Develop Bugs

Spint woes

Even though I'm posting in the Evo section of a mainly rooting community, I was hoping someone could provide a little insight onto my situation. Perhaps there is a Sprint representative on these forums who can better assist me as well.
So I purchased a new Evo June 20th after coming from 3 years of using the iPhone. I love the phone, but I've had nothing but issues with it. It's less the phone itself and more the companies surrounding it - Radio Shack, Sprint, etc.
So like I stated before, I got my Evo on June 20th. After using it a few days I noticed I had terrible signal at home. Normally if I was using the phone for personal reasons only, I could live with it, but I do work 1-2 days per week from home so not having voice service is a pretty big deal to me. After about 7-9 of fighting with the signal loss while walking around my home looking for a sweet spot (Also while on the phone with Spring customer service) They told me it was probably my home or area and that they couldnt guarantee coverage everywhere. My issue with this is, I've test all the carriers in my home. ATT, Tmobile, and Verizon get a minimum of 3 bars in my house. I dont like out in the middle of nowhere, I live in the suburbs of Houston. All other carriers penetrate into my home just fine, except Sprint. Well after arguing with Sprint reps over and over, I finally decided to take it to the Sprint store.
After waiting in a terribly long line (45 min), I was finally speaking to a Sprint rep. I told them about my issues and asked if there was anything I could do. He stated there was a booster that was $99. I flat out denied this as I thought it was ridiculous I had to pay more money just to get voice signal (something that was shown to be EXCELLENT coverage in their computers). He played with the phone for a second, then stated that an update would be coming out shortly that would improve the Wifi, 4G, and radio of the phone. The rep suggested that I was still within my 30 day cancellation period and that I should wait for the update and see if that improved anything.
So, a few short days later I got the OTA message on my phone. Well, this turned out to be a huge mess because I ended up being one of those unfortunate people who had their phones bricked. So at this point I'm phoneless and very frustrated. I take the phone back to where I purchased it, Radio Shack, and they tell me they've seen other customers who had this problem and will gladly exchange the phone for me. The manager of the store states it should be here on Friday, so I say thank you and leave.
Well, the phone didnt come Friday. It didn't even come the next Friday. Yep, it came THREE Friday's later - almost 3 full weeks later. So after not having a phone for two and a half weeks, I finally get my new phone in. The radio shack rep applied the update for me in the store and I left.
Well the weekend went by and I didn't notice any dropped calls, but I wasn't using my phone heavily. Then yesterday I was working from home and my phone was finally getting put to its full use. Call after call dropped and I couldn't even hold a signal for more than 10 minutes. I eventually had to run next door and borrow a neighbors phone to finish up my convo with a client. Normally I could live with this issue for personal use, but for work it was becoming a serious problem.
So I called Sprint and explained the situation. Eventually after sitting on the phone for an hour and talking to person after person I spoke with a manager who basically said either buy the $100 booster or pay $200 to cancel your contract and leave. At that point I was furious - I didn't understand why I should be forced to pay more for something when I was already paying for signal. I explained that I originally had planned on returning the phone earlier, but that had held off at the advice from a Sprint rep I talked to, and that my phone had been broken for over 2 weeks of my 30 day trial period. She continued to iterate that there was nothing she could do. She instructed me to contact Radio Shack and see if they would accept the phone back after 30 days (I'm on day 34 right now).
I just spoke with Radio Shack but they stated I'll need to call back when the manager is in the store - which will be 3-4 hours from now. I suppose maybe I'll get lucky and I'll be able to return the phone - but I'm worried about what will happen if they refuse. I'm going to be stuck with a phone that is unusable for work, while forced to either pay $100 for a booster, or shell out another $200 for the ETF (screwing me out of $400 total).
Anyways, maybe there is nothing that can be done, maybe I'm just an idiot for not testing the phone more aggressively sooner. I'm just sharing my experience on here with the hopes that someone has come across a similar situation or perhaps someone with a Sprint customer service background.
TLDR - got an evo, noticed bad signal, Sprint said OTA would fix the issues, OTA broke phone, waited 2 weeks for replacement, tested phone, reception still suck, Sprint says im stuck.

Wow, that sucks. Sorry to hear that.
I'm curious...you do get to keep the phone if you pay the ETF, right?
If you do, I would pay the $200 ETF and sell the phone on ebay or craigslist because I really doubt the $100 booster is going to help much and with the EVO in short supply, I'm sure someone is willing to buy it.
PS: If you do, just be sure to do a factory reset so all information is erased from it.

Maybe try the Verizon PRL, I looked briefly but cant seem to find the post. It is here somewhere though. Might work for you.

Yea PRL would work, but I don't want to use up my 450 anytime minutes nor do I want to switch back and forth between PRL's. I get great service at work and other places, it's just a dead zone where I live.

Airave?
Is the signal issue only at home? Airave hooks into your broadband service and then you can make phone calls via airave and it routes the calls like Vonage. And if your service really sucks sprint will give you the device for free if you complain the right way. I have had mine for 2 weeks and have had no dropped calls at home. This won't help you outside of your house though....Just my $.02

Really?
Really for free? Sprint was adamant that I would have to purchase one. They said over and over they would not wave the fee since their computers show I'm in excellent coverage area.

I too have been with Sprint for sometime now and I have the booster and it has worked wonders for me at home my office is in my basement so I spend a great deal down there and dint get service upatairs I got 3 bars but now I can make a call anywhere and it doesn't drop or anything well worth the 100 dollars if you can't get them tk give you one for free

Are those boosters provider specific?
I was thinking about getting one for the basement, but we have Sprint and Verizon Androids in the house. Don't want to have to buy one for each carrier.

