koiulpoi

You are missing my point. People who live in markets with larger site spacing might disproportionately prefer device A, while people who live in markets with tighter site spacing might disproportionately prefer device B. That could be unlikely, but if true, it would constitute bias in the sample set.

Anecdotal evidence: people living in my (rural, widely spaced) area tend to prefer devices over others due to perceived signal strength and quality. The Motorola Photon sold disproportionally well compared to some more urban areas (yes, I checked the sales numbers). We've had a few EVO LTEs returned for similarly weak perceived service.

I heard from a source one of the sites in Howell, Michigan is now complete with LTE. It may or may not be live at this time. But Samsung is calling for inspection. Yay! Finally.

 

Robert

I am so enthusiastic for the first site to come online! What a great way to start the new year! A nice purple LTE dot on sensorly might call for a trip out just to let my s3 see the light of LTE for the first time.

 

Hopefully my area (Romeo) won't be far behind! Thanks to everyone on this site for all your help, and happy new year!

I was gonna say- Howell's only an hour and a half away... might be a trip that way in my near (tomorrow) future... Which site is it?

 

*runs off to the Sponser maps section*

Last time I tried to swap phones it wanted me to change my plan. Will swap carriers before I swap plans.

 

-- "Sensorly or it didn't happen!"

That as well, as an addendum to my previous post. The automated swap tool does not support Sprint plans outside of "advertised" ones. It comes up with the plan change screen if, as I mentioned, you switch from (for example) 4G WiMAX to 4G LTE. Or if it freaks out over SERO, etc.

I buy broken phones, repair them, and then resell them as a little side hobby for "fun" money. Being able to pop my SIM in to take the phone for a test drive without having to use the online tool, which fails alot, or call CS is a big plus for me.

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

There's a legitimate enough reason. But you can still go WiFi (for smartphones), and test call to *2 still works. I suppose the swap allows you to see if the device is actually activatable (aka not stolen, not active).

 

The reason the online tool likely fails is why SIM swaps would be troublesome: different data types have different plan codes. A 4G WiMAX device, a 4G LTE device, a 3G only device, a 1X only device, and hybrid devices are all provisioned differently by Sprint. Now, I'm sure that could be fixed, but it would require a complete overhaul of many of Sprint's backend services in that regard.

You can switch Sprint phones at will.

You currently can. Sprint.com, in any Sprint store, or *2 for Customer Care (which works on any Sprint phone, even unactivated and deactivated ones), and a swap takes only a minute. Not really much of an advantage.

 

As for the iDEN SIM comparison, not even those work how people want them to. Extra provisioning is required on the backend (aka a swap through the above mentioned channels), else things like SMS and Data will often fail. It used to be a very common fix for Service and Repair - somebody would come in with a (for example) i686 and say "nobody can text me!", and we'd have to change their device serial number to the correct one, away from the old phone - even though the SIM was already in the i686.

What's the advantage of removable SIM cards? Besides a "bring your own phone to Sprint", which only really works for devices made for Sprint anyways... I can't say I get it.

You have to work to brick a Samsung phone

To be fair, it was saying "connect this to Kies you idiot". Download mode didn't work without the jig.

TIL that attempting to flash Galaxy S III to the Note II... tends to fail and make things not work. Next time, pay attention!

 

I also learned that Samsung's Download Mode is amazing. Just loaded that up and wham! Back to stock.

 

Also, that having a Samsung USB Jig is super handy. Phone wouldn't go back in to Download Mode without it...

I thought new contract commissions were the same regardless of device. But maybe I'm mistaken. Can anyone of our numerous Sprint store employees confirm?

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

While Sprint's corporate commission structure is flat depending on sales of phones, many Preferred Retailers have their own, based on things like gross profit of the phone. Some Preferred Retailers pay their employees the same as corporate: per contract, not by type of phone. Some, however, give VERY different commission depending on phone model. Second hand experience (coworker who worked at one previously) has informed me that, at those, an iPhone is $0 (yes, zero), Android phones are ~$40, and a Phone Connect is $100. So, if that's how the store was set up, the employee has a pretty big incentive to steer people away from iPhones.

