Sprint Phone Debacle
Sprint Phone Debacle |
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There's a sucker born every minute.
He assured me in no uncertain terms that although we would likely have a mix of both Sprint and analog service, that the phone would indeed work in the section of northern Minnesota where we would be canoeing. In the four weeks that we spent on the river the phone worked once as I expected it should -- that was on June 8th at the Big Sandy Recreation Area. I was able to make calls with the phone, but Sprint PCS service only functioned once during the whole month and then it was worse than the analog service which was awful. Only on June 8th did the phone actually work on or near the river. I was able to use the phone some, but in each case except June 8th, I had to go hiking off looking for high ground. In some cases I had to hike a mile or more just to get a terrible static connection that was frequently cut off. Nothing on the entire trip was more frustrating and ineffective than our (many expletives!!!!) Sprint phone. In Aitkin the phone as usual would not work in the campground at the river. The walk into town was about a mile and towards the end of that walk the phone finally kicked in with a bad connection. On Wednesday night June 13th Isaac and I were in our tent getting ready to sleep. The weather was stormy. We were listening to a small radio in the tent and we heard that there was a tornado warning for Brainerd just 29 miles south west of us. Then we heard that winds exceeding 100 miles an hour had struck Brainerd -- homes where destroyed. Next we heard that a tornado had been sighted just north of Ironton which would have put it about fifteen miles from us. Finally the rain began falling in torrents. The wind blew so hard that the tent was being pushed down on top of us. The radio announced that a tornado warning was now in effect for Aitkin and then the sirens went off. We were scared. In a vain effort I took the Sprint PCS phone and dialed 911. For ten minutes the worthless piece of junk just sat there and said connecting to emergency services -- it never did. I already knew it wouldn't work in the campground, but when you're scared, you'll try anyway. I guess I could have taken the phone and walked the mile into town to make the call. By then however I would have been standing in front of the Aitkin police station and could have just knocked on the door. We had another revealing experience with the phone at the Jacobson campground. Again the phone would not work at the campsite. I had to climb the hill and then climb onto a picnic table to get a bad connection. A young couple camping there was amused and sympathetic. Both had cell phones with them that interestingly worked well anywhere and everywhere in the campground. When I called Sprint later to complain and spoke with a supervisor there he simply denied that such could be possible unless my phone was defective. Back in St. Louis I took my phone to a Sprint store to have it checked -- it's not defective. Their supervisor either lied to me or doesn't know much about the products he sells. I had called Sprint expecting to have my bill adjusted. I felt that since their salesman had assured me a working phone as well as Sprint service at least in part, that I was due some consideration. It took hours on hold and multiple shuffling back and forth to finally reach one of their supervisors (gentlemen mentioned above). He flat out told me that I had had fourteen days to read their terms and conditions during which time I could have returned the phone. (Right, return the phone while canoeing down the Mississippi headwaters in the Minnesota wilderness). Otherwise their terms and conditions clearly stated that I had no guarantee the phone was suitable or usable or would work in any way and I should pay my bill and shut up. He was rude, entirely unsympathetic and only interested in repeating to me that I had accepted their terms and conditions and legally they owed me nothing, I owed them. (I did get a partial adjustment from a lower echelon employee. Not much I believe considering the circumstances.) Pictured above is my Sprint PCS Touchpoint model TP2200 dual band phone. Along the first 400 miles of the Mississippi you'd be better off sticking a hook through it and trolling for muskie than trying to make phone calls. If you're heading for northern Minnesota and need a phone, take heed! P.S. Our trip was broken into two segments: Itasca to Aitkin and Aitkin to Red Wing. In between we traveled to Florida for a family event. The comments above refer to the first half of our journey down to Aitkin. I assumed that in the second half of the trip the phone would work much better since we were approaching and would pass through major cities like St. Cloud and the Twin Cities. I was both right and wrong in this assumption. Within the actual city limits of the larger towns the phone worked well. However I was still very disappointed with the phone's poor performance overall. Even in southern Minnesota near large population centers, our Sprint phone failed to work if we were even a few miles outside the city limits. For example on our last day in Red Wing Minnesota we pulled the canoe ashore for the final time in Colvill Park. Colvill Park is at the southern end of the city limits about two miles from the center of town. I needed to use the phone, but characteristically it wouldn't work. A gentleman sitting on a bench in the park noticed my frustration and asked what was wrong. I said I couldn't get phone service. He asked me what kind of phone I had and I told him Sprint. He knowingly shook his head and said, "Oh yeah, Sprint won't work here." Well surprise, surprise! As he said this I was watching a young woman on the other bench happily talking on a cell phone! Where Sprint won't work other services apparently work just fine. In the media Sprint advertises their PCS service as nationwide. Well I guess you can argue about just what "nationwide" really means; as far as Sprint is concerned it must mean that there are a few spots on the west coast where the phone will work and a few spots on the east cost where the phone will work and between the two coasts a few spots in the middle where the phone will work. I would be surprised indeed, given our experience, if their nationwide coverage actually covered ten percent of the nation. Does that sound to you like they're lying? |
When Isaac and I began seriously considering this trip, Clare suggested that we take along a cell phone both in case of emergency and to call home each day and let her know we were safe. I agreed it was a good idea, but I had never before owned such a phone and I had many questions. So we started shopping; I stopped in a few stores like Radio Shack and began to learn. One question that I had a hard time getting answered was, "will the phone work in so remote an area as we intended to travel?" Eventually I called Sprint directly and wound up talking to a young man from their sales department. He was very solicitous and spent the better part of an hour with me. When I asked him if the phone would work where we were going he asked me for specific locations. He had a map that he checked and we went over the route. I gave him names of places where we would be and he checked his map to verify that we would have phone service, or at least that's what I assume he was doing given our conversation.