koiulpoi

Warning: badly-formed pseudo-rant incoming.

 

(I'm using Sprint pricing for this, of course)

 

All right yall. I'm a card-carrying Android fanatic. I carry a Note II, and my "laptop" is a TF300T. In the Android world, you have a lot of wonderful, high-end, expensive devices. The EVO LTE, the S3, the Note II, the Optimus G, etc. In my own humble opinion, the iPhone 5 can't hold much of a candle to any of these.

 

Where Apple is actually currently winning is, in the low-end and midrange. Why? The iPhone 4. Yes, it's a phone from 2010. However, it was really quite nice when it came out, and it's $0 now, and it has far fewer problems than some other flagship devices of that era (*cough cough EVO 4G cough*). And it runs iOS 6, which can basically be compared to Jelly Bean 4.1.

 

If you're the type of person looking for something in the "cheap to free" range, I can't see why you'd even bother with anything but the iPhone 4, unless it's a lateral move or a downgrade from your current device. What comparison do we have on the Android side of things? Well, let's go to Sprint.com and organize by price...

 

LG Optimus S: Was a low-end phone when it came out, and it hasn't aged well. Runs Gingerbread.

Kyocera Milano: Plagued with issues, including an abysmally small amount of internal storage for apps. Runs Gingerbread

ZTE Fury: Stay away from ZTE.

Samsung Transform Ultra: Not bad for $0, but I'd still recommend the iPhone 4. Runs Gingerbread.

LG Optimus Elite: Another mediocre Gingerbread device. Only free for new lines.

Kyocera Rise: Appears to have build quality issues. If you can live with that, it's not bad. Then again, Kyocera hasn't done much to earn my trust, with the Dura line having some severe issues at launch. Only free for new lines.

 

And, let's not forget, if you get these through most Sprint channels, you have to pay for a $50 mail-in rebate. So that Kyocera Rise? It's $19.99 + $50 = $69.99 out the door. When you could get, again, that iPhone for $0, and have a phone with better specs, better support, and a newer operating system. Makes it a bit of a hard sell, no? Especially when people find mail-in rebates to be rather repugnant. Raise your hand if you've ever gotten burned by them...

 

So, where's that killer inexpensive Android phone? There's a real market for it, and Apple is gobbling it up.

 

I say, find something like the Nexus 4. It's $299.99. The usual "smartphone subsidy" is $350, same as your Early Termination Fee. In other words, they could put that, or something similar, out for $0 on-contract. People would flock to it. The manufacturer makes more money, Sprint makes more money, and Google (who should be pushing for this) makes more money. So where is it? I would think the competition would be driving these prices down across the board, but they're not at all.

 

Instead, we have happy people in iPhones, and unhappy people in Furies and Rises.

How do you 'really' perform a master reset? The sprint instructions here walk you through pressing the reset button and confirming with the power button, This does NOT clear the device SSID or administrator password. On the device webpage, there is an option to reset to factory, but it requires an SPC code. Any ideas?

That "SPC Code" is, iirc, the MSL. Contact Sprint technical support (888-211-4727, option 4, 4) or take it in to a repair center.

So us that bought the device a few monts ago are SOL?

Yes. That's what "No grandfathering previous purchases outside of 30-day window." means.

 

@JeffDTD - I completely agree. The deductible on these phones is ridiculous. $200 on a $650 phone? That's ~30%. That's like having a $10,000 deductible on a $30,000 car. Who's gonna agree to that?

 

Part of this, of course, is the fact that the "outright" prices of the phones are artificially inflated, which is what these insurance costs are based upon.

 

I remember asking one of my supervisors, after the TEP price increase, why the Galaxy Nexus was included. The Nexus was part of the $11/month + $150 deductible group due to the outright price being $549.99. I informed her that one could go to the Google Play Store and purchase the GSM/HSDPA version for $399.99, and that there's no reason the CDMA version should be $150 more. Never got a good answer on that one. And it's even more telling with the Nexus 4 going for $299.99, vs the Optimus G going for $549.99. That's $250 more, for (mostly) the same hardware!

