A SprintPCS to Cingular horror story 01 Sep 2005

75 comments Latest by alex

I kept my number and switched over from SprintPCS on August 23rd to Cingular. Ever since the switch, I can’t get phone calls from people on SprintPCS outside of the 312 or 773 area code. Every time they call they get “This number or code you dialed is incorrect.”

I can get phone calls from everyone on Earth except for people using SprintPCS. No problem with Verizon, no problem with T-Mobile, no problem with Cingular, no problem with US Cellular, no problem with any land-lines, but I can’t get calls from SprintPCS customers.

I’ve called Cingular over 8 times. Talked to multiple people in customer service, tech support, and the porting department. They say everything is good on their end. I’ve called SprintPCS a number of times and had other people call SprintPCS a number of times and they say everything is good on their end. So everything is good on all ends, except I can’t get calls from SprintPCS customers.

Does anyone have any ideas? Does anyone have any connections with either company that will put me in touch with someone at either company who can do something about this? If there are any SprintPCS customers out there, and they want to give me a hand, drop me an email at jason at 37signals dot com and I’ll give you my cell phone number so you can complain to Sprint that you can’t get through to it (they’ve stopped trying to help me cause I’m not a customer of theirs anymore). HELP!!! Thanks in advance.

75 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Kyle 01 Sep 05

Yep, cell phone companies will lie, cheat, and steal in order to get your off the phone, whether or not your problem has been resolved. I guarentee somoene is lying to you. Most likely, neither of them have actually checked anything other than your billing status.

The only time I ever got any of them to actually look into my problem was when I told them to close my account since I couldn’t get any service (according to them, my service was perfect). Then they listened.

carl 01 Sep 05

I’ve noticed sprints service has gone to crap since the merger with Nextel. I get bad reception, I always go into roaming in places I’ve used my phone for over 2 years with no problems before…

Guess this doesn’t help, but may give some insight of whats going on.

Emily 01 Sep 05

sounds like a conspiracy to me…

Lisa 01 Sep 05

JF,
Why don’t you go to a local Cingular store and meet with someone face to face? I would think you’d get better customer service that way.

Good luck!

Lisa

JF 01 Sep 05

Why don�t you go to a local Cingular store and meet with someone face to face? I would think you�d get better customer service that way.

Oh, I’ve tried that. They’re more clueless in person because Cingular outsources their stores (they aren’t company owned). They’re really just there to sell, not to service.

jankowski 01 Sep 05

Has anyone EVER had a good experience (support, purchase, *anything*) with a cell phone dealer, network, store, phone person, etc?

I don’t think that any part of the cell phone purchasing, use, payment, upgrade things I’ve done have ever been pleasant. Almost like they’re doing me a favor to have me as a customer.

Of course, with EVERY provider acting that way, the only option is to avoid the entire industry. Is it a service that’s so valuable to us that they can act however they want - or are we all chumps?

Andy 01 Sep 05

Can I ask why you switched from Sprint? I have had their service for almost 3 years now, no real issues that I can remember, and I’ve used it in NY, SC, CA, and other various airport locations.

I will say I am biased towards the SprintPCS modem mode that MacOS X has built-in natively. Plug phone into usb data/charge cable, dial #777 to get on Vision/3G and away we go :-)

I am looking forward to EVDO, except I believe Verizon has beaten Sprint to it in my area.

Steve Stroh 01 Sep 05

When Cingular “grabbed” your phone number for the new phone, Sprint didn’t purge it properly from their databases. So when someone tries to call you from Sprint, the “check to see if the called number is within Sprint” lookup is positive, but the call can’t be routed because the billing records say that you’re no longer a customer.

This has to be resolved by Sprint purging the number out of ALL their databases. Good luck… it’s a special kind of hell getting this accomplished.

Andy 01 Sep 05

Sorry, got off on a tangent with my “I

If you can swing it, I recommend contacting someone from Sprint and someone from Cingular, get their names and direct numbers, and then do a conference call between the two and yourself. Preferably people who have full access to all of your records, older, current, and switch.

This way you get three brains bouncing ideas around. Hopefully at some point someone will go “ooh” and note some mistake in their records/setup.

Jessica 02 Sep 05

Yea i switched from sprint to cingular I have plenty of horrors stories which is the reason for the switch!!

