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Sprint really sucks this bad.
They will do anything to get you to keep your phone the entire 14 days.
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I hate Sprint.
- Thread starter Jacoblee23
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This post should be stickied
Sprint really sucks this bad.
They will do anything to get you to keep your phone the entire 14 days.
hate Sprint.
Had their "unlimited plan" for my whole family.
My work place has spotty Sprint coverage but the salesman assured that they're actively expanding in that region. Besides, I'd be covered by antennas from other providers in the meanwhile.
3 months later I got a warning that I was exceeding my monthly roaming allowance on my "unlimited" plan. They explained that, while they don't charge for excessive use on an unlimited plan - they do reserve the right to terminate my plan. They advised shutting off roaming data and voice on my phone in order to prevent future violations.
Unfortunately this meant my phone was useless at work. I left the data and voice on and just tried to budget my time. Last week they sent me a notice of termination in 2 weeks.
I talked to the kind salesperson who said he was powerless. I talked to CS who "apologized" and said that the decision was made by a separate department and they were powerless to reverse the decision. They would not forward me to any representative of that department but assured me that my concerns will be relayed up the chain and said to have a nice day.
I can fault their salesmen who were pushing the product so hard they promised that Sprint LTE would be at the town I worked by January - and that it would support simultaneous voice and data. Shame on me for not checking the facts but I was in a trusting mood that day.
It's September and I was still getting most of my service as "roaming data."
I can fault their business model which has the salesmen telling me flat out that they have no leverage with CS to negotiate on my behalf to restore services. Then CS for saying they had no power to restore my services either.
I can fault the business for marketing an "Unlimited Plan" with fine print that matters a lot to a small minority of victims, like myself.
It's like an all you can eat ice cream shop which doesn't tell you it's only unlimited as long as it's vanilla and kicks you out for eating too much chocolate ice cream. Even when you offer to pay extra for the chocolate they tell you to get off their property.
Sprint is not my friend.
Had their "unlimited plan" for my whole family.
My work place has spotty Sprint coverage but the salesman assured that they're actively expanding in that region. Besides, I'd be covered by antennas from other providers in the meanwhile.
3 months later I got a warning that I was exceeding my monthly roaming allowance on my "unlimited" plan. They explained that, while they don't charge for excessive use on an unlimited plan - they do reserve the right to terminate my plan. They advised shutting off roaming data and voice on my phone in order to prevent future violations.
Unfortunately this meant my phone was useless at work. I left the data and voice on and just tried to budget my time. Last week they sent me a notice of termination in 2 weeks.
I talked to the kind salesperson who said he was powerless. I talked to CS who "apologized" and said that the decision was made by a separate department and they were powerless to reverse the decision. They would not forward me to any representative of that department but assured me that my concerns will be relayed up the chain and said to have a nice day.
I can fault their salesmen who were pushing the product so hard they promised that Sprint LTE would be at the town I worked by January - and that it would support simultaneous voice and data. Shame on me for not checking the facts but I was in a trusting mood that day.
It's September and I was still getting most of my service as "roaming data."
I can fault their business model which has the salesmen telling me flat out that they have no leverage with CS to negotiate on my behalf to restore services. Then CS for saying they had no power to restore my services either.
I can fault the business for marketing an "Unlimited Plan" with fine print that matters a lot to a small minority of victims, like myself.
It's like an all you can eat ice cream shop which doesn't tell you it's only unlimited as long as it's vanilla and kicks you out for eating too much chocolate ice cream. Even when you offer to pay extra for the chocolate they tell you to get off their property.
Sprint is not my friend.
How did I know this would devolve from a help the OP with his problem into a Sprint's network sucks thread, LOL.
Been with Sprint since 1999. In fact, just got my wife a new iPhone 5, 64GB on Sprint about three weeks ago. This is where "Sprint sucks" worked for me because her phone was sitting in Apple's stockroom since November and came with 6.0.1. Which I then jailbroke.
Anyway, 3G sucks on Sprint. That is a fact that cannot be argued, except in places where Network Vision has solidly been implemented. LTE is debatable depending on where you are.
Some notes. Gary Forsee ran Sprint in to the ground. See, he used to be the CEO and not Dan Hesse. Forsee allowed the network to deteriorate. No maintenance, no updates, no upgrades. Then Forsee bought Nextel. Forsee got run out on a rail some time later. Enter Dan Hesse who inherits the mess Forsee created.
Dan Hesse is no prize. But he has the FCC telling him that he MUST use certain spectrum or he WILL lose the licenses for it. LTE then is only a concept. WiMax is all he has because at the time Sprint has no money. So, he partners with Clearwire and sells them Nextel's spectrum to use.
Clearwire is badly managed (even worse than Sprint) and stops building out WiMax. So Sprint comes up with Network Vision, dumps WiMax and gets taken over by Softbank. That enables Sprint to buyout Clearwire and get back the spectrum it sold to them.
