Epic4G&Coverage SUCKS, I complained to dan@sprint.com, They are letting me exchange.

kinesis · #1 (**permalink**) 07-12-2011, 05:35 PM

Epic 4g is garbage, I can't take it any longer. The service is SO poor in so many areas, slower than ISDN. The battery is absolute CRAP!! it's practically drained and dead after 1 hour of continuous use, reading the news.google.com, going through my e-mail, playing a game, or streaming Pandora. It's the worst battery life. Even the Touch Pro or Touch Pro II could stream Pandora all day so don't give me that.

Sometimes the service is OK, but 70% of the time it sucks. I've lost jobs and money due to bad phone, even had a customer tell me "You need to get a new phone". It has been very draining on my productivity. The keyboard is CRAP!!! CRAP CRAP CRAP! Fisher Price makes a better keyboard. it makes so many typos and drops input letters. I ALWAYS have to proofread what I text or email. It's a hassle. Regarding the poor battery, I always have to religiously carry my charger with me since I'm a bus commuter. I always have to camp out by an outlet in every restaurant I dine at, every customer's jobsite I have to plug my phone in (which is also embarassing). As a result of this phone charger hoarding/religious use - I've lost my charger about 3 times now. Guess how much it costs for that cable with two metal prongs attached to it? $30 a piece, so $30x3 = $90, + $300 for the crappy phone, + $200 in lost jobs, + $10 a month since Sept 2009 for "Premium Data" that hasn't been anywhere close to 3G specifications (slower than ISDN most of the time, in fact). Then the last $30 charger I had BROKE, cheap piece of JUNK, the metal prong snapped off. I cried to the lady at the sprint store and fortunately I got a new one.

I know everyone has the freedom of choice to switch to Verizon, I do not. Either way, stay with sprint and have a headache but data and email to run my business with, or switch to verizon and have an entry level non-android phone, I'd much rather stick it out with sprint for now, so I complained to dan@sprint.com and I'm trying to work things out. Apparently they are giving me options for my extreme headaches (I swear, sometimes I just want to CUSS this phone out when it says "Battery Low" i want to SMASH it to ****ing pieces against a wall. When web content takes like 15 minutes to load I just get so angry SLOW!!! WHY IS IT SO SLOW?!?! WHY AM I PAYING FOR THIS CRAP?!) I couldn't take it anymore.

I complained to dan@sprint.com since complaints to Sprint support were getting me NOWHERE.

They are giving me the option of swapping to a different phone. I like Android and wanted to write some apps for it using Eclipse+ADT on my Laptop, but I Have a choice.

1) Stay with Epic 4G,request a brand new one, and hope Samsung revised the brand new models(Revisions happen, you know) and that it may have a superior keyboard and better signal

2. Ditch the Epic 4g for the HTC Shift (I Have to have a keyboard, no matter what as a UNIX admin and effective communicator). It's slower, but is still Android. I still lose out ~$300 into this money pit of the Epic Fail.

3. Get the Windows 7 Phone - HTC Arrive. Windows 7 looks clean, classy, and simple, but it doesn't get the benefit of app development that Android has, the software products are unknown, will I still be able to use any emergency tethering through Wifi or USB? A lot of questions pop through my mind.

**gTen** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-12-2011, 05:40 PM

Sprint has lost a lot of coverage over the past few weeks..if you look at your coverage map...you will notice that it completely changed..sprint before had towers which were not theirs but they were using as theirs..they renegotiated the contract and now most of it is 3G roaming..

You can try to load a different Radio or PRL and see if that helps...but if you got hit by the roaming change then thats a different story..

So far I have found speeds/connection to be on par with my TP2 in my area..and I use both at the same time...

As for your keyboard issue..its a known issue and its a software issue, not a hardware issue..we have a fix..just load up a custom kernel with a keyboard fix...

Edit: To your edit, we also have fixes for the battery issue too..visit our Epic section: (Though your drain may be linked to poor signals)

http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/sprint-epic-4g/

Also, personally I don't even charge my phone anymore..I bought 2 spare batteries + external charger for 7$ on ebay...so whenever I run out of juice I just put in a new battery (phone reboots in 15-30 seconds). And put in new one..then when I am home put the used up battery on external charger...

**austin420** · #3 (**permalink**) 07-13-2011, 09:23 AM

user error?
whats the point of this thread?

kaoss_11 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-19-2011, 09:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by austin420

user error?
whats the point of this thread?

that if you complain you may get what you want.

**Karl** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-20-2011, 12:46 AM

Who the hell is Dan

**gullzway** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-20-2011, 07:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KarlE

Who the hell is Dan

For real?

**austin420** · #7 (**permalink**) 07-20-2011, 01:49 PM

**austin420** · #8 (**permalink**) 07-20-2011, 01:50 PM

**darren.wlsn1** · #9 (**permalink**) 07-20-2011, 04:18 PM

Oh I pray op gets a wp7 phone.

**masetas** · #10 (**permalink**) 08-07-2011, 02:02 AM

Has the op tried a custom rom with a custom kernel that has the keyboard fix ?
Epic is a great phone anyone that has complained about it I don't think they know how to really use it. I use my hone a lot as well battery is not the best but its not that bad like he says I take it off the charger at 7am and by 4 or 5 pm I got to put it to charge again which is not that bad atleast in my opinion but maybe cause I'm on a custom rom ACS 1.2