Worst Cell Phone Services

The Top Ten
1 MetroPCS MetroPCS, a subsidiary of T-Mobile US, offers prepaid wireless service to customers across the United States. Founded in 1994, the company initially started as General Wireless Inc. before rebranding to MetroPCS. It provides a variety of plans, including unlimited data, talk, and text options, primarily relying on T-Mobile's nationwide network for coverage. The company aims to offer cost-effective mobile solutions for individuals and small businesses.

MetroPCS gets my nod for the worst it/communication company I have ever dealt with. They suck you in by pretty much giving you a cell phone for free, but that is where the benefits end. Customer service and technical help is virtually non existent and their web site is terrible. If you are lucky enough to actually speak with a representative, after waiting twenty minutes, don't expect any expert on the other end. Last month I started getting "Text message failed" error messages on about half of the messages I tried to send because MetroPCS can't handle what they promised. I could receive messages, but couldn't send any! what? The only thing that I can add is MetroPCS is soon to be part of the past, because at this time next week, I intend to have a new phone and new carrier.

The service doesn't work in any other state except for Florida, it sucks so bad!

2 Straight Talk

I used this service for about 3 years and the experience was absolutely terrible. their "Unlimited data $45 dollar plan" is too good to actually be any truth to it whatsoever. Speeds are so slow if you're a big video/website streamer. It's basically impossible to talk to a live rep over the phone if you need any help with the phone or their service, and if you're lucky enough to get on the line with someone, they don't give you the help or assistance you really need and even keep you on the phone longer. Not worth the time to get this phone plan. It's way too expensive for what they claim to have with their services.

Worst customer service I've ever come across. Their website isn't what it used to be either. Seems I've had nothing but issues trying to get a phone activated I bought straight from THEIR website today. I've made 3 phone calls, and chatted with someone on their website that kept telling me to key in stuff, that wasn't working, but if didn't say something back in our chat box within 1 minute, he'd disconnect me. Just rude people, and it used to not be that way.

Absolute the worst. We are selves are thinking of switching out. The customer service is absolutely the worst ever they rip you off. I lost a month of service and theyrefuse to give it back. SERIOUSLY DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

When I tried to switch carriers, Straight Talk locked my phone and lied about it. I will not use Straight Talk again. Also, the reception was crappy away from my home.

3 Boost Mobile

I have used this provider for close to 10 years now. At the beginning it was a nice option. No contract, cheap monthly plan, and decent phone options. Well, here we are almost 10 years later and I wish I would have changed providers years ago. I have been over charged for phones when changing, customer service is terribly difficult to get in touch with, and the final straw is for the past 4 months my phone service would stop working every other week because of "error 16." I was informed this should be a one time fix issue but it has continued to persist despite them troubleshooting and "resolving" the issue. I can't make calls or receive calls when this happens. This has happened about 8 times, the most recent causing me to miss an important client call losing me business. I can not express how stressful and unreliable Boost Mobile has become. If you are considering Boost Mobile, go a different route. There are better providers out there that offer basically the same plan for the same ...more

Was scammed at one of the physical locations by being charged $600 for the wrong phone. Actually received a different phone model worth around $200. When I went back to the store to resolve the issue a different person was working. Since I wasn't given an itemized receipt stating what was purchased they refused to refund me. Decided to just go with it and leave. At best this company is just shady.

Just switched and nobody bothered to tell me that you can't be on the internet while on a call. Horrible!

4 Virgin Mobile Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by eight independent brand licensees worldwide. It was originally launched in the United Kingdom in 1999. The brand offers a range of mobile services including voice, messaging, and data, often employing a no-contract model. Although the Virgin Mobile brand varies from country to country, its global presence is notable.

Not only is their service bad, their website is a complete cluster making it very hard to track you usage of hotspot minutes. And you can use A LOT of minutes screwing around with horrible network performance.

Aggravating

5 Cricket Cricket Wireless is an American wireless service provider founded in 1999. It is a subsidiary of AT&T and operates on its parent company’s network. Cricket offers prepaid, no-contract plans, targeting customers who prefer a straightforward pricing structure. The company has gained popularity for its budget-friendly options and extensive coverage across the United States.

I have had Cricket for 7 years with no problems. The customer service is good and they follow up on and tech support. Cricket has good prices and a large selection of phones. They are under the same umbrella as AT&T.

This is a LIE! I get 8MB speed (have been for years) and have NEVER had a problem with their service or coverage area; they make Sprint and the other companies look sick

Worst service, worst costumer service, no VoLTE (call quality is horrible) and a blazing "high" speed limit of 3Mbps makes Cricket "something to laugh about"

Bad service. Phone call connection very easily dropped.