So now, over 38,000 towers that have not seen updates or upgrades because of Gary Forsee are being ripped out and replaced with all new equipment. That takes time because of licensing, local regulations, landlords and backhaul. Some towers, because of Forsee's negligence have equipment dating back to 1998. Further, Sprint is also integrating the old iDen towers and the Clearwire WiMax towers (because now Softbank gave them the money to do so) into the LTE network.
And that's the other problem right now. Backhaul. There are only a handful of companies that do this. And guess what, a lot of them have ties to either Verizon or AT&T. So where's the incentive to be timely for Sprint?
In my area (Phoenix) many towers have been upgraded. Since late August, LTE has mushroomed out here (getting closer to my home), but Cox and Centurylink (AT&T relationship) are being freaking slow to deliver fiber optic backhaul. Hard to be faster when there is nothing to hook the new equipment up to.
I am not a defender of Sprint. I've had my own go arounds with them and even managed to get myself banned from their forums. Just explaining.
Been with Sprint since 1999. In fact, just got my wife a new iPhone 5, 64GB on Sprint about three weeks ago. This is where "Sprint sucks" worked for me because her phone was sitting in Apple's stockroom since November and came with 6.0.1. Which I then jailbroke.
Anyway, 3G sucks on Sprint. That is a fact that cannot be argued, except in places where Network Vision has solidly been implemented. LTE is debatable depending on where you are.
Some notes. Gary Forsee ran Sprint in to the ground. See, he used to be the CEO and not Dan Hesse. Forsee allowed the network to deteriorate. No maintenance, no updates, no upgrades. Then Forsee bought Nextel. Forsee got run out on a rail some time later. Enter Dan Hesse who inherits the mess Forsee created.
Dan Hesse is no prize. But he has the FCC telling him that he MUST use certain spectrum or he WILL lose the licenses for it. LTE then is only a concept. WiMax is all he has because at the time Sprint has no money. So, he partners with Clearwire and sells them Nextel's spectrum to use.
Clearwire is badly managed (even worse than Sprint) and stops building out WiMax. So Sprint comes up with Network Vision, dumps WiMax and gets taken over by Softbank. That enables Sprint to buyout Clearwire and get back the spectrum it sold to them.
So now, over 38,000 towers that have not seen updates or upgrades because of Gary Forsee are being ripped out and replaced with all new equipment. That takes time because of licensing, local regulations, landlords and backhaul. Some towers, because of Forsee's negligence have equipment dating back to 1998. Further, Sprint is also integrating the old iDen towers and the Clearwire WiMax towers (because now Softbank gave them the money to do so) into the LTE network.
And that's the other problem right now. Backhaul. There are only a handful of companies that do this. And guess what, a lot of them have ties to either Verizon or AT&T. So where's the incentive to be timely for Sprint?
In my area (Phoenix) many towers have been upgraded. Since late August, LTE has mushroomed out here (getting closer to my home), but Cox and Centurylink (AT&T relationship) are being freaking slow to deliver fiber optic backhaul. Hard to be faster when there is nothing to hook the new equipment up to.
I am not a defender of Sprint. I've had my own go arounds with them and even managed to get myself banned from their forums. Just explaining.
+1 for Sprint sucking
I stuck with Sprint for 13 years because their service was great. Then I bought the iPhone 4S when first came out 2 years ago and something with Sprint changed overnight. Complained and complained to them almost every day for 3 straight weeks about my data speeds being in the low double kb/s digits and they didn't care. Paying the ETF to get away from Sprint was the best money I've spent in a long time.
I stuck with Sprint for 13 years because their service was great. Then I bought the iPhone 4S when first came out 2 years ago and something with Sprint changed overnight. Complained and complained to them almost every day for 3 straight weeks about my data speeds being in the low double kb/s digits and they didn't care. Paying the ETF to get away from Sprint was the best money I've spent in a long time.
This is a great knowledgable history of Sprint and how it relates to the future getting better. I simply wanted to quote this so I can easily look through my post history and come back to read this again as it's full of good information. Thanks for taking the time to write it
What are you guys talking about? Sprint rocks!
To be fair though, I live in an area where no one gets service on any provider. I can drive four miles down the road to the nearest town (about 500 residents, yes 5 hundred) and get 15+ MB d/l on LTE lol.
I'm ok with that. No service means no one bugging me
Why even pay for data at those speeds though!
If you want to count their 256kpbs as '3G' you go right ahead. When other carriers' 3G is capable of 2-3 mbps it makes Sprint look bad.
Sprint has been doing nothing but making broken promises ever since they got the iPhone 4S. When was that October 2011? As of right now, their network is still the same old crappy one we're all use too. You can't defend them at all because they have nothing to show for it.
