Problems with Cricket Broadband

by Bob
(Tucson, AZ, USA)

Problems with Cricket Broadband:


Problem #1 - You always get dropped.

Problem #2 - Customer service sucks.

Problem #3 - The Web page was very poorly programmed. They say you can pay your bill online; perhaps true if you have a Cricket phone, but false if you just have broadband. The programmers made it impossible to get a password for broadband users. I tried at least 50 times, and each time I was led in a circle on the site. So I called customer service, and the idiot gave me a number to call, but it was someone's voice mail.

If you try to get a password at a Cricket store, again you will get a line of BS.

My advice is to stay away from Cricket. Also, you will never see the rebate Cricket offers. If you send in all of the info, including the UPC codes, you will get a letter stating that something was left out and you need to resubmit.
Believe me, I make copies of everything that is sent; these people are out to get every dime from you!

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Mar 04, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Crosswave NEW
by: Selina

I have had the Cricket Cross Wave for 6 years. I live in a secluded wooded setting in Wisconsin and do not have much choice in affordable internet. I will miss my Cross Wave so much. $35.50 for 5 GB and can't go over. For home use it has been great and the service has improved over the years as well as being able to take it with me. Will be discontinued next month so I gave up Verizon and got the deal on a Cricket phone with internet and received my rebate at less than 1 month of service. I talked to my friend in Mississippi for over 2 hours with great clarity. I don't know why people complain about Cricket, I think it is great. I hope they do replace the Broadband with something else though. By the way I got the deal on the phone 20GB for $55.00 auto pay.
Jan 15, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Data Consumption Difference NEW
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Thank you for sharing your experience. The difference in data consumption that you saw could be due to Netflix delivering a higher quality image thru Verizon's 4G device vs. Cricket's 3G device.

Also, given that Cricket had/has a much greater capacity issue than does Verizon, they may be compressing the data more, resulting in less overall usage.

Anyway, there are some good alternatives you can try (ex. FreedomPop, Karma, TruConnect, or even using Hotspot functionality on prepaid smartphones like T-Mobile, Boost, Virgin, etc.).

I used a Crosswave as well, and never really had great connectivity/speed. Just adequate for email, and basic Internet; I got rid of it ;-).
Jan 08, 2015
Rating
starstarstarstar 		I Love My Crosswave
by: Selina

I have had a Crosswave for over 4 years and love it. So sorry to see it go; very sorry. No cable in my area, and I tried the Verizon Jet Pak for one day and returned it.

They say no movies or Netflix. I played 1 hour of Netflix to see what would happen and used over two GBs. I couldn't believe it. I watched 3 hours of Netflix on my Crosswave and used 777.666 MBs, plus email and news.

I don't understand why there is such a difference. I know the Crosswave is 3G and Verizon is 4G, but really I didn't notice a difference. With Cricket you can't go over and no contract, but Verizon you do very fast.

Cricket is good in Southern Wisconsin and most places I have gone, so it has been great. I don't know what I will do after it stops in March. I like that it was small and portable. So sad. Maybe they will start a new service, I hope.
Jul 30, 2014
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		So Bad
by: Patti Shannon

I have been with Cricket for about 8 yrs or so. Well, I just found out they are no longer doing broadband, but I have it still, BUT I WILL BE CHANGING ASAP! My computer was down, being worked on & I was charged a fee of $15.00 to have it turned back on....never has that happened before! It's not worth crap! Worse now than ever!
Mar 25, 2013
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		DON'T USE CRICKET
by: Anonymous

Been a customer for over 2 years and constant internet problems. We have their newest modem the Cricket Crosswave only to give service to 2 laptops. Can't even do that. Goes dormant all the time, goes slow; issues all the time. When you call customer service is terrible and technical support told me dormant was the "computer is very tired" what the heck does that mean. Now, I had to wait 2 days for "a better" technical support person. They called left a message early in the morning said call them back, been trying and only voicemail. No return calls. So I pay $55 a month to get terrible internet service and terrible customer support. We are so cancelling this service and please don't use Cricket; you will be unhappy GUARANTEED!!
Nov 29, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Troubleshooting
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Thank you for sharing your experience. Have you called Cricket to see if they can help you troubleshoot why it keeps disconnecting? On other carriers I've had this problem when I'm in poor coverage, but within coverage you shouldn't ever have to reconnect.
Nov 21, 2012
Rating
star 		Internet and download
by: clara castleman

