Returned the phone because of Sprint's bloatware - Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7 Guides, News, & Discussio

I have to start by saying this wasn't an easy decision, but I am a strong believer of standing up for what's right and fighting against what's wrong.
I have been a Sprint subscriber since 2001 and a Samsung customer since way back when the SCH-8500 was in style.
Since the smartphones exploded everywhere I have tried to have the best phone for my budget.
The Galaxy S2 was a great phone, I upgraded to the S3, skipped the S5 and S6 (of course) and had the the S4 'til Samsung put the SD card back in the S7.
I took the plunge and got myself a S7, by far the best Sam phone I had ever own, until Sprint decided that they knew what I really wanted in the form of bloatware.
After juicing the phone, the minute it smelled internet connection, the bloatware started flowing into my device just like just like flies drop into fresh manure in hot summer day in the country side.
Took a few minutes to go thru the list and disable almost all of the extra crap that Sam and Sprint load into our phones, I encountered a repeat offender: Smith Micro's Visual Voicemail (Vvm.apk).
Immediately I tried to disable, force stop, block all permissions, I tried everything short of grabbing my drill and hammer.
4 Phone calls to Sprint, 3 chats online, a visit to Samsung 837 in Chelsea NYC, a useless visit to the Sprint Store on 34th St NYC and another waste-of-time-visit to BestBuy's in house Samsung "Specialist".
...AND a public threat on Twitter to @sprintcare and @sprint the if the app wasn't remove or disable my 15 years with them will be jeopardized, the final answer was the app could not be removed or disabled.
So I decided to stand up for the silent majority and returned the phone and all the perks that BestBuy threw in, including the Gear VR and the 64GB SD Card, enough is enough.
I will be ordering the Unlocked version of this device which does not include the offending bloatware mentioned above.
Locked-down boot loaders, locked down phones, locked SIM's and on top of that unwanted crapware? F**** no!
We have to unite against this practice, manufacturers and carriers, not to mention the government itself are under the belief that they can decide what the end user wants and needs.
We the people have the power of the purse, we are the paying customer, we have the power.
-Thank you

I'm returning mine solely because of the locked bootloader. If root was available then all that bloatware could be removed. I agree with you, and I hope more people return it. I'm keeping the VR's though, somehow I received 2, both are going on Craigslist today.

Im heading in to bring mine back too. It is complete bullsh!t that the market that buys the most usa gets the locked bootloader. I have about had it with @scamsungmobile they dont care a single bit

you could have just downloaded package disabler which has admin permissions to permanently disable all the bloatware including that stupid voicemail app...

kennypow3rs said:
you could have just downloaded package disabler which has admin permissions to permanently disable all the bloatware including that stupid voicemail app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After hours of reading I came across Package Disabler and successfully disabled almost all of the crapware that came with this phone.
Eventually, I called Sprint and told them I would be keeping the phone because I found the way to disable the app after they told me it wasn't possible.
I also reiterated that at the end of my contract I will be dumping them after 15 years and going to join "Unlocked" club.
I highly recommend this application to anyone having the same gripes I had.

sarcigon said:
After hours of reading I came across Package Disabler and successfully disabled almost all of the crapware that came with this phone.
Eventually, I called Sprint and told them I would be keeping the phone because I found the way to disable the app after they told me it wasn't possible.
I also reiterated that at the end of my contract I will be dumping them after 15 years and going to join "Unlocked" club.
I highly recommend this application to anyone having the same gripes I had.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good deal man. Im glad you found a solution. I however just joined sprint after being with tmobile for 3 months lol. I was with ATT for 10 years, decided to switch to tmo in november 15, it only took me a few months to realize how crap they are. Worst carrier in the world!! Im pretty satisfied with sprint minus not being able to use the internet while on the phone. LTE is fast and call quality is nice!! I do miss my note 5 though as im not really a fan of the edges and i wish it had an 8 core processor. Last, once i disabled the sprint bloat phone is much better. The end.
Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

