jamesinclair

What folks do not realize is that if their device is in an active data session, it will not hand up to LTE if it is on 3G.

I would assume getting on and off the subway would help. It did not

Out of curiosity, are you still using an original single-band GS4?

Yes I am, no 800 LTE for me.

First, where on Brooklyn were you? Second, the entirety of NYC is lacking in billiards halls and bowling alleys. Those activities aren't very popular here.

 

If you're in Brooklyn, go to the movies, go shopping, go to a restaurant, go to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Museum, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). They're all super fun and tons more interesting than any bowling alley.

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?)

I can't even get 1311 to work. All my texts to it fail to send

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

That is an awful analogy.  You do not depend on Sprint early upgrades to pay your bills.  Early upgrades are a perk.  One that their competitors do not offer.  And Sprint is in the process of drastically cutting costs to compete on price.  Perk cut, save money.

 

If the average subsidy is $300 and a contract is 24 months, then that 4 month early upgrade is worth $50.  Some subsidies are significantly higher, but I like $50.  Nice round number.

 

If they cut 10 Million customers early upgrades, it saves Sprint $500 Million from all those customers. If it's 20 Million customers, then that is a Billion!  There is a real cost to that early upgrade.  To Sprint, it was worth it in the past.  Now with much lower and more competitive pricing, they think they cannot afford it any longer.

 

You decide what that means to you.

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.

 

We’re looking at unsubsidized price points of $699, $799 and $899 respectively for the 32GB, 64GB and 128GB Galaxy S6 models.

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 edge models could cost even more money.

 

Of note, these prices would make the Galaxy S6 even more expensive than Apple’s iPhone 6, which starts at $649 for the 16GB model and tops out at $849 for the 128GB version. Samsung’s entry-level Galaxy S6 does ship with twice the storage as the entry-level iPhone, but that’s still quite a premium.

 

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

Latest update, 1 of my 3 affected line was reset to 20 months tonight, the other 2 still at 24 months. (4th line was recently upgraded so correctly at 24)

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.

@ascertion and the lack of waterproofing and the fact that the phone actually has less battery than before and...

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.

There has been post/threads on the sprint.com forum from SprintCare CSR saying people will get their upgrade reset within 48 hours, but other rep are quoting from script about new 24 months policy.  

 

As of this morning mine is still showing as 24 months.

 

page 9, 10 for example

https://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/186708?start=135&tstart=0

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.

How is it a change in the contract?  Early upgrade eligibility is a perk, not a contractual obligation.

 

AJ

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?

Its been announced via your bill for a few months now that they are going to change on 3/1, so it shouldn't be a surprise to you.

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?

In my mind, it seems to me Standard General will end up with the name. Doesn't RadioShack owe Standard General millions? I would guess that the bankruptcy judge will allow SG to get it at a discount against other bids because of money SG is owed. But trying to predict BK moves is foolish on my part.

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

As far as I ever knew from any info I received, the Radio Shack brand was never going to be a part of the deal. So I don't see anything from the news story of selling off the Radio Shack name that impacts the Sprint store deal.

 

Also, don't rule out Standard General from buying the Radio Shack name, anyway.

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.

I don't know if this is what jamesinclair was talking about, but some sites had articles yesterday about the Radio Shack name now being sold off separately from the stores/leases (in an auction with a $20 million minimum bid), so the stores might not be co-branded as Sprint/Radio Shack if the name is sold to a different company.

 

Unless he read something else that I haven't

Yes thats it

 

RadioShack Corp.’s biggest shareholder, already seeking to buy hundreds of stores from the bankrupt electronics retailer, agreed to a separate sale of the chain’s name, with bids to start at $20 million.

 

Before the Fort Worth, Texas-based retailer filed for bankruptcy this month, Standard General agreed to bid on about half of the company’s 4,000 locations, with plans to co-brand some of the stores with Sprint Corp., the wireless carrier.

 

An official committee of unsecured creditors has objected to various aspects of the proposal.

 

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

 

 

Creditors have cast a wary eye at Standard General’s bid for part of the RadioShack business, in part because the hedge fund said it would keep the business in operation but didn’t propose to buy the name and trademarks.

 

Standard General has a deal to offer co-branded stores with Sprint Corp. , but creditors wondered what brand would share with Sprint if the RadioShack name wasn’t part of the deal.

 

Lenders Cerberus Capital Management and Salus Capital Partners, which aren’t part of the same lending group as Standard General, have prime claim on the RadioShack brand. They are owed, collectively, $250 million.

 

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.

My latest bill included a note that they're changing the upgrade eligibility for subsidized phones from 20 months to 24 months. Honestly it seems pretty stupid to me, they should have at least changed it back to 22 months. Getting people to renew BEFORE their contract expires is a great way to keep people from jumping ship, and Sprint needs all the help they can get with retention.

 

Think about it like the average customer: currently a customer gets a notice that they can get a new phone. They might look at other carriers, but they'd have to wait four more months or pay an ETF to get a new shiny phone. That's a pretty big incentive to stay. Under the new plan, when a customer is eligible for a new phone they could either stay with Sprint or port to T-Mobile (which they keep seeing all these blogs raving about how great they are) or Verizon (which is offering a $150 credit to port in your number). Suddenly Sprint doesn't seem like such a hot deal.

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.

Rumors are floating around that Amazon is looking to pick up at least half of the stores. This makes a lot of sense for them - order online, ship to/pick up from the store. They'll save a mint on shipping, especially on the dreaded "smart post" transfer to local post offices.

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 glad to get back into the LCV tonight. I spent the Afternoon and evening in Santa Barbara/Ventura area, and the network sure has a lot of work to go there, kinda like where this area was just even a year ago.

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.

I see the best/fair distinctions when I zoom in.

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