What in the world is wrong with cricket broadband? You can't stay connected with the internet and certainly cannot download anything, especially games. I have to reconnect and reconnect anywhere from 10 to 20 times each time I use it and finally I just get tired and say to heck with it. I pay my bill each month only to get no satisfaction. I am trying to type this comment as fast as I can before it pops off again. I need help!
Oct 25, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstar 		Cricket Wireless
by: Bruce Wayne

I have been a Cricket customer for over 5 years so I believe I can speak to the subject of Cricket's services. They suck on an overall basis! They do credit my account from time to time. Recently they credited my account for this month, the entire usage amount of my plan plus next month as well. Sounds wonderful right? Wrong! It doesn't matter how much free Internet I receive if it is constantly reloading to get to the page I want. I have been searching for work and I can't even put in an application if it is more than a single page. Facebook apps are almost impossible to stay on. I have in the past used other services and after awhile I have come back to Cricket, only to remember why I left in the first place. I would not recommend Cricket to my enemies let alone a friends. I will be looking for a new provider A.S.A.P.
Oct 05, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Online Payments
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Hmm...that sounds like they had some kind of system issue; have you tried since? You can also try calling a rep and explaining what happened; they should be able to process the payment and waive the fee. In other words, you shouldn't have to go to a store to make a payment.

It's also odd regarding not being able to change your plan. You should be able to change your plan whenever you want even if you missed your payment date. I would complain about that for sure!

Lastly, if you have a credit or debit card, you can setup autopay and never have to worry about missing your payment (unless your credit card payment fails), and there's no fees, so you avoid the convenience fees in the other channels.

I hope you get your plan change worked out so you can get what you want!
Oct 05, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Online payment does not work
by: Anonymous

I have tried paying my bill online at mycricket.com several times. There is always a last minute hitch (e.g., "Error 1 General system failure" is the latest). This means that one has to go to a local cricket store to pay and they charge you 3 bucks for in-store payment. The first time this happened a month ago, I was forced to miss the deadline for payment. When I went to the store, I was told that since I did not pay on time, I need to continue with my existing plan (which I wanted to change to a cheaper one). Their web site is just a racket to fleece customers!
Aug 05, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Sucks! and I don't mean
by: Anonymous

I think Cricket sucks. I'm tired of the A600 broadband constantly disconnecting especially when I am doing my work. The fools who work their customer service can only repeat what had been written for them to memorize and anyone who has passed the 6th grade can throw them off when they are interrupted. When I must travel 75 miles to go to a Cricket place to have my broadband checked, does it mean they are going to charge me on the replacement after I have paid insurance for 2 years? What in God's name went thru America's thinking by allowing India to take over our communications? Cricket sucks and I'm not talking about Jiminy Cricket.
Jul 24, 2012
Rating
starstarstar 		My Card quit working.
by: Anonymous

I got the Cricket EC1705 on the Second of July, by the 24 of the same month, the card had completely stopped working. I took it to my local Cricket Store and the guy tried to accuse me of tampering with it, like I know how to mess with stuff like that...Anyway, he gave me the A600 model which actually works alot better than the EC1705, the connection stays up for more than 5 minutes and it's not going dormant a billion times a day. If I had tampered with it, why would I have taken it back to the store and tried to get another one for free? I'm not that kind of person, that's dishonest. I think they just didnt want to give me a free one because mine was under warranty and they knew they had to cover it. It kind of offended me that he thought I had tampered with it. Why would I tamper with it? That would benefit them, If i had tampered with it, I would've had to buy a new one. The guy didnt come right out and accuse me, but he said "This honestly looks like its been tampered with, not saying you did it, but that's what it looks like", But my mom had been having problems with it before I had any issues with it, and I know she has no knowledge of how to tamper with things like that.
Jun 28, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket does have flaws
by: Anonymous

