Sprint PCS Vision in Greensboro

[gelbelt]

I signed up with a Sprint PCS Vision plan in Greensboro on Monday and wanted to let everyone know how things are going.

phone - I got the Sanyo SCP-4900. I like the candybar form factor better than the flip phone design of the Samsung A-500. The Sanyo also has a speakerphone, which is great for long holds on calls to customer service. The only disadvantage is that is doesn't have CDMA 800, but it seems to work OK at work and great at home.

plan - I signed up for a year of the 500 anytime, 4500 n&w, and 2MB data for $59.99 per month.

coverage - The phone gets good signal at my home in Kernersville, just north of I-40. At work just south of I-40 on NC 68 I get varying signal levels. At one moment I'll get 2 or 3 bars of signal, but later the phone will go into analog roam. My coworkers have simillar problems with Sprint and other phones, so I'm not too upset about this.

service - The guy who signed me up got my phone number and address wrong, which I didn't notice until I got home. When I called customer service to get those things changed, I was on hold for about 45 minutes. When the service rep answered, she couldn't hear me and hung up. I haven't had any problems with the mic on my phone, so I'm pretty sure the problem was on her end. I was livid at that point, so I called the guy who sold me the phone. He was able to fix the name and address. I should have just ordered the phone, but then I would have had to wait a few days for service.

Since my last name was wrong when I signed up, my PCS Vision address was wrong too. Instead of atoner01@sprintpcs.com I have atones01@sprintpcs.com. I called customer service later that night and was only on hold for about 10 minutes that time. I'm glad to have the speakerphone. I was also unable to get the web browser to connect, but the rep said it would take 24-48 hours for the phone to get the PCS Vision information. He also said I'd be able to get on the web site and change my PCS Vision username and password later.

I was able to get on the web the next day. The salesperson should have told me to expect the wait.

I've been trying all week to change my PCS Vision username on the web site. The web site was really screwed up earlier this week. I've been able to submit my username change but it never sticks. The page says to wait four hours, but I've tried three times a day all week and the address never sticks. It still displays atones01@sprintpcs.com on my phone and on the web site. This is annoying.

I'm also waiting on the data cable. When the information was on the web site, it said the cable would let me use the phone like a modem. The store where I got the phone didn't have the cable and hadn't ordered one. The web site had the cable last week but doesn't now.

Adam

[gelbelt]

A few more things....

The web browser isn't as fast as I had hoped for. It does a lot of "Connecting....." and takes quite a few seconds to load pages. Unless Sprint's having hardware problems, the data transfer should be pretty quick and there shouldn't be many others in my cell using PCS Vision.

I haven't found a way to display the amount of data I've used.

The audio quality is at least as good as my old Nokia 5910 and a lot better than my wife's Verizon LG VX1. Her phone has a considerable amount of background noise.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

goto your phone's roaming options and take it off of Automatic and set it to sprintpcs only.

basically even if there is a sprint signal that is useable if an analog signal becomes stronger it will seek it out instead........which is stupid cause u could really just use the slightly weaker but functional digital signal. at the stores i have been training and working at we set all the phones to spcs only before the customer leaves the store.......

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

also if you like the service you can get the same amount of minutes for $15 less per month if you sign a 2yr agreement on one of the promotions.

it is 44.99 for 500 A 4000 N&W 2MB data with a 2 yr contract. call cs and switch if you are comfy with that.

[Jack]

Just make sure that you tell your customers that and show them how to change it so that they can roam

Jack

[Mrpilot007]

As far as your customer service experience with Sprint so far, don't be supprised if it ever changes. I've had them for 2 years now and EVERY TIME I have called it consists of an act of Congress with a veto and then a redraw on whether or not to actually answer the phone. Average wait time = 30min. Once on the call, average times someone actually helped = 1 in 35 calls. Recently tried to activate a new replacement v120c and 5 calls over a weeks period the same excuse has always been "the system is upgrading". If thats the case then they should just close up and go home and not waste our time!!!

[larry]

I haven't had to wait anywhere near 30 minutes when I call. Usually about 5 to 10 at the most. Called in to activate a 4900 a couple of days ago and got someone in less than 5 mins. This whole 3G system change has caused chaos on just about everything including the web site but hopefully it will work itself out very soon.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

when i was a customer a couple times i had long hold times, though mostly i had sub 5 minute hold times i think cause i was on a 79.99 plan and it routed me quicker to a CS rep. with all the problems arising cause of the vision launch hold times have gotten worse......lets hope they get the problems ironed out sooner rather than later.

[larry]

I've got three phones on my account which add up to at least $110/month. Maybe that's why I get fast customer service. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] Does it really make a difference?

[TNDan21]

Yes, some companies now consider the higher paying subscribers a priority and therefor they will answer your call faster. I'm not sure which companies do this but I believe Sprint PCS is one of them.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

yes that is right. i also read an article recently which said verizon and cingular were close to installing similar systems with priority routing.