EVO 4G launch day antics: Sprint's computers overwhelmed, Radio Shack listing CDMA iPhones?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 4th 2010 2:03PM
posted June 4th 2010 2:03PM
- Sprint's activation system is apparently buckling under the pressure, an issue that's giving us nightmarish flashbacks to iPhone launches of days gone by. We've even heard reports of poor shoppers being "turned away" when reps are stymied by the situation. A wildly successful product is both a blessing and curse, is it not?
- One corporate store clerk says Sprint's system is now entirely down, and employees are being forced to write receipts by hand. "We have sold out (and pretty fast at that), but can't do anything at this point, not even a bill pay," he adds.
- We've gotten multiple tips saying that Radio Shack now lists a $400 early termination fee in its contract for the iPhone on Verizon and Sprint. Our guess is that this is just some generic verbiage, not a sign of an impending CDMA launch, but you never know.
- One tipster said his EVO came with a Samsung microSD card, rather than a SanDisk. We don't know what to make of that, as it was far too late for HTC to head off storage bugs at the pass.
[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
I can't get mine until Oct unless I pay the $500 bitch tax. Boooooooooo!
@One Love
I have an account with Sprint with 3 lines. All 3 are out of contract and were going to be upgraded this morning to EVOs. No stores local to me, including the Sprint store are selling the phone. I was told that the stores in Omaha, NE were selling the phones. I called and they agreed earlier this week to hold 3 phones for me at Radio Shack.
My brother and I found it odd that no stores local to us were selling the phone on the launch day. So we called Sprint CS last night to make sure that today when we go to pick up the phone we won't have any issues activating the phones. She assured us there would be absolutely no problems at all. This was great to hear because I would be driving 2 hours there and two hours back to pick up the phones.
I woke up and hit the road at 5AM to drive down to Omaha to pick up my phones. The store opened at 7. The Radio Shack service consultant spent about an hour and a half on the phone with Sprint CS trying to get our phones activated.
After the matter getting escalated several times and the CS reps trying everything they knew they put in a trouble ticket and said they would call us back shortly.
We ended up getting a call back after they found out that the EVO was not allowed to be activated on phone numbers from our area. It turns out that there are 6 affiliate market areas that will not be carrying the EVO and are restricting activations all together. So I ended up driving home empty handed and PO'd. The only resolution that Sprint CS gave us was to change our phone numbers that we have had for over 6 years to numbers from another area code.
It turns out this happened to a buddy of mine with the same area code and prefix in Louisville, Kentucky for school, when he tried to pick his up this morning.
CLIFF NOTES:
1. Called Sprint - Said I could get Evo
2. Drove 2 hours to get phone
3. Won't let me activate phones without changing my phone number
@One Love Dont trip because at the rate android is going it will be a better android within 2 months.
@One Love
Yeah just like Seanlee83 said don't sweat it. I got my Evo today but even I'm smart enough to know there's going to be 1.2-1.5 ghz phones running around with Android 2.2 by the end of the year. I just couldn't take my Pre any longer.
@NoEvo4G4me I am a Sprint Customer, but I would recommend dropping Sprint ASAP, getting a Google Voice number, and live on 3G till LTE gets to your area.
@One Love
are people able to buy this off contract? I was looking for the option on the website but couldn't find it anywhere...
@bj1126 I would get a evo but, they come out so much that I gotta jeep worrying about "wIt it's better then this phone & it just came out" it's too overwhelming. And plus I don't like sense ui. I'll rather just have the stock android phone.
@skyblaze : Um, If I pay $500 for an EVO they better not reset my 2 plan. :(
@Seanlee83 : That's always the case with any tech that you buy, they always come out with the new hotness right after.
@skyblaze
Yes you can, Best Buy has it off contract for $499. Not sure what plan you have but you may have to change it to an everything plan.
@One Love
I guess Sprints' CEO needs to send a thank you e-mail to AT&T's CEO.
...Oh Wait
@NoEvo4G4me I thought stuff like this didn't happen anymore. I know that carriers used to have different rates in different parts of the country, and there were restrictions on what area code you had, etc., but I thought that had all gone by the wayside now that people often keep their cell phone numbers even when they move. Odd.
