I’ve had AT&T for several years once the iPhone 3GS was available.  Unfortunately that phone was stolen, so I now have a Samsung Model: SGH-A107.  Yes, this fine piece of Chinese hardware is AT&T cheapest $30 phone.  I’d like to ask how people’s experience has been with it because mine has not gone so well.

I guess I shouldn’t have expected much.  While I had the iPhone I had problems with dropped/missed/never received calls and tried out a Nokia.  That also was poor reception so that didn’t help.  Troubleshooting every few months has resulted in the SIM card being replaced multiple times, and lots of voodoo magic.  For example, I was instructed each week by AT&T personnel to turn off the phone for 30 seconds to kick it off the network.  Then when it is turned on the updates magically appear.

Except it doesn’t help.  I have done that faithfully the past 2 months and the problems are just as bad as ever.  Dropped/missing/never received calls.  I have friends say that are calling me on IM and it going to voice mail, but my phone never lets me know they even called.  Talk about effective screening.  AT&T is the phone you want to get when you “don’t” want to be in touch.

So get this, today the corporate tech support suggests that perhaps 30 seconds every week isn’t enough.  That it doesn’t “give the phone enough time to update”. She kindly suggests that leaving the phone off for 5 minutes is going to allow it to update.  So I do that.  I leave the phone off for 30 minutes.  Update that!

Guess what happens?  That’s right!  I drop calls tonight less than 6 hours after doing all these updates.  You know the Verizon offer is looking better all the time.  Has anyone found a phone combination that works reliably with AT&T?  Please let the rest of us know.

Will I be switching to Verizon? Of course.  I don’t know why I was this patient with AT&T.  I will never again switch companies just because of one product.