Related

Sprint and LTE tirade

Thought I would try and give back a little to the boards with a short rant about sprint, maybe someone will find a useful bit of info from my crazy month of wtf.
So I got an Evo LTE, and im a OG evo guy since the release day so I expected a great deal from the brand. Im a 10+year guy with sprint, 2 lines, equipment protection plan, yada yada... When I got the phone charged up for the first time I tried making a call right away and couldnt get a signal; same house my OG evo works ok in. I was sent an air rave tower right away, which is both a curse and a blessing. I have my LTE (stock) for about a week and I start getting random reboots, I wait a day to make sure there wasn't something I was overlooking. My conclusion was I'm having the common random reboot problem. In addition I was also getting about 5 hours max battery life, and intermittent wifi, and strange overheating of the metal part of the cover. I called sprint and asked them what I should do, and they set me up with an appointment at the local store.
I bought the phone on a Thursday, and tried to return it two Thursdays later 14 days from the date on my receipt, at which point I was told they would not give me a phone out of inventory because my "14 day" return period expired. I argued all the way up to the store manager, with whom I shared words with. I was left with one alternative which was a "45min" wait for a tech to tell me my phone is broken, and 3 days from then I would get a replacement mailed to that store where I would have to return and exchange my old device, which they rudely handed back to me and said I should keep so "they don't loose it." I was leaving on a plane the next day and there was a hurricane coming so I told them I will keep the phone a few more days and they should f-%# themselves. Their 14 day return period starts the day BEFORE you buy the phone. returning two weeks from the day is 15 days on Sprint clocks, even when the Sprint rep on the phone makes your appointment for you. needless to say I was asked to leave the store.
The hurricane (more like tropical storm) shows up and my flight gets canceled, and the intermittent power outages basically disabled my airrave tower, so I was going on my third week with no working phone. I finally give up on all the crap and got a hold of the retention department or whatever they are called. I told them that if I can't get a phone out of inventory at the store the same day, im pretty sure Verizon would. They coughed up a $50 service credit and told me I had to go through the process. I re-activated my og evo so I would have somewhat of a reliable situation.
I went back to a different sprint store this week with an appointment and got lectured by a flunky girl who quoted the company line and tried telling me I clearly had a bad battery, and software issues. After I received my lecture from her I assured her I read all about many different people with my specific problems and I know she does too so lets get down to business ( I had waited 45 min with on time arrival for the appointment ). She started poking around my account (after having me read her my pin number aloud in public) and told me I canceled my equipment protection on the LTE and there was nothing she could do. I invited her to think about that for a minute, and she realized the person on the sprint *2 call that activated my OG Evo decided to remove my equipment plan without authorization. then I get the manager again, and 30-40 min later they hashed it out and told me keep my LTE and comeback tuesday (today) to pick up my replacement. I should also note that my google voice number was completely disabled from my account, (confirmed after an hour of trying to renew it via phone and computer.)
I go in today at 8pm, wait 30 min before anyone would talk to me about why I was there and encounter a soft spoken kid who couldn't figure out what I was asking for. He disappears in the back for a while then comes out with a refurbished OG Evo! They ordered the wrong Darn phone! I was not really surprised by this in retrospect... I then sat there with the manager while he tried to resolve the problem. His solution? I was told the order ticket was canceled (lies, we all know the first girl ordered me an OG Evo even though she held my LTE in her hand and solicited that I rate her well in my followup survey call); He then deactivated my OG evo, reactivated my LTE so he could order one, then tried and failed to re-activate my OG evo to no avail. After 20 min, I told him i knew how to update my profile and to fix it after I get home.
Needless to say, my OG evo is still not activated (he went home leaving me with no phone for yet another day), and my current status is I'm waiting for my factory (s on) new-ish LTE which may or may not be in by friday afternoon. The whole time there was a drawer full of inventory LTE's that they explicitly would not give me despite my hassle. I invited them to let me out of my contract and take their lemon LTE back and was again told no.
At some point in there I tried a few new ROMS and TWRP. I got stuck in a softbrick after an update to one of them ( I believe it was the meanROM ICS v39) which may have been my fault, not sure so no insult is intended. I believe it was a TWRP problem a few people seem to have had I've read. I was able to break the softbrick by getting into to recovery
(vol down and power pressed for 20 seconds then release > then vol down + power for 2 seconds each, 3 times > re-lock > then running the RUU jewel back to stock. Tamper message goes away after that and I was left with ReLocked message. The phone still has ALL of the aforementioned problems (as it did with any ROM I tried). Sorry I can't be much more helpful to the dev's with my descriptions, but it probably wont serve any of you to troubleshoot based off my results with a defective unit. One last thing- I have a wifi issue since day one with the LTE, it takes about 5 seconds to connect to any website the first time, after that everything loads in a snap, but browsing brings back the 5 second problem about every 3rd link I click.
tl;dr
What you should learn:
-Sprint 14 day return policy is no questions asked replacement from inventory provided you return within 13 days.
-Activating a legacy will probably nuke your google voice integration as well as complicate your replacement order.
-my random reboot problem didn't start until after about 1 week and minimum changes to the phone ( I have been doing most of my android stuff with my Nexus 7 tab.)
-Airrave towers die from fluctuating power for a couple hours (like during a tropical storm). Towers in S. Fla. worked for my girls Metro PCS device the whole time, as well as my OG Evo (not connected to service at that point).
-Sprint will NOT send you a replacement phone via post any longer.
-You must return to a Corporate store to get a replacement, and you have to drive back over there once it comes in (make an appointment!)
-You can probably snag a $50 service credit if you threaten to cancel (I've read people getting more).
On an unrelated note:
-(class 10) 32 GB micro sd card on newegg goes for about $20 with shipping, they are $100 at the Sprint outlet.
-$50 otterbox cases are clunky and not my taste, my 'greatshield' case from the egg was < $10 and I like it.
-Screen protectors at sprint are 10x as much dough as online.
If anyone is interested I will try and update this post after I get my new phone (if I get a new phone.) Sprint has gone a long way down, but the competitors are no better so don't be insulted if your one of their good employees. My total estimated lost time over this debacle has been about 4 weeks without a new working phone I already paid for, and 8 hours of driving, and waiting in the store or on the phone. I got kicked out of the store for cursing out the manager who was talking to me like im an imbecilic drone like he is, other than that almost every one else was dumb but well mannered. He actually called me out when I told him I was flying out of town, and work 7 days a week. He actually told me that there are laws that I must be given days off ( insinuating I was lying ). This is pretty ironic considering im a lawyer in this state; I know more than a few of the lurkers here are lawyers too, i'm sure you understand the long hours). His condescension pushed me over the edge, and hes lucky he didn't meet the old me.
Thx to all the Devs on xda for your superb work.
-----------
I really need a sig here::: would love to post thumbs of my legacy hardware, it would be pretty fun going back down memory lane. I honestly miss my treo(s)
yeah i had a snafu with sprint and thats when I gave them the middle finger. got out of my contract ETF free despite the fact i was 22 days in.
Well,after 3 weeks of phone calls sprint finally decided to send me a replacement evo,i mean its really bad when you have to go throught all this just to get a working phone,it shows that sprint has no interest in keeping customers happy,i came from verizon and they offer you a replacement without hassle,i dont know if its because verizon is doing way better financially or what,but they need to get their stuff together
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Damn and here I am never having a issue with Sprint at all. Never had a issue getting a replacement phone or with dropping calls.
Now I have a issue with best buy black tie plans and getting a phone but that's a story for another day.
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2
I think the stores in your area dropped the ball. Only in the case of ordering you the wrong phone and making you wait again while the correct one came in. The other things technically were Sprint policy.
My location would have worked with you on the point of ordering the wrong phone. That is of course assuming you were polite. Individuals who are condescending jerks don't get far. Not saying that's what you are or were.
Sent from my EVO using xda premium
So from what I gathered from the wrong phone being ordered is that sprint has to order the device that is currently active on the account. That explains why u got an Og evo and not the lte. I'm a tech at sprint and that's how the system works.
Sent from my Genesis that does what Nintendon't
Full of thoughts...
Thanks for all of the sophisticated replies, glad to finally be posting here after a few years of lurking.
Something is very broken at Sprint and I suspect it has everything to do with a bunch of gone by night,
corporate exec's that fire people in hallways and use phrases like "corporate efficiency"...
I estimate my lifetime sprint spending at a modest $25,000. Its a severe kick to the gentleman region
that the moment my phone stopped working It was not replaced.
Honestly, I know how corporate employees feel, but the beauracratic, non-sense policies that ignore what I
need ( a working phone ) and sanction customers like me (my time and patients) are a disaster for many
companies. I was in sever need of my working phone connection, and I got screwed by sprint policy that
keeps them from loosing money from customers that can't be compared to me.
I'm a super nice guy most of the time, it was always served me well to try and give people what they want.
I may be highly educated and blessed for my financial situation (im not rich, but am thankful), however
I grew up in Detroit, a city with a 50% literacy rate, 25% highschool graduation rate, and crippling
unemployment (possibly as high as 30-40% un-adjusted). For lack of a better way of saying it, I talk like
a common man. I am also from a very violent place, so I have learned to respect people who I don't know
much about, but to strike back when they cross the line with me. So i probably sounded like a jerk bag getting
kicked out of a Sprint store, but believe me ... come visit south Florida sometime, you will honestly wonder
how some people here made it to adult-hood.
As a side note; if you work in customer service don't talk about customers in a different language. My girl and
I combined understand 6-7 languages (most fluent). We normally dress down, I like wearing jersies and sandals.
We both look 5-10 years younger than we are, and could easily be stereo-typed as no one important- in
fact we both like it that way. I've never asked Sprint for any special favors.
That being said, I have some valuable business advice for Sprint, and would go into MUCH more detail with
someone who was in charge at their higher levels: basically Sprint needs a way to tell the difference between
customers that are a money suck, and ones who are the bread and butter. Then that system needs to be easily
applied by the worker bees.