Pros: Lost/Stolen Coverage (not available from Apple), Complete Destruction Coverage, Jailbreaking Coverage, More total incidents than Applecare+

Cons: $150 Deductible for iPhone 4 and 4S, $200 for iPhone 5 ($49 for AC+) for cases of physical/liquid damage. $11/month cost is $264 over 2 years, opposed to $99 for AC+ ($4.13/month). Severe overlap with AC+ in services offered. Apple phone and in-store support typically superior to Sprint's for troubleshooting.

 

Other notes: TEP can be added for refurbished and second-hand devices (at point of activation), and follows the phone number. Applecare+ is only available on new devices, and follows the device.

You just used "forsee" and "Sprint" in the same sentence. That is no longer allowed. Did you not get the memo?

 

But I will let it slide just this once, as I assume that you meant "foresee," and this was just a Freudian slip

 

AJ

As an aside, Forsee's wikipedia page is hilarious. A sad, yet hilarious story of a man with good intentions. Probably.

Then again, thats still better than Sprint. Sprint charges you $35 to replace a phone thats in warranty. Verizon, like any reputable company, charges zero. Zip.

$50 as of today.

 

Do note that if you're not paying for VZW's "protection plan", in Year 2 they will not replace your device. If it breaks, is defective, etc, you get to upgrade (if eligable) or purchase a new device as MSRP. Or maybe buy a referb. That's it. Don't have the money? Too bad.

 

In my opinion, that is abysmally worse than Sprint, who will replace your phone in Year 4 for that charge, without changing your contract, etc.

 

But, like Rob said, Customer Service is different from Policy. Trust me - I've had my fair share of people claim "bad customer service" when I don't give them free cases/car chargers/etc.

Rob, if we have the tower ID for the Holland location, can the "relative" address be posted in this thread so people can try and Sensorly it up?

What? Nobody like this? Wendy's...Sensorly...plotting a quick path to the bathroom. That is comedy gold. What are all of you, Wendy's fans? Fine, go enjoy your Frostys.

 

 

AJ

I'm starting to think you might be related to the Claptrap from Borderlands/Borderlands 2...

See:

(start at 2:56. and see also 4:34)

 

Very true. My allegiance is to information more than it is to people. That is both one of my greatest strengths and deepest weaknesses.

 

AJ

Would you ever describe yourself as a "crusty old curmudgeon"?

AJ is not a warm and cuddly communicator. However, my point was only related to him correcting a staff member for posting here even though he does not have the device. Our staff monitor and post in every category. I did answer his question even still.

 

Robert

Yes, I would agree, that post was a little harsh, but (see next)

I still do not get it. I did this guy a favor by running down the hotspot quotas and prices: 3 GB ($34.99), 6 GB ($49.99), 12 GB ($79.99). Unless you are a very low data transfer user, those packages are not even remotely comparable to those of cable broadband, which this guy wanted to replace with a hotspot. When I pointed that out, he was evasive about knowing his "needs." Why be so evasive? It is suspicious.

 

If you have to ask a question, then be prepared to answer one in return.

 

AJ

 

Without getting in to things like MBTI and personality types, to him, he had a singular goal in mind, and extra information that did not answer his question directly, was useless to him, and seemingly a waste of time. He even said thanks! Again, to him, it appears that he considered information not directly related to the question to be as bad as a non-sequiter.

 

As for whether or not his needs meet the data caps, well, overages on Sprint are expensive, which he will learn very quickly if that's his issue...

Why are you being so opaque? What is your problem? Treat the staff here with respect, or face the consequences.

 

AJ

Please also note that our Staff members can post in any of our forums, and help run the site. Your comments to our Staff are out of line.

Robert

 

Erm, to be entirely honest here guys, I can see centralcityguy's point. He asked a question, and was given information he felt was unnecessary, which escalated from there. It appears both sides believed the other to be attacking them, to be argumentative - which on the internet, where tone and body language are lacking - is a very foolish thing to do.

 

For example, this very post: if one was expecting an argument, you'd find one. My tone is calm and explanatory, but if you took it personally, it would look like I'm mocking you, or worse.

