Thinking about switching to SPRINT

**the1uluv** · 11-28-2003, 01:18 AM

First off, I dont know if this is the right forum for this, but i am goin to try anyways. I have been a Verizon user for about 2.5- 3 years. And now that Sprint has all of these nice phones coming out, and that are already out, I am thinking about making that move. I am intrested in their "Ready Link" in specific. I mean I am a college student that is in to Technology, and being current with the times. I have the Moto T730, and its a sad sorry phone in comparison to the Sprint phones. I know that Verizon has the best service in the Nation and customer service as well...and so on and so on. And my roommate has Sprint, and I see him upset with the droped calles, and places that I have servce that he doesn' t. but I think that I could deal with that??? (not to sure) But I am really confused right now. Can someone shead some light to let me know if there are some NEW and HOT phones that are coming out by Christmas time? And some other reasons why I should stay with them.

**psycho-** · 11-28-2003, 01:22 AM

Yo never know your tolerance level until you try it. Try sprint for a few months or a year and see how you handle it. Trying it for a few months will require you to pay a few extra dollars a month.

**MikeBuzzsaw** · 11-28-2003, 01:28 AM

Originally posted by the1uluv
First off, I dont know if this is the right forum for this, but i am goin to try anyways. I have been a Verizon user for about 2.5- 3 years. And now that Sprint has all of these nice phones coming out, and that are already out, I am thinking about making that move. I am intrested in their "Ready Link" in specific. I mean I am a college student that is in to Technology, and being current with the times. I have the Moto T730, and its a sad sorry phone in comparison to the Sprint phones. I know that Verizon has the best service in the Nation and customer service as well...and so on and so on. And my roommate has Sprint, and I see him upset with the droped calles, and places that I have servce that he doesn' t. but I think that I could deal with that??? (not to sure) But I am really confused right now. Can someone shead some light to let me know if there are some NEW and HOT phones that are coming out by Christmas time? And some other reasons why I should stay with them.

So your giving up good reception and qualtiy calls for a more technological phone? I dont think its worth it in the down run. You can really over estimate how important it is to have calls that dont drop. Its really irratating to me.

**xsr** · 11-28-2003, 02:05 AM

So what good is the phone and all its high-technology if you're going to have problems using it in your area?

**peterbrown77** · 11-28-2003, 05:26 AM

Sprint? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

They are the devil incarnate. My wife had Sprint, and it was a living hell. Dropped calls, poor service, and when she finally gave up they tried to hit us with early termination fees, even after repeated trips to the store and about 10 complaint calls. They even replaced her Samsung twice! I refused to pay it, it went to collection finally, and I still won't pay them.

Here's a Sprint story: Have you ever heard of these companies that get 800 numbers that are SO close to real 800 numbers and then scam people? For example, instead of 1800-CALL-ATT they get 1 800 CALL AAT, and when someone misdials they THINK they have ATT but they really don't? And then they get a $20 bill for a 5 minute call? There are lots of scams like this. DateLine NBC (I think, maybe it was 60 Minutes) looked into this 3 years ago. They traced back about 5 of these holding companies to find out who really owned them and it was.............Sprint! The bastards.

My favorite Sprint moment? When I asked to be able to talk to a manager, and the rep on the phone told me he was out, and I asked for his number, and the rep said to me that his manager DID NOT HAVE A PHONE.

God, my blood's boiling just thinking about it again, and it's been 18 months....

**bperkins** · 11-28-2003, 07:16 AM

In short, you will regret it. Why? I did the same thing except I started out with a company that offers great phones and great plans. IMO they offer these great phones and low cost plans because they know that the service is not what it should be.

I loved using my T616 with my Powerbook, and having a really cool phone. In the end it was worthless. I could not even use the phone in my house, and the overall coverage was spotty. There is nothing worse when you are on an important call and you lose the call. There were so many times I wanted to throw that phone through a wall.

I first tried ATTWS. Not sure what I was thinking when I did this. Customer service was the worst, and the coverage was as equal to Cingular. My company uses Nextel (Currently we are in a 15-day trial with Verizon just cellular not PTT. I do not think VZW PTT is ready yet), and again the coverage was an issue. I did have a decent experience with the customer service. But many times when we need to contact a field rep. It takes numerous tries to radio them. I think they have too many users on PTT. When I tried the 15-day trial with VZW the first thing that I noticed, was that they were the only cellular Co. that I tried that the phone worked at my house. And I even tried the other places I had trouble with and they all worked.

I knew that switching to Verizon that I would lose a lot of the things that I loved with my phone on Cingular, but in the end for me it was really worth it. I never thought I would like a clamshell phone, but this a530 is great. Not sure when but I know that they will eventually offer a phone that has compatibility with my Mac, and offers Bluetooth. In the meantime having the best phone on a sorry network is not worth it. Having a decent phone and being able to use it all the time.....priceless....yeah I know that is cheesy as hell.

**drrjv** · 11-28-2003, 07:29 AM

doesn't sprint have the 15 day trial like vzw?

i agree re: phone selection. why does vzw torture us?

i thought sprint had a $5 roam anywhere deal (which means you could roam on vzw?)

really comes down to location, location, location - how is sprint in your area?

