Poll: What's wrong with Sprint?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jan 18th 2008 12:12PM
posted Jan 18th 2008 12:12PM
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The network is great, the SERO plan is the best in the industry. If you're using a PDA device like the mogul, it's a great product with a fantastic service. Unfortunately, if something breaks they have NO clue on why it breaks. You get what you pay for. CS is the worst in the business! Better to go forum hunting for problems and fix it yourself then waste an entire weekend talking to the CS weenies that offer not much more than a voice at the other end. I'll stick with them because I'm a cheap SOB and when it works, it is the best!
Sprint has made a lot of mistakes in the last few years. The Nextel buyout has been, inside the company, a mistake. Before Sprint bought Nextel they rented a billing system called " prescent 2000 or 'p2k', Nextel owned a billing system called ensemble. Naturally, you would rather use the billing system that you own, so the conversion began from p2k to ensemble; big mistake. The company should have remained with p2k and converted all the accounts from nextel into the p2k billing system, sold ensemble and bought the rights to p2k. p2k is a difficult billings system to understand but once understood, amazing things can be done with it. Why I say this is because this is the root of all your customer service problems. P2k, credit can easily be given to customers, historical plans can be kept and do not need to be changed, many of the things that long time customers want, don't have to be changed, also without a flexible billing system, customer service need to go through multiple levels to a representative that has the authorization to make changes. As far as the headsets go, they are horrible, sprint is being lead by motorola and sanyo, 2 dying companies, while other providers have contracts with manufacturers whose prowless is only getting stronger, and as far as coverage goes, all the new plans include roaming to verizon's network (for free), so for the customers who which because of voice service, it just doesn't make sense. Right now the GSM vs CDMA is not that big of a deal. New phone cause be set up for "handfree activation" where all as soon as they phone is turned on, the phone is activated, which is about as idiot proof as you can make it ( no sim errors). Handsfree activation is something that can be expected in the near future.
Point blank - right now the phones suck and this new billing system sucks because half the accounts are in p2k and the other half are in ensemble. For the customers who have are on the wall on whether to change characters but are hesistant to, give sprint the benefit of the doubt, if you have a question, go to a sprint store and look for the " lead associate" because hes the one that knows whats going on and how to fix it. If you do have to talk to sprint, just ask to speak to the retention department, they will make you sign an agreement but you if you tell them you are unhappy and thinking of changing, they will take care of you. I have been working for sprint for a year or so now and have been avid to learn about the business and what they are doing, ive been with att and verizon and no service is perfect
I am surprised to hear all this bad news about sprint. Have only been a sprint user for a little over a year now and have not had a single problem with them.
Initially, I accidentally ordered the wrong phones for both my SERO lines -- called them up, spoke to a sweet lady from the Midwest somewhere, and within 2 days I had return labels sitting on my porch, and within 7 I had the correct phones in my hand powered up.
Just two months ago, I went over my allowed minutes by about 20 minutes due to me having to call OTHER support companies and wait on hold -- I called sprint CS, within 10 minutes they gave me 100 minutes credit for the month.
A month ago, my flight was canceled and I was stuck at an airport for about 6 hours. I called up support and they were ready to hook me up with sprint wifi service for the duration of the delay.
I don't know what people expect from customer service, but they have been nothing but great to me. Maybe their technical support sucks, but seriously, just google/yahoo/whatever your tech support questions and get the answer from one of the many great sprint forums out there. When it comes to service CS, I give them nothing but flying colors.
With regard to service issues, I make commutes from NYC to DC stopping in NJ and PA and MD regularly. No issues with signal anywhere on the commute (except when I'm in a tunnel, maybe). With a phone as modem plan, I can also use the internet on the 2-3 hour train rides and get some serious work done.
I've had a lot of experience with many providers in the midwest region of the U.S. Had Sprint for about a year now and they have the best coverage in the area (I travel to Rockford/Chicago area a lot). Never any dropped calls. Most of my friends have Sprint as well so I use mostly m2m minutes. My step dad had verizon before he got sprint and he would drop calls driving down the highway even if he had full signal.
My mom had a huge problem with customer support with Sprint porting her number over from a Verizon landline. This took about 5 or 6 calls to CS to get the issue resolved. So yes, agreeing with most previous comments, Sprint CS sucks. You can't beat the coverage though. I get a corporate discount; 22% off monthly bill, that definitely helps.
If Sprint and Nextel don't outsource their CS, and do everything correctly with rolling out XOHM, they could turn that company around now that they have a new CEO behind them. I'd like to see this company grow as they have potential. There are just a lot of issues they have to take care of first.
The fact that a new customer ( a ship jumper from another carrier) can always purchase a new phone cheaper than a "loyal" customer just encourages you to jump ship whenever you break your phone or other cool features come out and you just want to upgrade.
Sprint BY FAR has the best phones and the best PRICING. There truly great plans are not as well know (SERO) but even there regular plans rock compared to other providers.
Signal: This ones tough. Its hard for me to declare anything on my experience alone. I have NEVER had signal issues with sprint. By definition it must be equal to verizon IE they use the same towers and you can roam either from either. I travel ALL OVER the country and where I go is REMOTE locations (Rocketry) and I NEVER have a problem getting a signal. Literally never. NOW I do tend to stick with sanyo phones (on sprint sanyo is better in thus regard)
Sprint also does not LOCK DOWN the phones as badly as Verizon does. I can download any ringer image or application I want or upload it myself at no charge beyond the all you can eat data plans.
Customer service. Here sprints pretty bad from what I hear> I do not know this from experience I have always found them to be fast and effective. Short hold times (except one time but that was during the holidays) responsive even if clueless reps sometimes but always working to fix the issue. I may be an exception though since I am a rather strong persona do not take crap and hardly EVER need to call support. I think in my 10+ years with sprint I called support less than 10 times :-) Its usually just to fix a problem they goofed on and they have always fixed it and promptly.
