Database Users

My setbacks with the phone

I was really excited with this phone but somewhat disappointed, first and foremost the signal. I live less than .5 Miles from BB I checked with best buy tech as I’m new with sprint (was on att), he said signal is great and he has been with them for 5 year and he is very happy, I also went to the sprint coverage area and checked with them and seems as if my zip is in good coverage with lot of 3g, but my EVO has been rooming since yesterday, I drove on the main freeway of Cleveland and still rooming, but internet is fast while browsing, 3g lights up and I’m getting good speeds. So I’m assuming I’m under sprint 3g but not voice, that is strange as I drove nearly 30miles to downtown and still roaming
And what with light bled, is it this bad for everyone else
I also have a dead pixel
Should I exchange the devise for a new one? And dose it use my minutes if I’m roaming and call a mobile, as this would be unlimited if on sprint network not sure if this would be case wile roaming.
Please advice. Thanks

If worse comes to worse you have a 30 day grace period. Do you have another line on Sprint or is it just you? Is that person getting bad signal? It could have to do with the port. You can try calling Sprint with your Evo off and tell them to send you some signal updates to see if that corrects anything. Try that first and if not maybe you can get the device swapped.

I fallowed your advice and called it in. The rep asked me to do a few updates like profile and prl. Now there seems to be no roaming, but still only 2 bars to none. She said she was going to call me back after 1/2 hour to check back. I hope this works out, I would really like to keep the phone.

Magus_doc said:
I fallowed your advice and called it in. The rep asked me to do a few updates like profile and prl. Now there seems to be no roaming, but still only 2 bars to none. She said she was going to call me back after 1/2 hour to check back. I hope this works out, I would really like to keep the phone.
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I have been with Sprint for several years, and have learned that the number of bars doesn't always accurately reflect the signal strength. On my Diamond, I tried several different radios, and it was common for the bars to vary quite a bit. I wouldn't worry about it, as long as you're getting coverage, and reasonable data speeds.

I fallowed your advice and called it in. The rep asked me to do a few updates like profile and prl. Now there seems to be no roaming, but still only
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I have been with Sprint for several years, and have learned that the number of bars doesn't always accurately reflect the signal strength. On my Diamond, I tried several different radios, and it was common for the bars to vary quite a bit. I wouldn't worry about it, as long as you're getting coverage, and reasonable data speeds.
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I can attest to this.
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Sent via the XDA taptalk app from my EVO

wmdunn said:
I have been with Sprint for several years, and have learned that the number of bars doesn't always accurately reflect the signal strength. On my Diamond, I tried several different radios, and it was common for the bars to vary quite a bit. I wouldn't worry about it, as long as you're getting coverage, and reasonable data speeds.
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Ditto on the bars.
It took me a while to find the light bleed...the only place I see it is looking down at the extreme angle (as shown in your picture). It doesn't bother me so it may be more of a preference thing but the bleed appears only to be from the "buttons" on the bottom of the device.
The dead pixel thing...I guess I never noticed it after having a bunch of dust under my hero's screen for so long. You can try convincing the rep to get you a new one and keep going through the devices until you find one without the dead pixel but it may take you a while. I think I'd be more concerned if there were a plethora.

I was at RadioShack close to my house talked to rep and he said he also has great coverage with sprint and the unit shouldn’t be roaming, so went back to best buy and man the signal is at max, i told the rep about my problem and he said his friend lives in my complex and he has no problem with sprint coverage, and asked me to give it some time as the network profile gets optimized or something, and I’m back home now, zero bars and incoming calls are all droping of, cant even talk.
ya i don't care much about the light and dead pixel just as long as i could get the phone to work.
I’ll give it couple of more days before i take it back for an exchange. Thanks for the feedback guys.
On a side note what resolution should the contact pic be? I have them at 256x256 and there all fuzzy.