Their LTE is about as fast as T-Mobile & AT&T's 3G/H+ on a bad day is NOT a blanket statement. Of course that's not the entire country, but the majority of it. I can easily pull 7-10 mbps on AT&T's 3G/H+ network. In most markets Sprint seems to be topping out there.
Their iPhones (4,4S,5, & 5S) all will have the absolute worst resale value. - source? You must not check eBay or Craigslist often. Gazelle will pay me $195 for my 32GB iPhone 4S in good condition. For the exact same phone, but on Sprint they're willing to pay me $155. Why the difference???? I'm sure you can figure it out.
Sprint is CDMA, and this isn't used around the world and isn't as common as GSM - so what? what percentage of folks are world travelers? It's merely another option. Its not an opinion. GSM is the most widely used technology for cell phones throughout the world. It doesn't matter who travels or not, its still the better (newer) technology which brings a lot more to the table. CDMA folks always use that LAME argument because their jealous that their technology can't do what GSM can do.
All aside, you are in the MINORITY here defending Sprint and their garbage network. By doing so, your kind of taking your credibility away. I never take people defending Sprint seriously. I always just assume their jealous of AT&T because of their blazing LTE speeds.
In terms of the poster who wanted proof resale values are lower for Sprint iPhones, look at Gazelle. They offer $100 less than the same att and verizon models.
With that said two things to disclose... I work for a competitor but my opinions are my own. And two... I really hope SoftBank fixes a lot of the criticisms. We need a healthy market. This means four healthy, competitive national networks and lots of healthy regional and prepaid competition. I am glad tmobile is going in the right direction. Now hopefully it's sprints turn.
With that said two things to disclose... I work for a competitor but my opinions are my own. And two... I really hope SoftBank fixes a lot of the criticisms. We need a healthy market. This means four healthy, competitive national networks and lots of healthy regional and prepaid competition. I am glad tmobile is going in the right direction. Now hopefully it's sprints turn.
No problem!This is a great knowledgable history of Sprint and how it relates to the future getting better. I simply wanted to quote this so I can easily look through my post history and come back to read this again as it's full of good information. Thanks for taking the time to write it
It helps some times to have the WHY of things.
I skipped over some stuff though as it would have made the post about three times as long, but that's the gist of it. I also didn't include the fact that just because Dan Hesse says customer service has improved, it doesn't mean it has. Because it hasn't. Sprint unfortunately has an inbred culture that fosters lying and avoiding responsibility. Network Vision probably would not have taken so long if Sprint corporate wasn't as busy covering their ass as they are.
I speculate that that is because Sprint's unlock policy only allows for international unlocking. The laughable thing about this though is that even if Sprint had an open unlock policy, well where would you go?
The bands on Sprint and T-Mobile are different. You'd get no LTE and Verizon doesn't support Sprint's bands at all. Possibly AT&T with the GSM part of the phone, but really, you're limited in choice. So, really, this is probably why they hold less value.
What gets me is that no one does research and then when they find out they cannot unlock the phone for domestic use they put it up on eBay or craigslist for the next poor sucker who doesn't do their research.
As to Softbank I don't have a lot of hope here. I did, but since Softbank gained control they have not done much except introduce two new plans and those had been in the works already. Frankly and unfortunately, I see Sprint as Softbank's Nextel. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but so far there's been zero noise from Softbank (other than buying more of the company) from any channels I follow.
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No problem. There's been a lot of change since '99 and new customers don't always know the history. Even customers who came in in the mid 00's don't know. Dan Hesse only took over in December 2007.
There's lot's of more useful info on s4gru.com if interested. Note that I am not a shill for them or anything. But I follow the site because it has useful info. I have a fundamental disagreement with the culture and views of the management over there so I have never registered and my first post would probably get me banned, but their info is still good.
I missed this earlier. Yeah, unfortunately Customer Service is NOT what Dan Hesse says it is. And the fine print in the contract says Sprint is only obliged to provide a service (and not uninterrupted at that) but not to provide it at any minimum speed.
The upshot for you is that when Sprint terminates due to roaming it's ETF free. Other than your final bill you will not see any ETF charges.
Should you still want to take a shot at staying you might try contacting Retentions. dan@sprint.com
You'll get a call. Retentions is the only department that has the authority to do or override anything. It's probably Retentions itself that initiated the termination which would be why the rep could not help you.
If you are successful with them you might try asking for an Airave. An Airave is a small 3G femtocell (cell tower) that uses your home internet connection as backhaul. Your phone(s) connect to the Airave. This would keep you off roaming - at least at home.
P.S. There is a difference between a CORPORATE Sprint store and a THIRD party retail Sprint store. The latter will lie to you even more than Sprint itself because they have overhead and Sprint treats them like garbage.
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Yup +1.
People trying to defend sprint is hilarious. Go ahead and youtube sprint speed tests on iPhone. 3G never goes above 1Mbps.
