should I switch to Ting phone service ?
November 18, 2013 11:26 AM   Subscribe

I'm thinking of switching my phone service from sprint to Ting. Since this is a change that's difficult to undo, I'm asking for feedback ( positive or negative ) about how your Ting experience has been. I'm in Seattle so if you're a Seattle Ting customer, I'm particularly interested in what you have to say about signal quality, 4g/3g service, etc. I'm not too concerned about the savings of switching to Ting. It's clear that I come out ahead even with the penalty I have to pay for terminating my contract early. I'm more interested in any gotchas that you didn't find out about or think about until after choosing Ting. For example, unexpected roaming charges, bad customer service, bad reception... If it makes any difference, my phone is a samsung galaxy s3 . Thanks!
posted by metadave to Technology (17 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I love Ting! My brother convinced me to sign up about a year ago. (Mostly so that he could get referral credit, but no harm, no foul...) I've had no issues with coverage or signal quality -- no dropped calls, and far fewer failed texts than when I was on Verizon. My phone only has 3G capability, which I rarely use, but that seems to work just fine. Best of all, the customer service is FANTASTIC. I had issues getting my phone number set up on the network, so I had to call for help. There was next to no wait time, the service rep was friendly, and she fixed everything within about 10 minutes.

As far as billing goes, there have been no unexpected charges. It's extremely easy to monitor your usage if you're concerned about hopping tiers -- there's an app that will notify you when you've reached a user-set level of texts, minutes, etc. It's clear what you'll pay for extras like international calls.

All in all, Ting has been refreshingly good. I hope never to go back to one of the major carriers. And... how about using my referral code? [joking, really]
posted by Sullenbode at 11:38 AM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


We've been with Ting for a year now (7 months in Austin, TX and 5 in Denver, CO). Overall I'd strongly recommend them. In the course of the year I've saved an incredible amount over our old T-mobile plan (in part because we almost never use mobile data, but when I do it works well).

Customer service on the few occasions I've contacted them has been pleasant and resolved whatever issues I've had. The customer service phone hours are limited, and there have been a few complaints about hold time or having to leave a voicemail for customer service to call back. Ting's said they're planning to expand their hours and customer service operations. I've gone through email two of the three times I've needed help, and the time I called someone picked up almost immediately. I did have to change a couple settings to get MMS working (which was one of the emails to customer service). After we moved to Denver, Sprint coverage inside our house was poor enough to justify getting a refurb Airave from Ting, but even with that we've come out ahead of our old plan.

You may want to look at recent postings on their help forum for examples of customer complaints and how Ting handles them.
posted by audi alteram partem at 11:46 AM on November 18, 2013


I'm a happy Ting customer. Customer service is excellent, and for a light to medium phone/text/data use, the monthly charge will be much less than through a major carrier. The only drawback I've found is that they use Sprint's network, which has been very slow to roll out 4g LTE data coverage in a lot of major areas, so you're outside of an LTE area, you're limited to either 3g or WiMax data speeds depending on your phone.
posted by zombiedance at 11:55 AM on November 18, 2013


Ting runs on Sprint, so coverage is exactly the same as Sprint. That is, it sucks: Sprint has no LTE in Seattle. Spokane and Vancouver, yes. Seattle, no. It was supposed to be available here by the end of the year... in 2011. So there is literally no way of knowing when you'll see LTE here; Sprint has demonstrated their word cannot be trusted.

There is WiMax here, but WiMax is a horrific battery hog, and you will want to keep it turned off even if your phone supports it, which it probably does not. This leaves you with Sprint 3G (EVDO), which is slow. Presumably you know that because you already have Sprint.

There may be some value to be had in moving to Ting even though you'll only have Sprint service, since at least you'll be paying less for it.

On the other hand, T-Mobile has great LTE coverage in the Seattle area, and I have their $30 prepaid plan on my Nexus 4 (which unofficially supports T-Mobile's LTE with a little hacking). No contract, and I've saved enough over Sprint in the past year to buy a Nexus 5 if I wanted to.
posted by kindall at 11:58 AM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I have Ting in Seattle. It is delightful. However, I almost never use my phone. Ever since I got Ting, I use it more and more, but I'm still a complete caveman compared to normal people. To me, it feels a bit slow, but not much slower than when I steal my roommate's iphone, which is on AT&T.