Magus_doc said:
I was at RadioShack close to my house talked to rep and he said he also has great coverage with sprint and the unit shouldn’t be roaming, so went back to best buy and man the signal is at max, i told the rep about my problem and he said his friend lives in my complex and he has no problem with sprint coverage, and asked me to give it some time as the network profile gets optimized or something, and I’m back home now, zero bars and incoming calls are all droping of, cant even talk.
ya i don't care much about the light and dead pixel just as long as i could get the phone to work.
I’ll give it couple of more days before i take it back for an exchange. Thanks for the feedback guys.
On a side note what resolution should the contact pic be? I have them at 256x256 and there all fuzzy.
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They really don't want you to return the phone and will tell you anything that makes even the slightest bit of sense. Even if his friend gets good reception, you're not getting the same.
Signals can degrade greatly inside of an apartment building.

As previously mentioned. Do you have a friend that has a Sprint phone? See if you can hook up at your place and compare coverage. If his works and yours doesn't, you may have got a lemon.
Signal strength tends to degrade really fast as you get away from the tower. We tried setting my Dad up with Clear Wireless (Sprint uses their network for 4G) for his house, according to the map it should work. Signal strength sucked, a neighbor a few hundred feet down the road (closer to the tower) had full power.

Magus_doc said:
I was really excited with this phone but somewhat disappointed, first and foremost the signal. I live less than .5 Miles from BB I checked with best buy tech as I’m new with sprint (was on att), he said signal is great and he has been with them for 5 year and he is very happy, I also went to the sprint coverage area and checked with them and seems as if my zip is in good coverage with lot of 3g, but my EVO has been rooming since yesterday, I drove on the main freeway of Cleveland and still rooming, but internet is fast while browsing, 3g lights up and I’m getting good speeds. So I’m assuming I’m under sprint 3g but not voice, that is strange as I drove nearly 30miles to downtown and still roaming
And what with light bled, is it this bad for everyone else
I also have a dead pixel
Should I exchange the devise for a new one? And dose it use my minutes if I’m roaming and call a mobile, as this would be unlimited if on sprint network not sure if this would be case wile roaming.
Please advice. Thanks
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I may return mine becasue of a dead pixel. the store supervisor told me to call her Tuesday and she would set a unit aside. not sure if its worth it for just one.

You haven't rooted you phone or anything right? Is GPS turned on or off? Are you set to use only 3g or are you set to use 4g?
I would save everything you can now and do a factory reset of the phone. If everything looks good, then start one by one adding your apps back and see if it might be an app that might be causing it.
Just need to do troubleshooting sets and start at the beginning as if you just took the phone out the box.

Call Sprint and explain your problem with the crap-tastic signal in your home. You may be able to get a free Airrave with waved monthly fees.
Several other users (from the XDA Hero forum) with your situation got this by speaking to a customer service rep.
http://shop.sprint.com/en/services/airave/

danknee said:
Call Sprint and explain your problem with the crap-tastic signal in your home. You may be able to get a free Airrave with waved monthly fees.
Several other users (from the XDA Hero forum) with your situation got this by speaking to a customer service rep.
http://shop.sprint.com/en/services/airave/
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It's very unlikely that they'll waive both the monthly fee and the cost of the Airave itself. I was in the exact same situation as him, I called up Sprint to explain the situation, and they suggested the Airave. One representative told me that he could waive both fees ONLY for customers that have been with Sprint for some time. Those who are still in the 30 day window of opportunity to cancel are screwed in terms of negotiating the Airave. I luckily got transferred to a very sympathetic manager who offered the device for free and only required that I pay the $5 monthly fee. He explained to me that new customers are not likely to get the whole deal for free considering they technically aren't locked in yet. I'm still in the first 30 days of service, and feel extremely lucky for getting a $99 equipment fee waived so early into the contract.
And yes, the Airave does work. It's as large as your typical Wi-fi router and uses your internet connection to turn itself into a small cell phone tower. The only downside is that the data is only transferred at 1X, but that's not important since you likely have a wi-fi connection set up anyway. If you do manage to get an Airave sent to you, make sure you install it near a window; it has a small GPS receiver that needs a strong outdoor signal in order for the entire device to function properly. The package also comes with a fairly long extender cable that lets you separate the GPS unit and place it closer to a window.

*edit* Guitarlp said it better below.

