Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

I live in Orange County California and Sprint currently has a major problem
on the 73 FWY/Toll Road. The 73 FWY connects North and South Orange County
and has a traffic volume of millions of cars per day. It is about a 12
minute drive to travel from North Orange County to South Orange County.
During this 12 minute drive, every SprintPCS user will be GUARANTEED two
call drops. One of the call drops occurs at El Toro Road and the other call
drop occurs at Newport Coast Drive. Therefore a very high number of
SprintPCS customers are dropping their calls daily on this major freeway. It
is ridiculous and is a major black eye for Sprint!!! None of the other
cellular carriers/providers have problems on the 73 FWY.

When I was with Verizon, it was possible to contact a level-2 tech support
person and get some real answers regarding coverage problems. I had problems
with coverage at my new home and Verizon actually sent an engineer out to my
location to investigate the problem. Now that is real customer service!!!
Verizon admitted that there is a weak signal in my neighborhood and that
they were having difficulties acquiring land for a cell site. Since my
Verizon phone did not function at my home, I switched to Sprint who has a
tower that is disguised as a light pole at the local baseball field in the
park. I have been mostly satisfied with the service except for the
guaranteed dropped calls on the 73 FWY. Why does no other cellular carrier
have this problem on the 73 FWY? Why is Spring the only service that has the
problem?

I would contact Sprint Customer service and complain about the problem, but
I know that I will simply get the blow-off with a canned answer. There seems
to be no way to contact someone in the SprintPCS RF department that can give
me a straight answer to this question.

Is there anyone on this forum that works in the SprintPCS RF department or
that has suggestions of whom I should contact at Sprint?

Thanks,

-mij

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:14:35 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <mijadyaw@nospam.com>
wrote:

> I live in Orange County California and Sprint currently has a major problem
>on the 73 FWY/Toll Road. The 73 FWY connects North and South Orange County
>and has a traffic volume of millions of cars per day. It is about a 12
>minute drive to travel from North Orange County to South Orange County.
>During this 12 minute drive, every SprintPCS user will be GUARANTEED two
>call drops. One of the call drops occurs at El Toro Road and the other call
>drop occurs at Newport Coast Drive. Therefore a very high number of
>SprintPCS customers are dropping their calls daily on this major freeway. It
>is ridiculous and is a major black eye for Sprint!!! None of the other
>cellular carriers/providers have problems on the 73 FWY.

Millions of cars per day?? On a 12-minute stretch of freeway? Gosh, I
don't even want to do the math on that one. :-)

><snip>
>Why does no other cellular carrier have this problem on the 73 FWY?
>Why is Spring the only service that has the problem?

Other carriers most likely have antennas in different areas. It's not
surprising that one carrier has a problem where others don't,
regardless of which carrier is being compared to the others.

>I would contact Sprint Customer service and complain about the problem, but
>I know that I will simply get the blow-off with a canned answer. There seems
>to be no way to contact someone in the SprintPCS RF department that can give
>me a straight answer to this question.

I've reported some network coverage problems over the last 6-8 months,
including by using the recommended method of calling *2, and so far
have gotten encouraging results. In one case, about 2 weeks after
submitting a trouble report regarding dropped calls inside my house,
my neighbor from across the street caught me out in my yard and said
he recognized the address on the report because it was so similar to
his own. Yes, he works on Sprint's RF coverage team, or whatever they
call it. So I would say that it's probably true that *2 CSR's will
give you a standard response, but it also seems to be true that they
pass the trouble reports on to the folks who are able to look into it.
Be aware, though, that fixes can take a year or more, especially if a
new tower has to be erected. The approvals alone can take that long.

>Is there anyone on this forum that works in the SprintPCS RF department or
>that has suggestions of whom I should contact at Sprint?

In this order, I recommend calling *2 or stop by a Sprint store or ask
a friendly SPCS employee to type "networkfeedback" into their Intranet
browser.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Paul Miner wrote:

> Millions of cars per day?? On a 12-minute stretch of freeway? Gosh, I
> don't even want to do the math on that one. :-)

Greater Los Angeles, man - "millions" is a low estimate

:>

**Steve in Apple Valley (on the opposite side of Lost Angles)

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Mij Adyaw wrote:

> I would contact Sprint Customer service and complain about the problem, but
> I know that I will simply get the blow-off with a canned answer. There seems
> to be no way to contact someone in the SprintPCS RF department that can give
> me a straight answer to this question.

