Sprints New Slogan - America's Worst Cell Phone Provider

In the last two years I have had cell phone service with three of the four major brands and tow pre paid carriers.  By far the absolute worst coverage, well from the title I would hope you have figured it out already but for those who are slow, Sprint.

Hands down by far the worst customer support, voice and data service of all the brands I have tried.  And I ended up getting stuck with Sprint go figure.



I first had Sprint a little over a year ago.  Since Sprint offers a grace period I ended up returning the phone two weeks later.  I had the HTC ONE phone which was a great phone.  I bounced around a bit with other carriers who provided much better service.

Unfortunately for me, divorce creates a nightmare in many ways.  Along with the financial nightmare it caused, my credit score plummeted.  Unable to get a line on my own without a deposit, I joined a family plan with someone else who already had Sprint.

I was reluctant to join, but we were promised my both Best and Sprint themselves they were doing network upgrades in the Bakersfield/Kern County areas and coverage would be much better very soon.  This was what they said when I had purchased the HTC a year earlier.

I ended up with the LG Optimus G, a very competent phone.  The nightmare started when I turned it on.  It was and has been a nightmare trying to find a signal the last four months I have had it.  It really does not matter where I am.  In town, in the sticks, even inside the Sprint Store I can not get a very strong signal.

Most of the time I try to look something up when I am inside a building it simply will not load a web page unless I am using Wifi.  Outside, most of the time I can get a page to load depending on where I am.  However, it takes about 20 seconds for a simple page with limited graphics or images on it to load.  I tried several times this weekend to load a podcast in various locations around Bakersfield.  Again if it did load, it took over three minutes to start.  But that took several failed tried to make happen.

I do not even try to look anything up on Youtube because I get irritated that it plays for a few seconds and stops during the entire video.

I had planned to write this post a few weeks ago, but Sprint sent out a text stating by the end of this month they will have completed network upgrades in Bakersfield.  I wanted to wait and see what happened.  And that was very little.  Call quality is acceptable most of the time.  But data is still about as slow as the days before 3G.  Pages are still horribly slow to load, but I do get lest failures than I did before.  Still can not stream audio or video, and location in and around Bakersfield does not seem to matter, it consistently sucks anywhere you go.

I have used my phone all over California.  With the exception of parts on Los Angeles, I never have 4g coverage.  And I doubt I will anytime soon.

Another irritating thing about Sprint is their refusal to allow customers access to text message details.  They claim this is due to customer privacy rights.  So if you want to see your text history you have to file out a form, get notarized and then wait a few weeks for it to come in the mail.  You can only get the last three months worth of text messages.  Jealous husbands everywhere are switching carriers just for this reason alone.

But seriously,  I fail to understand why they allow access to the call log but not the text log.  So my text messages have more rights than my phone calls in Sprints eyes?  It is just plain silly.  Despite many complaints Sprint refuses to change this policy.  Just look online at the number of forums blasting Sprint about this, and nobody defending the practice.  Shows you what Sprint thinks of their customers.

Maybe you will get better results where you live, but I doubt it.  If you are in the Bakersfield area do not waste your time.  If you were already fooled into thinking Sprint actually sold working cell phones, T Mobile will buy you out of your contract.  I am seriously considering doing this.  I will keep you posted.

If you just want a cool phone Sprint has them.  Just do not expect to be able to make a call with that phone.