I can confirm that if your a new customer with sprint they will do absolutely nothing for you, except sell you more stuff. I just went through a very similar situation and after offering me the airwave twice for free only to double back and say no sorry its 100 bucks.
BTW if you get the airwave for free they extend your contact back to 2 years, might be worth it for some.
I'm rocking the verizon prl's now and well its decent enough to stick with it, the phone rocks.

I also got an Airave for free when I was having issues. The only problem it would have is not supporting 3G data, but I suppose if you are at home, you can use wi-fi. The best benefit I saw was paying $10/mo and getting unlimited calls while on the device since I don't have unlimited minutes.

Sprint gave me an Airave for free, waived the fee for 2 years, and didn't touch my contract. But I also have 5 towers within 1.9 miles and they compete for signal...
The thing is, while I don't drop calls within range of the Airave, it doesn't hand off to a tower like it is supposed to so it drops when I walk out of range. :/
I'm pretty pissed at Sprint right now... They had a 2 1/2 outage that affected ALL of Colorado (voice and text - data worked fine in most areas) and just gave me a 25 dollar bill credit for it - couldn't even dial 911 and when people called me phone, it was just dead air - not even voicemail. BIG NO NO! Then on top of that, the subpar 3G speeds (900kbps max, 600 average compared to 3Mbps/1.7 on at&t in the same area), I've had two data outages (another two 25 dollar bill credits) and they charged me an activation fee on my corporate liable line through Comcast which was supposed to be free so I'm fighting to get that waived.
I love the phone. Hate the service.

Airave

Hello all. I have seen posts within threads about the samsung airave. I am thinking of obtaining one because a lot of places I go to away from my home don't have good sprint coverage. I am just curious as to how many people have one and how much u paid for the unit ad how much u pay per month. I have seen posts where people got it for free (no monthly and no initial cost) and others that have to pay per month or only paid for the unit. Any insist and help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

MedicStuder said:
Hello all. I have seen posts within threads about the samsung airave. I am thinking of obtaining one because a lot of places I go to away from my home don't have good sprint coverage. I am just curious as to how many people have one and how much u paid for the unit ad how much u pay per month. I have seen posts where people got it for free (no monthly and no initial cost) and others that have to pay per month or only paid for the unit. Any insist and help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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It'll only cover your home, and up to 5,000 feet (probably very poor signal outside the 1,000 foot radius). If you signal is poor inside your house, then you can get on for free.

Overstew said:
It'll only cover your home, and up to 5,000 feet (probably very poor signal outside the 1,000 foot radius). If you signal is poor inside your house, then you can get on for free.
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So I couldn't get one and take it with me to a family members house when I visit and plug into their internet and use it. I would have to leave it at home and only use it there?
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Yes, there is a gps chip in the airrave to ensure its not used to get service in an area other than your home.

063_XOBX said:
Yes, there is a gps chip in the airrave to ensure its not used to get service in an area other than your home.
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Really??? Wow!!! Did not know that. In my opionion that's kinda sh**y. But that's just my opionion. Thanks for the info everyone.
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I might be wrong but I thought the gps chip is to keep people from using it internationally.
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Jesse Buck said:
I might be wrong but I thought the gps chip is to keep people from using it internationally.
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This too. You have to also have the airave hooked up to a high internet packaged router/modem.

MedicStuder said:
Really??? Wow!!! Did not know that. In my opionion that's kinda sh**y. But that's just my opionion. Thanks for the info everyone.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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063_XOBX said:
Yes, there is a gps chip in the airrave to ensure its not used to get service in an area other than your home.
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That is not accurate. I have an Airave and I will try to answer all your questions.
On price, the hardware costs $99 retail. As you mention, there is lots of wiggle room there. I called retentions and told them I have no service out my house, which is true, and is why I need the Airave. You have to pay on your credit card upfront but they will give you a $99 statement credit, making it free. Then, to use the Airwave, the feature must be added to you account. It costs $5/month. The rep I spoke to would not wave this fee. I decided to pay it but you could try talking to a few people. They claim they cannot wave it because making calls using the Airave does not count against your minutes and so you have to pay something for the service. This is true, a tleast that it doesn't use your minutes. I never worry about minutes anyway, and I bet a nice rep could wave it, but it really is a good deal for $5/month to go from no bars to full bars in your house.
How does the Airwave work? It is a mini CDMA cell tower that uses VoIP as the backend to connect your call to the phone network. Specifically, the Airwave establishes a secure VPN to Sprint when it is booted, which can take a good few minutes. By default, any Sprint phone can connect to your Airave. You can choose to restrict to certain phone numbers to keep your neighbors from hogging your bandwidth. This is configured through Sprint, not locally on the device. Verizon phones cannot connect. I do not know about Boost or Virgin but I think I read they do not work either.
So why the GPS? While Sprint ideally only wants you using the Airave in your "home" location, the reality is that the GPS is required so that the Airave doesn't
run afoul of the FCC. Broadcasting in the CDMA spectrum must only be done in locations for which Sprint has a license, otherwise laws are broken, and ridiculous fines are theoretically involved. In other words, the GPS is there to keep you from using the Airave in other countries, but it should work most anywhere in the US. Otherwise, a specific "home address" is not being enforced. You can use it California today and Kansas tomorrow and it should work fine. If you do go oversees, I can think of a few cool hacks you could use, including spoofed GPS signals at the broadcast/antenna level using software radio, cutting the GPS output from the chip on the circuit board and replacing it with a microcontroller that just outs NMEA data, custom firmware hacks, the list goes on
The one hack I have done is replacing the stock antenna with a high gain one. I had to get a pigtail and cut the stock antenna "lock" ring with a dremel. I haven't measured the signal gain so I can't really say it was worth it, but it was fun.

