Having posted my Sprint horror story on a number of sites, I’ve received many, many emails from other victims to whom Sprint is handing the same line of shit when they call.

Everyone’s stuck with a Sprint A920 that they can’t use, Sprint tells each that they are the only one with an issue, and Sprint isn’t wanting to exchange the phone for another model known to work on their network.

Personally, I’ve duplicated the issue on a handfull of A920′s and one A900, all of which were either on my account, on another users account, or in one case, on a Sprint company store’s account.

Over a two month period, I called Sprint Vision Advanced Technical Support department at least daily, sometimes more than once or twice in the same day. With one exception, I was told by Sprint that they had never heard of the A920 problems, even if I was talking to a tech that I had spoken to a few days earlier.

This is not an issue that is going to just “go away” if Sprint ignores it, and Sprint doesn’t appear to be going to address it in the near future.

There is obviously a cover-up going on at Sprint with respect to Sprint’s network issues centering on their Samsung A920, and Sprint is not wanting to exchange the phones, except for another A920.

It took me TWO MONTHS of calling, emailing, and faxing before Sprint offered a replacement, and another couple of days to Sprint to agree to something besides another A920. Even then, the phone they were supposed to ship overnight never shipped, I had to call, fax and email for a week before it shipped.

In terms of time, I’ve easily spent 3-4 days dealing with Sprint over the 2 month period. Sprint, obviously, doesn’t care about customers, doesn’t care about time Sprint causes customers to waste, and will tell a customer any lie they come up with just to get them off the phone. They’ve lost sight of who is paying their bills, their customers.

If you have an A920, good luck, but I can offer a few pointers.

Deal only with Sprint Vision Advanced Technical Support, at 866-818-1944.

Be loud, vocal, cuss, mention contacting a attorney, and let them know that you are not about to lay down for them and allow Sprint to walk all over you.

Demand a replacement phone of equal or greater value, like the Fusic. Do not accept another A920 under any circumstances.

Don’t bother with the “contact us” email form available after you log into your Sprint account, nobody reads these any more than to decide upon which canned email to reply with that only directs you to call a toll-free number.

Don’t bother faxing Sprint’s Corporate office, they ignore everything they receive.

Again, be loud, demand service, demand a replacement, demand credits, demand free extras, and demand everything immediately.

Sprint Sucks!

When I called and explained it cost $20 for their $10 service, the lady started to say ?Yes, this does sound a little confusing but?? & I said ?No this sounds a little illegal if not unethical?. Hung up, cancelled the day the contract was up…

Tonight when Sprint called, I mentioned that Sprint should be talking to my attorney instead of me. I was offered $50 more than the phone cost, plus I keep the junk phone, if they can just cancel my contract and I go away…

Sprint’s not wanting to fix issues with their network (at least in the New England area).

Nothing but lies from Sprint for 2 months, last one – they promised me a replacement ‘expedited’ Fusic overnight for a week, but it didn’t ship until a week latter (ground). Still haven’t seen it, after experience with Sprint, I don’t actually want it.

I’ve been told twice that not many customers are signing up for data plans, so they aren’t ready to fix problems in their system.

For two months, Sprint has told me that I was the only person experiencing problems with connecting phone as modem with the A920, through a total of three phones, help from Samsung to eliminate the phones as being the issue, and DAYS on the phone with Sprint’s Vision Advanced Technical Support.

It wasn’t until yesterday, when I pointed Sprint to another customer, 1200 miles away, having identical issues with an A920, that they finally admitted that there is in fact a problem with the A920 on their network. They also admitted that there aren’t many people using Sprint phones as a modem on their EVDO network – mostly because of the $40 a month cost for unlimited.

I’ve demanded another phone or a data card for the last month. I was told that there were “too many adjustments” on my account to receive a replacement or a loaner device while Sprint resolves their network issues.

I’m finally getting a replacment phone, at the cost of having spent days on the phone with Sprint, resetting and reprogramming my phone every time I go online, and not being able to keep contacts, headset profiles, call logs, or anything else in the phone over this time period.