I wish they had not locked out tethering with the pam accounts. While I can understand the PAM accounts when your just using a PDA to utilize that connection it makes no sense to pay that much money a month for it.
I think if they made the SERO accounts open and FULLY advertised replace all there other plans with these plans and make the unl txting CHEAP say an extra $5 a month and thats it.
They would KILL the competition. Some more diversity in phones would be nice. The Sanyo 8400 was amazing but they killed it since it was "too good" at its price point and raped higher end phone sales since it was superior to the higher end phones. They have done this a couple times in the past and its a bad move.
I've had them all: Cellular One, Sprint, Cingular, Verizon and now back to Cingular/AT&T. (Not T-Mobile though, save for one day only to realize I have no coverage at home).
People knock AT&T - but in my experience they by far have the best customer service, best technology (GSM/W-CDMA), best data plans for the price, and one of the best coverages. W.r.t. customer service. They gave me the unlock codes for our handsets (me+wife) the day after I signed up. They were able to port my old Verizon number one month later, after I had decided that I really did want to switch (Verizon would only let me do it during sign-up, not later). Their hold times (when calling) are distinctly shorter than others - nearly the shortest of any company I deal with. Plus, despite Verizon's PR, AT&T and T-Mobile are still the most "open" networks, in that you can use any unlocked GSM phone on their network. (Verizon will still require formal testing/qualifications before allowing third-party CDMA phones to be used..)
Verizon have good - maybe the best - coverage (at one point I left Cingular for them for this reason, but now AT&T has improved their coverage near my home). My issue with them is customer service arrogance and unhelpfulness. After having been on my contract with them for nearly 3 years (once renewed), I discovered a billing problem. Basically, my plan was $10 less per month than advertised, but I got zero minutes for free - every call I made was charged as overage. Partly my fault for not discovering this earlier (read your bill!) - but Verizon customer service would only correct this for the past 3 months - rather than the full 3 years. These 3 months added up to something like $100 refund - so I gather they owed me closer to $1200. I called again in an attempt to speak with someone more helpful - but his person's only response was to ask me to stop calling - they had already "corrected" the mistake. Also, Verizon's phones are too crippled (why disable bluetooth!?), and so are their data plans.
Sprint were IMO generally decent. They actually had the strongest signal where I live. (This is before the Nextel merger). A coworker who uses Sprint does claim higher download speeds than AT&T; I don't doubt it. (AT&T's speeds vary highly by area - I get about 500 kbps over HSDPA at work, while 3 Mpbs (3000 kbps) on my way home). And I do like what they are doing with WiMax/Xohm, if they ever get it off the ground. Their main issue is the price. Even with the employee discounts I would get through my employer, they end up being more expensive than AT&T or Verizon. Plus, like Verizon, the fact that they use CDMA (with only a couple of hybrid CDMA/GSM handsets available) make them considerably less attractive for me.
Sorry for the dupe, I got "connection was reset" the first time.
I picked coverage, even though there's nothing really wrong with Sprint.
1. It has a lot of the nice CDMA phones. They've been slacking in the last 6 months, but this year is supposed to be pretty good. Anyway, they have handsets on par and better than the competition, so you can't just pick a handset and go "Well Sprint doesn't have THIS!" (like the iPhone)
2. I'm seriously shocked at how bad the CS rep is made out to be. I've called in and written in multiple times and have ALWAYS got decently quick resolution and courteousness, I don't know why they get such a bad rap.
3. My signal is usually OK. I've only had problems when road tripping and getting off the highway in the middle of nowhere. Incidentally, I'm aware that none of the other providers, including AT&T and Verizon, are flawless. I'm OK with Sprint's coverage when considering the alternatives.
4. Following on from the coverage point, I get EV-DO service almost everywhere. Definitely a lot better than AT&T's UMTS/HSDPA mishmash.
5. Plan pricing. This is a big one. Sprint, Verizon and AT&T all have the same minute plans, giving people no reason to choose Sprint. 450 minutes for $40. Sprint's other stuff, including text and data is cheaper, but most people don't want to pay for that. I'm happy here because I'm on SERO. I wouldn't be with Sprint if I wasn't.
Unfortunately, my last comment is pretty much it. There is no reason to choose Sprint in most people's minds. Verizon has "The Network" and AT&T has a big network and nice phones, while Sprint doesn't have either in most people's minds. T-Mobile has some cool devices like the Sidekick. I would be on AT&T or T-Mobile if I wasn't on SERO. No Verizon, thanks.
I love my plan with Sprint, but its the handset selection that is killing me. I selected nothing is wrong but I didn't see the handset option until it was too late. Verizon has a lot better phones than Sprint and now that they have caught up to Sprint with the 755p, they hold a large amount of the market.
Seriously WTF was Sprint thinking making the UpStage? Its the worst piece of crap I've ever seen.
Sprint unfortunately has zero slider phones not named the Rumor (which slides out the wrong way anyways).
Still can't beat the SERO plan though
No matter your opinion of Sprint/Nextel... you don't want to wish their demise.
Their pricing programs - Simply Everything - are driving the developing price wars, and to all of our ultimate benefit. (Competition is good!) The more providers, the better. The wireless cartel is finally starting to crack under the pressure of a built-out customer base among all of the providers. (Service wise they all suck!) I despise ATT for their monopolistic land-line days, and their "Slamming" practices after the deregulation. In principle, I would never do business with ATT (IPhone or no) Their long history of gouging consumers is "Oil company" historic.
Nextel has worked for my business, for many years. We know that the government will be buying the ISDN network, shortly. They want a dedicated emergency network after the recent weather disasters that they learned from. Sprint will sell off Nextel, and with the cash and increased stock values from that move, will continue to be competitive... exactly what we all should want, no matter your provider.