Josh Williams 02 Sep 05

See, I have BOTH a SprintPCS phone and a Cingular phone. That’s the optimum solution. If one zone craps out, you have another. I’m not kidding. Okay, actually we use them for mobile development — but it does help when you’re in a bind.

“No wait… call me back on THIS number…”

I’m sorry. I’m not being very helpful. Sadly, cell phone companies are like the seven concentric circles of Hades… Varying degrees of evil. But they’re all evil.

Dan H 02 Sep 05

Take a friend who’s a Sprint customer to a Sprint store. Sprint may not care about you anymore, but they’ll care about your friend.

I use Sprint and they’ve actually been able to fix a problem for me in the store. I think they might have an interest helping your friend (who still pays them) can get a call into you. It’ll also be handy to demonstrate your problem to them.

Chances are, they could re-request that your phone number be switched over, and that’d maybe fix your problem.

Kyle 02 Sep 05

Sorry, I can’t be of much help, Jason.

That said, as a current SprintPCS customer, Carl’s comments regarding service since the merger have me a bit concerned. Now that it’s been mentioned, it’s occuring to me that I’ve been experiencing poor reception lately, and my phone’s hasn’t been ringing lately in certain areas and I’m being notified of voicemails without ever hearing a ring.

Hope it’s not an ongoing issue, Sprint has been ‘good to excellent’ in terms of customer service and I’d hate to have to switch to an unknown quantity at this point.

As an aside, I just a friend who was working on the new redesign of the Sprint Nextel redesign, the site looks well done, imo. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that they did any significant changes to managing your account on the backend.

David 02 Sep 05

The fact that it’s just calls from one particular phone company that aren’t getting through, logic suggests the problem is most likely (but not necessarily) with the phone company in question (Sprint). Cingular’s networks probably don’t behave differently based on what network the call is originating. Number portability problems on Sprint’s network would seem a likely culprit.

cjs. 02 Sep 05

Man, good luck, Jason. I’ve had nothing but nightmares with both Cingular and Sprint in my cellphone history. The only company I’ve been happy with is T-Mobile, who I’ve been with for the past 3 years. Excellent plans, even better customer service, though the phone selection rather sucks lately, and I have had trouble getting reception in certain areas.

Call SprintPCS and wrangle your way up the phone chain to someone in charge. It really sounds to me like an issue on the Sprint side, and that’s the only way I’ve ever gotten anything accomplished with them.

Matt 02 Sep 05

It’s not that it isn’t possible for these companies to provide good service. The problem is that people won’t pay for it. Cellular is a commodity, where the business goes to the lowest price carrier period.

This is the same thing airlines did when they idiotically allowed Travelocity et al to put them into a price war. I’ve actually chosen a different airline carrier based on a $1.00 price difference in a ticket I wanted—Because that is the only difference, and people won’t compensate airlines for a better experience. People have trained these companies to behave this way.

Possible Solution to Jason’s problem:

I had literally never had a good customer experience with a single cell-phone related issue until I decided to get everyone at my company a company cell phone.

I met our rep (Brian) at the Chamber of Commerce of which we are a member. We got to know each other, and he even introduced us to some potential clients.

Then, we moved all of our service over to Verizon through Brian. It wasn’t 100% trouble free, but it sure was easier than I expected, because Brian could push through all the usual crap you could expect from our old carriers, Verizon “customer service,” etc.

I would recomend finding a good business salesperson at Cingular, and engaging in a business relationship with that person and several cell phones for other 37s.

BTW, for anyone in Ohio, I can provide Brian’s contact info.

Dan Boland 02 Sep 05

Has anyone EVER had a good experience (support, purchase, *anything*) with a cell phone dealer, network, store, phone person, etc?

I’ve had a great experience so far with Verizon. When my wife and I signed up (she switched from Cingular, I was starting fresh), the woman in the store was very friendly and very knowledgeable, and she didn’t try to “sell” us anything, which was greatly appreciated. When we later wanted to change plans because we had too many unused minutes each month, that was a breeze. And when the online payment I sent from my bank inexplicably didn’t show up one month, I sent them an e-mail telling them that I had paid and to remove the $5 late charge, and it was done the next day. Plus, the coverage is terrific.

Lisa 02 Sep 05

I have a similar problem with Vonage. No one can call me from a local number. It is very strange and their customer service is not very good. I’m afraid I will have to go back to paying big bucks for a land line again.

