Used to support Sprint.... no more.

[Dulanic]

So I have had Sprint for... oh 7 years. Never really had major problems besides slow slow 3G speeds the past year after they released the iPhone.

In November, I spent $550 off contract on 2 Galaxy Nexus LTE phones since LTE launched in my area. Things were great, 10Mbps download/upload speeds and unlimited data. No complaints right? So fast forward to the first week of December. All of a sudden all voice calls sound like this. As you can see it breaks up so much I don't even need to remove my phone number from the recording because they did it for me. My signal would go from 0 to full to 0 to full many times a minute preventing the phone from even getting a 3G connection. And LTE? Forget about it, gone completely. Flash a Verizon PRL and everything works fine. Same problems with my wifes phones. Obviously tower issues.

I have been calling sprint over a dozen times in a month and FINALLY they fixed the issue on Friday the 18th. Everything is back.... that is until Saturday the 19th and BOOM the tower is down again. All tickets are "closed" now as repaired and they won't do shit about a eta, just well fix it eventually. $*&& you Sprint. Verizon here I come after my $480 in ETF fees if my corporate email bomb along with BBB & FCC complaints don't get me out of them.... they should let me out IMO, a month and a week of no service is unacceptable. Why pay for service I don't get?

I am not one to normally bitch about companies on a forum... but I have never been so irritated and pissed off at a company before. They make 100 promises (calls back, airwaves etc...) but then never follow through.

Be warned, Sprint is not worth the risk. You may save a little money, but eventually you will get burned.

 

[slugg]

You have every right to complain. Paying for a service you're not receiving is ludicrous. You should be able to call Sprint and tell them to prorate your bill - to give you credit based on the loss of service. Back when I had AT&T, I did this repeatedly until they finally fixed it.

When I had Sprint (2001-2006), they got really crappy toward the end there. I had a Palm Treo phone (forgot exact model) that would constantly have problems. I made warranty claims once, sometimes twice a week. I made them credit me for downtime. I became such a neusance and cost them so much money that they finally let me end the contract without penalty.

 

[Dulanic]

I'm working on become a PITA to them I call allll the time bitching and complaining. Then I did a exec email bomb + BBB complaint + FTC complaint. So far I've gotten $100 credit, but still I pay $180. Also, I've loaded up 00001 PRL to roam on Verizon 100% of the time until they fix this. I have done ~10GB of roaming and all calls are roaming... they shouldn't like that.

 

[you2]

I used sprint for 11 years (2000-2011) but only had a phone (voice service). And to be honest I had no complaints. I switch to verizon when I went to a smartphone. I'm mixed about verizon. They like to lock the boot loaders; then muck up the stock roms; then snail pace the updates. To be honest I would switch to at&t if they offered hotspot with 3gig service (you get free hotspot with verizon due to fcc deal). Also a lot of folks (Including me) get periodic drops in 4g service and verizon 3g service is very slow. Anyways I'll stick with verizon until at&t change their hotspot policy but I think I'll switch if they do so. It's not that at&t does faster updates; but at least they don't lock the bootloaders so you can update if they don't.

 

[Conscript]

Have had Verizon, AT&T, and now T-mobile at the Sam location the last 4 years...travel for work quite a bit, and honestly, barring any f'ups with the metro pcs merger, or some fundamental change to pricing, I'll be staying with tmo

 

[Dulanic]

I used sprint for 11 years (2000-2011) but only had a phone (voice service). And to be honest I had no complaints. I switch to verizon when I went to a smartphone. I'm mixed about verizon. They like to lock the boot loaders; then muck up the stock roms; then snail pace the updates. To be honest I would switch to at&t if they offered hotspot with 3gig service (you get free hotspot with verizon due to fcc deal). Also a lot of folks (Including me) get periodic drops in 4g service and verizon 3g service is very slow. Anyways I'll stick with verizon until at&t change their hotspot policy but I think I'll switch if they do so. It's not that at&t does faster updates; but at least they don't lock the bootloaders so you can update if they don't.

True, but I'm going to go with the Note II and I am OK with the newer touchwiz since that works best with the S Pen. I've been messing with phones for the longest time and I am OK to just enjoy a phone full of tons of features without changing everything. Also, AT&T is much more expensive for the family plan I wanted to do. The hotspot part is a big deal for me also for Verizon. One of my lines is for my mother in law who doesn't have internet anymore but has a laptop and uses minimal data. So the free hotspot is a big plus there and then she just pays for her line + a little for data.

Have had Verizon, AT&T, and now T-mobile at the Sam location the last 4 years...travel for work quite a bit, and honestly, barring any f'ups with the metro pcs merger, or some fundamental change to pricing, I'll be staying with tmo

Tmo has poor coverage at my home, I used to have them.

 

[Oyeve]

I gave up on sprint years ago when I couldn't even make a phone call in my apt. They promised all sorts of crap like unlimited minutes and what not. I told what's the use of unlimited minutes if I can't make a call. Switched to tmobile tens years ago and never looked back.

