What is it about Cell phone companies (well maybe just Sprint) that they have the ability to reduce me to a blubbering pissed off tear soaked madwoman. At the moment I am so angry that my best course of action might be to close the shop putting up a sign that due to the complete incompetence of a corporation and all of it's employees I'm way to angry to be able to help you today. Trust Me.
I miss my Nextel phone. I loved my Nextel. I feel guilty that I ever betrayed my faithful phone of 5 years and let myself be swayed into the evil clutches of Sprint.
In the time since I switched to sprint (a grand total of 15 months ago) I have had 3 phones. My first 2 had manufacture defects. In the 5 years of Nextel I had 1 & it still worked fine except for the alarm on the calendar.
When I had Nextel I never had even 1 dropped call. With Sprint I have had about a 98% dropped call rate. Usually they don't even make it to the 10 second mark. You see... both live & work in these magic bubbles of practically no Sprint coverage. A quarter mile North, East, and West of my home my phone would work fine, but not my home or anywhere on the bike path I use. I know that both from the coverage map & from when I was dating this Summer and in a desperate attempt to actually speak on the phone with him I was willing to bike miles! but still had no signal.
And why don't I switch back to Nextel? Well, long story short I have no control what so ever over my phone coverage because it's a business thing & part of a family plan.
This morning Sprint was especially evil by showing me a glimmer of hope and then stomping all over it. When looking at coverage maps I noticed a new option of a Sprint/Nextel hybrid phone. It showed the top level of coverage where I live! It also said that they will begin to be available next week. I promptly called the closest Sprint/Nextel store and listened to the phone ring for 5 minutes with no hope of being answered (yes, they were open). Then I called another store, braved the automated system, got on hold waiting to talk to a person, then apparently they mistook me for a fax machine.
I gave in and called the National 800 number, choose the wrong thing & was told to dial from my phone (that has no coverage). Called again & after failing the SSN test still managed to talk to a real person. Who know absolutely nothing. Couldn't even tell me if my area was one of the ones the phones would be available in next week. Transfered me to a person who doesn't work on Sunday. Big Help...
Finally it took the Internet to break the bad news to me... The hybrid coverage is going to use Sprint for voice and Nextel for 2-way. That doesn't help me the slightest bit...
Sigh...
Comments (4)
You mentioned riding a bike trail regularly.
If you think that bike trail would be interesting to others, I blog about bike trails around the world and would be happy to share your info with my readers. Let me know.
Respectfully,
Larry Lagarde
World-Class-Bike-Trails.blogspot.com
Urging bicycling for recreation, commuting, health and a better future.
Posted by Larry Lagarde | October 29, 2006 8:08 PM
Posted on October 29, 2006 20:08
my daughter has had issues w/ sprint too and has spent lots of time trying to get them to live up to their end of the contract. i once had an issue w/ t-mobile. after calling upteen times and being told nothing could be done, i filed an online complaint w/ the state attorney general's office and lo and behold, my issue was resolved within a week. i was able to cancel my service w/o the usual penalty.
Posted by susan noethen | October 30, 2006 10:06 AM
Posted on October 30, 2006 10:06
the worst thing the government ever did was to break up the phone company monopoly. Remember "Ma Bell"- it always worked and I am sure would still work on their cell phones but no, they had to break it up and since then phones have been hell. I have verizon which works pretty well(knock on wood)! The 2nd worst was breaking up the Airlines. This is what comes of too much government interference.
There-I feel better. I think I will knit and I suggest you do the same.
Posted by Pat DeLeeuw | October 30, 2006 2:18 PM
Posted on October 30, 2006 14:18
Oh, honey, I could tell you so much about the inadequacy of Sprint! My daughter and I had a terrible time with dropped calls in the several years of the family plan we signed up for. When it came up for renewal, we cut and RAN! We're on Verizon now, and it's somewhat better, altho we still find 'dead zones' here and there. Good Luck! MW
Posted by MARILYN | October 30, 2006 2:45 PM
Posted on October 30, 2006 14:45