I have had the broadband now for the last three years, and it has been working great. I guess because I LOVE technology and I know how to use it. I do know that Internet Explorer is not a very reliable browser. I haven't liked that ever; I do know that FireFox and Chrome, and even Opera work great with my broadband. I know that over the phone Cricket's customer service leaves something to be desired. I have had my share of anger management issues with the people over the phone. I usually go to some of the Authorized dealers near my house. Wireless Toys has seen me so much that they know me by name as soon as I walk in the door. I hate if I have to call Cricket but it's a part of life. Your bound to get crapped on one way or another, it just depends on how long it takes you to clean yourself up and deal with it. I love Cricket and soon I am going to upgrade from the broadband modem to the crosswave wireless because I have two laptops and 2 tablets and an IPad2 that I use and they use WiFi. Thanks for reading, good luck and have a great day.
Jun 28, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket is still the best.
by: Anonymous

I agree, their customer service does at times "suck". Yet, I have been a customer of theirs for the last 5 or so years. I did a comparison test, my sister has been a Sprint Customer for the last 10 or so years. With that said, I signed up for Sprint back in November when my hubby went out of town and forgot to leave me money to pay my bill. I got the free phone which was the Samsung Transform and the cheapest unlimited plan they had. When the bill came it was $300. I had not gone over my minutes, I didn't use the internet and the service I thought actually sucked, I had more trouble talking to people on that phone. I had more dropped calls with that phone than I have ever had with Cricket. Plus, I have three smartphone plans, one broadband plan and one talk n txt phone on my account and the bill is still under $300. So for what I paid for just ONE phone through Sprint, I have my phone, two brother in laws, my hubby and the broadband on one account for less that the price of the Sprint phone. I tried Verizon once too, I had two phones,one was a windows phone and the other a simple flip phone, both with basic plan. Together they were about $200 a month. More if I went over our minutes or the txt limit. Cricket is always updating their service, adding new features and now they even have the friggin iPhone, which I am totally getting. Cricket is awesome, yes flawed, but it is the best. I don't have to monitor how many minutes we're using,how many mb we are using for internet. All in all, Cricket's service works in places it didn't when I first started with them and they will continue to have my support.
Thank you.
Jun 10, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Duplicate Posts
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Please note that I am not Cricket, Yahoo, or any other company. You submitted three virtually identical comments on the same day about Cricket stealing. I left the first one and removed the other two as they did not add any value to the discussion; the first one made the point quite well.


In fact, I had to read carefully through each post to see that there were minor differences. The spirit of the additional posts were identical. Lastly, the stars are submitted by users; they are not selected by me, nor can I/would I edit them. You probably forgot to select the stars you desired, as it defaults to 5 stars.


Note that I have edited your submission to remove the all caps post as that is not appropriate Internet etiquette. Thank you again for your participation.
Jun 08, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Deleting Comments/Cricket Is Stealing
by: Anonymous

This comment section is bad as Cricket. Read the article about “Cricket is stealing.” You removed these statements out of the article: “Yahoo and Cricket are blaming each other. We need to meet with the Cricket elite, sat around the table and discuss our problems. And Yahoo, Yahoo, Cricket is stealing!!!” Also, I said Cricket do not deserve 1 star but you put down 5 stars—why? This section is bad as Cricket because you are Cricket!!!!! Again, “Yahoo!, Yahoo!,---Cricket is stealing!” No matter what you remove or how many stars you put---The world knows Cricket.
Jun 07, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		CRICKET IS STEALING!!!!!
by: Anonymous

