jamesinclair

I would assume getting on and off the subway would help. It did not Yes I am, no 800 LTE for me.

I went ice skating in Prospect Park and then had lunch by the Borough Hall. 3Gs all around.

Spent the day in Brooklyn today. 3G. 3G everywhere. I was not impressed. (I was also not impressed that Brooklyn seems lacking in Billiards Halls and Bowling Alleys, WTF do people see in that place?)

Half the time it comes back to me as "(my number) does not exist" but the 2nd or 3rd try usually goes through

Theres two issues at play though. One is ending early upgrades. I disagree with doing so, but we can assume Sprint did the math and it makes sense to do so, as you pointed out. But the other issue is how they went about doing it. Sprint was broadcasting one upgrade date (March 1) via the website and via the text-message upgrade check every day until Feb 28 and then at 12:01am changed that to July 1. So people who were waiting for that upgrade, and were confident they could upgrade the very next day felt that they were screwed over. Sure, what Sprint did was legal and such, but that doesn't mean it was right. An expectation was set, and it was tanked away. I don't understand how doing so this way is defensible. It is certainly not a good way to encourage customer loyalty or strengthen the brand. And Im sure if we had the math available, we'd see the cost to Sprint of allowing March (and April) upgrades would be less than the cost of a big PR hit for these customers that feel cheated. If you had your upgrade yanked away literally at the last minute, your loyalty to Sprint come July may be over. "But there was a text on page 2 of the bill!" Yes, the bill few people see, and even fewer read past the main number, as Sprint highly encourages both auto-pay and paperless billing. I'm sure I'm far from alone in only opening the PDF of the Sprint bill only if the number looks off in my credit card statement. Meanwhile, the primary mode of checking upgrade dates (again the website and texting "upgrade" to Sprint) had no such warning about a policy change. When Verizon switched their policy, it was changed only for new contracts after x date. Everybody else was grandfathered in, and then when they upgraded they were told of the new policy. That is, the expectation was set at point of sale. I dont know what Tmobile or AT&T did, or if they even changed their policies.

Pricing has been announced for the US. Looks like the claims that moving away from a subsidized model would push pricing down was incorrect. I'm not at all surprised, just disappointed. https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/leak-finally-reveals-galaxy-s6-price-more-expensive-145050518.html European pricing suggests the top line edge model will be over $1,000

Same here, one line didnt change (20 months) but the other two did (24 months).

I thought it was my phone, I received no texts from 6pm to 10pm and then they started trickling in in the wrong order.

I'm massively dissapointed as well. Ive been a Samsung smartphone user since my first one, but this looks like it might be the end of the line for me.

Yes there was clearly a failure in training as half the reps on that forum are saying one thing and the other half are saying the exact opposite.

I dont know what the contract says, and I dont have a copy here. If it explicitly says you can upgrade in 20 months, then theres a problem, as they cant change that. Does anyone know what the contract says? Not exactly. Sprint announced that all contracts signed after 9/1/2014 would move to 24 months. Of course, most people get paperless bills too so theyd never see any such information. In fact as of yesterday, people were still being told they were going to be able to upgrade on 3/1, and then they walked into the store today and were told it was magically 7/1. The Sprint forums are on fire over this issue, so it was clearly a surprise. Thats a huge problem, and an enormous bait and switch. Having the website, the automated systems and the customer service reps telling people they can upgrade on 3/1 and then on 3/1 saying they can't is customer service disaster. Apparently, there was zero customer service training about the new timelines, so again, it's clearly a surprise. Personally, I think (and hope) it's a technical error and will be corrected. I think all contracts signed after September are 24 months (as anounced) but those of us who signed before get to keep 20 months until we renew again. That was the expectation set at signing.

Isnt this a change in the contract?

Yeah we really just have to sit back and let the thousands of lawyers work it out.

If Standard General wins the name, then we get the Sprint Shack stores. If their competitors buy the name then we get only Sprint stores. Some other comapny (Gamestop is in the talks) may then form Gamestop Shack stores which I believe is a customer nightmare scenario.

1,000 new towers in the Lower Central Valley market should boost coverage nicely.

Yes thats it http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-25/radioshack-s-biggest-shareholder-to-bid-for-retailer-s-name So if someone else bought the rights to the name, there would be no co-branding http://www.wsj.com/articles/radioshack-name-going-up-for-auction-with-20-million-opening-offer-1424881775 Sprint is still getting 1,000 new stores, they just might have nothing to do with the Radioshack brand or products anymore.

Unsure if it has been discussed but it sounds like the Sprint Radioshack deal fell through

The sprint coverage map shows Spark in absolutely all of Fresno and Clovis.....including the areas we know not to have any LTE at all.

I assume this is for new contracts right? They cant change the terms of an existing one right?

Crap, my local Radioshack is closing, presumably because theres an affiliate Sprint store 2 blocks away. Sad part is, the Sprint store looks like an absolute dump, while the Radio Shack is attractive. With they did the opposite.

Interesting rumor. For all of Radioshacks issues, they have a very attractive distribution of stores. Good coverage in low income and high income areas. Unfortunately they do have quite a few locations inside dead malls, but their standalone or strip mall stores are well placed. Amazon currently has the locker system, inside of 7-11s. I wonder how much rent they pay, and also how much it costs them in maintenence. One thing Id like to see is Sprint to build a tower at every store. Pop up a nice 200 foot tower at every Radio Shack in the country and Sprint has the best coverage.

RE: More retail I think a lot of people associate a strong retail presence with a strong network presence. You close your shops, people think the brand, and so the network, is in trouble. There’s also the fact that they act as billboards. 20 years ago, people said most banks would close, because you can do 90% of your business with an ATM. Instead, bank retail expanded because the storefronts act as marketing billboards. It is also no coincidence that the Apple brand grew so much when they started opening stores. Having a retail presence is very valuable for people to touch your product, ask questions, and have the peace of mind that if something goes wrong, they can quickly go to the store. I almsot never walk into a Spring store, but more coprorate stores are better.

I was surprised that there was zero service on route 1 between Morro Bay and Carmel, not even roaming 1x. And you have to actually get into Carmel for data

I spent 2 weeks in Fresno over the holidays. I didnt have time to go tower searching, but I did note my service. I was disappointed. There have been improvements, absolutely, but not enough. South Fresno (180 corridor) is still 3G or many, many dead spots. As a passenger in a car, I couldnt pull up google maps directions in a timely manner. Ate at a vegan mexican place in the Tower (the only one in town of course). Zero signal indoors. Visited family over by Champlain and Perrin. 3g only indoors, and very slow. Shaver lake is still a disaster My moms house still 3G, but that was expected (east Clovis, the Nextel tower) I tried to add to a lot of the 4G mapping and couldn't....because I couldnt hold onto a 4G signal. The sensorly gaps arent because they havent been mapped, but because the 4G signal doesnt exist. Yes, the 3G data speed has improved, no more .03 speed tests in most of town....except again, south Fresno (Sunnyside) where the speed test wouldnt even load. Sprint has a long way to go in the Fresno market before I would recommend them. If I still lived there, I would have had to change companies. Incidentally, the data speeds at the top of China Peak (top of lift 1) are fantastic. Unsure who the roaming partner is up there, but good job.

Oh I see. Did they increase the amount of zoom needed to see it? I feel like before you could be further out and see that distinction