I’ve been a Sprint Customer for the last few years, and before that, I was an AT&T Customer. Yes, I had an iPhone. I had the iPhone before all of the other carriers had the iPhone. We were AT&T Customers for at least 5 years before we left them for what we thought were greener pastures. Our house had horrible service. I swear it was in the “Bermuda Triangle” of cell phone towers out here. I had to sit up on the stairs, stretching my arm out a certain way in order to get 1 or 2 bars. My calls constantly got dropped. It was horrible. A friend had come over, and actually received a call in our kitchen. We switched to Sprint that weekend.

At the end of November, we’ll have reached our 2 year contract end with Sprint, and we are due an upgrade. While it hasn’t been too bad, it hasn’t been the greatest. We bought the EVO 4G. We thought it was awesome at first. We later learned that it was horrible. First, we had a 4G phone, and paid an extra $20/month fee for a 4G service that wasn’t even available where we lived. We asked why we had to pay it, and all they said was because if we happen to travel to an area where 4G was available, we’d be able to use it. Ummmm We hardly travel, and never used the 4G service because it drained the battery. Aside from this, I constantly had space is low issues, force quit, or rebooting issues. I spent so much time at the repair shop. I still had issues with it constantly. Our calls have been dropping, our data is slow. Sure, they give you unlimited data, but it’s really slow… Is it worth the unlimited? Maybe, but man it’s hard to use when you’re out comparison shopping, or looking for online coupons while waiting in line.

Enter the Verizon Campaign in which they send me a Samsung Galaxy S3, and give me 3 months of service to try it out. I was super excited. I am a technology nut. I love checking out new phones. This was just too cool. My husband was super jealous that I had a pretty new phone and he didn’t. We did the silly little speed test thing on both the GS3, and my EVO4G. We were shocked. The speed blew me away. The Verizon 4G LTE service was 3x faster than what I was getting over the Sprint 3G service. I called Sprint to ask if they had any plans to roll out 4GLTE to my area, and the answer was a flat out “No”. What’s the point of having a 4G LTE phone, if I can’t even use the service?

Anyway… So first off, the phone was amazing. The camera took amazing photos. The screen was bigger than my EVO. It was crisp, and clear, and had great reaction time. I LOVED the way apps worked on this phone, and the service was awesome… even out here where I live. I’m not saying my time with this phone was perfect. I did have a couple of issues. Both of which were resolved quickly and efficiently with some help from the awesome Customer Service Agents that I worked with both times. They responded quickly when I mentioned my issue on Twitter, and they called me at the first moment I told them I was available. We got both issues taken care of after a little bit of troubleshooting. It was awesome.

So the only part I’m concerned about is losing the unlimited data. Sure, they say that we don’t always use more than a few GB of data. But then again.. I use my phone as a hot spot when I land in an airport that doesn’t have free WiFi. I don’t like to be limited, but at this point, I’m pretty much declaring faster speed and more reliable service, more important. I figure that if Verizon didn’t care, they wouldn’t have helped me out. The CSA’s I worked with had no idea that I was a part of a campaign, and they were beyond helpful.

Verizon, THANK YOU for the chance to work with you. THANK YOU for showing me how great you are. You officially have two new customers. I have friends that have been Verizon customers for many years, and I’m actually excited to see how the next few years goes!

Disclosure: I am participating in the Verizon Wireless Ambassador Program and have been provided with a wireless device and three months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about the product.