Sprint blames nationwide texting issues

So why haven’t I heard of other people experiencing my problem if it is a nationwide issue?

Before showing you today’s online chat with Sprint, I’ll attempt to catch you up on what has transpired since my last blog post.

Last Monday I had a marathon online chat with Customer Service, where they finally agreed to give me a new phone number to test. With the new number everything worked brilliantly, so I reluctantly agreed to change my phone number and contact all my family, friends, creditors (ok, so I haven’t contacted my creditors yet). Everything worked great Monday…Tuesday…Wednesday…and then mid-morning on Wednesday, everything stopped again, just like the first time. Back to Customer Service Wednesday night. They are clueless. But they will submit a request for an investigation and get back to me. Since nobody ever did get back to me (why am I not surprised), and it is already Saturday…off to Sprint chat I went.

Here is my latest chat with Sprint customer service:

System

Connected to Sprint Web Chat Server

1:37:54 PM

System

Session ID: 2995870

1:37:59 PM

System

Please hold and the next available agent will be with you shortly.

1:38:00 PM

System

Chenise has joined this session!

1:38:00 PM

System

Connected with Chenise

1:38:00 PM

Chenise

Thank you for contacting Sprint. My name is Chenise, how may I assist you today?

1:38:27 PM

Alli Flowers

Yes please. Frank was going to help me, but I guess he got so engrossed in reading my account notes that the session expired before he got back to me.

1:38:56 PM

Alli Flowers

So please take no more than 5-10 minutes to look at my account notes so you’ll be up to date on what’s going on.

1:39:25 PM

Chenise

I will try my very best to help you with this issue, please give me a moment to look into it.

1:39:34 PM

Alli Flowers

Thanks.

1:41:50 PM

Chenise

Do you have any further questions regarding our plans

1:42:05 PM

Alli Flowers

Well, yes. I was hoping to know if you had any plans.

1:42:16 PM

Alli Flowers

Or if I’m just out of luck here.

1:42:35 PM

Alli Flowers

I also wanted to pass on a link to your network engineers, as I believe your network has been hacked.

1:42:37 PM

Alli Flowers

http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=168807&highlight=sprint+network+resco

1:42:37 PM

Chenise

I will locate the plans and send it one moment please

1:43:40 PM

Alli Flowers

You mean someone has written out a plan as to how they are going to solve my account issue?

1:47:26 PM

Alli Flowers

Hello?

1:47:56 PM

Chenise

I am viewing the plan to send you , I will be right with you shortly

1:48:41 PM

Alli Flowers

ok

1:51:26 PM

Chenise

Alli, I have read the notes of the account as well

1:51:41 PM

Chenise

Please explain to me what your exact needs are so I can meet with today

1:52:02 PM

Alli Flowers

My exact needs are to receive sms from short codes. The same need it has been for 3 weeks.

1:52:40 PM

Alli Flowers

So what is this plan of which you speak?

1:53:17 PM

Chenise

I do apologize, I have read that and understand that the information regarding national texting limitation we are experiencing

1:53:32 PM

Chenise

We are doing everything to correct the problem concerning this matter

1:53:45 PM

Alli Flowers

So you have determined it is a network issue?

1:53:52 PM

Chenise

8020 has been removed, I do apologize

1:53:57 PM

Alli Flowers

8020?

1:54:01 PM

Alli Flowers

Huh?

1:54:07 PM

Chenise

Please disregard that last comment, I do apologize.

1:54:36 PM

Chenise

Yes, currently we are having limitations nationwide with texting

1:54:42 PM

Alli Flowers

So you have determined there is a network issue and it is being addressed?

1:54:47 PM

Chenise

I do apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you

1:55:07 PM

Chenise

We are doing everything to correct the problem concerning this matter

1:55:10 PM

Alli Flowers

It has caused far more than an inconvenience at this point.

1:55:26 PM

Alli Flowers

Have you passed the link on to your network engineers? I believe it is connected.

1:55:56 PM

Chenise

Thank you so much for the information

1:56:00 PM

Alli Flowers

Your network is, at best, totally insecure, and at worst completely hacked.

1:56:33 PM

Chenise

I do understand, thank you for your patience with us

1:56:51 PM

Alli Flowers

But have you passed the link on to your network engineers?

