So I finally started tweeting #sprintsucks

revaaron · #1 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 12:52 AM

Background: I've been on sprint since 1999. From 199 to 2001 on a Radio shack plan. Same number the whole time. For the past 2.5 years, my service has gotten worse and worse. Trying with both google voice integration and without google voice integration and I have the same issues.

1) sprint seems to have no clue where I am:
Even in the times that I have full bars, I will get gv emails that say "you missed a call" abd I will have nothing on my phone at all except the email that someone left me vm. With gv integration, I also get txts popping up in gv and then 20 minutes later, they pop up on my phone. the Airwave thing is also useless though it does make calls out to the world easier... that is until I start transferring files around my house and then it dies. I also have to reboot the airwave 2x a day to get it to work most of the time. Then when I do leave my house, my phone will not let go of the airwave until I go like a 1/2 mile away. so from my front door to a 1/2 mile away, I have no service.

2) all the major towns I go to magically never have any service when I want to use my phone.
in Mass: andover, haverhill, methuen, lowell, etc...
in NH: Dover, Portsmouth, Durham, etc...
As far as the north east goes, these towns and cities are pretty big deals to have 0 service. Everyone with sprint in my building today was roaming most of the day too.

3) SMS issue lately: I had an issue before that when I sent 30 txt, the person(s) would only get 20 and then 2 days later, they would get a wall of the 10 they missed. Now what is happening is that my messages are going to them x4 and their messages to me are coming in x4 at almost that 1/3 frequency. This is across networks too. I will get the same message from them repeat a few hours or the next day.

4) MMS issue: I will send say 4 mms's to 4 different people. I then put my phone in my pocket. Pull it out since it hasn't vibrated that anyone said "cute kid" or whatever and all the messages are still "sending....". I reboot the phone.. still sending... let it sit for a while, still sending. Then I go and fordward the first MMS to the person who was the first one to get the original MMS and magically, all the MMS's zip through.

5) battery (something that is the phone itself) don't even get me sarted

Now I have all these same problems with a custom rom, ICS rom, or stock... so it's got to be a sprint network issue.

When I've called sprint or bought it to the store or had a phone tech talk to me, it's always the same options as "all they can do for me"
1) hard reset
2) sell you a new phone
3) get a replacement
4) something wacky like leave the phone on top of the airwave for an hour after a reboot and leaving them off for 45 minutes

This is after every single time, the person takes down all this detailed info about me and my issues, gives me case numbers... etc.. and then when I talk to the next person, the most they ever seem to be able to pull up is "oh, I see you called" and then follow it up with "you know you are eligible for an upgrade"... ugh. I basically gave up calling or going in unless my phone breaks.

So after 12+ years of sprint, I decided to start tweeting #sprintsucks since at this point, there are no phones to switch to on another network and if I did, I wouldn't have unlimited data. BTW, I'm tweeting from my iPad using verizon which is never out off line. If I wasn't bound by FCC laws to be at my phone for a radio station 24/7, i would just switch to Gv on the iPAD while a VOIP solution and use that as my phone. Pretend that I'm cool like zack morris with my huge phone.
tl;dr

revaaron · #2 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 01:00 AM

BTW: my phone is a Epic 4g why I posted it here.

**orangekid** · #3 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 10:55 AM

word.

**AZTECHKA** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 01:11 PM

Hmmm... I thought it was my refurbished phones they kept upgrading me to.
Might have to reconsider my plan when my contract is up.

revaaron · #5 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 01:19 PM

yeah, I need a qwerty and all, but I'm debating getting the GSIII on verizon so that I have a phone that works. Like I've said before here, I'm basically on call 24/7 for a radio station. If they can't get to me to turn on something, no show. If they can't get to be to turn off something, FCC fines.

revaaron · #6 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZTECHKA

Hmmm... I thought it was my refurbished phones they kept upgrading me to.
Might have to reconsider my plan when my contract is up.

When I last brought my phone in for this issue, they said "hard reset, new phone, order replacement (refurb)" so I said "fine replacement". I went through 3 replacements before I got a phone that didn't bust.

**gTen** · #7 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 02:19 PM

Do what I did, buy an unlimited verizon plan from someone. There is also a trick to get the unlimited plan but not sure if it still works or not.

As for which phone to get, if you don't need a keyboard the GSIII is ok.

Otherwise there is always this:

Samsung Stratosphere II flaunts its keyboard for Verizon, LG Spectrum 2 confirmed as VS930 - Engadget

Though full specs are not out just yet.

**AZTECHKA** · #8 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 02:24 PM

In the last 2 years of my contract... I have received my original EVO, a replacement EVO, 2 Samsung Nexus, 1 Motorola Photon and most recently a Galaxy SII.

Neither works as well as my original EVO. Yeah... Better features... Better specs.
Reception and text reliability are not there. Even wifi sucks here at work and at home.

I really really want a good reason not to get the new iPhone. my wife and my father in law and my sister in law who all have Sprint Iphone 4S DO NOT have this problem.

**gTen** · #9 (**permalink**) 08-28-2012, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZTECHKA

In the last 2 years of my contract... I have received my original EVO, a replacement EVO, 2 Samsung Nexus, 1 Motorola Photon and most recently a Galaxy SII.

Neither works as well as my original EVO. Yeah... Better features... Better specs.
Reception and text reliability are not there. Even wifi sucks here at work and at home.

I really really want a good reason not to get the new iPhone. my wife and my father in law and my sister in law who all have Sprint Iphone 4S DO NOT have this problem.

It boils down to your area, for example the Motorola Photon I hear is known for having a good reception.

For example, look at this side by side comparison of photon vs original evo:

xda-developers - View Single Post - Data Reception Rocks!

There are many things that come into play, mostly Sprint is worse then before. But it also has to do with the area you are in. See sprint has 3 - 4 companies doing network build outs. Which use different hardware. In my area for one I get pretty decent reception on my Epic, better then any iphone that is for sure.

But it is not surprising since in my city the buildout was done by Samsung. So most likely tests were done using samsung equipment on samsung devices. Other cities that were built out by say Motorola obviously work better with Motorola equipment.

It is like when I had my TP2 reset in some cities but not others. Why? because it wasn't playing nicely with the towers for some reason. And only way to fix it was to use a different none sprint radio firmware.

revaaron · #10 (**permalink**) 08-29-2012, 03:26 PM

the TP2 sucked for me cause I am a heavy txter.
the kb was awesome, just the best... but if you had over 1K text, the phone died and so did senseui. I do over 3K text a month.

BTW: my entire building has been sprint roaming. one guy called and said it is a network issue with upgrading the local towers to LTE. Then gave him a code to use verizon towers which didn't work for phone calls. If you make a phone call, you get a verizon operator asking for a credit card.. "Klodike 514 what number pls". He called back to escalate the issue and they said that it would be 72hrs before anyone got in touch with him.