Mecha2142 said:
It's very unlikely that they'll waive both the monthly fee and the cost of the Airave itself. I was in the exact same situation as him, I called up Sprint to explain the situation, and they suggested the Airave. One representative told me that he could waive both fees ONLY for customers that have been with Sprint for some time. Those who are still in the 30 day window of opportunity to cancel are screwed in terms of negotiating the Airave. I luckily got transferred to a very sympathetic manager who offered the device for free and only required that I pay the $5 monthly fee. He explained to me that new customers are not likely to get the whole deal for free considering they technically aren't locked in yet. I'm still in the first 30 days of service, and feel extremely lucky for getting a $99 equipment fee waived so early into the contract.
And yes, the Airave does work. It's as large as your typical Wi-fi router and uses your internet connection to turn itself into a small cell phone tower. The only downside is that the data is only transferred at 1X, but that's not important since you likely have a wi-fi connection set up anyway. If you do manage to get an Airave sent to you, make sure you install it near a window; it has a small GPS receiver that needs a strong outdoor signal in order for the entire device to function properly. The package also comes with a fairly long extender cable that lets you separate the GPS unit and place it closer to a window.
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You called customer service... you need to call retentions.
I went through the same with when I first switched to Sprint. Talked to at least 8 different CSR's and none of them would give me an airwave for free and waive the monthly fee. So I called retentions (their cancellation department), told them I wanted to cancel since I had no service in my house and I wasn't allowed a free airwave, and the lady happily overnighted me an AirWave (while waving the monthly fee) as long as I would stick with Sprint.
Retentions will usually get you what you want. When you call them to cancel they're allowed to give you "perks" to stick with them. Normal CSR's are not... and since you're not calling to cancel they don't want to give you stuff for free.

Mecha2142 said:
It's very unlikely that they'll waive both the monthly fee and the cost of the Airave itself. I was in the exact same situation as him, I called up Sprint to explain the situation, and they suggested the Airave. One representative told me that he could waive both fees ONLY for customers that have been with Sprint for some time. Those who are still in the 30 day window of opportunity to cancel are screwed in terms of negotiating the Airave. I luckily got transferred to a very sympathetic manager who offered the device for free and only required that I pay the $5 monthly fee. He explained to me that new customers are not likely to get the whole deal for free considering they technically aren't locked in yet. I'm still in the first 30 days of service, and feel extremely lucky for getting a $99 equipment fee waived so early into the contract.
And yes, the Airave does work. It's as large as your typical Wi-fi router and uses your internet connection to turn itself into a small cell phone tower. The only downside is that the data is only transferred at 1X, but that's not important since you likely have a wi-fi connection set up anyway. If you do manage to get an Airave sent to you, make sure you install it near a window; it has a small GPS receiver that needs a strong outdoor signal in order for the entire device to function properly. The package also comes with a fairly long extender cable that lets you separate the GPS unit and place it closer to a window.
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Click to collapse
I would say that was a very good deal. Since you are still in the 30days.
Most of the time, depending on who you talk to will offer something if you arent happy with your service. Specially if you were promised something (like good coverage). Its why I really like being with sprint. Iv had so many phones replaced or upgraded because something went wrong with the phone. Give sprint a chance im sure you wont regret it. Specially now that we have some really awesome smart phones, it was what held sprint back for so long.

guitarlp said:
You called customer service... you need to call retentions.
I went through the same with when I first switched to Sprint. Talked to at least 8 different CSR's and none of them would give me an airwave for free and waive the monthly fee. So I called retentions (their cancellation department), told them I wanted to cancel since I had no service in my house and I wasn't allowed a free airwave, and the lady happily overnighted me an AirWave (while waving the monthly fee) as long as I would stick with Sprint.
Retentions will usually get you what you want. When you call them to cancel they're allowed to give you "perks" to stick with them. Normal CSR's are not... and since you're not calling to cancel they don't want to give you stuff for free.
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I didn't call customer service, I called a department that was probably somewhere higher in priority like retentions. I know this because a real life representative speaking perfect English through an excellent telephone connection answered within ten seconds of me dialing the number. Out of curiosity, did you go through this while Sprint had its 30 day trial period? The initiation of that sort of kills almost any chance of you getting a free Airave and service, since they aren't really losing anything by refunding the fees you've paid.