1:57:28 PM

Chenise

I will pass the information on to our engineers

1:57:36 PM

Alli Flowers

Thank you.

1:57:58 PM

Chenise

No, thank you

1:58:39 PM

Alli Flowers

Nothing that can’t be solved by restoring the time I’ve invested in this.

1:58:55 PM

Alli Flowers

I’m sure Sprint will be happy to make it up to me.

2:00:29 PM

Chenise

I am sure Sprint will have some compensation for our customers

2:01:13 PM

Alli Flowers

I’m hopeful that not only will we be compensated, but that they will get their network fixed.

2:02:05 PM

Chenise

We looking forward to it, yes

2:02:10 PM

Chenise

Is there anything else I can assist you with today?

2:02:24 PM

Alli Flowers

I suppose not.

2:03:05 PM

Chenise

Thank You for contacting Sprint, our goal is to make your chat experience a great one. Please complete the short online survey presented at the end of your chat. Should you have any additional feedback or comments you would like to provide regarding your chat or chat agent, please send us an email at: sprint.customerappreciation@connextions.com. If you have any further questions about your account or about Sprint’s products or services please contact us by chatting in again

Type your comments in the box below and click send.

All I can say at this point is…oi.

Sprint Update

Needless to say, Sprint has managed to use up the last of my free time prior to school starting for the fall. However, I promise to update tonight and let you all know the final outcome and the rationale behind my decisions.

Sprint Customer Service

Yes, it is every bit as poor as they say.

I have been a happy Sprint customer for two years. Happy with my service, happy with my coverage, happy with my phones. I am blissfully, orgasmically happy with my Treo 800w. Unfortunately, Sprint has so mangled my account, that I am currently unable to take advantage of one of the main features of this $500 smartphone. I can no longer receive sms from short codes.

This started 5 days into my Treo 800w ownership, so I was relatively certain that it wasn’t the phone. But while on the phone with Sprint CS, I dutifully performed a hard reset to prove it. Still no sms short codes. Not from Twitter, not from Fring, not from Dashwire, not from Skyfire, not from Brightkite…well, you get the idea. Every time I called CS, they informed me that “many blocks” had been put on my sms account and they he/she had personally removed them all. I’m still trying to figure out how that many blocks got on in between each call to CS.

Sunday morning I get a call from tech support. The lady asks me for the name of The Service (like it’s only one and it’s their problem) from whom I can’t receive sms. So I list off 4 services for her. She thanks me and says they’ll have it resolved within 36 hours.

A week goes by. Still no resolution. So on Tuesday, I take the Treo 800w in to my local Sprint store, and exchange it, thinking it might simply be a device issue. No such luck. I call back and ask for Tech Support. I spend one hour and 19 minutes on the phone. The fella points out that he can see sms messages to me hitting Sprint’s server…but they are not getting from Sprint to my phone. He assures me that he has put in a ticket and they will have it fixed. He also points out that a) the first ticket was closed without resolution, and b) I’m paying for a service I’m not receiving.

Wednesday morning another Tech Support rep calls…with the same questions. This time I list all of the above websites and point out my friend Derek is receiving sms on his Treo 800w from all of them just fine. She assures me it will be fixed by Wednesday night. Great!

Wednesday night and I’m furious and on Twitter. I point out to @vkoser that his work on ceTwit is the only think preventing me from firebombing Sprint’s corporate headquarters. @jbtaylor, A PR guy for Sprint, sees this tweet and offers to help. That gets me nowhere, so on Thursday I email Steven Shoecraft, VIP Analyst with Executive & Regulatory Services for Sprint. He also assures me he’s on it and will get me straightened out.

Still waiting.

I have weighed my options, and until the 800w comes out on Verizon, or the 850 comes out on AT&T, I’m pretty much up the proverbial creek. I guess if this hasn’t resolved by the time either is ready, I’ll jump ship, and let Sprint try to collect an ETF from me!

Tech Support

Understand, that before clicking Chat, I’d already pulled the battery from my new Treo 800w so that I could give them the IMEI number. I’d tried doing the activation online, and it wouldn’t take the number…so it was either try an online chat or make a phone call. Chat seemed easier…at the time.

Also notice that there is no space between lines and if one comment comes on top of another and you’re not watching the screen, you don’t realize there’s been anything said. Oh…and remember the 800w was supposed to have been sent already activated.

