Another reason to avoid Sprint

[Puzzlegal]

So, I've been with Sprint for a while. In teh past, they have given me decent customer support, and better service than my husband gets on T-Mobile.So I decided to stick with them instead of going to a discount carrier (like Net10) or T-mobile. And I wanted a one-handed phone. I had planned to get the Galaxy IV mini when it came to Sprint, but when I went to purchase it, I asked whether I could use a different SIM when I travel abroad. The salesperson looked it up, and said "no". Thus, I ended up with a Moto X.

I got it SIM unlocked. Then I had all sorts of flaky problems with it, and ended up having it replaced under warrantee. Sprint wouldn't help me with that, because they wouldn't touch Moto-Maker phones, so I had to deal with Motorola directly. (And not the convenient Sprint shop around the corner from my office. - another reason I have liked Sprint obsolete, no more convenient service.)

So I tried to get the new phone unlocked. PROBLEM! Sprint will only unlock one phone per year per customer. They think they can amke an exception since this is a warrantee replacement.

Never heard back from them.

Called again today to check on the progress. Oops! My request was denied. They have no record of having replaced the phone. Because they freaking refused to... If I FAX them PROOF that Motorola replaced it under warrantee, maybe they will reconsider. And hey, maybe they will even tell me the result of that reconsideration. Or not. I guess I will find out. No, I can't forward the email I got from Motorola. No, they can't send me an email documenting what they want me to do. Apparently, Sprint hasn't entered the email age, and only deals withy phone calls and faxes. Who the #### uses faxes these days?

Wish me luck.

Next phone won't be with Sprint.

 

[Saukrateaz]

Sorry for the tough time. To play devils advocate here this all sounds legit to me. Sprint, doesnt handle the Moto X warranty so its pawned off to the maker. Not uncommon at all. It was unlocked, and if their policy is 1 per year per customer, that cant be disputed. Although I think in this situation they should make an exception, which it seems they are willing to do once the warranty is verified. I think you would possibly have similar terms with any carrier.

Good luck with it.

 

[imurrx]

Sprint has been avoiding the corporate discount that I have used for years. I tried though the store. The dropped it when we added 2 new lines. Took two years to get it back, and I'm still waiting. I made a huge stink to corporate, but I have yet to see it. We're about to switch to T-Mobile.

They have gone down the tubes. The unlimited data is the only reason we are still with them and that is not much of a reason any more.

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[Puzzlegal]

Sorry for the tough time. To play devils advocate here this all sounds legit to me. Sprint, doesnt handle the Moto X warranty so its pawned off to the maker. Not uncommon at all. It was unlocked, and if their policy is 1 per year per customer, that cant be disputed. Although I think in this situation they should make an exception, which it seems they are willing to do once the warranty is verified. I think you would possibly have similar terms with any carrier.

Good luck with it.

That they don't handle the warranty is annoying, but legit. It does remove one reason I had to do business with Sprint. Although their phone service and on-line service are horrible, the local store is actually pretty good. But they have pulled several functions from that store recently, including verifying my employee discount and warranty repairs.

As for the policy: They don't advertise that to be their policy, and it's an extremely customer-unfriendly policy. Especially when enforced in stupid situations like the one I am in. Since I specifically bought this phone because it could be used internationally -- as per the Sprint salespeople -- my feeling is that they have violated the terms of the agreement. I don't think any other carrier has this "we on'y do it once" policy. And I really don't get why Sprint does. I think they claim it is to reduce theft or something, but since it's not well-known, I doubt it provides any benefit at all in that. So that leaves...???? Just bad management and bad policy, I think.

 

[blacksapphire08]

I dont know about their unlocking policy but customer service giving you the run around seems par for the course with them. Its the reason I switched to T-Mobile (and super slow data speeds). My GF switched too, canceled service with Sprint but they keep sending her bills.

If I were you Id make a fuss about the issues, tell Sprint you need it unlocked for business purposes otherwise its useless. Maybe the fear of losing a customer might change their minds. Hope it works out for you.

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[Puzzlegal]

After calling them, I faxed a polite-but-angry letter, along with copies of all the emails from Motorola re my replacement. I got a call today from the rep I spoke to, saying the phone had been unlocked. They also sent email to the wrong address (despite it being in the fax). A few hours after I spoke with the rep, they sent email to the correct address, too.

Annoying, but ultimately adequate. I do wish they hadn't pulled so many functions from the shop around the corner. It had much more competent and helpful staff than most of their on-line support.

Of course, I can't verify that it's unlocked without traveling out of the US. it's probably not worth driving to Canada to check.

 

[imurrx]

When I was Aruba, I had access to a GSM network. So it did unlock as they said.

The unlocking process was quite seamless. They did it remotely and I just needed to reboot it. That's it. It did not unlock for domestic use.

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[yfan]

If you have good T-Mobile coverage where you live (I hear your point about your husband's service not being as good), move to T-Mobile. Trade in your phone, get a phone from them, and have T-Mobile pay your ETF for Sprint.

 

[Puzzlegal]

If you have good T-Mobile coverage where you live (I hear your point about your husband's service not being as good), move to T-Mobile. Trade in your phone, get a phone from them, and have T-Mobile pay your ETF for Sprint.

I understand that on average, T-mobile has coverage as good as Sprint. But not where I tend to be. I often have coverage when my husband doesn't. Still, I am drawn to their affordable plans and their customer-friendly policies.

 

[danewphoneguy]

I dont know about their unlocking policy but customer service giving you the run around seems par for the course with them. Its the reason I switched to T-Mobile (and super slow data speeds). My GF switched too, canceled service with Sprint but they keep sending her bills.