All that the store manager had to do on my first trip to sprint was to get me a working phone line and make it
easy for me to exchange, even if I had to come back. Its the MOST BASIC reason anyone walks in a sprint store,
and their relative inability to deal with a hardware issue without insulting me and wasting my time is a
malignant corporate problem, not an employee problem.
Make up your own minds about how I sound, it is what it is. If you work for Sprint I encourage you to
not take offense to my comments, Im really trying to use broad strokes with these points.
XDA members are so, so close to a new watershed in tele-com; It wont be long now untill none of us will be
willing to sign contracts and/or purchase hardware from our cellular providers. The rest of the world isn't
going to take to long to catch on either. With companies like metro pcs doing the kind of numbers they are,
Sprint as we now know it is going to be a relic.
My Sprint experiences have been positive 80% of the time, but when it goes bad it goes really bad.
@David: BestBuy is going to die a slow, painful corporate death before 2022 I surmise. Their problems
are very similar to sprint, sorry for your bad luck with them; I think I already know what you would say.
I'm confident people like on this forum will bring the industry back up to speed on their own terms. Its really
quite an amazing community, a real credit to humanity. I dont just say that, the existence of a dev community
like this is quite a unique human event (a sort of enlightenment.) There are not enought nice things to say about
how people here help others with something they genuinely do for fun.
Cell companies on a whole are intellectually dishonest with the people, and have adopted the economic principals
of companies that are the college examples of myopic, unethical, poorly directed, abusers. Much like the mortgage
industry, lack of consumer oriented management has created a culture of abuse and if my readers don't agree, they
can at least understand why I make the argument.
I have gotten pretty far away from what I started talking about, so Ill leave it here: invest in google, they are
sending a pretty clear message to sprint by rolling out google Fiber in Kansas...IMO
---
sorry for typo's talking/typing on the tablet.
redwings23 said:
Honestly, I know how corporate employees feel....
.... and I got screwed by sprint policy that
keeps them from loosing money from customers that can't be compared to me.
I'm a super nice guy most of the time...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must be a Republican. You've got to be right? Sure that holds no relevance but your post screams Republican. Lol.
No offense but this post is drenched in the very condescending tone that I was under the impression you communicated in. All customers should be viewed as equal. It's unfair to believe otherwise. I understand you feel as though your needs and requests hold priority over that of the majority but policies are policies and they are in place for a reason. There is no excuse it took so long for your replacement device to arrive, but let's be honest. You did have a functional phone in the meantime, right? Sprint should have taken responsibility for their mistake though. I definitely empathize with you on that point.
I'm sorry, the entitlement argument always rubs me the wrong way.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
redwings23 said:
Thought I would try and give back a little to the boards with a short rant about sprint, maybe someone will find a useful bit of info from my crazy month of wtf.
So I got an Evo LTE, and im a OG evo guy since the release day so I expected a great deal from the brand. Im a 10+year guy with sprint, 2 lines, equipment protection plan, yada yada... When I got the phone charged up for the first time I tried making a call right away and couldnt get a signal; same house my OG evo works ok in. I was sent an air rave tower right away, which is both a curse and a blessing. I have my LTE (stock) for about a week and I start getting random reboots, I wait a day to make sure there wasn't something I was overlooking. My conclusion was I'm having the common random reboot problem. In addition I was also getting about 5 hours max battery life, and intermittent wifi, and strange overheating of the metal part of the cover. I called sprint and asked them what I should do, and they set me up with an appointment at the local store.
I bought the phone on a Thursday, and tried to return it two Thursdays later 14 days from the date on my receipt, at which point I was told they would not give me a phone out of inventory because my "14 day" return period expired. I argued all the way up to the store manager, with whom I shared words with. I was left with one alternative which was a "45min" wait for a tech to tell me my phone is broken, and 3 days from then I would get a replacement mailed to that store where I would have to return and exchange my old device, which they rudely handed back to me and said I should keep so "they don't loose it." I was leaving on a plane the next day and there was a hurricane coming so I told them I will keep the phone a few more days and they should f-%# themselves. Their 14 day return period starts the day BEFORE you buy the phone. returning two weeks from the day is 15 days on Sprint clocks, even when the Sprint rep on the phone makes your appointment for you. needless to say I was asked to leave the store.
The hurricane (more like tropical storm) shows up and my flight gets canceled, and the intermittent power outages basically disabled my airrave tower, so I was going on my third week with no working phone. I finally give up on all the crap and got a hold of the retention department or whatever they are called. I told them that if I can't get a phone out of inventory at the store the same day, im pretty sure Verizon would. They coughed up a $50 service credit and told me I had to go through the process. I re-activated my og evo so I would have somewhat of a reliable situation.
I went back to a different sprint store this week with an appointment and got lectured by a flunky girl who quoted the company line and tried telling me I clearly had a bad battery, and software issues. After I received my lecture from her I assured her I read all about many different people with my specific problems and I know she does too so lets get down to business ( I had waited 45 min with on time arrival for the appointment ). She started poking around my account (after having me read her my pin number aloud in public) and told me I canceled my equipment protection on the LTE and there was nothing she could do. I invited her to think about that for a minute, and she realized the person on the sprint *2 call that activated my OG Evo decided to remove my equipment plan without authorization. then I get the manager again, and 30-40 min later they hashed it out and told me keep my LTE and comeback tuesday (today) to pick up my replacement. I should also note that my google voice number was completely disabled from my account, (confirmed after an hour of trying to renew it via phone and computer.)
I go in today at 8pm, wait 30 min before anyone would talk to me about why I was there and encounter a soft spoken kid who couldn't figure out what I was asking for. He disappears in the back for a while then comes out with a refurbished OG Evo! They ordered the wrong Darn phone! I was not really surprised by this in retrospect... I then sat there with the manager while he tried to resolve the problem. His solution? I was told the order ticket was canceled (lies, we all know the first girl ordered me an OG Evo even though she held my LTE in her hand and solicited that I rate her well in my followup survey call); He then deactivated my OG evo, reactivated my LTE so he could order one, then tried and failed to re-activate my OG evo to no avail. After 20 min, I told him i knew how to update my profile and to fix it after I get home.
Needless to say, my OG evo is still not activated (he went home leaving me with no phone for yet another day), and my current status is I'm waiting for my factory (s on) new-ish LTE which may or may not be in by friday afternoon. The whole time there was a drawer full of inventory LTE's that they explicitly would not give me despite my hassle. I invited them to let me out of my contract and take their lemon LTE back and was again told no.
At some point in there I tried a few new ROMS and TWRP. I got stuck in a softbrick after an update to one of them ( I believe it was the meanROM ICS v39) which may have been my fault, not sure so no insult is intended. I believe it was a TWRP problem a few people seem to have had I've read. I was able to break the softbrick by getting into to recovery
(vol down and power pressed for 20 seconds then release > then vol down + power for 2 seconds each, 3 times > re-lock > then running the RUU jewel back to stock. Tamper message goes away after that and I was left with ReLocked message. The phone still has ALL of the aforementioned problems (as it did with any ROM I tried). Sorry I can't be much more helpful to the dev's with my descriptions, but it probably wont serve any of you to troubleshoot based off my results with a defective unit. One last thing- I have a wifi issue since day one with the LTE, it takes about 5 seconds to connect to any website the first time, after that everything loads in a snap, but browsing brings back the 5 second problem about every 3rd link I click.
tl;dr
What you should learn:
-Sprint 14 day return policy is no questions asked replacement from inventory provided you return within 13 days.
-Activating a legacy will probably nuke your google voice integration as well as complicate your replacement order.
-my random reboot problem didn't start until after about 1 week and minimum changes to the phone ( I have been doing most of my android stuff with my Nexus 7 tab.)
-Airrave towers die from fluctuating power for a couple hours (like during a tropical storm). Towers in S. Fla. worked for my girls Metro PCS device the whole time, as well as my OG Evo (not connected to service at that point).
-Sprint will NOT send you a replacement phone via post any longer.
-You must return to a Corporate store to get a replacement, and you have to drive back over there once it comes in (make an appointment!)
-You can probably snag a $50 service credit if you threaten to cancel (I've read people getting more).
On an unrelated note:
-(class 10) 32 GB micro sd card on newegg goes for about $20 with shipping, they are $100 at the Sprint outlet.
-$50 otterbox cases are clunky and not my taste, my 'greatshield' case from the egg was < $10 and I like it.
-Screen protectors at sprint are 10x as much dough as online.
If anyone is interested I will try and update this post after I get my new phone (if I get a new phone.) Sprint has gone a long way down, but the competitors are no better so don't be insulted if your one of their good employees. My total estimated lost time over this debacle has been about 4 weeks without a new working phone I already paid for, and 8 hours of driving, and waiting in the store or on the phone. I got kicked out of the store for cursing out the manager who was talking to me like im an imbecilic drone like he is, other than that almost every one else was dumb but well mannered. He actually called me out when I told him I was flying out of town, and work 7 days a week. He actually told me that there are laws that I must be given days off ( insinuating I was lying ). This is pretty ironic considering im a lawyer in this state; I know more than a few of the lurkers here are lawyers too, i'm sure you understand the long hours). His condescension pushed me over the edge, and hes lucky he didn't meet the old me.
Thx to all the Devs on xda for your superb work.
-----------
I really need a sig here::: would love to post thumbs of my legacy hardware, it would be pretty fun going back down memory lane. I honestly miss my treo(s)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice tirade BTW. But, you did your math wrong. You bought it on thursday, that is day 1. Day14 would therefore be wednesday.
troll?
wolfclan68 said:
Nice tirade BTW. But, you did your math wrong. You bought it on thursday, that is day 1. Day14 would therefore be wednesday.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this a troll?
Try again, the way the planet Earth works is that you turn one year old on the anniversary of your birth.
I returned to the store 13 days and 18 hours prior to my previous visit.
When considering some potential for illogical ambiguity such as yours,
Sprint should confer benefit of the doubt upon the disadvantaged party (me).
