Went by yesterday and they said that the Kaiser (Cingular version) will be out in June to replace the 8525 at the same price. Do they know something that we dont.
Unfortunately, I have my doubts because the salesKid didn't even know that the 8525 was based on the HTC TYTN. I mentioned the front facing camera and he had the deer in headlights look. I politely said never mind, thank you, and walked out.
The vast majority of Cingular employees don't know much more than a phones basic specs, and that's IF they bothered enough to read them. I haven't found one that knew WM6 even existed, and most are clueless on the services too. It took me 3 different people to get the right answer about what "unlimited text" really meant, since my original plan had them charging me for IM's sent via Agile, WHEN I WAS TOLD UNLIMITED DATA WOULD COVER THOSE! However, I can't be angry. It's a part-time job for a lot of them, and they're there to make sales and collect a paycheck. The people on here know more than Cingular does.
I totally agree. Ive been dating a cingy store manager for about year. Its pretty funny because she ends up asking me technical questions about her own products, or answers to problems that her IT guy cant figure out, or updates on when WM6 is releasing, etc.
The information on forums like these are lightyears ahead of what average cell phone company employees know. If I EVER had a technical question about my phone or other gadget, the first thing I would do is visit a forum, the last thing I would do is ask the guy to makes $5/hr at the cingy store...
I actually turned on a Cingular store manager to this forum and now he's hooked. He's installed various dif. roms and tweaks and whatnot. He actually thought that unlocking his phone would make it NOT work on Cingular network in the beginning...talk about Cingy brainwashing.
An authorized reseller sales guy actually pointed me towards these forums. He seemed to know his stuff.
Im A Cingular or new att whatever employee. Been one for almost 4 years. And it is true, there are just some employees here who dont give a **** about phones. They are just here to sell them and not make it part of their lifes like we all have. To them it all seems to boring. But hey these phones arent meant for everyone. And as far as the kaiser it will be out i believe in june, but as far as cingular they most likely will be releasing it sometime in august or late 2007. Maybe even 2008. Depending on all that testing crap they do.
Yeah - it's like anything else... some are into it and others are crappy. I have run into some EXCELLENT Cingular reps and some really completely clueless ones. I wil say (and I hope I do not offend anyone here) that it appears that the original blue AT&T reps seem in general to be the most knowledgable - especially in terms of phones and such. Of course, that could just be my experience or my geography, but that has been my experience to date.
I am sure that there are people at each of our jobs (or schools) that just do the minimum to get by and then others that go to the max to do their best all the time. It takes all kinds.
Im a Mobile Data Specialist(title is prolly gonna change soon) in a southern market. most employees dont know a thing about the phones they sell.
in fact Im appalled whenever I meet salespeople. most dont even really know what a megabyte actually is. never mind the difference between WAP and HTML or wtf a rom is.
about the kaiser. I was told to expect it in spetember which seems to make more sense since
A) we have not recieved any info about an expected release date from cingular and should have if it was coming out in june
B) european versions have not yet hit the market and
C) an HTC representative told me him or herself that the expected release date is in september.
it is possible that test versions will ship to us in june but I doubt a sales rep would know that. normally it takes about three months to certify a device.
some people know more than others because they may be friends with some HTC reps like me.
or maybe they are marketing directors
or if theyre really lucky they are QA testers.
For those who bought the Nexus S from Best Buy, are you concerned with their customer services? I am concerned after reading countless complaints on their forum and the web.
I got into reading about them because my order still hasn't been processed 4 days after submitting it. I've read about the order status issue exactly like mine, inconsistent answers from different CSRs, totally useless answers from CSRs (basically saying they couldn't help in anyway) etc.
I am now thinking whether I should cancel the order and buy somewhere else (Clove UK sell them for a bit more). What are your experience?
Their customer service sucks!! I had a terrible experience when I exchanged my nexus s because the fingerprint display coating was peeling!!
As someone who worked for bestbuy I can say that customer service is pretty much a gamble. Some people who work there really want to help you and others want you to go the **** away so they can just get on with joy caring.
Sent from my SubCyan CM7 Google Nexus S!