As for CS, when I recently switched to their new unlimited plan, I was shocked to have the call answered immediately, and expressed it to, what turned out to be the first quality and efficient CS experiences ever had with Sprint! He said that they are adding many more reps, and making a concerted effort in all areas. It showed! Perhaps, theres hope?
how about:
"bought nextel and turned that into shit"?
I AGREE WITH YOU.
When sprint bought Nextel, I knew Nextel would be doomed. Nextel handsets were never cutting edge technology but they had character and appeal of their own that made them hot on city streets. Now that Sprint's got them, no new phones have been released carrying on the NExtel tradition. The IC phones are crap and the I870 and I880 are lightyears behind everything else. The I930 was an outdated piece of crap that claimed to be a Smartphone, yet lacked Bluetooth.
Sprint has a bad name in my community BTW. They are notorious for charging crazy fees and sending screwed up phone bills with mistakes all over them. Messing up people's credit when they refuse to pay the ridiculous fees.
The handset selection is crappy to say the least. I hoped Nextel would keep making new models but now, Sprint/Nextel has been well outshined by T-MOBILE's Sidekick and completely eclipsed by apple's Iphone.
I'd hoped Boost Mobile would get new devices but alas, Sprint F*cked that up too.
Handset selection is EVERYTHING nowadays.
If not for iPhone, At&T would not have had as many subscribers as they gained when they exclusively released it. Had Sprint gotten a CDMA iPhone, or exclusivity to it, their user number would have exploded.
Verizon has better handsets than Sprint which have better testing/quality control behind them. T Mobile's Sidekick line alone could out subscribe Sprint.
Absolutely True.
Although, I really only left due to the iPhone exclusivity.
Where's the option of "America's fucking tired of hearing that god damned bleep sound every time some hick construction worker wants to talk to his buddies over push-to-talk?"
I've been conditioned to associate that sound with greasy hicks in their pickup trucks, and hate Sprint every time I hear it.
That's the problem though - Apple never would have chosen Sprint because Sprint runs a CDMA network.
If Apple had developed a CDMA iPhone, it wouldn't have been compatible with Europe's networks. It would have cost Apple a lot of money to develop a separate iPhone for the US and Europe.
wrong. it's relatively easy to switch out the radio for CDMA for GSM. it's just a radio that operates on different signal, and in the case of GSM: a slot that uses a SIM card to authenticate users as opposed to a wired ESN.
you must write for wikipedia.
I'm not concerned with Nextel. As long as people stay away from me with that annoying *chirp* "you where you at?" then I could care less about Nextel. Their phones were always a generation behind everyone else anyway. I know it's all the rage to hate on your cell company but so far I've settled on Sprint for a few reasons:
-$15/month unlimited data. ATT charges $45 and Verizon isn't much better. I use my PPC as a modem this way and it's by far the cheapest 3g out there and it is fast as hell.
-handsets. Verizon never has the phones I want and even then they come out half a year after Sprint and with some ugly red skin over the interface and a bunch of media store crap. Do not want. ATT has some decent phones but the iphone won't work for me and the Tilt has horrible driver support so it runs like crap.
-plans. I know about the SERO love out there but I haven't gotten around to canceling my service so I can re-sign up with SERO. Still, my bill is relatively low compared to my friends with similar service.
-coverage. This one is always going to vary with location but in the DC/Baltimore area I am never out of EVDO range and even in the mountains of western PA over Xmas vacation I could use it as a modem for my laptop. In the metro of DC I roam for free on Verizon so I can still use my phone for no extra charge.
Obviously your mileage may vary but I think they get a bad rap. Their service is supposedly garbage but I never deal with it so it's not been an issue. Unless someone comes out with the most awesome smartphone ever with $15/month or less unlimted data, I'll probably stick with Sprint for a while.
Does ATT really charge $45 for unlimited data? My iPhone plan of course requires data but it's only like $20 on top of the normal plan. So I pay (well, my company pays..) $80 a month for 900 mins + rollover + unlimited data, versus the same plan I had on Verizon which ended up being over $100 and not having rollover minutes.
I think with standalone mobile data cards, Sprint is like $60 a month and Verizon is $80.
As for push-to-talk, I associate it with tech workers. I had an i1000 like everyone else on the planet. Hearing a chirp-chirp on the elevator in the Westin in Seattle was sheer hilarity as all of us went for our phones.
Ah, crappy Motorola phones. How I don't miss you. That phone wasn't all bad, but the i560 or whatever I had was pure garbage. Java meant it was slow as hell. The send/end keys were reversed from normal on the face, but then the soft keys would be in "normal" order so you'd end up with completely mixed up keys. You couldn't save more than 1 number to a contact. And the time it kept ringing loudly in my ear after I had answered the call and was already speaking with my coworker, fun times.
Sometimes I wonder how Motorola is still in business. If they made cars, half the population would have been wiped out, and they would have been sued into oblivion. I dislike Microsoft, but there's a special place in hell for Motorola.
You are absolutely right about the merge between sprint and nextel. I affectionately call sprintpcs, sprintpos to my college friends. IF I wasn't receiving a corporate discount, sprint would be HISTORY! Everyone has switched to Verizon. Does anyone know of a good discount service for electricity?
thats odd, i look on their website and its 49.95 for unlimited data.
Nextel used to rock for business. Then sprint talked me into getting this hunk of crap ic902, after I went after my 870 with a hammer because is sucked so hard.... had to switch to "sprint" voicemail, which sucks goat balls compared to nextel's voice mail... mostly in that now, as a sprint customer I can no longer forward voicemails I receive, to my nextel associates. Suck, Suck, Suck... Damn it, now you got me riled... where the F@#$ is my Hammer!!!!!!