Sprint sold me a lemon, and a monthly plan for equipment guarantee, which makes me a disadvantaged party.
I was also given a receipt with terms of adhesion incorporated into it mentioning 14 days with no clarification of
the intent that the moment the transaction occurred a full day is presumed as having past.
Turns out the Florida Supreme Court agrees with my logic: the day the transaction takes place is not included.
For instance, If I serve you with a lawsuit today, you have 30 days (starting at zero) to respond.
If it had said "return the phone within 30 days of the purchase date", you might have yourself an argument.
"14 days" is a measurement of time that appeared on my contract.
Lets review:
-if I agree to give you one apple a day for 14 days starting on a Thursday you will get your last apple on Wednesday.
-if I agree to give you an apple in 14 days, you will get an apple two Thursdays from now.
Now lets have fun:
suppose today is Thursday
-If I tell you to meet me in Vegas in 7 days, you will expect me next thursday
-if i tell you meet me at my office before I go home in 8 hours, you can add 8 hours to the current time and rely on me leaving at the sum.
suppose its 5pm-
-If you ask me (on a Thursday) to meet you at your office within 336 hours I have until next Thursday at 5pm to comply.
336 hours = 14 days
Now try substituting '336 hours' for the words 'two weeks' or '14 days'; Rational minds work in mysterious ways.
sprint's stated policy
Now that we've covered the basics, dead over to sprint dot com /landings/returns/
within 14 days of activation (day 1 of the 14 days starts when the phone is activated)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They even messed it up there!
Day 1 starts when the phone is activated?
That clearly means two different things...
Day one starts and ends when exactly?
Why should a customer have to guess, especially in the 24 hour world of web shopping?
Why not simply state the date which will be the last of the period? I know my library does.
I wonder if anyone else has pondered this problem, oh say 3 years ago on yahoo! answers...
http:/ /answers.yahoo. com/question/index?qid=20090929112655AAk7o1O
in the future you can bypass the whole store visit by calling them and stating the problem and they will drop ship you another device right then if within the time period. I've done it before a few times no problems at all.
sgt. slaughter said:
in the future you can bypass the whole store visit by calling them and stating the problem and they will drop ship you another device right then if within the time period. I've done it before a few times no problems at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tired, I know what you mean too. I had a treo drop dead after a few days and it was about as painless as a phone call and dealing with the return packaging. Unless I seriously missed something, I tried talking to many different people, supervisors, etc.
I called on the 10th day (or if your a sprint employee the 11th) and talked to a rep who told me there is no way for them to send me a phone AT ALL. I argued up to the supervisor, and was told that Sprint has changed its policies quite drastically since the iphone was brought over :facepalm:
Anyway, I believe the new policy is that you HAVE TO take your exchange back to a Sprint corporate store, and have exchanges made there within the 13 days time frame.
Another guy also informed me that if I did a straight up insurance claim on the phone I would have to pay a $200 deductible.
hopeless..... Im calling the store tonight, Im pondering how to stay calm. If the new phone is flawed in any more than minor way and not fixed with an inventory phone, im giving up and will be trying to get out of the ETF and finding a new carrier. Im sure I can get my $200 back out of the virgin hardware. I give them 3 to 1 odds of not screwing something else up.
redwings23 said:
I argued up to the supervisor, and was told that Sprint has changed its policies quite drastically since the iphone was brought over :facepalm:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know you probably don't think you are being condescending, but the fact that you had to argue on your call with customer service makes me think you come across as such.
And while you think Sprint should see you as better than the riff-raff, truth is, your individual account is no different than the millions of other individual Sprint customers. I also have issues with my local Sprint corporate store service techs, but I have nothing but positives for the business customer care department.
Quis89 said:
You must be a Republican. You've got to be right? Sure that holds no relevance but your post screams Republican. Lol.
No offense but this post is drenched in the very condescending tone that I was under the impression you communicated in. All customers should be viewed as equal. It's unfair to believe otherwise. I understand you feel as though your needs and requests hold priority over that of the majority but policies are policies and they are in place for a reason. There is no excuse it took so long for your replacement device to arrive, but let's be honest. You did have a functional phone in the meantime, right? Sprint should have taken responsibility for their mistake though. I definitely empathize with you on that point.
I'm sorry, the entitlement argument always rubs me the wrong way.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I approve this message
via xda premium on my AOKP'd Evo LTE
sgt. slaughter said:
in the future you can bypass the whole store visit by calling them and stating the problem and they will drop ship you another device right then if within the time period. I've done it before a few times no problems at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I called Sprint one morning because I had no data after updating PRL. Within 10 minutes they were ready to send me a new phone.
I was able to fix it by connecting to a WiFi connection to update and it was fine so I kept my phone. I thought they were more than helpful.
Naters
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
meh
bman3333 said:
I know you probably don't think you are being condescending, but the fact that you had to argue on your call with customer service makes me think you come across as such.
And while you think Sprint should see you as better than the riff-raff, truth is, your individual account is no different than the millions of other individual Sprint customers. I also have issues with my local Sprint corporate store service techs, but I have nothing but positives for the business customer care department.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I have some experience with Wisconsin's .. err wisconsinites?... wisconsonians?
Anyway, based on my experience you are making your point because I used the word 'argued'.
Arguing is not mutually exclusive of being a gentleman during the conflict.
I was very nice to the people, I just did not accept their answers. The first girl I talked to, although dim witted, told
me that she did her best and asked me if there was anything else I needed, I told her her answer was unacceptable
to me, and while although not her fault in any way, I would like to talk to the supervisor.
I am a mover, but my main advantage is I can easily relate to all sorts of people, I walk around smiling,
except when people break my stones. If you go out of your way to disrespect me I will shame you publicly.
I don't live in the midwest, but I grew up there. we probably share the same values / character traits.
Just realize that there are other cultures in different parts of the country, and S. Florida is a place where you
can pull over and help a lady change her tire (just because you're a good guy) and she will complain you are
taking to long to do it. (happened to a friend of mine). Down here its 'too good, too stupid". I'm not intimidated
by the Latin bravado, and have found most these boys down here don't know why its a bad Idea to try and
back a hockey player into a corner. The store manager talked trash about me in Spanish while I was standing right there
I knew what he was saying and was not wrong for reacting a certain way. I was definitely not the one being smug there.
Originally Posted by Quis89
You must be a Republican. You've got to be right? Sure that holds no relevance but your post screams Republican. Lol.
No offense but this post is drenched in the very condescending tone that I was under the impression you communicated in. All customers should be viewed as equal. It's unfair to believe otherwise. I understand you feel as though your needs and requests hold priority over that of the majority but policies are policies and they are in place for a reason. There is no excuse it took so long for your replacement device to arrive, but let's be honest. You did have a functional phone in the meantime, right? Sprint should have taken responsibility for their mistake though. I definitely empathize with you on that point.
I'm sorry, the entitlement argument always rubs me the wrong way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm oddly uncomfortable with discussing my political leanings here, but I will say I think for myself.
Anyway, there are many problems with your points-
I have been through this process with Sprint and exchanged one a few years back (a new Treo) the 'policies' were
much different then, and I expected the same pleasant results this time around. No Dice.
I was treated well when making a visit to buy a phone, and crapped on once the payment cleared.
Ill remind you that I called sprint within 10 days and they set my appointment up for me!
Nether the phone rep or the store told me there would be any problem until I showed up on day 14
and was forced to sit in the store for about 90 min. and not offered an inventory phone because of 'policy'.
I had the other line hooked up to my dying og evo, and its pretty bad. Ive been using my nexus 7 and
google voice to make calls, since no one could get my google number to ring through to the og.
The policies would have been fine if 3-4 people i met along the way hadn't dropped the ball.
reassuring me on the phone then not coming through after I drive to the store is unacceptable.
You use the word entitlement in a somewhat laughable way-
Why should customers all be treated equally, there are many that need way more than me; picture
my grandmother sitting there asking what an app is. Once a guy goes through the process like I did
There is no reason to consider my problems as the same priority as others. Facts and circumstances
should define policies, not bureaucratic nonsense that ignores the needs of one paying customer.
Sprint has lacked integrity in this respect because I paid fair and square and didn't get what others get. -That's my fault somehow?
That brings me to my second point about 'entitlement' ... I paid and got a bad device, my theory of
entitlement is based on the money I paid. When you pay for a movie ticket you are then entitled to
go in and watch that movie. I ran around for hours based on bad advice and policies. I never asked for
something other customers don't get. All I asked for is what the average customer gets: I pay money
and they give a working phone. If Sprint is going to operate on a buyer beware ethos, judge them
not me.
I understand my words read as condescending, but im not here to make myself sound pleasant.
I tried to lay out the relevant facts in a tone that reflects feelings after a month of not having my new toy, or a working line half that time.
Put yourself in my shoes, and tell yourself this because of bad karma or something.
I wrote all of this in hopes someone will find it personally helpful, I've lurked here for years and wanted to give something useful back to the community.
I was on this board for several hours trying to break my soft-brick and read at least three unanswered threads that were related to my problem.
I figured it was time to be a noob and give a few people a heads up. Im sure a few of you read all this and were surprised about something.
NaterTots said:
Yeah I called Sprint one morning because I had no data after updating PRL. Within 10 minutes they were ready to send me a new phone.
I was able to fix it by connecting to a WiFi connection to update and it was fine so I kept my phone. I thought they were more than helpful.
Naters
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in a similar situation years ago. They refused to send me a phone this time, I asked each person why I was treated differently last time and at lease one Sprint phone manager thinks its because "sprint stopped doing that after the Iphone [got ported over.]"
How long ago was your hassle free exchange, i think mine was 2004~ish.

[Q] Data call failure error code 89 on Verizon Prepaid

My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Verizon Wireless send new A-Key and AAA Password to combat flashing
So you know im in a wireless family.
I work at T-Mobile Corporate in Redmond, And my brother in New Jersey at verizon.
I personally use an optimus G SPRINT on Verizon Prepaid, Not that I dont like the T-Mobile speed, But lets be honest coverage sucks.
So the 1.5 to 2.5 MBPS nationwide I get on verizon is better. OK Back on point.
So my brother tells me Verizon is actively trying to combat the MIFI flashed to verizon prepaid, On mulitple fronts.
They have contacted ebay, and ebay sellers have been suspended.
And here is the one that sucks for all of us that use verizon prepaid.... They renew and send a new AAA Key every 4 to 7 days.....
And may also resend or renew the A-Key.
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
Sadly my brother said they are not doing this targeting phone users, Verizon is not stupid they know people flash phones.
But they are targeting JETPACK and MIFI users.
He says in recent weeks they have seen Prepaid accounts that are using over 80GB of data a month on these supposed GUSTO's
So naturally verizon is now cracking down, This is similar to what Sprint and Boost Mobile did with ERROR 16.
Just giving you a heads up, And to flashers who flash the MiFi devices, Verizon is actively searching Craigslist and eBay, One eBay seller is now being sued by verizon and they found him on Craigslist in Salem, Oregon.
Just be careful, I use about 15GB a month on my Optimus and dont have any issues, Beyond having to reflash the info using the guide above once a week or so.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
Hope this helps.
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass for sure...I have, let's say, X Amount of flashed phones around the country...and have been racking my brain trying to make sense out of it...and there's definitely theories all over the place but as this gentleman has described, the phones losing 3g is just collateral damage. I will say that less than 20% of my phones seem to be affected...I have found certain areas to be more troublesome than others, but if flashed correctly the data use doesn't even show up on Verizons side...but that's a different discussion all together. I've seen phones that had to have the data reprogrammed only once about 2 months ago & have not been bothered since, some that have only lasted a few hours each time it was done...it's completely up to Verizon at this point - I think they're rolling the keys based off tower output more than on a schedule though...if a particular tower seems to be sucking up a lot of data (because they can see it from an infastructure level) then they roll the keys on everything connected to that tower. I'm sure they're doing it on some sort of schedule as well, but the truth is, out of all of the devices that I have access to and have been logging behavior on, there is no real pattern at this point.
I honestly don't think they'll keep it up though after they find the heavy duty data abusers. Fiscally it will hurt them badly. As an example, in the past month I've moved about 30 customers from VZPP to an alternate carrier...I'm certain it's a safe assumption that I'm probably one of 10,000 (at least) in the US that do this type of thing on the same scale. If each of us move 30 accounts per month, that's 1.5 million per month in lost revenue per month that they're going to sustain just based off my estimate. That's not counting the 5 here, 5 there, couple over there, etc that are DIYers, etc. I'm guessing my estimate is probably very low...but for the sake of argument it's 1.5 Million in revenue a month that they don't have to advertise for, they don't have to provide tech support for, no customer service, no out of pocket cost except maintenance that they already do anyway. The network is still super fast & reliable, so they're nowhere near capacity obviously, so the beancounters at some point are going to have to evaluate which is the lesser of the two evils and I think the key rolling is going to be the greater. If my estimate is correct, that's 18 million per year in recurring revenue that they get on a total "no sweat" deal - I don't care how big a company is, you can't afford that loss.
It's also a safe assumption that they don't care much about the phones...I know, with my own infastructure knowledge, that given a month with their internal network and I could easily identify 80% or more of the flashed phones operating on it and remove them...considering they have a huge team of IT people and endless resources if they wanted them gone, they would be gone.
I honestly believe that this will eventually blow over as long as the flagrant abusers aren't shoving it in their faces and neener neener neenering them to death with the MiFi's which I've even seen for sale "No Bill" style on Amazon...
and people wonder why it's getting harder & harder to get answers, guides, etc from people that frontline this type of thing....hell I've seen laptops for sale on eBay with downloaded software & guides from this very site as well as others on how to flash "Item X" in a complete do it yourself bundle...then people that selfishly made a couple hundred bucks doing it cry because their stuff don't work anymore.
I figured out a couple of alternate ways to combat it very quickly, and some other solutions to keep people in the unlimited plans cheap but am afraid if I share it openly then it's just going to go viral and cause the same problems again...it wouldn't upset me at all if there were a more advanced "pay section" of this site for the serious people to share with each other & keep this type of thing under control. Just a thought.
androidjunkie71 said:
Yeah, it's a pain in the ass for sure...I have, let's say, X Amount of flashed phones around the country...and have been racking my brain trying to make sense out of it...and there's definitely theories all over the place but as this gentleman has described, the phones losing 3g is just collateral damage. I will say that less than 20% of my phones seem to be affected...I have found certain areas to be more troublesome than others, but if flashed correctly the data use doesn't even show up on Verizons side...but that's a different discussion all together. I've seen phones that had to have the data reprogrammed only once about 2 months ago & have not been bothered since, some that have only lasted a few hours each time it was done...it's completely up to Verizon at this point - I think they're rolling the keys based off tower output more than on a schedule though...if a particular tower seems to be sucking up a lot of data (because they can see it from an infastructure level) then they roll the keys on everything connected to that tower. I'm sure they're doing it on some sort of schedule as well, but the truth is, out of all of the devices that I have access to and have been logging behavior on, there is no real pattern at this point.
I honestly don't think they'll keep it up though after they find the heavy duty data abusers. Fiscally it will hurt them badly. As an example, in the past month I've moved about 30 customers from VZPP to an alternate carrier...I'm certain it's a safe assumption that I'm probably one of 10,000 (at least) in the US that do this type of thing on the same scale. If each of us move 30 accounts per month, that's 1.5 million per month in lost revenue per month that they're going to sustain just based off my estimate. That's not counting the 5 here, 5 there, couple over there, etc that are DIYers, etc. I'm guessing my estimate is probably very low...but for the sake of argument it's 1.5 Million in revenue a month that they don't have to advertise for, they don't have to provide tech support for, no customer service, no out of pocket cost except maintenance that they already do anyway. The network is still super fast & reliable, so they're nowhere near capacity obviously, so the beancounters at some point are going to have to evaluate which is the lesser of the two evils and I think the key rolling is going to be the greater. If my estimate is correct, that's 18 million per year in recurring revenue that they get on a total "no sweat" deal - I don't care how big a company is, you can't afford that loss.
It's also a safe assumption that they don't care much about the phones...I know, with my own infastructure knowledge, that given a month with their internal network and I could easily identify 80% or more of the flashed phones operating on it and remove them...considering they have a huge team of IT people and endless resources if they wanted them gone, they would be gone.
I honestly believe that this will eventually blow over as long as the flagrant abusers aren't shoving it in their faces and neener neener neenering them to death with the MiFi's which I've even seen for sale "No Bill" style on Amazon...
and people wonder why it's getting harder & harder to get answers, guides, etc from people that frontline this type of thing....hell I've seen laptops for sale on eBay with downloaded software & guides from this very site as well as others on how to flash "Item X" in a complete do it yourself bundle...then people that selfishly made a couple hundred bucks doing it cry because their stuff don't work anymore.
I figured out a couple of alternate ways to combat it very quickly, and some other solutions to keep people in the unlimited plans cheap but am afraid if I share it openly then it's just going to go viral and cause the same problems again...it wouldn't upset me at all if there were a more advanced "pay section" of this site for the serious people to share with each other & keep this type of thing under control. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And your whole point is? This poor individual is trying to find some help and apparently he is not getting anything. Instead you should write a guide on how to extract more data from the Gusto in order to receive the new keys properly. It has happened to me before but speed increased after unlocking the phone. I was on the 35/plan before and it gave me the same error, it lasts for about 2 days and then error 89 shows up, sometimes a day, that was before. I'm unsure why they keep doing this and why isn't the flashed phone getting the new key automatically like the Gusto 2. There must be a way to make this work.
I'm still trying to figure out why Verizon is cracking down on flashed phones when that's clearly more customers.
Sent from my EVO using xda app-developers app
Sprint code
I gota the error 16 code when I obtained s-off. Everything worked but text an call it took me to sprint. I just told the lady I did a hard reset to clear all my data. She said ok you r all set now have a good day. RT away text starting coming thru. I did read the due security with radio firmware. Someone else said it's just a way to log users. Idk myself I due know she ask no questions She already knew why I was calling.
so..mmm, where is the easy fix???
TechSoft said:
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have a vzw 3g phone wich i used to pull the data settings and i have the gusto in its package.
so what can I do... how does the easy fix works??
error 8998 unknown fix!
I USED A VERIZON 3G PHONE (a galaxy 1) I changed the esn/meid using dfs .
It went to the activation process.. no data
did factory reset.
Once rebooted I got 3g.
put it on the computer again and using DFS i looked and there was like 6 new PASSWORDS!!!
PAP, PPP, HDR AN, HDR AN LONG , HDR AN PPP AND The ones where the profile is edited.
i simply reflashed my d710 with the new info and got go sms for the mms.
Working good as usual
gigaferz said:
I USED A VERIZON 3G PHONE (a galaxy 1) I changed the esn/meid using dfs .
It went to the activation process.. no data
did factory reset.
Once rebooted I got 3g.
put it on the computer again and using DFS i looked and there was like 6 new PASSWORDS!!!
PAP, PPP, HDR AN, HDR AN LONG , HDR AN PPP AND The ones where the profile is edited.
i simply reflashed my d710 with the new info and got go sms for the mms.
Working good as usual
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon changed again the passwords.... thanks to my fascinate i got everything again... but the flash doesnt work anymore with my d710 sprint phone... looks like verizon added more security..
im stuck using my old i500...
susy1990 said:
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on the same boot, i keep getting error 89 and my phone is on roaming, unfortunately i don't have the donor
---------- Post added at 03:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:29 PM ----------
susy1990 said:
My phone was flashed to Verizon prepaid since November of last year and everything(3g mobile data, text, MMS) and all of a sudden today I got a data call failure error message 89 and the mobile data is not working all of a sudden and my phone can only make calls and text while roaming. Is there something I can do to fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TechSoft said:
So you know im in a wireless family.
I work at T-Mobile Corporate in Redmond, And my brother in New Jersey at verizon.
I personally use an optimus G SPRINT on Verizon Prepaid, Not that I dont like the T-Mobile speed, But lets be honest coverage sucks.
So the 1.5 to 2.5 MBPS nationwide I get on verizon is better. OK Back on point.
So my brother tells me Verizon is actively trying to combat the MIFI flashed to verizon prepaid, On mulitple fronts.
They have contacted ebay, and ebay sellers have been suspended.
And here is the one that sucks for all of us that use verizon prepaid.... They renew and send a new AAA Key every 4 to 7 days.....
And may also resend or renew the A-Key.
What that means for you if you are a verizon prepaid user and have a flashed phone but not the donor...... You sadly are screwed.
But I'm going to give you an easy fix, I have had to do it now twice.
You can also use QPST build 355 works for me, and copy all the data from the gusto to the other device.
Sadly my brother said they are not doing this targeting phone users, Verizon is not stupid they know people flash phones.
But they are targeting JETPACK and MIFI users.
He says in recent weeks they have seen Prepaid accounts that are using over 80GB of data a month on these supposed GUSTO's
So naturally verizon is now cracking down, This is similar to what Sprint and Boost Mobile did with ERROR 16.
Just giving you a heads up, And to flashers who flash the MiFi devices, Verizon is actively searching Craigslist and eBay, One eBay seller is now being sued by verizon and they found him on Craigslist in Salem, Oregon.
Just be careful, I use about 15GB a month on my Optimus and dont have any issues, Beyond having to reflash the info using the guide above once a week or so.
I also have seen less AAA resets when I keep the ROM Stock, And more resets and having to reflash when I got to a custom rom.
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not what the OP asked

