AT&T Wireless Smartphone Holiday Sale Gift Card Offer

Usually our site features news and reviews on home phone services, and recently we've written a lot about AT&T home phone service, as well as AT&T Uverse, so we figured some of our readers may also be interested hearing about a special holiday offer on AT&T cell phones as well considering many people now use their cell phone as their primary line.  Starting today, and for one week only, AT&T through LetsTalk is offering a $50 Visa gift card with an AT&T smartphone purchase.  The offer is valid from 12/22/09 through 12/28/09.  With holiday shopping in full swing, this is a great offer to help out with a little more Christmas cash, on top of getting a smartphone that can do it all.  We also welcome any reader reviews of AT&T wireless service along with our usual home phone and cable service reviews on our site.  Click below to take advantage of the $50 gift cart with smartphone purchase deal:

West Palm Beach ATT Customer Not Happy with Service

We got another very negative review on AT&T service from Aleida in West Palm Beach, Florida.  It seems Aleida experienced a major problem with AT&T customer service not following through on waiving fees, and is now stuck with a big bill.  Check out her full (and unedited) review of AT&T service below:

AT&T/Bellsouth WPB FL They are liars, thieves, communists and they suck!!


I moved to the apartment next door. Everything was working fine until I found out that the jack in the room that I chose to use for my office was not working. When I called AT&T/Bellsouth, I told them the situation and they told me it would be a $99 charge to make the one call and an $85 charge to re-wire the line for the jack in that room. A woman named Sarah told me that they were going to waive all these charges. She promised me this. I even called several other times over and over and again I was assured that these charges would be waived. Then I received the bill. The bill stated that I owed $305!! $305!! You can just imagine how I felt. I was not expecting these charges as I was told it would all be waived. So now I contacted them again to see what was going on. I was on the phone from 11:30AM-2:30PM. Which they kept transfering me from one dept. to another. What it came down to was that they told me "No matter what they said to you we don't care and you have to pay these charges". A big communist lie! I am now stuck having to pay $305! AT&T/Bellsouth LIED TO ME!!! AT&T SUCKS!!!! Thinking seriously about going to Comcast!! AT&T SUCKS CANAL WATER!! Everybody in their little depts. are liars and thieves! Do not choose AT&T for your service provider. They do not stand by their word!! Again AT&T sucks. EVERYONE OF THEM CAN GO STRAIGHT TO HELL FOR ALL I'M CONCERNED. Aleida - West Palm Beach, FL

Another Review of AT&T Home Phone Service

We received another opinion in our comments section to add to our list of AT&T home phone reviews, and felt it was extensive enough to post so everyone can read and decide for themselves.  This anonymous poster is not happy with AT&T's hidden fees, and not being able to get problems fixed with customer service without a big runaround. Here is what the person had to say:

"AT&T is a scam. If you pay attention closely to your bill you will notice little charges here and there and when you add them up it's alot. Mine came out to an extra $21 a month before taxes. I called to get those things removed and they wanna charge me to remove them and then taking them off comes out to a different amount than what it shows on my bill. Wouldn't you think if I am paying $21 a month for these things that taking them off would take $21 a month off my bill but it turned out to only take off $3 a month. So either way they are still getting the money out of you. And it's not even features, it's the service wire plans, that we don't need because we rent, so wires aren't our responsibility. It's not our house to make changes to. We ordered a private blocked unlisted number and they only gave us unlisted. I called to let them know and instead of adding the features we ordered from the beginning the person added it as a new order, so we got charged a fee for adding it later. I called to remind them we ordered it the day we ordered service and we shouldn't be charged for their mistake and they tell me they can't do anything about it. The woman I spoke with told me that when you order service with them you have to know what you want and ask for it and everything you expect it to come with, that its not their job to explain to you their features in whole. It sucks they can get away with all these charges. It sucks more for us because there are no other companies that service our area at this time. :( "

A pretty negative review for AT&T service.  This is actually the second negative review on ATT home phone service we've featured.  We're still hoping to hear from any of you that may have a positive ATT experience.  If you have ATT home phone service, we would like to hear your opinions on the service in the comments below.