Cricket just sent me a message saying, "thanks for choosing a $53 account." That is crazy!! I did not choose anything----CRICKET just put it on my account!!! What do I want more when you are not getting anything now? This company needs to be investigated. I don't know whose worse--CRICKET or YAHOO!! I pray GOD to take it out of business. A bolt of lightening would be great the way Cricket does to it's customers. I simply can't pay it. CRICKET did it because I am complaining like others. I got to "move on up a little higher." CRICKET doesn't deserve 1 star!!
Times are too hard to allow CRICKET to do this.
Jun 04, 2012
Rating
star 		Should Be Closed Down-Service Is BAD
by: Louella Barber

Cricket needs to close down or we do it by not
using it's products. Everyone needs to go on strike!! Moreover, customer service are rude, no one tells you the same thing,takes forever to get number, catches "hell" with this broadband and Ya-
hoo, the internet explorer don't stay connected,
Cricket and others need people to service their calls, not machines, because if you do not answer
the way it is programmed for you to answer the ma-chine cuts you off, and you are back where you started. Same complaints are about other companies
so where do we go from here because they are rid-
ing in the same canoe--sinking and drowning us!!
Making money is their purpose and service is BAD!
All the internet services, email, telephone and etc. are connecting with other business and the load is too much. Can't stay open because they can't open the door! If you complain they cut you
off.Again, "WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE BECAUSE THE COMPUTER IS THE WAY."
Apr 04, 2012
Rating
star 		Yes You're All Correct!
by: Anonymous

Stay away from Cricket. I did not and bought the 1750 modem for $30 at Walmart. Slow speed, dropped connections.

I did fix the slow speeds with a software setting to force only 3G, but get dropped every few minutes. Got dropped at slow speeds also.

So now I am just wondering on the getting dropped thing. Tech support is worse than Comcast, or the worst of the worst. If I can figure out the getting dropped think, I could live without tech support.
Dec 10, 2011
Rating
star 		all lies
by: Anonymous

I have this service and everything the writer said was wrong. I've had a password since the beginning etc......
Dec 01, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Broadband is a Joke!
by: Anonymous

I've had the Cricket EC1705 broadband modem for about 6 months now and I'm getting sick of it. I live in a rural area where any and all DSL companies are out of the question, and Virgin mobile is about 3-5 kbps on a good day so that left me with Cricket. Paying is a huge pain. Every time I try to pay with my debit card I always get a server crash (FAIL) so I have to call them on the phone and pay.


I refuse to pay more than $30 a month for a higher data cap. Before I pass the data cap my speeds are about 100-150 kbps which isn't THAT bad but still slow. Then I reach my pathetic 1GB data cap, and my speeds drop to 3-12 kbps. I've been searching for a way to reset this but I can't find a solution. All in all, Cricket rips you off, their website is crap, the coverage area is VERY small, and can cause depression and thoughts of suicide. OK I'm done ranting. Have a nice day.
Nov 05, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstar 		CRICKET OVERALL IS HORRIBLE
by: Anonymous

Cricket customer service reps on the whole are rude- and poorly trained.Their customer service is horrible. Cricket broadband is a joke. 40 bucks for the prepaid card and I sit for 20 minutes literally waiting for a page to load!! And dont even think about calling customer service because they know NOTHING!!!!
Jul 01, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		NO PHONE AND NO REFUND AND NO SERVICE
by: Anonymous

I ordered a phone from Cricket online as an overnite shipping order. The package was never delivered because the apartment number was entered wrong by the customer service rep. The package was shipped back to cricket. It's been 16 days and the package is still in limbo. Cricket says once they recieve the package, they can give me a refund in 30 days. Not fair at all. Their fault and everything. I can't get a decent sales rep to explain anything. And they act like they have no supervisors. No service whatsover AFTER they collected my money. So I have no phone and no refund. I'm the small person and they are the big business. It's so unfair that we can't do anything, but just like they refer to their fine print when discussing an issue (fine print they can't even understand or explain) I am going to use their fine print against them, and take them to arbitration. Because that is one option available.
Jun 03, 2011
Rating
star 		scheiß service...kein speed (service sucks...no downloadspeed)
by: Cristian

Hab mir solch ein Scheißteil von Cricket gekauft, USB Stick plus 40 Dollar Monatskarte. Die ersten 2 Testtage alles kein Problem, ausser der langsamen Datenübertragung von 12Kbit/sec. Testphase vorbei, 1 Monatskarte vorher schon aktiviert, nichts geht mehr. Die einzige Website die zum aufmachen geht ist die von Cricket. 1-800 Cricket Serviceline, schade um die Zeit da nur ein Roboter rangeht, und kein Service Typ. Kann diese Scheiße keinem empfehlen.