If it weren't for SERO, I would stay far, far away from Sprint.
word.
SERO > *
my service is GREAT. everywhere except one little spot on my ride to/from work. everywhere else is flawless.
pray you never have to speak to CS, though.
I left Sprint almost a year ago due to shoddy CS, crappy signals, and a number of smaller reasons. If you're with Sprint and you insist on staying, don't even bother calling CS. They can't fix any billing issues - it's handled by a company called Convergys. Instead e-mail into support - you can think out what you want to say, you're less likely to send off something that will make you come across as a dickweed, and the people dealing with e-mails are actually empowered to fix stuff.
SERO is an unbelievable deal. I'm getting unlimited broadband for less than I was paying T-Mo for horrible, super-slow, crippled WAP-proxied EDGE service. I've had AT&T/Cingular and T-Mobile before; Sprint is considerably better than either everywhere I've been (T-Mobile is borderline useless in my experience, with extremely spotty coverage even in urban areas and along major highways).
The only downside is CS is the pits. 9 out of every 10 reps is incompetent and will just lie to you or make stuff up just to get you off the call. It took me 6 calls and 3 days (sometimes more than an hour on hold) to get my number transferred from my previous carrier and the billing info set right (they had forgotten the unlimited SMS promotion initially).
For me, as long as you don't need to deal with CS it's the best and cheapest carrier around. Avoid phone reps and use email support instead for all issues.
Yeah I have SERO too, but STILL I get so angry at them that I want to cancel and pay twice as much somewhere else.
Reception in Seattle is great, fast data, and my SERO plan keep me here, but they have a HORRIBLE phone selection and they should start calling their customer service department "THE MOUTH OF MADNESS." I feel like it's a bad dream when I call them. They don't even know how to transfer you to the right people EVER!!! My God I'm going to have a heart attack... I just have to remember how good of a deal I'm getting with SERO!
SERO is indeed the only reason to stick with sprint. However, in the process of switching, I had a taste of their absolutely incompetent technical support. Long story short, it took two months to get my number ported, during which I was hung up on, told I would be called back, told completely different things by different "techs," and outright lied to over the phone.
However, after all of it, I love my HTC Mogul, unlimited data, texts, and only paying $30 a month. Plus, it's very entertaining every time I read another iPhone-bill horror story to know I'm always going to be at $30 unless I do something wrong on my side. That, or Sprint decides to screw up my bill. Honestly I think it's a miracle they even send me a bill after talking to those people.
Bad coverage, bad customer service, few phones worth using, EVDO latency sucks.
Disagree I have a BB8830, it is awesome. Never had any signal problems and I live in Northeast Indiana. I couldn't be happier with sprint. But you are right about the CS, it is terrible but I have yet to find great CS anywhere so you can't knock sprint for that. I had more problems with cingular (we wont go their I got f**k by Cingular/AT&T)... most large corp have bad CS.
Yeah obviously they have to have good coverage in some areas, they have to have towers right :D but their phones have terrible battery life. I beleive it is the CDMA which uses twice as much power as CDMA. I had an a900, a Moto Q, a sanyo 8300, all three needed to be charged every night and only got maybe an hour and half of data usage or two and a half talk time. I don't know about other peoples opinions, but bad battery life = a bad phone.
I'll give you a simple example. My phone came with a defective battery. They agreed to replace it. I can do one of two things. Either I can skip work and take it to a special Sprint store that is 45 minutes away or I can mail my phone into Sprint, then they can take 2 weeks to send it back. What kind of customer service is that? Not to mention talking to anyone who knows anything about my phone takes 20 minutes because the regular guys won't just connect you to a senior tech.
Haha, I actually had one lady tell me she wouldn't transfer me to a superior. I asked her several times and she absolutely would not do it. I asked her what her badge number was and asked one more time if she would, and she said no again, so I hung up and called back, got someone else, asked for a superior, or reported her. Now I'm sure they don't really give a damn and probably didn't say anything to her, but on the off chance that they did, it made me feel a little better at least. I hate these punks in tech support call centers who are rude and disrespectful when I'm always very polite and understanding to them.
customer service. when i called to port my old number I went through 4 different reps because they "got a new system". they claimed they didnt have access to the porting stuff and kept transferring me.. which is ridiculous, they are just imcompetent. one guy told me they couldnt port until i cancelled my contract with ATT.. which is exactly what you are NOT supposed to do... I told him this and it was news to him.
another time my phone didnt ring all morning and I missed several calls.. i asked customer service why callers got "this subscriber is not accepting incoming calls". CS's response was to reboot the phone and then they would call back to verify it was working. of course it was working, i just called them on it! it wasnt working 4 hours ago tho. she calls back and says "oh its ringing! it looks like we have successfully solved your issue!" and she was actually giddy as if she solved some mystery but really did nothing.
whatever stories you hear about CS, its true. SERO and a Centro make it all worthwhile tho.
Their biggest issue is that their customer service is absolutely atrocious. You can't call in for any issue without spending about 2-3 hours at least on the phone with them, and most of them are clueless or barely speak English. It's incredibly annoying.
Aside from that, looking at the other choices on the poll, I'm happy with my Mogul, I get great signal, the data network works just fine (and the Mogul should get Rev A soon), and I'm on a SERO plan, so you couldn't pry me off of it for anything.
I'm in your shoes. Talking to them sucks; the Mogul and the network are fine. The price is good enough.
Talk to me, who's better? I am a Sprint customer dying to jump ship if I had something to jump _to_. Who woos customers with value instead of binding them with cancellation charges. I think the model's broken and I want out. I want to pay full price for a phone and be able to use it on the carrier I choose without cancellation fees. On principle I want to go for the pay-as-I-go system.