Mecha2142 said:
I didn't call customer service, I called a department that was probably somewhere higher in priority like retentions. I know this because a real life representative speaking perfect English through an excellent telephone connection answered within ten seconds of me dialing the number. Out of curiosity, did you go through this while Sprint had its 30 day trial period? The initiation of that sort of kills almost any chance of you getting a free Airave and service, since they aren't really losing anything by refunding the fees you've paid.
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Like I said, you probably didn't talk to retentions. You called and were upgraded to a higher level CSR. When I called (and finally got what I wanted), I hit the option in the menu's to cancel service.
Yes, I was 5 days in on my 30 days when I got my free airwave. I told her I had perfect coverage with AT&T (I didn't... but they don't know that), and that if I don't get similar coverage I'd rather cancel and go back to AT&T.
If you call their cancellation department, tell them you want to cancel, and then explain you had better service with *whatever company*, and that when you tried getting a free airwave through customer service you were denied, they'll give you the free airwave and wave the monthly fee.
I've read a number of threads where people said they got it for free, and others said they had to pay. One thing was consistent in the ones saying they got it for free... they called retentions and asked to cancel service.
When you talk to someone who's goal is to keep you a customer when you're ready to cancel, they'll give it to you for free.

No i have not rooted the phone, it's as is. I have been just trying to get a call out. For some odd reason i can’t get a signal past 1 bar. I checked with another sprint user in the same complex she said it’s the same with her 1 bar or none. This is not right as the sprint converge map shows good signal. Signal boosters seems like a good idea, so I’ll call and see if i could get one, but how about roaming, if it's on roaming will it use up my unlimited mobile to mobile minutes, if not than that’s not too bad.
So can I use one of those things you stick on a car to get better signal, will that work?
Thanks a lot guys you were all really helpful, I wish this transition would have been simple. I gave up a lot, grandfathered unlimited data for 15 with at&t, they have perfect signal here.

I fallowed your suggestion and called the retentions department, and she said I could have the AirRave unit for 49 no monthly charge, some “hmm I don’t know” (I’m not good at haggling ) got it down to free but shipping and processing was 18, so all and all good deal. I just hope it works out well.

Goodbye Sprint, Goodbye EVO

well after only about 6 months i have had it with Sprint.
I live in Cedar Rapids, Ia and the service here is to the point of almost not even having data.
by that i mean i have been consistantly getting 50-100kbps. day or not.
occassionaly between 6am and 9am i can get 700-1100kbps but this is not a daily routine.
I have been speaking to and met with the Regional Sprint Manager who was a very nice, polite and well spoken woman to work with.
She, unfortunately for sprint, has let loose on some key things such as her getting calls from their business customers that the network is toast and data is gone. and that for years its been known that Sprint in Cedar Rapids has been horrible. although the latter comment was not a blatant statement but more under the table & nonchalant.
we swapped phones and nothing changed, as she admitted probably would happen.
but i am working with her to get out of my contract with no fee's because i am not, and never have gotten actual 3G service. I was blatantly mislead and lied to on several occassions about the service in CR and even told by a store employee "oh yeah, we are going to get 4G by christmas". when the fact of the matter is because of my contacts in the wireless world, Iowa isnt even on the roadmap for 4G in any of the future plans my contacts have seen although they admit it is no doubt coming.
but even if they say i have to pay the early term. fees i dont care i am done with sprint and i will pay my fees in my own due time.
funny thing is.... the minute you leave cedar rapids, ia and start travelling down the highway your data speeds go thru the friggin roof..... but.. i dont live out on the highway in the middle of nowhere, i live in town, where service is not even service.. its 1xRTT at BEST.
I have int he past even been going 75mph down the highway, been tethered to my EVO with my iPad, and been streaming Netflix to my ipad thru my EVO... but the minute you hit Cedar Rapids,,, the network is history. and has been like that for a long time, i doubt sprint will ever fix it, it will take alot... a l o t of T1's to fix their oversold network.
yesterday i went to US Cellular and got hooked up with a Samsung Mesmerize.
Its no EVO but its a nice phone none the less. but the service, even though maxes out at about 1200kbps, is lightyears better than Sprint Service ever will be.
i thought about getting the HTC Desire but its too small. i dont like small screens, but its a Sense phone and as such is a nice phone and has the email and browser i like.
The mesmerize is not, and uses the stock android browser and email which i friggin hate. but... it is what it is.....
good bye sprint, good bye evo.....
look for a couple of evo's in the for sale section of XDA

