Carrier Only now does Sprint care…

[eyoungren]

Sixteen years and only because I ported out without warning does Sprint care.

They didn't care when I had no LTE for over a year with a brand new LTE capable iPhone 5.

They didn't care when I suffered speeds less than 1mbps down from late 2012 to early 2015.

They didn't care when I had to bully them into an Airave.

They didn't care when I was forced to use my own home WiFi for service when I was paying over $200 a month for cellular.

They didn't care when we couldn't make phone calls.

They didn't care when text messages were slow, didn't arrive at all or when we got two for each one sent.

They wouldn't have cared an iota if we'd threatened to leave.

But now that we do leave - NOW they care.

Hey Sprint…guess what? I don't care about you now!

/rant



Sorry if no one cares!

 

[cchs2014]

Haha, I just left them for T-Mobile this past week as well, so I'll be expecting that same e-mail. But I've dealt with pretty much every item you've listed and now that I've experienced T-Mobile, I have no intentions of going back to Sprint!

I can't believe I even gave them a chance in the first place...

T-Mobile is amazing.

 

[eyoungren]

I only have 4G right now at home with T-Mobile, so I have my wife on WiFi mostly. It's generally around 1mbps down (the T-Mobile 4G, not my WiFi). However, she can make and hold a phone call without dropouts.

That's damn all more useful than Sprint in the last few months. I get LTE almost everywhere else and it's not been an issue. I've gotten my fastest speeds ever - on T-Mobile. Even with Sprint having finally improved one of the towers around where I work.

I had a T-Mobile employee apologize that LTE speeds would be around 5mbps down because the network is congested in my area. Really? That's Sprint on a good day! SMH!

I'm also informed that there are big plans for my area in the next few months. I trust that more than I trust "in the coming months" from Sprint.

So, yeah. No way I am going back. My phones and tablets have already been sent off to T-Mobile anyway so it's not like I could without incurring more costs.

Sure hope Sprint does better, but after 16 years I'm done with waiting.

 

[rigormortis]

i bought this new unlocked iPhone 6s+ and i tried running just basic imei checks with verizon and sprint and sprint is giving me the line about how its not a sprint device.. verizon says we will have to try it in the store


i didn't try activated sim cards or actually signing up, i was just curious about their imei device lists

my pet peeve with sprint right now is they tell you they save you $20 versus t-mobile's unlimited plan, but fail to mention that sprint does not give you mobile hotspot. if you want mobile hotspot its $20 more for 2 gb, which is the same price t-mobile charges for unlimited plus 7 gigs of mobile hotspot

if you want to match t-mobiles 7 gigs of mobile hotspot and unlimited data with sprint, your sprint bill would be $110. it would be $60 for unlimited and $50 for 6 gigs, and you would still have 1 gig less then t-mobile

its hard to put a price tag on all of t-mobile's uncarrier moves like music freedom, but the lack of mobile hotspot on sprint's plan is a major drawback

 

[eyoungren]

i bought this new unlocked iPhone 6s+ and i tried running just basic imei checks with verizon and sprint and sprint is giving me the line about how its not a sprint device.. verizon says we will have to try it in the store


i didn't try activated sim cards or actually signing up, i was just curious about their imei device lists

my pet peeve with sprint right now is they tell you they save you $20 versus t-mobile's unlimited plan, but fail to mention that sprint does not give you mobile hotspot. if you want mobile hotspot its $20 more for 2 gb, which is the same price
t-mobile charges for unlimited plus 7 gigs of mobile hotspot

if you want to match t-mobiles 7 gigs of mobile hotspot and unlimited data with sprint, your sprint bill would be $110

If the phone is unlocked, Sprint arguing over the IMEI is irrelevant. The real issue is not about the IMEI, it's about whether they will choose to activate it or not. Anything else is a smokescreen to hide the fact that they are choosing (or at least the rep is choosing) not to activate.

As far as bills, I have essentially stayed the same price wise. But I can make and hold calls from home now and I have gained the tethering data per phone.

And the kick in the nuts is that Sprint was charging me $15 for 1GB of data per tablet. T-Mobile is charging me $10 for 5GB of data per tablet AND those tablets can tether other devices!