@NoEvo4G4me Wow, that is NUTS man. That would be truly frustrating. One more reason why sim cards have an advantage :-\
@NoEvo4G4me hey. Email dan hesse. I'm sure he'l listen... Unlike other ceo's lol n if he cnt help you. I dnt think no one can
I took the hit on the ETF with Verizon (probly a stupid move but ohh well) and spent 2 hours at Radio Shack, but it was worth it. The Evo4G is FAST and the cell antenna is superb.
@One Love Just got one and love it!
@Accidental
So anyone try to pick up there evo after noon? Just wondering if all of the computer stuff is up and working. After I'm done at work I have to go pick one up for the wife and need to know if it pays to drive 2 hours to grab one.
@One Love, DJ Megatron
ah right, lol... wasn't too sure how to go about doing it... Sprint's site says the off contract price is 449.99... really good (to me anyway) considering the Evo's features... I don't have Sprint... I'm on T-Mobile... and while I have no plans on breaking my loyalty streak with my first provider I also wanna try out the Evo... so my course of action (IF I decide to drop for one) would be to lend my sister my Nexus and let her use my current T-mobile account... I get an Evo and thatll be my main phone for the forseeable future... then when 4G goes mainstream on T-mo with an awesome handset to match (who knows how long thatll take though) i give the Evo to my mom (whos always been on sprint) return to T-mo, get my sister her own account with the Nexus and everyones home safe... alot to think about but i blame America's obscenely convoluted cellular providers
whaddya think... safe? not safe? too thought out or just plain silly :P
@skyblaze
It's a 4G android dream phone. What do you think I'll say?
@skyblaze If you pay full price for the phone through Sprint ($450), you do not need to sign a contract. If they tell you that you can't they're either lying or are an idiot (maybe both). I picked up the Evo this afternoon, it's a heck of an upgrade over the Hero.
@bj1126 I really want the Evo. My local "shack" said tomorrow the store manager's going to drive around & get them for people on the waiting list. I'll be buying straight. Also have the Pre. I don't know why you want to "get rid of it". I'm really enjoying mine. That said, I want good navigation & a bigger screen.
@skyblaze http://www.shopamerica.htc.com/cell-phones/productdetail.htm?prId=37149
I can't wait for the flood of complaints about the utterly useless battery life, among other design defects
@skyblaze yes I picked mine up off contract, though you're right, I didn't see any option to do so online (i went in to the store)
@NoEvo4G4me Damm dude! That sucks. I think.. and this is coming from guy who is been with Sprint for 10 years. They always tread me great but lately and I know they are trying really hard, I think
they just suck.
@NoEvo4G4me that sucks... Hopefully you can get it all sorted out soon
@saddam3 You can email Dan Hesse on this, but based on @NoEvo4G4me's story, it sounds like his numbers (if not him) are in a place where Sprint has NO coverage.
In such an area, the carrier may have a roaming agreement with a local carrier or network operator, but the roaming charges for Sprint are probably enormous, and they now that such a data intensive phone as the EVO would cause them to be upside down visa a vie that local carrier.
In such a case, they really would restrict sales of the phone. Whereas a normal dumb phone making voice calls and sending SMS text messages would not be expensive, 3G let alone 4G could be exorbitant or impossible.
Just changing your phone numbers may not help, because just because your numbers are in from a different area does not change the fact that there may be no or a very expensive roaming agreement. The Sprint customer should have looked up the account before they said the phones were available. But I'm sure they were probably being barraged with simple "What, When, Where, How..." questions about the EVO and so probably assumed that service would be available for those numbers. A call to corporate might have helped in this case since they have to look up the numbers before they make any service pronouncements.
@NoEvo4G4me So sorry to hear about your dilema. Based upon my experience you may be able to turn this into a positive, provided you are willing to live with new #'s.
Call sprint and just tell them to terminate your service. Don't give them a reason until you get someone from customer retention. Then tell them what you went thru. Tell them that you feel that you've been abused by sprint. Beat them up. Then, if they can't come up with a plan to keep your #'s reluctantly agree to do so .... But not without getting something in return. Start with 3 free phones. Beat them up some more. They should come up with a counter offer. Accept nothing less than a $100.00 credit per line, and they overnight you the phones. I got a $100.00 credit split over 2 months because I had to wait 2.5 hours yesterday. The phone really is fantastic even if you only have 3g (like me). I have the hot spot feature ony plan and it works great! I hope this helps. Best of luck. Let me know how things turn out.