It’s just in the nick to time too… Since yesterday’s troubleshooting efforts by Sprint, I can’t use the phone as a modem at all, nor can I connect to Vision services or the web from the handset. Sprint sucks…

It didn’t matter to Sprint that ALL of the adjustments were due to errors in Sprint’s part, plan changes and adjustments Sprint made (sometimes daily) while troubleshooting, or Sprint refusing to cancel a MapQuest subscription on a phone (smashed while trying to deal with Sprint a year ago) on a ‘vacation plan’.

Dealing with Sprint’s technical support means starting from zero with each and every plea for assistance, since there is no way to contact individual support members who are already famililar with an issue. About half of the technical support members I’ve talked to want to argue or fight on the phone, and there is no way to lodge a complaint against bad Sprint employees.

Follow ups to each trouble ticket I’ve been able to get generated results in a call from some moron who is lost once removing the battery from the phone doesn’t cure an issue. Of course, each closes the ticket, blaming the customer or phone, instead of taking that chance that it is passed up the chain to someone who is even minimally competent.

One callback I received, which I wish I had recorded, met with an idiot on the other end who said I had a data card, not a phone, and wanted me in front of my computer to troubleshoot it. I told her it was a Samsung A920 phone, not a Novatel A920 datacard, but she just wanted to fight. I finally gave up and hung up. When I called Vision ATS, they told me the ticket had been closed, saying that the phone was at fault.

Never, ever, have I had a worse experience with any company, anywhere. It is beyond me how Sprint stays in business – treating customers like shit.

As noted on my MySpace.com profile,the person I’d most like to meet is Gary D. Forsee, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sprint/Nextel, so I could shove this crippled, non-fuctional A920 in his ass.

Last week we tried three A920′s, using a utility I obtained from Samsung to change the ESN’s to match the device registered to my account, and they all exhibited exactly the same problem after connecting phone as modem.

One phone was my original A920, another a new A920 obtained from a reseller, new in box, and the third A920 arrived with software from a Samsung engineer.

(Samsung, by the way, was a big help, as they wanted to eliminate the phone’s hardware and firmware as the source of the connection problems. Since it’s not the phone, they are no longer involved, and put the problem back in Sprint’s lap.)

Sprint also tried expiring my ESN, removing it from my account, adding an ESN to a bogus device, and finally adding my ESN back a day latter. Even after this effort, the same problems remained.

Two days ago I duplicated the connect/disconnect issue with a A920 demo phone in a Radio Shack store that has been up and running on their account for at least 2-3 weeks.

Because of the limited population density in New England, one Sprint switch covers most of the area, and I have not yet ventured beyond this area. Sprint (earlier) claimed that I shouldn’t have the problem elsewhere – which may or may not be the case. Since the switches all run the same operating software, I suspect that this is BS unless there are very different switch software configurations or vendors.

Sprint claims that using their devices in a phone as modem configuration isn’t all that common yet, that most people are scared off by the $40 a month charge for unlimited, and not many others are making use of the service because of Sprint’s very limited EVDO build-out to date.

It doesn’t matter if I connect phone as modem via. Bluetooth, USB, or with Windows, OSX, Linux, with or without Sprint’s connection manager, or how I terminate the connection.

Once connected, I cannot reconnect phone as modem after apx. 1 hour. Once connected and disconnected, I cannot connect via. the handset to anything Vision related (Browsers, On Demand, Update Vision Profile) immediately after phone as modem.

During phone as modem sessions, if I/it disconnects and reconnects for whatever reason(s), it will immediately reconnect, for up to apx. 1/2 to 1 hour between disconnecting and reconnecting. At the point that it will no longer connect, the only want to reconnect is to RTN the phone, reprogram, and grab the Vision profile – and the cycle begins anew.

Yes, the user name changes, and it is correctly reset in the device upon disconnect.