emkman said:
That is not accurate. I have an Airave and I will try to answer all your questions.
On price, the hardware costs $99 retail. As you mention, there is lots of wiggle room there. I called retentions and told them I have no service out my house, which is true, and is why I need the Airave. You have to pay on your credit card upfront but they will give you a $99 statement credit, making it free. Then, to use the Airwave, the feature must be added to you account. It costs $5/month. The rep I spoke to would not wave this fee. I decided to pay it but you could try talking to a few people. They claim they cannot wave it because making calls using the Airave does not count against your minutes and so you have to pay something for the service. This is true, a tleast that it doesn't use your minutes. I never worry about minutes anyway, and I bet a nice rep could wave it, but it really is a good deal for $5/month to go from no bars to full bars in your house.
How does the Airwave work? It is a mini CDMA cell tower that uses VoIP as the backend to connect your call to the phone network. Specifically, the Airwave establishes a secure VPN to Sprint when it is booted, which can take a good few minutes. By default, any Sprint phone can connect to your Airave. You can choose to restrict to certain phone numbers to keep your neighbors from hogging your bandwidth. This is configured through Sprint, not locally on the device. Verizon phones cannot connect. I do not know about Boost or Virgin but I think I read they do not work either.
So why the GPS? While Sprint ideally only wants you using the Airave in your "home" location, the reality is that the GPS is required so that the Airave doesn't
run afoul of the FCC. Broadcasting in the CDMA spectrum must only be done in locations for which Sprint has a license, otherwise laws are broken, and ridiculous fines are theoretically involved. In other words, the GPS is there to keep you from using the Airave in other countries, but it should work most anywhere in the US. Otherwise, a specific "home address" is not being enforced. You can use it California today and Kansas tomorrow and it should work fine. If you do go oversees, I can think of a few cool hacks you could use, including spoofed GPS signals at the broadcast/antenna level using software radio, cutting the GPS output from the chip on the circuit board and replacing it with a microcontroller that just outs NMEA data, custom firmware hacks, the list goes on
The one hack I have done is replacing the stock antenna with a high gain one. I had to get a pigtail and cut the stock antenna "lock" ring with a dremel. I haven't measured the signal gain so I can't really say it was worth it, but it was fun.
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Thank you. Now that makes logical sense.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

Emkman- would an airrave be.of any benefit.if you have say half signal at your house? Would sprint give it to me for free it do they only do that if you have no signal? Also are the speeds the same connected to an airrave or different? Thanks
Sent From My Evo Killer!

@emkman
The one hack I have done is replacing the stock antenna with a high gain one. I had to get a pigtail and cut the stock antenna "lock" ring with a dremel. I haven't measured the signal gain so I can't really say it was worth it, but it was fun.
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but it was fun
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Click to collapse
/high five

I got my Airave for free, and it cost absolutely nothing per month on my bill, i got that waived too. The Airave is assigned a phone number on your Sprint bill, take it wherever you want to, you might have to call Sprint though when you relocate it to get it up and running again, I took mine to my fiancee's house, plugged it in the router, and was able to use it there with no issues.

I have an airave that Sprint gave me for free due to many dropped calls around my house. In my situation it does more harm than good, so it's been unplugged for the last 2 weeks or so. If you're on an airave call, it doesn't get handed off to the real cell tower network. So if you're on the phone and you want to leave your house, too bad. Likewise, if your on a call when you come home, it doesn't hand the active call off to your airave, so if I come inside and go downstairs to my office I drop the call anyway. Also, it only allows 5 or 6 sprint phones to connect to it - and not ones that you choose. So if you have some friends/neighbors with Sprint that come over and they fill up the airave before you do - too bad again. In many cases I had to power cycle the airave to get my own phone to connect again (which takes forever). Sprint also mandates that the Airave be the 1st device behind your cable modem. So if your modem is integrated with your router, WAP, etc... you'll have a problem. There are ways to get it to work behind your own device, but Sprint will always point the finger if you configure it as such (even when there is a known airave outage going on, gotta love scripted tech support). When you combine the fact that I have to quite often power cycle the airave and it sits between the Internet connection and my LAN - I had to kill internet to my house several times a week in order to use the thing.
On the plus side, you get blazing fast 3g speeds through the new generation airave (you damn well better, its your own broadband!) In the case of the smartphone, who cares - just fire up your Wifi. If you have very bad or no cell coverage whatsoever this is probably a very good solution. Personally I find Roam Control to be a better solution for my specific situation.

I am thinking about getting the Airave but this is what Sprint says:
Great news! You will be able to use the AIRAVE Access Point in the areas displayed below. However, there is no coverage for the AIRAVE at this location yet.
Now that is totally confusing! The map shows that I am covered. Guess I need to call sprint.