You can call Tech Support just like you can call Tech Support at VZW. I forget
what to tell Claire, but you can always dial zero and tell a live human you
need to be transferred. Tech Support reps seem to have the benefit that most of
them are *much* better trained than the front-line CSRs.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:14:35 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <mijadyaw@nospam.com>
wrote:
> I live in Orange County California and Sprint currently has a major problem
>on the 73 FWY/Toll Road. The 73 FWY connects North and South Orange County
>and has a traffic volume of millions of cars per day. It is about a 12
>minute drive to travel from North Orange County to South Orange County.
>During this 12 minute drive, every SprintPCS user will be GUARANTEED two
>call drops. One of the call drops occurs at El Toro Road and the other call
>drop occurs at Newport Coast Drive. Therefore a very high number of
>SprintPCS customers are dropping their calls daily on this major freeway. It
>is ridiculous and is a major black eye for Sprint!!! None of the other
>cellular carriers/providers have problems on the 73 FWY.
The problem is much worse than on the 73 freeway in south OC. In
north OC where I am it is bad all over. I think most of south OC is
better than north OC.

Orange County CA is a terrible place for SprintPCS. It is much worse
than it was a couple of years ago. Dropped calls, Try analog, calls go
to voicemail inside buildings.

>I would contact Sprint Customer service and complain about the problem, but
>I know that I will simply get the blow-off with a canned answer. There seems
>to be no way to contact someone in the SprintPCS RF department that can give
>me a straight answer to this question.

It used to be *LANET or #LANET to leave voicemail about coverage
issues. I don't think that works anymore. They never fixed anything
anyway. I reported problems lots of times, but nothing has changed.

BTW, I saw the equipment NEXTEL uses to verify coverage. Macintosh
laptops with GPS and some other equipment, they put it in a car and
drive around. The stuff was stored in a maintenance facility, stacked
right by the back door. I saw it walking by and asked the guys about
it, it was obvious what it would be used for.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Steve,

If I call *2 and ask for a technical support rep. will the customer support
rep that answered the phone transfer me, or will they try to resolve the
problem on their own without transferring to a tech support rep? I am
currently having a new problem with a cell site handoff about 1/2 mile from
my home. The CS rep will most likely not understand this problem and I will
need tech support assistance.

Thanks,

-mij

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news4ui3p$r9r$3@ratbert.glorb.com...
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
>
>> I would contact Sprint Customer service and complain about the problem,
>> but I know that I will simply get the blow-off with a canned answer.
>> There seems to be no way to contact someone in the SprintPCS RF
>> department that can give me a straight answer to this question.
>
> You can call Tech Support just like you can call Tech Support at VZW. I
> forget what to tell Claire, but you can always dial zero and tell a live
> human you need to be transferred. Tech Support reps seem to have the
> benefit that most of them are *much* better trained than the front-line
> CSRs.
>
> --
> JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
> Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
>
> "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
> --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

"Steevo@my-deja.com" <steevo@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:etl5719qtnsgilo83hh53uocn9veti6tid@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 12:14:35 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <mijadyaw@nospam.com>
> wrote:
>> I live in Orange County California and Sprint currently has a major
>> problem
>>on the 73 FWY/Toll Road. The 73 FWY connects North and South Orange County
>>and has a traffic volume of millions of cars per day. It is about a 12
>>minute drive to travel from North Orange County to South Orange County.
>>During this 12 minute drive, every SprintPCS user will be GUARANTEED two
>>call drops. One of the call drops occurs at El Toro Road and the other
>>call
>>drop occurs at Newport Coast Drive. Therefore a very high number of
>>SprintPCS customers are dropping their calls daily on this major freeway.
>>It
>>is ridiculous and is a major black eye for Sprint!!! None of the other
>>cellular carriers/providers have problems on the 73 FWY.
> The problem is much worse than on the 73 freeway in south OC. In
> north OC where I am it is bad all over. I think most of south OC is
> better than north OC.
>
> Orange County CA is a terrible place for SprintPCS. It is much worse
> than it was a couple of years ago. Dropped calls, Try analog, calls go
> to voicemail inside buildings.
>
>>I would contact Sprint Customer service and complain about the problem,
>>but
>>I know that I will simply get the blow-off with a canned answer. There
>>seems
>>to be no way to contact someone in the SprintPCS RF department that can
>>give
>>me a straight answer to this question.
>
> It used to be *LANET or #LANET to leave voicemail about coverage
> issues. I don't think that works anymore. They never fixed anything
> anyway. I reported problems lots of times, but nothing has changed.
>
> BTW, I saw the equipment NEXTEL uses to verify coverage. Macintosh
> laptops with GPS and some other equipment, they put it in a car and
> drive around. The stuff was stored in a maintenance facility, stacked
> right by the back door. I saw it walking by and asked the guys about
> it, it was obvious what it would be used for.
>
>
>
Your response is not quite accurate. There are many areas in OC where VZW
does not function but Sprint works very well and vice versa. It all depends
on the area and the location of the cell site. I would say that SPCS
coverage in OC is very good. It might not be quite as good as VZW but it is
much better than Cingular.

