Sprint Exodus

[Mide]

So I remember a while back there was a mass exodus away from Sprint. Anyone remember why that was?

I ask because I am with ATT now and am about finished with my 2 years. I can either upgrade to a new iPhone or whatnot or try my luck with Verizon or Sprint. Sprint and their 69.99 unlimited plan is the cheapest vs that of ATT or Verizon.

Any advice? ATT's service in my area (Around Reno,NV) is OK. Here and there dropped calls but nothing too bad.

 

[TheWart]

I don't know if these were 'the' reasons, but my family left sprint many moons ago because of their very poor coverage and horrible customer service.

Thankfully, it seems that Sprint has more or less addressed both of those issues, so I don't think you would be unhappy going to sprint (assuming they had the phone you wanted).

 

[pm]

That would match why my wife and I left: horrible customer service, never very good signal reception, and not very many choices of phones, but really cheap plans.

Sprint: "Hi, I'm virtual assistant Sally, how may I direct your call?"
Me: "customer service"
Sprint: "Check your minutes? Sure, we can help you with that."
Me: "no, customer service"
Sprint: "Monthly usage? Sure, we can help you with that."
and so on. Virtual assistant Sally could barely understand me, but Sally never understood a thing my wife's half-British/half-Polish accent said. Finally my wife said, "change our service"... and I was so tempted to say "check your minutes? sure, I can help you with that".

Virtual assistant Sally, coupled with not very good reception and a generally poor choice of phones had us move over to T-Mobile, where we had a much better choice of phones, a real human being to talk to, but still not very good reception. Then the lure of the iPhone 3GS led me to AT&T where I get a real human being to talk to, a good selection of phones, and 5 bars of service that result in endless dropped calls - in recent weeks, I get dropped pretty much any call that lasts over 2 minutes. I still miss T-Mobile. At least when I had bars, I knew I could make a call.

You know, when I saw the title of the thread, I was thinking that the Sprint Exodus was new name of a cell phone model which was incredibly poorly vetted.

 

[Mide]

I absolutely detest automated systems. I wonder if anyone has actually found them useful? Everyone I know will press 0 or say "representative" or "agent" a bunch of times until they get a real person.

 

[zerocool84]

I don't know if these were 'the' reasons, but my family left sprint many moons ago because of their very poor coverage and horrible customer service.

Thankfully, it seems that Sprint has more or less addressed both of those issues, so I don't think you would be unhappy going to sprint (assuming they had the phone you wanted).

That's the only reason why I'm with Sprint now. They've improved leaps and bounds over their customer service which seemed like was many customer's complaints. Their coverage is second only to Verizon so that's good.

 

[foghorn67]

Sprint seems to be re-inventing themselves. It's their only choice. After horrible customer service, the worst retention department of all time, buying out Nextel without figuring out how to integrate the iDEN network.
I know coverage was the least of their concerns. Why? Look how many people put up with T-Mobile when they are in a so-so coverage area. I always hear, "Coverage is meh, but the plans are cheap, and they have great CR."

Word of mouth gets around, so Sprint couldn't really gain customers when cell phones were gaining usage in general. That was their first issue. Before the long and mass exodus.

Brief story. Around 2000-2001, my buddy had a Sprint phone and plan. His contract is up, he asked for a promotion price on a new phone. The same new customers get. Flat out no. No budging. Excellent payment history, credit, etc.
This was their long standing policy for the longest time. Not great at anything except to drive customers away.

 

[boomhower]

Obviously coverage is going to depend on the area but in general they are second best to Verizon. They are have better coverage in particular in relation to data versus AT&T and T-Mobile. Customer Service is much improved over years past but still isn't going to win any awards. I have been with them for around four years now and am still very happy with the decision.

 

[Cstefan]

What I hate about my service is the mandatory 130 per month charge my wife and I pay because we have a smartphone. And if I want an EVO(at least im in a 4g market), we will get socked for another 10. Meh. Just meh.

Qualitywise, I tried ATT and it was WORTHLESS. Iphone works nowhere here.

 

[corkyg]

I have stayed with Sprint for almost 10 years. I don't have issues with Customer Service - never use it. We have two phones and my laptop connection card. That is my principal use. Sprint's Connection Manager software is currently excellent. In most areas I travel to, coverage is good. I tried an AT&T air card (USB Quicksilver) and the coverage sucked as did the software.)

 

[AstroManLuca]

What I hate about my service is the mandatory 130 per month charge my wife and I pay because we have a smartphone. And if I want an EVO(at least im in a 4g market), we will get socked for another 10. Meh. Just meh.

Qualitywise, I tried ATT and it was WORTHLESS. Iphone works nowhere here.

There's no carrier that doesn't have that.

Sprint has a somewhat different setup in that you can either get a standard family plan (just talk) or one with data on all lines, vs. Verizon which charges per line for data. That means you pay for data on all lines with Sprint even if not everyone needs or uses it. However, they're so much cheaper than Verizon that it's only a disadvantage if you want just one smartphone and four dumbphones.

 

[Mide]

But isn't that just the rules of the game to pay close to 70 per phone if you want unlimited data?

 

[hanoverphist]

I absolutely detest automated systems. I wonder if anyone has actually found them useful? Everyone I know will press 0 or say "representative" or "agent" a bunch of times until they get a real person.

i start out nice saying representative, but one company i have to use for a utility keeps telling me they cant transfer me until they get some basic details. then the auto system doesnt understand what im telling it, regardless of the fact that i have no accent at all. i end up telling it to get me a fucking agent on the goddamn phone until it complies. i think the AI has a routine to recognize anger patterns. i also tell it i hope it is recording my conversation so a real person will call me to complain about my language, just so i can talk to a real person instead of the stupidly programmed AI piece of shit they are currently using to interface with their customers.

 

[MJinZ]

What I hate about my service is the mandatory 130 per month charge my wife and I pay because we have a smartphone. And if I want an EVO(at least im in a 4g market), we will get socked for another 10. Meh. Just meh.

Qualitywise, I tried ATT and it was WORTHLESS. Iphone works nowhere here.

Heheh, $30/month on Sprint with unlimited data, GPS etc... on a smartphone (HTC Snap, Winmo 6.1).

It's my backup line to my VZW Droid.

 

[zerocool84]

What I hate about my service is the mandatory 130 per month charge my wife and I pay because we have a smartphone. And if I want an EVO(at least im in a 4g market), we will get socked for another 10. Meh. Just meh.

Qualitywise, I tried ATT and it was WORTHLESS. Iphone works nowhere here.

Oh no!!! You have to pay smartphone prices for smartphones??? The nerve of them!!!

 

[randomlinh]

There's no carrier that doesn't have that.

Sprint has a somewhat different setup in that you can either get a standard family plan (just talk) or one with data on all lines, vs. Verizon which charges per line for data. That means you pay for data on all lines with Sprint even if not everyone needs or uses it. However, they're so much cheaper than Verizon that it's only a disadvantage if you want just one smartphone and four dumbphones.

this.

I will agree w/ the EVO. Their "it's an awesome phone, so you'll use more data!" line is total BS. They need a way to subsidize 4G and can't call it a 4G tax because it isn't rolled out everywhere. At the same time, I see why they did it, and can't really blame them. But I can not like it. Lucky for me, I don't like the form factor of the EVO, heh.

 

[JS80]

Oh no!!! You have to pay smartphone prices for smartphones??? The nerve of them!!!

Not only that, still 30% cheaper than vz or att