You actually can limit the users on the airave. I've done it just for that reason. Only my wife and I can use the airave. I believe you can set it by telephone #, look through the manual you will find it.
Edit: you can limit access on www.sprint.com you have to access your account.
insanity213 said:
I have an airave that Sprint gave me for free due to many dropped calls around my house. In my situation it does more harm than good, so it's been unplugged for the last 2 weeks or so. If you're on an airave call, it doesn't get handed off to the real cell tower network. So if you're on the phone and you want to leave your house, too bad. Likewise, if your on a call when you come home, it doesn't hand the active call off to your airave, so if I come inside and go downstairs to my office I drop the call anyway. Also, it only allows 5 or 6 sprint phones to connect to it - and not ones that you choose. So if you have some friends/neighbors with Sprint that come over and they fill up the airave before you do - too bad again. In many cases I had to power cycle the airave to get my own phone to connect again (which takes forever). Sprint also mandates that the Airave be the 1st device behind your cable modem. So if your modem is integrated with your router, WAP, etc... you'll have a problem. There are ways to get it to work behind your own device, but Sprint will always point the finger if you configure it as such (even when there is a known airave outage going on, gotta love scripted tech support). When you combine the fact that I have to quite often power cycle the airave and it sits between the Internet connection and my LAN - I had to kill internet to my house several times a week in order to use the thing.
On the plus side, you get blazing fast 3g speeds through the new generation airave (you damn well better, its your own broadband!) In the case of the smartphone, who cares - just fire up your Wifi. If you have very bad or no cell coverage whatsoever this is probably a very good solution. Personally I find Roam Control to be a better solution for my specific situation.
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Airrave will go 8,000 square feet. I have the soc on my account. They can power it up that far. I was able to get it free, you can restrict phones in your account settings or keep it open.

Did not work out!
Recieved the Airave tried to make calls but 2 out of 10 would drop after starting the conversation.
Tried to get Sprint Tech to help with FIOS router but to no avail.
Call FIOS but as far as they were concerned I had a 'Great' singnal, which I did.
Just called Sprint to return, I'm in Pgh, PA area.
Hope this helps.
ps-Sprint should take the time to provide instructions to provide info to setup different routers, ie FIOS.

ive seen some misconceptions in this thread.
on sprint.com you can limit and restrict airave usage to only numbers on your account, or just numbers of your choosing.
also on sprint.com you can provision it to broadcast up to 8000 feet. mine works well 14 houses up the block. i dont know how many feet that is.
to who said it doesnt hand off to hard towers, you are correct. mine drops the call on the 15th house. also, when me and the old lady are fighting, and i hear her out on the porch talking **** to her friends, i can unplug it and it drops the call instantly. she hates me.
i have an airave 2 (capable of 3g). i was not charged anything for this. not for the equiptment or the service fee. i was told by a sprint rep that they didnt even have a way to charge for it and it was specifficaly a free item upon approval by retentions. im not sure why one would have to put it on their credit card, doesnt sprint bill to the account for small charges like the supposed 99 dollars?
last point. it is "airave" not airwave.

I heard that they stopped doing the free deal.....but not 100% on that....I got mine for free back about 6 months ago....I never paid a penny nor do I pay $5 a month for it.....but as I said I have heard they changed their policies.....so you may want to check it out first....

My dad got one around the first of january for free. Its not even at his house. My grandmas house burned down last year and he's rebuilding. He just told them he was spending most of his time there and she's down in a deep valley with no service, so they gave him a second one. (for free)
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Screwed for iPhone 4GS rant

WE have been duped by Sprint people. Go to their website and you will notice the announcement of the iPhone 4Gs. You can even pre order it. This privilege was not given for the Samsung Galaxy S 2 ET4G.
Why...was this you say...it's obvious that Sprint knew it had made a deal to buy a **** load of IOS devices to secure this deal with Apple.so they didn't promote the galaxy ET4g. Now they have a big announcement tomorrow. They are going out of their way to let you pre order the iPhone as well.
Sad, and yes I feel they used us to get this deal, by canceling all perks, while giving us crappy service. My Photon has a red circle and no service, and I don't have a ET4G yet. Service has been terrible most of the summer all over NY and in mid town NYC.
If service was being interrupted to better service I may stick around, but not getting signal, failed messages, and paying for it and no credit with lies is unacceptable. Not being able to pre-order the phone I wanted because they made a deal with Crapple is also unforgivable. Price isn't the only thing that matters in a business relationship. It's I pay for service and expect to have it when I want it, not when you decide to give it.
Hell I was told by a customer service rep that I should be happy because I have had a lot of usage on my line. I then said yes that is true, but when I need my service to work it failed to deliver....I missed important calls. and meetings with people because of failed service.
People were telling me when they called the phone rang 3x's and hung up no message was able to be left. Others told me that they would get a network busy message please try again later. One rep verified this condition of calling me, and could not get through. The phone rang 3x's and the line just went dead when they called. I have been to tech centers, and have made many battery pulls, and software reboots, and finally I was told that there was a net work issue and they did not know when it would be cleared. Now when I call to talk about it they put me on hold no music and never come back to talk.
I just don't see it getting better, and when the next generation of phones IE Prime or what ever hits Verizon, and this is not cleared I am gone. When I feel I have to beg for service, or a credit for not receiving service after paying my bills for 15 years, and at one point having a $300 a month phone bills for business it's time to go.
My bill analysis shows that I average 240 msg a month, and average about 2g of data a month, and since I use my phone mostly for calls a Verizion 69.00 phone plan with 10 data, and 10.00 for data equals what I am paying now. So if this doesn't clear with the loss of perks I am outta here.lol

My service is better than ever...by far too. I never saw over 8Mbps download speed in Los Angeles on 4G and now....
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Enjoy the larger bill on Verizon. It fast and rather reliable
Life is too short to complain on services you are not happy about. Great thing about America is that we have three major carriers
The sprint network can't compete with Verizon in "most" areas,