 

That being said, that's not Sprint's policy, that's the policy of the retailer.

Ordered an otterbox last week. Found it for 50. Looked at tons of cases and just didn't like a few various things about them. So I broke down and bought the otterbox after seeing my brother in laws cracked note 2.

 

I am glad I got this thing! Love the grip to the phone. Not scared I could drop and break the phone. I can still use one hand to operate the entire screen with ease. Fits in the pocket just fine. The jeans I just bought were 31's(6 months ago I was in 36's), have no idea why people say it wont fit in their pocket.

 

Sent from a little old Note 2

Obviously you've never worn girl jeans. Err- or had a girlfriend. Even the iPhone has trouble fitting in some of those.

System 7.5.5? I miss that OS. Mac OS 8 was great too, but nothing compares to the stability of the UNIX infrastructure behind OS X. Now I want to go back to Pahrump and boot up my Quadra 840AV.

Glider?! I loved that game. Plus I loved a game called Castles: Siege and Conquest. I still play it to this day on my Orange Clamshell iBook.

IMHO, System 7 was the pinnacle of Mac OS. Apple apparently thought so too, for the longest time, as 8 and 9 were very much so just reskins of 7 with a few bugfixes.

 

And hell yeah Glider! Great game. It's only too bad that Mini VMac emulates the Mac II at best, and not something like the Quadra or Performa; there are a few things that won't start, and a few that run... funny.

 

I still have a Blueberry iMac running System 9, and I boot up things like Quake 3 on it. Classic rocked. Never was a fan of OS X...

Actual new parts availability is identical to the preferred retailers, we have no direct control over our inventory, it is managed based on usage automatically. We use a part more often, we get more of them. We can harvest returned or exchanged devices however, so while a lot of the parts are not new, they work flawlessly and fix the customer's issue without having to replace the entire phone and lose customer info along the way.

Oh, yes, harvesting is available to us, as well. I suppose it's different in a high-volume store; I work in a (very) rural, low-volume area, so the ability to exchange at all is usually 2-5 instances a month, if that. We've had more than a few months with a 0% harvest rate, simply because it didn't make sense or couldn't be done.

 

But - no control over your inventory at all? Sheesh, that's worse! We at least can purchase parts which get reimbursed. We've been buying a lot of Evo Shift Flex Cables, for example (since they're no longer replenished). It's a common repair, and not having the part is nasty.

All I want for Christmas is for people to slap themselves when they talk nonsense about buying into the fruit cult. I have saved two people this season some money and frustration so far.

 

Second then I want is the tower a few miles away with panels and RRUs to fire up so I can put the purple on the map!

 

 

 

Sent from a little old Note 2

Just loaded Mini VMac on my tablet and am running System 7.5.5 on it and playing The Hobbit and Glider. Come at me, bro.

It extends the 20 month upgrade? It sure didn't on my 22 month upgrade cycle on my EVO Shift. I'm eligible, but I have to take the line out of standby in order to use it.

 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus running Paradigm 3.0 using Forum Runner

Well, it's supposed to. Things get funny with upgrades, sometimes. I've seen them be all over the place for seemingly no reason, including people signing up for new service, with a contract - and an immediate upgrade date, despite a subsidized phone.

It is highly unlikely that any work will begin in the Honolulu market in the next 3 months. However, there have been a few market surprises by Alcatel Lucent. But I wouldn't hold out hope. Sounds like putting Sprint on seasonal hold and doing something else temporarily may work well in your instance.

 

Robert via Samsung Note II via Tapatalk

One thing to note about Seasonal Standby: it extends your contract. Every day you keep your phone in standby adds another day to your 24-month agreement, and to your 20-month upgrade date as well. This makes it a very untenable option for many people.

ok folks...actually the information i base my thoughts about sprintlink isn't hard to find and you don't need insider access. The same goes for vz and att backbone as well. If you folks want to mock me(along with the site admin) go for it..you just make yourselves look uneducated. This isn't positive thinking but thoughts from years of reading and research. No insider access is needed. I know i don't know any legalities involved on the backend...otherwise do some research instead of mocking somebody who already has.

