Cell phone gurus, i need help. (Sprint content)

I'm at wit's end at this point, trying to figure out how to get something done concerning my service and phones.

We have two Samsung GS2s on the Sprint network, and ever since the ICS update was pushed to the phones in the second half of summer, the phones just don't work right.

I have people at the stores lying to me saying there's nothing wrong, i have people on the phone admitting that the updates have horribly berkeleyed these phones, and i have technical support aghast at my utterly terrible data speeds and general results in network testing.

Within all this, i've spent dozens and dozens of hours on the phone with these people, being promised supervisor callbacks, almost NEVER getting one (i've literally been promised over 20 callbacks. I've maybe received... 3.), and then everytime just having to start over with the next call.

I've been shuffled to Samsung because someone at Sprint blamed them. Samsung can't/won't do anything about it, and said that really, it's Sprint's problem. And it is. These phones on the other networks are NOT having problems.

I've have a horrible lack of consistency in answers. I can call 5 times and get 5 different answers.

My phone is dropping at least 50% of calls. I have to charge the phone 3x a day, and i'm NOT a heavy user by any stretch of the imagination. I data roam almost 50% of the time, trying to upload pictures results in a "Failed - Network Error" message about 50% of the time. The phone freezes constantly. (These are all well-documented issues about this phone on this network.)

I've tried factory resets with no results.

I can't get Sprint to do ANYTHING. I've reported them to the FCC twice. (Once for deceptive billing practices, since they double-charged me for my first month, still haven't gotten a resolution on that, and once for the service/phone issues.)

In the meantime, of course they're taking my $150/month.

I can't and refuse to pay the ETFs to get out of the contract, as this is not anything i'm responsible for.

So.... how the hell do i get out of this crap?

SPRINT berkeleyING SUCKS.

Going through the same thing with t-mobile. Except I am supposed to be out of contract, apparently one of their reps signed me up for another two years without telling me and there is no way to get around it.

Short of suing them at this point I have no idea what people are supposed to do in situations like this.

wearymicrobe wrote: Going through the same thing with t-mobile. Except I am supposed to be out of contract, apparently one of their reps signed me up for another two years without telling me and there is no way to get around it. Short of suing them at this point I have no idea what people are supposed to do in situations like this.

Suing them in small claims is definitely one thing i've thought about.

Unfortunately, i have no idea if reporting them to the FCC does anything... don't know how long to wait on follow up? Or if any follow up will ever come?

When my parents kick me off their plan (I expected it to happen a long time ago), I'm gonna figure out how to get a pay-as-you-go with the cheapest texting plan available. I hate cell phone companies.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

wearymicrobe wrote: Going through the same thing with t-mobile. Except I am supposed to be out of contract, apparently one of their reps signed me up for another two years without telling me and there is no way to get around it. Short of suing them at this point I have no idea what people are supposed to do in situations like this.

Suing them in small claims is definitely one thing i've thought about. Unfortunately, i have no idea if reporting them to the FCC does anything... don't know how long to wait on follow up? Or if any follow up will ever come?

I am not really sure, they really bury their actual legal responsibilities pretty darn well. I have been told in my case that I would have to go after the actual licensed store that apparently signed me up instead of t-mobile directly. It is rather complicated and at this point a little vague as to what exactly you have rights too. Plus they all added binding arbitration to almost every contract in late 2008-2009 depending on your carrier so you might not have the right to sue depending on what you signed.

I have the same phone on sprint and have not had the issues you describe (but have had some other more minor issues). Do you have their insurance on your phones? If so tell them it's broken and you want it replaced. If not you may be able to complain a lot and have them add it, then get them replaced. I was able to have them add it to my phone after my battery took a dump last month. From what I have read issues like the ones you are having are hardware related, so replacing the phone should fix them (unless you get another bad one).

For $150 a month you could get a better cell provider. Even if you have to eat the ETF, you should be able to sell your Sprint phones on Ebay and recover most of it.

93gsxturbo wrote: For $150 a month you could get a better cell provider. Even if you have to eat the ETF, you should be able to sell your Sprint phones on Ebay and recover most of it.

It's $350 a line. I can't recover it.

I'm fully aware i can get better service for the money, hence the thread asking how to get out of it.

Sprint sucks. I have to use Sprint for work and have been for 4 years now. When it works, it works. When it doesn't its a pain in the balls to get the network back up. We went from Symbol phones to iPhones which helped dramatically, but the network is ridiculously spotty.