Andrew Weevlos 02 Sep 05

What’s happened is that your number has been ported to Cingular, but Sprint has not changed the local routing information for your number. This is Sprint’s issue, and since you’re not their customer they really couldn’t give a shit. You will never get it fixed. There is only one solution: go to Cingular and get a new number, one that’s not ported, that Sprint has never touched. Problem solved. You don’t have much other options other than endlessly screaming and Sprint and/or suing them to get them to fix it.

Adam Michela 02 Sep 05

I’ve some good friends at Sprint (it’s the only reason I still use Sprint), I’ll ask them if they’ve any ideas.

Adam Michela 02 Sep 05

Ah, Andrew’s explanation sounds reasonable. I’ll see if I can get someone to do that for you.

Stephen 02 Sep 05

Andrew: You’re right in that it’s Sprint’s problem, and a routing one. But as many others have pointed out, it’s Sprint’s customers problem when they try to call Jason. So they should fix for their sake.

I had excellent service from Orange, years ago, but then they were bought by French Telecom and the founder went on to the disastrous 3 Mobile. Things went downhill. I’ve been with three other operators since. I still have my original number though. Losing it would be a lot of trouble.

I’ve had similar routing problems but managed to get them fixed. I did have to resort to letter writing though. Phone calls and email seem to be easier for companies to ignore than a letter addressed to the higher echelons of the company. Perhaps you could get a few Sprint customers to sign the letter?

Emily 02 Sep 05

Yep, Verizon has been pretty good….spotty coverage in places, but not bad.

I’ve had some odd behavior with voice mail too. Depeding on where you go exactly - which alternate network you’re on - it won’t download your voice mail until you’re actually back in the Verizon network area. At least it happens for me every time I go up north in the summer. Once we’re back in the Verizon coverage area - whoops - there are my voice mails for the past 10 days! Not so useful, but I can live with it for now (since I go to that particilar location to get AWAY from Voice Mail.)

The original purchasing experience was good too - completely over the phone - mailed me my free phones, etc. (I’ve since upgraded to a cameraphone, but that wasn’t bad either)

I would recommend going to an “official” Verizon store though.

Craig 02 Sep 05

A couple of things I’ve done over the years when dealing with big companies…and they actually worked.

- I Googled the company and got the telephone number and name of the CEO, then called his office directly.

- Spend $100 to get your attorney to write your current carrier a letter. Threaten legal action for breach of contract…and notification to the FCC and your state Attorney General.

Lee 02 Sep 05

Why not put this top right of your weblog?
https://37signals.com/svn/archives2/help_the_victims_of_hurricane_katrina.php

PJ Hyett 02 Sep 05

“Has anyone EVER had a good experience (support, purchase, *anything*) with a cell phone dealer, network, store, phone person, etc?”

No complaints with T-Mobile at all. Switching from Verizon and keeping my same number was a breeze.

dave 03 Sep 05

JF, you’re doing Sprint a huge favor here. Hands up Sprint customers who still want to switch!

paul 03 Sep 05

Why don�t you go to a local Cingular store and meet with someone face to face? I would think you�d get better customer service that way.

Oh, I�ve tried that. They�re more clueless in person because Cingular outsources their stores (they aren�t company owned). They�re really just there to sell, not to service.

Cingular has both their own stores (including former AT&T stores) and outsourced stores (the ones here are often Parrot Cellular or some such nonsense). The outsourced stores can’t do crap, but the woman at my Cingular store was, er, singularly helpful. :)

BJ 03 Sep 05

I was ATT wirless cust then cingular took over and it S**KS they bill me for thing I do not use or order they keep me on hold for over and hour to customer service and tell me there is nothing I can do but I an still comitted to the contract I signed with ATT so if I want out it will cost $175 or I have to wait til Feb 2006 I will wait and I will refuse to pay them at the end they can sue me …….I hope they get what they give.

Steven M 03 Sep 05

If you have Verizon available in your location please use it! It may be a little bit more pricey, but its very much worth it! They are the best cell phone service I have ever used with a lot of available features and helpful support. I get reception everywhere even in a lot of basements!

Jerry 04 Sep 05

I made the switch to Jessica i have way to many horror stories to.

