Sprint is terminating us, how long until we can go back?
We have (had?) a 2 line share plan with Sprint, nothing special, it's the current 1500 minute Everything Data for $130 + $10\ea for our 4G devices. Since July we have had Mobile Hot Spot on my line. I travel quite a bit for work and the MHS sure beats paying for WiFi at the hotels, or worse, having a lousy connection at the hotels that offer free internet (no lie, 45 seconds to pull up the Google homepage at a Comfort Inn in Hershey, PA). Sprint has Wimax in all of the markets I travel to frequently, I've always had good service throughout the 15 years that I've been with them, plus they're the cheapest and still offer unlimited data.
We recently resigned and upgraded our handsets on Dec 30th (so that I could take advantage of the now gone Premier Program), life is good. January 9th, my phone gets shut off. We call to see why and they explain that I have been going over my 5gb hotspot on a monthly basis and that I was averaging $2000 in data overages since October. I said I had unlimited, to which they replied that it was changed in October, apparently the notification was on the *back* of the bill, where all of the ads are. I explained that I rarely open the bill and instead, pay online or over the phone and don't recall receiving any other notice about it. That wasn't a good enough excuse and they explained that I had to remove my mobile hotspot option or cancel service. I can get by without MHS, so I opted to cancel it. Afterall, I can use PdaNet if I'm in a bind or I can just pickup a unlimited Clear Wireless modem for $35 a month anyhow, no big loss. Literally later that afternoon when the mail came, there were two letters from Sprint, both dated December 30th. They go on to explain that my service was being terminated as of January 17th for excessive data use.. Hmmm.. So we call back and the rep said disregard the letters, since we removed MHS it was no longer an issue. Great.
January 23rd, my phone gets shut off again, this is getting irritating. We call, again. This time, they say that it's being terminated permanently, for breaking their ToS with going to "restricted" websites and again "excessive data usage". The "excessive" data was in reference to going over the 5gb hotspot for 2+ months in a row. The "restricted" websites was because I downloaded Open Office via a torrent (which is perfectly legal, mind you) as well as a few other (legal) torrents. Again, at that time, I had no idea that they changed my hotspot, nor did I know that downloading via P2P was against their TOS. This was all in reference supposedly to almost 3 weeks ago when I still had MHS. So, I spoke to a few people yesterday, spoke to a few people today. Sprint isn't bending, at all. Even after pleading my case of "I didn't know and I no longer even have MHS to use that kind of data, so I'm begging and pleading you to give me a chance, I really don't want to leave Sprint", they are terminating my line on Feb 1. It's currently not usable, but supposedly "active" enough to port out, as of Feb 1, I lose the number all together.
We now find ourselves in quite the issue. The only options are ATT or Verizon. Verizon has better coverage and LTE in all of the markets that I travel to, but their data is more expensive than ATT and they don't offer unlimited mobile to any mobile. That last one is the big killer for me. We would ultimately have to move into an unlimited minutes plan, $50 more expensive than a comparable ATT plan. That would only give me 2gb of data on each line on Verizon, or 3gb of data on ATT. But ATT has no LTE in any area that I travel to and it doesn't look like they're setting any speed records for getting more areas rolled out. ATT also throttles quite heavily from what I've read.
My better half can leave with me without an ETF, provided she ports out within 30 days of my port. What I'm wondering is, how long before I can go back to Sprint? Am I blacklisted forever? 30 days? 60 days? 1 year? If they'll let me back in, we'll simply keep her line open and move it to a single line account. I'll port out to a GoPhone or likely, Google Voice to keep my number alive for however long it takes, then I can port back in "when the coast is clear". Of course, then again, since they're only kicking my line off and not canceling our entire account, I suppose I could sign up a new line now, port my number to Google and just use Google to forward to my new number. That would create minor havoc with texting to some extent though.
I have no intentions of purposely breaking Sprint's rules. I get why they're doing it, I just wish they would have given me a chance to stop after I was informed of the changes.
TLR; Sprint is booting me for breaking their TOS. How long do I have to wait, if ever, to go back?
That's what I would think, but like I said above, they're willing to let my better half stay if she so chooses. Everything is under her name, they're only terminating my line. Does that mean she will only ever be able to have that line and never again a share plan? Worst case, I can always sign it up in my name. Actually up until 2 years ago it was in my name, ever since I was 18, we only transferred it to her because she gets a better corporate discount than I do.
