Sprint is a rip off

Ultradog MN · Dec 16, 2011

I was sitting in my deer stand back in November.
Kind of bored after a few hours. So I pulled out my cell phone and tried using it to come to YT.
But small screen, pretty lame service, slow, wasn't very effective so I gave it up after about 10 - 15 minutes.
Went to pay my Sprint bill this afternoon and wondered why my bill was so dog gone high so I called them. Lady on the phone gave me an itemization of the charges - it wasn't itemized on the bill.
That little jaunt on the web for 10 - 15 minutes cost me $54!!
Makes a guy want to go join the Occupy Wall Street crowd.
Sheesh!
Done venting now.
Don't use your cell phone to surf the web.

Ron/PA · Dec 16, 2011

Well actually I use sprint for my cell service, and surf the web with it all the time.

I think the key here is to make sure you have a plan that covers your needs and includes a data plan if you're going to surf.

Surprises suck for sure.

LarryT · Dec 16, 2011

What package do you have? I have unlimited internet and text 1000 minutes of anytime and free nights and long distance for about $45. a month. I have yet to have any charges. There are a couple of cheaper packages that allow internet access but you will pay an extremely hi per minute charge because it isnt included in your package. If you plan on using the internet feature, change up to an unlimited and save yourself a whole bunch of money. I am making this post on mine right now. Merry Christmas. LarryT

ShadetreeRet · Dec 16, 2011

As others have already stated, It depends a lot on the package you have. It can also depend on your location. ie. how far you are from your address and a cell tower. My daughter lives only 12 miles from me but it is a very rural area and there are no cell towers in the area. When I am at her house my phone goes into "roaming" or "hunt" mode and sometimes will completely discharge itself in an hour. besides that the reception there sucks. As far as the extra charge, it SHOULD have been itemized on your bill. I think I would be doing a little ranting to someone at the company.

Brian Dan · Dec 16, 2011

Sprint is about the worst company there is. When I had Sprint I had dropped calls all the time and in my house I cound never send or recieve phone calls. When I complained to sprint about it their response was that they didn't have to provide access to there phone system.
I dropped them and got Verizion. Verizion works all the time and no dropped calls.

mkirsch · Dec 16, 2011

That's not a rip-off. The rates for various services are clearly listed in the agreement you signed when you got the phone.

Odds are you bought a basic voice-only package, with a per-MB data charge. If you do not buy data service, the charge per-MB for data is STEEP, but again, it's listed right in the contract you signed.

No doubt, Sprint sucks though. I briefly switched to Sprint for four days about a month ago.

The phone was constantly bleeping and booping about roaming, even though I was well within Sprint's "excellent" coverage area according to their map. I never saw more than 3 bars. I never saw 3G speeds, let alone 4G speeds, even though I was well within their 4G coverage area.

Sprint does not charge "extra" for roaming, but they do count any roaming minutes against your normal minutes. No freenights-and-weekends, and no free mobile-to-mobile if you're roaming.

I was roaming in my own home, even though the coverage map said I should have service.

After 4 days, I went back to Verizon with my old phone and my old plan. Verizon was very nice about giving me my old plan even though it was discontinued.

rustyfarmall · Dec 16, 2011

A cell phone is for talking to people. A computer connected to the internet is for everything else. I refuse to even use my cell phone for texting, and if I receive a text message, I delete it without reading it. If you want to talk, I will talk to you.

farmer boy · Dec 16, 2011

Was this a smart phone(Iphone/Blackberry/Android type) or a regular phone. I can get unlimited browsing on my phone for $10/month, but,as you found out, you do not want to use the internet without a plan. If your plan isn't unlimited, stay within it. When I first got my phone, I got the unlimited internet, but it didn't add it to my account correctly and it cost me $56. Bell corrected it luckily, but it gives you a scare.

Ron/PA · Dec 16, 2011

(quoted from post at 14:29:02 12/16/11)
A cell phone is for talking to people. A computer connected to the internet is for everything else. I refuse to even use my cell phone for texting, and if I receive a text message, I delete it without reading it. If you want to talk, I will talk to you.

Define " A cell phone".

Mine will do everything my desk top, or laptop computers will do and more.

When I log on, then my cell phone IS my computer connected to the internet. It'll also map and measure the acreage in a field, mark the exact location of wet spots, rocks, and even weed outbreaks. It will measure sound levels, and allow me to stand in Timbuktu and read the wiring diagram of tractor in the middle of a field.