The correct answer is to head over to xda-developers.com and find the instructions to root/unlock boot loader and flash a new ROM on it. Get rid of the crappy stuff that Sprint and Samsung add on. Vanillla Android is great. I've been running vanilla android since the G1.

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:
More answer than you may have expected coming your way via PM. Check your email.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Sprint sucks. I have to use Sprint for work and have been for 4 years now. When it works, it works. When it doesn't its a pain in the balls to get the network back up. We went from Symbol phones to iPhones which helped dramatically, but the network is ridiculously spotty.

All of them suck in one way or another.

Verison brags about their extensive data network, but for us, the majority of the time we have been married, they considered Puerto Rico as international, so rates were out the window, let alone coverage. (FWIW, our #1 location for minutes is PR, by a very wide margin, and we generally only go there once every other year). Others did the same (some barely know that Puerto Rico exists, let alone part of the US).

Which left us with ATT & Sprint.

I came close to getting att- including cable, internet, everything, since at the time they had given us phone service. But then a massive F up in billing let me find out that their service is terrible. Which led a few other thing in terms of full service, let alone their weak network that caused so many iPhone problems.

We've been with sprint for more than a decade, and I can't say that I like them. I can say that I dislike them the least at the moment.

http://www.cyanogenmod.org/ is the answer here - root and custom ROM.

mtn wrote: When my parents kick me off their plan (I expected it to happen a long time ago), I'm gonna figure out how to get a pay-as-you-go with the cheapest texting plan available. I hate cell phone companies.

I've been extolling the virtues of Net10 for awhile now ... I purchase air time every 6 mo. ( comes with 1500 min. for $100) you buy min. as you need to during that time ... ( the at rest screen tells you how much air time and min you have left) they have everything from "just phone", to half-smart, to smart type ( touch screen ) the only problem I've had is when trying to download live timing and scoring at an a-x, the phone informed me I didn't have enough memory ... other than that it does all I need .... talk, text, surf, take pics, e-mail .....

m4ff3w wrote: The correct answer is to head over to xda-developers.com and find the instructions to root/unlock boot loader and flash a new ROM on it. Get rid of the crappy stuff that Sprint and Samsung add on. Vanillla Android is great. I've been running vanilla android since the G1.

I realize that this is a potential "solution," but i can't wrap my brain around having to modify my expensive smart phone to have it actually somewhat work while i pay Sprint $1800 a year for the "privilege" of using their horribly slow and spotty network. Rooting my phone won't help the network issues, and for the stupid money this crap costs, i shouldn't have to touch it. It should just work, and i should receive a level of service that ensures that i'll be taken care of in the event that something doesn't work.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

m4ff3w wrote: The correct answer is to head over to xda-developers.com and find the instructions to root/unlock boot loader and flash a new ROM on it. Get rid of the crappy stuff that Sprint and Samsung add on. Vanillla Android is great. I've been running vanilla android since the G1.

I realize that this is a potential "solution," but i can't wrap my brain around having to modify my expensive smart phone to have it actually somewhat work while i pay Sprint $1800 a year for the "privilege" of using their horribly slow and spotty network. Rooting my phone won't help the network issues, and for the stupid money this crap costs, i shouldn't have to touch it. It should just work, and i should receive a level of service that ensures that i'll be taken care of in the event that something doesn't work.

While I agree, sadly that just isn't the way things work. If the phones worked OK before the update, Sprint/Samsung's crap broke it. Getting rid of their crap should fix it. The phone will run faster, have better battery life, and whatever issues you are currently experiencing should go away.

I love the way you refer to the $1800 per year. Of course, with a two year contract that is $3600 (let that sink in!)
When speaking of yourself, refer to yourself as, "the customer with the $3600 commitment."

It's like reverse car dealership logic where the dealership wants to talk payment because it seems so much cheaper.

Sprint sucks. That is all.
Good luck getting any satisfaction of of them. There's a reason they are last in terms of customer service.

m4ff3w wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

m4ff3w wrote: The correct answer is to head over to xda-developers.com and find the instructions to root/unlock boot loader and flash a new ROM on it. Get rid of the crappy stuff that Sprint and Samsung add on. Vanillla Android is great. I've been running vanilla android since the G1.