I bought this piece a s**t plus the monthly card for 40 bucks. After the 2 day drial, hell is coming loose. No downloadrate, and the only website Ì was able to reach, was the f***ing site from Cricket self. They have an absolute horrible Customer Service, and the Help Line 1-800 Cricket is just a f***ing answeringmachine. DON`T buy that shit, spend better some bucks more and take a provider who knows how it works.
May 02, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		lousy service and lousy customer service
by: Anonymous

Cricket broadband has a lousy customer service. Since I got the modem my internet searches always result in showing me sites in Phoenix, AZ, despite the fact that I live in Las Vegas, NV. I went to the corporate store several times to complain and to show the people what is happening, nothing changes. I wrote them an email and I got no response. My internet service is cut off all the time, especially in the evening. I get messages like no device or the port is not open. It is practically impossible to watch anything on Youtube or any other video online. For this kind of lousy service it is way too expensive.
Feb 22, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Broadband not what it is suppose to be
by: Ms J

I have Cricket Broadband and lately it has been staying more off and on , dormant and just stopped working.........
Feb 03, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Broadband Speeds
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Assuming you haven't gone over your monthly allowance (after which they throttle your speed), you should be getting MUCH faster speeds than that (i.e. faster than 150kbps)! You shouldn't need to get another modem. I recommend calling Cricket and complaining about the speed.
Feb 03, 2011
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		slower than a snail in winter.
by: Anonymous in Tucson

We got the new cricket highspeed wireless 2 months ago, upgrading from the regular internet service. Since then it rarely goes over 55kbps. The first week it went over 150kbp most of the time. We have the UM185C modem...do we need an upgrade? thanks.:)
BTW we did get our rebate eventually...it took 4 months.
Oct 12, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		local area connection problem.
by: Anonymous

My internet is connecting, but it will not allow me to connect to my playstation. It is saying I have a local area connection #5 problem. What's going on?
Sep 21, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Broadband Usage Management Policy Change
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Thank you for your correction. You're right! I had learned this a few weeks back, and forgot to update this thread. So, the rolling 30 days IS as you describe it, which is pretty pathetic in my opinion.

HOWEVER, the good news is that sometime earlier this month (Sept), Cricket changed their broadband usage management policy such that usage is now reset at the start of the next billing cycle. This is definitely great news, b/c the rolling 30 day cycle (which I incorrectly described in my earlier comment; sorry!) is really a horrible customer experience.

This resetting at the beginning of a new cycle approach is much easier to understand, and certainly much easier to know when you'll get your speed back!

Note that their Website still shows the rolling 30-day terms, however, when I talked to a live agent, they noted that the new policy is in place, even though the Website hasn't yet been updated.

If anyone has any personal experience with the change, or evidence to the contrary, definitely please let us know!
Sep 21, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		rolling 30-day period
by: Anonymous

Comment on Cricket's 30-day rolling download limit:

A previous comment is incorrect, which said:

"In there they also note that it's a rolling 30 day period. So if you go over your limit on day 5 or day 15, or day 27, once your 30 days is up (i.e. the length of service that you purchased), and assuming that you've paid for another month, you'll get reset to the normal/fast speed. "


The way the rolling period works is, if you go over your limit on day 5, you DON'T get reset on day 30, you get reset sometime between day 31 and day 35 (5 + 30).

