Sprint won't(can't?) help me. unable to talk/text

[Lkr]

so this is going to be hard to type out completely.  if i forget something or something doesn't make sense just let me know and i'll explain/elaborate. 

 

at the start of this story(approx last wednesday), i have 5 lines on my family plan.

line 1: iPhone 4s

line 2: iPhone 4s

line 3: palm pixi

line 4: palm pixi

line 5: palm pixi

 

lines 1 and 2 are usually located in the orlando area, 3-5 remain in the jacksonville area usually.  all of a sudden lines 3 and 4 cannot talk on the phone or text.  data works fine.  go to the sprint store, they play around with it forever, can't seem to fix it.  show me the free phones i can get to replace it.  decide to upgrade one of them at that exact moment, upgrade line 3 to an iPhone 5c.  for whatever reason, the store did not check to make sure the phone worked properly.  get home and still can't call/text.  go back to store the next day, they swap the phone out, still same issue.  talk on the phone with sprint for days, pretty much at this point they make it sound like I am SOL.  i get a callback on monday night, they try a code on the phone(##clean# i believe), and it starts working. 

 

line 1 and 4 now swap phones.  line 4 gets the 4s and 1 gets that upgrade that was for line 4, and gets an iPhone 5c.  the upgrade is done in orlando, and everything works fine on both phones.  cut to Friday afternoon when I am driving up to Jacksonville.  I have LTE/3G pretty much the whole way, I am sending SMS, everything is working great.  Then I get into my neighborhood, and both the 4S and the 5C immediately can't call/text.  Data works fine on both though.  I have now called Sprint at least 5 times since Friday night, and they have no solution other than to keep trying to reset the phones.  Honestly, do you think it will work if I do it again?!  Two reps seem to think it is a defective phone when it isn't.  The 4S worked fine in both locations for 1.5 years.  The 5C had no problem in Orlando.  Two of my lines have been completely unaffected.  I get transfered to Apple at one point by a Sprint CSR who laughingly agrees with me that it is ridiculous that they think it is a problem with the phones.

 

At this point I nearly throw in the towel.  I called executive support, and since they aren't tech support, can only do so much in this kind of situation.  I got a direct contact number for the lady I spoke with, and will receive followup calls from accounts and a network tech, as well as her with updates/information.  At this point I am fine with waiting a day or two for them to get back to me.  All calls have given me the same information that all of the towers in my area are fine.  A friend told me her daughter had a similar issue and they were able to fix it at radioshack.  I didn't buy my phone at radioshack and i doubt i can just walk in and ask about it.  so right now i am paying for sprint service on two lines that can't actually function as phones. 

 

i am hoping that someone on this board has a solution to this issue or has any kind of experience with it(and hopefully a satisfying ending to your story, i wouldn't wish this kind of horror on you!) that can be of assistance.  from what i understand there is a ticket in to have an engineer look at the tower(s) in my area, but who knows if that will do anything.  there is no point in calling sprint back at this point because i will just get another tech support person telling me to update the PRL or wipe the phone, which isn't going to work(again!), so i am very frustrated. 

 

as for the actual details of the issue, SMS won't send/receive, and I receive an error when sending it.  when calling, the call seems like it connects on the iPhone, but there is dead air and no ringing, and the phone I am calling does not get anything

Edited October 26, 2013 by Lkr

[gr8nuguy]

I ONCE had 6, yes 6 defective phones in a row (razr when they first came out) I know what its like. Defiantly not a good. This post was borderline complain about sprint, which we dont do here. I would try going into radio shack and see if they will help you out regardless of where you got the phone. I almost wonder if those phones are connecting to 1x 800 ..as has been the case with calls and or text's not going through when connected to it (certain locations have that issue, but some work great)

[Lkr]

I ONCE had 6, yes 6 defective phones in a row (razr when they first came out) I know what its like. Defiantly not a good. This post was borderline complain about sprint, which we dont do here. I would try going into radio shack and see if they will help you out regardless of where you got the phone. I almost wonder if those phones are connecting to 1x 800 ..as has been the case with calls and or text's not going through when connected to it (certain locations have that issue, but some work great)

It honestly is a half complaint, but I also really want to get this issue resolved and am looking for input, because I have no complaints if everything is working fine.  I tried to contain my frustration as much as I could. I wanted to post it to this forum though because of the vast amount of knowledge the members here have compared to other sprint forums out there, and my real intent was to see if anyone here had any knowledge with an issue like this since I seem to have exhausted all of the resources Sprint provides

 

Is there a way to check if an iPhone is connecting to 1x 800 or if there is a way to force it not to?  I'll admit I really like iPhones even though it isn't a popular sentiment on this forum, but I really wish I could troubleshoot this like if i had an android phone

Edited October 26, 2013 by Lkr

[gr8nuguy]

try *3001#12345#*  then hit call then go into the setting that says something like 1x  or voice and see if it has a 476 or 526 in there.  (of your phones, only 5c is cable of connecting to 1x 800)

 

 

now that i think about it, i think Josh (macinjosh)had similar issues when he first got the lg viper. They had to recreate the his phone profile to make it work. Been a while But I may have also had a similar issue 

[fuunkychicken]

Have any of the reps at the store refreshed the network settings on the account level? It has helped me tremendously in some situations when I troubleshoot weird network problems for my customers.

 

*edit* it is known internally as a "device refresh" and is something tech support through customer care can perform for you.