Can I have your phone when you leave? I've got a line with no phone....

care cup \__/
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

When sprint cancelled premiere the writing was on the wall. It was on your august bill statement. In addition, sprint raised the admin fee by 50cents which invalidated every contract. Also on your bill statement.
Then sprint raised ETF from $200 to $350. Then they changed 30 day phone trials to 14 days. All this in september.
I am here on this board with an E4GT because of these changes - I had to get my final premiere upgrade prior to 10/2/2011. Otherwise I was fully planning on just waiting another month for nexus prime.
Now the E4GT has serious radio issues. Like OP, I had calls go to voicemail for hours at a time. Others have LOS, dropped calls, no signal bars, phone refuses to roam, etc.
Sprint's CEO said that 54% of sprint customer churn is due to not having an iphone. Thats a pretty hard fact to not pay attention to.
It is clear sprint is putting all eggs in one basket - the iphone basket. Sprint has lost money for 15 straight quarters. This will either save sprint or ruin sprint.
I've been with sprint 10 years now, and im no iphone fan. THe writing is on the wall: We'll let you keep your android devices and stay on our network, but we really don't care about you now. Of course I knew all this over a month ago and I was still willing to sign a 2 year contract in september for the Epic 4g touch. That was before all the LOS issues arose.
We'll see what the next 2 years brings. But the days of customer loyalty perks, retention plans, etc are clearly over.

I just switched from verizon to sprint, so I can give you a good preview of what to expect.
First of all, the service is top notch, and the lte speeds were incredible - I regularly got over 20 mbps in my area, many times close to 30. Of course, keep in mind that their lte service is fairly new, and at the time they only had 3 expensive phones that could use it, so that will likely change as more people upgrade and the network gets saturated.
So why did I leave this awesome service? Price. Everything across the board is way more expensive - service and phones. I paid $50 more for a Droid Charge than I did for my E4GT, and that phone isn't even in the same league. For our family plan with unlimited text, only 700 minutes, 2 data plans and 2 other phones, it was $230 a month. Our kids wanted smartphones too, but to add 2 more data plans would have put our bill up to $300. I'm not broke, but not rich either, and that cost is pretty hard to justify.
Also, keep in mind that all those policies Sprint just changed are the same policies Verizon has - 14 day return, $350 etf (even after being way overcharged on the phones up front), and no more New Every Two program.
The only carrier I've found with good pricing and great coverage (in my area) is Tmo, and I almost jumped to them, but no way in hell I want to risk being an att customer again.
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txmikester said:
I just switched from verizon to sprint, so I can give you a good preview of what to expect.
First of all, the service is top notch, and the lte speeds were incredible - I regularly got over 20 mbps in my area, many times close to 30. Of course, keep in mind that their lte service is fairly new, and at the time they only had 3 expensive phones that could use it, so that will likely change as more people upgrade and the network gets saturated.
So why did I leave this awesome service? Price. Everything across the board is way more expensive - service and phones. I paid $50 more for a Droid Charge than I did for my E4GT, and that phone isn't even in the same league. For our family plan with unlimited text, only 700 minutes, 2 data plans and 2 other phones, it was $230 a month. Our kids wanted smartphones too, but to add 2 more data plans would have put our bill up to $300. I'm not broke, but not rich either, and that cost is pretty hard to justify.
Also, keep in mind that all those policies Sprint just changed are the same policies Verizon has - 14 day return, $350 etf (even after being way overcharged on the phones up front), and no more New Every Two program.
The only carrier I've found with good pricing and great coverage (in my area) is Tmo, and I almost jumped to them, but no way in hell I want to risk being an att customer again.
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Perspective ftw!
This is called "grass is greener" syndrome. You're gonna love it at first. Then 6 months later you're posting the same crap in another forum.

AbsolutZeroGI said:
Perspective ftw!
This is called "grass is greener" syndrome. You're gonna love it at first. Then 6 months later you're posting the same crap in another forum.
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It all comes down to service.....ETFs, and other fees are basic...it's about service when I want it....I am worn out this summer by Sprint's evasive bull**** regarding the service issues that we are experiencing. Collecting my money for inferior service, and lying about is bad business practice......

Piece out!!!!

QWIKSTRIKE said:
It all comes down to service.....ETFs, and other fees are basic...it's about service when I want it....I am worn out this summer by Sprint's evasive bull**** regarding the service issues that we are experiencing. Collecting my money for inferior service, and lying about is bad business practice......
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Amen. I am tired of flipping on Roam Control and dealing on 1x every time I enter a building. What good is unlimited 3g if it is slow as molasses, and 4g which is spotty and hardly ever works indoors? At this point, I am off contract and if Prime comes to VZW and is not full of bloat I may be gone.

dohturdima said:
Amen. I am tired of flipping on Roam Control and dealing on 1x every time I enter a building. What good is unlimited 3g if it is slow as molasses, and 4g which is spotty and hardly ever works indoors? At this point, I am off contract and if Prime comes to VZW and is not full of bloat I may be gone.
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+1
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I was told that the unlimited everything plan for the IPhone will be $20 a month more than ours..
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium

I like android and I never want a I-PHONE.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App

