I have the opportunity to get the HTC Evo with the Sprint network, switching from Verizon, and was wondering for those with Sprint, how good the service really is.
As to signal coverage, it depends 100% on where in the world you are. Since you didn’t tell us, we can’t help you in great detail. Mine works fine in most areas of most major cities & interstates.
In 10+ years I have never dealt with their customer service since I never have had a need. They send a bill. It’s correct. I send them a check. On time. With sufficient funds in the account to clear. They credit it correctly. Lather rinse repeat.
When I have bought a phone from one of their stores I’ve had both good and bad service. Some stores are crowded and full of unhappy workers. Other stores are uncrowded and fully of happy workers. Pick the second kind.
All else equal I’ve found stores in nicer (read richer) neighborhoods are better than those in poorer neighborhoods. Something about most customers not being there to pay a bill with pennies or fight about an overdue fee.
I hate Sprint.
Ditto.
I’d wish their customer service on my worst enemies. I once was on hold for twenty minutes, then transferred between two departments four times, the only people I talked to had insanely thick Indian accents, and then right before I finally talk to someone who might have been able to help me, my call got dropped.
I ate the early concellation fee and went to Verizon. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever use them again.
Full disclosure: I have some stock in Sprint, but I also have my phone through them.
The customer service ratings have been getting better scores. I’ve never had a problem when I needed to get an issue resolved. I talked with some guy in Tennessee. I know, not just because of his accent, but because he told me he was in Bristol, and proceeded to tell me I should come to see a race. This was partly my fault, because I made a comment about “Oh, like the race track”, even though I don’t like NASCAR.
Sprint does have a 30 day money back guarantee. You could get the phone and try it out. If you can’t get service, or if you don’t like it you can return the phone.
I like it, but because I’m still getting an employee discount from ~3 employers ago (they don’t need to reverify, even when switching phones/contracts) I get the business customer service, not the consumer one. I’ve never had a problem, and I don’t need to call very often. Pretty much just to do phone swaps, I think.
I worked in a (since closed) branch of their inbound tier II tech support at one point. All in all, my impression was that they were really trying to improve things, but when you have literally hundreds of call centers from dozens of different providers servicing you because you’re so huge, it takes time.
Anyway, I pretty much never need to call them. I just use the online site for most everything.
The one thing that I hate is that there is always a line of about a thousand people in my nearby store whenever I go in to get a new phone, but from what I can tell, this is due to morons who can’t figure out their phones or who want to argue about paying what they owe.
Disclaimer, I worked for Sprint for over eight years, and although I no longer work there I still own stock in the company and have many friends there.
That having been said, I have a little spiel I give when I hear this question. If you find a plan that is good for you, the coverage is good in your area, and a phone you like(which is a primary indicator of how good your service will be), then Sprint is a great choice. Basically they do the technical stuff very well. Network reliability, speed, call quality, etc, are all very good. But don’t throw as much as a slider at them because they don’t accommodate change or personalization very well. You want to change your plan and add unlimited texting? Expect to go back and forth for a couple of billing cycles(yes, two and a half months). You want to change your plan? Nightmare of unforseen complications. All the while your phone will still get and make good calls, and work like a champ on the data side. The business side of Sprint seems to have its head firmly up its ass. If you can learn how to use the self-service portal and do things like add and change your own device, then do it. Stay away from people. It’s a damn shame, but that’s how it is. When you’re on hold, deal with the automated system, DON’T ASK FOR A REPRESENTATIVE.
Why is this? Because Sprint hires morons? Well, almost exactly the opposite. The biggest nightmare of anything I ever did at Sprint was when I had to deal with this horribly over-engineered system that had 60+ screens, some of which required very specialized knowledge to complete, in order to set up a phone. This was just plain nuts. A power user would be in heaven, but the average user is in hell. It’s so easy to fuck something up by missing a checkbox back on page 30, or realizing that you typoed a field on page 57, and then the whole thing crashes and burns in interesting ways.
Sprint is made up of some very smart technical people, but they don’t have that bridge between tech and business that they need. So the business develops a plan and the engineers make a system, and the two meet very haphazardly. So if you find a good plan, a good phone, and never, ever, plan to call customer support, then Sprint is probably the carrier for you. They have great prices, and some of the best phones on the market, including the EVO.
Enjoy,
Steven
I’m going to try to expand on this as much as I can without devolving into a frothing rage, because I don’t need my evening spoiled. Basically, the short version involved me trying to cancel my contract because I’d moved across country into an area they didn’t cover. They required documentation - fine, that’s reasonable. I faxed it to them. Twice, when they lost the first one. When the second one got lost too, I got on the phone and refused to get off until they canceled my contract with no termination fee, because I had fulfilled my part of the bargain. If they can’t keep track of paperwork that’s sent to them, that’s not my problem. I was on the phone for the better part of an hour, going around and around and around with the rep, who was happy to cancel for me, as soon as I sent the paperwork. But I sent the paperwork. But we don’t have it. That’s not my problem - I have confirmation that it was successfully sent to the number you gave me. Just send us the paperwork. I already did. Etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum. She eventually got her supervisor to approve what I wanted. Success, you say? Ha ha. A few weeks later I got a bill for another months’ service. And a $200+ early termination fee.
It worked out eventually, but I had to be an utterly determined bastard to not end up paying them money I didn’t owe.
They’re horrible when it comes to paperwork.
I wanted to put my account on a military hold (I was deploying for a few months and all carriers would do this), but I had to show them my orders saying I was deploying. No problem. I go down to the store like the representative told me to do.
