At Organic, we are obsessed with exceptional experience and equally obsessed with the emerging mobile media convergence in North America. Craig Daitch, an Organic Strategist, recently immersed himself in the amp’d mobile experience and has written this personal review for the new amp’d mobile EVDO offering.
This is the first in a series of our extended experience reviews – Enjoy!
You may have never heard of Amp’d Mobile, but I bet you’ve seen the commercials. They’re the ones where the central characters’ impose their will on those around them through a series of odd requests (Bobbing for fish in a 50 gallon aquarium, fighting old men, playing the piano with your head, shoving meat products down your pants, etc.).
Launched in Q1 of 2006, Amp’d is an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), using Verizon’s 3G EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) infrastructure to launch its own brand. Founded by members of the same management team that launched Boost Mobile, Amp’d looks to capture lightening in a bottle twice, and I think…
…they’re on the right track.
Amp’d prefers that you purchase their service using their online
ordering interface and to be honest, it was relatively pain free. Amp’d
is a very flash heavy site. Integrated within the ordering pages is a
flash video wrapped around a mock Amp’d phone. The videos work as
instructional pieces designed to walk you through the ordering process
and are marginally helpful.
What I liked most about the ordering
interface was the ability to add preloaded content to your order –
Kanye West Videos, Family Guy Wallpapers, and Rise Against Ringtones
were all provisioned to be on my phone when I received it.
Five
days after placing my order, my phone arrived. I chose the Amp’d
Hollywood, their top of the line device. A rebranded all black
Motorola E816, the Hollywood is a stellar product built on BREW 3.1.
Key handset features included an MP3-quality music player, a 1.3
megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom (see picture of my messy desk),
MPEG-4 video with playback (choppy at best but no limitations on size),
and a 262,000-color display.
Other features that drew me to the
Hollywood included dedicated Push-to-Talk capabilities and the ability
to “side load” media between the phone and computers via a USB port
(Think iTunes data transfer between the player and iPod). The
Hollywood ships with a 128MB expandable Mini SD memory card with up to
1 GB expandable memory available as an upgrade.
The key
endearing attribute that Amp’d has prided itself upon, is its unique
mobile user interface, an intuitive piece of proprietary software
divided into multiple programming channels which includes VOD and
streaming TV from: Fox News, MTV, E!, Comedy Central, amongst others.
Amp’d calls its rich content service “Amp’d Live!”
In the
central area of the keypad is a one touch button that sends you
directly to Amp’d Live!. Amp’d uses the limited amount of space on its
device display well, unique streaming video plays in the upper left
corner, showcasing new additions to Amp’d service (UFC Pay Per Views,
new games, etc.).
In addition to the VOD and IPTV services,
Amp’d offers a relatively easy to use pre-bookmarked web browser. You
can still enter in a url outside of the bookmarks. The browser
experience is typical to most mobile devices – don’t expect to do any
heavy web browsing.
Though a fantastic phone, when it comes to
overall experience, there are a couple of points I’d like to bring up.
One puzzling design flaw that I feel compelled to discuss pertains to
Amp’d Mobiles insistence that you go through multiple steps to review
your portfolio of purchased content. If you weren’t familiar with the
Amp’d UI, you could easily get lost in the multiple menus – a
cumbersome task indeed. Why not just have a direct menu button under
bookmarks?
Furthermore, Amp’d offers a data consumption
unlimited plan called “Overdose”. Overdose is like a free buffet for
content. Unfortunately, you need to go specifically to the Amp’d
Overdose menu, a separate section of the phone menu, to view the same
content which is payable in Amp’d Live – like taking the back door
through the kitchen when attending a concert at a bar. This means the
one click to Amp’d Live is rendered relatively useless unless you’re
willing to pay twice for the same content in Overdose. If you’re on the
Overdose plan as the two don’t cross check tables to determine what you
are subscribed to. I can only assume newer versions of the Amp’d UI
will address this issue.
Finally, I have an overall industry
gripe – DRM. I’ve really enjoyed purchasing video and music content on
my Amp’d device. However, I can not default the music I’ve purchased as
a ringtone. DRM doesn’t allow me to do so – I need to actually
repurchase the tracks I own under the “ringtone” category on my Amp’d
phone. This is incredibly disappointing.
All-in-all, the
positives far outweigh the negatives for Amp’d Mobile. I’ve been
incredibly satisfied with my purchase, as Amp’d has some nice packages
that comparatively would cost twice the amount they do on Amp’d if
packaged through Verizon. MVNO’s may not have the critical mass of say
a Verizon or Sprint PCS, but the value far outweighs the shortcomings.
Craig Daitch
Comments
Connections
i hope you get over your obsessions.
you are making good progress
Yeah every time I try, you keep popping up on my shoulder!
The service is great.
The company has a great idea.
The utilization of the idea is horrid.
