How many times have you been visiting a city away from home and had this conversation with a local?: “I have the worst reception here!” “Oh, what do you have?” “[Here’s where you say which mobile carrier you use] and it’s getting a crap signal.” “I have [one that works awesome in this particular town], so that sucks for you.” It’s one of those things where some lucky locals find out their calls won’t be dropped and their mobile networks will actually connect, but once you leave your hometown, all bets are off. So which cities have the worst cell phone reception? [More]
sprint
No Sprint Service, Let Out Of Contract If I Surrender My New Phone
By 8.14.12
Vincent has been a Sprint customer for a long time, and it’s only just recently that his service really started to suck. He drops or misses calls, and can’t get a data connection. ONly after calling the Consumerist Hotline did he learn that the problem is systemic: their network is overloaded in his area, and there might be a solution at the end of this year. Sprint has made him an offer: they’ll let him out of his contact without an early termination fee, but only if he gives back his recently purchased smartphone. He says that he shelled out $400 for this phone, and would have sold it to another Sprint customer to recoup some of his losses. What should he do? [More]
Sprint Fires Customer For Excessive Roaming, Won't Unlock His iPhone
By 8.13.12
Sprint fired Christian. Oh, he didn’t work for them: they fired him as a customer. He doesn’t live near any of their towers, and so he ended up doing a lot of data roaming. Displeased, Sprint sent him a letter to tell him that he was being let go. Christian called up Sprint and was told that he would be allowed to unlock his shiny new iPhone 4S and use it on AT&T. He ported his number out to AT&T, then learned that the representative he had talked to is the only person in the Sprint organization who will tell customers that they can use their iPhones on another US carrier. [More]
If Bloatware Keeps You From Downloading Phone Apps You Actually Want, Should Carriers Offer An Upgrade?
By 8.7.12
We’ve written before about the annoyances of bloatware — those apps you are never ever going to use but come with your smartphone and cannot be deleted no matter how much you swear at your phone. Consumerist reader Ryan’s got his own bone to pick with zombie apps that can’t be killed on his Sprint phone, because they’re interfering with his ability to use it in the way he intended when he bought it. In short: he can’t download apps he actually wants because the bloatware takes up too much space, even with a new SD card. [More]
SEC Investigates Sprint Over Allegations It Failed To Properly Collect Sales Tax
By 8.2.12
Back in April, the New York Attorney General’s office filed a lawsuit against Sprint, alleging the wireless provider deliberately under-collected sales tax in an effort to remain competitive. Now, Sprint has revealed that it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over these same allegations. [More]
Virgin Mobile, Sprint, And The Phantom Voicemail
By 7.27.12
Brian is haunted. No matter what he does, a phantom voicemail is always there on his Virgin Mobile phone. Notifying him of its existence every fifteen minutes, without actually existing. Making his phone vibrate and give audio alerts. Providing him with constant reminders of something that isn’t there. It’s incredibly frustrating, and all Virgin Mobile can do is bounce him back and forth between them and Sprint. [More]
Sprint Sells Me iPhone With No Coverage, Lies About It
By 7.18.12
When Ryan purchased a new iPhone 4S from Sprint for his partner’s use, it didn’t work very well. Assuming that the problem was the phone, he brought it back to the store. No, the store employees assured him, it just takes a few weeks for all of the information to “flow” to the new phone when a customer ports a number from another carrier (T-Mobile, in this case.) This is, of course, complete nonsense, but they also claimed to not have another iPhone to exchange it for. So he went home to wait for the information to flow. It didn’t. The two-week return deadline passed, and then Ryan learned that the problem was with the towers, not with his significant other’s number port. [More]
Sprint Customers In Texas & Georgia May Now Have Access To 4G LTE Service
By 7.16.12
With Verizon already touting its 4G LTE roll-out and AT&T claiming that LTE is currently available in 47 markets around the country, third-place wireless competitor Sprint needs to do everything it can to compete. Over the weekend, the company finally flipped the switch on its LTE network, but unless you live in some parts of Texas, Georgia and Missouri, you’ll probably still be waiting. [More]