-mij

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Mij Adyaw wrote:

> If I call *2 and ask for a technical support rep. will the customer support
> rep that answered the phone transfer me, or will they try to resolve the
> problem on their own without transferring to a tech support rep? I am
> currently having a new problem with a cell site handoff about 1/2 mile from
> my home. The CS rep will most likely not understand this problem and I will
> need tech support assistance.

My experience is that they will just transfer you.

You can also tell Claire (the computer) certain things, but I forget what the
keywords are to get directly to tech support.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:54:14 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" <mijadyaw@nospam.com>
wrote:
>>"Steevo@my-deja.com" <steevo@my-deja.com> wrote in message
>> The problem is much worse than on the 73 freeway in south OC. In
>> north OC where I am it is bad all over. I think most of south OC is
>> better than north OC.
>>
>> Orange County CA is a terrible place for SprintPCS. It is much worse
>> than it was a couple of years ago. Dropped calls, Try analog, calls go
>> to voicemail inside buildings.
>>
>Your response is not quite accurate. There are many areas in OC where VZW
>does not function but Sprint works very well and vice versa. It all depends
>on the area and the location of the cell site. I would say that SPCS
>coverage in OC is very good. It might not be quite as good as VZW but it is
>much better than Cingular.
I don't recall mentioning VZW. I am sure there are areas that work
better, and those that work worse.

I stand by my statement. Sprintpcs has poor coverage in North OC.
Heck, 3-4 years ago you could buy a phone at the Brea Sprint Store,
walk across the parking lot to Walmart, and you would get "no service
try analog" inside the store. The same shopping center as the Sprint
store. They did fix that. Prolly because of their store.

However I get very poor service in Placentia on Sprint. I know there
are areas that work well, but not here. Sprint should fix it. They
haven't yet.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 14:12:06 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
wrote:

>
>You can also tell Claire (the computer) certain things, but I forget what the
>keywords are to get directly to tech support.
I remember something like "equipment trouble" used to work.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Steevo@my-deja.com wrote:

> I don't recall mentioning VZW. I am sure there are areas that work
> better, and those that work worse.
>
> I stand by my statement. Sprintpcs has poor coverage in North OC.
> Heck, 3-4 years ago you could buy a phone at the Brea Sprint Store,
> walk across the parking lot to Walmart, and you would get "no service
> try analog" inside the store. The same shopping center as the Sprint
> store. They did fix that. Prolly because of their store.
>
> However I get very poor service in Placentia on Sprint. I know there
> are areas that work well, but not here. Sprint should fix it. They
> haven't yet.

I live in SoCal too (although not in Orange County). Perhaps we should compile
a list of places where Sprint phones have problems and who's having those
problems? Definitely keep on Sprint about the coverage issues, but if we can
show somehow that a lot of people are having problems, it'll speed up the
process of getting them fixed.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

That is a good idea. Interestingly enough, I work with many folks that have
Verizon and they have the same problems. I had to drop Verizon because I
moved to an area of Laguna Niguel where they have no service.