I get there and she tells me I don’t need to show my orders. Ok, so can she put my account on hold? Nope. I had to call in.
I do that and my call drops at least three different times.
I ended up going back to the store and speaking with a manager there and have him call their super secret number in order for my account to be put on hold.
I was with Sprint for like 8 years. Meh. I didn’t need much, I didn’t have much trouble.
i started with sprint when they had a ver small coverage area, but it suited me fine. They seem to grow to cover everything very quickly and have always honored my very first deal with them. I love sprint.
I like Sprint… but am not in love with them.
I have had issues with customer support and the same situations as described above (long hold times, hard to understand reps, etc.). But usually they end up pulling through with some sort of deal, if I bitch enough (and I’m good at bitching). For about two years, I had free data on all three phones on my plan and I still have a 15% discount on my plan.
Yeah, they have their shortcomings, but they’re quick to fix it and will grease squeaky wheels.
I love Sprint. The company store I have been going to for upgrades and phone issues* I drive well out of my way for because they have great employees that give fantastic service. They have been known to throw in free items like extra batteries or chargers or comp some service just because. Overheard conversation recently at my preferred Sprint store:
Sprint Employee to repair customer: (hands customer phone) So, they replaced the charger. Usually there’s a charge for it, but we’re not going to charge you for this one because, I guess, we like you or something.
There was no sarcasm at all in her voice, and I couldn’t help but laugh. The customer seemed pleased, though.
As to customer service over the phone, they have always been courteous and efficient to me. Even if they can’t do something (like track my phone by GPS when it was lost), they explain why they can’t do it and offer a reasonable alternative. They don’t treat me like I’m stupid or trying to scam them or like they can’t be bothered to deal with me. IME, they don’t give you a hard time about reversing $60 in third-party charges that your pre-teen may or may not have been suckered into incurring or may have been fraudulent, unlike T-Mobile, IME. They just do it.
As to the service, it’s a helluva lot less expensive than Verizon or AT&T, and also a helluva lot more reliable than the latter. And they allow me to pay for my upgrades over time on my bill while I’m using it and extend service if that ever puts me over my spending limit.
- I’m currently having USB port charging issues with my Samsung Moment (eerrgghh!). After having the technicians in the store verify it wasn’t physically damaged, Sprint overnighted a reconditioned replacement phone to me. When that replacement displayed the same issue, they have again overnighted a replacement phone. I now have two Moments in my possession with another on the way. Although, it is frustrating to deal with equipment failure, I am currently in the opinion that Sprint is handling it fairly and promptly. I’ll let you know if that changes.
I do not care for Sprint.
Their coverage is not sufficient for me and their customer service is heinous. The aforementioned issues are common–go through everything several times only to be in the same position at the end with no satisfaction.
Verizon is more expensive in general but their coverage in my area and their call-in customer service cannot be beaten, IMHO.
I’m with Sprint and I’m happy, but I agree with Mtgman. You need to check the coverage in your area. I’m in a good coverage area and I can make calls fine even from interior rooms. I had some friends with Sprint who moved to Celebration Florida and they had to switch to Verizon because of a poor signal. The Sprint map shows their area as fair. You want something in good or best coverage.
http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp
The PhoneScoop user reviews on the phone are good.
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/user_reviews.php?phone=2665
^^
I’ve been with Sprint since 2005, on 3 different phones. The service inside my APARTMENT in Brooklyn is awful, but when I step outside, it is fine. This is something that strangely seems to be isolated to just my apartment, as it works fine inside other buildings.
The nicest thing about that $69/m everything plan I have is that it includes free roaming, so I change my phone to the Verizon network when I’m at home, and I suddenly have 5 bars.
Keep in mind, Sprint’s customer service is HORRID, so if you ever need their help (including activating your new phone), prepare to give up half of your day…
In short, Sprint’s service isn’t great, but you actually get your money’s worth.
I’ve tried to block this out of my mind, so I may be fuzzy on the details. When I left the country for five months, I talked to Sprint about getting some sort of deal where I wouldn’t get service for those five months and then continue when I got back. When I got back, I talked to them and got them to give me service again, but instead of resuming my original plan, as I had been assured would happen multiple times and by multiple people, I got charged roaming every single time I used the phone. My voicemail was not activated at all, even though it was supposed to come free with the phone. After a good deal of waiting on hold and talking with different customer service reps, they switched it so that when people dialed my phone number they could no longer reach my phone, and I somehow ended up with someone else’s phone number for a little while.
I told them about this problem, and then they switched off service to my phone completely. All this was taking place in Alabama the week before I was to be the maid of honor in my friend’s wedding, and people needed to get a hold of me pretty urgently. I spent literally hours in the hotel room talking with customer service reps trying to get the problem fixed. I finally thought it was fixed … until I got the bill and discovered that they had been charging me for roaming charges.
I called back and explained to them what our agreement had been six months ago, and then they said some stuff about having to pay early termination fees, signing a new two-year agreement, etc. Getting everything sorted out caused not only a lot of wasted time and inconvenience on my part, but periods without voicemail service or even the most basic phone service.
For what it’s worth, I switched to AT&T after my two years with Sprint was up, and have had an excellent experience with them.
Sprint has been fine for us. Coverage in Orange and Los Angeles counties is fine. No complaints there. Customer service was satisfactory for the one problem we had.
If you asked this same question about any of the wireless carriers, you would receive a similar set of responses, from those that are happy to those that hate it. Just check the coverage with people you know that have Sprint. A friend of mine has the Evo. I haven’t seen it since he got it, but he said he is very happy with it.