If you are in the states I say find a bb that has nice and knowledgeable mobile employees. Their mobile employees are much better on average than the regular ones. Its actually a whole different subsidiary of the company. I couldn't say better things about the ones at the store by my house but I have experienced bad ones at another store. I love best buy mobile and will buy my next tmo or other phone through them. They are awesome.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Jayrod1980 said:
If you are in the states I say find a bb that has nice and knowledgeable mobile employees. Their mobile employees are much better on average than the regular ones. Its actually a whole different subsidiary of the company. I couldn't say better things about the ones at the store by my house but I have experienced bad ones at another store. I love best buy mobile and will buy my next tmo or other phone through them. They are awesome.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
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Agreed. Though the chick who set up my account was either just having an off day or was new because she screwed up the data plan on my wife's phone. She post dated the start date. I went into the Tmo store to get it fixed and they had no idea what she did lol. Oh well, I got a free month of data out of it so who cares?
Those who ordered online, how long did you have to wait before getting it? It's been 5 days, and the order is still being processed. I've already posted on their customer support forum yesterday, so far no reply yet.
The reason I wanted to try the Best Buy forum first is because I see their forum stuff are being far more helpful than those CSRs answering phones.
I about lost my freakin mind at best buy because they are so ignorant in the mobile department. I'll spare you the details.
I love the rest of the store though.
elusivepeanut said:
I about lost my freakin mind at best buy because they are so ignorant in the mobile department. I'll spare you the details.
I love the rest of the store though.
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Pretty much, none of them know what they're talking about. I had an associate tell me that their are two different nexus s and unlocked one and one for t-mobile smh.
This is the thread dedicated to basic transcriptions of your conversations with Samsung and Verizon Representatives after talking to them about being EOL'd...
I will share my own here after i do it tomorrow
This should be intersting. I may call them myself just to see what they have to say......could prove entertaing
Sent from my SCH-I400 using XDA App
Taking time off my sweet vacation to visit here...
Before i left to my roadtrip to Florida,
i decided to annoy(what i love to do most) the people at 2 verizon stores.
At one which is close to my house said they have no knowledge about the Samsung Continuum being EOL'd and they just gave me a business card to call Verizon Customer Service, so i told them i already have that number and that i will include the store number and employee information in my conversation, so they started offering me deals on accessories, i just said "Have a freaking good day,bye"
Since i love driving my car, i decided to go to another Verizon store to bug them, which is by a mall, not that far away from my house. They were more helpful. They confirmed the fact that the Continuum is in process of being EOL'd as well the the Fascinate being EOL'd too. I asked for a reason for all this happening to this phone, they said it didnt sell as much as they hoped it would and for that reason they couldnt release the froyo update. But he did show me something that caught my eye. He also had a Continuum. AND IT HAD 2.2 FROYO!!!! As soon as i started talking to him more about this, the manager cut in and asked to speak with him in her office. Im guessing he said too much.
Later that day i called customer service(which should know me by now since i call too much). And i decided to ask alot of questions to them, this was the response.
"Why has the Samsung Continuum been EOL'd?
Each phone has a term of how long it will be out depending on sales
Well since verizon has abandoned this phone is there a possible way we could at least get the 2.2 update released or at least the open source files for it?
I cant comment on the 2.2 update when it will be released but i know its very soon.
Where you trained to say very soon to these kind of questions?
Excuse me, our answer here at customer service are very accurate with the information they provide us with.
well thank you for providing me with answers that did not help me at all, have a nice day."
Well, i guess i am going to call Samsung customer service to ask them a few questions.
