Database Users

SPRINT: no more dropped call credit

if you dial *2 and try for the $.50 credit for dropped call, you now get 2 minutes of airtime instead. has anyone tried getting out of their contract for this change in the agreement? i tried, just wanting more minutes or a better deal, but without even asking why or wondering why i want to cancel, they just straight let me cancel. i couldn't believe it. i have it set to cancel at the end of my billing cycle. sprint is going further and further down the drain, meanwhile at&t is #10 on the fortune 500 list, sigh.

No offense. And I understand when you pay good money you e3xpect good service. However the fact that more often than not whe you get a dropped call you call Sprint; after a while, they are better off letting you go than keep giving you .50 cents.
Each time you call Sprint to get your .50 cents it costs them $45 to handle that call.
Also, from a common sense point of view. If you call a company more than 3 times a month, the company is most likely not making any money from you and also on your part you are better off going with someone else since they are not meeting your needs. It's called Utility in economics

If Sprint let you cancel without making a retention offer, then they clearly saw no value in you staying a customer. Perhaps you used the *2 option just a little too often?

being given .50 never made any sense to me to begin with. if i lost a few minutes on dropped calls. then giving them back to me makes all the sense in the world.

What the hell? They used to give you 50 cents for dropped calls? That was stupid. And alabjj, how do you know all this?
Also, cancelling your contract because they stopped giving you 50 cents and started giving you more airtime is the dumbest **** I've read on all the forum. Wow.

fusQer said:
if you dial *2 and try for the $.50 credit for dropped call, you now get 2 minutes of airtime instead. has anyone tried getting out of their contract for this change in the agreement? i tried, just wanting more minutes or a better deal, but without even asking why or wondering why i want to cancel, they just straight let me cancel. i couldn't believe it. i have it set to cancel at the end of my billing cycle. sprint is going further and further down the drain, meanwhile at&t is #10 on the fortune 500 list, sigh.
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You have always been able to discontinue your service for any reason or for no reason. However, you might want to check your final bill for an ETF charge.
I do not believe that the Sprint agreement contains any wording about either a monetary or minutes credit for dropped calls, so it would not be a change in the agreement, just a change in policy.

alabij said:
No offense. And I understand when you pay good money you e3xpect good service. However the fact that more often than not whe you get a dropped call you call Sprint; after a while, they are better off letting you go than keep giving you .50 cents.
Each time you call Sprint to get your .50 cents it costs them $45 to handle that call.
Also, from a common sense point of view. If you call a company more than 3 times a month, the company is most likely not making any money from you and also on your part you are better off going with someone else since they are not meeting your needs. It's called Utility in economics
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how do you figure a fully automated call costs $45 to handle?
also your theories on calls placed/month may or may not be true, they're besides the point. sprint wouldn't have offered the plan in the first place if they didn't plan on you calling in to claim it. its a guarantee on their good service, a promise that you will have very little dropped calls, and if you do have a dropped call, that they will take care of it. i think that promise delivered them more customers and profit than did the loss from the cost of operating the automated reporting system.
anyways, i guess someone finally alerted them that everyone is getting $10 off each month! honestly it lasted way longer than i ever expected it to (10+ years?). and yes i get 20+ dropped calls a month.

hidavi said:
Also, cancelling your contract because they stopped giving you 50 cents and started giving you more airtime is the dumbest **** I've read on all the forum. Wow.
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oh really? whats the point of having a contract then? if i am promised $.50 credit for each dropped call, and i rely on this promise to sign up for service, and suddenly they don't want to give me the money they promised me, its "the dumbest **** ever" lol!
i think you are fighting against the idea of a contract/promise/agreement rather than its terms.
i bet you'd be complaining if they started charging you more for text messages than you had originally agreed to.

bakntyme said:
You have always been able to discontinue your service for any reason or for no reason. However, you might want to check your final bill for an ETF charge.
I do not believe that the Sprint agreement contains any wording about either a monetary or minutes credit for dropped calls, so it would not be a change in the agreement, just a change in policy.
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well the operator lady let me cancel, i had it set to cancel at the end of my billing cycle (i wasn't really going to cancel).
sure enough the next day i got a call back from sprint. they offered and i accepted $5 service credit per month.
i still have 20+ dropped calls a month, though. oh well i love sprint still.

ScottC said:
If Sprint let you cancel without making a retention offer, then they clearly saw no value in you staying a customer. Perhaps you used the *2 option just a little too often?
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they ended up making me a retention offer, they actually CALLED ME! it obviously made sense to profit $50 vs. letting me go. bottom line is they unilaterally modified the agreement which nullifies the agreement, but you must protest within (i think) 30 days of the modification.
know your rights as a consumer!