 

Sent from my XT1056 using Tapatalk

 

[fuunkychicken]

Ugh apparently I suck at editing. Ignore this post lol...can't find the delete post in tapatalk

[JDD]

I had this just recently in July. It was only on 1 of my 6 lines and was a Samsung Galaxy S3. Went through all troubleshooting steps both on the phone with tech support and at the store. After it was all said and done. They basically had me shut down the line and bring it back into Sprint. Not sure exactly how they did it but that worked. I also had to go to a different market to a store. The store located in my market had no luck doing it. They think the cause was the upgrade work going on in my area this line did not accept the tower information during a PRL update.

 

I don't know if any of this make sense, I just know what worked for me.

 

Good Luck.

[S4GRU]

Just so everyone is clear, the OP is an acceptable post. It lists details of an issue and asks for information or guidance to help resolve. It is not a rant.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[WiWavelength]

I will bet dollars to donuts that this is, indeed, a CDMA1X 800 issue.  The symptoms just add up -- voice and SMS on CDMA1X are non functional in certain geographic areas, while data on EV-DO and LTE is functional everywhere.

 

AJ

[WiWavelength]

I will bet dollars to donuts that this is, indeed, a CDMA1X 800 issue.  The symptoms just add up -- voice and SMS on CDMA1X are non functional in certain geographic areas, while data on EV-DO and LTE is functional everywhere.

 

No, scratch that.  I saw the mention of the iPhone 5C, but I did not notice the other handsets in question.  The iPhone 4S and Palm Pixi are not CDMA1X 800 capable.

 

AJ

[H3RM]

When you call does it say something about being blocked or something ? And also on the lines effected does it tell you the phone number of the phone (on the phone)?

if that is the case then ##update# should fix it

[koiulpoi]

Have a high-level tech support rep give the devices in question a new MSID (along with refreshing/resetting everything else) and see what happens. While extremely rare and frowned upon, something like this has solved a similar issue for me in the past.

 

One definite thing to look at is, ask around in that area. Talk to other people who might have Sprint. Walk in to a store. There might actually be a dead 1X channel floating around that has (somehow) gone unnoticed.

 

Question: for SMS/MMS, does it give you a specific error? Or just "failed"? When calling, does the device ever actually "fail" the call and give you an error?

[bucdenny]

I think it is account related, I recall someone posting on S4gru with similar issues in the past.  At the end result, it was an account related issue and was not the phones.

[Lkr]

Have any of the reps at the store refreshed the network settings on the account level? It has helped me tremendously in some situations when I troubleshoot weird network problems for my customers. *edit* it is known internally as a "device refresh" and is something tech support through customer care can perform for you. Sent from my XT1056 using Tapatalk

I believe they did this.  I was told to power down my device and they said they sent a refresh signal or something to it

 

I had this just recently in July. It was only on 1 of my 6 lines and was a Samsung Galaxy S3. Went through all troubleshooting steps both on the phone with tech support and at the store. After it was all said and done. They basically had me shut down the line and bring it back into Sprint. Not sure exactly how they did it but that worked. I also had to go to a different market to a store. The store located in my market had no luck doing it. They think the cause was the upgrade work going on in my area this line did not accept the tower information during a PRL update.

 

I don't know if any of this make sense, I just know what worked for me.

 

Good Luck.

So did you have to like port it out or what?  As long as I don't get hit with an ETF or lose my number, I don't have a problem with this

 

When you call does it say something about being blocked or something ? And also on the lines effected does it tell you the phone number of the phone (on the phone)?

if that is the case then ##update# should fix it

I've ran ##update# a million times and that has done nothing unfortunately.  It does tell me the number of the phone

 

Have a high-level tech support rep give the devices in question a new MSID (along with refreshing/resetting everything else) and see what happens. While extremely rare and frowned upon, something like this has solved a similar issue for me in the past.

 

One definite thing to look at is, ask around in that area. Talk to other people who might have Sprint. Walk in to a store. There might actually be a dead 1X channel floating around that has (somehow) gone unnoticed.

 

Question: for SMS/MMS, does it give you a specific error? Or just "failed"? When calling, does the device ever actually "fail" the call and give you an error?

I don't get any actual error, just the text message failed to be sent.  The call never fails, it just says it is connected and there is no sound or anything.  Will I have to convince them to change the MSID?  Definitely something I will try to do, any option is fine at this point

 

I think it is account related, I recall someone posting on S4gru with similar issues in the past.  At the end result, it was an account related issue and was not the phones.

If it is an account issue, should I just call in and ask them to take a look to see if there are any issues on my account?  I'm kinda clueless about what to do

[koiulpoi]

I don't get any actual error, just the text message failed to be sent.  The call never fails, it just says it is connected and there is no sound or anything.  Will I have to convince them to change the MSID?  Definitely something I will try to do, any option is fine at this point

I wouldn't expect most tech support reps to even know how to do that, honestly. You'll need to get someone higher up. If you manage to talk to someone in the Oklahoma City call center, they'll know what to do. I've been told you can email them at okcqc@sprint.com, but I've never used that mailbox myself. Worth a shot.

[Lkr]

I'd like to thank everyone for their input.  I called again tonight and got a really nice supervisor(the agent I spoke with saw it was yet another call by me and transfered me immediately).  She thought the only option at this point was to delete and recreate the lines, which did work!  so everything is great now, i'm happy to say.

[rjw]

Yeah, I would think re-provisioning your devices would work.

[JDD]

I'd like to thank everyone for their input.  I called again tonight and got a really nice supervisor(the agent I spoke with saw it was yet another call by me and transfered me immediately).  She thought the only option at this point was to delete and recreate the lines, which did work!  so everything is great now, i'm happy to say.

 

 

This is what Sprint had to do on my line. Glad it worked.