Well i'm going to the beach now, just wanted to check in to our Continuum Community.
good luck with Samsung, atleast Verizon's customer service reps speak english
Sprint support is NOT terrible. I know that as humans, our minds tend to remember negative experiences for much longer than positive ones, and I know that people don't come to XDA to share when things are working, but I just had a wonderful session with a tech. I don't remember his name, but I do remember the amount of dedication he put forward for this problem. After having issues with receiving text messages for whoever knows how long, we speculated since I installed Google Voice and then uninstalled it, then not being able to send texts, I Odin'ed back to good old EC05 while re-partitioning and clearing my EFS. I don't know if it was this that broke things, doubt it, but then I tried to make a voice call for the first time in a few days. It failed with an error number 16 and then some switch number. I tried calling the phone and it told my that the Google Voice subscriber (who is me) was unavailable. After thinking 'WTF HAVE I DONE TO THIS!!!!!' for a few minutes I Google'd error 16. It involves fraud, ESN cloning, and running S-OFF (to root) on HTC EVOs. Normally they all got fixed by calling Sprint. I called and the rep removed GV completely from the account. That didn't work. After an hour of resets, refreshes, and trials, he created an E-ticket for me to get a replacement. During this time I had been Googleing the error 16 more. It said something about a CHLS reset. I'm not a rep but I mentioned that we should try it. He said that it had been done earlier but he was eager to try it again. At this point, if I had been handling the call, I would probably be pissed. The called wants me to try something I did half an hour ago. But nope, this rep was perfectly fine with my suggestion. This time it worked and I had all connections restored. I thanked him graciously and asked if, now that we were done, I could ask about the switch to LTE. He told me that he didn't have official information but he would tell me what he had heard/knew. He said that from what he knows that LTE and WiMax will coexist together, perhaps with dual band devices. We laughed at the battery usage of that but he did tell me that Sprint is looking to compete with Verizon for LTE coverage. That's exciting news for me, whether or not it is accurate. Verizon is getting LTE in Delaware, I know there is some 15 miles away from me, and that would be great.
TL;DR for this post: Sprint support is helpful and we only hear about negative experiences. I'm not saying that all calls end well, but we need to remember that every rep is different. There are people who are just doing their job, and there are people who do their job well. From my experience, the latter is much more common.
No they really do suck! All the way up to Executive services...they have locked down the ability to give any benefits to unsatisfied customers and they will straight up lie to cover their asses. They don't give a crap about the customer anymore. I have talked to a few that were nice however they were incompetent, so you can't have it both ways.
though the few support situations i've been in involve a sprint store, although they were kinda uninformed and just kept to the script and ended up being non-helpful both times, i won't say it was a good or bad experience. I'm glad to see someone giving them there props when their do to receive them.
kennyglass123 said:
No they really do suck! All the way up to Executive services...they have locked down the ability to give any benefits to unsatisfied customers and they will straight up lie to cover their asses. They don't give a crap about the customer anymore. I have talked to a few that were nice however they were incompetent, so you can't have it both ways.
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wow Kenny, surely you don't lump all of us techs into that. I believe myself to be very competent, and I am certainly honest and straightforward.
And the "ability to give any benefits to unsatisfied customers" is pretty ridiculous as it generally sets unreasonable expectations for customers, especially those who then act as if courtesies and favors are expected to be given all the time.
Plus it's just good penny pinching. What do you expect from a company about to spend 10+ billion in the next year and half.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
I had a similiar problem awhile back but mine was with not being able to make calls while out of my home area in certain areas was kinda weird but I had 3g and 4g though. Long story short there was a special network reset on sprints end that fixed it for me and maybe it was a chls. This did also occur to me after efs clear.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
Okay, yeah, the store people suck. I've never had to call more than once for anything though, whether it was a replacement or even sorting out connection issues. All of the stores I've been in were rude. Ones in NY last time I was there blew me off with a 'hey yo sorry bro but we're busy here and you'll have to leave the phone with us for 4 hours but i dont think you want to do that'. The local store laughed at my mothers call dropping and said that if she can make and receive calls they don't need to help. I guess 5 second connections count as calls. Anyway, maybe I've been lucky! I had issues with Sprint TV and got a discount on my bill because it wasn't at all what I wanted.