So, for the first 30 days where you had time to test out the service, were you never home to test out the service? That is why they give you thirty days. If I had crappy service for the first week, I would be at the Sprint store returning the phone.

tgruendler said:
So, for the first 30 days where you had time to test out the service, were you never home to test out the service? That is why they give you thirty days. If I had crappy service for the first week, I would be at the Sprint store returning the phone.
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oh believe me i would have but, i was assured repeatedly that this was not normal Sprint when i reported issues. it wasnt AS bad back in June/July even though it was still far far less than minimal 3G speeds. I was told repeatedly atleast twice a month that trouble tickets were made and the field guys were looking into the issues.
But, obviously they have done nothing, absolutely nothing because not only has it not been fixed it is now worse than it ever has been.
so 30 days what ever... when sprint tells customers its getting looked into and yet absolutely nothing happens, well, what do you expect.
i am going to get fed up and leave, but i wont leave and pay ANY fees, they lied to me to get me to sign up, they lied to me to stay, and i refuse to allow anyone or any company to do that to me.

tgruendler said:
So, for the first 30 days where you had time to test out the service, were you never home to test out the service? That is why they give you thirty days. If I had crappy service for the first week, I would be at the Sprint store returning the phone.
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yeah thirty days would of been more than enough time to figure this out, after that I would understand why Sprint wouldnt let you out of your ETF, especially after sticking through it for 6 months. And some reps arent really lying as much as speaking out of ignorance, 4g is being rolled out every month in different cities, but not on any schedule that I know of. But like you said it was always bad service by you so you didnt just wake up one day and your had nothing to work with. Sprint isnt much to blame for not covering the whole nation with service, all providers have bad spots, Im sorry that you live in one of Sprints. I hope you US Cellular works out better for you.

So I guess we shouldn't go with Sprint if we live in uninhabited backwaters then?

umm bye ?
sounds like some attention whoring going on here

Verizon have service there? Reason is if they do then you can just use roam control to stay on verizons towers in cedar rapids.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

I would check VZ

I switched to Sprint from ATT (Iphone) and so far love it.
No dropped calls, better signal and more crisp voice.
Rooted EVO is as much fun as JB Iphone.

I have a 6 bedroom house and signal dies whenever I go inside very far. I use the Airave and I get full bars now everywhere in the house.

You should of just used a Verizon PRL, it would of probably increased your data speeds aslong as verizon had good coverage there. Worse case scenerio would of been Sprint canceling your contract without a ETF for excesive roaming...
sultan.of.swing said:
Verizon have service there? Reason is if they do then you can just use roam control to stay on verizons towers in cedar rapids.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
RoamControl doesnt do anything for DATA roaming. You need to manually load a different PRL with ##775#

Just a recommendation, if your not getting good service I would talk to someone in retention. I did this due to my phone dropping calls constantly inside my house. Anyways when all was said and done, I got a FREE Airave plus service for the Airave for free they just wave it every month. Just something to consider trying before you pay that termination fee, companies are very unlikely to let you go free.

CheesyNutz said:
umm bye ?
sounds like some attention whoring going on here
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LOL.. *sorry* "attention whoring"? Is that what it's called?
I've been disappointed with Sprint and my Evo many times for a variety of different reasons and I don't think I even told my wife--even after she stopped me from slamming my Blackberry 8330 up against the wall. Life's not perfect, that's what makes it cool--creating solutions. Good luck with other carriers.

> Stay in **** hole, for crap service, ditch evo or...
> Move out of **** hole keep EVO, scratch lottery ticket, win millions of dollars.
> Use money and buy your own sprint towers in **** hole
> Profit???

thlinx said:
> Stay in **** hole, for crap service, ditch evo or...
> Move out of **** hole keep EVO, scratch lottery ticket, win millions of dollars.
> Use money and buy your own sprint towers in **** hole
> Profit???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
swap step 3 and 4 around, step 3 should always be profit

Personally i would suggest moving, just a thought, may make you happier with life in general...

