9.15.2009

Phone FAIL: The Saga Continues

Some time this summer, my Palm Treo--which was admittedly not the fanciest, nor the best, smartphone, but did the trick--croaked. Not just croaked, but died a very ugly death. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Valentino," they said at the Sprint store, "we can't retrieve any of your data. This phone is dead." Now, had I been able to backup said Treo, that would have been one thing. But since it stopped syncing with my computer half a lifetime ago, it was a fail of the most epic proportions (do you see where this story is going yet?).

To add insult to injury, because I was roughly 5 months out of a new contract with Sprint, even the most basic phones cost upwards of $200. $200, for a phone. Just a phone. To make phone calls with. No internet, no email, just. a. phone.

Whatever, Sprint.

Thus began my campaign to switch over to AT&T and get an iPhone. Hubby was not--and is still not--thrilled. AT&T is notorious for crap connections and horrid customer service (well, OK, horrid customer service and cell phone providers go hand in hand). But, at the other end of the spectrum is the pretty, shiny, iPhone. The iPhone, for the love! So we sacrifice... right? Right???

I'm still working on it.

In the midst of all of this, the Friday before last, my Sprint connection in the house--which, mind you, has been flawless for 4 years now. Oh, and is also my business line--just dropped. That's it, no bars for you. I have to either stand in one spot and hope and pray that the connection does not get dropped, or go outside, to talk on my cell phone. Sprint's answer? Oh, they don't have one. But they do have a product that they can sell me to boost my signal inside my home.

Seriously, they have no explanation why all of the sudden my service--which worked fine before--has dropped. Nothing. And their best customer service practice, even after I told them I was considering leaving, was to sell me yet another service.

Oh, and by the way? When talking to the customer service rep, guess what? The call was dropped.

Whatever, Sprint.

So now I just have to hope and pray that I have an AT&T connection in the house. Because Sprint can go and jump off a cliff, as far as I'm concerned.

2 comments:

Rachel Rowan said...

How'd it go with AT&T? I also live in Fairfield and used a Treo since it was the only smartphone that would sync with Macs before the iPhone came out. Now my contract is up and i'm looking to make the switch too.

Sorry to read about your horrible Sprint customer service experinces. Good riddance!

tracie valentino said...

Believe it or not, we're still dealing with Sprint and their crappy service! Rumor has it that there was a Sprint tower on top of the Bronson windmill that was taken down right around the time I started having service problems. Coincidence?...

We have another month left on Sprint. I can't leave fast enough. I'm still not 100% sure of AT&T's coverage, especially in our house, but anything is better than nothing, right?

Good riddance is right!