I just took a look at Verizon s5 forum and. ..

I am glad I switched over even though the 4G service isn't great where I live, I can sacrifice that for being able to customize MY phone/tablet/computer/anything any day. ...
If any one sees or hears anything about root/recovery for the other service providers, let them know. I know I would greatly appreciate any information to get my phone working the way I intend it to.
Thanks.
Sent from my rooted 'beaned' SM-G900T using Tapatalk Premium
em0ney14 said:
I am glad I switched over even though the 4G service isn't great where I live, I can sacrifice that for being able to customize MY phone/tablet/computer/anything any day. ...
If any one sees or hears anything about root/recovery for the other service providers, let them know. I know I would greatly appreciate any information to get my phone working the way I intend it to.
Thanks.
Sent from my rooted 'beaned' SM-G900T using Tapatalk Premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm with you. I had five lines with Verizon, all with unlimited data that I only paid 9.99 a month for because I got in on some discount; I switched them all to T-Mobile. It was a tough decision at first, but I had such a terrible time with my note 3 on Verizon, I just couldn't do it again.
Admittedly, the service isn't better, but it is good enough and now I can actually do things with my phone.
Sent from my SM-G900T using xda app-developers app
So true! I just left Verizon yesterday and signed up for TMobile! SO happy so far. I just feel good
I left Verizon for TMO 5 1/2 months ago, not long after the Note 3 came out. I had a Note 2, and my upgrade date was 4 months away. I was 20 months into my contract, and they used to do upgrades at 18 months. I was with Verizon for years, ever since they first came around. I called customer service to see if I could get my date moved and get a Note 3. The rep told me I qualified for something called Pre-Edge, so if I signed up for Edge, I could get a new phone that day. He gave me his name in case there were issues and made notes on my account. I went to the store, and no one had ever heard of Pre-Edge, nor did they see any notes on my account. When I called CS and asked for him, I was told he'd call back. I never got a call and had to leave the store because they were closing. I called back multiple times over the next 2 days and no one knew what Pre-Edge was or who I was talking about. Needless to say, I was angry. The same day, I went to T-Mobile and switched. I still have no idea what happened with that guy or what he was talking about.
I just signed up with T-Mobile yesterday and got the S5. I have been very interested in them the last couple of months. I have tried on them on pre-paid and its good enough. Much better with an actual T-Mobile branded phone. I am so disgusted with AT&T's BS on locking bootloaders and everything else that goes with that. AT&T is good for those who travel. I do not travel and so far I'd give T-Mobile about an 8/10.
Things I've noticed so far:
Generally weaker signal versus AT&T (most likely due to the high bands) Still works though.
HSPA+ is very fast, but when you hit -105dbm or greater it starts to go.
LTE is not as fast as I thought, but still very good.
Call quality is SO much better than AT&T.
LTE on Band 4 is pretty weak overall, but still usable.
13 more days to see if they work for me.
I hear ya OP. I have been watching here and the ATT forums. I am feeling really sorry for the guys over there right now. I am almost betting they will be lucky to get safestrap working and that for me personally is NOT enough. It feels like a ghost town. Since I have had my S1,S2, S3, and S4 there almost always have been a ROM or more on the first day I owned the devices (usually within a few days to a month of release).
I just called T-Mobile about switching my 4 lines from ATT over to T-Mobile. Checking prices and plans. Looks like I could save some money per month. Soecially if I just bring a few of my devices onto Tmobile (My daughters S3 and Wife's S4. I would pass her S4 to my son and get her the S5 while I get the S5 as well.
No guarantee yet that I will be over here though. Just weighing out my options. I am waiting for the 32Gb version if and when...
Sent From My Spiderman,Ironman,Red,Dark Blue,Green, GreyedOut BadAss Themed I337
...yeah, Verizon user here
I hate being locked down by Verizon. I have a T-mobile sim that I used to test T-Mobile(prepaid) in my Verizon Note 3. T-Mobile LTE is fast, but coverage is pretty sub-par compared to Verizon. When my contract is up in July I am probably going to sacrifice coverage for freedom, I mean come on still no KitKat, Verizon sucks.
I don't know about Verizon but I just left at&t for T-Mobile this past Tuesday and couldn't be happier. Their LTE is averaging about 30MB down where I live, work, and all points in between. With at&t I was averaging about 3 or 4MB on LTE at home. I'm loving this S5 but I think I'm loving T-Mobile even more. I checked the at&t forums and it is really quite over there.
TL;DR Recent family Sprint convert and so far we couldn't be happier with the S5 and TM!
I just switched my whole family (me, wife and two kids) over to TM from Sprint... we'd actually been happy with Sprint for about 6 years, weird as that may sound, but they were now trying to force us to change plans and not give us any deals on upgrades and basically it was going to cost more to stay with them monthly and we wouldn't be able to get reasonably cheap upgrades like before... for the past few years, because my kids' phones were bought almost exactly a month after mine and my wife's, we'd go in once a year, swap our phones to the kids and me and the wife would get new ones... well, they said no dice to this now. Sure, we give up unlimited data (sort of- TM is technically "unlimited" if you don't count throttling) but as it happens, that's a total worth it tradeoff.
After looking at all the options, I could have gotten away a little cheaper with Verizon (surprisingly!), and AT&T wasn't going to be much different than Verizon, but TM made it a deal we couldn't refuse: pay the Sprint ETF's, everyone got S5's financed, and we actually walked out of the store with the phones, Otter Boxes for three of them (I keep my phones "naked") and we actually had a $16 CREDIT on our first bill Yep, no money out-of-pocket whatsoever!
So far, we're loving it... had a minor snafu getting one phone switched over, but that was fixed quick and easy... the S5 itself is of course fantastic, which is no surprise... but so far, for the first time ever we actually get GREAT cell reception in our house even without IP calling (which we do use though), and it's 4G no less! (of course we're on wi-fi to save data, but still, we could barely get a Sprint signal before let alone a strong 4G signal like now). I also love that we get Hotspot for no extra charge, unlike Sprint... call quality thus far has been fine, though we frankly only use about 20 minutes a month COMBINED talk time so it's really not important anyway... coverage seems no different than Sprint so far overall... 4G speeds have been very good, about on-par with Sprint, maybe a hair better even. We only got the 1Gb plan because in looking at the past year with Sprint, only my son and I have ever gone over that line, twice each, and only once was more than a hundred Mb over... so 1Gb should be fine 99% of the time... we'll take the throttling after that if need be but no overage concerns is sweet.
And, of course, I rooted all four phones (screw the warranty, JUMP includes the handset insurance anyway and even though that costs something it makes the warranty a moot point to me) and I wouldn't give up that freedom for anything, so Verizon was a non-starter anyway (which is a shame really because we have FiOS and Verizon home phone and it would have been nice to have one provider for it all)... gotta have my root for Greenify and the mod to make the SD card writable!
Yeah, absolutely nothing to complain about at this point. I suppose things could go south at some point... until I see the ETFs paid off and the first bill to make sure nothing got screwed up I'm a little concerned... but assuming no surprises with either of those things I think this has been the best decision we've ever made WRT cell service (we had previously been on Verizon years ago, and AT&T before that, so we have some experience with all of them).