Joe
@NoEvo4G4me
Get Google Voice.
It'll be a hassle to change your number this ONE time, but then, never again!
I love Google Voice!
@Seanlee83 yeah they live fast and die (really) hard.
I smell a launch success! Thanks AT&T for making the decision to switch that much easier for millions of users!!
@jroman28 you know att really is a foolish company on many levels what made them think this data idea was a good one but I guess they know the cult of Jobs will pay what ever they must to please him and take part in his devices which is sad cause that level of loyalty deserves much better treatment.
@kamenwati If anything it only makes it more likely ATT is losing the iPhone exclusitivity. Maybe down the line there could be a Sprint iPhone.
@jroman28
I smell launch FAIL! What AT&T has in crappy reception, Sprint matches up with even crappier customer service.
The biggest launch Sprint has ever had after finally securing not just a great phone but the new standard in smart phones - and their systems have issues?
It was one thing when the iPhone had this issue way back when but to not learn from that mistake - you gotta be joking.
Note: I hate the iPhone - long time sprint customer that is now looking to another provider to find the next android phone that matches up to the EVO 4G - not pissing on anyones parade - if you got the evo and everything works out I'm happy for you
but this poor marketing/poor planning is typical for sprint.
@Toneglaso
I was just thinking about that. I remember rumors of the new iPhone being dubbed "iPhone 4G". Well, Sprint is the only one with unlimited data (4G) and an actual 4G network. How crazy would it be for Jobs to announce that the new iPhone is coming to Sprint in 4G fashion alas iPhone 4G? I now its a stretch and I would stick with Evo but it would be great for competition and the consumers!
@jroman28 Yeah, Verizon getting an iPhone this year wouldn't shock me considering what ATT just did. There's no way IMO that Jobs and co are totally "cool" with newly contracted customers not being able to use a lot of data. Research put into decision or not, it screws future potential customers and knocks selling points down a few pegs on ATT for the features the iPhone "HD" is supposed to be capable of like video chat.
@jroman28 I would shit my pants if the iPhone came to Sprint and hope to God I could return this Evo I just got ;)
@kamenwati sorry you must not keep up with the news Verizon has already said they will do the same in the near future.They will all go that direction
@Toneglaso My theory is that the Apple-AT&T exclusivity deal includes unlimited data plans. Maybe AT&T moving away from unlimited data plans is a sign they are about to lose exclusivity of the iPhone.
@nbmatt I hope ur kidding...the EVO beats the crap out of the iphone. Give It 2 months then try switching to the iphone, and you will see what I mean.
@joshai
You are an idiot. He like the iPhone. I do also. And I would MUCH rather prefer the new iPhone over your over-sized EVOlution of a crappy OS. Screw all of you EVO fanboys. Stop having a hissy-fit anytime someone says something bad about the evo. Yeah I didn't capitalize evo. DOWNRANK AWAY FANBOYS.
@Btbessey
So I downranked you fanboi...
@Guimo
Hahahaha. LOSER
@Btbessey
I don't understand it. What motivates you?
U.S. must paid the most for smartphone and carrier plan, other country you get the smartphone just about any kind for free while here gimmeck $200 some even require rebate in order to get down to $200 at top of pricey data plan,
@techlord Radio Shack and Best Buy handle the rebates for you so you can order online or go to their store and walk out with the phone for the after rebates price.
@techlord The UK has a similar level of charge for smart-phones. I imagine the iPhone 4th Gen will be about Free-£280 depending on the contract £65-£25 per month
had to wait about 45mins at The Shack to activate the phone. No problems... Just kinda slow. By the way, well worth it. This phone is amazing.
@benchase7
Just got back from the Sprint store in Orland Park, IL. ASS JAMMED!!! I have never seen more than three/four people in the store at one time before, but sweet jeebus, couldn't even move around the store.
And there were lines just to play with the two demo's on display.
To paraphrase Tony Montana, "You laugh at no lines early in the morning Engadget, Look at you now !!!(after Tony blows the guys head off)
@benchase7 speaking of picking it up at the shack, was I the only one who saw that the stands claimed it to be running 2.0 and not 2.1? (says HTC Sense 2.1, but android 2.0)
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8103/evomistake.jpg