I don't see how Robert's posts are mocking you in any way, actually. pyroscott was mocking you. S4GRU was just stating what he knows to be true.

 

I understand that you're upset and frustrated with this conversation. So this is the last thing you want to hear. Just... don't take things people say on the internet personally. Hell, I'd say it applies to everywhere, but the internet especially. Ignore those who mock you, and proudly state facts and back up your arguments. Because, frankly, stating that you have done your research, and showing what that research is, the results of it, and a source for said research... are two very different things. Thus far, it seems like you've done merely the former.

Business accounts have Bill To Account for both phones and accessories. I know in corporate stores you can use it and online you can too.

That's what I'm saying; for Preferred Retailers, nobody can bill anything to the account. We just don't have it set up.

Most of the stuff you send is bullshit you should be glad you cant do. But being able to sell to any account type and bill accessories to account is nice.

 

Sent from my LG-LS970 using Tapatalk 2

Eh, bullshit or no, Care keeps sending people to our store thinking we can do these things, and it only ends up pissing them off more when we have to send them elsewhere.

 

Bill To Account is also something that would be nice. Billing *phones* to accounts only works on VAD orders; if it comes from our inventory, cash or credit or get out.

They'll provide you with your MSL code for a CDMA phone if you're out of your 2 years... but AFAIK it's International Unlock only.

Make it so Preferred Retailers can do everything a corporate-owned retail store can. There's an annoying list of things we have to send people to another store for. Like returning directship/online orders. Or changing PIN/passcodes. Or a budget for Seed Stock replacement phones. Or...

Just to be clear that I am not breaking the posting rules, the text that follows is based on fact, not my personal opinion.

 

Unauthorized (aka illegal) tethering requires rooting and uses your phones unlimited data plan, thus sending all its data through the same port that your phone usually would if you were using it for Internet. Authorized tethering by sprint uses a different port so they can track how much you use of it and does not require rooting. The penalty for illegal tethering is typically cancellation of the account.

Highlight next to the angel emote I already know that. For sure.

 

Now for a question:

 

Would I be able to (without breaking any laws) use an app to project my phone's screen onto my computer and from there to my tv? When 4g gets out here my idea was to stream Netflix on the phone, but just show it elsewhere (for the obvious reason that my home Internet could be better). I don't see it as tethering technically, but I'd like the community's opinion

Display Mirroring is not tethering, and doesn't break the ToS. Sprint actually advertises certain HDMI-out phones as well as things like AllShare Cast and MHL adapters. So, do it!

 

That being said, if you have WiFi available, might as well offload anyways.

I rather liked the Motorola Photon. Thing pulled EV-DO down where other devices dropped 1X, so it sold well around here. Too bad Moto dropped the ball on upgrading it to ICS.

THIS. You would imagine the phones being extremely modular nowadays, but you'd be surprised, even from one generation to the next.

 

For example, the Galaxy S II. The SD card slot is entirely removable and replaceable, the speakerphone and headset jack as well, but the earpiece speaker is attached to the board directly. So your earpiece gets blown? Replacement, can't be fixed in store.

 

On the other hand you have phones like the HTC EVO Design, even the charging port is replaceable on that device, it's on a separate board along with the SD card slot and SIM card slot. The Galaxy nexus has the charging port attached to the LCD assembly, so if either goes out both are replaced.

 

It's quite interesting seeing how some companies decided to design their devices. Quite often it isn't at all with the intent of field repair in mind unfortunately.

Interesting, if I may interject - do Sprint Corporate Retail stores have more access to replenished parts than Preferred Retailers? As a PR, we have no access to replenished parts of the type you mention (S2 SD card assembly, Galaxy Nexus LCD, etc). Obviously, the dealer can purchase them at their own cost, but that rarely happens.

Now running Paranoid Android and loving it.

 

That is all.

Go into a store and they can do it for you. Just know that you have to give them the Photon

Only Corporate Stores can do this, btw. Preferred Retailers (like "Sprint Store by Wireless Revolution") can't. For some odd reason. It's rather annoying.