No offense but I smell bull****. Nobody called you, and you're retarded for staying on the phone for approximately 15-20 minutes for half of a dollar. Time is money, you most likely have too much of the first and not quite enough of the second.

i'm not here to make friends, im here to report my experiences to help the community at large. i really don't give two ****s if you don't believe me.
also regarding your 15-20 minutes, you are misinformed. it takes about 3-5 minutes to report all your dropped calls at once, try it.

fusQer said:
and yes i get 20+ dropped calls a month.
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wow, where do you live

$10 monthly charge... (Not for 4g)

It's funny, until sprint started in with BS explainations for the charge I had no problem at all with it. I was told when I bought the Epic that the charge was a network charge for 4g. And that was at a sprint store.
As a matter of fact, I was totally cool with it! And cool with it knowing it'd probably be a year minimum until I had the service because I live in a small town about 150 miles from Denver.
When it wasn't cool with me is when they started saying crap like this: http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/53633;
What do you guys think? I'm pretty annoyed by it at this point.

Wasn't it the senator from WV that said "if you're gonna get raped, maybe you should just lay back and enjoy it?"
I like to think of the $10 bull$hit fee as that. Even though it's complete and utter BS, they tacked it on, and if you want one of the power phones, you'll just have to deal with it, so you might as well just pay up and enjoy the awesome phone.

quit *****ing.... its obvious its to build a network that needs to be paid off... you dont want that $10 fee get a different phone

setox said:
quit *****ing.... its obvious its to build a network that needs to be paid off... you dont want that $10 fee get a different phone
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I'm not *****ing FYI. I don't like people that I pay almost $200 a month for almost 8 years piping smoke up my ass.
But then if you'd have actually read the post and the provided link you'd have probably understood that..

jirafabo said:
Wasn't it the senator from WV that said "if you're gonna get raped, maybe you should just lay back and enjoy it?"
I like to think of the $10 bull$hit fee as that. Even though it's complete and utter BS, they tacked it on, and if you want one of the power phones, you'll just have to deal with it, so you might as well just pay up and enjoy the awesome phone.
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I agree %100 with ya. I think they need to call it what it is, like the rep I bought my phone from did.

i was just talking to my friend about this yesterday, Im under his family plan and its crap the **** they are charging for. Between the two of us its 120 each a month. and like 4g we are not able to use it, now if that 10 bucks was being used to expand the network so I could use it, I would be fine with it. But the link says its not for the network...what BS

That might be the dumbest thing I've ever read...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

I just came from sprint after being away from them for a year with the ass raping big red. Trust me when i say that sprint's plans are way better then a lot of carriers out there. The only reason i left them a year ago is because of service in my area wasn't the best but i have moved and have 5 bars. Anywho, it is only costing my wife and i 129.99 (2 smart phones) a month for 1500 minutes then unlimited everything else plus the $10.00 4g charge (which is labeled that way on my bill and explained to me by every rep in person and on the phone that way.) my verizon bill for 1 smart phone and 1 multi-media phone was 170.00 a month for 1400 minutes.
So if you want to ***** about 10 a month and being ass raped then get a pay by the minute phone and don't buy the latest and greatest thing. This is the problem with our society is that we just want to ***** rather then find a solution. Also, nothing is free and a new technology network needs to be paid for. Prolly when you renew contract after 2 years you won't have to pay anymore and the network will be everywhere 3g is as all phones will prolly be 4g.
So again. STOP *****ING

I think you guys are missing the point... the point is that Sprint is lying about the $10 charge not being for 4g access... If anyone were to call Sprint and ask them about it they will feed you the same BS line they fed me... "its because of the HD content the Epic and Evo recieve , that's its constantly updating and that's its a charge to cover all that extra data"... Which we all know to be pure crap... Now you must ask yourself... "why doesn't Sprint just fess up and say yeah it is for 4g access"... Well let me tell you, if they were to announce that it is for 4g access then they would have to bring 4G access to all markets... Which they have no control over because if you did some research you would find that Sprint 4G isn't really Sprint's... Their entire 4g network belongs to Clearwire, a wireless competitor. Which is why there has been so much controversy over it... in fact a class action lawsuit has already been filed and is widely published on the web... just google Sprint 4g Class Action Lawsuit... Now I've been a loyal Sprint customer for the past 10 years and quite frankly I would be completely fine with paying the $10 if they would just admit to what it is really for and not insult the intelligence of their customers saying that its for the "Premium Content" for the Epic and Evo knowing full well that the exact same content can be found on the Hero or any other non-4g device.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