Roam control!

dabezt1 said:
You should of just used a Verizon PRL, it would of probably increased your data speeds aslong as verizon had good coverage there. Worse case scenerio would of been Sprint canceling your contract without a ETF for excesive roaming...
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Any idea how much roaming Sprint would consider, "excessive?" One of the phones on my account roams just about all of the time (He is stationed at an AFB in South Dakota, basically the middle of nowhere) and I'm curious if any one knows how much roaming would cause Sprint to end the contract...

rooster94 said:
Any idea how much roaming Sprint would consider, "excessive?" One of the phones on my account roams just about all of the time (He is stationed at an AFB in South Dakota, basically the middle of nowhere) and I'm curious if any one knows how much roaming would cause Sprint to end the contract...
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There is a certain percentage I think but I was stationed at Vandenburg AFB in California and I roamed there for almost two years straight and received no warning. Still with Sprint today.
Sent from my HTC EVO 4g

psssst....
YOU LIVE IN CEDAR RAPIDS!

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?
Sent from my spaceship!

Grand Rapids is down due to adding capacity to the tower. ETA is mid March.
Sent from my spaceship!

DirtyShroomz said:
Grand Rapids is down due to adding capacity to the tower. ETA is mid March.
Sent from my spaceship!
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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.
Sent from my spaceship!

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.

Got out of my Sprint contract ETF free!!!

Hey guys,
This isn't a thread to give instructions on how to screw Sprint over, nor is it how to get out of yours. I'm just telling you that they let me out.
I cited the fact that my service is miserable, with really low speeds, along with the fact that their new agreement with Lightsquared means that my EVO will never be able to get their 4g service, which I was promised when I signed up. They agreed with my position, and said that if I returned my phones when I left, they would waive the ETF, which I think was very fair of them. Like I said, I wasn't out to screw them over or get over on them, which is why I'm returning the phones to them. They gave me a full month to find new service as well.
Just wanted to tell everyone this so that if you're having a similar situation with service and want to switch (and aren't greedy!!!), Sprint will work with you. That being said, I'll miss this forum when I switch, and all the great Devs. I'm switching back to Verizon, and getting myself the new HTC Rezound, which I hear is phenomenal, along with beautiful Verizon 4G!!!!

I got out of my ETF in June, citing the same reason, slow 3g speeds. I do not have to turn in my phones to sprint, that seems a little shady to me. YOU bought the phones, YOU own the phones. You should NOT have to give them back, you have no reason to, they are YOURS.

Good idea, I'm getting near that move myself. It is rather silly I own a 4G phone that has never and will never see the use of 4G, considering it was sold as such.

Wonder if I can use that to force an upgrade in January. Dropping Premium really sucks, because now I'm stuck with a phone that will never see 4G or be able to get LTE, probably, until Jan 2013.

sitlet said:
I got out of my ETF in June, citing the same reason, slow 3g speeds. I do not have to turn in my phones to sprint, that seems a little shady to me. YOU bought the phones, YOU own the phones. You should NOT have to give them back, you have no reason to, they are YOURS.
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Honestly, I would have liked to keep the phones and sell them, but I don't think it's unreasonable for them to ask for them back in exchange for waiving the fee. That's what the ETF is there to prevent. Otherwise, they would have given me a $500 phone for $99 bucks, and I could just cancel my service and sell it. I think it's a fair offer for letting me out of my contract after only 4 months, and that's why I took it. I was surprised they let me out at all.

Amazon Wireless has all phones for a penny today for new activations, so I grabbed two Rezounds for 2 cents, and activated my new Verizon account!!!!

Going to need a new handle.

I have my Evo and with an AOSP Rom, my 3G is pretty solid, and I am in Bethpage.
Where on LI are you that your 3G is slow?

I live in North Bellmore, and got no reception in my house until they sent me an Airave, and I go to SUNY Old Westbury, where there is literally no reception whatsoever. I have to force roam on Verizon's towers, and that only gives me 1x unless I do the PRL hack. I shouldn't have to pay Sprint to roam on Verizon's towers on 3g, when I can get a better phone, and get Verizon 4g for just a bit more.