I realize that this is a potential "solution," but i can't wrap my brain around having to modify my expensive smart phone to have it actually somewhat work while i pay Sprint $1800 a year for the "privilege" of using their horribly slow and spotty network. Rooting my phone won't help the network issues, and for the stupid money this crap costs, i shouldn't have to touch it. It should just work, and i should receive a level of service that ensures that i'll be taken care of in the event that something doesn't work.

While I agree, sadly that just isn't the way things work. If the phones worked OK before the update, Sprint/Samsung's crap broke it. Getting rid of their crap should fix it. The phone will run faster, have better battery life, and whatever issues you are currently experiencing should go away.

I was going to suggest the same thing. It's GRM where people modify their stuff to make it work better. Not just cars, but gadgets and such. Rooting is at least worth a try. The other thing to consider is that Sprint is trying to upgrade their towers in a lot of areas to LTE. I had some kinda annoying issues towards the end of summer when they were upgrading near me.

clutchsmoke wrote:

m4ff3w wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

m4ff3w wrote: The correct answer is to head over to xda-developers.com and find the instructions to root/unlock boot loader and flash a new ROM on it. Get rid of the crappy stuff that Sprint and Samsung add on. Vanillla Android is great. I've been running vanilla android since the G1.

I realize that this is a potential "solution," but i can't wrap my brain around having to modify my expensive smart phone to have it actually somewhat work while i pay Sprint $1800 a year for the "privilege" of using their horribly slow and spotty network. Rooting my phone won't help the network issues, and for the stupid money this crap costs, i shouldn't have to touch it. It should just work, and i should receive a level of service that ensures that i'll be taken care of in the event that something doesn't work.

While I agree, sadly that just isn't the way things work. If the phones worked OK before the update, Sprint/Samsung's crap broke it. Getting rid of their crap should fix it. The phone will run faster, have better battery life, and whatever issues you are currently experiencing should go away.

I was going to suggest the same thing. It's GRM where people modify their stuff to make it work better. Not just cars, but gadgets and such. Rooting is at least worth a try. The other thing to consider is that Sprint is trying to upgrade their towers in a lot of areas to LTE. I had some kinda annoying issues towards the end of summer when they were upgrading near me.

I don't really enjoy working on anything. Including cars. A phone to me is a tool, not a toy. I don't modify my sockets, i just buy the right socket the first time.

The whole LTE thing is another point of issue with me. The salesperson that talked me into this berkeleying phone ASSURED me that it would be compatible with the new network, and well damn, it even has "4G" in the name! Shows "4G" every time it boots up!

Yeah, well... this berkeleyer doesn't even have a berkeleying LTE antenna in it, and the only 4G it'll pick up anywhere is WiMax, which is... dead, never been in my area, and never will.

I don't even get consistent 3G at my home, and i haven't since i started service with them in March.

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

clutchsmoke wrote:

m4ff3w wrote:

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

m4ff3w wrote: The correct answer is to head over to xda-developers.com and find the instructions to root/unlock boot loader and flash a new ROM on it. Get rid of the crappy stuff that Sprint and Samsung add on. Vanillla Android is great. I've been running vanilla android since the G1.

I realize that this is a potential "solution," but i can't wrap my brain around having to modify my expensive smart phone to have it actually somewhat work while i pay Sprint $1800 a year for the "privilege" of using their horribly slow and spotty network. Rooting my phone won't help the network issues, and for the stupid money this crap costs, i shouldn't have to touch it. It should just work, and i should receive a level of service that ensures that i'll be taken care of in the event that something doesn't work.

While I agree, sadly that just isn't the way things work. If the phones worked OK before the update, Sprint/Samsung's crap broke it. Getting rid of their crap should fix it. The phone will run faster, have better battery life, and whatever issues you are currently experiencing should go away.

I was going to suggest the same thing. It's GRM where people modify their stuff to make it work better. Not just cars, but gadgets and such. Rooting is at least worth a try. The other thing to consider is that Sprint is trying to upgrade their towers in a lot of areas to LTE. I had some kinda annoying issues towards the end of summer when they were upgrading near me.