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news51c2d$9tn$2@ratbert.glorb.com...
> Steevo@my-deja.com wrote:
>
>> I don't recall mentioning VZW. I am sure there are areas that work
>> better, and those that work worse. I stand by my statement. Sprintpcs
>> has poor coverage in North OC.
>> Heck, 3-4 years ago you could buy a phone at the Brea Sprint Store,
>> walk across the parking lot to Walmart, and you would get "no service
>> try analog" inside the store. The same shopping center as the Sprint
>> store. They did fix that. Prolly because of their store. However I get
>> very poor service in Placentia on Sprint. I know there
>> are areas that work well, but not here. Sprint should fix it. They
>> haven't yet.
>
> I live in SoCal too (although not in Orange County). Perhaps we should
> compile a list of places where Sprint phones have problems and who's
> having those problems? Definitely keep on Sprint about the coverage
> issues, but if we can show somehow that a lot of people are having
> problems, it'll speed up the process of getting them fixed.
>
> --
> JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
> Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
>
> "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
> --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news51c2d$9tn$2@ratbert.glorb.com...
> Steevo@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> > I don't recall mentioning VZW. I am sure there are areas that work
> > better, and those that work worse.
> >
> > I stand by my statement. Sprintpcs has poor coverage in North OC.
> > Heck, 3-4 years ago you could buy a phone at the Brea Sprint Store,
> > walk across the parking lot to Walmart, and you would get "no service
> > try analog" inside the store. The same shopping center as the Sprint
> > store. They did fix that. Prolly because of their store.
> >
> > However I get very poor service in Placentia on Sprint. I know there
> > are areas that work well, but not here. Sprint should fix it. They
> > haven't yet.
>
> I live in SoCal too (although not in Orange County). Perhaps we should
compile
> a list of places where Sprint phones have problems and who's having those
> problems? Definitely keep on Sprint about the coverage issues, but if we
can
> show somehow that a lot of people are having problems, it'll speed up the
> process of getting them fixed.

If one does want to pipe in on coverage problems, they should not only
include the problem area, but the phone model they use, and the time of the
day as well. It could very well be that SPCS has too many customers calling
in certain areas at certain times of the day to where the towers can't
handle the workload ...

Bob

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

On Sun, 01 May 2005 04:51:11 GMT, "Bob Smith"
<usirsclt_No_Spam_@earthlink.net> wrote:

>
>If one does want to pipe in on coverage problems, they should not only
>include the problem area, but the phone model they use, and the time of the
>day as well. It could very well be that SPCS has too many customers calling
>in certain areas at certain times of the day to where the towers can't
>handle the workload ...

I can believe it is a network problem. Sprint has stores in the area,
and they are connecting customers. It might very well be a system
capacity issue at least in some areas. That can certainly call failed
handoffs, dropped calls, or no service messages.

My phone passed the test, I have the report from the test equipment at
the Sprint store. So if that can be trusted (and I believe it can)
there is nothing wrong with the phone regardless of it's age that is
causing this problem. That leaves network problems.

Every wireless carrier has better/worse areas. Lots of customer
complaints about poor service. It goes with the territory. But Sprint
has been getting steadily much worse for 2 years.

The cellular sales kiosk person at Costco in Fullerton said she hears
these complaints daily, mostly from Sprint customers.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Yep I can remember when that Walmart in Brea used to have no service
inside. Sprint put up a small cell site right across the street on the
Southeast corner of Imperial & Kramer in 2001 which fixed that.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Steevo@my-deja.com wrote:

> Every wireless carrier has better/worse areas. Lots of customer
> complaints about poor service. It goes with the territory. But Sprint
> has been getting steadily much worse for 2 years.

Steevo,

Keep bugging Tech Support. Open tickets if you need to. And I'd be happy to
help test things out when I'm down there, although I'm not down there real
often. I have a vested interest in seeing my phone work all over SoCal. :>

> The cellular sales kiosk person at Costco in Fullerton said she hears
> these complaints daily, mostly from Sprint customers.

....Which would give your claim some credibility.

Have you talked to anyone at any of the other Sprint retail outlets down there?

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

Mij Adyaw wrote:
> Does Sprint have a technical support email address so that I can completely
> document a problem and submit the problem directly to technical support?

That, I don't know.

--
JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
--New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.sprintpcs (More info?)

"Steve Sobol" <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote in message
news53oo8$u92$7@ratbert.glorb.com...
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
> > Does Sprint have a technical support email address so that I can
completely
> > document a problem and submit the problem directly to technical support?
>
> That, I don't know.

Nor do I, but I'm guessing there is a specific address for coverage
problems. Try asking when sending an email to CS and see if you get any
replies.

Bob