You have no way to know how many minutes you have used in one month, and if you go over your alloted minutes, you have HUGE surcharges.
The plan might be great if it works for you when you try to use it. If it doesn’t, you are pretty much on your own. The customer service will try to help you. But they won’t be very successful.
Hope anyone who tries them has better luck than I did or they’ll just end up waisting $200.
Amp’d has the worst customer service that i have ever had. I ordered for a angel and it was on back order, i can’t get my refund before they send the phone. Plus they now send me a Holloywood before i can even ask for cancelling the service, they promised me 3 times to send me the return labels, but it has been almost 2 months before i can do aanything about it.
I do agree that if you’re not sure if you want to go with Amp’d, do a lot of research and aska lot of questions before you sign up, it’s almost like, once you’re in it, you’re stuck!
I bought an Amp’d Red Razor and planned to Port my Nextel phone number over due to many billing issues and poor coverage. I ordered my phone and got my Amp’d phone in two days. It was kind of a hassle to activate, the customer service hold time is very long. Once activated, I discovered that Amp’d has GREAT cell phone coverage and service, they use the Verizon network/towers so whereever you can use Verizion you can use Amp’d and the plans are much more cost effective than Verizon or any other cell company in my local area, but the customer service is HORRIBLE, but since my phone is now working and my number has ported I dont think I will have to call customer service again for a long time! I can deal with the poor customer service as long as the cellular service is great. Amp’d is a new company and I really don’t think that they thought they would have as many customers as they do and simply are not prepared for so many customers, but just give them time they will work it out!
I have had ampd for 6 months, I dont think it could get any better, I had us cellular which is a dinosaur,, they arent even evdo yet. Ampd has Awesome reception everywhere i go and its actually really cool its not just a boring phone and best of all its cheaper than the rest.
This is definitely the WORST company ever existed. My plan is 5 cents per minute, they are charging me 25 cents due to their so called tech problem. Because they can’t fix this problem, my $100 dollar quickly runs out. I have to call them every week to put more minutes in. The minimum wait time is like an hour, then an additional hour to make them understand what’s going on, since they have no idea what they are doing. That’s about 10 hours of my life every month to deal with their mistake. Furthermore last month they charged $20 more than they should, still no refund.
PICKED UP AN AMPD RAZOR AT CIRCUIT CITY. $199.99 LESS $100.00 INSTANT OFF AND $100.00 MAIL IN REB. SO FAR SO GOOD!(FREE) TOOK A COUPLE OF LONG CALLS TO GET MY NUMBER PORTED, 2 -3 DAYS BACK AND FORTH. NO BIGGIE! LOVE THE SERVICE AND FEATURES, PHONE CAME WITH ALL THE CABLES AND CONNECTORS EVEN A SMALL UPGRADE CHIP. I LIKE THE FEATURES THAT LET YOU MONITOR YOUR BALANCE ON THE “PAY AS YOU GO” ACCOUNT! VERY SATISFIED,GOOD PHONE NO CONTRACT,VERY FLEXIBLE IF YOUR NEEDS CHANGE. 10 OUT OF 10.
I got the Amp’d RAZR a week or so ago. Activating was a cinch. I tried getting my account balance online – NO SUCH thing. I tried calling 611 – Customer Service – on hold forever. I have NEVER been able to speak with someone. No way I am waiting on hold (listening to crappy, over-compressed junk called music) for an hour.
I tried to connect with their online chat. I signed on as number 71 in the queue. 25 minutes later, I am number 67. All so I can know what my minute usage is?
Amp’d is a great mobile service, if you NEVER have to call CUSTOMER SERVICE.
LetsTalk.com is offering the maligned “Jet” phone for $29.99 with any activation service. So, I’m getting Amp’d’s $30/mo Hybrid NO-contract 500min/mo plan. It has all the features (less MTM) without the commitment.
Such a deal, to try out what everyone raves about and rants about.
BTW: is there any kind of public directory for PTT? I want to try it out someday, but have no friends on Amp’d.
