use Google Voice on my Ting phone.  I have the Talkatone app on my phone and that allows me to call/text over wifi using my google voice account.

There's a lot of detail in this Ting forum post on how to set it up:
https://help.ting.com/entries/20993213-using-google-voice-on-your-ting-phone

[giggles]

Another update:

I ported my phone number to ting this week.  On Thursday, I had an issue with the phone recognizing my old number and failing to connect to the Sprint network.  So I called customer service.   Yes they were working on Thanksgiving!  Yes, the rep was able to fix my problem in about 10 minutes over the phone!  Yes, it was a real person in Ohio!

It was a great experience, and I am still loving ting.  Even got my husband to switch with me! 

They are having a sale on some devices this weekend, and, yes, you can buy a phone on sale AND apply a coupon code! 

Ting, I love you.