 

[RossMAN]

This guy would agree with you

 

[Corif]

You should be happy that you get 4G LTE at all. My state doesnt have a single tower that has it!
Seriously, if you want to know what coverage you get in your area for sprint check there map.

http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?

On top of that my 3G is slow as hell. When my contract ends I'm telling Sprint to eff of cause I'm not coming back.

 

[Genx87]

I have used nearly every provider in the minneapolis market(Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and currently verizon). It blows my mind that in 2013 we still have such a shitty cell network that getting dropped calls and poor data speeds happen on a regular basis. This last one with Verizon is laughble, even by my sub acceptable experiences with mobile providers.

I need to use my phone in several locations(work, home, dads house, cabin). Not a single one of those locations gives me a good enough signal to reliably make a phone call. I live in a major metropolitan area and the nations biggest network cant even let me make a phone call in 4 of the most important locations in my life.

But the others arent much better when I used them. AT&T was terrible just terrible for dropped calls. Sprint would have low coverage and crappy data service. T-mobile was ok when you were within their coverage.

So it is a warning that moving to another crappy provider may not solve all of your woes.

 

[Krazy4Real]

I switched from Sprint to Verizon last year and it was the best move I ever made. After dealing with tons of dropped calls and slow data, I haven't had any issues with Verizon. I pay a little more but it is well worth it.

 

[Dulanic]

I have used nearly every provider in the minneapolis market(Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and currently verizon). It blows my mind that in 2013 we still have such a shitty cell network that getting dropped calls and poor data speeds happen on a regular basis. This last one with Verizon is laughble, even by my sub acceptable experiences with mobile providers.

I need to use my phone in several locations(work, home, dads house, cabin). Not a single one of those locations gives me a good enough signal to reliably make a phone call. I live in a major metropolitan area and the nations biggest network cant even let me make a phone call in 4 of the most important locations in my life.

But the others arent much better when I used them. AT&T was terrible just terrible for dropped calls. Sprint would have low coverage and crappy data service. T-mobile was ok when you were within their coverage.

So it is a warning that moving to another crappy provider may not solve all of your woes.

All providers in my area give me good coverage except Tmo. This isn't a bad signal issue, this is a defective tower issue. Sprint admits the tower is malfunctioning and have admitted such for about a month.

 

[s44]

People are switching *to* Verizon?

I've been planning to jump ship at the end of the year when my contract is out. Keep hoping either Sprint or T-Mo gets its act together by then so I can stay on true unlimited with real data speed and coverage, maybe for a bit less (paying $80/m now since I only use GV texting) given Verizon's superior footprint. I can't upgrade on Verizon, but the odds of having to bite the bullet and get something like a secondhand S4 seem to be higher than I'd thought.

I guess it depends on how good the next year-end Nexus is.

 

[Bateluer]

People are switching *to* Verizon?

As much as it may shock some, Verizon's nearly 500 LTE markets make it very attractive.

 

[AkumaX]

People are switching *to* Verizon?

I've been planning to jump ship at the end of the year when my contract is out. Keep hoping either Sprint or T-Mo gets its act together by then so I can stay on true unlimited with real data speed and coverage, maybe for a bit less (paying $80/m now since I only use GV texting) given Verizon's superior footprint. I can't upgrade on Verizon, but the odds of having to bite the bullet and get something like a secondhand S4 seem to be higher than I'd thought.

I guess it depends on how good the next year-end Nexus is.

Sounds like you still have unlimited data w/ VZW. Don't give it up! I even convinced my coworker to get a Note 2 out of contract, just so *she* can see what a freakin' difference LTE makes

*side story - She was on an iPhone 4 (so just plain CDMA). She got a Note 2 for Sprint, and considered sticking with them since she doesn't use a lot of data. I told her once she's on LTE, her data footprint should be 5-10x higher than 3G CDMA "3mbps" :whiste: . Also, Sprint here doesn't have LTE till end of this year 2013. She tried out a Note 2 w/ working LTE on VZW... returned the Sprint Note 2

 

[wirednuts]

i like tmobiles data... i just make calls over that with skype. been working a treat....

 

[Fingolfin269]

Just go prepaid. I've finally seen the light and am just waiting for our current contracts to expire.

Here's an example as to why, granted this is kind of like signing a 6 month contract but the price is ridiculous:

http://slickdeals.net/f/5810106-Straight-Talk-6-Month-Unlimited-refill-card-for-219-99-Amazon

 

[ponyo]

Just go prepaid. I've finally seen the light and am just waiting for our current contracts to expire.

Here's an example as to why, granted this is kind of like signing a 6 month contract but the price is ridiculous:

http://slickdeals.net/f/5810106-Straight-Talk-6-Month-Unlimited-refill-card-for-219-99-Amazon

That's pretty good price for 6 month card. But I rather pay little more to do month to month. The biggest advantage of the prepaid is that you can do month to month and leave at anytime or not renew for a month or two. Six months is long time to be locked in. The last couple of months I've refilled from crazygametime. I paid $38 last month and $39.99 for this month. My wife didn't need cell service last month so I didn't refill her card. She wanted the service for this month so I refilled after letting her service expire last month and she got back her old number and service.

 

[Fardringle]

People are switching *to* Verizon?