@ quandmeme,
With T-Mobile if you get a FlexPay account you are able to have month to month service. Basically you can get any plan and you pay for your service up front instead of afterwards, and of course since there is no contract you pay full price for the phone. This is the best no contract option out there.
I was with Sprint for 7 years, because they had decent phone selection - 3 lines. Their Customer Service is by far THE ABSOLUTE WORST OF THE WORST. It was so bad three or four years ago, that management started a customer service training program - all their CS Reps actually got better, they stopped the training program and their service went back to crap all over again.
You want to know who's better. T-Mobile - who I switched my daughter and wife to a few years back - really helpful, I thought all phone companies had crap customer service until them. Also, surprise, AT&T - who I switched ALL of us to for iPhones. I know people knock them, but I always get someone quickly (I swear on Sprint you could die, and they would bury your a** before a person comes on the line to help you)... thevt are nice and treat you like your actually the customer - VERY happy. Many of my business associates swear Verizon is top notch, but I have no personal experience.
Good Luck!
Where's the option because it's not GSM?
I agree this should have been an option, but mostly because Sprint's use of CDMA greatly limites the phone options. You can't use the tons of unlocked phones that are developed for the world market. That's why my vote went for poor handset selection.
Yep - it used to be OK to say "we use our own American CDMA system and F the rest of the world". But now, it's not anymore, for two reasons:
- All the cool phones are GSM.
- No GSM, no roaming fees.
The latter is a huge factor - only recently, a Canadian operator mulled switching to GSM, saying that the cost of several $Bn would be amortised within 2 years through roaming fees alone!
So the GSM operators rake in $Bns every year from roaming fees because people that come from other countries have GSM phones. And the CDMA operators are left out in the cold.
All non-GSM (or GSM based 3G) operators will die out. It's only a matter of time. They have two giant disadvantages vs GSM operators, and maybe they can make up for that for a while, but not in the long run.
It's not that the technology is that much better - it's that it's a huge advantage to be compatible with the rest of the world. And SIM cards rock, BTW.
They billing system is horrible. They lost my retention promotions when I was 'switched to the new billing system' and it took 5 calls over an hour each to FINALLY get someone to get it fixed properly and credit the overages.
The high speed EVDO is great and service is great in my area...as long as Customer Service is not required...
Hah, exactly my thought. As long as I never need to talk to them for customer service, they are great. When I have to talk to them, I hate Sprint.
I live in rural Missouri. I can't get broadband at my home without a satellite. As a result, I went to a Sprint store to see if I could get a wireless network card from them. The sales lady didn't look up my address to see if there was signal in my area and guaranteed that it would work. I got home, set it up and got no signal for 90 minutes so I returned it to the store for a full refund.
Fast-forward to one month later. I get a bill from Sprint for $2 for having 90 minutes of service. Each month they resend the bill. Each month I call to have the fee waived. They waive the fee and resend the bill. I'm guessing that it's cost Sprint upwards of $200 to pay the customer service folks, the postage, and generate these bills. All for $2. That's a customer service/business model that's guaranteed to lose money...even with 4G around the corner. I'm going to pick up my satellite internet dish today.
Sounds like a quote from the movie "Better Off Dead"--
"I want my two dollars...."
I get better signal with Sprint than I do with any other carrier here in Chicago and my BB Pearl is great... $30 and I get the navigation plan
Check out sprintusers.com , they have a bunch of cool hacks you can do with your Sprint phone...
I have never had a problem getting through to tech support... although their billing/account department sucks
If I had to do it all over again, I would probably still be with sprint (just because none of my friends have as good of signal as I do)
I'm pretty sure us Chicago users get best service. Been with em' for over 5 years. Nothing wrong at all.
Though they need to get some better phones...I am guessing the issue is CDMA vs GSM so phone manufactors don't want to create CDMA versions :(
Honestly, I've been with Sprint for 6.5 years. I've called customer service 10-12 times in that period. I have never been on hold for more than about 10 minutes and my problems are always resolved in a timely manner. My reps always have southern accents and are extremely helpful. My only complaint is that my signal sucks in my apartment, but maybe that is my fault for living on the inside part of a U shaped, 12 story building. RELEASE THE AIRAVE NATIONWIDE ALREADY!!!
I have almost the exact same experience. I've been with Spirnt since 99. I've been with several coworkers who've used AT&T or Verizon, where they have no signal and I have no problems.
And every time I've called customer service, I've been on hold maybe five minutes max each time.
The reps in the Sprint stores are awful, though-- the last three times I've gotten a new phone, I've had charges crammed on my bill, despite specifically telling the reps not to put certain things on my bill (replacement insurance, road hazard, etc.). At least CS has always taken those off without any hassle.
It would be nice to just swap out a sim card to change phones (GSM vs. CDMA), but then again, I can have my phone next to my car radio without the radio flaking out.
I really don't get it- I switched from T-Mo about 2 years ago to Sprint. My T-Mo service was BAD- constant dropped calls and poor reception, and back then they did not have a high speed data network. Now I'm on Sprint and I pay $50/month for 1475 min and unlimited data on my Treo and the service has been great. My parents have T-Mo still and my brothers have Verizon (by far the worst for reception around here), and my service is far better than theirs. The only time I've had a phone problem, I brought it to a store and walked away with a new phone, no hassles.
Eh, maybe I'm just the lucky one! But it's been good.
Same story here. I've used Sprint for 8 years now. Never had any nightmares with customer service, have always had great luck at their stores, etc. I have lived in major cities, so it's easy for me to pick out a flagship store where the decent employees are. I like my Sammy m610 and previously used Treos and the rev A card, all of which work awesome on their network. It's too bad Sprint has such a bad reputation. My only gripe is no GSM... I would love to just pop my card in a new phone when I upgrade instead of dealing with a CS person.