6 Sprint Sprint was an American telecommunications company that provided wireless services and was an internet service provider. Founded in 1899 as the Brown Telephone Company, it later merged with several entities and became Sprint Corporation. Before its merger with T-Mobile USA in 2020, Sprint was one of the major wireless network operators in the United States. The brand no longer operates independently, as it has been absorbed into T-Mobile.

Its funny, the lack of service any where near my home area is not the issue, even though there map indicates 4g. The issues are...The additional services being added to my account with out my consent, the fact they ordered the wrong phone and instead of canceling the order and getting the right one, they added a 2nd line and 2nd phone to the account, and wanted me to pay for a month of service on the first phone, the one I never touched. (I found the error 4-5 days before the phone even got to the store and reported it right away). The fact that there was a charge they could not identify on my credit card and they told me to dispute it with the card company, which I did, and the card company pulled the money back, and they suspended my service with no notice and forced me to pay the charge again. I feel for the guy with three hours on the phone, between phone and chats, I am sure I am over 20 hours with all these issues. Add to that the trip to the store today for a printed account ...more

Beware of this company! If you do use them ONLY pay with a pre-paid credit card, because you ever give them your account information as soon as you switch service they will drain your account claiming you owed them money! Been in dispute with them over a month and had to cancel my card and close my checking account. This company is a scam!

Just stayed on the phone for over 3 hrs, transferred over 15 times and my call was dropped 3 times. I NEVER get upset on phone calls but it was like they were trying to piss me off! I ended up requesting to cancel my service before they actually looked into removing the services I was calling about in the first place.

Impossible to track your charges. The only way I could activate their "free" service was to have one of their Indian reps sign me into some sort of insurance program. The $16 monthly charge was not shown anywhere on my "statement". When you cancel something free (which I did) you know it is lacking any sort of integrity. FU2 Sprint!

7 US Cellular

Great customer service, speed, coverage, and most importantly, price.

8 AT&T AT&T is an American telecommunications company that provides a broad array of services including mobile telephony, broadband, and television services. Founded in 1885, AT&T has grown to be one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. The company focuses on delivering reliable, high-quality communication services to both consumers and businesses. AT&T aims to be a leader in technology and communications, continually innovating to meet the demands of an increasingly connected world.

Overpricing; same goes with Verizon. A $20/month shared value plan will get you 300MB of internet data, which isn't even enough to post a photo of your dick on the internet. Okay, how about 30$ for 2GB? Cool, you should have fun getting about 10 YT videos out of that.

$100 for 15GB
$140 for 20GB
$175 for 25GB
$225 for 30GB
$300 for 40GB
$375 for 50GB

All this including the monthly access charges and optional charges for tablet, gaming, connected devices, connected wearables, hotspots, laptops, and so on. If you're concerned about the bill, a shared value plan is not for you, especially if you have a large family. Everyone uses the internet on their phones often, and if you go anywhere over the GB limit, you get a $15 charge for every gig over.

Unlimited data will cost $100 per month... including the $60 per month plan charge plus $10 to $40 per month access charge. Hot damn, guys. Okay, I understand that you're paying for quality cell phone service, ...more

AT&T is high on prices and low on advantages. Do I need to explain here? The simplest thing I can say about AT&T is: a massive expensive train wreck. Before AT&T, my parents used T-Mobile back in the mid-2000s. However, they switched to AT&T in the late 2000s because of how terrible T-Mobile was at the time. As time passed, AT&T gets worse and expensive. Eventually, in 2017, my parents could not tolerate the rising cost and dwindling qualities of AT&T. As a result, they switched to a cheaper V247, which turned out to be even worse. Nowadays, my parents returned back to T-Mobile, which improved overtime.

Unlimited data runs $300+ a month for two lines; with second to lowest speed internet available from at&t and U200 for the cable, total bill is typically $498+/- per month. 6 GB data with second to lowest speed available and U200 is still $250 a month for 2 lines that are not contracted.

You at most get 2 bars of reception, no matter where you are in the US. my mom tries to convince me that it's the best, but sitting 10 feet away from a mcdonalds, in which you are already logged into their WiFi, has better connection. really expensive too.

9 Verizon Wireless Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate.

How is this a bad cell phone service?! My father and I have been using Verizon for years and we're fine.My father has been using Verizon for ten years and I have been for 3 years so don't mix logic with this comment bad logic.

They will convince you that they have a better plan than your grandfathered plan but in fact the new plan is about the same with less capability.