Sue 04 Sep 05

My husband has Sprint service on his work cell phone. He’s been having trouble lately. Calls get dropped in places where he didn’t have any trouble before. Once your contract expires, try Verison. Great customer service. Calls come in everywhere I go. (NE Ohio area, PA)

Michael 04 Sep 05

Verizon coverage is horrible in Chicago from my experience.

Steven M 05 Sep 05

Perfect reception in Chicago for me.

Todd W 05 Sep 05

I recently attempted to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon since several friends are “in”. Verizon wouldn’t port my number. I’m in Philadelphia, my number is a NY number that I’ve had for years. Verizon said they can’t port a NY number to Philadelphia - it’s two different networks. Also, Verizon doesn’t support GSM - it’s still cellular technology.

So, back to T-Mobile. I’ve been incredibly pleased with them for the three years I’ve had them. It’s just not worth it to try to be “in.”

Tony A. 06 Sep 05

I left Sprint because of coverage issues and was lucky enough to have had the number transfer done very smoothly. Although I’m fairly well pleased with Cingular’s service, what troubles me is that I have to call them almost on a monthly basis to get strange charges removed from my bill. No one ever seems to know how the charges got there, and they are removed immediately, but you can be sure if it’s happening to me, it must be happening to hundreds of thousands of customers, many of whom probably don’t check as carefully as I do.

In re coverage, Cingular’s is better than Sprint’s, but there are still issues. My phone mysteriously fails to ring at my home, even though it shows 4 bars most of the time. BTW, it’s small consolation to you, but all my Sprint buddies can call me without problem. Based on what I’ve read, though, I’d bet the problem is at Sprint’s end. If I were you I’d dump Cingular and go with Verizon with a new number. Looks like your old number is going to be in Sprint limbo forever.

Darrel 06 Sep 05

“This is Sprint�s issue, and since you�re not their customer they really couldn�t give a shit.”

Do you have a friend that uses Sprint? Get their account information and call on their behalf explaining that you can’t call Jason because of something wrong with Sprint. Since you are now their customer, you may have a bit more pull. Just a bit, though…as cell phone companies really don’t care about annoying nuisances like customers.

kingbenny 06 Sep 05

Has anyone EVER had a good experience (support, purchase, *anything*) with a cell phone dealer, network, store, phone person, etc?

Recently my Treo started having connection problems.. with one quick call to the Verizon smart phone tech support #, they overnite shipped me a new phone. I was very impressed.

JRH 08 Sep 05

I called yesterday (09/07/05) to switch from Cingular to Sprint-Nextel because my employer has a deal with Sprint to get cheaper plans/equipment. Cingular is just too pricey for the limited use I get with my cell. Their service is great though.

Originally I switched from Verizon after being a loyal customer for 7 years; I was with them when they were Bell Atlantic Mobile. The service quality went to hell over the last two years so I went with Cingular. The port went smoothly. New phone came the next day and the number was active on the new phone. Couldn’t ask for more.

Well, it’s over 24 hours now and I have my new Sprint phone. My number is “still in progress” according to Sprint and when the number is called, it rings to the Cingular phone. Wireless to wireless porting should only take no more than 2 hours, so I’m just dying to call Sprint and see what crap they try telling me as to why the number is not ported yet (sarcasm).

JRH 09 Sep 05

Update to my previous post. I called Sprint-Nextel and spoke to someone who only knew how to read off the pre-written script/flow chart. The canned response of, “it takes time in some cases to port” did not appease me considering I work in the industry and know there’s ways around the proverbial red tape.

My next step was to email Sprint so I’d have a record of what’s been going on in case I have to go higher up. My email:

“On 09/07/05 I called Sprint sales and signed up for service. I wanted to port my number from Cingular over to Sprint and was assured it would be done by the time my phone arrived (overnight mail). “

“The FCC states that for a wireless-to-wireless transfer, phone numbers should work within a few hours of requesting to change wireless providers. This was true when I ported from Verizon to Cingular. Now I am being told by Sprint that my number will not be ported until 09/12/05 - 5 days after my request! I paid for overnight shipping ($12.95) and a $36 activation fee for
something I can’t use right away as promised. “

“Had I known the port would have taken this long, I would have opt’d for “standard” (cheaper) shipping. I also found it odd I was never asked my Cingular account number like Cingular did when I ported to them. Verizon also asks for the same info when porting to them. “

“Since I cannot use my new phone until Monday (maybe,
who knows at this point), I would like the shipping fee and
activation fee refunded since my phone is now ‘activated’
apparently according to the automated process. I feel I
should not have to pay for fees that are for botched
‘procedures’.”