 

Was centralcityguy out of line? If you read his posts as simple questioning, not at all. If you read it as hostile, then yes. I really love this forum, but lately, things have really been on-edge between the staff and the general public. And it shows, sadly.

My comment is "Damn NVidia You Crazy". I really want a Shield, but I'm afraid they'll be $500+... and that their game-streaming service really will be locked in to a few high-end NVidia cards only.

I don't think that HTC wants to jump into phablet territory just yet. That part of the market has seen some growth, but I think that 4.7 to 5 inch screens are the sweet spot in that a man or a woman could easily pocket it even while wearing those dreaded skinny jeans.

Hey....I wear skinny jeans.

 

I wear them too! And I have a Note 2. And it fits - with a case - in my pants just fine, I'll have you know!

 

Now, girl jeans are a whole different story. Pockets on those are just for show anyways. Most can't even accomidate an iPhone.

PRL Update connects to closest tower? LOL...

It was one of those serious moments of "wait, what!? who told you that? where did you hear that? why would you assume that to be true? do you even know what a PRL is?"

 

I bet you can guess the answer given to all of those questions.

 

(Hint: Yeah Really, A guy I know, From Sprint somewhere I think, I tried it myself, I dunno)

It's true. I've heard the following:

Here, let me show you this. This is a "PRL Update". When you do this, it connects your phone to the closest tower. Give it a shot if you're ever getting bad coverage, it can help a lot.

Which, besides the usual effects of a pseudo-airplane-mode-cycle, this provides a nice placebo effect.

 

As an aside, according to the Sprint Store locator, there is no store at "2609 Dougherty Ferry rd. St. Louis Missouri". There is one at 2960 Dougherty Ferry Rd, however, which is almost certainly what he meant. And if you'll note (check it yourself!), it says "Sprint Store By Marshall Wireless". So, no, he does not work "for the damn company". He works for Marshall Wireless, a Preferred Retailer. A franchised store, if you will. He has no information inside the Sprint firewall. S&R techs at Preferred Retailers, sadly, tend to have little more information than the general public. I know most of my info has come from S4GRU (which is amazing) and my own experiences (which I put little faith in). Aside from access to things like Device Known Issues, we have surprisingly little access to information.

The site in Howell is running LTE as of this morning! Multiple users have reported LTE service.

Map it on sensorly! We all wanna see the purple dots!

 

(ps still can't follow this topic! @rob)

"Cat-6" is a form of copper twisted pair. It is useful only for local area network segments. It can support very fast Ethernet (up to 1 Gbit), but it has virtually no relevance to mobile telephony.

 

Regardless of what "somebody says", Ethernet on modern fiber, microwave, coax, and even satellite media can move enormous amounts of data very, very quickly and for very long distances. Essentially all modern public communication (read: "The Internet") uses the various IEEE Ethernet protocols in transmitting and receiving its data.

Oh, thank you, but I'm well aware of what it means. Simply, as I grew up with Cat5 and 10BASE-T being "ethernet" which evolved to 100 and 1000... my brain gets stuck on that.

 

I suppose my question would be: as far as I understood it, all of Sprint's PCS network had "Ethernet" backhaul, as it was all T1's, and then simply switched. Is this not correct? Are there sites with "non-ethernet" backhaul? What would that even be? Was there a time before that simply ran, uh, copper wire to the sites? It would make sense, but still...

One store where I've had the experiences (several times) is a repair center, and the other isn't. I would have thought the repair center people would know more, but I've had equally poor treatment and equally misinformed comments.

I would think so as well. Repair Techs are the ones who contact Tech Support to file CTMS (Network) Tickets for customers who have non-device-related network issues. Now, there is that possibility that the area they live in and where the store is, have few issues. That's the case here: I work at a store in a rural area, which is handled by a handful of sites thinly spaced. Other than coverage issues due to cell spacing, we have few complaints about network speeds: it's rare to have an overloaded sector. If somebody asked me about the network, and I went off the single cell site by our store, I'd say "it's fantastic!". Contrast this with several sites further downtown Grand Rapids where you're worse than 1X speeds on EVDO, well...