They really are dude. I spelled it out in the OP so I don't get it.
I've never even considered another carrier. I love sprint's service. As a matter of fact. My wife stil has verizon and I refuse to switch. I've been with them for years and won't do it. So between us we pay almost $400 to verizon and sprint. And we constantly argue which is better,even thoughshe knows sprint is! So I'm a fanboy lol

I dislike being lied to and I dislike being called 'whiny' or '*****y' or being told to 'shut up' when I am merely expressing an opinion. It was my understanding that I was free to post my opinion on these boards. This is the second time this has come up and I am going to re post what I said in the last thread:
raylusk said:
Tell me what law sprint violated. They didn't violate any. Your only argument is that you deserve a good phone. If you can't do better than that you should just let this discussion drop. The fact is that in a competative market companies can charge what they want and we as consumers can chose to pay or go somewhere else. Well if the issue was that important to you go somewhere else. Of course you will still pay more than you pay at sprint.
The other things you cited are also abuses of the courts and the taxpayers. It doesn't make this particular abuse any better. Like I said you have made it clear that you knew about the fee prior to purchasing your phone yet purchased it anyway. What law do you think should allow the government to intervene and change the agreement you made. Would that be the law of fairness? Or how about the law of I deserve a top of the line phone? I am being sarcastic here but would truly like to hear what law sprint has violated. So far no one has been able to answer this. Even the attorney for the case says he is investigating to see if sprint violated any laws.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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Actually, recently Verizon as well as many other carriers were sued successfully due to their policies of ETFs being a violation of consumers rights even though those signing up knew about the ETFs. The issue was that someone who had a month left on their contract had to pay the same fee as someone who was canceling a month into the plan and thus was a violation of their rights.
Now I'm going to pull a sly little trick:
The issue was that someone who had a month left on their contract had to pay the same fee to cancel their contract as someone who was canceling a month into the plan and thus was a violation of their rights.
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Watch this!
The issue was that someone who had no 4g coverage had to pay the same fee to use 4g as someone who had 4g coverage and thus was a violation of their rights.
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Oh gosh! By changing just the words of the type of fee its the same circumstance!
Also, part of the reason I'm on Sprint is that my area gets terrible cell reception in general and other cell carriers have actually allowed me to cancel service without incurring an ETF because I could not use the service for which I was paying. I knew I was signing up for a cellular service and they would charge me but because I could not use their service they allowed me to get out of my contract. Again, same situation.
Even if we look at the fact they say its for the extra data you're going to use, I'm paying for unlimited data. So lets go to an analogy: I go to a buffet. I'm a small guy, so they know I probably won't eat a lot. A fat guy comes in behind me so they believe he will eat more than me so they charge him an addition fee to eat at the buffet even though the fee covers "all you can eat." That is a violation of consumer rights.
I understand that Sprint is cheaper but paying $10 a month basically because I chose to buy a better phone is absurd.
In addition, if Sprint were in the process of rolling out coverage to where I live, or even where I will be moving in 8 months, I'd pay. I'd pay oh-so-willingly. I'd be unhappy that they were lying about what the charge was for, but I would pay. But they're not. So I'm being lied to and I'm paying for YOUR service, so I have every god damned right to be ****ing angry about it.

dantichrist said:
I agree %100 with ya. I think they need to call it what it is, like the rep I bought my phone from did.
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They can't just call it what it is, because then there would be a bunch of butthurt people trying to sue them because they cannot use the service they are paying for. Its a lot easier for everyone to understand that its for the 4g, but for corporate to stick to the line that its for the high end devices features. Its obvious its for the 4g service, and even then you have people complaining and calling for class action lawsuits against sprint. I am sure that the Sprint's legal team have figured out that they are safer describing at a corporate level that the fee is for the high end phone and not the high end service. And I am also sure that Sprint has made it known to employees to describe the fee as a 4g charge, so that if any customer complains to corporate, they can just pass it off as some misinformed store employee.

muyoso said:
They can't just call it what it is, because then there would be a bunch of butthurt people trying to sue them because they cannot use the service they are paying for. Its a lot easier for everyone to understand that its for the 4g, but for corporate to stick to the line that its for the high end devices features. Its obvious its for the 4g service, and even then you have people complaining and calling for class action lawsuits against sprint.
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People like you are so hilarious. You're only real arguments are name-calling and immaturity. You present no evidence except opinion and childish insults.

