JeffDTD

Did they ever call back? Was the issue ever fixed? Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

No. Verizon's willingness to take sprint's money for 1x voice and data will not end as long as cdma is around. What *is* ending in 2016 is sprint's agreement with alltel for preferred roaming rates. Much of it is already mute anyway. The only real change could be less 3g roaming in the standard prl in a very limited number of areas. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Absolutely. Hesse convinced the entire operations team to batten down the hatches years ago. I personally believe Son carries some blame here as well for not shaking up or challenging and questioning all operations from day one. From the moment Softbank completed the purchase, the hatches should have been flung wide open as the storm waging within the corporation's walls was OVER. I suspect that Hesse actually loathes having to fight T-mobile for customers, given his history and their flaws. I also suspect he had zero expectation that the public would embrace Tmo's pricing strategy and no subsidy model or that ATT would react to Tmo either. I personally hate that all of sprint's pricing and plan changes these last few years and even Framily have been moreso "me too!" reactions than the "nukes" Hesse had in his arsenal when he first joined Sprint (Everything Data Plans, Any-mobile Calling). Do we know much what the individual vendor agreements prescribe when the vendor fails to meet the time allowances? Or if they even allow Sprint to end portions of the agreement in the event the vendor fails to meet certain criteria? Does anyone remember how long the Ericsson network management agreement was to be in effect? I am confident Son has the funds and teeth to negotiate more aggressive agreements in the future, but the agreements in place may carry too high a penalty to end. So, besides consistent and daily nagging from Sprint to the vendors, what more can Sprint realistically do to improve the future deployment speed for work already negotiated? And what good does telling a vendor "your progress is damaging the relationship between our companies" when all 4 carriers are racing to complete upgrades and there is more work to be done than contractors and Sprint would have pinched every penny possible in the original agreement? As far as care's handling of network concerns and complaints, whoever is responsible for guiding that ship needs to be fired or re-assigned and new blood charged with the task of educating and retaining customers. If a customer calls and threatens to leave due to issues clearly caused by network vision work or the absence of network vision, if care can see upgrades scheduled or in progress, giving that customer a loyalty credit while also opening a network ticket and guaranteeing followup is NOT too much to ask. Again, wonder which loss Son would rather sustain? A lost customer or a $10 -20 credit each month until NV is completed on the affected site? Instead, Sprint has stayed the course = "too many credits are given by care, reduce restrict remove". The tone in this discussion is appropriate for me to go ahead and share why a "V" showed up in my tapatalk signature in December. The Sprint site serving the downtown area where I spend 9-10 hours a day , 5-6 days a week had NV panels installed around August or September of 2013. It had received backhaul upgrades prior that time which had 3G functioning consistently at an admirable 400k- 2mb depending on the time of day. Perfect for my needs. Well, data and text went down for 4 days soon after the NV panels went up. No problem, understandable. While to this day LTE remains inactive, the 3G service that came back returned with 2 dead channels and garbled voice quality. I was told twice that "We are installing LTE, please be patient". So I was patient until mid November. Digiblur can attest, but the dead channels are most problematic when the site traffic increases. All sprint devices I observed here would jump on the active channel , lose data connection, fall back to 1x, eventually find evdo and repeat. Drained my note 2 battery in just a few hours. I opened a network tech with executive care in mid November, giving them the site ID and specifically explaining the dead channels and problems. I didn't need LTE.... just for them to fix the 3G they market that site providing. The rep was courteous but refused to acknowledge anything was wrong with the site, telling me "Your data usage reflected on your account is average, so it seems like you are able to use it elsewhere". I was advised to wait 7-10 days for the "network tech" (Ericsson) to evaluate. 10 days later, she called me and shared that no response had been provided by the tech but the site numbers were normal and closed the ticket. There is so much that could have gone different with this experience, but I ultimately decided the issues expressed by the other users on my plan, network problems we conditioned ourselves to ignore, and limited footprint in my state were no longer justified by the price.

