Anyone use Sprint as their cell phone carrier?

VultureParade

VultureParade

Joined
Apr 25, 2003
Messages
369
Hey guys and gals,

I've been thinking about switching to Sprint since my Nextel keeps constantly making me want to tear my hair out.

Anyone use Sprint? What do you think about their service?

Also, what is the deal with the whole "roaming off the PCS network thing"? Do you go off the network a lot? Should I invest in the Free and Clear America to combat this? Any info would be great.

-Bryan
 
I just dumped Sprint in favor of T-Mobile.

Sprint had me tearing my hair out.
 
I just dumped Sprint in favor of T-Mobile.
Click to expand...

How is T-Mobile working out for you? At this point in the cell phone war I'm open to anything that actually functions. Which might be asking too much relating to cell phones.

-Bryan
 
I got a T-Mobile SideKick and I'm lovin' it. The web access actually works. I've posted on bf.c with it several times now. I'd hate for it to be my only internet access, but for fitting in your shirt pocket, it does really well. The e-mail works. I like that. The phone works better than I expected.

So far, I've found that T-Mobile's tech-support-by-e-mail service sucks. They don't take the time to read what you sent them and they just fire back canned responses. But, their telephone support people are good and the average hold time is about five minutes to Sprint's 30 (if you need to call Sprint for any reason, billing question, whatever, block out an hour of your day. You'll be on hold for a half-hour waiting to talk to the first person who will inform you that the menu system transfered you to the wrong person and they will then transfer you to the right person via another half-hour on hold, of course.)
 
DO NOT GO WITH SPRINT!!!!!! They are close to AOL in quality of service, and that's about as bad as it gets. Two years ago when I was given orders to go to Korea for a year, I cancelled my service early without charge, which was part of the contract should I get stationed somewhere outside of their coverage area. The problem was I forgot to cancel on time and was charged for a month after I had left the country. That part was my fault, I freely admit. The problem came when my mother was kind enough to pay the bill for me when it showed up so I didn't get hit with a late fee. She also sent a letter explaining the situation and asked if I could get my money back. They sent a reply saying sure, that would be no problem, all she had to do was call a number and they would send a check. All good so far, right? Wrong. She called the number, was told a check would be issued, then waited a few weeks. No check. So she called again. Ooops, our mistake again, said Sprint, we'll get that to you right away. A few more weeks, no check. By now she was getting angry, and called yet again, this time waiting on hold for over an hour. Sorry ma'am, we must have lost your information, just wait a few more weeks and that check will be there in no time. No, wrong, several more weeks and no check. At this point she decided to throw in the towel in interests of preserving her sanity, and the only way I ever did manage to get the money back was by signing another one year contract and using the credit from that bill to cover my activation fee. During that year I had several more problems with their customer service, and once 12 months were up I dropped them like a bad habit. And I've told my friends (about 20,000 of them with this post). :cool:

On the other hand, my parents have used Verizon for three years now and been very happy with their service. They even waived overage charges one month since they had been good customers.
 
I have been using T-Mobile since they were Voicestream and I have had nothing but great service from them. Quality phones, excellent plans, great telephone support, and a very user friendly website. There are very few (and I mean few) places were I have a drop in service. In every state that I have been in on the East Coast I have had no service drops. For $45 per month I get 600 Whenever minutes, free nights, and free weekends, free long distance, and no roaming charges, and T-Zone internet access. And.......if you ever have trouble with your phone you can request a new one (same model) and they will ship it to you and then you ship the broken one back with the supplied postage paid box for no charge.
 
I had excellent area coverage and service from Verizon, but I had to drop them because their equipment was impossible. I brought in a phone that didn't work and they replaced it and it still didn't work because the original problem was the recharger. The replacement phone diddn't work with a new adapter, either ... I gave up.

My daughter and a friend of mine have had T-Mobile since it was VoiceStream, with no aggravation of any sort, so I switched to it. Very good, except a blank area upstate NY.

My friend is a real klutz, so he needs T-Mobile for its easy replacement policy. Right, Ken? :p
 
I have had Verizon for almost 2 years and I am happy with everything except that I have really bad reception inside my house.
I had a one year contract and broke my first phone near the end of it.
Thinking it was the phones fault,I got a different phone(and a new one year contract) with no improvement.
This contract is about to expire and Verizon is out.