Well, I'm on Sprint, but I don't defend them. I tolerate them because that's the best you can do.
However, I'd LOVE to have the speed you quote!
Attachments
1Mbps would have been satisfactory for me 2 years ago with the 4S. I wasn't able to get over 100Kbps in downtown Portland, OR with full bars on 3G.
Sprint - you should have known better
You didn't know sprint was the worst? There is a plethora of info regarding them as a carrier - surprised apple even lets them carry the iPhone considering how terrible their speeds are. Unlimited data means nothing when you are browsing at a snail's pace. I like AT$T.
You didn't know sprint was the worst? There is a plethora of info regarding them as a carrier - surprised apple even lets them carry the iPhone considering how terrible their speeds are. Unlimited data means nothing when you are browsing at a snail's pace. I like AT$T.
Apple, depsite religion, fanboi's (and I am NOT saying you are one), hype, marketing, etcetera is a company out for profit.
Apple will sell to anyone willing to buy that meets their terms. Sprint, incidentally is currently on track with their committment to Apple. Verizon on the other hand is looking to pay because they are behind.
Chalk that up to Sprint effectively lying out the wazoo to get customers.
Just curious, does this mean that Sprint is selling more iPhones (to meet their commitment) than Verizon?
I don't know. The statement I made was based on an article I read a while back where Sprint confirmed that they were meeting their requirement. It was mentioned as part of a story on Verizon being behind. AT&T was also mentioned as being on track as well.
But there were no numbers mentioned and nothing stating that Sprint was selling more than others or not.
If I had to guess I would say that even in being behind Verizon is probably still ahead of Sprint.
Here we go
If I know anybody who want's to get out of Sprint without the ETF I can help them now.
You see, why couldn't CS tell me that? I asked to be referred to someone with the authority to assist and the lady at CS basically gave me the brushoff. And said she'll forward my concerns. I know that doesn't, technically, make her a liar but the entire experience was already Kafaesque and I just wanted out by then. Besides, I'm not going to blame CS for an apparently crappy protocol. Her job is tough enough as it is.
If I loved the service I would have fought harder.
I went to Sprint from AT&T thinking I was getting rid of the "Dropouts." With Sprint I still got dropouts. The only difference is that AT&T dropouts happened only at specific places. Sprint dropouts happened randomly and could occur anywhere. Signal was also poor. AT&T was better ... plus I had the ability to use voice and data simultaneously with AT&T which was very convenient - I could hold a conversation while googling information.
But I took solace in that I was paying much less at Sprint for an unlimited plan... You know the rest.
How can you tell the difference? The place I went to is a large corner lot on a major street with big Sprint logo over the door.
just switched from Sprint to ATT on Friday. I've never known this world of good service before. I can ACTUALLY use my phone again!
Wow I actually think my 90s dial up accomplished more than that.
Sprint, like T-Mobile is a budget carrier and caters towards a different market than AT&T & Verizon do.
Sprint's achilles heel is their pathetic network. T-Mobile's achilles heel would be all their EDGE coverage and poor building penetration.
AT&T/Verizon rape you with their prices.
The Sprint CSR probably couldn't tell you that because she probably didn't know. The average Sprint CSR lasts about 6 months. and is minimally trained. Your success at Sprint is based on how fast you solve a customer's problem and THAT is based on the customer survey. Consequently, there is an inbuilt incentive to lie your ass off to the customer so that you keep your job.
Sprint doesn't tell the front line gatekeepers anything more than the minimum necessary to do their job. There are exceptions but they are far and few between.
The difference between a corporate store and a third party is a matter of naming and product. A third party will identity itself as something like this "Sprint, dba Advantage Wireless, LLC or something like that. A corporate store only identifies itself as "Sprint."
A third party store does not and never will have the latest product, especially on launch days. Sprint does not provide that to ANY third party store until well after a launch and third party stores have to pay for ALL OF THE PRODUCT UP FRONT AND IN FULL to Sprint. The third party store also takes the hit on returns. Sprint does not reimburse them even though the third party signed YOU with Sprint. So, the third party has to deal with the manufacturer or eat your return. Lastly, and it may not be so much now, but if there is a cash pay machine in the store, it's corporate. Third party stores do NOT have direct access to the Sprint payment system.
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Yeah, fortunately, most of the places I am at have WiFi. I'm jailbroken so I have a tweak that picks WiFi up when it finds a netork I am on and shuts off the 3G/LTE radios automatically (and vice versa when I leave a WiFi network) so this is fairly seamless to me.
There's still enough speed to use 3G to stream and load webpages the few times I may need to do so and LTE is becoming easier to find.
Well if I were you I'd switch providers and sell my phone to pay the ETF. Go to AT&T or T-Mobile.
Wow. So much truth in this post. Describes their network and phones perfectly.