- Dec 27, 2010
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I don't get Sprint sometimes. Their service is ok, I suppose. I do get LTE at work and at home. But my wife, who now has T-Mobile, consistently gets faster data speed than I do even when I have LTE and she's on 3G. And her monthly bill is less. Despite all that, I have no problems with Sprint, until recently when two family members tried to sign up with Sprint and for some reason, Sprint spared no effort in frustrating them into going across the street to sign up with T-Mobile.
1st adventure: My brother wanted to get a Note 3 from the local store in Daly City. The rep there told him that they ONLY sell Note 3s with the (in my opinion) useless Galaxy Gear (which is basically the watch). He refused to sell him just the Note 3. We ask to speak to a manager, and wouldn't you know it, the rep comes back sans manager saying, "We'll make a special exception for you." He then tries to sell my brother a tablet, to which he says no. The rep goes into the back for a minute then comes back and says, "We're out of stock of the Note 3, sorry. We just sold the last one." We go to another Sprint store and ask a rep there to check Note 3 stock of the Daly City store. Apparently, they had 16 in stock. This new rep appeared frustrated and told us that that particular store keeps "doing this. We keep getting customers from that store because they won't sell phones without the accessories." I guess Sprint pressures its stores to sell a certain amount of accessories with each phone. The pressure appears to be so high that they are willing to turn new customers away in order to meet those numbers.
2nd adventure: My brother-in-law goes into a Sprint store with an Evo 4G LTE that I gave him and wants to sign up for service. But, and this shocked me but maybe it shouldn't, he could not sign up for a service plan without agreeing to a 2-year contract. I pointed out that he wasn't getting a subsidized phone (for example, you can get an iPhone 5C for $99 with a 2-year contract instead of buying a phone full price which would be like $550 for the same phone), so why would he be required to get a 2-year contract? And, surprise, surprise, the Evo 4G LTE does not qualify for Sprint's pay-as-you-go plans. The rep did not have a good answer re the 2-year contract requirement except to say: "That's just how Sprint does it." I guess the way "Sprint does it" is to recommend people go to T-Moble (which is cheaper and has better service in our area, I might add.) Why on earth would a customer be REQUIRED to get a 2-year agreement for a new line when said customer is bringing his/her own phone and not getting a subsidized phone? My brother-in-law went to T-Mobile across the street with an old Galaxy Nexus I used for work that I was happy to give him and they were more than happy to take his money for service and set him up with an account w/o requiring a 2-year contract.
These are two instances of people going into a Sprint store WITH MONEY IN HAND SPECIFICALLY TO SIGN UP FOR SPRINT SERVICE only to get turned away. Is Sprint doing that well that they can afford to pick and choose customers? It's like their corporate philosophy towards potential customers is "My way or the highway!" as if customers don't have any other options. I mean, I've heard horror stories from Verizon with their draconian policies, but at least they have the network to back it up. Sprint's network really isn't all that good despite years of promises of improving their network in our area. I mean, when compared to Verizon, AT&T or even when compared to T-Mobile, Sprint falls way short.
And I won't even go into the nightmare I experienced trying to activate my Nexus 5 with Sprint. As soon as my contract is up, I'm taking my lines to T-Mobile. I've just about had it with Sprint.
Has anyone had similar experiences? Or are my local Sprint stores uniquely bad?
1st adventure: My brother wanted to get a Note 3 from the local store in Daly City. The rep there told him that they ONLY sell Note 3s with the (in my opinion) useless Galaxy Gear (which is basically the watch). He refused to sell him just the Note 3. We ask to speak to a manager, and wouldn't you know it, the rep comes back sans manager saying, "We'll make a special exception for you." He then tries to sell my brother a tablet, to which he says no. The rep goes into the back for a minute then comes back and says, "We're out of stock of the Note 3, sorry. We just sold the last one." We go to another Sprint store and ask a rep there to check Note 3 stock of the Daly City store. Apparently, they had 16 in stock. This new rep appeared frustrated and told us that that particular store keeps "doing this. We keep getting customers from that store because they won't sell phones without the accessories." I guess Sprint pressures its stores to sell a certain amount of accessories with each phone. The pressure appears to be so high that they are willing to turn new customers away in order to meet those numbers.
2nd adventure: My brother-in-law goes into a Sprint store with an Evo 4G LTE that I gave him and wants to sign up for service. But, and this shocked me but maybe it shouldn't, he could not sign up for a service plan without agreeing to a 2-year contract. I pointed out that he wasn't getting a subsidized phone (for example, you can get an iPhone 5C for $99 with a 2-year contract instead of buying a phone full price which would be like $550 for the same phone), so why would he be required to get a 2-year contract? And, surprise, surprise, the Evo 4G LTE does not qualify for Sprint's pay-as-you-go plans. The rep did not have a good answer re the 2-year contract requirement except to say: "That's just how Sprint does it." I guess the way "Sprint does it" is to recommend people go to T-Moble (which is cheaper and has better service in our area, I might add.) Why on earth would a customer be REQUIRED to get a 2-year agreement for a new line when said customer is bringing his/her own phone and not getting a subsidized phone? My brother-in-law went to T-Mobile across the street with an old Galaxy Nexus I used for work that I was happy to give him and they were more than happy to take his money for service and set him up with an account w/o requiring a 2-year contract.
These are two instances of people going into a Sprint store WITH MONEY IN HAND SPECIFICALLY TO SIGN UP FOR SPRINT SERVICE only to get turned away. Is Sprint doing that well that they can afford to pick and choose customers? It's like their corporate philosophy towards potential customers is "My way or the highway!" as if customers don't have any other options. I mean, I've heard horror stories from Verizon with their draconian policies, but at least they have the network to back it up. Sprint's network really isn't all that good despite years of promises of improving their network in our area. I mean, when compared to Verizon, AT&T or even when compared to T-Mobile, Sprint falls way short.
And I won't even go into the nightmare I experienced trying to activate my Nexus 5 with Sprint. As soon as my contract is up, I'm taking my lines to T-Mobile. I've just about had it with Sprint.
Has anyone had similar experiences? Or are my local Sprint stores uniquely bad?
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