On day 31, your day 1 usage is disregarded, on day 32 your day 2 usage is disregarded, etc. So if you didn't use the service at all on day 1, you will be reset on day 31

And if you use a lot on say day 1 and day 15, what you downloaded on day 1 is going to be counted toward your limit until day 31 and what you downloaded on day 15 is going to be counted until day 45.
Sep 06, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Finally Dumped Cricket and Got Happy
by: Lynn

After the experiences I wrote about 12/31/09 I continued with Cricket until the end of June 2010. Their wacky billing errors also continued. On June 26 I went online to pay July's bill but service, went dormant seconds after I logged on. But it was long enough to see I had a previous balance of zero. So I try again the 28th, get connected and see they now want 90 dollars plus change. That was the last straw for me. While customer service has acknowledged there's an issue with the accounting software on some accounts, they won't DO anything about it.

I went without any internet access for a couple months while deciding what to do. In the meantime I'd go to the public library with my laptop where wireless access is free. I decided to go with Comcast while they were laying new lines in the neighborhood. I get a steady 18 Mb upload and 21 Mb download for $24.99 a month. I can now watch YouTube, which I couldn't with Cricket. And service doesn't go dormant 100 times a day so I can browse websites with ease, plus watch any movie I want to see. Getting away from crazy Cricket and all it's problems and misinformation actually changed my life; it had been that aggravating!
Sep 06, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Broadband
by: Anonymous

I have Cricket Broadband, and it keeps going off line. I have to keep dailing up to return on the internet, and this is a repeated matter day and night time. I made a month ahead payment and still I have the weak broadbant. I am planing to get a faster internet service, that does not leave or become weak at times. When I had Comcast Internet service, I had no experinces like this. I would not recomend Cricket Broadband to anyone, and the advertisemment on regular TV doe not reveal the problems people will experince later. I will be stuck with my purchase modem soon.
Aug 06, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Broadband Speed Throttling
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Yes, my understanding is generally the same with a few nuances. I don't believe they disallow particular activities (ex. movie downloads) per se. It's just that the speed you get will be such that it's not at all practical to use any high bandwidth services because they will be PAINFULLY slow.


Also, I do believe that they disclose this in their terms and conditions in the fair use policy on their site. If you look under the plan details on their broadband page you'll see a note about all plans having a usage level. It's actually in normal font size, which is nice to see.


In there they also note that it's a rolling 30 day period. So if you go over your limit on day 5 or day 15, or day 27, once your 30 days is up (i.e. the length of service that you purchased), and assuming that you've paid for another month, you'll get reset to the normal/fast speed.


Most companies will actually just cut you off (for prepaid), or charge you exorbitant per MB overage fees (for postpaid). But as you note, it's pretty useless at that speed, and you'll basically be stuck just checking email; even loading a basic website will be painful.


I suppose it's debatable whether throttling the speed is better or worse than simply cutting you off. I think if I'm aware of my usage level (so I'm not surprised by the reduction in speed), I'd rather have some access than none.
Aug 05, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		This is why your Cricket broadband speed is slow
by: Anonymous

What Cricket does not tell you is that it has a 2.10 gb download limit for each month , after you have reached 2.10 gb of downloading they don't cut you off but they do cut your broadband speed to less than half.

After you have reached your download limit you will have to wait 15 days or longer with no downloading or streaming video or movies before your broadband speed is returned to normal.
Jul 24, 2010
Rating
starstarstar 		not a cell phone
by: Anonymous

sometimes my broadband messes up and the screen looks like im on a cell phone..!..the connection manager only pops up when IT feels like it, and not all the txt messaging goes thru!!

if it was up to me i would not allow cricket to sell anything.!!!!!
Jul 11, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		What Affects Broadband Speed
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

What affects wireless broadband speed is not an easy question to answer, as there are a number of variables.


There's your computer performance. Your PC needs to have the processor speed, harddrive space, and available RAM to process the video data that you're downloading. The number of applications you have opened also plays into these things. That said, most modern computers should not pose a bottleneck at all. I typically have 4-6 applications opened, as well as 20 or more tabs in Firefox opened, and I've never had it impact my video download/video speed.


There's the video application. What I mean by this is that some applications that are downloading the video will buffer for several minutes or more while you wait, and then start playing. Thereafter the buffering continues but there's ample lead time such that the video streams well throughout the whole video.