This is why Sprint is on my hitlist, it's my Sprint horror story: http://www.akronnewsnow.com/blogs/geekingakron/itemdetail.asp?blog=Geeking+Akron&ID=6012
I've been a Sprint customer since the late 90s. I've never been with another provider.
I've never had signal problems despite living in various places. I've never had a problem finding a phone that I liked. I've never had a problem with billing or switching plans.
My problem is their customer support. It is TERRIBLE. Actually, terrible isn't strong enough a word. I don't know that one exists in the English language. Over the years I've had to contact them a few times, or visit a store a few times, and it is by far the worst service I have ever encountered with any type of company in any industry.
Minute to hours on hold. I've actually had my battery die while on hold with them. Once you talk to a person, they cannot understand what you're saying, and you cannot understand what they're saying. I wanted to add unlimited data to my plan so I could use my phone as a modem. That took over an hour. I had some questions about the plan, but the person I was talking to couldn't understand what I was asking, so I never was sure exactly what I was getting. It took so long they even credited $10 to my account for the inconvenience. Screw the $10, I want that hour of my life back!
I recently got an HTC Touch. I *love* this phone. The problem is I waited over an hour in the Sprint store to get it. Once I finally got to talk to a representative, it was 20 minutes before I had paid for the phone and was out the door. She had to take it out of the box, play with it, chat, and then provide some insanely large amount of information to the computer in front of her.
And then the guy selling meat from the back of his van came in. I'm not kidding. He was trying to sell her surplus meat, WHILE I WAS TRYING TO BUY MY PHONE AND GET BACK TO WORK! She didn't him to piss off, or at least wait till we were finished. She sat and listened while he explained all the meat options, and then she CALLED HER BOYFRIEND to make sure it was ok to buy the meat. WHAT THE F&%*I?
And then when she was done with the meat negotiations, she turns and looks at me and says 'You're all set'. So I waited for the meat sale for what? Entertainment? GAHHH!!
So yeah..I like the phones, and I like the quality of the cell service. Their customer service is indescribably horrific.
I don't know, but it really sucks for the local economy here in Kansas City where Sprint is based. Keep it up Sprint! Maybe "Roger and Me" part 2 can be filmed here.
Oops, I meant for that to be its own comment, sorry.
If it wasn't for sprint the lower class wouldn't have cell phones. Not to say that every single sprint customer doesn't know how to pay bills on time but the majority does. You don't like the company then leave its not Sprints fault that every other carrier wants $1000 deposit to have you as a customer. For those that do know how to pay your bills on time I'm sorry you have to be treated the same way people that don't pay thier bills are but if you can't pay on time you do not deserve good customer service. If you have good credit and like sprints service go to verizon there is a roaming agreement between the two companies and the signal strength is exactly the same in 90% of america just set your roaming settings to automatic
...the lower class?...Ok your majesty...Daddy is still paying your bills.
Where's the option for 'I'm a Sprint customer and love the service'?
Seriously, stop laughing.
The Philippines is the problem with Sprint.
You have CS reps that only have experience with GSM phones on a prepay model(Globe and SMART, you guys are so ghetto for not pushing the postpay model in your country).
These reps are heavily scripted and have no concept of what they're working on. They can't speak English well and even when you attempt to speak Tagalog to level the playing field, the reps still try to speak English.
1st thing for Sprint: Cut off any outsourced CS. Keep the CS within the US borders like the vast majority of US Cellular carriers have. Even the Maritime Provinces of Canada are being impractical with the Canadian Dollar being on par(give or take) with the US Dollar.
Sprint, you are the new AT&T Wireless, and just like John Zeglis ran that company into the ground; so too did Gary Forsee at Sprint.
Burn Baby Burn. Burn Baby Burn.
I think Sprint is losing touch with who their customer is and as technology evolves they are not keeping up so folks are moving to where the devices more representative of their needs; both from a lifestyle perspective and a technology perspective.
It is thier screwed up and scam style billing practices. Tell them screwing people on thier billing for so many years has finally kicked thier butts into a steep sided hole. Maybe they could show some reconciliation to the customer and proove comitment to superior customer oriented billing practices. LIKE TRY APPLYING A CREDIT TO THE NEXT BILL AUTOMATICALLY INSTEAD OF HAVING PEOPLE ACCUMULATE OVER $400 in "CREDITS" while charging them $35 for a late 65$ bill...
Yeah clean up your act sprint.
-one angry former customer.
(I havent been a customer for over 5 years now but I was a loyal customer for 4 before that. too much billing abuse and scam seeming attitude from that company)
I've had Sprint for 9 years and have NEVER had a problem. Reception is great, customer service has been great, and the only phone I would want that can't get will be the 2nd Gen iPhone with 3G. Appearantly I'm in the minority though.
sprint oughta just call it a day. the only thing worthwhile is their wireless internet. service sucks, customer service sucks, everything sucks.
just rollover and die already!
$34 for 500 minutes and unlimited every thing else, including DATA.
Coverage is the same as Verizon in my area.
I only had to call customer service when I ported my number over.
If I can keep this plan, I'll never switch.
I don't necessarily think that sprint is doing something wrong....per say.....
I just think that there are too many players out there - more than the market can sustain. Someone had to go and it just seems to me that Sprint had nothing unique or flashy to help it stand out in the pack.
T-mobile had the most any time minutes and generally cheaper.
Verizon has the best handset choice and a very wide network (and the "can you hear me now" was very effective).
ATT has the iphone and were the first to do roll over minutes (their commercials where the calls cut out help too I think).
Sprint just gets.......forgotten.
Do you use Sprint?
I have an ic502 and let me tell you. I wish they had better phones. This phone does what it's supposed to do, but how long does it take to shrink the stupid iDEN antenna to the point that they could have a wider selection of phones???