Charter Communications Delivers Bad Service...Period.

This post may appear to be a little off the home phone services subject, but really it's just an extension on my original post on this blog that involved Charter Communications bad service. I wrote in that blog how our phone, cable, and Internet services were often interrupted due to the weather. 6 months after the original post, I'm here to tell you Charter sucks more than ever. Last week I was without Internet service for 5 days, and limited cable during that time (we did end up cancelling the phone service because it was horrible and no help or answers came from Charter's end.) We had some heavy rain during that period, but as I understand it, isn't the whole point of having cable is having everything wired so that you always have service in spite of weather (unlike satellite where rain could interfere with the signal.) Now if that was a random occurrence, I could understand, but EVERY time it rains, the cable has limited channels, and the Internet goes down for a period. This time was the worst ever, and it's not easy being without Internet when my wife and I rely on it for both online classes and work. Trying to contact Charter is another adventure. Most of the time, you deal with an operator that is obviously outsourced from another country, so the communication isn't top notch to begin with. Then once you go through the generic steps of unplugging and replugging in your modem or cable box, they set up for someone to come out and fix the problem. Problem being, every time someone comes out, it's a different contractor who really runs their own business and does work for Charter. Problem with that is, they all say the previous person hooked something up wrong, but really can't fix it themselves either. One time I was even told that I should get Charters "protection plan" so if anything goes wrong, I could get it fixed without paying. Paying to fix a service that the company should be providing? Horrible.

Since Charter does offer home phone service, we're providing this review of ALL Charter's services so everyone can be warned. If you somehow have GOOD experience with Charter, please share in comments, maybe all parts of the country aren't as bad, but Charter in Texas is horrible. Hopefully I'll soon be able to try out the Verizon Fios service and review it here, since I've heard they provide much better service overall.

Will the Verizon Hub Replace Traditional Home Phones?

Verizon may be making one of the first steps towards near total replacement of the traditional home phone, which many people have already abandoned in favor of using their cell phone for all their phone needs. Verizon is set to up the technology in the home phone area, by teaming up with Britain's Vodaphone Group, to produce the "Hub." The Hub will basically be a cordless phone that will serve as a traditional home phone, but can interact with Verizon cell phones. It will connect via the customer's existing broadband connection, similar to VOIP. The base features a 7 inch touch screen that displays information such as weather forecasts and movie show times. And there is also Chaperone, a 10 dollar a month service that allows parents to keep track of their kids. The Hub also features text and picture messaging, but the one drawback is that this feature only works with other Verizon phones. So while it looks like home phones are on the way out and will soon be pretty useless, Verizon is bringing a new option that may make having a home phone a good idea again, especially for parents who would like to keep track of where there kids are. The Hub costs 200 dollars after rebate, and 35 dollars a month for unlimited calling. In the long run, the Hub may not be overly appealing to the majority of customers, being it offers just about the same thing as cell phones do now, but may be an option for people who prefer to keep a home phone along with their cellular service, or those who like the bigger touch screen for a better view when using the various Verizon applications.

Local Phone Service Quote Tool

We have added a new tool to the top of this page under the heading "Free Local Phone Provider Quotes." If you enter your address and zip code you can instantly see many quotes for home phone service available from providers in your local area.

The original tool had a required email field, but I have removed the email requirement so you can access the quotes without giving anyone your phone or email address. All you need is street address/zip code, and this will prevent anyone from collecting your email address and contacting you.

If you see a service you are interested in you can findout more information,but there is no obligation.

As an example, when I enter my address I get quotes from the following providers:
AT&T, Cavalier, Sage Telecom, and DPI. They all indicate a Best Price Guarantee and some offer Cash Back.

The lowest price in my area is a $19.99 Sage Telecom Plan. This plan offers unlimited local calling and 300 long distance minutes.

The most popular package is the AT&T Unlimited plan for $40. AT&T plans start at $21.00 per month. There is also an option for Bundles ( TV Phone and Internet on one plan). However, the tool says Bundles are not available online in my area at this time.

If you want to compare local phone quotes in your area, just enter your address in the tool near the top of the page.