Sprint’s response:

I apologize for the inconvenience you have experienced.

In most cases, it takes only few hours to switch phone numbers. However, in some cases there is a delay because of technical issues.

Let me assure you that the number will be ported to our services as advised by our specialists.

I have applied a credit of $12.95 to your account against the shipping fee. However, we will not be able to waive the activation fee as this is a one time fee and is charged when the services are activated.

We appreciate your relationship with us, and look forward to serving you.

Victor V.
Business E-Care
Sprint together with Nextel
‘Where our customers come first!’

I will get the activation fee refunded eventually because it’ll be almost a week I’ve had the “activated” phone and cannot use it. I’m not even going to bother calling Cingular to see what the hold up is because since I’m leaving them, they won’t be much help.

Howard 11 Sep 05

Using my land line, I can call 37 Signals and the call connects okay. When I call the same number on my Sprint Cell phone, I receive an error message “Number you dialed is incorrect. Please check the Number and try again. Message #3657”.

I emailed Sprint E-Care and they told me this was a technical problem and we at eCare are not equipped with the tools to assist you in this regard. They suggested I contact at their Technical department where there is a dedicated team of specialists who deal with these problems.

Today, I contacted the Sprint Technical Support and they duplicated the problem using their phone. A trouble ticket was created and the problem is being researched. Sprint says they need 51 hours to research the issue. Most likely, there is a porting problem between Sprint and Cingular that must be solved.

Howard 12 Sep 05

Sprint called me today and reported that their system is okay. Sprint says this is a Cingular porting problem that Cingular needs to fix. I spent 30 minutes on the phone with a Spring Trouble Specialist and he reports this problem has happen before.

I recommend you contact Cingular and ask for their Technical Department. You need to tell Cingular that people can call your number on a land line but out of state Sprint customers cannot connect to your number. I continue to believe this is a porting problem at Cingular and that they need to review their programming and repair the problem.

J.R.H. 12 Sep 05

Well, my number has been ported and my new Sprint phone works great. I doubt it was a Cingular problem with the port because when I ported into Cingular from Verizon Wireless, that went smoothly. Not once did anyone I talked to at Sprint or in emails did they ask for my Cingular account number/password to verify they had all of or the correct info needed.

For kicks, I “psuedo-signed up” (cancelled the order when asked for payment method) for service at Verizon, T-Mobile, and Cingular at their websites. All providers asked if I wanted to port a exisiting number AND the account number associated with the number to be brought over.

I know Sprint never asked me for the account info because I purporsely had a Cingular bill in front of me so I could give that info. I never referenced it during the call with the Sprint sales associate. It could be just a coincidence, but it just seems too strange that Sprint never asked for info the others do when porting and I had a porting problem with Sprint. *shrug*

DMS 14 Sep 05

I say go to T-Mobile! I’m bias because I work there but I’ve also owned every other service besides Sprint. T-Mobile is by far the best cellular carrier out there. T-Mobile’s only downfall I will admit is the coverage area is not up there with the likes of a Verizon, and Cingular. Unfortunitly for Verizon customers, I’ve heard that sometime here in the next couple years every cell company will have to go to GSM service which Verizon is not on…so if that does happen, by by to Verizon’s huge network! T-Mobile also does not lie to customers about their coverage area. When I had Cingular their map looked awesome! Like you could get service everywhere….well you can’t! That is how Cingular gets you and they get you good with their two or three year contract.

Check out www.t-mobile.com and check out the “coverage” section to see if the service will work where you need it too. Online with T-Mobile you can check EXACTLY where you phone will and wont work by typing in exact street addresses.

One last thought is that T-Mobile will honestly try to help you with problems, where as Cingular will just tell you to either pay your termination fee or live with it. Cingular is so big now they do not care about losing one or two customers. I have friend that work there and they tell people all the time to just cancel, who cares!? Every meeting I’ve ever attended for T-Mobile has been based solely on the customer experience and the employees even get paid on it, that is why we are secret shopped like three times a month, to make sure we’re offering the best customer experience ever!