Every time i had to call tech support i had a extremely nice and helpful person on the other end they even offered to throw me some credit to my account when my first epic had problems right out of the box and another time with my towers in my area were down for 24 hrs they credited 20 to my account the only bad experience i had was when i went inot the sprint store the on-site tech had absolutely no effin clue how to fix gps on my phone i was trying to calibrate it but it wouldnt lock (first epic right out of the box) he just had no clue about anything and when i showed him some stuff on the epic i got "oh i didnt know it did that" or "ill have to remember that for future troubleshooting" seriously they should really check these guys out before they hire them dude didnt know anything about Android and he was the lead android tech lol
Nvmd 10 char
The people on the other end of the phone are people to, occasionally it can be hard to remember that when they know less than you do...after all, they supposedly do this for a living day in and day out.
The last time I called Sprint it was to add a Canadian calling plan and to ask what the roaming data rate was while in Canada. Both of these items required an inordinate number of transfers and when transferred the person on the other end of the line was clearly baffled as to why I would have been transferred to them. Both items seemed to be a rather simple request as far as I was concerned considering they were very happy to charge me for these services. I would have been happy to use the Internet to do this but the option was grayed out when I logged into my account and the data rate was posted in 5 different sections of the web site at 5 different amounts.
My Sprint cellular service is good in STL and the price (including discount) is marvelous but boy-oh-boy I don't know how these guys keep the lights on.
-sigh-...I suppose it is depressing how little my colleagues know.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
Geez, if I had known this would create such a controversy I never would have said anything. I never said that corporate Sprint decisions were good, I never said that I wouldn't like more power to be given to the reps, I only said that we should appreciate those who actually have the capability and training to help out those of us who need it. I know that not everybody is helpful. I also know that if this is how we act on by far one of the nicest XDA sub-forums that exists right now, imagine what these reps must be exposed to every day. If they are less than satisfactory, I wonder how they got that way. It couldn't be years of no appreciation, could it? I never meant to deny the trouble people have had with the support system, but bring some positive to the highly hostile attitude towards Sprint employees. The ones who take the flak aren't the ones who are causing problems. /rant
squshy 7 said:
wow Kenny, surely you don't lump all of us techs into that. I believe myself to be very competent, and I am certainly honest and straightforward.
And the "ability to give any benefits to unsatisfied customers" is pretty ridiculous as it generally sets unreasonable expectations for customers, especially those who then act as if courtesies and favors are expected to be given all the time.
Plus it's just good penny pinching. What do you expect from a company about to spend 10+ billion in the next year and half.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
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No Squishy, definitely present company accepted. And up until a year ago everything was rosy with me an Sprint but something happened in corporate that turned the whole picture sour. Customer service was no longer first. Reps that actually wanted to help said their hands were tied. When I lost a $2000 job that I would have made in 1 days work because of an Airave upgrade Sprint denied it all the way up to Hesse's office. The Airave tech said an update had just went through and caused all calls in my home to go directly to voicemail. After resetting the Airave it was working again. I compained and asked for a simple courtesy to get an early upgrade or just move the date, or just get one more yearly update that they took away, I was told by Executive services that there is no record of an Airave update and my phone lost sync with the tower. After explainging that I had no problem outside of airave range they still stuck to their lie as to prevent a lawsuit on the loss of income. That is a bunch of assh&les to me.
It must be mind numbing to park yourself in that Confederacy of Dunces day in and day out. On the flip side I bet dealing with the public likely makes you want to kill yourself some days.
I'm not even asking that the guy on the end of the phone know anything really....I always assumed, based on how many times I get put on hold, that all a CSR needs is enough time and cerebral ability to type my question into the computer and read me back the answer. It's when this process breaks down that I get pissy.
In all fairness to Sprint it's as bad (or good) as any other consumer tech company I deal with regularly. Obviously not all Sprint CSRs are bad apples but why-oh-why does Sprint's ratio of spoiled fruit seem so high?
RyleyinSTL said:
The people on the other end of the phone are people to, occasionally it can be hard to remember that when they know less than you do...after all, they supposedly do this for a living day in and day out.
The last time I called Sprint it was to add a Canadian calling plan and to ask what the roaming data rate was while in Canada. Both of these items required an inordinate number of transfers and when transferred the person on the other end of the line was clearly baffled as to why I would have been transferred to them. Both items seemed to be a rather simple request as far as I was concerned considering they were very happy to charge me for these services. I would have been happy to use the Internet to do this but the option was grayed out when I logged into my account and the data rate was posted in 5 different sections of the web site at 5 different amounts.