Other applications try to buffer is very short spurts in an attempt to start playing as soon as possible. However, what often happens is what you describe, with short bursts of buffering followed by the video playing for a very short period before more buffering is needed.


Personally, I'd rather wait for a number of minutes and not have a problem after that, have the choppy/frustrating experience.


Wireless coverage also plays in. If you're in a fringe area with poor reception, you'll also have problems like you describe.


Anyway, assuming your PC is relatively modern (i.e. no more than 3-4 years old), you're probably ok. If you go to speedtest.net and post your results, I can let you know if the actual broadband speed you're seeing is reasonable. Assuming you're not over your Cricket plan data allowance, your speed shouldn't be throttled, and you should be able to view videos reasonably well. That said, while I was testing Cricket broadband service, while I could view real time videos, it wasn't consistent. i.e. Usable but not fantastic.
Jul 11, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		slow loading video clips
by: Alice

It takes forever to load a video clip from YouTube or any webpage. It loads for a while, then you watch a little while, then it loads some more, and you watch a little more, then it loads so....well, you get the picture (not if it's Cricket). Is it my computer or the broadband gadget?
Jun 12, 2010
Rating
star 		Would probably have better service using 2 tin cans and a string!
by: Sonny Walls

Cricket Broadband has to be the worst "service"(if you want to call it that)out there.....You spend more time redialing after your line was dropped, than you spend online......customer "service" is a joke......when you do finally talk to someone from customer service, it is almost impossible to talk with them unless you speak their language, which definitely isn't English. They want to talk over you with their canned pitch, then as a result never resolve your problem. If I knew of another service comparably priced in my area....I would sign up in a heartbeat! As far as I am concerned Cricket can kiss mt _ss!
May 21, 2010
Rating
star 		overpayment
by: Anonymous

I sent in a payment to them instead of to my credit card company. Of course I sent it electronic and didn't catch it in time. So I overpayed them over $300.00 tried to get the money back. They said they couldn't refund the money. So I cancelled the account, they said that they would also take next months payment and send, it will take 14 days. Still waiting. Customer service is terrible I couldn't understand them. Kept telling me my phone was cutting out. How? I was on a land line! Would not recomend these people.
Jan 01, 2010
Rating
star 		Cricket Issues
by: Tom

Recap: Cricket Customer service is setup to route communications to insecure and unintelligent personnel that can only give minimal answers. Upon politely requesting a Supervisor, the Customer service rep. hung up the telephone...and a repeat hangup, on a recall.

A visit to a Cricket store approximates the feel of a sleazy check cashing store, with nice employees, but minimal customer service.

This may not be a bad product if you have no issues, however this is never the case with electronics. Wise to avoid this service.
Dec 31, 2009
Rating
starstarstar 		Billing errors & impossible customer service
by: Lynn

Paying by phone - no problem except I don't like being charged a $2 for using a credit card to pay.

Paying via bank's bill pay feature - seemed easy, except on July 3rd I was disconnected. The payment made June 30 for July has NEVER been credited to my broadband account to this day. I've since provided bank statements to prove payment, but talk to a different rep each time to no avail. My niece had just died and I didn't want to bother with this so I quickly paid it again, by phone this time, and paid the late fee. I foolishly assumed the error would be corrected and I'd be credited the following month, so I let it ride.

For the next few months I paid by phone and remained unaware that a payment hadn't been credited.