Verizon has never been a terribly bad deal for big families, but they hate single people with a vengeance
willbur73 said:
So true! I just left Verizon yesterday and signed up for TMobile! SO happy so far. I just feel good
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So did I! But I made sure to get an iPhone 5s from Verizon the day before so that I could sell it and get reimbursed from T-Mo for breaking the 1 day old contract. :laugh: Also sold my S4 and bought a junk phone to use as my trade in to T-Mo. Now the money I made off the iPhone and the S4 will pay for the T-Mo S5. So got the S5 for next to nothing.
I am on ATT - but starting with my NOTE 3 and now my S5 - I don't buy ATT PHONES. I buy TMOBILE PHONES and use them on the ATT Network. They work beautifully well.
I actually signed up for TMobile for about 2 days - but I was so dissapointed with the speeds I got - compared to ATT they were horribly slow - ATT gives me phenomenal speeds around town and inside my house. The final straw was that I found the only way I could make calls from inside my house is if I used WIFI CALLING. I started thinking the reason that TMOBILE Came up with WIFI CALLING was because so many people had trouble getting signals in their house. I don't know if that is why they did it, but It sure seemed that way to me.
Anyway - I have never been happier - I get the best of both worlds - an ulocked device I can use - and a network that provides lightening fast speeds..
it works for me - and I hope whatever you guys are doing works for you as well...
mocsab said:
I am on ATT - but starting with my NOTE 3 and now my S5 - I don't buy ATT PHONES. I buy TMOBILE PHONES and use them on the ATT Network. They work beautifully well.
I actually signed up for TMobile for about 2 days - but I was so dissapointed with the speeds I got - compared to ATT they were horribly slow - ATT gives me phenomenal speeds around town and inside my house. The final straw was that I found the only way I could make calls from inside my house is if I used WIFI CALLING. I started thinking the reason that TMOBILE Came up with WIFI CALLING was because so many people had trouble getting signals in their house. I don't know if that is why they did it, but It sure seemed that way to me.
Anyway - I have never been happier - I get the best of both worlds - an ulocked device I can use - and a network that provides lightening fast speeds..
it works for me - and I hope whatever you guys are doing works for you as well...
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Click to collapse
I do the same. Unlocked T-Mobile phone on ATT.
Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
Super Sam Galaxy said:
So did I! But I made sure to get an iPhone 5s from Verizon the day before so that I could sell it and get reimbursed from T-Mo for breaking the 1 day old contract. :laugh: Also sold my S4 and bought a junk phone to use as my trade in to T-Mo. Now the money I made off the iPhone and teh S4 will pay for the T-Mo S5. So got the S5 for next to nothing.
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haha tha'ts messed up but a good idea.
This actually is the first time I had to buy a TMo version to use on ATT due to the locked BL in nature...If you can afford it, then its the best way to go in regards to the S5.
Guess I'm lucky, T-Mobile is awesome in my area. Slightly less coverage than AT&T, but the data connection is very stable and consistent.
Just took a look over there finding bounty thread - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2728051
I donated 20.00 to the cause , If anyone has extra $ they can throw their way please do.
sling said:
Just took a look over there finding bounty thread - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2728051
I donated 20.00 to the cause , If anyone has extra $ they can throw their way please do.
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Here was my post over there cause I donated too... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=52145012&postcount=60 I have Verizon and T-Mobile so I grabbed the M8 on Verizon and the S5 on T-mobile. Best of both worlds, although the M8 is waaaay snappier in pretty much every task. I wish Samsung would slim this damn TouchWiz down. Look at your available ram and tell me that this baby don't NEED 3gb of ram like the Note 3. WoW! Anyways, the more devs we all have the better if you think about it. Look how many roms and mods get ported over from different carrier variants. Yes, I am a crack flasher for sure. Glad to see you donate too though. :good:
I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile the week before the S5 came out, I was paying $125 for a single phone on Verizon with 4GB data. Now on T-Mobile I get the same 4G coverage (in come cases better) as I did with Verizon, yet my girlfriend joined my account and together we get 3GB high speed data per month each, and its $100/month plus paying for the phones per month, I got the S5, she got the Note 3. Verizon is too expensive and controlling. I am very happy switching to T-Mobile.
Those who got the TMO S5, can you comment on performance? One guy on here feels it is not optimized for AT&T. He said it can be stubborn and prefer H+ in LTE areas.

FYI: Warranty phones and Device payment option

I've seen a few threads now with people having bad reception and trading in there phone for warranty issues to get a better signal, etc. So I thought Id post this under general with its own thread so hopefully anyone who runs into this situation can see.
So like the rest Ive had horrible service compared to my buddies N3, and my wifes 5s, I took my phone in to an authorized retailer they checked out the SIM card and for whatever reason my phone running totally stock rom still reverts back to CDMA and when it does connect to 4G its only brief and not that great and overall speeds are slow, despite trying out different modems, same result. Called Verizon up and was put in touch with tier 2 tech support. Which I see alot of Verizon bashing but I talked to 2 guys from the Atlanta call center and I will say they were awesome to work with, however they could not issue a warranty replacement. They tried 2 or 3 times and got their manager involved and had no problem trying to get me a new phone, however they found when there computer wouldn't allow the transaction to go through, that earlier this month of July when Verizon killed off there Device Payment Option, NOT THE EDGE PROGRAM, BUT the DEVICE PAYMENT PROGRAM that there online and call centers lost there support of being able to do anything to help people who used this program, such as me someone who wanted an early upgrade but was locked in for another year or people trying to keep unlimited. I live just over 2 hours from a corporate store so this sucks for me, and now knowing any future problems Ill have to drive to get help because for some reason Big Red decided this was the best way to go.
So I just wanted to share in case anyone else has this problem, or was in the same boat. Im not on a contract anymore, not on Edge, own the phone outright, and can't even get Verizon to help out on the warranty now. UGH if it wasnt for them being the only service provider where I work!
Contact Samsung. This presumes you still have original proof of purchase. They will replace the phone. They are the actual warantor for the phone.
Sent from my Note 3 via Tapatalk
I am under a monthly payment plan (not edge) and called about my signal issues and dropped calls. The rep stated that because I am on the payment plan I have to exchange it in a store. He made the appropriate notes in the account and I will check out the store in the next day or so for the replacement.
I am on the same plan and had to do the same thing. When I did finally get them to try and replace it, they made me go to the store. Went in the store and told him to check the account notes and walked out of there in 10 minutes with a replacement ordered.
As I said I live a bit from going to the actual city that has a corporate store hopefully Ill make it over there this next week, although they never tod me about making notes I hope its hassle free.
A quick question for those of you who got a replacement from the store, how'd they ship it? The guy on the phone told me that as long as it was placed before 4:30-5pm EST they'd overnight it, howd they do you guys going through instore?

