Sprint's Priorities

[straitda]

As an HTC Arrive owner on Sprint, I was reading through the Arrive posts on Sprint's customer forums to see if there was any news about the 8107 update for the Arrive as well as wifi hotspot, visual voicemail and SMS 160 character limit updates. I read the usual stuff, "I'm leaving Sprint if xyz doesn't happen."

It dawned on me that Sprint has to prioritize updates to their software like the rest of us who are in the business of software development. So they have fairly stable phones in the Arrive and the iPhone. And then they have this buggy and fragmented selection of Android phones they are constantly wrangling. I have first hand experience with this as my Dad and Mom chose Samsung Epic 4g phones when we moved from Verizon to Sprint. They turned their Epics in after three weeks of misery and picked up Arrives as well.

So you have a ton of Sprint customers using these Android nightmare phones and a handful of customers using a relatively solid WP7 device. What are you going to spend your time on? I'm not saying I'm happy with the lack of attention to the Arrive and the updates Microsoft have been providing. I guess I am saying, I understand.

I haven't seen an update on the Arrive since Mango and would really like to see the disappearing keyboard fixed. I am invested in the Microsoft/Xbox/WP7 ecosystem so I will choose a carrier that meets my needs in the end. I hope Sprint gets there eventually because I do not want to change carriers again and I have hope for their Sprint Network Vision infrastructure upgrades.

Thoughts? I would be interested if anyone else thinks Android is consuming a disproportionate amount of carrier time to provide phone updates.

Dave

 

[kylej1050]

The squeaky wheels always get the grease.

Sadly, even with a skipped/missing/late update we are still way ahead as far as what's available to what we've got than most Android users lol

Take the Samsung Galaxy S 2 Epic 4G Touch(stupidest name ever BTW), it's the most expensive android phone Sprint offers and it ships with Android 2.3... According to the android developer site its now 4 revisions behind.

 

[Nimdock]

I don't know what their priorities are... But customer satisfaction doesn't appear to be one of them.

I have an arrive and as soon as the Lumia 900 arrives I will be paying my ETF and moving to AT&T.

 

[skillit0]

I think it was a bad move on sprint to bet so much so late on the iPhone. Now they r stuck and iPhone hype is starting to die down. But I have also noticed that they play the wait and see game as well. Sucks as it may I'll play the game while I convince the mrs to switch to att

Sent from my HTC Arrive using Board Express

 

[speedtouch]

I don't know what their priorities are... But customer satisfaction doesn't appear to be one of them.

I have an arrive and as soon as the Lumia 900 arrives I will be paying my ETF and moving to AT&T.

It always pains me to see people paying ETFs. Stop that! Don't do contracts anymore, it's such a ripoff when you actually sit down do the math on a calculator. Especially if you want to move to another carrier. Mid-2011 I was finally off contract at Sprint and I will remain so for the rest of my life, no matter the carrier I go to. Just wait it out for a few months and save enough to buy the phone-of-your-dreams off-contract.

Save your money and your sanity. No more contracts! Say it with me, no more contracts!

 

[kylej1050]

I've been out of contract since November. That's when my old Android phone was supposed to be up for an update but they had stopped updating it long before that.

I'll go under contract with ATT come March, but I won't get an upgrade under contract. 2 years is really not that long of a contract if you like the phone. My old Motorola Q with WM5 ran me a good 4 years before I bothered to 'upgrade' to an Android phone, that lasted about 9 months and here I am on WP.

 

[Nimdock]

It always pains me to see people paying ETFs. Stop that! Don't do contracts anymore, it's such a ripoff when you actually sit down do the math on a calculator. Especially if you want to move to another carrier. Mid-2011 I was finally off contract at Sprint and I will remain so for the rest of my life, no matter the carrier I go to. Just wait it out for a few months and save enough to buy the phone-of-your-dreams off-contract.

Save your money and your sanity. No more contracts! Say it with me, no more contracts!

I understand your point... The logic I was using is that hopefully I can sell an out of contract Arrive for somewhat decent money.

 

[speedtouch]

I've been out of contract since November. That's when my old Android phone was supposed to be up for an update but they had stopped updating it long before that.

I'll go under contract with ATT come March, but I won't get an upgrade under contract. 2 years is really not that long of a contract if you like the phone. My old Motorola Q with WM5 ran me a good 4 years before I bothered to 'upgrade' to an Android phone, that lasted about 9 months and here I am on WP.

