Product Review: Sprint Together with Nextel
At first everything seemed great. As the first year of our two year contract came to a close we started to notice suitable changes. It was right around the time that Sprint merged with Nextel. We started noticing that the sound quality of our phones was starting to decline and we had more dropped calls then usual. We thought maybe something was wrong with our phones. Even though a year ago our phones were one of the latest models on the market.
We took our phones to the local service center to see if something was wrong. They gave our phones a clean bill of health. We started looking at some of the new models on the market and considered upgrading until we were told we would have to sign a new two year contract if we upgraded. Discouraged we decided to stay with our phones with poor sound quality and poor signal strength.
We waited out the second year of our two year contract. To pass the time we looked at other companies and phones. Dreaming of a life of good cell phone sound quality and few dropped calls.
The glorious day finally arrived, the day we finally got rid of our Nextel phones! Of course Nextel had to make if difficult for us. When we had switched to Nextel originally our old carrier was very nice and even on a Sunday evening released our numbers to Nextel within two hours of us switching over. Not the case this time.
We purchased our shinny new Samsung phones on a Saturday morning. We were so excited, we got a slide phone that can play MP3s, has a camera, and a BlueTooth headset. They told us it could take up to a day for Nextel to port our old number to our new carrier. We waited 24 hours. We could only make calls on our new phone. If someone called our number our old phone would ring. What a hassle, having to carry both phones around. After the 24 hours were up I called our new carrier. They told us that Nextel had rejected the port over of our number because they wanted to talk to us. I called Nextel and was told there was a number guard on my number and unfortunately since it was Sunday I would have to call back the next day to have it resolved.
I was so mad! I couldn’t believe that it was going to take 48 hours or more to port over my number. They told me that their customer service department opens at 7 am eastern time. So I got up at 5 am my time to call them. I had to talk to 3 different people before I finally was told that they could remove the number guard. The last person I talked to didn’t’ even ask me for any identifying information like my social or my account pass code. Here they are trying to prevent fraud but they can’t even check to make sure I am who I say I am.
Finally 48 hours after I purchased my new phone I was free of Nextel. So I thought. About 2 weeks later I received a phone call from a representative from Nextel wanting to know why I switched. I thought, man, you have some nerve calling me! I rattled off everything that I have since put in this article. He told me your new carrier has the same 30 day trial that we have. I cut him off and asked him if he was asking me to switch back because that was simply not an option. He told me they have improved their service in my area. I told him it was too little too late. He thanked me for being a good customer. I hung up and said to myself, good riddens.