T-Mobile USA Thread

I know the 6P won't be sold through the carriers, at least not right away. I'm a Tmo subscriber and I was a little disappointed at first but buying the phone and paying for it in full is always the best route.
With that being said are you with Tmo? What area of the country are you in? Having issues or are new services going live? Questions about service with past or the new nexus device? Let's keep each other updated with what's going on with our carrier.
I've had just about every nexus phone while on Tmo. I had spotty service for awhile but over the years service has gotten much better for me in the Orlando area. This past year I've seen almost all the 3g towers turn into LTE. I got to use HD voice for the first time on my nexus 6. VOLTE got turned on. Band 12 going live (although not in my area, I've used it in other FL markets) Going forward to the 6P are we going lose some of these? I've already seen a report that band 12 will not be unlocked at launch for our device. Will volte be available? HD voice? None of these are deal breakers but it would suck to have such a cutting edge device yet it can't access some basic phone functions. What are your thoughts/insight?
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
when they see that sales are going down they will be dropping the price and eipin the phone just take a couple months
But i dont want to wait that long.. Ive saved my Jump and wanted the newest nexus again... Damn you
1SiK1500 said:
But i dont want to wait that long.. Ive saved my Jump and wanted the newest nexus again... Damn you
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why even bother with the jump program? buy phone outright and sell old phone. no restrictions, change phones whenever you want and probably cheaper.
unknown1205 said:
why even bother with the jump program? buy phone outright and sell old phone. no restrictions, change phones whenever you want and probably cheaper.
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Click to collapse
I'm not a fan of jump either however not everyone can afford the full price, some people are fortunate to be able to.
I guess it's kinda like leasing your car but of course a way lower price.
I love buying unlocked phones and now that tmobiles prices are so low it really works out
Even with the jump program you are paying full price for the phone. It just gives you the option to trade in without worrying about negative equity, like a car. But I guarantee you the first time you buy a new car cash you'll set yourself up for life to never have a car payment again, this is so much easier to do with a phone... So much easier.
Sent from my Nexus 6
SymbioticGenius said:
Even with the jump program you are paying full price for the phone. It just gives you the option to trade in without worrying about negative equity, like a car. But I guarantee you the first time you buy a new car cash you'll set yourself up for life to never have a car payment again, this is so much easier to do with a phone... So much easier.
Sent from my Nexus 6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think most people who get the jump program get it because they can't afford to pay the full price up front, even if they are paying the same in the end or maybe sometimes you pay more for a device when you could've gotten an unlocked device (same or better) for cheaper
I actually began my Nexus 6 purchase through finance. I figured hey, it's 0% who cares. I started to think of bills and life from a more DTI based perspective vs my older, borrow at low or no interest and invest to get more mindset.
Once you start paying off everything with a payment (no matter how low the interest) you start to have so much excess cash monthly that you realize WTF you've been doing wrong your whole life. It also makes it a lot easier to save and invest.
Anyway back on topic, I don't think carriers will be getting the 6P. But if anyone did, it would probably be T-Mobile
Sent from my Nexus 6
if anyone did, it would probably be T-Mobile
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Since the thing will not be supporting band 12 on t-mobile, at least not right away, I'd think not.
Edit: Hah! Soon!
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/3mzygu/google_nexus_team_ama_working_to_get_band_12/
Why pay full price for the phone? I have the original Jump program. So i pay $27/Month. In one year I paid $324 and traded the phone in for the next Nexus. I didnt have to shell out the full $650. I dont know but it works fine for me. Only phone i care about are the nexus devices. Its a Big deal when i can simply walk into the store hand them my old phone keep all my Chargers and accessories and walk out with a new phone paying only taxes..
I just pre-ordered one and I feel that Jump may not offer a good deal. I've been hearing a lot about Google Fi so that does seem like a better option overall. Also, you would lose out on the $50 play credit and three months of free Google Play Music unless you get it before Oct 25. I'll be using mine for T-Mobile and I'd only hold on ordering to look over reviews, but it's a Nexus device so it should be pretty solid. I agree with many in here that not everyone can pay full price, but with Jump you are still paying quite a bit of money. It's just better to buy it up front then sell the old phone after.
One of the things mentioned in the Reddit AMA today was they're attempting to work with TMobile on getting the Band 12 turned on prior to the device getting to everyone. So at least they're acknowledging the issue.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk
They're not selling the Nexus 6P in U.S. carrier stores... So we don't have the option to use Jump! or Jump! On Demand. I have a Galaxy S6 on Jump! On Demand that I'm a few months into... I purchased a 6P outright and will use 1 of my 3 upgrades w/ T-Moible to go w/ something else, and not pay a dime at the store. I switch phones a TON so for me Jump! On Demand is awesome. I will say though, once I am done with this current EIP, I will try to stay with unlocked phones and just pay outright for them. My monthly bill will be a lot cheaper.
As far as the band 12 support; if they get it fixed by ship date, great. If not, oh well... I don't have access to band 12 where I am (Columbus, Ohio), so I'm not missing anything if they don't have it fixed. I'm sure when/if it gets activated here this will be fixed.
In the Reddit AMA;
They ignored every question about why they are not selling through US Carriers. This was the most commonly asked question.
I'm like thinking, that's one of the most important questions, why will this not be sold in U.S. Carrier stores ? Especially T-Mobile stores, as they have carried and stocked every single Nexus phone the past six years. I could see Verizon or ATT not selling it, but T-Mobile has been a big supporter of the Nexus phones, as far as carriers go.
So the Nexus 6P will be nowhere to be seen or played with in stores, you just have to hope you think you'll like it and order it online only ? That's crazy. I always want to hold it in hand, mess around it with it for 30 minutes in the store, really get a feel for the phone, before deciding.
Zorachus said:
In the Reddit AMA;
They ignored every question about why they are not selling through US Carriers. This was the most commonly asked question.
I'm like thinking, that's one of the most important questions, why will this not be sold in U.S. Carrier stores ? Especially T-Mobile stores, as they have carried and stocked every single Nexus phone the past six years. I could see Verizon or ATT not selling it, but T-Mobile has been a big supporter of the Nexus phones, as far as carriers go.
So the Nexus 6P will be nowhere to be seen or played with in stores, you just have to hope you think you'll like it and order it online only ? That's crazy. I always want to hold it in hand, mess around it with it for 30 minutes in the store, really get a feel for the phone, before deciding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure that They will be available at some point. Google has given exclusivity for the first couple months before, this time it's to themselves. Maybe they want to get the preorders out without a disaster like previous releases. On the bright side we get great pricing compared to the rest of the world
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Yeah, Rumor is they could offer them in stores later this month to avoid the instant rush of phone orders. They sell direct first then allow carries to carry a few models if wanted.
That Reddit AMA was filled with tons of questions asking about U.S. Carrier availability, and they didn't respond once.
Wonder if that got them thinking, hey maybe we should put this out to T-Mobile and other carriers maybe ? I could see that happening after the rush of Play Store orders, and be in stores come December. I bet T-Mobile at least carries it by Christmas, just my guess.
Zorachus said:
That Reddit AMA was filled with tons of questions asking about U.S. Carrier availability, and they didn't respond once.
Wonder if that got them thinking, hey maybe we should put this out to T-Mobile and other carriers maybe ? I could see that happening after the rush of Play Store orders, and be in stores come December. I bet T-Mobile at least carries it by Christmas, just my guess.
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Click to collapse
I'm wondering if part of the reason is so they can say see how many devices we sold without you, you're not getting customized builds this time.
If they announce carrier availability it would just eat into their own direct sales.
I'd be shocked if this doesn't ultimately get on carriers in a quarter or so.
I'm still upset no Nexus 6P at U.S. Carrier stores, especially T-Mobile.
And I call BS on Google's excuse, that they want full control and no carrier slow downs no carrier involvement mucking things up.
Apple
Carriers don't get in the way of Apple and iOS updates. A Verizon or ATT iPhone 6S get's updated straight from Apple, you don't see Verizon users waiting longer for the iOS update, than an international iPhone user, or Apple having to give the update to ATT first and then let them, hand out the update later to it's customers.
Nope, if you have a Sprint, or T-Mobile, or Verizon iPhone, you just go to iTunes or Apple for the update, and they have the update available at the exact the same time, no matter which carrier phone you own.
My point is, carriers aren't in the way whatsoever, and Apple sells a **** ton of iPhone's through these carriers. How many sales of iPhone's are done directly through the Apple store and site only, like Google wants people to buy the Nexus 6P through the Play Store only ?
Google should sell the Nexus 6P at U.S. Carrier stores, and not give the BS excuse it's because of updates or some crap.

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