Poll: What's wrong with Sprint?

With the bleak news out of Sprint's camp this morning, employees, stockholders, analysts, and subscribers all have to be wondering pretty much the same thing: what's going wrong? Xohm's just around the corner, so these guys have a pretty good lead on the competition in the race to 4G -- but is there something far more systematic about Sprint's core business that's causing paying heads to leave in droves?

What's wrong with Sprint?

Awful handset selection!Customer service (lack thereof, that is)If I could get a signal, I'd tell you.Its data network isn't all it's cracked up to be.Plan pricing and / or features need some serious retooling!It's everything, man. Pack it in and call it done.La la la, nothing's wrong! I can't hear you!Vote

[Frank Lancaster @ Jan 24th 2008 10:26AM]

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!

[cSol @ Jan 29th 2008 12:22AM]

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

[NG @ Jan 24th 2008 11:50AM]

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.

[Shawn @ Jan 24th 2008 7:08PM]

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.

[jeff @ Jan 25th 2008 12:55AM]

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.

[Chris Taylor @ Jan 25th 2008 1:51AM]

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.

[Tor Slettnes @ Jan 25th 2008 5:24PM]

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.

[Tor Slettnes @ Jan 25th 2008 5:25PM]

Sorry for the dupe, I got "connection was reset" the first time.

[Mark @ Jan 29th 2008 7:01PM]

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.

[nojok3 @ Jan 30th 2008 12:01AM]

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

[Rick @ Mar 10th 2008 2:07PM]

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?

[sinai @ Jan 18th 2008 12:16PM]

how about:

"bought nextel and turned that into shit"?

[Flashpoint @ Jan 18th 2008 12:27PM]

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.

[Flashpoint @ Jan 18th 2008 12:45PM]

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.

[Adam @ Jan 18th 2008 1:30PM]

Absolutely True.

Although, I really only left due to the iPhone exclusivity.

[John @ Jan 18th 2008 1:37PM]

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.

[xbit @ Jan 18th 2008 1:47PM]

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.

[sinai @ Jan 18th 2008 2:37PM]

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.

[JerryA @ Jan 18th 2008 3:00PM]

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.

[Reid @ Jan 18th 2008 6:25PM]

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.

[Maryann @ Jan 20th 2008 8:41PM]

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?

[zom @ Jan 24th 2008 11:08AM]

thats odd, i look on their website and its 49.95 for unlimited data.

[jamalekai @ Jan 24th 2008 11:50AM]

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!!!!!!

[eyecannon @ Jan 18th 2008 12:17PM]

If it weren't for SERO, I would stay far, far away from Sprint.

[wireless.nemo @ Jan 18th 2008 12:42PM]

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.

[Andrew Jones @ Jan 18th 2008 12:56PM]

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.

[El Erbmocnoc Euqsam @ Jan 18th 2008 1:43PM]

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.

[Cuchanu @ Jan 18th 2008 4:17PM]

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!

[nerdtalker @ Jan 18th 2008 3:53PM]

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.

[Seth Porter @ Jan 18th 2008 12:18PM]

Bad coverage, bad customer service, few phones worth using, EVDO latency sucks.

[tkid92 @ Jan 18th 2008 2:36PM]

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.

[Seth Porter @ Jan 18th 2008 2:41PM]

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.

[ReTRO CLUTCH @ Jan 18th 2008 12:18PM]

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.

[Andrew @ Jan 18th 2008 12:21PM]

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.

[Irfan @ Jan 18th 2008 2:37PM]

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.

[Andrew @ Jan 18th 2008 12:19PM]

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.

[Mike_NYC @ Jan 18th 2008 1:59PM]

I'm in your shoes. Talking to them sucks; the Mogul and the network are fine. The price is good enough.

[quandmeme @ Jan 18th 2008 4:20PM]

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.

[Michael S @ Jan 18th 2008 9:55PM]

@ 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.

[jeffhas @ Jan 19th 2008 2:55AM]

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!

[nxtiak @ Jan 18th 2008 12:20PM]

Where's the option because it's not GSM?

[Ed Hardy @ Jan 18th 2008 4:04PM]

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.

[nikster @ Jan 18th 2008 11:41PM]

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.

[whatishalo? @ Jan 18th 2008 12:21PM]

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...

[Andrew @ Jan 18th 2008 12:22PM]

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.

[chaosrain @ Jan 18th 2008 12:21PM]

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.

[SweetSauce @ Jan 20th 2008 2:45AM]

Sounds like a quote from the movie "Better Off Dead"--

"I want my two dollars...."

[Nick Catalano @ Jan 18th 2008 12:22PM]

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)

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Jan 18th 2008 8:25PM]

I'm pretty sure us Chicago users get best service. Been with em' for over 5 years. Nothing wrong at all.

[whatishalo? @ Jan 18th 2008 12:23PM]

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 :(