Sprint recently increased the price of one of their unlimited plans by $10. That was to add a 3GB tethering option. That's less than half what T-Mobile is giving us.

And to top it all off, the T-Mob rep I dealt with throughout all of this was professional and very nice. I'll see him again on Wednesday when my wife's gold iPad Air 2 arrives.

We won't be going back, short of T-Mobile going up in flames, which I don't see happening any time soon - if ever. We even ported out the two tablet phone numbers Sprint gave us. Yeah, I took those too!

Called Sprint up for my Airave return kit today though. They can have that back, I don't need it and it won't work on T-Mobile. I'm keeping the ASUS router Sprint sent me though.

 

[PNutts]

OP that's the best post I've seen on the forum in awhile. Thanks for the laugh. I had Sprint back in the 90s (but to be fair I lived in Kansas City).

 

[cchs2014]

If the phone is unlocked, Sprint arguing over the IMEI is irrelevant. The real issue is not about the IMEI, it's about whether they will choose to activate it or not. Anything else is a smokescreen to hide the fact that they are choosing (or at least the rep is choosing) not to activate.

As far as bills, I have essentially stayed the same price wise. But I can make and hold calls from home now and I have gained the tethering data per phone.

And the kick in the nuts is that Sprint was charging me $15 for 1GB of data per tablet. T-Mobile is charging me $10 for 5GB of data per tablet AND those tablets can tether other devices!

Sprint recently increased the price of one of their unlimited plans by $10. That was to add a 3GB tethering option. That's less than half what T-Mobile is giving us.

And to top it all off, the T-Mob rep I dealt with throughout all of this was professional and very nice. I'll see him again on Wednesday when my wife's gold iPad Air 2 arrives.

We won't be going back, short of T-Mobile going up in flames, which I don't see happening any time soon - if ever. We even ported out the two tablet phone numbers Sprint gave us. Yeah, I took those too!

Called Sprint up for my Airave return kit today though. They can have that back, I don't need it and it won't work on T-Mobile. I'm keeping the ASUS router Sprint sent me though.

Yup! I'm waiting on my Airave return kit as well! For some reason though, for a few months now I've been able to actually hold a phone call in my house on Sprint (something I have not been able to do since I joined them in 2011), however in some parts of my house T-Mobile shows 'No service' but it honestly doesn't bother me because I have wifi calling and the fact that T-Mobile works 20x better than Sprint at many of the places I frequently go to, is a good enough deal breaker for me. Sprint's LTE speeds are inconsistent and a complete joke.

 

[eyoungren]

OP that's the best post I've seen on the forum in awhile. Thanks for the laugh. I had Sprint back in the 90s (but to be fair I lived in Kansas City).

Sprint is good and decent in a lot of places. I'm not a Sprint hater in the sense that they can do no right. I recognize what they have accomplished, but my problem is that they are not accomplishing that very well where I live, work and play.

And those that are Sprint fanatics (not just supporters, fanatics) refuse to recognize what's not working and always respond with the same line, "it's getting better". Well, I can't wait anymore until it IS better. And I'm more than willing to call Sprint out on where it's falling down - same as applaud them where they are doing well.

Glad it got a laugh though. At least some good came of my experience, LOL!

 

[eyoungren]

Yup! I'm waiting on my Airave return kit as well! For some reason though, for a few months now I've been able to actually hold a phone call in my house on Sprint (something I have not been able to do since I joined them in 2011), however in some parts of my house T-Mobile shows 'No service' but it honestly doesn't bother me because I have wifi calling and the fact that T-Mobile works 20x better than Sprint at many of the places I frequently go to, is a good enough deal breaker for me. Sprint's LTE speeds are inconsistent and a complete joke.

Yeah, this is my experience. Whether the problem is at home or some other place, it's a problem that can no longer be ignored. My wife has a phone so she can make calls. If she can't make calls then what the hell am I giving a carrier over $200 a month for?!

 

[2298754]

The Coming Soon network

Their network is utter trash in Massachusetts.

 

[eyoungren]

The Coming Soon network

Their network is utter trash in Massachusetts.