Connected to sprint-ap1.cnxchat.com
4:21:23 PM
System
Session ID: xxxxxxx
4:21:28 PM
System
Please hold and the next available agent will be with you shortly.
4:21:38 PM
System
Claudia has joined this session!
4:21:38 PM
System
Connected with Claudia
4:21:44 PM
Alli
Hi Claudia.
4:22:03 PM Claudia How are you?Thank you for contacting Sprint. My name is Claudia. How may I assist you today?
4:22:04 PM Alli I’m trying to activate my new Treo 800w but none of the 3 numbers are working when entered.
4:22:23 PM Claudia Can you give me your wireless number?
4:22:28 PM Alli 251-xxx-xxxx
4:23:23 PM Claudia Thank you, may I have the pin number on your account?
4:23:30 PM Alli xxxxxx
4:24:38 PM Claudia Thank you allow me a mo moment to pull up your account.
4:24:53 PM Claudia I do apologize, allow me a moment to pull up your account.
4:24:57 PM Alli No prob.
4:26:28 PM Claudia Are you able to call out from the phone?
4:26:42 PM Alli The new one? No.
4:27:33 PM Claudia Ok, thanks one moment please.
4:31:24 PM Claudia Please turn the phone off.
4:31:31 PM Alli It is off.
4:31:35 PM Claudia Remove the battery. The MEID can be found in the phone underneath the battery. The barcode sticker on the end of the original box. Labeled MEID-DEC or MEID-HEX.
4:31:40 PM Alli The battery is out so I could read the numbers.
4:32:44 PM Claudia May I have the MEID number?
4:32:47 PM Alli The hex #:A100000xxxxxxx
4:34:04 PM Claudia May I have the DEC number?
4:34:31 PM Alli xxxxx
4:35:59 PM Claudia Thank you, now please put the battery back in the phone.
4:36:30 PM Alli Done. That was a lot easier than reading those little numbers.
4:37:59 PM Claudia Press and hold the Power/End button to turn the phone on. The power button is the Red key located on the right side of the device directly under the display screen. Press the Green Phone button one time. Select Dial Pad. Or: Click Menu. Select Dial Pad.
4:39:16 PM Alli ok
4:39:42 PM Alli
4:39:50 PM Claudia In the dial pad screen, Tap ## followed by 418818 followed by an additional # on the Dial Pad or the Key Pad. Example: ##123456#. The # key is located on the B button. This will take you to the Activating Your Phone menu.
4:41:11 PM Claudia With the Phone Number (MDN): field highlighted, using the QWERTY keyboard, type the 10-digit MDN from the programming instructions screen. There is no need to hold down the number lock key. The field is defaulted for numbers.
4:41:18 PM Alli Nope - not taking me into the anything.
4:41:35 PM Claudia What step are we stuck on?
4:41:36 PM Alli Please put some space in between each comment.
4:41:36 PM Alli ..
4:41:46 PM Alli We are stuck on getting into the Activation menu.
4:41:53 PM Claudia Sure not a problem
4:42:01 PM Alli I have now tried it from both the keypad and the screen.
4:42:02 PM Alli .
4:42:29 PM Alli ##41xxx8# does nada.
4:42:29 PM Alli .
4:44:00 PM Claudia Ok, give me one moment please.
4:44:10 PM Alli k
4:44:44 PM Alli .
4:45:25 PM Claudia Can you type in ##2xxxx2# instead?
4:46:19 PM Alli That didn’t do anything either. Let me recycle the power.
4:46:20 PM Alli .
4:46:58 PM Alli Nope - it’s not going anywhere.
4:46:59 PM Alli .
4:47:40 PM Claudia Can you do a soft reset and take the battery out, leave it out for a minute and let me know when you have replaced it.
4:48:02 PM Alli Sure.
4:48:10 PM Claudia Thank you.
4:50:11 PM Alli Ok, complete.
4:50:12 PM Alli .
4:50:30 PM Alli Shall I give one of those codes another shot?
4:50:31 PM Alli .
4:50:55 PM Claudia Yes, and let me know what occurs.
4:51:58 PM Alli Nada.
4:51:58 PM Alli .
4:52:26 PM Claudia Ok give me a moment.
4:52:47 PM Alli Ok.
4:52:48 PM Alli .
4:58:26 PM Claudia I do appreciate your patience, I am still activating your phone.
4:58:50 PM Alli Ok. Let me know if I need to turn it off or reset again.
4:58:50 PM Alli .
5:00:27 PM Claudia Sure, not a problem. I appreciate your patience.
5:01:27 PM Alli .
5:02:42 PM Claudia Ok, lets try it again.
5:02:47 PM Claudia Press and hold the Power/End button to turn the phone on. The power button is the Red key located on the right side of the device directly under the display screen. Press the Green Phone button one time. Select Dial Pad. Or: Click Menu. Select Dial Pad.
5:03:24 PM Alli Guess I should turn it OFF first, huh.
5:03:24 PM Alli .
5:03:42 PM Claudia Sure.
5:04:21 PM Alli Ok done.
5:04:36 PM Alli So now I have no phone…my old one has been deactivated but this one has no service.
5:04:36 PM Alli .
5:05:32 PM Claudia I do apologize for that. We are in the process of activating your new phone. Please follow the steps as they appear on the screen.
5:06:03 PM Alli As soon as you have steps to follow. I’m just sitting here watching tv.
5:06:05 PM Alli .
5:06:12 PM Claudia Press and hold the Power/End button to turn the phone on. The power button is the Red key located on the right side of the device directly under the display screen. Press the Green Phone button one time. Select Dial Pad. Or: Click Menu. Select Dial Pad.
5:06:32 PM Alli And then what….
5:06:33 PM Alli .
5:07:12 PM Claudia In the dial pad screen, Tap ##1xxxx7 , followed by an additional # on the Dial Pad or the Key Pad.
5:07:33 PM Alli Finally we’re in.
5:07:37 PM Claudia This will take you to the Activating Your Phone menu.
5:07:55 PM Alli .
5:08:00 PM Alli So the MSID is
5:08:00 PM Alli .
5:09:37 PM Claudia The MSID is 31xxxxxxx1
5:10:12 PM Claudia How is everything going?
5:10:19 PM Alli It’s resetting the radio.
5:10:25 PM Alli Let’s try…
5:10:45 PM Alli Bingo!
5:10:52 PM Alli We’re good.
5:11:07 PM Claudia Great, glad to hear that.
5:11:12 PM Alli Thank you for your help.
5:11:17 PM Claudia Do you have any further questions?
5:11:27 PM Alli Nope. I’m good to go now.
5:11:33 PM Claudia Thank you for contacting Sprint. Our goal is to make your chat experience a great one. There will be a survey after this chat that you may fill out to advise us of how we are doing. Please disable all popup blockers before this chat session ends to ensure you are afforded the opportunity to participate. Should you have any additional feedback or comments you would like to provide regarding your chat or chat agent, please send us an email at: sprint.customerappreciation@connextions.com. If you would like a copy of this transcript please press either the print button at the bottom of this session or the copy button to copy/paste into the word processing program of your choice.

