Bad tower by my apartment, sprint keeps on giving me the run around.

[cuzo]

Can I cancel because of this? My speeds at my apartment are pathetic and sprint keeps on telling me they're sent in a ticket and since January the same result.

Because of the poor speed and signal my battery goes fast. Anyways I can possibly cancel due to this? I want to go to aio wireless.

I've called 3 times and they tell me they're gonna send a technician to fix it and no change.

 

[eyoungren]

Can I cancel because of this? My speeds at my apartment are pathetic and sprint keeps on telling me they're sent in a ticket and since January the same result.

Because of the poor speed and signal my battery goes fast. Anyways I can possibly cancel due to this? I want to go to aio wireless.

I've called 3 times and they tell me they're gonna send a technician to fix it and no change.

First off, this is Sprint. Never, ever trust a word out of the mouth of a Sprint employee. They are poorly trained, they are on the lowest rung as far as information, the system they use to check towers is NOT real-time, they often do not work directly for Sprint (call agency), there is generally a culture of quantity (get the customer off the phone as fast as possible) and lastly the turnover rate is about 6 months. So, even if you get an employee who wants to improve their standing and has been around awhile, most likely that person will be quitting very soon.

Next, understand that Network Vision is ongoing in all markets.There are over 38,000 towers and Sprint is replacing the equipment on EVERY tower. You have to factor in permitting, local laws, contractors and right now the biggest problem – backhaul. By backhaul I mean that the companies that are responsible for laying down fiber optic cable (such as Comcast, Centuyrlink, Cox, AT&T) are being very slow to do so. So, while upgrades may have been made, there often is nothing to hook the new equipment up to.

Lastly, you might check out s4gru.com. This is an independent site that has the most current information (passed to them from internal Sprint employees and contractors) about the rollout. In their forums there is a market area where you can check on the progress of your area. If you become a sponsor (I'm not, I'm not even a member) you will have direct access to exactly which towers are being updated where and when.

Again, none of this is information that front line CSRs (gatekeepers) have access to.

I know that doesn't help you with your current predicament, but you may find some info on s4gru.com that will be helpful.

P.S., you can't cancel over this. They have provisions in the contract you sign that state that they do not guarantee coverage. This has been fought successfully in court by a few people. Just depends on how badly you want to fight it and how deep your pockets are. You can also try dan@sprint.com which is Retentions, filing an FCC complaint (which will have Retentions calling you) or placing your phone on roaming and roaming with excessive data for a few months. Sprint will terminate you ETF free if you do that.

 

[cuzo]

I have to be jail token to roam on Verizon and I'm not and thanks for the information.

I have about a year left on my contract since I bought my iPhone 5 opening day and the speed is terrible and battery life isn't good and I think it's the signal.

 

[eyoungren]

I have to be jail token to roam on Verizon and I'm not and thanks for the information.

I have about a year left on my contract since I bought my iPhone 5 opening day and the speed is terrible and battery life isn't good and I think it's the signal.

Yeah, it would be that. Something that can help is to go in to Settings>General>Cellular and turn off the LTE switch. That will prevent the LTE radios from trying to connect to a non-existant signal, which reduces battery life.

Part of the problem is congestion. Because Sprint is working on the towers, other nearby towers have to take the load. They were already strained.

If you contact Retentions, demand an Airave. An Airave is a small femtocell (cell tower) that hooks up to your existing home network. It uses your home network as backhaul to the Sprint network. That should give you a usable signal in your apartment. I am assuming you have a home network.

I demanded one from Rentions late last year with my iPhone 5 and I got one free of monthly charges and no activation fee. Just be warned that you have to leave it hooked up or send it back to them if you do not use it or they will charge you a fee.

 

[cuzo]

Yeah, it would be that. Something that can help is to go in to Settings>General>Cellular and turn off the LTE switch. That will prevent the LTE radios from trying to connect to a non-existant signal, which reduces battery life.

Part of the problem is congestion. Because Sprint is working on the towers, other nearby towers have to take the load. They were already strained.

If you contact Retentions, demand an Airave. An Airave is a small femtocell (cell tower) that hooks up to your existing home network. It uses your home network as backhaul to the Sprint network. That should give you a usable signal in your apartment. I am assuming you have a home network.

I demanded one from Rentions late last year with my iPhone 5 and I got one free of monthly charges and no activation fee. Just be warned that you have to leave it hooked up or send it back to them if you do not use it or they will charge you a fee.

I have a couple bars but the data is awful, very awful like 0.13mbs.

Constantly, even on LTE I'm barely getting 0.20mb so the signal is very bad but the bars are there.

I know what a airwave is and honestly I just want to leave Sprint. I might just pay the fee and go.

 

[eyoungren]

Well, it sounds like your market is probably being upgraded if you have LTE, but isn't far along. The way it works it that it will get better slowly over time.

I live in Phoenix and in the last week we've gone from 2 initial LTE towers in mid-August to now about 6. So, all I can say is time will make it better.