Well I can`t really make a fair comment here. I Do Not have Amp`d mobile the reason that I am here is because I looked at the phones and they have too many features that I don`t need and want. I am looking for just a phone THAT`S IT all the phones today have internet,camera`s mp3 players etc. I can`t see spending 200 dollars or more on a phone for features that I will never use. The only thing extra that I like is Blue tooth. They need to have just a plain phone as an option for people who don`t want all the toys. To me a phone is just for talking on that`s it. I already have a digital camera mp3 player etc
This company is HORRIBLE! I would not recommend them to ANYONE! They have horrible customer service, when I had a problem in the very first month there was no one for me to talk to, I was promised time after time that a supervisor would call me back and I never received the call. I was the one always calling them back. I took it upon myself to get as much information about their corporate office and contacting as many people as I could. Finally, after emailing all of them, I got a call from the Senior Director of Member Services, who put me in touch with the C/S manager! He understood my problems, me wanting to leave the company and told me he’d take care of everything, but this didn’t happen. I kept getting bills, although I was no longer with them and now had service with T-Mobile, I was continued to be charged monthly fees. I have been dealing with this since August, it is now mid March and I”m still dealing with this. I can’t get a straight answer from anyone. Whatever you do, DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amp’d the THE WORST COMPANY EVER!!!!!! They waited until we owed three thouand dollars until they contacted us! THey kept sending bills through the e-mail and never contacted us! THIS COMPANY SUCKS!!!! When we asked for the bills from the past months they said they would send it to the e-mail we gave them and four tries later still don’t have it. We called up there and told them that we wanted a paper copy then and they said there was no such thing… what type of company doesn’t have their bills on file! NEVER GO WITH THIS COMPANY!!!
I agree this company SUCKS!!! I got the phone today and within an hour after receipt it was telling me I had used 6 minutes of roaming. I called two local numbers to see if the phone worked. I have literally spent ALL night on the phone trying to get through via chat or phone to talk to someone. No luck. I was number 2 in que and never made it to number 1. I decided to go with another company that is more expensive but at least I can TALK to someone.
just got this today, i cant figure out how to save music to the card and also when i try to send txts it says i am sending it to a landline when i am not. anyone know anything about this?
Im going to make this plain can clear to everyone out there. Amp’d Mobile is what you make of it. I was set up with an unlimited plan. I pay 120.00 a month and I have had the service for about 6. I live in massachusetts and the coverege is simply magnificent. My billing is set up though my email so it’s really easy to pay. yes, it’s true a phone call to customer care will require patience, speaker, phone and a comfortable seat they are excellent when you get through. I find the idea that people’s largest complaint’s are billing related sophmoric. I have no trouble paying my balance when my statement comes in and I recieve a clear and concise detailed bill. There is no cell phone company available today offering this quality coverge with plans this in expensive. People dont be morons. Don’t buy your phones online. Go to your nearest retailer ask questions get the right phone, plan, and know everything you need to know before you leave the store. Noting is perfect. But considering the current deficiencies most carrier’s have i’ll take amp’d ’s small quirks. All i have to say is Grow up, be adults and be accountable!
I have had ampd for a few weeks now. I bought the Hollywood at a retailer (CIRCUIT CITY!!!) and its prepaid. You can check how many minutes have been used by going to your ampd live home (which doesnt cost any money for data transfer) and click on ‘My Account’ then ‘Load up my account’. At this point I think it costs a little data transfer (not much at all) because it has to connect to your account. It then will display your money meter. It’s great really.
The coverage is OUTSTANDING. In example: My friend lives in an area surrounded by mountains in Tucson, AZ. With Sprint PCS I wouldn’t get reception out there. With ampd, the bars hardly drop more than 1 bar on average. It’s awesome. Ampd live is fast and has a lot of things to keep you entertained. Adding minutes is easy as ____ and fast since you just call the number given to you when you purchase recharge cards and type in the recharge code on a phone (landline or cell). I havent dealt with customer service, but you have to remember, ampd contracts their CS out to another company; don’t be suprised if they aren’t 100% sure what is going on. Plus theyre a new company who has been growing faster than they would have ever thought. No wonder there’s long waits at customer service.
I plan on switching to a hybrid plan soon. At that point I will have to deal with CS.
Also to add media to your flash card, just drag and drop your items into the “shared” folder under whatever category it is (music under sounds, videos under video, etc).
Anyway, I have been happy with Ampd. And, if I like them even more after switching to a hybrid plan, I might get a contract with the Motorola Q or whatever sick phone comes out in the near future.
I been thinking on buying a phone from this company, but after reading all this cooments i onlyhavemore doughts about it. So i guess i will have to keep searching until i am cofident in switching to a company that no one knows about
I wouldn’t recomend getting Amp’d Mobile because their customer service is the worst I have ever seen I waited on hold for 85 minutes because after I downloaded music on my phone my amp’d live won’t work unless I have the card out which doesn’t help and after someone finally answered the phone she told me that she couldn’t help me and refused to let me speak to a supervisor, then hung up the phone. I am very frusterated because I have only had this phone for 2 months and 1 1/2 months my amp’d live has not worked nor will anyone help me not even the store I bought it at. This is the worst experience I have had with anybody!!!