kenvan19 said:
People like you are so hilarious. You're only real arguments are name-calling and immaturity. You present no evidence except opinion and childish insults.
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Wut? I didn't call anyone a name, and nothing I said was immature unless you really want to nitpick my word choice. Would it make you cry less if I changed "butthurt" to "offended"?

muyoso said:
They can't just call it what it is, because then there would be a bunch of butthurt people trying to sue them because they cannot use the service they are paying for. Its a lot easier for everyone to understand that its for the 4g, but for corporate to stick to the line that its for the high end devices features. Its obvious its for the 4g service, and even then you have people complaining and calling for class action lawsuits against sprint. I am sure that the Sprint's legal team have figured out that they are safer describing at a corporate level that the fee is for the high end phone and not the high end service. And I am also sure that Sprint has made it known to employees to describe the fee as a 4g charge, so that if any customer complains to corporate, they can just pass it off as some misinformed store employee.
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Actually no they do not in any way describe it as a charge for 4g, in fact if you were to call customer service they will tell you exactly what was told to me in my previous post, and then if you decided to call them on it they will simply tell you that in order to have that device active on the account you MUST have that particular billing code.... And to even further prove my point, the next day I got a automated call survey about my interaction with customer service... When I rated it low, I received a call afew hours later from a Customer Satisfaction rep and when I explained my issue, guess what she told me.... thats right.... the EXACT same thing.. "Oh, you are getting that charge because the Evo and Epic are cutting edge devices and because of that fact they are constantly connecting to the web and updating apps and what not" at which point I did a facepalm and promptly disconnected the call.

Did you read my post? I clearly explained that Corporate will always stick to the line that its for a high end device, most likely because of some stupid legal issue. The employees at the stores however ALWAYS tell you its for the 4g service. I have spoken to at least half a dozen when I was buying my phone, and EVERY ONE of them described it as a 4g fee.
Also, this is how its described on my online bill.
Premium Data (required for this device)
$10.00
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Then you are lucky to have such honest sales reps in your area... My sales rep didn't even tell me about the charge and I had to find out on my bill... and thus the reason for my frustrating call to Customer Service

Sleeth7 said:
Then you are lucky to have such honest sales reps in your area... My sales rep didn't even tell me about the charge and I had to find out on my bill... and thus the reason for my frustrating call to Customer Service
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Jesus, thats pretty ****ty. I would have been pissed too.

No doubt! And the problem is that it's a your word against his if you complained about it. That really sucks. I'm glad because the reps here are really cool.

muyoso said:
Jesus, thats pretty ****ty. I would have been pissed too.
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And if you are curious about the legal issue as to why they cannot call the charge 4g access or whatever, it's because Sprint has no control over where they can offer 4g access... Their entire 4g network is piggybacking off of Clearwire and for people in areas like myself with 0 Clearwire presence within a 300 mile radius... We are pretty much SOL. So by calling it "Premium Data" and linking it to the phone they can charge anyone with the device... vs calling it 4g Access then people can call up and say "I have no 4g in my area so take it off until it is active here"

[Q] Can't cancel Verizon month-to-month plan?

I, like many others I assume, bought the Xoom from Best Buy on a month-to-month Verizon contract with the intention of canceling the contract immediately. Today I called and tried to cancel the contract and had a frustrating 60 minute phone call. The agent, working with her supervisor, was telling me that there is no way I can possibly cancel my plan with them and that if she were to cancel my account, my Xoom would become a brick. She told me that in order to get the device to work in wifi only mode I would have to return it to Best Buy and go to a Verizon store to purchase one with Wifi only. She indicates that there is no way possible to convert my existing device, even if I brought it into a Verizon Wireless store. I just got off the phone and she said she will be calling me back after contacting the best buy store on my behalf and trying to work out a solution.
Has anyone had success with this situation? What did you do? Is there a secret code word I have to give to Verizon? Is she actually correct... if she cancels my account will my Xoom turn into a brick?

There is no wifi model yet. Turning off your cell service shouldn't brick your tablet. I would call back and talk to a different rep.

Don't have one yet. But that is just BS. Call them back and just cancel it. If they say it will be a brick (complete lie) then tell them so be it. You want nothing to do with Verizon. You only wanted the Xoom.