All I’m sayin here is try it…T-Mobile will also give you a 14 day risk free trial period, so what do you have to lose?

john 16 Sep 05

I just switched from sprint to cingular because of coverage situations and cingular provides more free services. I ahve recieved calls from sprint customers with no problem, my concern however is: will Sprint actually cancel my account?

J.R.H. 17 Sep 05

If you ported your number from Sprint to Cingular successfully, then yes, Sprint will cancel your account automatically. Once the port is complete, Sprint has no phone number attached your account and can’t bill you anymore except for usage that did not post before the port was complete and the termination fee if you were in a contract.

If you got a NEW phone number from Cingular and did NOT port your old number, then YOU are responsible for cancelling your Sprint account. If you don’t, Sprint has every right to bill you (and hold you to any charges) since there is a legitimate number to your account and no formal request to cancel was made.

andres 18 Sep 05

well when i first got my service with sprint i made a $125 deposit that was to be return when my contract was finish and when i was expecting that refund well i never did received it so i called customer service and they say well there is no records in here that u made such deposit i told them hey if u do not have good credit ur are made to make a deposit everywhere u go and sprint did ask for that money so i want know where it whent they say it was put back in my account that is what their story is the truth i never saw such a theft like that i wish their was a company that was really thurthful but they are all into making money that is all

Wonderbyrd 25 Sep 05

I work for sprint… and when you are porting a number over to sprint from another company. It does usually take approx 2hrs but it all depends on when the company you are porting from will release it. Sprint has to get premission from cingular to take that number. and if cingular is taking their sweet a** time then it could take a few days for you to get the number. this time this is not sprints fault.

Joe Martinez 05 Oct 05

I was working for Sprint pcs and i think it really sucks . forget about the help you can get from customer service . I was working there and i just lie to customers im telling you the truth .Forget it

LC 05 Oct 05

I believe it, when someone tells you they lie to their customers at sprint pcs….Heck it’s piece ofsh*! company worst than calif. DMV! and that’ pretty bad. I was going to switch my#’s from cingular to sprint but when I got the phones… they didn’t work/get signal in my house…I definitely didn’t wait for my numbers to port over, I called customer care from my landline and told them to cancel my plan, after trying to talk me into keeping the plan for a while..the rep. said o.k. just return the phones to an authorized store//that can accept the phones..or return it by mail…I chose to go personally..even thought the closest store is 45 miles away…I didn’t want to have any issues…how naive! it’s Sprint pcs… needless to say I return the phones, get a receipt/proof showing the phones were turned in…done, right! no the nightmare begins… a month later comes the bill for $842!!! what ? I call the idiots, talk to adriana, and get some b.s. apology… they didn’t cancel my account originally etc….no biggie…just fix it..I don’t have your phones and I didn’t use your plan either..next month…..yep… another bill? call again get bounced from dept. to dept. now it’s in their collections dept.?William> ask for a dept. manager to speak to..obiously his boss says no…. can’t /won’t give name…I’m assured once again it’ll get fix..they’ll show a credit to my account etc…
well same B*llSh*t again the following month…now for $901 - probably late fees? are they retarded? no , they just don’t give a sh*t…they pass the buck onto someone else and don’t do their jobs….so I wrote to the BBB & the calif. utilities comm. to complain…but just yersterday i got a final bill before they send it to an outside collections agency…this can’t be happening? I paid the bullsh*t bill I’m not supposed to owe!! I know if they haven’t bother to correct the bill now, they definitely won’t once it goes to an outside collections agency…and my credit would get screwed…f*ck! so now I have to try to get a refund…why? unbelievable, I never thought companies this big/and for profit…I know government agencies are useless…e.g. DMV! but I never imagined this….So clear cut, returned phones immidiately, canceled plan within minutes…hey my numbers are still in use with cingular! I didn’t allow them to port over……I can’t even imagine what would have happened if I would have kept the line a couple of days…. do not sponsor/promote or do business with this company…they obviously don’t give a sh*t about doing business legitimately- nor do they care about previous, current or future customers….
what was nextel thinking when they merged!!!!!
stay away from f*ck*ng Sprint PCS.

eileen 13 Nov 05

Try sending a letter or e-mail to the FCC. i had a problem with sprint and the only way to solve it with sending the complain to the FCC.

