I recently ended my 7 month affair with Sprint. I didn't end it because I got a better deal elsewhere, or anything of that nature. But before I end it, I want to explain why I switched.

I was paying AT&T 150 a month for 2 lines. That seems high, sure, and it'll seem higher when you consider I also had a 22% employer discount with AT&T. I had one line with smartphone unlimited data, and one line with unlimited texts (featurephone for the 2nd line). Considering that a *new* plan costs less than that, and gives you more, I felt I was being screwed. That screwed feeling was the reason I started looking around.

In retrospect, Sprint seemed like the perfect fit. Their network footprint is decent, their prices were/are great, and they're an underdog. And I love me an underdog. So, a couple of blackberries later, and the girl and I were on Sprint.

The first 7 months of Sprint were flawless. I never ran into any coverage issues, and I never had any reason to complain. Hell, I was absolutely delighted with the service. Then, in late June, things started going bad.

One night, I noticed I was roaming at home. Data wasn't available, and voice calls went straight to voicemail. This was happening on *both* of our phones, and it started happening on the same evening. I think the possibility of both phones developing the same fault simultaneously are very slim, so I was pretty sure it was the network (this would be confirmed later).

Even then, I wasn't going to complain. Let's be honest, crap happens. I figured the situation would sort itself out in a day or two.

After three days of no network at home, I finally called Sprint. The phone call that night set the pattern for all of my subsequent phone calls with Sprint. It went like this:

• I'd call sprint, and report the fact that I was having issues with my phone.
  
• We'd attempt a PRL/Profile update. This never worked.
  
• I'd do a battery pull.
  
• ... Still Roaming...
  
• The rep would then call a network engineer. On four different occasions, I was told:
  
  
  
  • There was a problem with the network, dated back to when I originally had my issue (Tuesday, 6/21/11)
    
  • The problem only affected data transmission (kinda important with a blackberry). Voice should work via roaming.
    
  • The outage was expected to be resolved within 24-48 hours.
    
  
  
• The rep would then give me a trouble ticket #, and promise to call back within 24-48 hours.
  
• After a few days of calling, they started to mention a credit once the situation was resolved.
  
• One time a rep told me that he saw multiple tickets had been opened in my area within the last 6 hours, a few days later I was told I was the only person in the area to complain. The story always shifted.
  

During the first week of the outage, I called tech support two or three times (I forget which, to be honest). After a week, I decided I was going to call daily and keep reminding them of the situation. To be honest, I started to see this as a battle of wills, and it appears that Sprint did too.

During that second week, I was amazed at some of the crap Sprint was spewing. At one point I had a rep tell me that my problem *must* have been solved, because they saw I had dropped calls the week before, but none within the last few days. When I told her that I had stopped using my cell at home, and instead had started using my landline, she told me that I'd have to start using my cell more (and dropping calls more) in order for them to really see the problem.

I had one rep tell me that my problem was that both phones went bad simultaneously. Warranty... what warranty? I'd have to buy new phones out of pocket. As soon as I mentioned that it'd be cheaper for me to pay the ETF, he suggested sending me an Airave...

Holy crap, the Airave. After that first week, they kept pushing the Airave solution on me, and I kept telling them no. It'd be great if the coverage problem was just *in* my house, but that wasn't the whole story...

The coverage situation extended beyond my house, for about 1.5 miles or so. I roamed when I was out walking/running. Grocery store? Roaming. Spotty (and that's being kind) data while roaming. No grocery list software. No slacker. Basically, the area in which I spent half my time was a no-coverage zone, despite it having the "best" coverage on Sprint's coverage map.

After two weeks, and 15+ hours on the phone with Sprint, I basically asked for an adjustment to my ETF. Can't do it, was the reply. I countered with the fact that I had no coverage for two weeks at home, and they were going to give me a credit once "they had the situation fixed", so give it to me against my ETF. No can do, was the reply. I mentioned the fact that of the four representatives that offered to call me back, only one did. I mentioned the fact that I was getting a different story every time I called. I said I had been told for well over a week that the situation was going to be fixed within 24-48 hours. I basically said I just can't trust you guys any more, the relationship is shot.

Finally a supervisor offered me a slight credit for both lines against the ETF. I gladly took it and hung up, basking in my victory. But something just didn't feel... right. On a hunch, I called back, talked to a rep, and found out he only credited one line. So I told my story one last time, to a very sympathetic rep, who did right by me and helped me out immensely (I'm not going to go into the full details, but this was the only time that Sprint did the right thing).

I really didn't want to leave Sprint, and I kept hoping against hope that they were going to get the situation fixed. I hate making changes like that and I hate bothering people, and I really regretted having to go down the road I did. In the end, Sprint simply left me no choice.

Oddly enough, after this happened, I noticed a lot of people posting about the same problem (hell, check out today's engadget article about Sprint's quarterly earnings report to see some examples). I've got a feeling that Sprint is having major network issues, and if they're not careful, other people are going to start paying attention.