Hi folks

Taska and I are about to flip cell service to Sprint (from Verizon). Never had any problems with Verizon regarding my cellular service...so please don't let this thread be a fan-boy kinda thing ... Only significant reason for the switch is that we utilize an EVDO card for our Internet service. That too had been with Verizon until they dumped me due to overusing their "Unlimited Data Plan" (which no longer markets itself as such).

Sprint's EVDO service, on the other hand, is as Unlimited as advertised and we're relatively happy with our Up/Down load times. So, we want to consolidate all our voice/data to a single service provider...in this case, Sprint.

To the question at hand: If you live or travel within the NOVA, SOMD, and/or Western Virginia areas and if you have Sprint voice/cell service...please report on your experiences here. Not that the general Richmond area wouldn't also be of interest...but I feel this is likely "urban" enough to be well covered. I'm more interested in [somewhat] remote areas within the regions noted above. Judging from service maps for both providers, Verizon & Sprint seem to have relatively similar coverage areas. Still...any "real world" experience would be most beneficial here .

Taska participates in numerous equestrian events in these regions. And she'll sign off on the flip away from Verizon only if she feels confident that there is adequate coverage in these areas. For her, its a matter of safety in communication should her truck breakdown while travelling, get a flat, horse injury vet call, etc.

So...hollar if you can. Thanks!

- Dave

PS. Feel free to mention your particular phone model and what you like/dislike about it as well .

 

Long time Sprint user. Works fine everywhere I go. I cannot recall any particular outages in your area and I frequently travel into Clarke and Fauquier Counties with no difficulties.

I use a Treo 700wx smartphone. LOVE IT. Great signal response even when it says no bars.

 

You may also find this site helpful.

http://coverage.sprintpcs.com/IMPACT.jsp

 

AT&T

 

what kind of phones would you be looking at getting if you made the switch?

 

I use sprint and have for many years. My family lives in the Berryville/Winchester area and sprint was the only service to get decent coverage out there. My service has been fine in the DC Metro area.

 

I have a sprint and so does everyone with the company I work for and we get great service all thoruhg NoVa and I get superb service down here in SoMD

 

Thanks all ...

To jesterguy's question, well...

My wife is frugal on her needs. She just asks for it to be a flip phone with good signal pickup. That's really about it.

Now as for me. Most that know me know I'm a cheap S.O.B. ...but I try to have good taste & like whistles-n-bells (those differences seldome make for good play in the sandbox ). A year ago I would say I shared my wife's sentiments about a cell phone. But today... Well I find some friends text me a bit more often (not a lot...but more). And the only point to that is that to reply to a text on a "traditional" cell number pad is re-####in-diculous. Additional to that new texting interest, my own company panders to really watchdoggin' how much time employees spend online. Now most of the time I'm not goofin' off... But I do fairly regularly check e-mails on my yahoo account (primarily to maintain speedy customer service with Rick's Conversion Orders). I like Google/Yahoo news across a number of categories. I also like to check this site of course. And I find I spend time lurking on avsforums.com as well.

Now...when I discover what such services (in monthly fees) could add to my personal bill , I *strongly* anticipate that I'll be stickin' with a simply flip-phone . But I'll still be interested in checking options out anyway. Please understand too, the initial price of the phone may or may not dissuade me. What would be a deal-killer would be a heap of a monthly fee added already on top of the cell service fees... And I can't define "heap" yet...but I'm sure I'll know it when I see it .

- Dave

 

I know you're not asking about the SOVA/NONC area, but I can tell you Sprint has some minor coverage issues in this region. I, and my whole family, were Sprint users from the day Sprint got into cellular till about 3 years ago. The people who are still on it have these same problems today.

You will drop a call in certain places on I-264. Coverage is terrible near the Virginia Beach/Norfolk border on Virginia Beach Blvd. Outer Banks coverage is abysmal between Sandbridge and Southern Shores, then it drops off again traveling South of Nagshead. Almost anywhere there are thick walls or concrete walls coverage will drop.

I know these are specific circumstances, but for me these are all areas I traverse quite often. One happens to be where I work, and I-264 (at Mt. Trashmore) is a place I pass at least twice a day. With parts of my house having concrete walls, Sprint phones barely work there either. I think Chad was a Sprint customer when he first moved in, but after having poor reception at work and then almost none at the house, he switched to T-Mobile......which only made his coverages slightly better

I was a Sprint customer with numerous products for over 5 years (until you introduced me to Raul - thanks for that Dave ), and I've never met a worse company for customer service. Their stores are unbelievably bad, and the phone support people are only slightly better. For 5 years I thought this was just how it was. When I switched to Suncom, and now Verizon, I discovered that there are actually some decent customer service companies in the cell phone industry. The only way I could ever get anything done with Sprint, was to threaten canceling service. My family had the same issues - in fact we were all talking about cell phone providers over dinner the other night because we're all with different companies now. From that conversation I gather they break-down like this:

Keep in mind that these are all in reference to the Southern Hampton Roads area.


Hope that helps, and I hope I don't sound like a fan-boi. I was trying to not show a bias.

 

Thanks Pointy. Yeah, again I'd state that overall I've been extremely satisfied with Verizon. But they blew it with their EVDO "Unlimited Plan"...and dumped me mucho-pronto without so much as a "Thank you very much." Unfortunately, out "in the sticks" as I am...I need 'decent' internet access (especially for Taska to be able to conduct accounting demands from home). Obviously I have no cable/DSL options out here. Satellite is just as restrictive on data downloads as Verizon's EVDO plan turned out to be. ISDN ain't happenin' with my wallet...... So it was a turn to Sprint for their EVDO service.

Of course...I could just not change the cell phone side & stay with Verizon on that. But...well...where push comes to shove, Verizon did in fact leave a little craw in me about the way they dumped me

So I'm considering the change. As for the regions you mentioned...sure do appreciate the feedback. As you know (either fortunately, or unfortunately for my "Hampton Road Cowboys" friends ) we seldom get out to your neck of the woods. Same with SOVA (although I do like me some southwest driving towards The Dragon from time-to-time But really, those traveling regions are rare for us. So I'm very happy to hear about the good coverage where we *do* travel daily, etc.

As for customer service...well over the years I've seldom really had a need to call upon service. Of course, I've never been a "power user" of cellular features either. That may change should I find myself willing to dump some money into more features...but really... how likely is that with my moth-ridden wallet???