They sold you a load of crap. There's no tie in to the OS and cell service. Tell them to cancel your account and you'll "risk" it. Verizon has been known to say anything to keep people from canceling...its happened before.

i just wanted to clarify. the person you talked to was full of bull.
i walked out of best buy with an unactivated tablet (meaning no verizon data) and wifi and everything works beautifully.
also i would like to point out the obvious error with this "reps" logic. if a tablet without verizon data was a brick, it wouldn't be possible to activate one in the first place.

She is insinuating that it will brick the device because it was set up with Verizon in the first place. That is the only fear I have... that there is some sort IMEI check when the device boots and if it can't authenticate with a Verizon tower it will fail in the bootloader.

If that was the case, they wouldn't be able to sell tablets without Verizon service. I imagine they would also be looking at a major lawsuit if people couldn't cancel the service.

I can't be the only one that is trying to do this... would someone who has done this please give me some peace of mind?

padanfain said:
She is insinuating that it will brick the device because it was set up with Verizon in the first place. That is the only fear I have... that there is some sort IMEI check when the device boots and if it can't authenticate with a Verizon tower it will fail in the bootloader.
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no, again, i would like to point out that if you were out of range of a tower (which can and does happen that would result in a "brick" as you call it).
your fine, call cancel be happy.

padanfain said:
I, like many others I assume, bought the Xoom from Best Buy on a month-to-month Verizon contract with the intention of canceling the contract immediately. Today I called and tried to cancel the contract and had a frustrating 60 minute phone call. The agent, working with her supervisor, was telling me that there is no way I can possibly cancel my plan with them and that if she were to cancel my account, my Xoom would become a brick. She told me that in order to get the device to work in wifi only mode I would have to return it to Best Buy and go to a Verizon store to purchase one with Wifi only. She indicates that there is no way possible to convert my existing device, even if I brought it into a Verizon Wireless store. I just got off the phone and she said she will be calling me back after contacting the best buy store on my behalf and trying to work out a solution.
Has anyone had success with this situation? What did you do? Is there a secret code word I have to give to Verizon? Is she actually correct... if she cancels my account will my Xoom turn into a brick?
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She lied to you. The first CS Rep gave me trouble to, but a seperate completely bull**** story. She told me that since I went to costco, and they are an "indirect retailer", that I would have to go to them to cancel the line.
After calling Costco I was informed that this wasn't true, and that Verizon lies . She told me to make up a story that I needed to cancel the data plan because I couldn't use it right now but I would be reactivating in a few months.
Due to impatience, and stubbornness I called Verizon again, without a fake story, just adding that I'd been "misled" by one CS Rep, and that I had already called Costco. The second rep was very helpful, did my cancellation with no problem. She informed me, as I already knew, that the device would work perfectly fine without activation. At this point I had skipped activation and hadn't use a single byte of Verizon data and had been using wifi for hours.
When you call, and get a better rep, make sure that they waive the activation fee, as it's not automatically waived when doing a quick cancellation.
So to recap.
Don't Take No For An Answer.
Inform them that your device is off contract, and you are keeping it, just getting rid of the data plan.
Make sure they waive the activation fee.
You're device will not brick, and you can just turn off verizon data in the settings.
So YES. I have successfully cancelled month-to-month data and kept a fully functional XOOM.

padanfain said:
I can't be the only one that is trying to do this... would someone who has done this please give me some peace of mind?
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just call again and get it done. You called Verizon right and not Best Buy. Verizon can easily do this they are just trying to keep you on your data plan. Threaten if that you dont have your plan canceled then you will report them to the BBB. Im sure that will get you some attention

I work for Verizon in customer service and we had a training the other day that stated if a customer signs a two year contract and gets a discount and then cancels the data plan within the two years they will be charged the 200 difference. I hope this is not true and just something they told us, but for your case I again hope it isn't true. Good luck man and I will try to find out more today at work.

call them back. My cancel phone call took 30 seconds, I explained the situation, she said ok let me cancel that...... there you go, activation fee waived, service canceled. We'll let you know about the 4g upgrade.

padanfain said:
She is insinuating that it will brick the device because it was set up with Verizon in the first place. That is the only fear I have... that there is some sort IMEI check when the device boots and if it can't authenticate with a Verizon tower it will fail in the bootloader.
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No, that does not happen.
First, Verizon has officially said you do not need service to purchase the device anymore. Motorola will sell you the Xoom directly without service.
Second, when you start the device for the first time it asks you to begin the setup which the first step is to activate the device on Verizon. Immediately under it states you can continue with wifi setup by click the button.
The OS is not locked. This was mearly a strong arm approach by Verizon and Best Buy to get at least 1 month ($20) of service and connection fee ($35) from anyone purchasing.

