Thursday, August 23, 2007
Reader Feedback to Sprint Post
Last month I posted an ARS Technica story about Sprint disconnecting some customers because they called customer service too many times. Here is the original post. Erica Ortiz of the Horsepower and Heels Racing Group commented about her personal experience with Sprint, and I wanted to post here for others to enjoy...
Wow. I'm close to that call volume, and I just joined sprint! (because of their good pricing on data plans.)
Monday, July 16th
Activated 2 new phones from Sprint Store. I was given a temporary phone number until I could return with my Cingular account information to get my 407- number ported over.
Tuesday, July 17th
I return to the store to give my Cingular account information. She initiates the porting process, and tells me it could be up to 24 hours before the changes are complete.
Wednesday, July 18th
No changes have been made to my phone except that the temporary number is now no longer working, so I return to the store. customer support discovers that an error had been made in the transfer documentation, and that it must be corrected and resubmitted. I am again told that it will take up to 24 hours.
Thursday, July 19th
My phone is still not working, and now the Cingular number has been ported over and the message says its now a Sprint PCS mailbox. I return to the store again, and discover that a National Sales Support person has activated an UNWANTED 3rd phone line for the ported over number instead of porting it over to my device. I spend several hours on the phone trying to cancel the 3rd line, and move the device and the plan over to my number. I leave the store and was told it would take 4 hours for the phone to work correctly.
Friday, July 20th
My data plan is still not working, so I call Sprint to try and get some tech support. customer care says that my browser settings may need to be reset. Store walks me through the process, but it still gave the Error message and cannot connect. Customer support told store that service was down in the area, so after waiting all afternoon, I bring my phone into the store, and was told again that it would take 4 hours. After 4 hours, it was still not working, so store told me to bring the phone in the next morning so she could try and reset the phone again.
Saturday, July 21st
Return to the store and try to reset the phone, but it is still not working. She spends several HOURS on the phone with tech support and doesn't find a solution. She exchanges the device to see if that's the problem, but it still does not work. She finally contacts a rep to start a Work Ticket on the problem, who tells me that she cannot do anything until 4 hours after the new device is setup. The customer support rep tells me that she will call me back in 4 hours to see if it is working and to open a ticket. I never hear from her.
Sunday, July 22nd
My phone data is still not working, and I am highly upset that the customer service rep did not call me back. I call the toll free tech support number for Sprint and spend 38 minutes on hold before someone named Jeremy answers. He promptly hangs up on me. I called back and sat on hold for an appauling 45 MINUTES before the system cuts me off again.
Longer story short, its another 4 days before my phone works correctly. And then I STILL Get a bill for 3 lines instead of two. SPRINT employees hate their own customer service....
Monday, July 16th
Activated 2 new phones from Sprint Store. I was given a temporary phone number until I could return with my Cingular account information to get my 407- number ported over.
Tuesday, July 17th
I return to the store to give my Cingular account information. She initiates the porting process, and tells me it could be up to 24 hours before the changes are complete.
Wednesday, July 18th
No changes have been made to my phone except that the temporary number is now no longer working, so I return to the store. customer support discovers that an error had been made in the transfer documentation, and that it must be corrected and resubmitted. I am again told that it will take up to 24 hours.
Thursday, July 19th
My phone is still not working, and now the Cingular number has been ported over and the message says its now a Sprint PCS mailbox. I return to the store again, and discover that a National Sales Support person has activated an UNWANTED 3rd phone line for the ported over number instead of porting it over to my device. I spend several hours on the phone trying to cancel the 3rd line, and move the device and the plan over to my number. I leave the store and was told it would take 4 hours for the phone to work correctly.
Friday, July 20th
My data plan is still not working, so I call Sprint to try and get some tech support. customer care says that my browser settings may need to be reset. Store walks me through the process, but it still gave the Error message and cannot connect. Customer support told store that service was down in the area, so after waiting all afternoon, I bring my phone into the store, and was told again that it would take 4 hours. After 4 hours, it was still not working, so store told me to bring the phone in the next morning so she could try and reset the phone again.
Saturday, July 21st
Return to the store and try to reset the phone, but it is still not working. She spends several HOURS on the phone with tech support and doesn't find a solution. She exchanges the device to see if that's the problem, but it still does not work. She finally contacts a rep to start a Work Ticket on the problem, who tells me that she cannot do anything until 4 hours after the new device is setup. The customer support rep tells me that she will call me back in 4 hours to see if it is working and to open a ticket. I never hear from her.
Sunday, July 22nd
My phone data is still not working, and I am highly upset that the customer service rep did not call me back. I call the toll free tech support number for Sprint and spend 38 minutes on hold before someone named Jeremy answers. He promptly hangs up on me. I called back and sat on hold for an appauling 45 MINUTES before the system cuts me off again.
Longer story short, its another 4 days before my phone works correctly. And then I STILL Get a bill for 3 lines instead of two. SPRINT employees hate their own customer service....
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, Sprint
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Google Expands Number of Cities With Street View
I have been using Google Maps extensively on my vacation. I use the standard version on the notebook computer when stationary, and I utilize the java version on my Smart Phone when I am on the go. It can be a life saver for finding restaurants and hotels. It can make you look like a hero to family members.
Google announced on Monday that they have expanded their Street View to five more cities including our home-base of Orlando. If you are unfamiliar with Street View, it is a street-level view of an area on the map. Visit maps.google.com, zoom into Orlando, then choose Street View by pushing a button along the top of the map. You can then click onto a blue route and a street view window will pop-up.
This will be an amazing tool as it is expanded to more and more cities. Google has not published a release schedule for other locales or how often the data will be updated.
Just a side-note about Internet coverage on the road. We did not find one single hotel that did not have wireless or hard wired Internet in the room. The Internet access on the Smart Phone was nearly always available, but it would come to an absolute crawl in very rural areas. I was literally measuring speeds twice as slow as dial-up in some spots. I was not unhappy about these results, because I was surprised that any coverage was even possible.
Labels: Google, Maps, Orlando, vacation
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]