Feel free to kick me in the Jimmy if I ever buy an iAnything.
Sent from my extra sensory space modulator while performing the slippery cricket

dohturdima said:
Amen. I am tired of flipping on Roam Control and dealing on 1x every time I enter a building. What good is unlimited 3g if it is slow as molasses, and 4g which is spotty and hardly ever works indoors? At this point, I am off contract and if Prime comes to VZW and is not full of bloat I may be gone.
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It doesn't really matter if it has bloat where cause you can root the stock rom and use titanium backup to remove it all. Its super easy to do

dohturdima said:
Amen. I am tired of flipping on Roam Control and dealing on 1x every time I enter a building. What good is unlimited 3g if it is slow as molasses, and 4g which is spotty and hardly ever works indoors? At this point, I am off contract and if Prime comes to VZW and is not full of bloat I may be gone.
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I am not just talking 3g/4G.....I get a red circle with a line almost daily. I have been missing calls. getting network busy try back later errors, and not receiving calls for hours a day. I missed getting calls with 4-5 bars in mid town Manhattan, and people told me the phone just rang 3 times and stopped ringing with no option to leave a voice mail. Others were told to "try back later network busy". This can only get worse if iPhone is coming. I am not the only one experiencing this issue the Sprint online community is filled with this same complaint.

JohnCorleone said:
I was told that the unlimited everything plan for the IPhone will be $20 a month more than ours..
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using xda premium
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Nope, it is the same price. You can go on and pre-order to see the pricing.

AirRave is on its way!

All I did was call customer service, complained that my 4G speed was worse than my 3G speed (it really is most of the time!) and after a few transfers and no arguments, my AirRave should arrive this Wednesday.
So those who have tried to get one of these boxes before, you might try the 4G vs 3G argument like I did and I had no problems getting one!

AiRave does NOTHING for 4G-WiMax. Period. Besides, if you have broadband at home, the best connection speed you're going to get is limited to your broadband speed, so you might as well just use Wi-Fi.

It is mainly for call quality but will raise your 3G speeds but will do nothing for your 4G
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Lol, I just sent mine back. Just about the only thing worse than dealing with crappy Sprint service is using the Airave. GPS would cut out overnight most of the time (yes I had the antenna next to the window, whereas my phone would pick up a GPS signal even away from the windows), and when it worked, the voice quality was terrible with constant stuttering. I hope you have better luck with your device than I did.

sputnik767 said:
Lol, I just sent mine back. Just about the only thing worse than dealing with crappy Sprint service is using the Airave. GPS would cut out overnight most of the time (yes I had the antenna next to the window, whereas my phone would pick up a GPS signal even away from the windows), and when it worked, the voice quality was terrible with constant stuttering. I hope you have better luck with your device than I did.
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I had your luck with the airave when I had to use one a few years back, although it helped a little (I had no signal despite being a half mile from a tower) with calls it was more a pain in the butt to deal with, especially whenever the power went out and I had to get it up and running again.
And I must've done something wrong because no matter what I said I couldn't get them to send one for free lol I even had to drive down the road from my house to call them and request one, told the guy "I'm sitting in the parking lot of the mall down the road because I can't call you from home", he was like "wow that's bad". Uh, duh.
Also it seems like I paid $4.99 a month (on top of the $99 I paid for the device) and that only covered two lines on my five line account, I would've had to pay more to have it cover the other numbers. I hope they've improved the service since then.

iSaint said:
It is mainly for call quality but will raise your 3G speeds but will do nothing for your 4G
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Yes, I know that it has nothing to do with 4G, I just like sticking it to Sprint and getting free stuff from them!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

I got mine for free and it worked like a cgarm minus a few sms issues but didnt last long for me.. even used it to upgrade to the sgs2 last year when it came out.. signed a 2yr contract on it.. however dont have wifi right now so they sent a letter to return it or be charged for it.. so i called and they cancelled the line and sent for a return kit all not costing anything.. now im eligible for a third line and since itd be new can get a new phone at discounted price and we needed a third line anyways win win situation and then some!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

Esoteric68 said:
I had your luck with the airave when I had to use one a few years back, although it helped a little (I had no signal despite being a half mile from a tower) with calls it was more a pain in the butt to deal with, especially whenever the power went out and I had to get it up and running again.
And I must've done something wrong because no matter what I said I couldn't get them to send one for free lol I even had to drive down the road from my house to call them and request one, told the guy "I'm sitting in the parking lot of the mall down the road because I can't call you from home", he was like "wow that's bad". Uh, duh.
Also it seems like I paid $4.99 a month (on top of the $99 I paid for the device) and that only covered two lines on my five line account, I would've had to pay more to have it cover the other numbers. I hope they've improved the service since then.
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I got mine for free. Everything was an they even said so over the phone. I've had no problems. **** don't even have the GPS antenna near a window. The only bad thing I've experienced is if i'm talking in my house an go to leave. I get disconnected. Better then having to stand next to a window or move around the house.