Can you get a map of any of these companies towers anywhere before you sign on the dotted line?
I had Trac fone for 10 years before Verizon,with excellent reception everywhere,but their phones are kind of large and primitive.
 
Stay away from Sprint. They have horrible service- the wait is very long to talk to a representative, as Gollnick described. Their automated customer service answering system either transfers me to the wrong department or hangs up on me every other call. I think it's a bad sign when a phone company can't consistently answer the phone. They are also very rigid with any plan changes. I just received an enormous bill because I called to change to a more expensive plan with more minutes three days after my billing period started and had to eat the overage charges all month long. When I called to change my plan again (to get even more minutes), they dumped my overage charges onto my bill even though the billing period hadn't ended, and promptly suspended my service. The representative I spoke to when I chaged the plan gave me no warning. The reception on my new $200.00 phone is worse than the $50.00 Nokia I replaced, and the new phone has consistent software quirks.

In short, other companies offer better customer service, better hardware, and more flexible billing options.

Jeremy
 
My favorite part of Sprint's system is when it answers it insists that you enter your account number. You can not get past this. You can not fake it out. You must enter your account number.

Then, you sit on hold for the required thirty minutes and the first thing the agent who answers asks is, "I'm sorry for the long wait. May I have your account number please."

"It's the one I entered a half-hour ago."

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't transfer to us."

"Then why do I have to enter it."

"I'm sorry, I don't know."

"It's been this way for four years."

"I'm sorry, but I do need your account number."

One thing you'll notice about Sprint customer assistance is that every sentence is prefaced with, "I'm sorry." They appologize for everything to the point that their appologies are meaningless. I can mention, "It's raining here in Portland today." And the Sprint customer service agent will applogize for it as if it's his fault. They appologize for everything, but they never do anything about anything. I complained about that "enter your account number" thing for four years and they never did anything about it. They applogized for it about fifty times, but they never did anything about it. And that's just the way Sprint is. They're sorry for everything but don't do anything about it.
 
I've used Sprint for about 2 years now and been very happy with the service and where I can use my phone, never had any trouble with tech support or anything else that I can remember.

Most things such as cell phone service vary from area to area it seems, You might want to ask around in your area.
 
NGK-Webmaster said:
I've used Sprint for about 2 years now and been very happy with the service and where I can use my phone, never had any trouble with tech support or anything else that I can remember.

Most things such as cell phone service vary from area to area it seems, You might want to ask around in your area.
Click to expand...


What he said.

I did have a problem several years ago, when my cell phone wouldn't work in my own house, but evidently they installed some more towers. My Sprint phone works fine for me.
 
sprint always had great reception but their service areas were limited

they made a huge billing error and it was a pain to sort it out....in the end hours on the phone fixed it.... but then they started sending an erroneous bill for $.50 six months later...that was well after i dropped the service...for 2 years they sent that bill (at $.37 a crack plus the cost of the bill itself)...i ignored it

i now use verizon...very good coverage...but high prices. people complain about their phones but since i don't play games, take pictures, or try to launch the space shuttle with my phone i'm content

one thing i miss is cradle chargers...it seems most phones dont have them....that's too bad
 
Gollnick,

I've been a sprint customer for several years, and my company supplies us with Sprint moblie phones as well. I do agree that sprint has it's faults, and I'm in no way defending them, but you are wrong in that you have to enter your account number when calling into their system. Believe me, I've been calling their customer service a lot lately, none of it had to do with any problems though. The only thing you must enter is your 10 digit phone number, and you must give them your account password, which is only asked by a live person, Your password can be anything you choose, I've never had to give my account number. Now, if you don't know your password, I can see where they might ask for your account number, which in my opinion is for your protection. If you call *2 from your phone, you will be asked to press 1 for english, then the automated system will asked you what you need. I always say "Customer Service Rep" At this point, you will be told you will be leaving the automated system, I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes, but YMMV. I have also found that if you don't get what you want done the first time, call back and get another rep, this just happened to me the other day when swapping my personal phone with my work phone. One CSR said there is no way I could do it, and a day later, it was all done within 15 minutes. Check out www.sprintusers.com for more info than you'll ever need to know about Sprint PCS. I live just down the street from the Sprint world headquarters campus, which is literally a city within the city. It is truly amazing. The only thing in my opinion that is holding Sprint back is the CDMA technology that it uses, which is the same as Verizon, Which means that it is on a different Frequency than the rest of the world that uses GSM technology and SIM chips. Sprint often is first to market with new technology. I currently use a Samsung SPH I-500 palm phone. I doubt that you will find a palm this small anywhere, plus it's got a phone integrated also, which in my opinion is simply amazing. I am in no way defending Sprint, nor do I work for Sprint or have any affiliation with the sprint users site I mentioned, it just seems that there is a little mis information here.
 