I also believe those numbers are low. Hesse hinted in 3rd quarter reporting , iirc, that there would be further cdma churn as a result of delayed closure of business accounts as a result of iden shutdown. The quick transition away from the myway plans implies a bloodier number. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Shhhhhhh... its magical because theres "no contract". Magenta says so. Magenta knows best. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

What is certain is that this lenient of a policy with upgrading would not be reality without softbank. Hesse nor the execs would have ever rationalized this loss. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

What a great way to get someone with a single band LTE or 3G only device into a tri-band device!!!! That is real progress towards getting the most capable hardware in the hands of customers.

No insurance for me either. OP, how rough are you with devices? If you're prone to break a device, then insurance *could* make sense. I've also had great luck with keeping my devices in a TPU case with a nice screen protector. So far, I've gone GS, GS2, GS3, GN2, GN3 with no physical damage. The hardware used in the galaxy line is generally reliable, meaning you're less likely to have a dead mic , speaker or charging port etc. Lets say you break 1 device in 24 months. A $11/m + $150 deductible, You spent $414 for the replacement, which is most likely refurbished. Sprint also enjoyed charging you taxes and surcharges on the $11 insurance at their variable 10-15%. That alone would cause me to look at squaretrade or BB (as already mentioned) It only makes sense if you're likely to need 2-3 replacements in that time frame.

Ni So, so accurate. Im dreading the 4th quarter 2013 and year end numbers being announced. Between Hesse saying he hates to see customers leave because of nv and Son's joltingly blunt statement about sprints complacency, I am shocked Hesse didnt see the NV related backlash coming and take steps to improve the response by either providing consistent loyalty rewards for customers who experienced lengthy NV outages or at least improve the reps handling of blame. If I know a site has a big nv created problem that has persisted for 2 months, other sprint users have the same problem, and you tell me 1) our system shows no issues and 2) the ticket was closed - What am I supposed to believe? S4gru.com members know it will eventually be fixed. But the average customer? Tells them to expect the crap for a long, long time. If Hesse was paying attention to the running churn numbers and care ticket volume, I think he could have been more creative to prevent those customers with issues from giving up on sprint. Instead we got the MW plans, catering only to single lines and hosing family plan rates and care buckled down, making fewer timeframe promises (in my experience) and flat out refusing to push issues any higher "its just NV". Hesse is smarter than that. I think he wants to deliver Son this perfect, gorgeous and profitable network and the "if they are gonna leave, let them, they'll be missing out on the awesome finished product" mentality got him and the rest of the execs hollered at. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Does anyone know the terms of Legere's contract with Tmo? He is likely all for a buyout no matter what that means for him, as his contract probably provides a gorgeous golden parachute.

All this blathering about Sprint being "late"... Sprint's only blunder was waiting so long to find a sugar daddy. Flipside? Had they sold or taken a cash infusion, say, 2 years earlier than they did , the value of the transaction would have been even lower. Tmobile's expansion was in the past and continues to be funded and overseen by a its parent- who has deep pockets and can securely dedicate funds. Had Sprint taken bigger risks or pursued overhaul without funds sooner than it did, we could very easily have seen them tore limb from limb in a panic sale or bankruptcy. Remember, Hesse had to sell debt to find funds for NV... and to sell that debt, he had to create a plan that would both inspire investors and create an expectation that sprint had a true, long term solution to its ailments. Selling debt with a half baked plan would have gone less favorably than it did. And with this said, I admire Legere's audacity today. Whether or not tmobile has the goods they claim to have, I think they will prompt ATT to be more aggressive, which will trickle over to its bed mate.

What will it take to make Sprint be more competitive with data allotments between 1GB and unlimited? Does unlimited have to go away completely for sprint to feel the urge to competitively price data buckets? For my 3 devices, with no discounts, 9GB at sprint is $165 vs. 8GB @ ATT for $165, both before device financing. The only difference is Sprint will charge me the $36 activation fee for all 3 lines, while ATT would charge only for the lines where the customer brings their device. I won't be switching to ATT. Just seems like teaching heavy data users to use "just a little less" for a discount would be more healthy for sprint's network and long term growth than asking them to 1) use 1GB to be cheaper than the competitor (too little) 2) use a little less than accustomed but close to the same amount for the same price as competitor or 3) pay more than the competitor and get your moneys worth (stream, stream, stream)

