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From: Ben
Date: 30 Mar 2001
Time: 22:08:44
Remote Name: 216.58.147.226
I agree. Sprint needs to burn and die. It seems the problem is not just in Florida, as I'm on the other side of the continent and it's the same thing. My experience with sprint was with the wireless internet thing. I would normally say "wireless internet service" except the service part is non-existant. My situation was that Cox cable hadn't reached my area yet, and neither had USWest DSL. The thing is, I have to go with either USWest or nobody, because USWest owns the copper lines and they won't set up another company's DSL on their copper. Nice, huh? But USWest wouldn't reach, so I was stuck with either 56k, Sprint, or some kind of frame relay (T1, DS3, etc). It's for a residence, so frame relay seemed a bit absurd. We got in with this company before it was Sprint, back when the service was called Speedchoice. I don't think that was the name of the company, but Sprint didn't own them yet. The techs came and installed the dish (big ugly rhombus looking plate on your roof which probably violates any CC&R). Speeds were unbelievable for a short time. We were supposedly getting "50 times faster than a 56k modem." While the techs were at my house after installation, they downloaded a 5mb demo file from their ftp server in 8 seconds. It did take 2 calls back to the office and 5 techs to get it set up, however, including 2 senior technicians. Apparently they knew that some problems existed, or would exist, but I couldn't get an answer out of them. I was going to hammer them about it, but the 8 second transfer hushed me for a while. I figured there wouldn't be a problem, so I went ahead and signed the contract. It turns out the contract states that Sprint isn't to be held accountable for ANY problem with the service. This means if south mountain explodes and you're without service for half a year, tough luck. Another interesting article in the contract states that Sprint is not liable for "Acts of God as determined by Sprint." Wow. Does this not sound like Sprint has declared themselves messengers of God? What it does mean is that if anything unexplainable happens to affect the service, Sprint can call it an act of god and you're out of luck again. If you cancel, you still have to pay 50% for every month remaining in the contract. Anyway, a few months before Sprint bought the company, speeds started to seriously deteriorate. I could maybe get a good connection after midnight, but only then. One Monday, I left my computer pinging the Speedchoice gateway server (not my gateway, the Speedchoice server which serves each customer's gateway) for 24 hours straight, and ended up with 34% packet loss. I figured that was a little ridiculous, and called Tech support. They had me fiddle with this and that, and ended up telling me to wait for the new equipment they would be installing. After the new equipment was up, there was no change. I still hang around 30% packet loss 24 hours a day. There are two guys I work with who are each in the same situation, have worse service, and they are on the other side of town. This is certainly not a problem with my location. Things have steadily gone downhill since I first got the service installed. It looks a heck of a lot like they have oversold their service. We have called their tech support dozens of times, and are told to give it half an hour and try again. They know nothing. We have had 3 visits from technicians to troubleshoot the problem, and no help. They know less. And don't even think about using it for gaming. I and a few people in my family get on Everquest and TFC every once in a while, and it's better to dial up to a 56k ISP. Everquest disconnects every 15 minutes, and I'm constantly seeing my brother get lag fragged on TFC. If you can avoid Sprint Broadband, I highly recommend doing so. If it's your only broadband option, it's better to wait for DSL or Cable. You will only feel like tearing your hair out. I e-mailed their corporate office, and got no response. I dealt with the regional GM, Jim Balman, to no avail. Nobody I spoke to there is useful in any way, and the service they offer is unacceptable.