Cricket vs Red Pocket Mobile Review - April 2020

[intro-self]
Hello and welcome back to another entry!

[ding and light up on phone]
I received a text message from Red Pocket that my plan was expiring in seven days.

[back to self * Spongebob meme]
Am I going to renew? No. So if you want to exit out, now is the time.

[breaks sound and sad bgm]
However, like a breakup, I think it's important to hear why.

1) It was cheap, like $5 and $10 cheap. It's a great plan if you're anti-social or you just want a plan for your kid to be able to call.

2) The set up was easy. I ordered the $10 plan and that included the sim card. It took about three days to arrive. Then I opened it. Put in the sim card. Called my sister to test if a call goes through. It didn't, but that's because I didn't know I was supposed to wait 3-5 minutes to tell the phone world my phone number exist. So I called customer service and got through within 3 minutes. Told the lady my call wasn't going through and she said I just had to wait. While she had me on the line, she sent me a text to tell my phone I'm on the red pocket network, which is really the CDMA network, so my data would connect better. When I decided to try this plan, data wasn't a priority.

Anyway, so I'm on the road like a normal person and used up the 500 MB of data in two days. Again, not a huge concern because we're under quarantine and I'll be around wifi anyway. Even if we weren't under quarantine, my wifi wouldn't be any different. Basically, the cost of the plan is the only good thing about it. I have to be fair that if I was probably on a bigger plan, it might've made a difference. But again, that shouldn't affect the connection.

This is why I'm really not going to renew my plan with Red Pocket.

The dropped calls. I can tolerate no or slow data, but the drop call is a deal-breaker. If I'm in the middle of a heated conversion and the call drops, I just lost the argument, and if anybody knows me, I don't lose arguments. Just kidding. Of all the phone conversations I've had my entire life, two very important ones just happened to be with Red Pocket Mobile and they were both dropped. It made me look so unprofessional and you can't put a price on reputation unless you're buying Taylor Swift's album.

Ok, I'm going to end that break up story, but lets get technical about other stuff.

Plans/Price: Plans as low as $5 if you buy in bulk and as high as $60 for unlimited. My argument against that is that you can get unlimited everything with Cricket for $55, and you'll get a $5 discount if you are opt in autopay. Cricket can be even cheaper if you have 4 people on the line, which would be $25/person. But maybe it's you just and another someone, it's still $80 for two, which is $40/month. Not just that, Cricket is offering 10gb of hotspot data right now.

Coverage/Speed: With the 500 MB data I had, it did it's job when I used it. Once the 500 MB was done, the connection was pretty much gone. Compared to Cricket, if you max out the 22gb they give to you, there's still some connection to stay connected.

Customer Service: I was really surprised I was connected to someone from Red pocket within 3 minutes. They helped me and I was on my way. But keep in mind, I'm the type of customer/caller who isn't clocked in, meaning I know what I need to say to get what I need done. For example, back in my AT&T days, I wouldn't say, "you didn't credit me $30 for October." I would say, "how much was the credit to my account in October? Ok, and how about November" By doing that, I'm telling the rep to see the issue. Gosh, I can have a whole video just talking about how to prepare yourself as a customer on customer service calls. I used to work at a call center, so I have an idea of what most places has access to.

Anyway, with Cricket, I've always had good service. I think their call center is sourced outside the country, which some people may have an issue with it. But again, those people probably don't know how to talk. I mean, customers are always right and they're the priority, but it doesn't take much to be a nice person. My call wait is about 3-5 minutes also. With the pandemic, workers are low, and it's not just a Cricket thing, it's an every call center thing. Other than calling by phone for issues, I use the chat option as well and most of my issues are resolved through that.

"But Choua, maybe your phone just sucks?!"

Yea, you're right. My phone does suck. It's 2020 and I'm still using an iPhone 6s from 2015. On top of that, it's a used iPhone 6s. However, I've been with the Cricket network for the last 5 years and I've never had a dropped call, so it's the network.

After a month on the red pocket mobile network, I won't be going back. I'll go back to my $25 unlimited everything group plan. I sure miss my unlimited data and speed. I love cricket so much, I'll make a separate entry dedicated to it.