**Affiliated** · 11-28-2003, 08:48 AM

I was a Sprint customer from 2000-2003. My primary reasons for signing up with Sprint in 1/2000 were (in order or priority):

Tied for first place: Sprint had no contracts at the time. All plans were strictly month to month. Sprint's plans were much less expensive in comparison to Bell Atlantic Mobile (now Verizon) and SNET (now Cingular).

Second Place: Extensive selction of phones that far exceeded that of SNET and BAM.

Reality 1: Sprint's coverage was no where near as extensive as BAM and SNET BUT coverage was quite good in many areas and improved considerably during the 3.5 years that I was with Sprint. In fact, in some areas where I visited, Sprint coverage was actually better then VZW.

Reality 2: Sprint now requires contracts (or charges $10 additional per month for a no contract option).

Reality 3: Verizon's phone selection has greatly improved and I would say that it is actually more extensive then Sprint, albeit Sprint is generally first to introduce new technology

Reality 4: Sprint's prices are now in line with the competition and I can't say that Sprint is any less expensive

Reality 5: Sprints customer service was bad in 2000 and atrocious by 2003. This is why I left. Wait until you have one error on your Sprint bill or have to visit a Sprint store for some reason. After you see how you are treated, you'll probably regret the day you left VZW. Sure, there are plenty of great Sprint employees, but Sprint seems to have a disproportionate number or "Rotten Apples" in comparison to Verizon. I have consistently received excellent customer service from VZW whereas with Sprint (in-store and over the phone), my experience was pretty bad about 80% of the time.

ULTIMATE REALITY (This one is for peterbrown77). No matter how bad your experience was with Sprint, not paying the cancellation fee and allowing this outstanding bill to go to collections was your biggest mistake. No matter how right you may think you are (and I agree with you!), a $175 termination fee is not worth ruining your CREDIT RATING! In both the short-run and long-run, your damaged credit will cost you exceedingly more then $175 in real dollars and other intangible ways. Next to good health, good credit is one of the most important assets anyone can have. Never wise to cut off ones nose to spite his face. Sprint isn't worth damaging your credit.

TRUE STORY:
Sprint made a major error on my bill in the hundreds of dollars. I disputed the bill and several months later it was adjusted. But unknown to me, Sprint erroneously reported my failure to pay bill to the credit reporting agencies. I stress eroneously because this is not supposed to happen while a bill is still in dispute. It wasn't until 4 months later when I was denied for a car loan that I learned of this mistake on my credit report. It took several months after that to get my credit report fixed. Once Sprint discovered and admitted its error, it didn't want to fix it. I had to fight with a Sprint manager to get him to agree to contact the credit bureau to have this blight on my credit report removed (which it eventually was). And yes, I did get my car! Only a real lemon it was: 2000 VW Jetta 1.8T. Awful car...always in the shop. Just got rid of it 6 months ago after it was it was requiring weekly trips to the service department at my VW dealer!

**sgenilon** · 11-28-2003, 10:00 AM

drrjv: I think Nextel has a 100 minutes of roaming package.

**MikeBuzzsaw** · 11-28-2003, 10:15 AM

Originally posted by the1uluv
First off, I dont know if this is the right forum for this, but i am goin to try anyways. I have been a Verizon user for about 2.5- 3 years. And now that Sprint has all of these nice phones coming out, and that are already out, I am thinking about making that move. I am intrested in their "Ready Link" in specific. I mean I am a college student that is in to Technology, and being current with the times. I have the Moto T730, and its a sad sorry phone in comparison to the Sprint phones. I know that Verizon has the best service in the Nation and customer service as well...and so on and so on. And my roommate has Sprint, and I see him upset with the droped calles, and places that I have servce that he doesn' t. but I think that I could deal with that??? (not to sure) But I am really confused right now. Can someone shead some light to let me know if there are some NEW and HOT phones that are coming out by Christmas time? And some other reasons why I should stay with them.

Your best bet is go ask around. But remember, if your going into a Sprint forum for opinions, its bias.

**swheatie78** · 11-28-2003, 12:33 PM

so if you use LNP to go to sprint, can you just try it out for the 15d trial period and if you don't like it, can you use LNP to go BACK to verizon??

sounds like a lot of hassle, but may be worth it in the long run to know for sure if sprint's network is really that bad in your area...

**peterbrown77** · 11-28-2003, 01:30 PM

For Affiliated:

I understand your point about the credit rating, but I really don't worry too much about mine. I've since refied my house, and bought a new car and each time I just told them exactly what happened and there was no problem. Capital One continues to advance me $85,000 every 9 months at zero percent (the world's greatest credit card offer, in my opinion) which I dutifully toss into a money market fund. I just absolutely refuse to send Sprint one more damned cent. Last Christmas, the collection agency to which Sprint sold the account called me up and offered to settle for 30% of the balance. I told the man (who was perfectly nice, by the way) that hell would freeze over before I would do one more thing with that bill, he could reduce it to one dollar and I still wouldn't pay it.

**bsippl** · 11-28-2003, 02:01 PM

Originally posted by drrjv
doesn't sprint have the 15 day trial like vzw?

i agree re: phone selection. why does vzw torture us?

i thought sprint had a $5 roam anywhere deal (which means you could roam on vzw?)

really comes down to location, location, location - how is sprint in your area?

The Free & Clear America plan has the $5 roaming option. It allows 50% of your montly usage to be roaming, so you use 800 minutes a month, 400 of them can be roaming.