I can text from poor signal areas that won't allow me to get a call out, and to be honest, so much of the business I've got to complete on the phone is done by text just for the very reason you stated. I send a text, I have a record that I sent it, that fulfills my end of an obligation, if it's deleted without being read, I still did my job and get paid.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, it'll also receive a call from my wife to remind me to stop at eleventyseven places on my way home from work.

Dachshund · Dec 16, 2011

A few years ago, I was working on a house in the Kansas City area. The lady of the house started asking me questions about my cell phone. She asked me if I had tried Sprint. At the time, I was about 3 months out of VERY bad service from Sprint (I had switched to Awhell). She asked how I liked it, so I told her - it stinked! Lousiest service in the world. I ranted and ranted about it for several minutes.

That's when she told me she was VP of Customer Service for Sprint......

Ultradog MN · Dec 16, 2011

Yeah, some things you learn the hard way.
My plan gives me unlimited minutes and unlimited text - which I actually use a lot.
But no web access.
I had Verizon for about 6 years but switched to Sprint when I moved to this house about 5 years ago. Was in a blind spot with Verizon.
I really can't say one was better or worse than the other. Cell phone is just a neccessary evil as I must have it for work.

showcrop · Dec 16, 2011

I have verizon, unlimited everything for $30.00 per month. But then, I don't use it much so it doesn't matter what the limits are. No one ever calls me except when I'm already talking to someone else. I wonder how the phone can manage to do that.

KCTractors · Dec 16, 2011

Rustyfarmall, I'm with you 110% about cell phone, last phone I got, the salesman said "What to you want to do with it", I said, talk!

JMOR · Dec 16, 2011

(quoted from post at 19:04:18 12/16/11) Rustyfarmall, I'm with you 110% about cell phone, last phone I got, the salesman said "What to you want to do with it", I said, talk!

have had several different service providers over the years & if I condemned & cussed the one I was using when service failed, I would have cussed all of them at one time or another.....just at different times & places. One's dead zone may be another's hot spot.. Such is life!

Ray · Dec 16, 2011

I've had a sprint phone for probably 10 years.It's the only phone that will work around here,i can see the tower from my house.Three phones with different numbers,same account,90 bucks a month.I don't text,but if someone text me i get charged for it.

TomH in PA · Dec 16, 2011

"That's when she told me she was VP of Customer Service for Sprint"

No better person in the world to direct that rant at.

Oldmax · Dec 16, 2011

the best thing you can do is not have one. I haven't had a cell phone since retiring. one of the happest days of my life was when I turned cell phone , keys & creadit cards in and Hhanked the owner of the Company that I worked for for employing me for 30 years. Then I told him it was time to move on. Haven't had one since. if someone wants to get in touch with me thiy can call when I am home, just like the pld days.

S.Crum · Dec 16, 2011

My cousin worked for sprint customer service a couple years ago. We were talking about what cell phone service I should look at. She recommended I get the plan she had. So I have Verizon.

souNdguy · Dec 16, 2011

sounds like you had no 'data plan'

I have no text plan, and some of my buddies insist on texting me. I get charged 25 cents a pop.. so I disabled texting on my account...

omahagreg · Dec 16, 2011

Electrician that we use regularly had just signed up with Sprint, because they wanted all the unlimited that Verizon had just stopped offering to new customers. They live in Missouri Valley Iowa. Couple of months later he said that Sprint was going to drop them, because they were always roaming at home! 2 weeks ago he said they had spent $600 to switch to Verizon! When I had Sprint-must be 10 years ago-I could not get service at my house! They were (don't know about now) the biggest joke for a service provider I have ever seen!

fixerupper · Dec 16, 2011

My sis and her hubby have Sprint in the Quad cities area in eastern Iowa. Their reception there is great but when they come up here to NW Iowa their service is just plain gone. For me Verizon gave me good service everywhere I went on the wheat harvest, from SW Oklahoma to Idaho to wherever, except for an area southwest of Pierre SD. That area was Sprint only if I remember right. Jim

Anonymous-0 · Dec 17, 2011

There's a Man after my own heart.Wouldn't have one, Don't need one.Ring me in the evening,or come out.

MarkB_MI · Dec 17, 2011

It's not just Sprint. All of the carriers will rape you if you surf and have no data plan.

Why? Because they CAN.

Sprint is a rip off

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads