sprint dead last in consumer reports downfrom no 2 last year

[JeffDTD]

Not having a consumer reports subscription, I finally found an article that listed the actual scores: 

 

Overall:

Verizon : 71

Tmo: 65

ATT: 64

Sprint: 59

 

Sprint haters love the spin that can be made from this, but considering the coast to coast disruption to the network and at least 1 less than honest NV vendor, the spread between the Tmo/ATT and Sprint is very small.  Given whats going on, I think Sprint's score could have been worse.   In the markets where sprint is well built and Spark matures, Sprint should run away with #1 or #2 in a few years time. 

 

Other than NV, I think the plan options could be cleaner / clearer.  So many details surround that "$65/mo unlimited" tagline.

My rate goes up when the subsidy is paid off even if I don't renew?  Seems gimmicky to the most detail oriented.  Easy fixes. Otherwise, better communication and followup about outage complaints couldn't hurt.  Customers have very limited tolerance for outages, especially ones that pour over weeks and weeks on end.  

[scubajwd]

Anectodal information somewhat related to this thread: recently drove from Las Vegas area to SLC; a distance of about 500 miles several hundred of which are desolate; my wife held a phone call on our GS3 north of Beaver Utah for over an hour to her sister in Utah; this has never been possible in the 20 years I have been making this trip; my 3G experience here in the LV area has NEVER been better than it is now;sooooo, not withstanding these results ( I realize that they are CS in nature) I never have occasion to call Sprint CS anymore and I've never had better mobile experience than I have now; I await 4G LTE but fundamentally my wife & I use a cell phone for voice & texts..very little data...your mileage may vary..I realize..

[Fraydog]

71 is it for VZW? A few years ago they were in the 80's. Then their policies became more and more anti-consumer.

[Nickel]

and at least 1 less than honest NV vendor, 

Hmmm? What do you mean by this?

[GinaDee]

Reading some of the comments here I feel that many do not want to hear negative news about Sprint.  

 

Truth is that the negative news is needed so consumers can understand how their potential purchase will work for them "now," not 2 years into the future. 

 

Geeks obsess with the technical specs and theoretical download speeds.  Consumers shouldn't have to be Sprint network experts and put up with sub par network performance laced with promises of a better tomorrow.  

 

There are areas today and there will be areas tomorrow for Sprint that just suck or are extremely good.  It may have nothing to do with Network Vision coming or going.  Consumers deserve to know this and shouldn't be led to believe that poor service at their house will be magically cured once NV is done in 2015.

[GinaDee]

If Sprint fires up LTE 800 all at once or within a week or two of each other their network would go from sub par to excellent even without all of the sites being upgraded. Hopefully Sprint has a present under the cellphone towers this holiday season. 

 

 

I'm sure certain areas will benefit from lower band spectrum.  Low band spectrum however doesn't always equal great reception or fast internet speeds even if rural coverage is enhanced.  I've been in plenty of buildings and underground garages where Verizon is utilizing cellular spectrum and the service is poor to non existent.  

[Terrell352]

I'm sure certain areas will benefit from lower band spectrum. Low band spectrum however doesn't always equal great reception or fast internet speeds even if rural coverage is enhanced. I've been in plenty of buildings and underground garages where Verizon is utilizing cellular spectrum and the service is poor to non existent.

your comparing verizon which only puts lte on 30-40% of there sites to Sprint which will have 800 lte on 80-90% of there sites. Huge difference.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[GinaDee]

your comparing verizon which only puts lte on 30-40% of there sites to Sprint which will have 800 lte on 80-90% of there sites. Huge difference.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

Do you have proof that Verizon only installs LTE on 30-40% of their cell sites?  I'm not sure how that correlates to not getting a good signal inside a building?

Edited November 25, 2013 by GinaDee

[Terrell352]

Do you have proof that Verizon only installs LTE on 30-40% of their cell sites? I'm not sure how that correlates to not getting a good signal inside a building?

robert the owner of this site has proof lol. You must be new

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[centermedic]

Reading some of the comments here I feel that many do not want to hear negative news about Sprint.  

 

Truth is that the negative news is needed so consumers can understand how their potential purchase will work for them "now," not 2 years into the future. 

 

Geeks obsess with the technical specs and theoretical download speeds.  Consumers shouldn't have to be Sprint network experts and put up with sub par network performance laced with promises of a better tomorrow.  

 

There are areas today and there will be areas tomorrow for Sprint that just suck or are extremely good.  It may have nothing to do with Network Vision coming or going.  Consumers deserve to know this and shouldn't be led to believe that poor service at their house will be magically cured once NV is done in 2015.

Criticism is fine when it is fair, balanced and based on the facts. We have seen so many "articles" criticizing Sprint that were down right lies. For whatever reason some individuals have a need to go after Sprint. In the case of Consumer Reports I have serious issues with any of the consumer electronics ratings.

[koiulpoi]

Not having a consumer reports subscription, I finally found an article that listed the actual scores: 

 

Overall:

Verizon : 71

Tmo: 65

ATT: 64

Sprint: 59

What the what? I'd hardly call that "dead" last, by any measure. Finish up NV and get 800 rolled out everywhere and begin Spark, and Sprint will easy overtake ATT and TMUS. I'd also want to know what the error spread is on the results; if it's ±5%, Sprint could actually be #2...

[tommym65]

What the what? I'd hardly call that "dead" last, by any measure. Finish up NV and get 800 rolled out everywhere and begin Spark, and Sprint will easy overtake ATT and TMUS. I'd also want to know what the error spread is on the results; if it's ±5%, Sprint could actually be #2...

 

CR says that the error is +/- 5 points (that is, a 5 point difference is meaningful).  Note that their surveys are simply crowdsourcing: They ask a random selection of their subscribers to take their on-line surveys, and those who are interested enough to fill them out are the participants.  The result is that they tend to poll only the very happy and the very unhappy -- in Sprint's case, it would seem mostly the very unhappy.  CR surveys are in no way scientific.

 

I participated in this year's CR cellular survey, and overall gave good grades to Sprint for customer service and voice, not so good to data, but consider that I am in a leading market for NV implementation. (I was obviously outvoted.)

 

That having been said, I am somewhat surprised at the voice results, as I travel throughout the western 2/3 of the US, and for the past year my voice experience with Sprint has been uniformly excellent both in 1XRTT and 1X800 areas, and others in this forum seem to echo that experience.

 

As many of us here have pointed out, next year's survey should be significantly improved.  Meanwhile, Sprint should learn from this year's:  Customer service agents need to be more informed and helpful, and their subs are losing their patience in many places.

[S4GRU]

your comparing verizon which only puts lte on 30-40% of there sites to Sprint which will have 800 lte on 80-90% of there sites. Huge difference.

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

robert the owner of this site has proof lol. You must be new

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

To clarify your point, VZW's initial LTE deployment in most cities was only approx 40% of their sites. So this was true the first 18 months of their deployment. However, they come back and fill in more. They are nearly 100% in some markets.

 

Here in Rapid City, VZW has LTE on every site I've seen. I wouldn't quote that 40% number anymore. It is no longer relevant.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[Fraydog]

To expand on Robert's point, Verizon is 100% on Randolph County sites. In a short time I've been able to identify and locate all of VZW's LTE sites. They're all the locations where VZ had CDMA cells, plus a CDMA/LTE site add at Baldwin where USCC was.

 

Furthermore the sites for VZW, both of them in Chester, have AWS antennas already installed in the towers with RRU's ready to go, they just aren't hooked up and running yet. I don't think VZW needs the AWS bandwidth yet, but at least it's a quick tower climb to get the new AWS antennas installed.

[Terrell352]

Don't have Verizon to know if AWS around

[Fraydog]

Don't have Verizon to know if AWS around

Sprint doesn't serve Chester. Too rural to justify presence.

[Bob Newhart]

What the what? I'd hardly call that "dead" last, by any measure. Finish up NV and get 800 rolled out everywhere and begin Spark, and Sprint will easy overtake ATT and TMUS. I'd also want to know what the error spread is on the results; if it's ±5%, Sprint could actually be #2...

 

Do this do that do more of this do that with a little more this, right.

 

The problem is that Sprint didn't complete the first step and they're already on step four. They should be walking before they go running.

 

The survey is about customer satisfaction, if they aren't happy, they aren't happy.

 

Want customer stories about not being happy, head over to Reddit. Some sound like actual problems, not just uneducated whining.

http://www.reddit.com/r/sprint

[S4GRU]

Do this do that do more of this do that with a little more this, right.

 

The problem is that Sprint didn't complete the first step and they're already on step four. They should be walking before they go running.

 

The survey is about customer satisfaction, if they aren't happy, they aren't happy.

 

Want customer stories about not being happy, head over to Reddit. Some sound like actual problems, not just uneducated whining.

http://www.reddit.com/r/sprint

There are real problems. And 90%+ are the network. Nothing they can do but keep on it. Keep trudging forward. And for some, it won't be fast enough. And they should leave. No sense in having an aneurism over a wireless carrier.

 

However, after 30 days of AT&T, I can tell you the grass is not greener. With every carrier it's about weighing pros and cons and going with the one you can best tolerate.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

[koiulpoi]

Do this do that do more of this do that with a little more this, right.

 

The problem is that Sprint didn't complete the first step and they're already on step four. They should be walking before they go running.

 

The survey is about customer satisfaction, if they aren't happy, they aren't happy.

 

Want customer stories about not being happy, head over to Reddit. Some sound like actual problems, not just uneducated whining.

http://www.reddit.com/r/sprint

Thanks, but I really don't need anyone to point out the "negative" side of the story. There's plenty of other people to do that for you.

 

I have no need to read that forum on Reddit. I'm a retail tech; I deal with them every single day, and solve what I can. I can't solve network issues, but I can educate people about Sprint's network modernization and 4G rollouts (most info coming from here), and bring them excitement about what's to come, and what we're already involved in. Because, dammit, it's exciting! And like I said, problems are being solved and things are getting better every day. This score will be higher in a year. In six months. In three months. Tomorrow.

 

If you even care about consumer reports, that is.

[Fraydog]

The only way out for Sprint is through... and the problem, if anything, is that contractors are not always doing their jobs on their end. *cough*Ericsson*cough*. Though, eventually if Ericsson continues to have issues, it will be felt with the people who Ericsson reports to. 

[Nickel]

The only way out for Sprint is through... and the problem, if anything, is that contractors are not always doing their jobs on their end. *cough*Ericsson*cough*. Though, eventually if Ericsson continues to have issues, it will be felt with the people who Ericsson reports to. 

One would hope so, if not things are only going to get worse in those areas.

[Fraydog]

Apparently someone over at SprintUsers thinks we're not hitting Ericsson hard enough.

 

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=234278

 

Here's a hint eyoungren, since you are reading this. You guessed the wrong vendor, you clown.

[Nickel]

Apparently someone over at SprintUsers thinks we're not hitting Ericsson hard enough.

 

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=234278

 

Here's a hint eyoungren, since you are reading this. You guessed the wrong vendor, you clown.

Considering he can't even spell Ericsson right, I wouldn't have high hopes for him. 

 

Also, he used the "Vendor Execution" title as someone on here a while ago.  

[centermedic]

Apparently someone over at SprintUsers thinks we're not hitting Ericsson hard enough.

 

http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=234278

 

Here's a hint eyoungren, since you are reading this. You guessed the wrong vendor, you clown.

I still have an account over there. Grrrrrr. Must......resist.....t e m p t a t i o n!

[Nickel]

I still have an account over there. Grrrrrr. Must......resist.....t e m p t a t i o n!