No iPhone.
I'm a longtime Sprint customer, and wouldn't switch my service for anything. With that said, I have a fantastic plan right now that is far cheaper than anything available from another carrier, so that helps. My service is great, EVDO speeds are top notch, and their CS can be good if you know who to talk to (their normal CS, however, is downright atrocious).
I'm a PPC user, and for me their phone selection is great (currenly using the HTC Touch, which I love), however I agree to an extent that the normal phone selection is poor. To play devil's advocate, however, while carriers like VZW may have far more phones than Sprint, it appears a lot of them are the dime-a-dozen Samsung/Kyocera/LG crap. The exceptions to this are phones like the new Chocolate, the Voyager, etc.
where's the "no iphone available" button?
Engadget needs to disable the submit button after pressing it once. I don't know much about it, but I see it everywhere, so it can't be that hard?
where's the "no iphone available" button?
Where's the "no duplicate posting" button?
First, let's clear up the Xohm misconception, Xohm aint 4G. The powers that be haven't even properly decided on what the minimum up/down speeds are to be considered for 4G, that's Sprint's marketing department doing sabre rattling, don't buy into it. I had Sprint once upon a time and like many in this thread eventually got fed up with the poor customer service, insane billing issues, and the hassle of getting a new phones (CDMA carriers are the anti-christ). The company can't roll over and die fast enough.
I have sprint mainly because my wife and her family have it too. I hope they don't get rid of that unlimited sprint to sprint calling. If they do, I'm gone.
BTW: my wife has used the equivalent of over 3 days of mobile to mobile calls in a month before, so this feature is a must.
That being said CS is a major pain and I deal with them as little as I have to.
CS is horrid! My god pray you never have a problem because they will treat you like a moron and do whatever they can not to help.
Example, got a new phone with rebates. They forced me to up my plan to get the rebates. What they didn't tell me is that they were essentially going to charge me 50 bucks to change my plan. I called CS several times, and I eventually got their corporate number, spoke to the corporate operator, and she sent me to someone who actually did something. This took almost 3 hours to get fixed.
I've been a customer since I was 16, and I am now almost 22 and they always treat you like someone who hasn't being paying them for the last six years.
As far as reception, I actually have never had a problem with that. As far as phones, they really could use a boost to their lineup. Plan pricing isn't terrible, but it could be better.
Being a former sprint employee for the last year and a verizon customer the past 6 years, I know what one of their biggest problems is they do not care about their current customers. If I were a customer hearing some of the bullshit and whacky excuses that we used to have to give Id leave too.
It stems from caring about new subscribers for the first month only. Store reps will not give full upgrade discounts even though you deserve it if you might have done and insurance claim or purchased a full price handset or even if your friend gave you a phone. But you cant entirely blame the store reps their managers are given performance evaluation on how many price overrides have been done in a month, and they for damn sure are not going to waste them on upgrades.
The difference between what a sprint rep gets paid for a new line and and upgrade is drastically different. So may reps push aside upgrades for new lines or trick people into getting new lines when they only want to upgrade. If you really want to be helped in a hurry going into a sprint store, tell them that you wish to add 2 new lines and you'll be helped in no time
Another huge problem for them is the systems that they use. Ever since the sprint nextel merger they have had 2 billing systems and most recently have started merging them. If you happen to be one of the lucky accounts "migrating," which all pre merger sprint accounts and any accounts created before july 2007 will go through, you dont get to access your account for 4 days when they decide to transfer you. Which leaves many people screwed who happen to lose a phone, as they cant turn the old phone off and cant get a new one.
They need to bring the guy back in the long black coat they used on there commercials.
I love Sprint. Sure they have their problems but I don't think you can find a network that doesn't. In all honesty, I've dealt with some bad Customer Service people but, for the most part, I've had some amazing success stories. I bought a phone once and activated it and then took it up to my cabin two or three weeks later. It didn't work cuz there was no signal so I canceled it. They hit me with a early-term fee and I called, talked to a lady, and she said "Well, since you didn't start using it till yesterday, we'll just pretend that's when you activated it and since that's within our two-week trial period, we'll let you cancel the line for free." That was beautiful customer service. Ive had billing issues before but they are always resolved. I dont know. Maybe I am sticking my head in the sand but I really don't think they are any worse than any other phone company.
Also, I love my CENTRO with EVDO.
i used to work in retail mobile sales.
we stopped selling sprint because we had to interface with the end-user and Sprint CSR. we just couldn't deal with theit bullshit.
the last straw was when they wanted to renew a customer's contract for two years for a lost phone she wanted to replace with a used phone that belonged to her friend, or have her pay a hefty fee.
still, they're not as bad as WorldCom was.
I live in a suburb of Los Angeles, GSM signal is horrible here. The city has even put in "emergency" phones in several corners because cell signal is spotty, CDMA (spring and verizon) work though. I had ATT, when it rained, i could hear the phone ring, but not answer it. I had to go out in the rain near the garage to make/receive calls. I got the HTC touch, i ordered online, who shops at stores this days? It took about 3 days to get to me, it was already activated. Sprint tv did not work. I called in, the southern lady that answered the call was very helpful in solving a problem i did not have. She was like a bulldozer, she "figured" out my problem and was hard set in solving it. After 45 mins i said "great it works" then hung up. Called in again, after 15 minutes i was told that "htc touch have a known issue with sprint tv, some phones are not able to access the application. HTC and sprint are aware and working on the issue, in a couple of months they expect the problem to be fixed" booo. 3 days later, sprint tv worked for me, go figure. Originally i didn't order a text package, then i saw my bill and realized that it's 20c per message. So i went online to upgrade my account and add 300 sms for $5/mo. After 3 days of trying and getting "you can't add this package, it exceeds your $600/mo credit limit." So, I gave up on doing it myself, i had to call CS, after about 15 mins the service got added and was told that the online billing app is not working. CS is not very good, maybe a sign of the times, but it is generally bad where i've had to talk to someone. However, it doesn't beat the BestBuy tech that told me that the monster optical cable is better, because it's gold plated. That's a story for another day. Call quality and data speed are awesome, billing and CS need help. CS is hit and miss, i've only had to call them 5 times in the first month of service, 2 of the agents were knowlegeable and helpfull. I haven't had a need to contact them since.
do you live in like compton or something? emergency phones, that's ridiculous.
i've honestly never had problems with GSM in LA.