****************

I can’t help but wondering what kind of tech support Claudia was getting in order to do this for me as often as she had me wait. 50 minutes just to complete the steps for an ESN swap that usually takes 3 minutes.

Yikes!

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (From Palm to WinMo)

Moving from the simple Palm os to Windows Mobile was not an easy decision. It has, of course, been tempered by the knowledge that I can go back any time I want. The biggest downside is that the move has cost me my casino money for the next three months, and I haven’t begun to buy accessories yet.

The most difficult part of the entire experience has been converting to Outlook. I have successfully avoided Outlook for years, but there is no simple way to sync a WM device without it. I have quite contentedly been using the Palm desktop for all my hotsync needs for years. I initiated a sync when I was ready, and all my pim data was always safe. With WM, not only do you get the pleasure of using Outlook (she said sarcastically), but the joy of ActiveSync.

I must confess, I don’t truly grok ActiveSync. Yes, I understand that it’s nice to keep my handheld and my desktop in constant sync, but I’d rather have just a little more control over it. What if I just want to charge my device? What if I’m trouble-shooting an app and adding meetings or contacts just for testing purposes and don’t actually want to save them? Better yet, what if I have the ability to take more control over ActiveSync and make it PASSIVE sync, and just haven’t figured out how yet?! Being a newbie is no fun.