I have not experienced any "gotcha" moments with Ting, unlike every other phone I've ever had. Even when I ended up roaming while in France last winter, my bill was less than $25.
posted by Mizu at 12:07 PM on November 18, 2013


I switched from Sprint to Ting in Seattle. My main reason was the huge cost savings for me. I use mostly WiFi for data so I go each month on their "small" tiers and my bill has gone from $78 to $19. I think I have exactly the same reception and speed as I had with Sprint. Ting's customer service has been great. They credited me with their early termination refund about an hour after I sent in the paperwork.

Having said all that if the cost savings don't matter to you, why would you switch? I never really had any complaints with Sprint apart from the high minimum cost for services and limits that I never fully used.
posted by sevenless at 12:12 PM on November 18, 2013


Myself and another mefite in Denver have Ting, LOVE it, also another one in Colorado Springs. It is so great. I recommend it for everyone. I pay less than $46/month for a mifi and a smartphone.
posted by HermitDog at 12:14 PM on November 18, 2013


Response by poster: Thank you all for your responses. I really appreciate the feedback.

sevenless, the cost savings is the only reason for switching. When I said "I'm not too concerned about the savings of switching to Ting" I just meant I can do the math myself.
posted by metadave at 12:31 PM on November 18, 2013


I've been on Ting for nearly 2 years and love it. They also have a program for helping you out if you are paying an ETF: https://ting.com/etf
posted by tanminivan at 1:07 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm in the Seattle area, too, on Ting. The reception sucks but I don't use my phone a ton, so it's worth it to me. Every now and again the reception is totally dead. I'm not talking no LTE, I'm talking no connectivity, period. There is no such thing as 4G for my phone, yet my phone always tries to connect to it and I constantly have to try to turn it off because its questing will drain the battery.

However, most months my phone service is around $19, I can access OneBusAway when I need to, and I don't have any contract to worry about, which makes it worth it to me. I would not recommend Ting in Seattle to anybody who needs really reliable phone service.
posted by foxfirefey at 1:45 PM on November 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


I have no idea about service in Seattle, but i have had Ting for a year or so and I've loved the experience. so much cheaper for me and their customer service is so amazing- the best I've ever experienced for anything. Pick up the phone on the first ring, sound happy to be talking to you, and fix your problems with minimal hassle.
posted by geegollygosh at 2:13 PM on November 18, 2013


Ting is fine. I save a bunch of money with them but of course I don't go crazy with data and no streaming music sites! Once they get the iphone, my wife will go to them as well.
posted by gregjunior at 2:48 PM on November 18, 2013


Love them in L.A.! Best. Carrier. Ever.
but, yeah...watch your data usage...don't know about the S3, but the note2 has a feature under 'data usage' where you can put a leash on it...it even lists usage by app so you know where it's going.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:19 PM on November 18, 2013


Regarding data (or voice or messaging) usage--you can set up alerts with Ting to notify you if you're getting close to some limit you set, or also shut off the service entirely until you turn it back on.
posted by sevenless at 3:30 PM on November 18, 2013


It's my understanding that while Sprint offers data roaming, you don't get data roaming on Ting. You still get talk roaming. I don't know if you've been using data roaming, but it may mean your data connections will be slightly less reliable/available than you are used to.

I'm in LA and generally don't have a lot of issues on Ting, but there are times when I just flat out don't have a data signal for whatever reason. I don't know if that would have been better on Sprint or not.

Also, you're limited in the phones you can bring. Supposedly they have a Sprint BYOD plan, but I get the sense it's still a little hard to get working with some phones. If your intention is to bring an existing Sprint phone you may want to check their forums/tech support to see if you should anticipate any problems with that.

If Sprint upgrades your phone OS, you can expect to get it slower if at all on Ting.
posted by willnot at 7:21 PM on November 18, 2013


I need to point out that Ting is a Spring MVNO which means they are using sprint towers for their network. Speedwise Spring prioritizes Post-paid traffic vs MVNO traffic.
posted by radsqd at 12:04 PM on November 19, 2013


Response by poster: Thank you for your feedback!

I switched to ting a week ago and I'm happy with the change. The transition was painless and they gave me a $25 credit for a referral and a $75 credit to offset the early termination fee. With these credits, I expect to break even in 5 months.

I did travel to Southern CA on the Thanksgiving weekend and couldn't get a data connection a couple times but I'm not sure that was ting's fault. Usually though I had a data connection and I always had phone service.

I do find myself watching my data usage which I never had to do before. This month I'm pushing the 500 mb limit of the "Medium" data package. I'm not going to go over but I have disabled mobile data by default and will only enable it when I have something I want to access outdoors

I also installed talkatone which works with google voice and provides a free wifi phone alternative for U.S. ( & Canada ? ) phone calls.
posted by metadave at 8:05 AM on December 5, 2013


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