Well…I won't argue against your chart, but I was fine with 3-5 down. The straw that broke the camel's back was not being able to make a call or having calls fade in and out. I'd be talking to my wife and it would cut in and out.

The number one use of our phones for us is calls. We can't have that and frankly I was tired of hearing my wife's frustration and fantasys about throwing her phone against the wall.

Had Sprint kept calls up, we'd probably still be with them. But they dropped the ball and now that I have a considerably better deal with equivalent/better coverage for roughly the same price I'm not going back.

I don't NEED 20+ down but I do have it now.

 

[DesertSilver]

I had them for 13 years before I left right after they first got the iPhone years back. I praised their service to others until that point. I was getting sub-1 Mbps speeds and complained for weeks before I ported out my number. Unfortunately, I fought with them for too long and couldn't leave without paying the ETF but I was happy to pay it at that point to leave them.

Their website displayed certain speeds for their network but they kept saying those were not guaranteed. I can accept reasonable speeds even if they were lower than "advertised" but getting ~50 Kbps with almost full bars wasn't anywhere near reasonable.

 

[Applejuiced]

Come back to Sprint?
You must have been laughing hard when that email came in

 

[eyoungren]

I had them for 13 years before I left right after they first got the iPhone years back. I praised their service to others until that point. I was getting sub-1 Mbps speeds and complained for weeks before I ported out my number. Unfortunately, I fought with them for too long and couldn't leave without paying the ETF but I was happy to pay it at that point to leave them.

Their website displayed certain speeds for their network but they kept saying those were not guaranteed. I can accept reasonable speeds even if they were lower than "advertised" but getting ~50 Kbps with almost full bars wasn't anywhere near reasonable.

Yeah, that was one of my issues. I was still on 3G for a year with my iPhone 5 and sold a friend on Sprint because of past experience then. But ever since the launch of the iPhone 5 it just got steadily worse.

It's unfortunate that I only know what I know now about certain wireless/phone/carrier topics because my frustration with not being able to get/do what I was paying for led to researching it. Before I got my iPhone 5 I had no idea what LTE was and my service just worked. I never had to think about it.

Now, it seems I can go back to just not thinking about it anymore - just with a different carrier.

 

[eyoungren]

Come back to Sprint?
You must have been laughing hard when that email came in

Actually, it was kind of sad. In the sense that you have "X" amount of time in and you know the potential - but the execution just isn't there and won't be for quite some time.

With my wife unable to make phone calls it just became untenable. But now, being on this side of it I won't go back - short of T-Mobile imploding.

 

[iNinja08]

I left sprint back before smart phones existed when they refused to credit me for $200 roaming charges that I incurred even though I never left the city, and did nothing outside my daily routine. I vowed I would never go back to that polished turd.

 

[cchs2014]

Yeah, that was one of my issues. I was still on 3G for a year with my iPhone 5 and sold a friend on Sprint because of past experience then. But ever since the launch of the iPhone 5 it just got steadily worse.

It's unfortunate that I only know what I know now about certain wireless/phone/carrier topics because my frustration with not being able to get/do what I was paying for led to researching it. Before I got my iPhone 5 I had no idea what LTE was and my service just worked. I never had to think about it.

Now, it seems I can go back to just not thinking about it anymore - just with a different carrier.

Wow, we share the exact same frustrations. I switched to Sprint from At&t and I definitely remember never having to pay attention to the signal strength in the status bar because whatever I needed to do, At&t could handle it and it just worked... smoothly. Once I switched to Sprint I became very confused as to why I had full bars of signal but NO working data whatsoever. This led to tons of in-depth research. Now that I am with T-Mobile I am beginning to feel more relaxed and at ease with the fact that 9 times out of 10 if I need my phone to do something, it will do it. There's no longer a need for me to run tons of speed tests and constantly keep an eye on my signal strength before trying to do something. I know with T-Mobile if it says LTE or even 4G in the status indicator there's a really good chance I can do whatever task it is that I need to handle at that moment.