503, that isn't an option. I actually asked the rep that today, or rather, I asked if I could port over to Virgin (one of the cheaper prepaids out there) just so I could keep my number alive until we figured out what carrier we wanted to switch to. He said he is nearly positive the port would reject since it's a Sprint owned company, he said Boost would be the same way.
Verizon does offer mobile to any mobile plans, however, these are not publicly advertised and are only available in limited markets. It is at least available in my market of Houston, Texas. You can contact them to see if its available in your home area.
So Sprint has recently capped their mobile hotspot plan to 5gb for smartphones with unlimited data?
Does this mean that if I ever go with Sprint and I use third party tethering tools, they'll also clamp down after passing 5gb or not even let me do it at all, like with ATT customers with unlimited data plans? Hmm, also too bad that they dinged you for using torrents.
I'm pretty sure it's illegal for Sprint to restrict you from torrent sites. I'm almost positive the net neutrality rules prohibit that kind of thing (as long as you weren't doing anything illegal).
You may want to file a complaint with the FCC.
Or you could both port to T-Mobile (cheaper than Sprint and their data is faster if you have coverage). You could probably sign back up with Sprint under your name if it's in your wife's name right now.
I don't see how they can enforce this at all. If the service is in your wife's name right now, and they're kicking you out but allowing her to stay... How do they even know who you are?
Your wife could probably add another line right now if they're allowing her to stay.
@nerdydesi - I already contacted Verizon last night, hoping to come up with some unadvertised deal to sway me to them instead of ATT. The guy that I spoke (salesman in telesales) with was awesome, but in our market they aren't running ANY deals. He actually said he would have to talk to his supervisor even to get the two $35 activation fees waived! (I refuse to pay activation fees, if you want me to pay you a minimum of $150/month for a minimum of 24 months, you can eat $70 up front). They were running a double data promo (it would have been a whopping 4gb of data for $30, instead of 2gb) but that ended 9 days ago. He said in December they were running a mobile to any mobile, but that too, is dead. As a last ditch I said "If you can get me mobile to any mobile right now, I'll sign up with a pair of Galaxy's" Nope. Right now, it's nada, basically "rack rates". It amazes me that they can't haggle on such a small thing when they're gaining another pair of customers that would bring them another $170/mo MRC, that replace their phones yearly (even without subsidization) with flagship phones. That's the kind of customer I want, that puts their cell phones as a priority in their life, not loafing around with an old Moto Startac.
Yes, apparently, unbeknownst to us, they changed it to 5gb at the end of October. Sprint swears up and down they made it "crystal clear to our customers", but we never saw anything. The rep said it was on the back of the bill. So yes, on the handset it's still unlimited, tether is 5gb.
Third party tethering still works, that I can attest to as I'm using it right now. They're already terminating my line, what else can they do to me? (PdaNet for sure, I could never get "Wireless Tether" to work on my Galaxy S II. There is a hacked Sprint Hotspot module over on XDA Dev's, but I've not yet installed that) but it's crystal clear to me that they are 100% for sure digging deep on usage patterns. This wasn't just a "you used 67gb of bandwidth in one billing cycle", this was "you were here, here and here and this, this and this isn't allowed on our network", even when I was using "Level II hiding" on PdaNet. They were flat out doing packet inspection, they aren't messing around anymore. They actually have an entire department devoted to this now apparently. When I spoke to the telesales guy at Verizon tonight, he said in the last two months they have seen a huge influx of Sprint customers going to them and has heard that many of them were forced out. Now, if that means that Sprint is cutting off all unauthorized tethering with a zero tolerance type of thing, I don't know. Admittedly I WAS using very large amounts of data over the past 2 months (73gb on one cycle) but I was honest with them when I initially signed up for the hotspot in July 2011. I flat out told them that my job is very seasonal, come November - January when I'm not working, my data usage is going to go wicked high because I had every intent on using it for my home internet (I canceled our FIOS at home at that time, I'm out of town quite often during my "on" months and my girlfriend spends a lot of time at family members houses when I'm away, so we decided to cut the cord, we were never around to watch TV). The sales guy said "Good thing it's unlimited, huh?". Had I known it was changed, I would have cut back my usage significantly, probably had FIOS service reconnected or gone with a Clear Wireless modem. FYI, the torrents were probably one of the biggest reasons I got the boot, they felt that "torrents can make our network very vulnerable and we do not tolerate it". They do have it in the TOS, but I never read the fine print, my bad.
