Freedom Mobile (was: Wind Mobile)

[Mar]

Why would you care about tethering when you can use it as a hotspot?

[Mar]

So I've had WIND for about 2-3 weeks and here's my experience.

I went down there and got set up, the guy got me going with unlimited everything for $34 a month on a HTC Amaze. I paid $250 for the phone and they paid the remaining $300. Each month as I pay off my bill, they put a small amount towards the balance of my phone and after a few years, it's paid off. If I cancel early, I pay the balance on the phone.

At the end I asked him to port my number and it got submitted, he said it should take a couple hours but could take 2-3 days, okay cool. Remember this time period, it'll come in to play later. So I went home and checked for service in my basement where my office is and where I receive most of my client calls. No data meaning no emails. Okay, that's fine because periodically I will get my emails and only about 30% of my SMS fail to send out, maybe I can deal with that. I wait 3 days, my number still isn't ported, none of my clients are able to get a hold of me and I'm missing important conference calls about new projects.

The following weekend I go to Sunshine and get okay voice reception but next to nothing for data and SMS. No big deal, I'm snowboarding anyway, don't need my phone.

The following weekend I go to LA for the Jay-Z / Kanye West concert and as soon as I touch down and turn on my phone at the airport, I get a couple of SMS from WIND telling me the charges for using my phone......ya whatever, glance through them, move on. I wasn't getting data so I went into the options and realized I had to turn on data roaming, no problem, working great now. I uploaded a few concert pictures to Facebook, did some browsing, shouldn't be that costly.

I fly back to Calgary and my number still isn't ported from Telus so I call them and they tell me they can't port a number from a suspended account. Telus fucked me and suspended my account so I couldn't port the number, why didn't that fuckface in the store tell me this? I specifically asked him, "Does it matter if I owe Telus a pile of money?" He said, "No." And each time I called WIND to ask them about the porting, I couldn't understand didley dick from these people, which country is their support in? I called 6 times trying to get someone that speaks English whom could understand me and finally they told me about the suspension.

So I called Telus, paid up and got my account reactivated and sent WIND an email asking to port my number. Then my WIND phone didn't work......what the fuck? So I called them and they said, "Yeah, you went over your $200 limit so we suspended you."
1. What $200 limit?
2. Why the fuck didn't someone call me and let me know?
3. How the shit did I use $200 in 2 weeks?

Apparently my data in LA cost me $130 so they needed me to pay my $180 bill. Okay, no problem, paid it. They then said after 2-3 days my phone would start working again automatically.....cool. That was 4 days ago, it still doesn't work. Fuck it, I've called WIND support at least 15 times this week and not once did I get someone I could understand and explain my issue to. Nobody knows why my phone don't work and it keeps getting suspended.

So fuck it, today I called Bell to reactivate my old account with them, I have another Bell phone in Calgary but I have all the information from my account here. She told me to go to a dealership, she can't reactivate an account older than 90 days. Cool, no problem. Went to the dealership and the 2 employees told me at least 4 times they can't activate a phone they don't have physically and I had to argue with them they can. Finally they called their head office to make me happy and found out yes, they can activate it. Finally.

So I got a new SIM card and gave them the information for my phone in Calgary so it'll work when I get back. Then had them port my number and it didn't work right away for them, they said, "Oh, it should work within a day or two, call us if it doesn't." Ya like fuck, I heard that before.

So I made a couple of calls to get my porting working:
1. Called Telus to ask them why the porting didn't go through. They told me there was no request.
2. Called Bell to get them to send the request. They said they tried and the response they got was there was another request already from WIND. Call Telus and cancel that request.
3. Called Telus to cancel the port request, they told me only WIND can cancel it. FUCK.
4. Called WIND, had the request cancelled.
5. Called Bell, had them do the port. Worked perfect.

Now the port worked in about 10 seconds while I was on the phone with him.......why the hell did the WIND guy tell me it takes 3 days?

Then got my old Telus HTC Hero off my brother whom isn't using it anymore and sent the IMEI to some guys online to get the unlock code. An hour later I get the code, stick the SIM card in my phone, unlock it and presto, I now have service with Bell.

Fuck WIND mobile and their shitty service.

[autosm]

My Data has always been set to off when roaming. I don't know why you did not know this was going to cost you a lot?


Wind charged me .16 cents per min a month ago. Use WIFI for data when roaming. Total bill for month was less than 100$ with tons of calls and SMS in and side of Canada.

[AndyL]

Dunno, I haven't had to deal with customer service in a while... Used to be bell washouts in either toronto or montreal call centers... They were hard to understand at the best of times - luckily my unused in a decade french was better than their daily use english in most cases...

I think phone setups been the biggest headache every time for us, but once you get past that; they're still at least on par with robellus... It's way better to head over to the wind store in westborough mall; and deal with those folks face to face than it is to deal with the call centers...