 

[eyoungren]

Wow, we share the exact same frustrations. I switched to Sprint from At&t and I definitely remember never having to pay attention to the signal strength in the status bar because whatever I needed to do, At&t could handle it and it just worked... smoothly. Once I switched to Sprint I became very confused as to why I had full bars of signal but NO working data whatsoever. This led to tons of in-depth research. Now that I am with T-Mobile I am beginning to feel more relaxed and at ease with the fact that 9 times out of 10 if I need my phone to do something, it will do it. There's no longer a need for me to run tons of speed tests and constantly keep an eye on my signal strength before trying to do something. I know with T-Mobile if it says LTE or even 4G in the status indicator there's a really good chance I can do whatever task it is that I need to handle at that moment.

Yeah, and that's really all I'm asking for. I don't need 100mbps+ down (although it's nice). As I've said earlier, 3-6 is just fine as long as I can do a task I set out to do.

We get frustrated when we set out to do something and stumbling blocks that prevent that from happening are placed in our way.

So, as slow as 4G may be at home - it STILL lets me do a task in a reasonable time frame. Again, not something I was getting from Sprint.

The other trick is going to be learning to calm down because what I have been conditioned to expect won't work, does now in fact WORK.

 

[JohnApples]

"It's getting better." The phrase I kept hearing from Sprint supporters since 2010.

"Just wait until we get 4G WiMAX!" Never came.
"Just wait until we get LTE!" God-awful, sub-1mbps speeds consistently.
"Just wait until Spark!" I'm in the center of a Spark coverage area and have yet to connect to the so called 'Spark' bands and see these amazing speeds.

Where I am, the differences in coverage between Sprint and ANY other carrier is night and day. I don't even get reliable call or texting coverage. The only reason why I'm still with them is because I'm grandfathered into an older, cheaper, unlimited data plan. Kinda pointless having unlimited data when it is literally unusable half the time.

Once my contract is up, I'm gone for good. Only a tempting email will bring me back

 

[eyoungren]

"It's getting better." The phrase I kept hearing from Sprint supporters since 2010.

"Just wait until we get 4G WiMAX!" Never came.
"Just wait until we get LTE!" God-awful, sub-1mbps speeds consistently.
"Just wait until Spark!" I'm in the center of a Spark coverage area and have yet to connect to the so called 'Spark' bands and see these amazing speeds.

Where I am, the differences in coverage between Sprint and ANY other carrier is night and day. I don't even get reliable call or texting coverage. The only reason why I'm still with them is because I'm grandfathered into an older, cheaper, unlimited data plan. Kinda pointless having unlimited data when it is literally unusable half the time.

Once my contract is up, I'm gone for good. Only a tempting email will bring me back

I had an ED1500 plan until earlier this year. Went with a lease with the iPhone 6+ and was ok with that until calls started failing.

I don't know what your financial situation is, but mine was one where I couldn't afford to leave.

However, T-Mobile is paying my remaining lease payments and option as well as the ETFs on my tablets. This has made my leaving much easier.

I don't know if they have good coverage in your area or not, but if they do that may be something to think about.

 

[semicoln]

Sprint must really love the Dallas market because my service is consistently good in areas where ATT and T Mobile get poor coverage or no LTE. Driving between Dallas and Fort Worth talking on T-Mo you are nearly guaranteed a dropped or faded voice call. Sprint falls back to 3G in the outskirts but voice calls are solid. The only carrier that surpasses Sprint in reliability is Verizon.

I will say that all three have improved considerably in the past year, with T Mo showing the most improvement. If they keep it up I'd consider them a serious contender. YMMV of course, markets are very different unfortunately.

3-4 years ago, Sprint and TMo were both pretty terrible.

 

[Rayy42]

Speaking from experience as a sales rep, unfortunately the main driver for many carriers is generating new lines and sales.

They make it to where new customers get the preferred experience and the existing customers get subpar treatment.

For the carrier that I personally work at, you get compensated MUCH more for the new stuff which makes handling existing customers a waste of time and money. That's probably why they didn't care. Is it wrong and unfair? Absolutely. But it's the nature of the business and the driving force for your commission checks.

Again, sad but true.

 

[eyoungren]

Speaking from experience as a sales rep, unfortunately the main driver for many carriers is generating new lines and sales.