If I were you Id make a fuss about the issues, tell Sprint you need it unlocked for business purposes otherwise its useless. Maybe the fear of losing a customer might change their minds. Hope it works out for you.

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This is not the case at all. One to thing to remember is a company has to protect against fraud or deceit that can cost million of dollars and potentially open them up to liability all so that phone can be used on an international carrier to which the company makes no money. The average call center employee does not know an honest customer from a dishonest one, nor should they try to distinguish between the two...I bet you can guess as to what kind of conversations and poor service the would lead too. It's unfortunate there are people out there who exploit companies and have made it more difficult to provide assistance to the good ones. This is why there are policies that require documentation from the customer. Besides, is it so much to ask someone to show documentation? Think about it this way, if a collection agency called you and said you owed them money....you'd ask for proof of debt or documentation. You would not just take their word for it....or at least I would hope not. The company is in the same boat.

 

[Puzzlegal]

No, they aren't in the same boat at all. If the collection agency calls, they are asking me to give them money. I am only asking Sprint to unlock my phone so I can use it on other carriers. Nothing about that transaction costs Sprint money, except the the administrative burden they choose to take on to verify my "legitimacy". Unlocking the phone does not relieve me of my contractual responsibility to continue to pay Sprint for service. When I travel to Eurpose, I will be paying for service from both a local European carrier AND ALSO to Sprint, because that's the contract I signed. So long as I have a decent credit rating and an address in a jurisdiction they can track down, they are not losing any money by doing this. They could sell every phone unlocked, and lose zero money to administrativ costs.

 

[danewphoneguy]

I am only asking Sprint to unlock my phone so I can use it on other carriers.

Say the carrier did this no questions asked.

Nothing about that transaction costs Sprint money, except the the administrative burden they choose to take on to verify my "legitimacy".

Unfortunately if the carrier trusted you and everyone else, it will cost them money. Give you an example....say someone stole your identity and set up cell service with a carrier by getting a subsidized phone. They call to get the device unlocked since the carrier trust everyone now they unlock the device. The carrier never gets paid, the phone gets sold to an international buyer and you have a blemish on your credit report. So, it's false to say that it does not cost a carrier money to unlock a device when no questions are asked.

They could sell every phone unlocked, and lose zero money to administrativ costs.

See above.

 

[Puzzlegal]

Say the carrier did this no questions asked.



Unfortunately if the carrier trusted you and everyone else, it will cost them money. Give you an example....say someone stole your identity and set up cell service with a carrier by getting a subsidized phone. They call to get the device unlocked since the carrier trust everyone now they unlock the device. The carrier never gets paid, the phone gets sold to an international buyer and you have a blemish on your credit report. So, it's false to say that it does not cost a carrier money to unlock a device when no questions are asked.





See above.

If someone steals my identity, I think I will have more serious problems than an extra phone contract or two. And I doubt it happens often enough to make a significant dent in Sprint's earnings. And Sprint will only sell a discounted phone on contract every other year or so, so there typically aren't that many customers who are even eligible to be hacked in exactly this way. Now, if they are theoretically protecting me from someone walking into the shop and "paying" the full, undiscounted price for the phone, with no contract, well, if someone steals my identity, they can buy almost anything in my name, and I don't see any reason why "a cell phone that I have to ship over-seas to re-sell" would be anywhere near the top of their list. Besides, aren't all phones electronically identifiable? Can't a stolen phone be tagged and locked down?

Sprint somehow manages to sell Nexus phones that come carrier unlocked. I doubt they are losing tons of money on that, or they wouldn't sell them. It was displayed reasonably prominently, and the salespeople were quite happy to recommend the Nexus to me, too, so it doesn't look like they are only carrying it due to some negotiation with Google, but would actually prefer not to sell any.

For that matter, this seems to be a policy unique to Sprint. As far as I can tell, none of the T-mobile phones are locked, and there are unlocked phones (often without a contract and a discount) available for AT&T from all the major manufacturers. Verizon phones need to be unlocked, but my friends with Verizon don't seem to have the hassles that Sprint creates.

So, that may be how Sprint rationalizes their policy, but its a pretty bogus rationalization.

 

[Gary Friderichsohn]

Sprint has been avoiding the corporate discount that I have used for years. I tried though the store. The dropped it when we added 2 new lines. Took two years to get it back, and I'm still waiting. I made a huge stink to corporate, but I have yet to see it. We're about to switch to T-Mobile.

They have gone down the tubes. The unlimited data is the only reason we are still with them and that is not much of a reason any more.

I live in a rural area and Sprint just sucks. You're right: unlimited is their only reason for existence and that is becoming less of a positive. This afternoon I was at neighbors. I can see the Sprint tower about 3 miles away, clear line of sight. He had his G3/Verizon. I don't know where the Verizon tower is, but trust me, it isn't any closer. He got a ping of around 60 and DL of about 22-23 mbps. Know what I got with my LG G2/Sprint? Ping of 540 and a DL of .15. Yes, that is point fifteen mbps. True, Sprint doesn't have LTE here, but Verizon does. Thirty miles away Sprint has LTE and it is about 15 mbps. For 18 months or so Sprint has been saying LTE is close to being in my local ("by the end of the year" my arse). I will buy out ASAP and go with Verizon. But, Sprint did have a big update a few months ago. All that did was put up a big new "Spark" splash screen when it boots. Big whoop. A fancy Tri-band smart phone on a looser network. I feel like such a fool. Now I guess I need to almost learn a new language in order to decipher the plans on Verizon.

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