Also worth considering - HTC Amaze has pretty poor reception, even on telus/bell... With the AWS spectrum, it's even worse... Probably the worst choice next to the huawei's if you knew you were going to spend a bunch of time in the basement (http://bit.ly/vSMUfO)

Data roaming rates are expensive with everyone... 180$ doesn't sound too bad really, I know an uncle who managed over a grand on his iphone without realizing it...

[phreezee]

I found it cool they suspended the account at $200, saves another stupid consumer reports news story... "OH NOES, I got raped by my carrier!"

[AndyL]

Hmm, they've gotten on a building spree this year; Way more in the GTA/Van but...

Feb 14 - Expanded Coverage - Calgary - Calgary @ Sarcee Trail NW & John Laurie Blvd NW http://networkupdates.windmobile.ca/...calgary-sarcee

Feb 10 - Expanded Coverage - Calgary - Calgary @ 16 Ave NW & University Drive NW (Univ of Calgary) http://networkupdates.windmobile.ca/...gary-16-ave-nw

Jan 9 - Expanded Coverage - Calgary - Calgary @ Highway 1 & Stoney Trail NW http://networkupdates.windmobile.ca/...gary-highway-1

http://networkupdates.windmobile.ca/archive

I've definitely noticed the improved coverage out at crossiron; causes some roaming issues out in the south end of airdrie though (can't decide between carriers, ends up getting dropped repeatedly).

[autosm]

NW is now has far better reception with the extra towers. My cell phone bill is 1/3 of what it was 2 years ago.

[Xtrema]

Still shit in Hamptons

[jwslam]

Looks like they did an update on the online self service.
There's a new 'unlock your phone' option in there.

[mr2mike]

When are they getting the Galaxy S3? Any idea?

I see they have a "pre-order" which just gets you on the mailing list to get updates.

http://windmobileblog.com/2012/05/sa...ummer-to-wind/

[Vagabond142]

The $40 unlimited plan with my HTC Amaze 4G = bliss. I get 4 bar reception absolutely everywhere I've gone so far, bar 1. The ONLY place I lose a little reception is at work, where I work in a basement and go down to 2 bars. Calls and SMS's still work fine, even if I'm in the dead center of the basement.

It's so strong and constant that this past weekend I went and got a 12v lighter to USB adapter, a USB to Micro USB cable, and downloaded the Digitially Imported app. Yep, I am now using my phone as internet streaming radio.... in my car.

Love Wind!

[HuMz]

Ive had the galaxy nexus on wind for a few months and couldn't be happier. Only place I lose reception is in concrete basements of big buildings. Have never lost reception around the city or in housing basements.

[mr2mike]

WTF. So they're only giving the S3 to new customers only at this time?!?

So do I buy one and then cancel the plan a day later?

[eblend]

Originally posted by phreezee
I found it cool they suspended the account at $200, saves another stupid consumer reports news story... "OH NOES, I got raped by my carrier!"

I like Mobilicitie's approach to this, may not be for everyone, but for any non standard charges, like roaming data or voice, those charges go into a separate prepaid account. Every month I get charged $25 for my unlimited everything account within the city, but for the odd time I am out of town and need to make or recieve a call, or use data, all those charges go to my prepaid account, which I have $5 bucks in. At most if my data went crazy, it would use up all my funds in the prepaid account and stop working, until I load more money in there. In the 4 month I had mobilicity (my wife and I actually) I used $.10 of my $5 for a txt that was received while out of the zone, but that wouldn't have happened anymore as all incoming txts are now free when roaming as well. I agree on the fact that they suspended you account being a good thing, roaming charges can run into thousands if using data internationally, I would never do it.

[Little Dragon]

Thinking about switching to Wind for their $30 or $40 plan and getting an S3.
Only thing stopping me is I am scared the data speeds and coverage will be very bad.

Can anyone comment on this, currently? Do you get good reception in most places? Is browsing the internet/watching videos fast?

[secol]

i've gotten good reception pretty much anywhere i go. speedtests usually range from close to 4 mbps to almost 6 mbps.

[AndyL]

I was good, within city limits (with a few exceptions - ie aspen) - but it was the out of town that drove me back to ma bell... Sucks to be in airdrie and unable (well... unaffordable) to check email...

[SportEL]

They just upgraded all Aberta sites to HSPA+ 4G last month.

[scary_perry]

Anyone have coverage results down in the silverado area? Two years ago I tried and could not make calls inside my home.

Nexus 4 plus the holiday plan would be awesome - but I want to be sure it will actually work.

SE in Copperstone is much better now from reports.

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by scary_perry
Anyone have coverage results down in the silverado area? Two years ago I tried and could not make calls inside my home.

Nexus 4 plus the holiday plan would be awesome - but I want to be sure it will actually work.

SE in Copperstone is much better now from reports.

Same in Hamptons but I at least get signal outside of the house.

Bought a Cel-Fi and it's now working throughout the house.

Originally posted by SportEL
They just upgraded all Aberta sites to HSPA+ 4G last month.

Still sucks. I see my friend's GN flip flopping between HSPA+ and 3G, sitting may be 20ft from the window in a restaurant.