I was in the market for a new cell phone and service provider over the weekend and I had narrowed my options down to Verizon or Cingular AT&T. I’ve had both services in the past and haven’t really had any complaints about either. I was looking for a pretty basic plan, nothing too fancy. I am a little bit of a gadget junkie so a cool phone was mildly important. Here’s what I found.

AT&T

  • Plans - Plans in my range were very similar to Verizon, no difference there
  • Phones - Had their ups and downs, much larger selection online. I came in the day after the iPhone release and they were obviously sold out. I wasn’t looking to spend quite that much but after playing with the model in the store, I probably would’ve caved if one was in stock.
  • Customer Service - CRAP. I go to the same AT&T store every time and its always busy so there was no surprise there. I meandered (yes, meandered) around the store for at least 15 minutes but it was so busy, I wasn’t able to speak to an AT&T representative. From my previous experience, the in-store folks are as helpful as AT&T will let them be. Unfortunately, AT&T makes you direct any further problems, questions, etc. through their phone system which is horrific.

Verizon

  • Plans - The plan at Verizon with the same price was very similar. The only difference was instead of 5000 night and weekend minutes at AT&T (which I’ll never use), I get unlimited night and weekend minutes at Verizon.
  • Phones - No iPhone here but thats probably a good thing for my wallet. Verizon offers some interesting features like mobile TV and navigation which is available for a fee. Verizon’s phone are similar to AT&T’s but offer some of these extra services if you subscribe.
  • Customer Service - MUCH better than AT&T. First of all, we were greeted at the door. The Verizon store was equally as busy as AT&T but they must have had atleast 10 people working compared to the 4 or 5 at AT&T the day after the biggest event in the history of that company. Seriously…how do you only have 5 people working the day after you released the iPhone? I worked with the same Verizon representative the whole time. It sounded like they aren’t allowed to help other customers until you are done with them. I did notice afterwards that if they didn’t have any employees available to help you, they put your name on a list so they can help people in order which is something very irritating over at AT&T. In the back of the Verizon store, they also had a tech support desk which I had never heard of. You can actually bring your phone into the store, and they attempt to fix it there. I’ve probably sent 5 AT&T phones back to get fixed or trade for a refurbished phone. My sister-in-law who was with us, was having problems with her keypad. She took it in with us and came out with a refurbished phone right on the spot. That would be nice.

Samsung Cell PhoneYou can probably guess I went with Verizon and got a new phone and a 2 year chain contract. It’s only been a couple days but I am pretty pleased so far and would recommend my local Verizon store over the local AT&T store. Maybe they vary from city to city but the customer service and tech support at the store I visited was far superior to anything I have received from AT&T.