Verizon does cost a little more than other carriers, but in many areas they are the only carrier that has a signal at all. Saving money on a "discount" carrier doesn't accomplish much if you can't even use the service.

If you never travel anywhere outside a major city, then there are some attractive options for better prices, but that doesn't work for those of us that need to be able to make calls more than a few miles away from home.

 

[Dulanic]

Just go prepaid. I've finally seen the light and am just waiting for our current contracts to expire.

Here's an example as to why, granted this is kind of like signing a 6 month contract but the price is ridiculous:

http://slickdeals.net/f/5810106-Straight-Talk-6-Month-Unlimited-refill-card-for-219-99-Amazon

Yeah... the main reason I haven't done prepaid is I figure it would cost me $135 ($45 per month for ST normally) vs $185 so that is a $50 savings per month. That would save me $1000 over the 20 month upgrade cycle. I get 3 phones upgraded every 20 months if I bought 3 of the phones off contract it would cost me $500-600 instead of $99-$199 as I always get latest tech phones.

Even if I play it conservative let's say they subsidize $300 per line, I would only be about breaking even. I also get free activations /w Verizon /w my corp discount. and I have heard horror stories /w ST /w data and losing numbers if you get the boot etc... I know T-Mobile sim is less likely to get the boot, but TMo sucks here so I would need the AT&T sim.

I've calculated all the pricing etc... and it just feels like Verizon is the easiest since one of the lines is used by a older lady who when she needs support could really use a local support store l a Verizon retail store. If it was just me... I would go prepaid right now... but alas.... family grrrrrr.

Either way... I FINALLY got a call back from a sprint tech this afternoon letting me know they are working on the tower and have a ETA of tomorrow by 3PM... We shall see. I don't want to stay with Sprint longer but if it saves me $500 in ETF I will IF they fix this tower by tomorrow.

 

[wirednuts]

That's pretty good price for 6 month card. But I rather pay little more to do month to month. The biggest advantage of the prepaid is that you can do month to month and leave at anytime or not renew for a month or two. Six months is long time to be locked in. The last couple of months I've refilled from crazygametime. I paid $38 last month and $39.99 for this month. My wife didn't need cell service last month so I didn't refill her card. She wanted the service for this month so I refilled after letting her service expire last month and she got back her old number and service.

at that price though, you wont find anything cheaper in 6 months time.

what sucks is after 6 months is up, you might not find a refill card that cheap again and youll be looking for a new plan... but whatever. thats the beauty of no contracts, you get to shop around.

edit- its also not 4g.. where tmo's 4g monthly plan would give you much better speeds but only 100 talk minutes.

 

[Skott]

You want to really become a real PIA to them? Start calling the local news stations and newspapers (investigative reporters) about their service and how you are getting horrible service and having to pay for it. Tell them you are getting ripped off. The individuals they ignore. Bad publicity in the news media they absolutley cannot stand. Worse case? You waste some of your time. Best case? They get so many people and media breathing down their necks and decide to act to correct the problem.

 

[boomhower]

I have done ~10GB of roaming and all calls are roaming... they shouldn't like that.

That got me out of my contract. I had similar issues but with 3G. Excessive roaming will get you the boot ETF free. If memory serves it took around three months though. But the amount you can roam with LTE is certainly more.

 

[Anonemous]

That got me out of my contract. I had similar issues but with 3G. Excessive roaming will get you the boot ETF free. If memory serves it took around three months though. But the amount you can roam with LTE is certainly more.

wha? LTE roaming? I don't think you can roam from Sprint to Verizon on LTE.

 

[lothar]

So I have had Sprint for... oh 7 years. Never really had major problems besides slow slow 3G speeds the past year after they released the iPhone.

In November, I spent $550 off contract on 2 Galaxy Nexus LTE phones since LTE launched in my area. Things were great, 10Mbps download/upload speeds and unlimited data. No complaints right? So fast forward to the first week of December. All of a sudden all voice calls sound like this. As you can see it breaks up so much I don't even need to remove my phone number from the recording because they did it for me. My signal would go from 0 to full to 0 to full many times a minute preventing the phone from even getting a 3G connection. And LTE? Forget about it, gone completely. Flash a Verizon PRL and everything works fine. Same problems with my wifes phones. Obviously tower issues.

I have been calling sprint over a dozen times in a month and FINALLY they fixed the issue on Friday the 18th. Everything is back.... that is until Saturday the 19th and BOOM the tower is down again. All tickets are "closed" now as repaired and they won't do shit about a eta, just well fix it eventually. $*&& you Sprint. Verizon here I come after my $480 in ETF fees if my corporate email bomb along with BBB & FCC complaints don't get me out of them.... they should let me out IMO, a month and a week of no service is unacceptable. Why pay for service I don't get?

I am not one to normally bitch about companies on a forum... but I have never been so irritated and pissed off at a company before. They make 100 promises (calls back, airwaves etc...) but then never follow through.

Be warned, Sprint is not worth the risk. You may save a little money, but eventually you will get burned.

Just make sure you're prepared to take it up the arse.
Shared data plans are a complete ripoff.