Paul 18 Nov 05

I by no means am an advocate for Cingular, but I will tell you that in being a sprint CUSTOMER for over 3yrs I’ll say this. They are a repeated billing B__LSh___ter and will have you in utter turmoil with your personal and business life because you won’t get the help until you’ve gone thru several hours of holdtime. Its bad enough that your service is interrupted due their mistake, but its even more ludicrous that you have to go thru 5-7 different associates because they dont have direct extensions. You also have start over in the explaination process with each and every representative, and they of course defend the bill regardless of any error on their part. If you like being disturbed during your business and personal life, by all means get with sprint they will make you feel Grrrrraaat. Enjoy!!!

Leah 21 Nov 05

Sprint does B__llsh__t their customers, especially with billing. We experienced dropped calls and terrible reception with Sprint. They wouldn’t let us out of a contract when we had constant dropped calls at our house. I spent many nights outside in the rain making my long distance calls from the street in front of our home. Verizon has a little better coverage, but not in Colorado Springs,CO. They also have poor customer service. After hours on the phone and going through 10 different rep.’s You might get lucky and come to a resolution or a credit to your phone bill if they have made a mistake. We have just switched to Cingular and hope for the best. So far the reception here is much better than Verizon! I think a lot of the reception depends on the phone. I personally prefer Nokia’s!

steve 29 Nov 05

Since the merger, Sprint is shutting down hundreds of their old cell towers and just keeping the Nextel towers. This is leading to even poorer service than before if you can believe that. When you get pissed don’t get mad, get even; dial *2 press 1 for english and request a dropped call credit from the computer voice bitch. Hey its worth .50 cents each time. What better way to reach Sprint than through their pocket book? I hit them for every dropped call, usually $5.00 - $7.00 a month. F@#% em!

Craig Bruner 14 Feb 06

Thanks for the forum! I was about to switch from T-Mobile to Cingular after 2 years of good service at a low price. Cingular is offering the Motorola Razr with a Blue-tooth earpiece for free. Thats about a $250 value. I’ve switched companies before. I was with Verizon for 5 years with no complaints except they don’t work well in my home & T-Mobile does. It took 4 days to get my number switched over. I was about to buy a Razr on e-bay & thought I’ed call T-Mobile 1st. They offered me the Razr for $69.99 and a $5/mo reduction in my bill. You guys have convinced me to stay with T-Mobile. I guess I’m committed for another 2 years. Thanks.

marty 07 Apr 06

I ported my number from cingular to sprint pcs with no problem, the switch took about 3 hours, ever since I have switched to sprint I have hd no problems. I had both providers at the same time for 2 years, and I think sprint is the better provider, they have less dropped calls, and have a lot better reception, just as good as a land line. I call all over new york, florida, california, and many other locations with no problem, and their plans are less expensive then the others, also they have better phone too.

Bucky Barrett 10 Apr 06

I have been a sprint customer for 5 plus years now and all of a sudden I am getting no calls… I have had $400.00 phones and found that none of them are as good as the Sanyo 4920 which is one of the cheapest phones they have… Yes.. the service seems to have gotten worse… I’ve always had problems with dropped calls… but..The service got better as the years went on and now it’s getting BAD again. I have a 90 year old mother that lives 400 miles away and if she needs me and can’t get me… then it’s time to find out why… I got a cingular phone today and kept the sprint phone also to see which of the two was the worst… I called phone to phone to see which would hang on the longest… They stayed in contact with each other for an hour and 37 minutes… I got bored and walked out of the room… when I came back they were disconnected…. I am trying this experiment again tomorrow…to see which hangs on the longest… The Sprint phone seems to sound better… I live in an old historic neighborhood and home with plaster walls… meaning it’s like chicken wire in the walls which makes it harder to pick up a cell… this experiment will be continued tomorrow.. PS..I’ve also had Verizon here… It had so many dropped calls and the service was so poor, I let it go back in 24 hours.. To be continued !!!

Danny M. 16 Apr 06

Just change your number, that’s the solution to everything! I’ve worked for Sprint PCS for 8 years now. The reason consumers get bad reception or get dropped calls is because the MSID number isn’t always capable with the phone number issued through your wireless provider. Since the merger between Sprint and Nextel, Sprint is actually trying to merge both networks. So, that means that a little more drop calls will happen; but once the networks are combined! That means more reception, VERY less calls being dropped! So, don’t worry about you losing reception or roaming! Just change you phone number! That’s all to it! And roaming shouldn’t be a big problem since their isn’t any roaming charges (depending the service plan you have). Out of: Cingular, Verizon, and T-Mobile; Sprint is the only provider that works more harder then any other provider out!