angermeans said:
I work for Verizon in customer service and we had a training the other day that stated if a customer signs a two year contract and gets a discount and then cancels the data plan within the two years they will be charged the 200 difference. I hope this is not true and just something they told us, but for your case I again hope it isn't true. Good luck man and I will try to find out more today at work.
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They key point is that he didn't sign a contract. He is on a month-to-month plan with no obligation to continue service.He did not get a subsidized price. This is how I purchased mine.
EDIT: I could be wrong. The OP says "month to month" which implies no contract, but then states he's on a contract. Hmm....

She called me back and after talking to best buy she did exactly what I told her to do in the first place -- cancelled my account and prorated my two day's usage which was 1.50. I had to pay the activation fee. I know there are others who didn't, but frankly, after arguing with them for an hour just to cancel, I really didn't feel like having it out again with them just for $35 bucks -- my time is worth more than that.
Thanks for all the responses guys and gals.

Wow, I'm glad I didn't end up picking one up from costco given all the hassle to cancel with Verizon. Ugh, don't think I'm ever going to activate it based on this.
Sent from my EVO using XDA App

padanfain said:
She called me back and after talking to best buy she did exactly what I told her to do in the first place -- cancelled my account and prorated my two day's usage which was 1.50. I had to pay the activation fee. I know there are others who didn't, but frankly, after arguing with them for an hour just to cancel, I really didn't feel like having it out again with them just for $35 bucks -- my time is worth more than that.
Thanks for all the responses guys and gals.
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Just FYI, I think there's a 72hr return policy on the activation fee. A google search will get you verification.

I just called and cancelled. Took 5 minutes. Device still works just fine! I just have to pay for the 1 day of usage.

padanfain said:
She called me back and after talking to best buy she did exactly what I told her to do in the first place -- cancelled my account and prorated my two day's usage which was 1.50. I had to pay the activation fee. I know there are others who didn't, but frankly, after arguing with them for an hour just to cancel, I really didn't feel like having it out again with them just for $35 bucks -- my time is worth more than that.
Thanks for all the responses guys and gals.
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They gave me ****, i just told them i know it can be canceled and i don't want the data package. You have 72 hours to cancel and not pay the activation. If you did sign a contract, then yes you will have to pay the ETF.

is this grounds for no eft fee's?

so in grand rapids michigan we have 3 towers down right now. been down for 4 weeks with no eta. everyone i know is having huge network & radio issues. it was soo bad sprint sent me a free airave and payed my next months bill. BUT aside from my home with the airave i get horrid service now anywhere else in my area.
i was at t-mobile the other night and a ton of people are leaving sprint because of this. t-mobile told me they fix their towers in 48hrs, not 4+ weeks. so my question is, is this grounds for me getting out of sprint for free? i mean im paying for a service that is not working, if anything this is sprint's fault for not fixing the issues. i used to have a perfect signal. i feel like im being sorta ripped off right now in a way.
bottom line is i need my phone for work and i cannot stand all calls going to voicemail, 45 seconds to connect to call someone. not being able to send texts...etc. as i said this affects me, my wife's line and all of my co-workers.
getting VERY annoying!

It sounds like an issue Sprint is aware of, and if they cannot provide you the service you are paying for, they should let you go without assessing the ETF. Just be nice and you will get further than if you call hollering at them.

rugedraw said:
It sounds like an issue Sprint is aware of, and if they cannot provide you the service you are paying for, they should let you go without assessing the ETF. Just be nice and you will get further than if you call hollering at them.
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ive called several times and they are aware but can give no explanation as to why it's taking soo long or a eta fix. i agree that the eft should be waived right now. i may call later this week.

What's the zip code?
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Grand Rapids is down due to adding capacity to the tower. ETA is mid March.
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DirtyShroomz said:
Grand Rapids is down due to adding capacity to the tower. ETA is mid March.
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see advanced tech told me 2-3 towers down and it's been like this for 4 weeks now. again you work for sprint, if i need my cell service can i get out with no eft?

fixxxer2008 said:
see advanced tech told me 2-3 towers down and it's been like this for 4 weeks now. again you work for sprint, if i need my cell service can i get out with no eft?
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It can be waived due to towers being down but will require approval.
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I was in the same position except with tmobile a few months ago. You have to continue calling them everyday and keep complaining. It may take a week or two, but if you call everyday at least once or twice a day and complain they should let you out.
However, I don't think this is an automatic given for an etf b.c i think somewhere in the contract it talks about towers going down etc.
But keep calling and sooner or later they will let you out.

