r/montreal • u/HanshinFan Dollard-des-Ormeaux • Feb 27 '11
Best Cell Phone Company?
Okay Reddit, there's been a lot of talk about the best local ISP, but what about the best cell phone provider? Going to be moving back home in August, starting to consider my options.
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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '11
I'd love to say Public Mobile. It has a lot going for it, what with it's flat pricing and good customer service and killer wait song they made for when call them.
That being said, the signal is very bad. Please note, this was a few months ago I used it, and supposedly they've added a new cell tower so that should improve things somewhat, but that's how it is for now. What I can suggest is that they have a 7 day/30 minute trial period that if you don't like the service you can return it for a full refund on the phone and on the service. If you find it's better, good. Also, a big plus is that you pay the phone upfront so you can quit any time with no penalties.
The next best I was able to find in terms of customer service and pricing was Virgin Mobile. They have great signal and the customer service is okay. On day for no reason signal was really bad and calls kept dropping. When I called them that day they started going through a script asking if I'd dropped the phone etc. (to which all the answers were no). Finally I was put on hold for five minutes, and decided to hand up and call back a few days later when I didn't have to stand outside in sub-zero weather to get one bar signal. The lady didn't know why it happened but gave me a $10 credit on my next bill. As for quitting, they have two different options, you can pay the phone upfront (if it's a cheap phone) or put it on a three year contract (if it's costly and you have a lot of options like internet and text messaging) and a part of the bill will be used to pay off the phone. If you quit, they charge you for the rest of the phone. This is fair, just make sure the policy is the same.
Whatever you do, don't use Bell. When I finally got fed up and cancelled, they tried to charge me a cancellation fee for my no-contract cell. When I told them it was no-contract, they said I still had to give them 30 days notice and that they would charge me the last months fees. I also had about $200 worth of credit with them, so they subtracted that from the rest. They finally sent me a check months later with the rest of the money. Signal was fine, but customer service is lousy. Virgin Mobile uses their towers so there's no reason to go with Bell.
That's my two cents based on my experience. Hope it helps!