But go with the carrier that meets your needs now. If that's not Sprint, then good luck to you and I hope you find a good fit.

 

[Black Magic]

Well, it sounds like your market is probably being upgraded if you have LTE, but isn't far along. The way it works it that it will get better slowly over time.

I live in Phoenix and in the last week we've gone from 2 initial LTE towers in mid-August to now about 6. So, all I can say is time will make it better.

But go with the carrier that meets your needs now. If that's not Sprint, then good luck to you and I hope you find a good fit.

Everything that you mentioned above is spot on. I also have an AirRave in my home for free.99 and that device is spotty as well. I just recently performed a profile update and a network settings reset so we will see if things get better. I'm not impressed at all.

When my contract is up, I'll probably go AT&T. Sprint is just not worth the hassle.

 

[eyoungren]

Well, we're under contract now until September of next year. I had hoped that I would get LTE some time last year, but it didn't start going live until now. In any case, we will stay because it is going live. I've used it (had to drive over to a tower) and I'm fine with it. Even if we end up with say 6mbps up I'm ok. That 3 times the speed of 3G in my area right now.

We've been with Sprint since 1999 and this has been the closest I've ever gotten to leaving. As to our Airave, we have the POS Airvana 2.5. It works, but if we are solely on 3G at home we get the double text bug that comes with that femtocell.

I'm just waiting for LTE to get where I live (hopefully soon) and I can send this thing back.

 

[Black Magic]

Well, we're under contract now until September of next year. I had hoped that I would get LTE some time last year, but it didn't start going live until now. In any case, we will stay because it is going live. I've used it (had to drive over to a tower) and I'm fine with it. Even if we end up with say 6mbps up I'm ok. That 3 times the speed of 3G in my area right now.

We've been with Sprint since 1999 and this has been the closest I've ever gotten to leaving. As to our Airave, we have the POS Airvana 2.5. It works, but if we are solely on 3G at home we get the double text bug that comes with that femtocell.

I'm just waiting for LTE to get where I live (hopefully soon) and I can send this thing back.

I have been with Sprint for quite a few years and now I'm just getting fed up. I do have LTE in my area and its great but the 2 places I'm at the most, I can't get LTE which isn't too big of a deal because I'm on wireless but still.

The problem I have is my iPhone 5 is dropping calls like crazy. Sprint forums has people bitching about it left and right. Alot of times when transitioning from LTE to 3G. It's a pain in the ass. Hell, I drop calls like crazy in my house sitting next to the AirRave. I've jacked with the settings for the AirRave and locked it down to just my family cell phones, I have had Sprint increase the power settings for it to extend the coverage in my house and it just plain sucks.

I'll have to do my due diligence and research all the issues with AT&T before I make the jump (like FaceTime over Cellular) but I'm jumping for sure unless some miraculous change occurs to the service before I switch.

 

[eyoungren]

I have been with Sprint for quite a few years and now I'm just getting fed up. I do have LTE in my area and its great but the 2 places I'm at the most, I can't get LTE which isn't too big of a deal because I'm on wireless but still.

The problem I have is my iPhone 5 is dropping calls like crazy. Sprint forums has people bitching about it left and right. Alot of times when transitioning from LTE to 3G. It's a pain in the ass. Hell, I drop calls like crazy in my house sitting next to the AirRave. I've jacked with the settings for the AirRave and locked it down to just my family cell phones, I have had Sprint increase the power settings for it to extend the coverage in my house and it just plain sucks.

I'll have to do my due diligence and research all the issues with AT&T before I make the jump (like FaceTime over Cellular) but I'm jumping for sure unless some miraculous change occurs to the service before I switch.

Sounds like you might be in an Ericsson market. Chicago, is a good example. Samsung is/was the legacy equipment in that market and since it's crap there was a problem integrating LTE handoff to the legacy equipment when switching from LTE to 3G. The result is dropped calls. Sprint as I understand it, still has not got this resolved yet in Chicago.

So, I suspect that's probably what is happening to you.

What I did with my Airave was assign it a static IP address via it's interface. My wired router (I have two) allows me to assign one IP address on my LAN to be completely exposed to the internet (DMZ). So, the IP address I made for the Airave is the one that I put in for this. That makes my Airave exposed to the internet, which is fine because it removes any network barriers that any of my other network equipment and phones may have in getting to the Airave.

I monkeyed with the settings for a while before I just decided to do this and I haven't had a problem since. Maybe if your router has something similar, you might try that and see if it works for you.

 

[Black Magic]

Sounds like you might be in an Ericsson market. Chicago, is a good example. Samsung is/was the legacy equipment in that market and since it's crap there was a problem integrating LTE handoff to the legacy equipment when switching from LTE to 3G. The result is dropped calls. Sprint as I understand it, still has not got this resolved yet in Chicago.

So, I suspect that's probably what is happening to you.