SPRINT is just God-awful!
I went to Europe for 6 months on a business trip. Since SPRINT doesn't work in Europe, my Treo served only as PDA/Address Book and not as a cell phone. In fact, I had to buy a new phone while there in order to make any calls. When I returned to the states 6 months later, I had a nice welcome home bill from SPRINT in the amount of $1200.00!!!
I called Customer Care (joke) and explained I could not have possibly ran up a $1200. bill since I was unable to use the telephone at all outside of the U.S. But they basically called me a liar, was uninterested in my situation, and disconnected my service. I used a landline to call and speak to a Supervisor, hoping I'd find fairer and more polite treatment. But I was shocked when the "SUPERVISOR" began to overtalk and argue with me...and then she hung up the phone in my face!!!
I called back and got another Supervisor to look into the matter with a promise to reconnect service. But that lasted for about a day or so before the service was off again. The on/off service went back and forth for months until I ended up having to take this all the way to the Corporate office, who eventually removed the charges. By then I had missed a ton of work calls, was sporadically without mobile service for several months, and was totally fed up. Having been a SPRINT customer for nearly 10 years, the very minute the iPhone was released I switched to AT&T, and told SPRINT to kiss my @$$!
I called Sprint yesterday to figure out wtf was up with my missing bill. that call turned into additional disputes with my service agreement, my length of contract and the rebate for my phones. can't say i didn't expect it though, in the past 5 or 6 years with them i've had at least one battle with cust serv for ever year i've been a member. why did i let them talk me into another extension? shame on me.
I worked at a call center for sometime.... it was a nightmare. I actually enjoyed the tech support work, as I was not overly pressured to trick people into buying new services, etc. (Don't get me wrong, I was still expected to sell but...) When they decided everyone would work at everything (without training in some cases) things went to hell. Customer service reps who didn't know anything were taking tech support calls (and to be fair, the tech support training was pretty lousy anyway) and tech agents had to field billing calls.
It was crap. I quit - happily. Sprint is so bad that when I worked for them and I had a big discount, I actually quit my service (I had them before I worked there) and switched to Cingular (before it was AT&T).
iam wondering who really fileld out this survey cause if u go by the comments it looks like everyone likes sprint service just not tlaking to a rep.
Ive had SPRint for like 6yrs now and iave had multiple phones. I live in NY and have traveled to the west coast and down south and ive had NO (ZERO) problems with my phone or service.
i currently have a MOGUL paying $50 month getting unlimted internet and text messagign nights starting at 7. I use my phone as a modem and iv never had dropped calls or slow service. Actually i beleive sprint has the fastes and cheapest service for the quality you get. Well with my type of phoen atleast.
My GF has sprint now (she left Verizon) and she couldnt be happier. I got her a SERO plan and she gets twice the service i pay for now for half the price.(kinda pisses me off but whatever)
I agree that they dont have the flashy phones that a GSM carrier can have but thats cause they dont have a huge selection to choose from.
Iam not sure whats their problem corporate wise but its not their service its bad leadership. And bad direction with management iam sure. To bad people lose there job b/c of that.
I think Verizon should buy Sprint out and merge it with their service; therefore, they would have more coverage.
That would never be allowed to happem. That would be a monopoly and would really hurt the customer. Cant give one company that much power. Then theres never any need to innovate.
This cannot be a monopoly, if AT&T and Cingular can do it, then why cannot they?
"Thats the power of Sprint Speed"
I've been with Sprint for 8 years. Today I made a one time payment and they auto-enrolled me in automatic payments! WTF Sprint. Usually I can overlook your occasional stupidity/random billing but this is just not cool.
sprint can suck my balls. I have given way to much money to them and countless hours on the phone getting rid of bogus charges thats why i switched my whole family to AT&T.....
Two words: No iPhone
Sprint is... well, a great company so long as you never have to interact with any of their CS reps. I chose Sprint only because I could get a data plan for cheap with the SERO plans. The data speed is fine for what I pay for it, and I always seem to have signal wherever I go in my travels between Chicago and Milwaukee. Trying to port a number in, though, was a huge fiasco and after spending 2 hours a day every day for two weeks on the phone with CSR's who seemed to know nothing about anything, I ended up canceling my port and just accepting a new number. It seemed like that was the best way to handle things since I had no desire to keep calling Sprint.
Their handset selection is pretty terrible too, though - you end up paying through the nose for a Blackberry plan, using an old Treo, or getting stuck with WinMo if you want a smartphone. The Centro is interesting, but after using one, I was unimpressed. I can't help but be a little angry that they left their MotoQ users (myself included) stuck with WinMo 5 when other Q's have been getting 6 (or so I have read). When my contract expires in a year and a half, I'll be looking around for someone else, although it's going to be impossible to get the same features for the same price.
I hope they kick me off as a subscriber since I hate their service, poor handsets, and everything else and I don't want to pay $400 in ETF's to get out.
The merger and passing on the iPhone were the two biggest mistakes.
I don't think they passed on anything. They wanted to make the iphone a GSM phone so they could sell it in Europe. Besides, ATT gets a pretty shit deal with the iphone anyway.