Ampd mobile is horrible like most people are saying. to the person who said grow up, that was uncalled for. We want to get what we pay for. To pay extra for nights and weekends is ridiculous but i buck up and pay it..all i ask is for decent customer service. It is really getting out of hand. they tell me one thing and then tell me another. I am trying to start a class action suit against ampd mobile
yes its me again.. contact me @ nyc2kay8@aol.com
Dwayne, I’m with you and all those others who have had CS trouble. I signed up for the 1000 min Hybrid “End of Boredom” plan in February, and I still do not have what I paid for. They have had “technical problems” which causes anyone who signs up for Hybrid to get the crappiest pay-as-you-go plan I have ever heard of. Like SM commented on 2/25/07, almost every time I call in I am on hold forever, then I need to explain the problem until they figure out what to do; I get a different person every time, and each one gives a different answer/solution. It is absolutely ridiculous and unprofessional. They should not continue to promote a plan they cannot provide. Do not support Amp’d Mobile.
AMPD MOBILE IS THE WORST COMPANY EVER!!! BUILT AND RUN BY CORRUPT THIEVES AND LIARS! DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THEM! DO NOT LET THEM STEAL YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY! THEY ARE ALL CROOKS AND THEY KNOW IT. THEY HAVE NO CONSCIENCE, ARE PROUD TO BE CRIMINALS AND ARE LAUGHING IN EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR CUSTOMER’S FACES ON THEIR WAY TO THE BANK. THE COMPANY HAS NO EXCUSE FOR THEIR ABYSSMAL CUSTOMER SERVICE, BOLD FACE LIES, INOPERABLE TECHNOLOGY, DROPPED CALLS, INFERIOR RECEPTION, AND “GHOST” MINUTES WHICH WILL APPEAR OUT OF THIN AIR TO RIP YOU OFF FOR THOUSANDS BEFORE YOU EVEN RECEIVE A BILL. GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR CUSTOMERS WHO HAVE BEEN SCREWED OUT OF THEIR MONEY AND CREDIT RATING. THIS IS NO JOKE, READ ALL THE OTHER POSTS, IT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE “SUFFERING GROWING PAINS.” THEY ARE CORRUPT. THEY NEED TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS. THEY WILL BLEED YOU DRY, KEEP YOU ON HOLD FOR HOURS, HOLD YOUR PHONE NUMBER HOSTAGE, FABRICATE CHARGES, AND MAKE NO APOPLOGIES FOR THEIR CRIMINAL CONDUCT. THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE UNTOUCHABLE AND ABOVE THE LAW. WHY DO YOU THINK THEIR CORPORATE OFFICE ADDRESS IS SO HARD TO OBTAIN? THEY DON’T WANT TO BE FOUND! I WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO ORGANIZE A NATIONWIDE PICKET AT RETAIL LOCATIONS AND OUTSIDE THEIR “LOS ANGELES” OFFICES TO BOYCOTT THEIR PRODUCT AND FORCE THEM TO CEASE AND DESIST ALL BUSINESS OPERATIONS. LITIGATION WILL NOT STOP THESE CROOKS BUT PUBLIC OPINION HAS THE POWER TO SHUT THEM DOWN AND BLEED THEM DRY JUST LIKE THEY HAVE DONE TO THEIR CUSTOMERS…
AMPD MOBILE IS A TERRIBLE COMPANY AND SHOULD NOT BE IN BUSINESS. YOU DO NOT GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I AM FILING A CLASS ACTION LAWSUITE. AMPD MOBILE WAS FINED BY THE FAA FOR SELLING CUSTOMERS PERSON INFORMATION
This company is a total joke. If anyone is serious about filing a class action lawsuit, post the information and I’m sure they’ll be hundreds that sign up.
Their customer service is non existent. They are running without any direction. They have horrible policies. Their billign department is screwed up beyond imagination.
They don’t understand business. Class-less loser company.
DO NOT SIGN UP FOR AMP’d. WORST DECISION OUR FAMILY HAS EVER MADE!
i want in on this class action lawsuit.
i want in on this class action lawsuit.
i had an amp’d phone and customer service department was awful to deal with, i have no idea how they call themselfs customer service, amp’d took money out of my checking account unautherized, and then tried to say i owed them double the amount, like 1410.00 my bank has even going involved in writing the owner and sending my bank statement to show they got payed, and ofcourse got no response from him either.
brittany
please magically turn on phone for use number 714-656-8711 FCC ID=OUFKWC-KX18 THANKS
If you bought an AMP’d phone from Circuit City and their ad promised a $100.00 rebate…Circuit City was aware that Amp’d was not paying the rebates…forget getting money from Amp’d, lets go for Circuit City! Class action, they aided and continued the relationship with AMP’d until the end! Email me with ideas before I contact a consumer law firm.
I had Amp’d Mobile service in ‘2007 and just like everyone else, it was a bad experience when it came to customer service. I really enjoyed the service but the rate plan was too expensive for me and so I cancelled service when they told me I owed them two thousand dollars for two months of service. Four years later I find out they reported me to the credit bureau for owing them four thousand dollars, and of course now T-Mobile owns them and it looks like I ow them ( a major carrier) that much money. I decided maybe I should fight the charges so if there is a class action law suit going on I want part of it.