Terrible service and they will tell you that you have service in your area them when you get home there is no service

Have been stuck in my contract for 2 years and I want a newer and better phone
Hate this company they suck

10 T-Mobile T-Mobile is a telecommunications company that offers a wide range of services, including mobile phone plans, internet, and TV services. Originally based in Germany, T-Mobile has operations in various countries and focuses on providing innovative and customer-friendly products. The company aims to be a leader in the telecommunications industry by offering competitive pricing and high-quality service.

Literally, the worst service provider possible. 90% dropped calls OR phone starts to echo and distort since they can't handle the transmit. Called and complained and was told to upgrade my phone so I did. Twice. On the newest Samsung galaxy note and the iPhone both similar problems plus similar problems with many people I talked to who have this service as well. Only way to get past is to use wifi calling which means I'm using my own wifi modem at home and not the phone service providers. That's not a valid solution. Have used AT&T, Verizon, Sprint before. Verizon was the best, AT&T runner up.

T-Mobile is by far the worst service I've ever experienced. Customer service is a joke. Even when they reward you for their screw ups... they screw up their rewards for screwing up. Then they attempt to charge you for the reward for them screwing up and not only do they charge you for it but they charge you double what you would have normally paid for it in the 1st place if you bought it flat out.

Worst coverage in competition with Sprint for that title. But I'm pretty confident T-Mobile takes the crown of garbage

I thought Cricket was the worst. T-Mobile lowers the bar clear to the ground.
The only thing I can say is that I am embarrassed for T-Mobile employees. They seem to have no training, knowledge of their product or people skills.

Are you sure this should be on the list?

The Contenders
11 TracFone

TracFone routinely steals service (text, talk, data) from people. When this happens the company will not return the service because their system does not keep track of peoples accounts, and therefor have no proof anything was lost.

This works for me! And, the cost is between $100-$200 per year. I've thought about buying a new cell phone and buying into a plan, but it seems like such a racket, I can't take the plunge!

Have used TracFone for almost 6 years with no issues. No contract and good service regardless of location. Not for everyone but perfect for me.

12 Lycamobile

Baddest ever

13 Xfinity A brand operated by Comcast Corporation, XFINITY offers a range of services including internet, cable TV, and home security solutions. Launched in 2010, XFINITY Home Security provides smart home automation features in addition to security monitoring. The company serves a broad customer base across the United States.

They incorrectly charge my cc told me I had to file a dispute with my cc company to resolve it then suspended my service for filing a dispute on the charge. When I called spent over 4 hours on the phone to resolve, their level 2 customer service manager was hostile and unwilling to help.

They can't find my account even though I have an account with them. How else do I have service for over a year? Smh.

They're comcast the worst company in america with awful customer service

14 Bell
15 EE

It just sucks in general. when I have a problem the customer service person has an attitude and is always rude.

16 Republic Wireless

This service is trash, it doesn't even give you any data, and it doesn't use apple devices.

Why isn't this number 1? It doesn't even have unlimited data!

17 Vodafone

I can not underestimate just how bad this company is. This should be number one. The customer service is terrible. They trick unknowing, gullible people into buying more expensive, more useless plans. The app is terrible and for some reason the phones that they supply you with have their own operating system instead of android. And don't get me started on their broadband plans

18 Huawei Huawei is a Chinese multinational technology company founded in 1987. It specializes in telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and smart devices. Huawei is one of the world's largest suppliers of telecommunications infrastructure and has a significant presence in the smartphone market. The company aims to drive technological innovation and provide high-quality products that improve connectivity and communications globally.

It not the worst

19 Koryolink
20 Mint Mobile
21 Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung, stylized as SAMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol (business ...read more.
22 Telus
23 Assurance

Customer service sucks. You'll spend endless hours going round and round with customer service agents that pretend to understand you,pass you off to another person, lie to you and say they need to call you back in 5 to 10 minutes and just don't call back They've done that a couple of times in the same day. The last time I got passed to 3 people before I was told they were doing upgrades in my area and it was going to take 24 to 48 hours to be able to get I internet. That was a lie. It came back on over a week later when my monthly allotment went on. You have to go through several phones to get one that works. One time they sent 4 phones before I got one that worked right. There's more but I don't want to relive the experience.

24 Viaero
25 V247

After exorbitant AT&T prices back in late 2017, my parents decided to switch to a cheap Vietnamese cell phone provider called V247. It is cheaper than AT&T, but that is where the positives end here. In fact, the Vietnamese provider is the worst one I have ever used. With V247, I cannot access 4G, which means that I cannt access the internet without Wi-Fi. And to make things worse, V247 won't let me call/text in Canada, which is the case during a 2017 Niagara Falls trip. Fortunately, my parents switched to T-Mobile in 2018, which is much better.

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