Esoteric68 said:
I had your luck with the airave when I had to use one a few years back, although it helped a little (I had no signal despite being a half mile from a tower) with calls it was more a pain in the butt to deal with, especially whenever the power went out and I had to get it up and running again.
And I must've done something wrong because no matter what I said I couldn't get them to send one for free lol I even had to drive down the road from my house to call them and request one, told the guy "I'm sitting in the parking lot of the mall down the road because I can't call you from home", he was like "wow that's bad". Uh, duh.
Also it seems like I paid $4.99 a month (on top of the $99 I paid for the device) and that only covered two lines on my five line account, I would've had to pay more to have it cover the other numbers. I hope they've improved the service since then.
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wow, youve been getting ripped, i had the old samsung airave when i called to complain about the service at my home, they fedexed me one for free overnight and charged me $4.99 every month but with a $4.99 credit every month as long as i kept that service on my plan. i noticed when torrenting i had ****ty ****ty call quality, the original samsung device also did not help evdo speeds with my then smartphone, it was a PITA so i unplugged it about a year ago and its been sitting in my closet until about a month ago when i decided to call sprint again, i told them it hadnt been powering up and if i could exchange it, they sent me out a new model called the airvana and i shipped the old one back, it was a bit of a hassle to get the new one activated but i guess that was because i just called *2 from my sprint line, i let it sit a few hours as they said and it never worked, so i call the 866 number on the instructions like i should have in the first place and they got it all set up and it was active within the 1st hour of placing that call...since then i've upgraded my time warner cable to verizon fios 25/25, call quality is great and it was horrible before. also my 3g at home sucked ass, it felt like the worst 1x signal so i always have to use wifi, however with the new airvana i tested the 3g speeds it puts out and its not bad, much better than the ****ty cell towers 3g to my house, i prefer the high speed of wifi when i'm home though so i'll continue to use 802.11g/n when i can, i guess the 3g is good for when sprint guests come over so i wont have to give them my wpa2 password

t0mmyr said:
wow, youve been getting ripped, i had the old samsung airave when i called to complain about the service at my home, they fedexed me one for free overnight and charged me $4.99 every month but with a $4.99 credit every month as long as i kept that service on my plan. i noticed when torrenting i had ****ty ****ty call quality, the original samsung device also did not help evdo speeds with my then smartphone, it was a PITA so i unplugged it about a year ago and its been sitting in my closet until about a month ago when i decided to call sprint again, i told them it hadnt been powering up and if i could exchange it, they sent me out a new model called the airvana and i shipped the old one back, it was a bit of a hassle to get the new one activated but i guess that was because i just called *2 from my sprint line, i let it sit a few hours as they said and it never worked, so i call the 866 number on the instructions like i should have in the first place and they got it all set up and it was active within the 1st hour of placing that call...since then i've upgraded my time warner cable to verizon fios 25/25, call quality is great and it was horrible before. also my 3g at home sucked ass, it felt like the worst 1x signal so i always have to use wifi, however with the new airvana i tested the 3g speeds it puts out and its not bad, much better than the ****ty cell towers 3g to my house, i prefer the high speed of wifi when i'm home though so i'll continue to use 802.11g/n when i can, i guess the 3g is good for when sprint guests come over so i wont have to give them my wpa2 password
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lol I only used it for a year and disconnected the thing over two years ago. I now live in a good signal area and recently donated my device to Sprint, along with an old, old blackberry for recycling.

FYI, the AirRave is NOT completely free. Since it counts as another line, you pay additional fees. In my case it was ~$3 per month. It was a nightmare to get them to refund it.

Mattheyu said:
FYI, the AirRave is NOT completely free. Since it counts as another line, you pay additional fees. In my case it was ~$3 per month. It was a nightmare to get them to refund it.
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Actually, if they give it to you as a service promotion, it's completely free as is the unit itself.
However, the unit is on LOAN, they want it back if/when you terminate sprint service or they will charge you for it.
Mine is 100% free, no charge, nada. So, you can get it free.

Compusmurf said:
Actually, if they give it to you as a service promotion, it's completely free as is the unit itself.
However, the unit is on LOAN, they want it back if/when you terminate sprint service or they will charge you for it. I was told it was automatic because on their end, it is an additional phone line.
Mine is 100% free, no charge, nada. So, you can get it free.
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I guarantee that if you look at the breakdown of Sprint Surcharges at the end of your bill, it increased when they added the AirRave. I was told it was automatic since on their end, it appears as a second line, which means the fees for a second line.
On mine, it was:
Administrative fee - $1.50 for one line to $3.00 with the AirRave)
Regulatory charge - $0.40 to $0.80
State Cost Recovery Fee - $0.30 - $0.60
Slightly higher taxes
Also on the bill: "Sprint Surcharges are rates we choose to collect from you..."
That means Sprint is NOT required to collect those by law or regulation. Since they are, it is a fee/charge.

I am in an area with horrible reception so bad that without the air rave my phone would be useless that thing helped me a LOT I went from always roaming to always full bars! Only problem is it seems to make my wifi a bit slower but nothing enough to complain about.

Mattheyu said:
I guarantee that if you look at the breakdown of Sprint Surcharges at the end of your bill, it increased when they added the AirRave. I was told it was automatic since on their end, it appears as a second line, which means the fees for a second line.
On mine, it was:
Administrative fee - $1.50 for one line to $3.00 with the AirRave)
Regulatory charge - $0.40 to $0.80
State Cost Recovery Fee - $0.30 - $0.60
Slightly higher taxes
Also on the bill: "Sprint Surcharges are rates we choose to collect from you..."
That means Sprint is NOT required to collect those by law or regulation. Since they are, it is a fee/charge.
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****, you're right, for the past 2 years I've been paying about $2-$3 in taxes for this 3rd line of crap they were supposed to be providing at no charge
heres mine:
Federal-Univ Serv Assess Non-LD ............................................................. $1.89
California State-PUC User Fee .................................................................... $0.08
Administrative Charge ................................................................................ $4.50
Regulatory Charge ...................................................................................... $1.20
$7.67

The thing that blows me away is that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a carrier like sprint, then on top of it have to go through this kinda of BS to even get a signal in your home so you can receive calls etc....something wrong with this picture.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Duce HD2 said:
The thing that blows me away is that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on a carrier like sprint, then on top of it have to go through this kinda of BS to even get a signal in your home so you can receive calls etc....something wrong with this picture.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
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You do realize there are other carriers besides sprint right?
My general cell phone rule of thumb, never get a carrier just because of a phone.
It burns when I Tapatalk...