I understand, but can you honestly say you're going to be happy with any phone after two years? Who knows if MS will be as good as Apple when it comes to updating old hardware. I hope MS is, but I have my doubts. If you stay off contract, then you retain your freedom to keep the phone for 2 years, 1 year, 3 months, whatever. You're not locked in and held hostage to a phone you may very well become frustrated with. Remember, there's always someone on Ebay who will buy your unwanted, used phone.

 

[speedtouch]

I understand your point... The logic I was using is that hopefully I can sell an out of contract Arrive for somewhat decent money.

I gotcha. Yeah, I am sure you can sell it for something. Ebay is a wonderful place! I just hate to see people signing up for contracts anymore. It's so unnecessary.

 

[kylej1050]

I understand, but can you honestly say you're going to be happy with any phone after two years?

Actually, yeah.

If it wasn't for the fact that I pay $10/month for premium data on the Arrive and still get 56K style data speeds I'd stay with Sprint until a new WP7 device shows up. I'd even stay if they said they were not going to update the Arrive again because as is the phone works great! It's the data service that pisses me off, I love my phone.

The problem with my Android phone wasn't that it was out of date, it was that it ran like crap and Samsung/Sprint seemed perfectly happy letting us rot with them.

 

[speedtouch]

Actually, yeah.

If it wasn't for the fact that I pay $10/month for premium data on the Arrive and still get 56K style data speeds I'd stay with Sprint until a new WP7 device shows up. I'd even stay if they said they were not going to update the Arrive again because as is the phone works great! It's the data service that pisses me off, I love my phone.

The problem with my Android phone wasn't that it was out of date, it was that it ran like crap and Samsung/Sprint seemed perfectly happy letting us rot with them.

Wow. There's not many people who can say that, but I am glad you can. I think it bodes well for the WP7 universe, really. Because if you are that happy with it, it must be a great OS. Can't wait to see my wife's Lumia 710 when it comes in the mail this week.

Yes, the $10 premium data charge is such BS. And, the discounts don't affect the $10 charge, you pay it in full. Which is really bad. Check your bill if you're unsure of that. You'll see what I mean.

Unfortunately, Android is a dead-end, orphan-filled universe. Updates are sparse, late or never. Carriers load up so much crap on the phones it degrades the performance and ease of use. After a few weeks with my EVO 3D I had enough and I rooted it and installed CleanROM on it. It's been a very usable phone ever since. But I shouldn't have to do that, should I? I shouldn't have to do any deep OS customizations on any phone to make it useable.

My hope is MS ensures WP7 is nothing like Android. It's really sad that Sprint has abandoned WP7 entirely.

 

[oldpueblo]

If you have a family plan with 1500 minutes then I'm pretty sure you can get out of your ETF this month, then just continue month to month. They just restructured the plans and basically broke the contract. I'll be doing it too.

 

[speedtouch]

If you have a family plan with 1500 minutes then I'm pretty sure you can get out of your ETF this month, then just continue month to month. They just restructured the plans and basically broke the contract. I'll be doing it too.

Oh really? I did not know that. I do have the 1500 minute family plan. My wife's phone is on contract w/Sprint until March 15, 2012. I ordered her a T-Mo Lumia 710 and was just going to pay the $50 ETF to get her over to T-Mo. Do you have any more information on the process of getting out of the ETF?

 

[oldpueblo]

Start here, there's a decent amount of misinformation but the long and short of it is that before they charged $129 for two free lines, now they're going to charge $109 for one free line then you add from there. It still adds up to the same price if you have two lines, BUT it's still a restructuring of the plan. Also if you have a discount then your payment will also go up a few dollars as further evidence.

SPRINT Changing T&C again (Feb 2012) - Get out of Contract ETF free - Slickdeals.net

 

[speedtouch]

Start here, there's a decent amount of misinformation but the long and short of it is that before they charged $129 for two free lines, now they're going to charge $109 for one free line then you add from there. It still adds up to the same price if you have two lines, BUT it's still a restructuring of the plan. Also if you have a discount then your payment will also go up a few dollars as further evidence.

SPRINT Changing T&C again (Feb 2012) - Get out of Contract ETF free - Slickdeals.net

I see. Thanks very much for the info and the link. I'm going to call Sprint tonight if I can find some free time. I'll only be getting out of a $50 ETF, but hey, $50 is $50.

By the way, if you edit that double post and go into the Advanced editing, you can delete the post.