Sprint Isn’t Sure Whether They Can Unlock My iPhone Or Not
By 7.16.12
In a few months, Jessica and her fiancé will move to his native London. This wasn’t in her long-term plans when she bought an iPhone 4S and signed a contract with Sprint. Life happens. At least she will be able to keep her newish iPhone after unlocking it and swapping in a UK SIM card…right? Well, no. Maybe. No. Yes, but for $300. Nobody, including Sprint employees, seems to know what Sprint’s actual policy is. [More]
The Sprint Consumerist Hotline Is Alive And Well
By 6.26.12 — Updated: 8.12.15
The Sprint Consumerist Hotline, a direct line to the company’s executive customer service, has been one of our staple resources in the fight for competent customer service. A few weeks ago, though, some readers reported to us that it had been disconnected. Nooooo! We checked in with Sprint to see what happened to the hotline, and obtained a fresh new number for you to use. Bonus: it’s toll-free. [More]
Report: Virgin Mobile To Offer Prepaid iPhone Service
By 6.6.12
Days after Leap Wireless announced it would be the first prepaid carrier in the U.S. to offer the iPhone, Sprint’s Virgin Mobile division is set to throw its hat into the iPhone ring. [More]
Wireless Companies Hope To Cash In By Pushing Everyone Into Unlimited Voice Plans
By 6.6.12
Since the iPhone ushered in the smartphone era in 2007, the average wireless subscriber is making fewer and shorter voice calls — resulting in a nearly 20% drop in average monthly minutes. But rather than give consumers the option to dial-down to smaller-tier voice plans, the titans of wireless are looking to give everyone an unlimited amount of talk. [More]
Sprint Sets Nextel Execution Date: June 30, 2013
By 5.30.12
Remember 2004-2005? Let’s go back there now… Remember… back when people still thought Revenge of the Sith was going to redeem the prequels… Ok, let’s not remember, it’s too painful. Anyway, in late 2004, Sprint and Nextel announced a “merger of equals.” And now, after billions of dollars in mistakes, they’ve finally announced that Nextel will officially die on June 30, 2013. What does this mean for Nextel customers? Yes, apparently they still exist! [More]
How Switching To Cheaper Smartphone Plan For Deaf Customers Can Cost More
By 4.25.12
Mobile phone carriers aren’t about to let the majority of smartphone customers give up their voice plans any time soon, no matter how few minutes you use every month. Jack’s girlfriend doesn’t have much use for voice minutes, though. She’s deaf. She actually talks on the phone rarely, and more often uses the data connection to type to people and make phone calls using a relay service. After a few months, she managed to find someone at Sprint willing to put her on a special plan for deaf customers that has no voice minutes, and even gave her that plan’s price going back two months. What she didn’t realize was that she would be billed twenty cents for every minute of voice calls she had made during those two months. [More]
NY Attorney General Files $300 Million Lawsuit Against Sprint
By 4.19.12
Earlier today, the Attorney General for the state of New York accused the folks at Sprint-Nextel Corp of deliberately failing to collect more than $100 million in sales tax from customers — and now he wants the nation’s third-largest wireless provider to pay up. [More]
Sprint Decides It Doesn't Want Me As A Customer, Cuts Phone Off With No Warning
By 4.18.12
Consumerist reader G. has been a Sprint customer for six years, and has always paid his bills on time, and referred friends and family to their service. But that special relationship apparently wasn’t two-sided, as Sprint decided to cut off G.’s service one day with absolutely no warning, other than a line buried in his Terms of Service. [More]
Sprint Insists I Owe Them $800 For Nonexistent Account
By 4.5.12
Samit isn’t a Sprint customer. He doesn’t have a Sprint phone or service. He doesn’t have a customer number. But somehow he owes Sprint $800 for service that he neither signed up for nor received. See, he had tried to become a customer. After starting the process of setting up Sprint service, someone took down his social security and credit card numbers, then wandered off. Samit received an iPhone that he never asked for, sent it back, and somehow has racked up $800 in phantom phone bills. [More]
Sprint Gives Me An Early Upgrade, In Spite Of Employees' Worst Efforts
By 4.3.12
Most “happy ending” stories we post involve customer service reps who do a little more than what the script provides. But this story is slightly different, in that the customer still managed to get good customer service, even while dealing with people who didn’t seem to know what was going on. [More]