Love my airvana. Had the issue where the phone would think it failed to send a text and it would send like twenty but they fixed it a few months back.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

jklong03 said:
Yes, I know that it has nothing to do with 4G, I just like sticking it to Sprint and getting free stuff from them!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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It's nothing special. Sprint gives away free Airaves like they can't get rid of them fast enough. Just tell them your signal has degraded and they'll usually hook you up with no questions asked. Problem is, a lot of us have them for legit reasons. My signal here was great for years and years, then one day it dropped like a rock, was lucky to get more than 1 bar. It's been that way ever since.

Sprint Customer Service is about as useful as a football bat!!!

I have just about had it with Sprint's horribly inefficient and poorly capable Customer service representatives. I have been having the issue of no network connectivity.......well excuse me, not no network connectivity, extremely poor connectivity. My speedtest.net speeds are consistantly lower than 10kbps. When I tell this to the customer service people I'm told that the service in my area is showing up green and I should be experiencing the best service that Sprint has to offer. I understand what's going on. I know that it's because of the network visioning upgrades and they're replacing the towers. However, the last thing any customer wants to hear (after paying the $200/month bill (I have multiple lines with Sprint)) is that there's nothing wrong and it's the device's fault. I have been to the store as instructed by the technical support.....nothing's wrong with the phone, it's the network. All I have to say is that Sprint really needs to better train their support staff to not only be more knowledgeable about what's going on but also how to deal with unhappy/unsatisfied customers. I've worked in customer service industries for the majority of my adult life and I know how aggravating it is to deal with unruly customers. But at the end of the day it's their J O B!!!!! If they can't do it then they need to find another line of work.....that's what I did! :victory:
Anyone else have issues with Sprint's customer service?

Sprints cs is actually the best one of the carriers. If you had to deal with Verizon cs, you'd cry.

Ascertion said:
Sprints cs is actually the best one of the carriers. If you had to deal with Verizon cs, you'd cry.
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I will concede to that point. I just recently came from Verizon and their customer service was absolutely unbearable!
The lure of unlimited LTE and the Galaxy SIII was just too much for me to resist so that's why I jumped ship from Big Red. I just wish that I would have been told up front that when they upgrade the network it would result in significant down time. I specifically asked that question when I switched and I was told that I shouldn't experience any hiccup in service.....just the superb service that Sprint customers have come to expect from their service provider........

A football is pretty darn useful in my neck of the woods. Get out more.
Sent from my billion dollar GalaxiPhone S3.

JohnnyEpic said:
A football is pretty darn useful in my neck of the woods. Get out more.
Sent from my billion dollar GalaxiPhone S3.
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HAHA, well I figured that a football bat could serve some purpose......just like customer service.......but only sometimes, on very special occasions, like every other Tuesday but only on leap years! :silly:

Its hit and miss. One out of 3 try's and you get someone who speaks English well enough to understand. But the fact is, who of any company's have good customer service? I had a number to Sprint that got me to someone very nice and smart that spoke clear every time. AAA+ CS. Its was like a back door number. The phone would ring once and there they where. That number doesn't work anymore but it was so nice! 877-775-4886. If anyone has the replacement number to it, PM me please!!

I dunno, I've had to call them 4 times since I started using Sprint just short of 2 years ago. First time was because of an order screw up, which was actually my fault. Wanted to return the stuff. The csv rep sent me to a store, the store told me they didn't take returns and to mail it all back. Called them again, and the rep I talked to said the store was clueless, then overnighted a box to me to mail the returns back. 1 FAIL, 1 WIN.
Then last month I had to activate 2 S3s, each seperately. First rep was awesome, friendly, knew exactly what she was doing. Then I called again that night, and got some middle aged woman who managed to help me without issue.
In comparison, I have to call Comcast countless times because the cable stops working, boxes break down, internet goes AWOL, etc. I once had service reps at my house all day long several days in a row because they couldn't fix an issue with the internet.
My Playstation 3 died from a YLOD (overheating) despite being in the open. Sony rep told me they didn't care, but if I wanted it fixed I could send it to them and pay them to fix it. Nevermind the fact Microsoft has fixed my 360 several times without asking questions. Only issue I had with Microsoft was they once charged my credit card $10 for a subscription I had canceled, and they refused to refund me. Also gotten plenty of freebies from Microsoft.
So by comparison... Sprint is pretty decent imo. But like all customer service, it's the luck of the draw. It's a job. Some people take it seriously, others cringe when they have to answer a call.

i am in VA beach and we are getting the network vision updates now as well as LTE next month (if they dont delay it) and i get ~1.82 mbps (average; also using speedtest.net app) and my fastest was 2.04 mbps
EDIT: of course on 3G and those are my download speeds

jamcar said:
i am in VA beach and we are getting the network vision updates now as well as LTE next month (if they dont delay it) and i get ~1.82 mbps (average; also using speedtest.net app) and my fastest was 2.04 mbps
EDIT: of course on 3G and those are my download speeds
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Just a heads up, be prepared for your service to go straight in the toilet. If you experience ANY issues at all, make sure that you contact Sprint and get them to note that you're having issues. This way you can get your account adjusted appropriately once the complete upgrade is done and the service has been restored.

Football bat. Now that had me laughing on the crapper.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium

dennistpm said:
Football bat. Now that had me laughing on the crapper.
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
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Eli could have used one against the Bucs at the end.