 

I think your approach is the right one. No, as a salesman you can't completely go negative even if that's the truth, but there's a balance. The problem is that most reps aren't getting good info from Sprint. They give me info that directly contradicts what Robert has here (they've told me techs have been on the towers, installing LTE in St. Louis over the past 6 months). I believe the info here much more than what they tell me. I really appreciate this community, but the gap between what Robert knows and what the people in the store know is far too wide. Sprint's doing themselves a disservice by not using their reps to help manage the situation. As I said earlier, I think it's way too early in the rollout for Sprint to be able to do broad marketing of what's coming, but using their store reps to do that in a more low key way could be effective.

The issue is, what the reps are told, the public is told too. Almost all information passed directly to store reps (as there are hundreds nationwide) gets leaked to the press in one form or another. The "Sprint Playbook", the weekly information source for retailers, is routinely leaked.

 

That being said, I totally agree. Almost all of my Network Vision knowledge that I pass on to customers comes from the info available on this site. Without s4gru, I would be unable to answer many questions I have been asked by customers. Most reps have no idea what "Network Vision" is at all beyond 4G LTE, and even that, we are told little more than the press releases of market launches. I obviously can't (without breaking NDAs and all that) show you what's available to us on Sprint's intranet, but if I could, you would be appalled at how sparse the information is.

I realize their job is to sell, but when the problems are as significant as they are here, they'd do much better to acknowledge and apologize for the current problems, and talk about the future. That's where that could have a benefit.

Is the store you're going to a Repair Center? My experience has been (especially working as a S&R tech) is that most reps are woefully underinformed about Sprint, the network, technologies, etc. Sales reps in repair centers not only have to deal with more issues (so they hear it from the customers), but they also glean info from the techs as they explain how they fixed things, and why.

 

That being said, our company policy as a Preferred Retailer is to be upfront and honest about things. One of the top drivers of a high level of customer satisfaction is, after all, setting good expectations. If you lie and say the network is better than it is, you end up with unhappy customers. Naturally, focusing on the bad rarely gets anything done, either. Me, I go for the "Network Vision is coming AND IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME" approach. Tell the truth, but be enthusiastic.

When somebody says "ethernet", I think Cat 6 UTP. Which seeing as that (along with the same standards e.g. 1000BASE-T) are only rated to 100 meters... makes it not seemingly particularly useful.

How dare you?! Pure Android loads applications fully 0.08 seconds faster, and that makes all the difference in the world to a phone geek...er, I mean..."power user."

 

 

AJ

And it loads the homescreen a whole 15 seconds faster, which makes all the difference in the world to... anyone.

 

Anyone who's used Sense for any amount of time knows the dreaded "HTC" screen, later changed to a "loading" screen. It's better on the EVOLTE than the 4G or the 3G, but it's still bad. No idea if they improved it since Jelly Bean; my EVO is long gone, replaced with a Note.

Honestly, I've never seen anyone who was approved for zero lines. Minimum, it's one line and a hefty deposit.

You guys confuse processors and chipsets just like you confuse antennas with radios and cell towers with cell sites.

My apologies for confusing the Exynos "System on a Chip" with a "chipset". Really, all I was asking was if Exynos included some kind of baseband radio like Krait, etc does. As you have pointed out, it does not.

 

At any rate, that's why I ask questions. So I can figure out what's right.

Your sweeping conclusion misses the mark in many respects. And I suspect that your conclusion is based on your experience with the Galaxy Nexus, which is an aged, compromised design because of its choice of multiple chipsets.

 

In devices such as the EVO LTE and Galaxy S3, both of which use a single 28 nm SoC for processor and CDMA2000/LTE modem, battery drain is not significantly greater in LTE mode.

 

So, I would suggest that you revise your post to explain "Why LTE drains so much Galaxy Nexus battery."

 

AJ

Question then (that I'll just ask here instead of googling it myself! laziness ho!)

 

Does the Exynos 4 that's in the Note II, also include similar technology as the Quallcomm-based chipsets? Does the Note II et. al. have any issue with battery drain while on LTE? I imagine Samsung was smart about these things, but you never know...

Odd, I seem to be unable to "follow" this thread. Following other ones works fine...