Examples of prohibited data uses: Sprint data services are provided solely for purposes of web surfing, sending and receiving email, photographs and other similar messaging activities, and the non-continuous streaming of videos, downloading of files or on line gaming. Our data services may not be used: (i) to generate excessive amounts of Internet traffic through the continuous, unattended streaming, downloading or uploading of videos or other files or to operate hosting services including, but not limited to, web or gaming hosting;
The bold part pretty much covers torrents in general, as well as any other non-basic types of usage. By that language, it would appear even downloading files from your corporate FTP server is a no-no.
@BlackDynamite - Actually, the big carriers can do just about anything that they want to do, without reason. It's "their sandbox" afterall and it's in the TOS, too;
Sprint reserves the right, without notice or limitation, to limit data throughput speeds or quantities or to deny, terminate, end, modify, disconnect, or suspend service if an individual engages in any of the prohibited voice or data uses detailed below or if Sprint, in its sole discretion, determines action is necessary to protect its wireless networks from harm or degradation
That last section in bold is pretty important, they can basically say that anything you do is impacting another customer and to protect the other customer, you get terminated. *IF* you could even get it to a court level, you would have a incredibly difficult time defending your stance against that kind of wording.
I looked at T-Mobile. They're only $30 cheaper than Verizon for a very similar plan (Verizon's has 300 less peak minutes), but otherwise, 2gb data, n&w, t-mo to t-mo, unlimited txt. I know exactly 1 person left on T-Mo and she's porting as soon as her contract is over. In our area, T-mobile just suck, badly. I know it's popular elsewhere, but around here, just isn't going to happen. I'm in Pittsburgh, lots of huge hills (if you're not going up a hill, you're going down one), the map shows great coverage in our region, but personal experience tells me otherwise. Not to mention, I would simply rather pay Verizon the $30 a month for their amazingly awesomely huge blazingly fast LTE network. Even ATT's HSPA+ network is pretty big, probably on par with T-Mobile's, but at least they're attempting to roll out some LTE, not sure what T-Mobile is doing, I guess just guessing that HSPA+ is "good enough". Though, I might have a better chance of tethering without getting caught on them, they don't seem to have the resources to pour into busting people like the Big 3 do.
As far as them knowing who I am, they don't. What I don't know at this point is if they'll allow us to add another line. If they do, then maybe we'll stay and I'll just port my number to GV, then forward it back to the new number that Sprint gives us. Of course, that has it's own issues, any time I call out, it won't be my GV number, nor will outgoing txts be my GV number, unless I use GV's terrible, terrible SMS app. We're going to call in the morning to get clarification on what we're limited to, if I'm ever allowed to bring this number back, if we can add additional lines, etc. Of course at this point, I'm sure our account is flagged to all hell and back and we will be watched like a hawk, it might be better for me to cut our losses, go to Verizon, get a pair of Galaxy Nexus's (Nexi?) and enjoy the water over there for a while
@BlackDynamite - Actually, the big carriers can do just about anything that they want to do, without reason. It's "their sandbox" afterall and it's in the TOS, too;
That last section in bold is pretty important, they can basically say that anything you do is impacting another customer and to protect the other customer, you get terminated. *IF* you could even get it to a court level, you would have a incredibly difficult time defending your stance against that kind of wording.
I looked at T-Mobile. They're only $30 cheaper than Verizon for a very similar plan (Verizon's has 300 less peak minutes), but otherwise, 2gb data, n&w, t-mo to t-mo, unlimited txt. I know exactly 1 person left on T-Mo and she's porting as soon as her contract is over. In our area, T-mobile just suck, badly. I know it's popular elsewhere, but around here, just isn't going to happen. I'm in Pittsburgh, lots of huge hills (if you're not going up a hill, you're going down one), the map shows great coverage in our region, but personal experience tells me otherwise. Not to mention, I would simply rather pay Verizon the $30 a month for their amazingly awesomely huge blazingly fast LTE network. Even ATT's HSPA+ network is pretty big, probably on par with T-Mobile's, but at least they're attempting to roll out some LTE, not sure what T-Mobile is doing, I guess just guessing that HSPA+ is "good enough". Though, I might have a better chance of tethering without getting caught on them, they don't seem to have the resources to pour into busting people like the Big 3 do.