I have a little info to add. Don't get a GSM phone. Yah sure in a decade or so they might have sufficient coverage and signal strength for the GSM phones to work consistently. But anywhere I want to use my GSM phone, house, airport, in the city, out in the country, there is insufficent signal.

There's a class action lawsuit in CA about GSM coverage. I'm tempted to write my state attourney general and see if they'll join.
 
I just changed jobs and my new company uses Sprint. I'll also be moving to an
area that doesn't have alot of coverage, but does have Sprint. My only complaint is the phone I have, seems junky and I didn't have a choice. Oh, well.

Win
 
I've never had anything else but Sprint. 5 years and going. They make the coolest phones.

No problems yet.
 
The more I research this cell phone garbage the more I see how much it really is based on area, like a few of you said.

The only consistant statements seem to be that Sprint's customer service is bad and Verizon is the best but they are expensive and their phones suck.

I've had Nextel for a little over a year now, when I first signed up I got the cheapest plan since I primarily got the damn thing for emergency use or when I'm just away from home and need to make a call.

Looking into cell phones now, a year later, I see all these expensive plans (at least to me) that I have no need for. I just want to pay the lowest amount possible and still get a reasonable amount of minutes and good service.

Seems impossible.

Nextel was good to me when I joined up. They upgraded my plan with free night and weekends at no charge.

Then screwy things started happening. Like Nextel customer service sending me a text message and charging ME. I mean, it was only like .40 cents but I don't play that way, know what I mean? They charge me so they can send me some kind of "information on the promotional offer". I mean, at least the telemarketers who call the house don't bill me at the end of the month.

Then, recently, they charge me a "Federal Handling Fee" of about a $1.50 Now, I've never gotten this fee before.

But, regardless of all this, I'm thinking of just staying with Nextel. If I went with any other company and picked any of their plans, I would just end up spending more for something that has about a 30 percent chance of being better than my Nextel phone.

This doesn't count the activation fee, the purchase of a new phone, etc. etc.

These cell phone companies are screwing us around like tops. But we are so attached to the cell phones that we take it.

Maybe either Bush or Kerry should start preaching some cell phone reform, that'd get my vote.

-Bryan
 
I had my first somewhat disappointment with T-Mobile on Sunday.

Sprint's 411 directory assistance is NOT provided by Sprint. They subcontract it out to a different company who provides fantastic service. You can call them up and say, "I once ate at a place, 'the something Grill' or some such name, I think it was in Tualatin, maybe Tigard, they had this very nice outdoor terrace you could eat on, it was very nice. I'd like reservations for two for dinner this evening."

They'd answer, "Hold for one moment please......... Ah yes, that was Hayden's Lakefront Grill in Tualatin. It's 8187 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road near the Century Hotel. Their first opening for two on the terrace this evening is a 7:00. Will that be ok?"

"No, that's just a bit early. Can they do 7:30?"

"Yes, I'll book you in for 7:30. Thank you for calling Sprint 411 Directory Assistance."



T-Mobile's directory assistance proved not quite as responsive on Sunday. They were initially unable to find a listing for Heyden's Grill on Tualatin-Sherwood Road in Tualatin, Oregon. Eventually, the supervisor was able to find the only restaurant in Tualatin, Oregon with a name that begins with H, Hayden's Lakefront Grill.

I'm going to miss Sprint's independent contractor.
 
IMHO, Sprint basically blows goats, (no offense Gus :) ). I've had them for about 3 years; when I signed up they had the best coverage plan for the money. They're service is rather poor though, and I've had problems with billing. The roam thing is also a raw deal. You can usually find a tower in analog mode if you have to, but it really whacks you in terms of the roam fee. In my opinion you're better off with someone else. Good luck.
Lagarto
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top