I see. $5352 for 24 months 9gb/m or $5784 24 months unlimited. Sprints premium reduces to $536 across 2 years in the limited data scenario and reduces down to around 16gb at new carrier vs unlimited Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I certainly hope this causes an excitement similar to that of the "value carrier" enthusiasts who have been dancing gleefully around tmobile. As is obvious to anyone who observes my tapatalk device signature, I'm no longer using a Sprint device. I want to like these plans as much as Sprint tells me I will. And I want to come back to Sprint one day. I have 3 lines... barely anyone I could get to join as a new customer... and almost all are financially unreliable. So, its not likely I will be able to organize a big crowd of users. We use more than 1GB per line but could probably make the 3GB per line work. Looks like 55+50+45+ 10+10+10 = $180. Two of us want to carry a note 3 and the other will use an owned device. With a device price of $699, I have a ~$29 charge for each device per month, or a bill of roughly $238 for 24 months before taxes and surcharges. So, to join sprint today, I'm looking at a 24 month cost of $5,712 Meanwhile, new "devil" carrier is running me $184 a month with my 20% discount. $4416 for 24 months + $400 device (2 GN3's @ 199, 3rd device owned outright) cost= $4,816 Is the extra $896 I would pay sprint worth it with 9 GB on Sprint vs. 8 GB on the other? No. If I *must* have unlimited data, and plan on abusing it unmercifully, then Sprint could be the only option. Sprint's unlimited scheme on these 3 lines, with my 20% discount, would bring me $198 a month + $29+$29 for devices= $256.00/m. Or $6,144 for 24 months. Meanwhile, if I take that same $6,144 to new carrier, subtract $400 = $5,744 / 24 = $239/m to spend. New carrier's data share scheme would get me 20GB to share for $120/m (after 20% discount) + 120 (3 smartphones) = $240 a month. So, my usage on the 3 lines will need to exceed 20GB total for Sprint's unlimited to make draw me in Owning a device outright and saving is enticing. And I like new devices often..... But I simply cannot stomach the 24 month financial obligation here for using premium devices. Maybe I'm just getting old and stuck in the old ways... and maybe I'll learn to look at that old device differently than I've been looking at my 7 year old , paid off vehicle ("make me replace you, please") While everyone praises this new post contract "freedom"... I feel like we're in the twilight zone. If this really takes off for Sprint, the duopoly could be encouraged to adjust pricing up.

I cant help but wonder how the 4th quarter numbers ended up. Its unlike Hesse to abandon any plan or program changes so soon. Definite proof that Son is demanding growth. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Those funny "rent to own furniture" commercials that play on your local network and dancing , singing disasters mixed with delinquent testimonials of grandeur for the local payday lender are the equivalent of the campaign tmobile is running. "Who cares if tmo doesnt meet your needs, theyre screwing the man and poppin their magenta cause they feel your pain... " cue "come and get your love" Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I consider both worthless. Difference is, one has a plan to fix that. The other doesn't.

The strategy is all end game to pump up DT's sale price. Smart though. And I admire any taunting of Randall Stephenson Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

So.... why not just have an all out tmo/att pricing war? Its not the network, its the price! Right? I fail to get excited. The day networks are equal everyones price adjusts. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Everyone cries for rebranding. Sprint talks about brand consolidation and everyone cringes. If sprint can come up with a compelling business solutions package and wants to call it "nextel solutions" ... is that really any worse than the immediate paralysis that the sprint name apparently gives people? Killing boost would be silly though. Too much low end street cred....there are boost stores even in my tiny market and you actually see people using boost more often... At least killing virgin would save licensing with branson... Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Found it http://www.amazon.com/Fun-Factory-Cobra-Libre-Vibrator/dp/B00BDAPXNU

A ranty, often inaccurate, obsessive and unnecessarily negative opinion. Id like to think her gender has nothing to do with that. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

She clearly got a visit from krampus this year Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Somewhere, Charlie Ergen just had a gibberish fit. Id really love to witness an Ergen meltdown. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Hesse has no issue with inhibiting upgrades with expired plans.. There is plenty industry precedent now as well. Full upgrades on Everything Data will eventually met an end, unless Mr. Son puts his foot down in support of keeping them or competitive industry pricing adjusts to the point that Everything Data nets them better ARPU on family plans than the newest offerings.