Alrighty...

Who is your cell phone carrier? What do you like (or not) about your service?

What are your cell phone peeves?

How many cell phones are in your family?

What is the biggest advantage/disadvantage of having a cell phone, or not having a cell phone?

Okay--here goes..
Alrighty...

Who is your cell phone carrier?Sprint.

What do you like (or not) about your service?
I like that I can go almost anywhere and call--even from Hagerstown to DC/Monkey Cty w/o a Roaming Charge.
I do not like that the battery seems to need charging alot, and the phone itself has a ton of features I never have learned to use--making me feel rather inadequate.

What are your cell phone peeves? The battery runs out fast sometimes w/o much warning.. and it can be a pain to keep track of the minutes--because once my alloted time runs out I need to use my land line--it is mucho cheaper .05 vs. .39/min..
How many cell phones are in your family?2

What is the biggest advantage/disadvantage of having a cell phone, or not having a cell phone?
Advantage: I am on the road and my kids/their school can reach me asap. I can call the tow truck if I am stuck. I can reach my husband even if he is on the way to/from work...
Disadvantage: I rely on it now. Other than that, not much...of any

Who is your cell phone carrier? US Cellular

What do you like (or not) about your service? The one thing I like is that I seem to
have service no matter where I go. Even when traveling to Grafton, W Va
where I go through some pretty rural areas. I don't like that I hear static often
when using my phone in my house.

What are your cell phone peeves? Well, my phone works fine except for the
occasional static. The only thing I hate is when someone's phone rings in
church or in a restaurant.

How many cell phones are in your family? 2, my wife's and mine

What is the biggest advantage/disadvantage of having a cell phone, or not having a cell phone? I guess the best advantage is having people able to get hold of you
while you're on vacation without giving them another number.

I've got a tracfone. pay as you go service. It's actually on the US Cellular service. Tracfone is a reseller and will put you on whatever service is available in your area. I pay upfront for minutes, no monthly charge. My phone is never on, it's basically for emergencies - my emergencies.

Tracfone is great if you don't use a cell phone much. I had a problem with a previous phone with them and they made it good with no hassle.

I understand Virgin Mobile is cheaper than TracFone, but I've got over 500 minutes that I probably will never hardly use so I'll stay with TracFone.

Yossarian, do your minutes expire? I have seen alot of those pay as you go services where the minutes expire if you don't use them in a certain period of time. Some expire in as little as a month so it wouldn't work to keep it around for emergencies. I would love to have something like that for my parents since they would only need it for emergencies and they wouldn't have to worry about the minutes expiring.

I have no cell.My husband has tracphone.He says it's cheaper.I'd like something that wouldn't lose mins too and then MAYBE I might get one.I hate them They're a curse of the twentith century! People are so inconsiderate with the darn things! I think that only people like doc's and police,etc. should have them on all the time. I want a c.b. in my car.That way if I break down I can probably have someone call the state police or more than likely I can do that myself.They'll call a tow truck for me! I hear them on the scanner doing it all the time.

Tracfone minutes never expire. And, if you have a phone break (like I did) they'll transfer the unused minutes over to the new phone. The only problem you have to buy a yearly card for about $94 that gives you 250 anytime minutes. It's still a lot cheaper than a regular subscription cellphone. And they're great to give as a gift, expecially to parents or kids for emergencies. When you turn the phone on it tells you when you have to buy a new card and how many minutes are left right on the display. Free caller id, free voice mail.

I have a Tracfone, too. The only thing I don't like about it is
the fact that in most of the Panhandle, it only picks up an
analog signal as opposed to digital. I like the fact that you
can go online and add minutes via a credit card...we only
use ours when traveling, or in an emergency; otherwise,
we never turn it on. Oh, yeah...one more thing...I could
never get my voice mailbox setup, and I kept wasting minutes
trying to connect to it, so that feature is a waste of time if
you ask me, but since I don't give out my number, no one
has any reason to call me anyway....

the5car: I set up my voice mail using the landline. You can also access it using a regular phone so you don't burn your minutes. But, like you, I have no need for voice mail since no one has that number.

If you call customer service (although, sometimes the wait times can be long) they'll help ya through it, it you want. I've always found Tracfone's customer service to be excelleent. Also, while you're on the line with them, they can help you set you phone up so that it uses the digital signal more of the time.

I guess I use mine too often to get Tracfone. It is a lifeline to me--however I do not bother to use it when I am in a store or church or anywhere like that--I have however had to call parents to pick up their children when they are more than 15-20min late..and is it just me or have others noticed that the pay phones we grew up with have disappeared and no new ones are put in new buildings? I was at Greenbrier and could not find a phone and last year there was a payphone at the restrooms...it has vanished...

I must confess that I was new to all of this....anyway, when I first
went to the Tracfone website, I entered my zipcode to see what the
coverage was, and it showed that I was in this large area which
I considered to be all-digital, and non-roaming. Little did I know
that the closest tower to my zipcode is analog, and by driving
less than 10 miles, I am now roaming, which as you know costs
me twice the units per minute. I tried dealing with their customer
service (which I think is based in Toronto), and everytime I tried,
I was speaking to someone that I couldn't understand. Where I
work, there are nothing but digital towers around, and I could
have the phone changed so that when I'm at work, I'm not roaming,
but that won't do me any good at home. So, I've just swallowed
what little pride I have and succumbed to the technology I paid for.
I'm sure that the one time I have it in an emergency, it will pay
for itself. Right now, I think it's sitting on the dining room table
at home...some good that does me, huh ??

I also tried using a landline to setup my voice mail...it kept asking
me for codes and numbers that I didn't know...after about 3 tries,
I almost tossed the cell phone off the deck...it was then I decided
to screw it.

I understand about the frustrations of cell phone options 5car! There have been many times I have been 'challenged' to the point of screaming..and then I remember I paid for this stupid thing...too many options which are too time consuming to figure out..of course my son can figure them out--he has alot of spare time to concentrate on one thing--he figured out why our recordable CD's were only recording part of a song--he changed some configurations and now it is fine..so--maybe if you have a kid--have them set up your vm.

Well, I'm not challenged by it; it's like you said,
I simply don't have the time to thoroughly investigate
it....the Tracfone website and it's coverage map
led me to believe that I was getting more than I
ended up with....I let them know that over the
phone...it was quite deceiving if you ask me...
My son has more electronic gadgets than I ever
did when I was his age....he had a pager when
he was 12, and his latest toy is one of those
microscopic MP3 players that is the size of a tube
of Chapstick yet holds like 128MB worth of music...
Hey, I can even burn my own CDs !!!

You know the funniest part? The manual is larger than the phone and the charger combined.

Don't have one, don't need one, don't want one! My mother in law always tries to buy one for us when she visits. She doesn't realize that I rarely carry a purse, just my debit card in my pocket! Although, we have looked at tracfone in the past, just in case we change our minds. It seems like the way to go for us... someday.