My Sprint cellular service is good in STL and the price (including discount) is marvelous but boy-oh-boy I don't know how these guys keep the lights on.
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Lol att cell does the same thing when you want to add foreign service plans and are baffled to lol. Att internet customer support are a bunch of retards they don't even know what services they sell. You have to call 5x in order to get the service you already knew you were available to get. All the corporations are just ridiculous. Its not just one its ALL OF THEM.........
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium
My question is, if we know so much more about these devices than the people they are paying to troubleshoot the devices when we have a problem...why the hell aren't WE the one's working at Sprint??
Well, to answer my own question I guess, I see how ruffled feathers get when a noob wanders in asking dumb questions, how many here would volunteer to deal with nothing but noobs all day long?
Well, to answer my second question- I suppose it is easier dealing with noob 'problems' than tracking down a bug in a kernel or a glitch in a ROM UI, but these are fun activities for most self-taught programmers, as opposed to dealing with someone wondering why their phone 'won't work' (however vague that claim is!) probably drives you up a wall..still, if it paid well..where can I sign up? I need a job...lol
My experience with Sprint CustServ so far has been mixed- mostly because if you can't show someone how your phone is misbehaving, and they aren't smart enough to understand what you are describing- troubleshooting is impeded to say the least. On the whole though, the Epic was more trouble than the reps. I'm on my fourth one..
Tomcat5 said:
Geez, if I had known this would create such a controversy I never would have said anything. I never said that corporate Sprint decisions were good, I never said that I wouldn't like more power to be given to the reps, I only said that we should appreciate those who actually have the capability and training to help out those of us who need it. I know that not everybody is helpful. I also know that if this is how we act on by far one of the nicest XDA sub-forums that exists right now, imagine what these reps must be exposed to every day. If they are less than satisfactory, I wonder how they got that way. It couldn't be years of no appreciation, could it? I never meant to deny the trouble people have had with the support system, but bring some positive to the highly hostile attitude towards Sprint employees. The ones who take the flak aren't the ones who are causing problems. /rant
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Honestly, most of us don't care about your pleasant experience at sprint. The fact remains, the service is mediocre at best and the data is slower than my dead grandmother. Post something most can relate to in the future. Mmmk?
Sent from my C9AN0GEN-MOd EpicOG
b16flybye said:
Honestly, most of us don't care about your pleasant experience at sprint. The fact remains, the service is mediocre at best and the data is slower than my dead grandmother. Post something most can relate to in the future. Mmmk?
Sent from my C9AN0GEN-MOd EpicOG
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Cool story bro you should tell it agan...
I can't relate to your "mediocre" experience at Sprint. Next time post something I can relate to yeah?
I have to say I have had nothing but good experiences with Sprint Customer Support. (crosses fingers)
A bill issue was resolved fast and easily, and a couple issues with my phones were resolved in a way I was satisfied with.
Given my interactions with Comcast, Verizon, and several other IT companies, I have to give Sprint props, as they were better then all the others, as least in my experience.
As someone that deals with IT calls from irate customers quite often, I feel that a lot of the interactions issue are as much an issue with the customer, as it is with Sprint.
As always... YMMV
DCRocks said:
As always... YMMV
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FTW. Sometimes I get so mad at them that I want to cancel my service immediately. Other times, they're the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Had to go into the store, waited something like 45 minutes for an associate to help get my kids phone changed over. He was very polite and apologetic... then I've had chats where they promised the unwanted service that kept coming back....took three bill cycles to resolve....
Mostly I've had good experiences with them. But I'm low maintenance....
ive got 2 great corp. stores near me. most of the techs and front end people are rooted. i go in there and we talk about rooting, samsung and bada, apple hatred, all that good stuff. mostly nothing but good experiences here. if any one here is having trouble with sprint, try this number. no hold times, a live english speaking person, and typically, they are somewhat experienced.
877-775-4886
account services aka retentions, but they are still more than willing to help.