Excellent Customer Service!
I've encountered some problems with my "hand-me-down" Samsung Galaxy S4 [which was originally our daughter's and branded for Verizon]. So we are clear, these problems are NOT Cricket's fault, but are the phone's.
Tip # 1: Hanging on to your old phone when switching network providers may not be such a good idea. The issue is compatibility. I'm not a techno expert, so I'll try to explain this in really simple terms, as if I was talking to my own mother. Different wireless network carriers operate on different signals. Think of AM vs. FM radio. My smartphone was built for Verizon [which, let's say receives/transmits on an AM frequency.] But, Cricket/AT&T uses FM. Just switching out a SIM card from Verizon to Cricket is not enough. My phone works, but not up to its full potential. The phone still has circuitry hard-wired to behave like a Verizon phone.
Our daughters both got brand new Samsung Galaxy S5. These phone were built for or branded for Cricket. Their phones work fine and they don't have the same problems like Mom and Dad's hand-me-downs do. They can text and send photos effortlessly. While their parents can't. We're walking around the house for a stronger signal and often have to go outside too, just to find a "sweet spot" to transmit.
The Samsung S4 seems to have some design quirks that have surfaced after years of usage.
Tip # 2: A while ago, my phone kept telling me I had a new voice mail message. [My own phone was dialing itself and triggering this false alert.] There were no actual messages to retrieve and/or delete. I just had to keep deleting these bogus notifications. I found the solution myself online. [Thank God for some smart and helpful people out there in cyberspace that have experienced the same problem and shared their reliable solutions.]
Tip # 3: The second quirk started a few months ago, I kept getting this notification that Google Play Services was not working properly and this annoying message would pop up every 3 seconds. This annoyance made it very difficult to normally use my phone as intended and often caused the phone to temporarily freeze-up. There seemed to be nothing that I could do to get rid of it. [Except, stomp on it and then buy a new smartphone.]
Eventually, I just did a "factory reset" [however, before you do that, screen shot important messages and then transfer any photos worth saving to a PC, laptop, etc.]. You'll lose all of your contacts too, so be sure to save important phone numbers, etc. and then re-enter them later. The reset successfully got rid of the 2nd quirk, but I lost my previously downloaded Cricket apps. [The phone reverted back to thinking it was a Verizon phone. A call to voicemail went to Verizon and as expected, was useless since we no longer had an active account with them. I had to download and re-install the Cricket app to my phone. Murphy's Law [whatever can go wrong, will go wrong] seemed to be my curse. I could not successfully get my voicemail re-established. [Here's where "Customer Service" is so important.]
Eva, a helpful salesperson at Cricket - Monterey Park # 1, quickly diagnosed that I was not getting an internet connection, so she restored an A.P.N. to my phone. [This service was performed "free-of-charge".] Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to remedy my voicemail issue. Something more technical was the underlying problem. Eva gave me their other store's address, if I wanted to see Mark [who was promoted to Store Mgr.], who knew more tricks-of-the-trade.
At Cricket - M.P. # 2, I met Mark and another helpful salesperson, Irene. Picking up where Eva left off, the plan was to contact Cricket's Customer Service to "reactivate" my voicemail account. This simple goal proved to be quite time-consuming and involved several calls and call-backs to execute different fixes. Not only did they eventually succeed, but Cricket was also able to boost my weak signal strength, which has helped me greatly in sending texts.
Would the staff at your wireless network carrier give a half-hour to one-hour of their valuable time to assist you, free-of-charge, to solve your problems? More than likely, salespeople would simply tell you there's nothing they can do [except sell you a new phone].
Thank you again, to Eva, Mark, and Irene. Your level of customer service is exemplary and why our family will stay with Cricket! read more
