Does anyone have Helio (CDMA service provider)?

http://www.helio.com/#


They have cutting edge phones, and what look to be like a great service. You can this ghis samsung slider they call the "drift," and for $65 a month, you get 500 daytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend minutes, and unlmited text messages, picture messages, video messages, internet, GPS, etc. The Drift cost $225, and it has stero bluetooth, 128mb of memory (expandable via microSD), a media player, speakerphone, GPS, QVGA screen, etc.

The GPS feature is really cool, becuase it is bunded with a GPS enabled versino of Google Maps. There is this thing called buddy beam or something, that allows you to see the location of people on your "buddy list" - they probably need to have Helio service - on a map, and then you can map directions to them.


I have no idea how the service is, though. Has anyone had any experience? I hate cingular, and i am tiring of my razr.....

 

sounds like a sweet deal...

 

yeah apparantly they rent space on verizon and sprint's networks. unfortunately its a 2-year contract only, with a 30-day cancellation period from the time you sign up.

 

yeah but then from what the website says they also waive the early termination fee......other than cingular, t-mobile and others who have like a $250 early termination fee

 

so nothing binds you to the 2 year contract? how would they enforce it?

 

As a former cell phone store employee, I would highly recommend against getting Helio. Their customer service blows hard, their internet connection capability is slow, and often times never even connects. I'm sorry, but their 3G is just awful. Going on myspace is 56k speed at best, and don't even ask about the times when I tried to go on to AZ to just look at text-only posts.

Helio has a very small selection of plans and features (I believe it is 500/1000/1500/2500 minutes) and phones (only 3). You either get X minutes and unlimited everything, or X minutes and you pay X for every X you use. Free nights & weekends, but no unlimited mobile-to-mobile, which to be is a huge deal breaker.

I once tried to solve a dispute with a customer who was returning her phone on the 28th day (she "didn't have money to pay for it" ) by talking with Helio customer service. The cell phone store's policy was that you had to return the phone within 3 days, with less than 15 minutes of usage and no damage. She exceeded all of the above. FYI, Helio's policy is 30 days, period, in case anyone missed it.

Anyway, I requested for a location where the customer could return her phone. The customer service rep said I was under Helio's contract also and had to abide by their terms. I then asked if I took the phone back if I get could a replacement - said no again. Told me to take the phone back and try to re-sell it. WTF? How the hell am I going to sell a phone that has fingerprints all over it, a chunk chipped out of the side, and a small but noticeable scratch?

After a couple more minutes of trying to find a compromise, the rep said that I had to take the phone back. I said that was impossible, because our store's policy didn't allow for that. The rep then told me to have a good day, then hung up.

That's how they treat their authorized dealers. Imagine how they'll treat their customers. Their phones are pretty cool, but they all have the same boring interface (like Verizon). CDMA reception is good, but again, their customer service is way worse than even Cingular's, which I've hung up on multiple times out of pure frustration.

Not to mention at one point they were about to go out of business. In the 2-months that our cell phone store carried Helio, we only had 1 activation (the lady who wanted to return the phone) compared to 70+ activations for Verizon in the same time frame. I guess having unlimited mobile-to-mobile for Helio would be pointless, after all. The store was given plenty of incentives to sell Helio (if we could get 20+ activations a month, we would be given a bonus) but we just couldn't sell the phones to anyone, no matter how much we marketed Helio. I'm not surprised that they don't have a early termination fee - when you're the shit stuck at the bottom of the toilet, you have no choice but to try to float to the top no matter what kinda crap you have to go through.

YES, I do not like Helio at all, but I don't think I could have reasoned with any less bias. If that was too much to read, then just remember this... DON'T GET HELIO, AND DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

 

that's odd.....my friend had the service for a few months with the new Drift phone and she loves every bit of the phone. Also she mention that her GPS feature is awesome.

 

I'd say get Helio if you are Korean, they have dedicated customer service for koreans which is super fast and nice. and the phones are capable of texting in Korean as well. they do have great coverage area, since they use verizon's towers. From what I know, they were waiving activation fees ( which is usually $35) back in december, I'm not sure if it is still going on. Also you can get it without contract by paying extra $100 on top of your phone cost.

 

I talk to a rep and there has been no period where they waive activation fees nor if you pay $100 on top of your phone cost to get no contract.

 

either the rep you have talked to is extremly stupid o it is only available in Georgia market, my dad owns two cell phone stores.

 

Boy oh boy if you hate cingular..

You're gonna hate this company more.

 

if weren't for the 2-yr contracts, i'd be all over them.

i love the google maps integration in the drift, i lust for it. but there's no way i could deal with that phone for 2 years.

on the flip side, the upcoming bell mergers and Cingular becoming ATT Wireless makes me nervous too. really don't know what direction to go with things...

 

No comment...

Like any chicks are in this forum anyway.

 

Of course she's not using it while she's driving....she's using it when she's in her friend's car.