Danny M.
Sprint PCS Customer Solutions Specialist Supervisor

P.S: Sprint is spending over $227 millions each year to build more cell towers.


Visit www.sprint.com! Plans starting from $29.99 and night minutes starting at 7pm! at no extra cost!

Danny M. 16 Apr 06

Just change your number, that’s the solution to everything! I’ve worked for Sprint PCS for 8 years now. The reason consumers get bad reception or get dropped calls is because the MSID number isn’t always capable with the phone number issued through your wireless provider. Since the merger between Sprint and Nextel, Sprint is actually trying to merge both networks. So, that means that a little more drop calls will happen; but once the networks are combined! That means more reception, VERY less calls being dropped! So, don’t worry about you losing reception or roaming! Just change you phone number! That’s all to it! And roaming shouldn’t be a big problem since their isn’t any roaming charges (depending the service plan you have). Out of: Cingular, Verizon, and T-Mobile; Sprint is the only provider that works more harder then any other provider out!

Danny M.
Sprint PCS Customer Solutions Specialist Supervisor

P.S: Sprint is spending over $227 million each year to build more cell towers.


Visit www.sprint.com! Plans starting from $29.99 and night minutes starting at 7pm! at no extra cost!

Beri 24 May 06

Hey- sorry you’re having so many problems, but wanted to post a comment and tell you that I’ve just come out of a huge problem with Cingular myself. I got a text message from an unknown number every 31 minutes for a month. Multiple calls to customer service and they kept saying they had fixed it, but it never worked!

Finally I got frustrated and googled the office of the President, (877.707.6220), and asked to speak to an Executive Specialist. He worked on my case for two weeks, calling me every day to let me know status, and fixed the problem. I have NEVER HAD A BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE EXPERIENCE. I can’t emphasize this enough- I was so ready to get another carrier, but having someone so dedicated to fixing the problem made me a believer in the company. I highly recommend you call and let me them know the problem. They even paid for 2 months worth of my phone bill just b/c of the hassle I was going through!

I will never switch providers now- I couldn’t be happier.

Good luck and I hope you get this figured out!

steve 07 Jun 06

Just change your number, Yea, Hey pal have you ever had the headache of changing your number, I have over 100 phone numbers in my phone and it would take weeks to call everyone and have them change my number. some people are not very good with the phones so you have to walk them through it and even then you might not get it right. It would seem that the 227 million would come with a fix on that problem, just change your number, how bout just change your service provider.

Joni 20 Aug 06

I want as many people to know that Sprint is absolutely PATHETIC. Their service, phones and customer service SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would rather not have a cell phone than pay someone for NOT giving me what I am paying for. I hate Sprint they are terrible, biggest mistake and worst service ever if you are thinking about signing up….DONT!!!!!

Joni 20 Aug 06

I want as many people to know that Sprint is absolutely PATHETIC. Their service, phones and customer service SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would rather not have a cell phone than pay someone for NOT giving me what I am paying for. I hate Sprint they are terrible, biggest mistake and worst service ever if you are thinking about signing up….DONT!!!!!

bryan 22 Aug 06

sprint did not release the # the proper way.It has nothing to do with cingulars end at all. I work For cingular wireless going on 4 years now, I am not a cingular wireless brain wash all wireless co. suck in there own little way, I work in port activation and that isue only comes up when the old carier will release the # the wrong way. the only way to fix it is to call port activations from cingular wireless and re submit the port from sprint on a new request.

kim 01 Sep 06

Ihad a problem with sprint and nextel phones i never get any reception they suck they need to be investigated for that i am with cingular and very happy now

kim 01 Sep 06

Ihad a problem with sprint and nextel phones i never get any reception they suck they need to be investigated for that i am with cingular and very happy now

alex 08 Oct 06

You people are dumb as a rock swich to sprint cingular SUCKS

alex 08 Oct 06

You people are dumb as a rock swich to sprint cingular SUCKS

alex 08 Oct 06

You people are dumb as a rock swich to sprint cingular SUCKS