As far as them knowing who I am, they don't. What I don't know at this point is if they'll allow us to add another line. If they do, then maybe we'll stay and I'll just port my number to GV, then forward it back to the new number that Sprint gives us. Of course, that has it's own issues, any time I call out, it won't be my GV number, nor will outgoing txts be my GV number, unless I use GV's terrible, terrible SMS app. We're going to call in the morning to get clarification on what we're limited to, if I'm ever allowed to bring this number back, if we can add additional lines, etc. Of course at this point, I'm sure our account is flagged to all hell and back and we will be watched like a hawk, it might be better for me to cut our losses, go to Verizon, get a pair of Galaxy Nexus's (Nexi?) and enjoy the water over there for a while
Yeah I know they put stuff like that in the TOS and act like it's the end all be all, but the terms of service are trumped by federal law and FCC rules.
The FCC has specific rules on how you're allowed to do whatever you want with your data.
I don't even think you need to get it to a court level. Just file a complaint with the FCC (which is free).
You going way over the capped limit is another matter. But they can't terminate you for legal torrents if you stayed under the data limit (which is unlimited on the phone).
I was comparing carriers the other day because my Sprint service has gotten so bad around here. What I determined is a 4 line 1400 minute family plan on Verizon with 2 GB data, unlimited messaging, insurance, and roadside is about $300 per month. On AT&T you get the same thing with 3 GB and any mobile for $300. On Sprint it's $260 with unlimited (but too slow to use) data. And on T-Mobile's 4 line "value" family plan you get unlimited minutes, 5 GB of "4G" data (42 meg HSPA+, faster than AT&T's) with unlimited throttled data after that, unlimited messaging, no insurance and no roadside, for $230 per month ($170 for 1000 minutes). I've seen commercials saying T-Mobile is only $49 per line on some plan, so you may find an even better deal if you call them (all my numbers are from the websites).
I know you're not looking for a 4 line family plan so the numbers may be different for you, but you may want to look at a T-Mobile "value" plan as a short term option to port your number to while you figure out what you're going to do.
Yes, apparently, unbeknownst to us, they changed it to 5gb at the end of October. Sprint swears up and down they made it "crystal clear to our customers", but we never saw anything. The rep said it was on the back of the bill. So yes, on the handset it's still unlimited, tether is 5gb.
Third party tethering still works, that I can attest to as I'm using it right now. They're already terminating my line, what else can they do to me? (PdaNet for sure, I could never get "Wireless Tether" to work on my Galaxy S II. There is a hacked Sprint Hotspot module over on XDA Dev's, but I've not yet installed that) but it's crystal clear to me that they are 100% for sure digging deep on usage patterns. This wasn't just a "you used 67gb of bandwidth in one billing cycle", this was "you were here, here and here and this, this and this isn't allowed on our network", even when I was using "Level II hiding" on PdaNet. They were flat out doing packet inspection, they aren't messing around anymore. They actually have an entire department devoted to this now apparently.
The bold part pretty much covers torrents in general, as well as any other non-basic types of usage. By that language, it would appear even downloading files from your corporate FTP server is a no-no.
Wow, thank you for that very insightful comment. Its a shame for us if Sprint really is doing packet inspection. I've used tens of tens of gigs with unlimited data with Verizon's LTE with 3rd party tethering (USB and WiFi) and I've had zero issues so far. This includes torrenting. As many bad things I have to say about Verizon, this isn't one of them. Why not milk my precious unlimited data for as long as I can before they'll say my plan isn't compatible with their future "5G" phones and I have to switch to tiered data?
I've actually been eying going to Sprint once they launch their LTE network here in Houston later this year and if they still offer unlimited data. But if they do crack down on tethering usage like you've stated, looks like I'll have to stay with Big Red.
R; Sprint is booting me for breaking their TOS. How long do I have to wait, if ever, to go back?
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Originally Posted by Nucleartx
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