I don't really enjoy working on anything. Including cars. A phone to me is a tool, not a toy. I don't modify my sockets, i just buy the right socket the first time. The whole LTE thing is another point of issue with me. The salesperson that talked me into this berkeleying phone ASSURED me that it would be compatible with the new network, and well damn, it even has "4G" in the name! Shows "4G" every time it boots up! Yeah, well... this berkeleyer doesn't even have a berkeleying LTE antenna in it, and the only 4G it'll pick up anywhere is WiMax, which is... dead, never been in my area, and never will. I don't even get consistent 3G at my home, and i haven't since i started service with them in March.

Well, gee, you bought a small computer for your pocket based on what the salesperson said? dafuqwrongwitu? Sales people make sales, rarely do they really care if it actually meets the customer's needs.

With that said, computers always need to be altered and tailored to meet the user's needs. Just a simple fact of life. I would start with backing up your data, applications, etc. to a PC, etc. Then perform a factory reset using a freshly downloaded official ROM image from Sprint for your phone. Before loading your data, try to see if this improves your issues. If it does, load your data and applications, etc. then retest to see if the issues return. If so then you've got something corrupt in your data or applications that are berking things up.

If after a factory reset and flash, you still have problems, try a plain jain Android ROM for your model phone/carrier from one of the sites mentioned, it can't hurt at this point and see if your signal issues go away. It might, since it likely will not have the berked drivers that are probably causing your issues.

One thing to take away from this: There's a reason so many people love iPhones and the like. 9 times out of 10 they just work. Apple controls the hardware and the software so they make sure they work together well. The carriers can't screw it up with their own junk software. Android can be just as good as Apple's iOS, except that Google let the carriers and handset makers control the hardware specs and software included. Going back to a more or less pure version of Android solves a lot of issues, however research must be done on the hardware you buy before you buy it to ensure you don't get berked with a POS that doesn't have the proper internal antennae, slow processors, etc.

A couple of examples: The wife bought me a brand new Linksys router for Christmas one year, it was supposed to be a nice, top of the link SOHO unit. The firmware included sucked, it was buggy as heck and limited the hardware capabilities, needed to be reset all the time, etc. The Linksys forums were filled with vitriol over the lack of reliability and Linksys kept releasing more and more updates to try and solve the issue.

During my search for solutions to the problems, I found an Open Source firmware, DD-WRT, that came highly recomended. When I installed DD-WRT, it just worked out of the box. The connections have been more consistent, the device only needs to be reset when I reset the DSL modem (because they can't write software either). I didn't want to dick with the router, but it was either that or try returning it to play Russian Roulette with another device, so I figured I'd try the Open Source firmware before returning it.

I wanted another tablet, to play with data logging with MegaSquirt and travel with, etc. So I didn't want another iDevice. In researching the 'Droid tablets I found that the cheap ones were cheap for a reason. Eventually I found a deal on a refurbished Nook Color for $75. Updating the firmware enabled the bluetooth capability and loaded a full version of Android 4.0. Now I can connect it to my MegaSquirt, run TunerStudio's MSDash app and use an external Bluetooth connected GPS (that is much more accurate than the internal ones) and if it gets destroyed, stolen or lost, then I'm out $75 instead of 2 to 3 times more.

Right. The lesson learned here is that i should have bought an iPhone on Verizon or ATT. I really have no desire whatsoever to mess around with a phone. Don't have time for another hobby or to learn another trade. I've got cars that i hate building to finish building.

Anyways, i've done 3 factory resets, no change. Part of it is the Sprint ROM for these phones (these phones work fine with the other carriers) and the other half is their utter E36 M3 network.

At this point, either of those parts is more than enough to piss me off and figure out how to get out of this. I can't fix both, so here we are.

It isn't a hobby, its just installing some software. Go put another ROM on it and get around that problem until you can get off their network on another phone. Better to solve half the issues than none of them.

If you have time to bitch about it here on the forum, you have time to download and install another ROM. :)

This forum is filled with tons of people who are problem solvers, so when presented with a problem, we'll solve it. If you don't want to listen to the solution or implement it, we can't help ya ;)

On another tack: If you truly dislike building cars, then why are you building them?

turboswede wrote: On another tack: If you truly dislike building cars, then why are you building them?

why is he building cars? I dont understand...doesnt everybody simultaneously love and hate the cars they work on?

on another another tack, turboswede youve got PM...

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Right. The lesson learned here is that i should have bought an iPhone on Verizon or ATT. I really have no desire whatsoever to mess around with a phone.

Actually a Nexus directly from Google is the way to go. It just plain works. :)