What I did with my Airave was assign it a static IP address via it's interface. My wired router (I have two) allows me to assign one IP address on my LAN to be completely exposed to the internet (DMZ). So, the IP address I made for the Airave is the one that I put in for this. That makes my Airave exposed to the internet, which is fine because it removes any network barriers that any of my other network equipment and phones may have in getting to the Airave.

I monkeyed with the settings for a while before I just decided to do this and I haven't had a problem since. Maybe if your router has something similar, you might try that and see if it works for you.

It's been about a week since I reset my network settings on the phone and updated the profile and not a single drop. Here's hoping I fixed it. If I can keep it solid especially after upgrading to iOS 7 tomorrow when the GM drops, I'll probably stick it out with Sprint a couple more years.

 

[AppleFan91]

First off, this is Sprint. Never, ever trust a word out of the mouth of a Sprint employee. They are poorly trained, they are on the lowest rung as far as information, the system they use to check towers is NOT real-time, they often do not work directly for Sprint (call agency), there is generally a culture of quantity (get the customer off the phone as fast as possible) and lastly the turnover rate is about 6 months. So, even if you get an employee who wants to improve their standing and has been around awhile, most likely that person will be quitting very soon.

Next, understand that Network Vision is ongoing in all markets.There are over 38,000 towers and Sprint is replacing the equipment on EVERY tower. You have to factor in permitting, local laws, contractors and right now the biggest problem – backhaul. By backhaul I mean that the companies that are responsible for laying down fiber optic cable (such as Comcast, Centuyrlink, Cox, AT&T) are being very slow to do so. So, while upgrades may have been made, there often is nothing to hook the new equipment up to.

Lastly, you might check out s4gru.com. This is an independent site that has the most current information (passed to them from internal Sprint employees and contractors) about the rollout. In their forums there is a market area where you can check on the progress of your area. If you become a sponsor (I'm not, I'm not even a member) you will have direct access to exactly which towers are being updated where and when.

Again, none of this is information that front line CSRs (gatekeepers) have access to.

I know that doesn't help you with your current predicament, but you may find some info on s4gru.com that will be helpful.

P.S., you can't cancel over this. They have provisions in the contract you sign that state that they do not guarantee coverage. This has been fought successfully in court by a few people. Just depends on how badly you want to fight it and how deep your pockets are. You can also try dan@sprint.com which is Retentions, filing an FCC complaint (which will have Retentions calling you) or placing your phone on roaming and roaming with excessive data for a few months. Sprint will terminate you ETF free if you do that.

As a former employee for Sprint, the majority of this information is true. I wasn't a CSR but a Sales Rep then a Tech and I can say that you are not the first person to try and get out of a contract because of poor service during Network Vision. In the contract, it does state that you cannot cancel for this reason. You still have service, it is just very poor. Just like, Sprint promises Unlimited data, but no where does it say fast. Little details my friend, little details.

 

[eyoungren]

As a former employee for Sprint, the majority of this information is true. I wasn't a CSR but a Sales Rep then a Tech and I can say that you are not the first person to try and get out of a contract because of poor service during Network Vision. In the contract, it does state that you cannot cancel for this reason. You still have service, it is just very poor. Just like, Sprint promises Unlimited data, but no where does it say fast. Little details my friend, little details.

I feel for the truly competent Sprint employees. There aren't enough of them. They've ever been pushed out, beaten down, or silenced in other ways.

Thanks to the sprintusers.com forums I know a few of them. It's a shame that the culture there at Sprint is such that a broad brush (such as I have used) paints you all the same.

 

[AppleFan91]

I feel for the truly competent Sprint employees. There aren't enough of them. They've ever been pushed out, beaten down, or silenced in other ways.

Thanks to the sprintusers.com forums I know a few of them. It's a shame that the culture there at Sprint is such that a broad brush (such as I have used) paints you all the same.

It was, without a doubt, the worst place I have ever worked. I've never been a fan of lying, but salespeople did it with complete disregard for the interests of the customer they are selling to. It was really quite sad to see how dishonesty was not just allowed, but nearly cultivated by the management. Anyway, /rant. haha

 

[Black Magic]

It was, without a doubt, the worst place I have ever worked. I've never been a fan of lying, but salespeople did it with complete disregard for the interests of the customer they are selling to. It was really quite sad to see how dishonesty was not just allowed, but nearly cultivated by the management. Anyway, /rant. haha

Sales folks at any company lie. It's commission based so they will tell you whatever it takes to get that sell.

 

[mdcosta911]

I've had Sprint for the past year with the iPhone 5 and it's the worst service I've ever had by FAR. I am in the DC area. Though DC is a "Primary Market", I am on 3G 9/10 times! IN WASHINGTON DC! Oh, and when I AM on LTE, unless I'm close to the tower with a good signal, it's still pretty pathetic.. it's the slowest LTE of all the major carriers! Service is GARBAGE in DC. Switching for the 5S for a carrier that I already know I will get LTE service with!!

*DO NOT GET SPRINT*