Then I made the mistake of paying via the website in late Oct for Nov. I get an email thanking me for my payment, and I see the payment cleared my bank immediately. Yet service was disconnected on Nov 2. I called customer service, couldn't reach anyone so on Nov 5 paid for Nov AGAIN, complete with a late fee AND the credit card fee. I MUST have internet access to send data from a heart monitor every evening to my doctor, and there aren't multiple options for access where I live. I NEED the service and I PAY for it. This 2nd payment should have been credited to Dec's bill. Anyway, I finally reached a rep named Tammy or Pammy and she extended my service for a week in Dec while this could be sorted out. I wanted to know where my money is going since it isn't going to my account. In mid-Dec I took Cricket receipts, email and all my bank statements to a local Cricket store, confident that this would soon be resolved. The store clerk was confused by the extension I'd been granted so proclaimed the account was paid late but current. Paid late? Since when does paying 26 days early mean it's late? She would not compare my bank statements to the online account, which was what Tammy/Pammy told me to request at the store. My service had again been disconnected the day before for "nonpayment", and she couldn't explain why that was. But she did have it turned on again.

I took the store clerk's word that I was current. However, I just checked my account on the website, expecting to see a $24 credit for being charged late fees when in fact I'd paid early those two times (via website and billpay), plus credit for 7-10 days that I was without service despite having paid. But instead, it shows that 2 months are due today. This just blows me away. My social security income won't stretch enough for me to overpay repeatedly and I don't see why I should be limited to paying by phone and have to pay extra fees for doing so, simply because my account is not being credited for payments made any other way. This nightmare has to end. surely there is someone who can straighten this nonsense out; it is Cricket's mistakes that I'm paying for, after all.
Dec 11, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Prepaid Broadband Issue Resolution
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Great info; thank you for sharing! Just to clarify, you're saying that when you close down IE, the Cricket connection is closing as well and causing the problems your having. You suggested that we close down IE completely before closing Cricket broadband. How do we close it completely? Or did you mean to say that the Cricket connection should be shutdown before closing IE? Thank you!
Dec 10, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		More on XP shudown problem...
by: Stephen Bell

I have discovered one case which has been common for me that causes this hang on shutdown to occur (although there be other issues). This is when you are online, and shutdown explorer before closing Cricket. It appears that Cricket Broadband is closing itself down as well, but it leaves mPhonetools behind. Solution: always shutdown explorer completely, then close your Cricket link to the internet. This seems to basically solve my problem.
Nov 21, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstar 		XP Shutdown problems with Cricket Broadband
by: Stephen Bell

I have not yet determined how frequent this problem is, but I have confirmed that it is the cause of Windows XP hanging on shutdown. When Cricket Broadband loads, it calls up a program called mPhonetools.exe. This can be found in taskmanager. When Cricket has been closed, this program remains and causes the shutdown command not to function. During shutdown, XP tries to shutdown the process but fails. Use taskmanager to locate and shut off the process and shutdown will complete nicely. (opening a dos command window and typing shutdown -L also works when the freeze happens; selecting Log Off from Start menu doesn't help)
Oct 20, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cricket Wireless Issues
by: PrepaidWirelessGuy

Sorry to hear about your problems with Cricket's service. Your experience with logging in online sounds extremely frustrating! I expect that they didn't fully integrate their prepaid broadband product with their core voice offering, which is unfortunate. Hopefully they received your feedback when you called them, and will eventually fix it.

As this site grows, and I receive more and more feedback, my plan is to invite carriers to review the comments to help them learn about what their customers want, and the pain points they're experiencing. I'm starting to see the necessary growth starting to happen, so please have your friends also leave their reviews...good or bad! In the meantime, I have been reaching out to various carriers to let them know of issues that people tell me about, either by directly contacting me, filling out the survey, or via these prepaid wireless reviews.

With respect to rebates; wow, do I hate the idea of mail in rebates! If you're going to give me a deal/discount, just give it to me! I understand that part of a company's financial analysis involves calculating that only a certain proportion of customers will actually follow through on the rebate, which makes it more affordable for them. Unfortunately, as you noted, some of the rebates that they never end up having to give out aren't due to people not submitting for it, but rather that they're missing some piece of information or document here or there that results in them not being eligible.

So while the rebate can be a great savings for customers who follow through, and are actually successful, it can be a long (3-4 months) and frustrating process!

Personally, I think it would be an overall better, and more satisfying customer experience if companies simply applied instant rebates, or basic conditions, like buy and use the product for X number of months, and we'll send you the rebate; no hoops to jump through!

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