I *really need* a Sprint phone for the EVDO and 1XRTT data coverage in a couple of areas which aren’t served by any other carriers.

I have a Verizon cellular phone for highspeed data, which works fine in areas that Verizon supports, but absolutely need a data connection in the areas they don’t cover.

A got another A920, then a third, but the exact same problem continues to occur. Any time I connect via. USB or Bluetooth phone-as-modem, I can’t reconnect awhile latter (rejected user/pass), and all web based functions on the handset fail with an HTTP 403 or 1012 error.

I bypass the ignorant Technical Support department (Funny name, no tech support there…) and call Vision Technical Support directly at 866-818-1944, DAILY.

Evidently Sprint has tried everything to fix the problem, and has given up. I’ve since been abandoned, and they are still blaming the phone and telling me to have it tested and/or swapped at a Sprint company store – Forgetting that I am on my THIRD Samsung A920.

The system works, because I can do a hard reset (##768#) on the phone, reprogram, update the Vision profile and I’m back online…

The problems aren’t tied to a particular access mode, they occur via. Bluetooth or USB, and it doesn’t matter if I connect to the phone from Window, Mac OS X, or Linux. The phone acts as a serial modem via. a virtual COM port over USB or Bluetooth, and the host is merely talking to what it sees as being no different than an old USR, Hayes, or whater dialup modem.

Also, I’ve tried connecting with Sprint’s feeble connection manager, and as a native Windows device, only to find the problem seems to happen quicker with Sprint’s software installed and used under Windows XP and 2000.

This isn’t exactly rocket science with respect to connecting to the modem, the magic happens in the phone’s interaction with the switch connecting one or more cell sites… (Which isn’t at all dependant on the host connecting to the modem)

A Samsung engineer has told me to have Sprint remove my ESN from their system for at least 24 hours, which I have suggested maybe a dozen times, only to be ignored by Sprint. The engineer suggested that I have Sprint swap my ESN to a nonexistant device, wait a day or so, then add my phone to a new account. For some reason Sprint won’t even make an attempt using this method, even though everything else they have tried has failed.

This is obviously tied to my unique Sprint customer account somehow, because everyone pleads ignorance with respect to this issue. Were this not the case, their support lines would be full and they would assign someone (or an entire department) to solve the problem.

In calling Vision T/S every day, sometimes more than twice a day, I’ve run across some real assholes at Sprint. One thing I’ve noticed is that anyone who sounds black (no I’m not being racist) wants to fight, and won’t listen to a word I have to say.

I’ve been told twice that it’s ILLEGAL for me to reset and reprogram MY phone.

One woman was giving me a bad service code to enter (I know all the access/service sequences by heart now, as you can imagine), I said no, told her the correct one. She bitched me out, telling me that if I wanted help, to enter EXACTLY what she told me to enter.

So I entered it, and told her the phone said it was the wrong code – at which point she hung up on me.

In the 50 days since I re-established service with Sprint, I’ve called almost that many times. I still have a phone that is unusable, unless I want to continuously go through the reset/re-program/update profile cycle. I can’t store contacts, bookmarks, anything in the phone itself since it’s wiped out when I do the hard reset.

I’m returning to the Sprint company store, risking mistreatment by minimum wage morons as was the case during my last visit, to swap the phone. Then as soon as it fails, which I know it will, I can tell the tech support morons that yes, I swapped the damn phone, it’s on you now, make it work.

10 more days, then 2 months will have elapsed, and I’m giving up. In the mean time I’ll be making a point of calling Vision Tech Support at least 2-3 times a day – if only to waste their time and effort.

God, Sprint does really, really suck.

Out of all the calls to tech support, only two trouble tickets have been opened. Both of the tickets were closed when a moron called, following up on a ticket on which there had been no action. Both callers claimed to be from Vision Advanced Technical Support, and both knew nothing more than to tell me to remove the battery for 2 mins. Each closed the ticket without the problem being resolved.

There can’t possibly be a wireless carrier, anywhere in the world, that sucks more than Sprint does.