They make it to where new customers get the preferred experience and the existing customers get subpar treatment.

For the carrier that I personally work at, you get compensated MUCH more for the new stuff which makes handling existing customers a waste of time and money. That's probably why they didn't care. Is it wrong and unfair? Absolutely. But it's the nature of the business and the driving force for your commission checks.

Again, sad but true.

Yeah. It was more of a tongue in cheek kind of thing. After this long I am used to the treatment from Sprint. But as long as I could make calls I was ok.

Going forward I don't expect preferential treatment but as long as I can make calls and use data I'm ok. That's how I dealt with Sprint for years.

 

[eyoungren]

Sprint must really love the Dallas market because my service is consistently good in areas where ATT and T Mobile get poor coverage or no LTE. Driving between Dallas and Fort Worth talking on T-Mo you are nearly guaranteed a dropped or faded voice call. Sprint falls back to 3G in the outskirts but voice calls are solid. The only carrier that surpasses Sprint in reliability is Verizon.

I will say that all three have improved considerably in the past year, with T Mo showing the most improvement. If they keep it up I'd consider them a serious contender. YMMV of course, markets are very different unfortunately.

3-4 years ago, Sprint and TMo were both pretty terrible.

I hear good things about Sprint in Texas. Again, locale is key here. Sprint does have a lot going for it in the markets it's really built out.

 

[Supermallet]

"It's getting better." The phrase I kept hearing from Sprint supporters since 2010.

"Just wait until we get 4G WiMAX!" Never came.
"Just wait until we get LTE!" God-awful, sub-1mbps speeds consistently.
"Just wait until Spark!" I'm in the center of a Spark coverage area and have yet to connect to the so called 'Spark' bands and see these amazing speeds.

Where I am, the differences in coverage between Sprint and ANY other carrier is night and day. I don't even get reliable call or texting coverage. The only reason why I'm still with them is because I'm grandfathered into an older, cheaper, unlimited data plan. Kinda pointless having unlimited data when it is literally unusable half the time.

Once my contract is up, I'm gone for good. Only a tempting email will bring me back

I had Sprint when they first turned on WiMAX. I have to say that at the time, where I lived, it was great. I got better speeds than any other carrier for a while, and I had completely unlimited data. But after the initial rollout, things just stopped. There was no added coverage, meanwhile Verizon was turning on LTE. AT&T and T-Mobile were adding HSPA+, and AT&T rolled out LTE fairly quickly after. And Sprint did...nothing. They didn't improve WiMAX (they couldn't really, they bet on a losing horse with that technology), and it took them forever to even talk about implementing LTE.

I actually left Sprint for AT&T because at the time you could do the trick where you activated a first gen iPhone on your line and you got unlimited 2G data, which you could then call in to ask to be upgrade to 4G. I did that and had unlimited data, and literally the next month they instituted throttling on unlimited lines, and originally it was 2 GB of high speed before you got throttled, not the 5 GB they eventually bumped it to (and definitely not the 22 GB they're giving out now). I called AT&T to discuss it and was told that anything over 2 GB was in the top 10% of all their data users, and there was nothing I could do to stop the throttling. I ended up selling my line to someone who wanted unlimited data on AT&T, even with the throttling, and moved back to Sprint.

At this point Sprint was talking about LTE, and was offering one or two LTE capable phones, so I got one. I waited and waited and waited and finally Sprint turned on LTE! It was also great, better than WiMAX (obviously), but then Sprint started dropping benefits like Sprint Premiere, and their LTE was still very spotty, and when I dropped back to 3G, my phone was a brick. Then T-Mobile announced their LTE and started rolling out fast. They began offering their Uncarrier initiatives. And they had better prices. Sprint had quickly become so unfriendly to their existing customers that it didn't take long for me to switch.

I never tried their network on Spark, and I'm sure some people love it, but I had enough experience with Sprint promising the world only to deliver so much less, that I'm not going to bother with them anymore. I'm actually on Verizon now because I was able to get unlimited data lines when the Apple glitch was active, but I still have a lot of love for T-Mobile. Sprint isn't an option for me ever again unless something drastic changes.