I"m no lawyer, and I imagine it would get resolved before it got to this. But if they actually tried to charge you an ETF for a service that isn't working, and you decided to fight it in court (small claims), I think you'd have a pretty good shot. No matter what the contract says, forcing you to pay for a service that they aren't providing probably wouldn't stand up.
As others have said though, I imagine if you're persistent, they'll let you out.

be careful what you wish for..
I heard Grand Rapids is a test site for some new technology exclusive to Sprint; 25mb+ down.

nebenezer said:
be careful what you wish for..
I heard Grand Rapids is a test site for some new technology exclusive to Sprint; 25mb+ down.
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i figured that's why it's taking soo damn long to fix. i was going to leave sprint but with the evo3d & nexus s coming i may hang around. plus the fact i do not like t-mobiles policy on creating a contract. if you do not have prefect credit you are on a month to month basis with them.
looks like sprint bumped my lines upgrade eligibility as well. i can use it as of 11/1/10. so ill sit on this until one of the new phones comes out.

Why/how AT&T waved my ETF!!

Just thought I would share my experience for whatever it's worth.
I should start off with saying that I live in the country and never had the best service with AT&T. I used their Microcell to subsidize my reception and it worked okay. I imagine if I lived in a big city or an area with excellent AT&T reception my story would be different.
Problems I had with AT&T that were well documented on my account: poor reception, duplicate text message issue that came and went (only real way to stop it was battery pull and/or sim transfer to the Captivate), last two months data usage was waaaay off as in AT&T thought I was using substantial more data than I was (3G Watchdog / common sense) and no amount of hours spent on the phone with customer service resolved my issue.
So after being a slave customer of AT&T's for almost two years, and two different phones with them my ETF was $110. I decided I would gladly pay the $110 and go get a SGN from Verizon, who I know through my roommate and former roommate to have excellent service both at my home and work. I realize that this differs thoughout the country but make no mistake about it, in Northern Alabama VZW is the ONLY carrier to have excellent reception everywhere I go.
So I went to the Verizon store and bought a Galaxy Nexus. I provided my AT&T customer number and of course my phone number to the VZW salesman, no call to AT&T was needed to cancel my service. Side note: I brought them a 6 year old PoS phone my sister was kind enough to provide me and they gave me $50 off. I also asked the rep before letting him know I was buying the phone, "if I do decide to buy this from you today and pay my AT&T ETF can you wave the activation fee to help me out?" he did.
So I get my last bill from AT&T and even with my service cancelled they were trying to charge me an extra $20 data fee, either for the next month or an additional fee I don't know but I know it wasnt a legitimate charge (surprise, surprise). I called AT&T customer service and explained to the guy that my service had been cancelled for a week and the $20 data charge should not be on my bill, he agreed. I then mentioned in passing that "AT&T was not able to provide me with reception and I felt it was unfair of them to charge me an ETF when I had been a good customer and was not recieving what I was paying for". That phrase was not even fully out of my mouth when he said "I agree with you, let me go talk to my manager." he was gone for 2 minutes or less and came back to the phone saying, "I spoke with my manager and we are able to wave your $110 early termination fee." I couldn't believe it! That wasn't even why I called, I was only mentioning that in passing because that is how I felt. I was absolutely going to pay the ETF and be done with AT&T forever! But this man, prob the one and only customer service rep at AT&T that would have been willing to do that for me, didn't even let me get the whole sentance out of my mouth before jumping into action and going above and beyond to help me out! I honestly feel like I could have called AT&T a hundred more times and not get the same experience. I was so happy that I payed my remaining balance instantly through ACH.
So that is my story, whether it's helpful or even an interesting read to anyone else I am not sure. I know it will get down voted, and especially by ClearFire because I pissed him off and now he down votes all my posts no matter how helpful lol. But I am not holding grudges, not towards any member of this forum that I might have had disagreements with and not towards AT&T who I formerly hated, err, well maybe I still do hate AT&T lol. I will never go back to AT&T as long as I live, I am extremely happy with VZW! At home when I was getting <5 down and maybe 1 up on a good day and one bar of service with AT&T, I now get >15 down and >4 up and full bars from Verizon. Again this is my experience and I realize that reception differs greatly in dif geographical areas. I guess this is my "goodbye Atrix community" thread. Mostly it was a good time here with you, I will be sending some of you friend requests and I will check back in at the Atrix forums. Have a great day all of you and I hope something I said was helpful.