Yeah, once you go north of the LIE or NSP, the service blows. I am shocked that the service is bad in NB. My father lives in Wantagh right off of Jerusalem and I still get solid speeds. Just as good as his Droid X2.
Good luck with the Rezound. It's a sweet phone and VZW service is great, just really expensive compared to Sprint. See if SUNY Students get some kinda discount from Big Red. More often than not, there is some sort of price break offered.

I had Verizon before I switched to Sprint in June...Their service is great. I get a 19% discount through my job, and they said they'll put that back on for me once I activate the phones. Nice to get $30 off a month, makes it a bit more reasonable, plus all of Nassau County is 4g enabled. Suffolk County is still only 3g though, which is a bit of a bummer, but w/e....I'm not there that much.

I'm going to give them a call tomorrow and see if I can work something out with them. With full bars of 3G it takes, literally, 1.5-2m for my Facebook home page to load. It's beyond abysmal. Add to that the fact that 4G is listed on their map as everywhere in my town (and yet I've been able to get one bar of it one time anywhere around here) it is useless.
I have no problem handing my phone over, I just want out (especially since Rezounds are $.01 right now ). We'll see, I s'pose.

Evo4gLI said:
I had Verizon before I switched to Sprint in June...Their service is great. I get a 19% discount through my job, and they said they'll put that back on for me once I activate the phones. Nice to get $30 off a month, makes it a bit more reasonable, plus all of Nassau County is 4g enabled. Suffolk County is still only 3g though, which is a bit of a bummer, but w/e....I'm not there that much.
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When i was talking to one of the business sales reps last year, he mentioned that LI east of Rte 110 should be LTE enabled by Q1 2012. Not sure how accurate that info is, but that would be great to have it so quickly.

Evo4gLI said:
I had Verizon before I switched to Sprint in June...Their service is great. I get a 19% discount through my job, and they said they'll put that back on for me once I activate the phones. Nice to get $30 off a month, makes it a bit more reasonable, plus all of Nassau County is 4g enabled. Suffolk County is still only 3g though, which is a bit of a bummer, but w/e....I'm not there that much.
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I haven't had any problem either. I get a pretty fair discount so I can't complain.

Just got off the phone with a retention supervisor and they could not wave the ETF due to data speeds because there was not any guarantee of speed in the contract. I have 15 months left on my contract and I've been with them for 4 years. I am switching to Verizon because it is a lot better in my area. They did offer me a one-time $25 credit but i refused it out of principle. They should let people who want to leave go when they KNOW they cannot compete with verizon. Slowly Verizon will slow down from overuse and the system will balance. Contracts are evil /rant

Just got off the phone with a retention supervisor and they could not wave the ETF due to data speeds because there was not any guarantee of speed in the contract.
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Yes there is, the contract guarantees 3g speeds between 600kbps and 1300kbps when you are within sprint's coverage area. Call back and speak to another retentions rep, or email [email protected] with your situation, and you will get a callback from a rep from his office within 48 hours.

sitlet said:
Yes there is, the contract guarantees 3g speeds between 600kbps and 1300kbps when you are within sprint's coverage area. Call back and speak to another retentions rep, or email [email protected] with your situation, and you will get a callback from a rep from his office within 48 hours.
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I too do not want to "rip-off" sprint but this applies to anywhere where the coverage map says I get coverage, correct?

Sprint just cancelled my services ETC free due to excessive roaming.....go figure.
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slimno19 said:
Sprint just cancelled my services ETC free due to excessive roaming.....go figure.
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So what network are you on now? You still have the pc36100 tag.
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sitlet said:
Yes there is, the contract guarantees 3g speeds between 600kbps and 1300kbps when you are within sprint's coverage area. Call back and speak to another retentions rep, or email [email protected] with your situation, and you will get a callback from a rep from his office within 48 hours.
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Can you provide a source for this? I am getting 2-8 kilobytes per second where i live using sprint. I am already up to 66 gigabytes of roaming data this month (and 30 last month) so I'll probably get kicked soon anyway, but it'd be nice to get out faster. I've called them complaining and trying to get out etf free 3 times and I dont think one more call is going to help without the exact quote. Thanks a bunch.

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.