DO NOT GET SPRINT
Read this letter I sent to sprint -- and PLEASE check out the Sprint iPhone 5 forums. IT IS A NIGHTMARE. I sent this blurb to
Dan@sprint.com -- with some resolution, but now we're on AT&T -- AND HAPPY.
I waited 8 hours in line for the iPhone 5, I switched from (a 4 year
customer) Verizon hoping I could keep my unlimited data by giving you
guys a shot. Boy was I wrong. (And I wish I wasn't, I wanted to keep
using Sprint) I canceled my contract within 30 days of use.
Our first problem: Our brand new iPhone 5's were scratched brand new out
of the box, Apple had no problem sending us over-night replacements but
there was a larger problem. Our local sprint store had no idea how to
activate them because they did not include SIM cards. A day or so later
we informed that they had been sent SIM cards and we could now activate
our phones.
We thought the problem was solved, it was not. upon activating the
phones we could no longer retrieve 2G/3G Data, only LTE data in our
area. There was no answer for this. So now I had 4 iPhones (one for
myself, one for my wife, and now our non-working replacements). After 6
hours of trying to trouble shoot the problem the assistant store manager
told us to come back the next day to now swap out for ANOTHER set of
brand new phones...we now would have 6 iPhone 5's. After exchanging our
original phones -- and sending the replacements back to Apple we now had
2 phones that we thought would work.
Our Second and final problem: After a week or so we started noticing a
larger more frustrating problem. We could no longer make phone nor
retrieve data from our phones. After multiple attempts to work with your
level 1 and level 2 CSR team we had zero resolutions because they could
no longer contact us (as I could not receive phone calls.) I was plagued
by the error message of "Your account could not be validated", "Error 16
Switch 394", and in most cases the phone "canceling" the call before it
even started the timer. To make matters worse, I could only get .01 KBPS
on a regular basis. After numerous network resets, full restores, and
PRL updates there was still no resolution to our problem. These errors
would happen on a regular basis 4-5 times a day. Sprint customer support
had no answer of to why this was happening or how to fix it. I run a
small web design business and this is how I interact with my customers,
which is unacceptable.
This was the straw the broke the camels back. I was out on business in
Chicago all last week (and having the same issues as above), I would
have to use Facetime over Wi-FI in order to call my Wife here in
atlanta. On my way back my flight was delayed by an hour, and I was
unable to inform my wife of the issue or where/when to meet her. I was
stranded at the airport for 2 hours trying to find my wife.
I spoke to the team leader at the store in our local area
and was given the "I'm sorry, but you're past the 14 day return policy".
They had me call the retention department to see what they could do to
help. All they could offer is to refund my activation fees and Apple
Care. Not my service plan that I paid for (for the month), nor my
phones. They wanted me to surrender my phones (not return for my $625)
in order to waive in ETF fee so I could sign up for another carrier to
run my business properly. So now I'm stuck with $750 worth of ETF fees,
and 2 phones (worth $625) that I can't use. Plus $443 worth the first
bill I paid. So now I'm effectively screwed out of $1,818. What am I
supposed to do?
tl;dr
We signed a new contract with Sprint having iPhone 5's, got screwed, and now we're happy on AT&T.