So the first day (prior to actual receipt of my Treo 800w) was spent moving my pim data from the Palm desktop to Outlook. Palm made that simple enough. I just don’t particularly care for Outlook – it’s too busy. One of the things I will be looking for over the next few days/weeks is an alternative. When my Treo 800w finally arrived, it was as simple as plugging it in to the usb port on my laptop, establishing a partnership (sounds like a legal agreement to me!) with ActiveSync, and populating my new device with my old data.

The next step was to make it look and feel as familiar as possible by arranging the Today screen (replacing my friendly Palm os launcher) and buttons. Arranging the Today screen was easy enough. Mine now almost looks like my Centro using UltimatePhone. My first real disappointment (outside of Outlook) was that I lose the one-handed capability that I loved so much with Palm os using the hard keys. Why must I press and hold the option button before tapping the mail key on WM? That requires both hands. Why can’t I press option followed by mail to go to messaging? I understand that we hold key combinations on a pc, but a handheld isn’t a pc and shouldn’t be constrained by desktop configurations.

My Today Screen

This concludes my initial observations on making the change from Palm to WM. I welcome suggestions, advice, corrections…in other words, any help anyone is willing to offer. Next time: applications.

Treo 800w Update

Yikes, it’s almost 9 p.m. and this is the first time I’ve looked up since it arrived at 3:27 this afternoon.

I have a few apps that work, a few that could work better, and a few that really don’t work at all.

Unfortunately, Skype is one that isn’t working at all. Slingplayer is barely working. I guess I’ll have to get onto the Slingmedia forums tomorrow and see if they have an update coming any time soon. Otherwise, the only real complaint I have at this point is the volume of alerts - there doesn’t seem to be any control over them, unless I’ve missed it somewhere.

I saw a reference to fonts, but can’t find that easily, so I have to go look for that tomorrow, cause the default sms ringer (although the same one I used on my Centro) is barely audible.

Astraware was a semi-disappointment. Fortunately, Bejeweled installed and ran beautifully. They will get yet one more registration from me. Big Box of Blox, which they are giving away free this month, wouldn’t run…at all. Doesn’t it figure?

On my list of things for tomorrow is ListPro and Agendus. I’m sure there are other things, but I didn’t follow the orderly process I had planned due to Sprint’s having sent the 800w unactivated…so I couldn’t do a simple ESN swap, I had to get them to activate. I may post that chat thread tomorrow, those are always good for a giggle.

Awaiting a New Toy

This can be exciting or frustrating, depending on the time of day your UPS carrier usually shows up. Mine has been known to show up as early as noon and as late as 9 p.m. It’s currently 12:40, so I’m playing it by ear.

Meanwhile, I’m preparing. I have downloaded all the apps I want, and am putting the .cab files onto my 6GB micro sd card. (I figure the music and photos that are on there are fine.) I carefully saved all the Palm folders to a ne folder on my laptop so that I can go back at any time.

Considering this is a WinMo device, I’m surprised at how excited I am about this. Or maybe it’s because it’s a WM device. There are a few things I’m looking forward to being able to do on the 800 that I couldn’t do on the Centro, although I’m a little skeptical about the ease of use.

Of course, I’m also really looking forward to a whole new series of software and accessory reviews!

Testing Ping.fm from Windows Live Messenger.

800w Ordered

I decided that due to the uncertainty of living in a small town, I would be better off just ordering my Treo 800w online.

Hopefully I’ll get the $100 rebate.

Meanwhile, I’ve made a list of all the Palm apps that I can’t live without that have WM versions. Fortunately the list is short. There are some things that WM does that I won’t need apps to replace, notably documents and media. I will, of course, install Agendus, Slingplayer, Telenav, ListPro, and VehicleManager. Hopefully the nice people at Splashdata and Resco will give me complentary codes so that I can continue promoting their products and include them in my conversion articles. Of course, I will have to get Bejeweled 2. Productivity be damned, I need my Bejeweled!

How dare Sprint!

So the Treo 800w goes on sale tomorrow. I just called my local Sprint store to make sure they had some, and to my amazement was told that they got one in and already sold it! Hello, Sprint management? Are you reading this? Don’t you fire employees for breaches like this? I’m absolutely livid. I can’t believe that this BFE town only got ONE in, and that those bozos sold it a full day before the release date.

I guess that tells us all where I’ll be come Monday morning: annoying the hell out of the store employees, while waiting for the delivery truck at 10 so that I can get my hands on my Treo 800w.