Good stuff. I'm in a very good area for att. Wifi at home and work. Nothing to complain about. Does Verizon have unlimited mobile to mobile as well?
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Deggy said:
Good stuff. I'm in a very good area for att. Wifi at home and work. Nothing to complain about. Does Verizon have unlimited mobile to mobile as well?
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No sadly Verizon does not have unlimited mobile to mobile. I am on the 900 minute plan and that includes 5 "friends and family" numbers for unlimited calling, the numbers can be mobile or landline.. I am actually thinking of downgrading to the 450 minute plan to save $20/mo and using GrooVe IP + my Google Voice number during peak hours. At home and at work I have WiFi so I'm thinking this will be a good idea I just have to get in the habit of doing it. I included my data speeds in the OP more of a reference of what I dealt with as soon as I left the house.

Congrats! I had an experience with att a while back... I think it was because I moved out of their coverage area, let's just say it wasn't as painless as your story. Good for you.
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per policy if your less than 12 months in your contact and ltv 1 your etf gets waived. that is prolly why they did it. ltv = life time value, or tech has to note the account about the service issues, those are the only two ways to get it done.

twayneo said:
per policy if your less than 12 months in your contact and ltv 1 your etf gets waived. that is prolly why they did it. ltv = life time value, or tech has to note the account about the service issues, those are the only two ways to get it done.
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another way is to be military that just got deployed. this happened to a family member with 3 months left on the contract. it's a shame that you have to know the information yourself because a lot of customer service reps don't. ended up renewing a 2 year contract and finding out that we could have terminated the account without any fees, of course by then we were already 3 months into the new contract and it took me about 1 month of fighting to get it terminated.
the service that is provided often depends on the rep that picks up. that's why a lot of times i just hang up on a rep that's not being helpful and try again.

autumn_leaf said:
the service that is provided often depends on the rep that picks up. that's why a lot of times i just hang up on a rep that's not being helpful and try again.
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THIS!! Is the best end all advice ever. And I know through personal experience. Not just AT&T but all companies and all services.

autumn_leaf said:
the service that is provided often depends on the rep that picks up. that's why a lot of times i just hang up on a rep that's not being helpful and try again.
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+1
10char

autumn_leaf said:
the service that is provided often depends on the rep that picks up. that's why a lot of times i just hang up on a rep that's not being helpful and try again.
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I should really do that more often.
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You wouldn't believe the amount of waivers/credits AT&T give out daily.
The best way to get what you want is to ask for a manager.. Most managers are so lazy that they'd rather just give you a credit than talk to you.
If you get no luck through customer care - dial 611, wait for option to cancel service - you'll be connected to retentions, and they are allowed to give a lot more.
They have changed things up recently, though.. If you've had a number of credits in the past then you're likely to be declined when requesting further credits..

A while back, I was checking my phone bill online and noticed that I didn't have the unlimited text plan I thought I did. So I added the service with their website. The next month I looked at my bill, and I noticed a $150.00 for text messaging, for going over my plan.
So I call AT&T and the young woman I spoke with looked up my account, and then said she would get a manager. The manager I spoke with verified that I had made the change to unlimited text plan, but it wasn't put into effect. So she immediately credited my account for the text overage.
Both people were very helpful and nice. In fact I haven't had any bad experiences with AT&T's customer service. Maybe it's my voice, and they decide to be nice to me. IDK.

dratsablive said:
A while back, I was checking my phone bill online and noticed that I didn't have the unlimited text plan I thought I did. So I added the service with their website. The next month I looked at my bill, and I noticed a $150.00 for text messaging, for going over my plan.
So I call AT&T and the young woman I spoke with looked up my account, and then said she would get a manager. The manager I spoke with verified that I had made the change to unlimited text plan, but it wasn't put into effect. So she immediately credited my account for the text overage.
Both people were very helpful and nice. In fact I haven't had any bad experiences with AT&T's customer service. Maybe it's my voice, and they decide to be nice to me. IDK.
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I worked there for about 8 months - it's really luck of the draw. There are so many grey areas in their policies, and not everybody is made aware of some of the less common issues/procedures to deal with them.
You just have to hope that you get a hold of somebody who knows what they're talking about (or has a manager who does), & that they're in a good mood Honestly, there are very few things that they can not do (without a transfer)

My experience with AT&T has been positive. I have had accidental international data overages and have been credited.