Thanks for letting me know the account services/retentions folks are confused about it causing you to get mixed messages. I’ll pass it along so hopefully others won’t have to suffer through what you have.

Unfortunately, the referral service does NOT seem to be available to existing customers who do not want to lose their phone number. As a happy customer w/ Sprint for seven years, I was hoping to take advantage of your generosity, when I come to find out from employee care that I am ineligible to transfer my account to an employee referral account, and account service/retentions tells me the EXACT OPPOSITE!

My belief is that people like you make a huge difference in a companies ecosystem, for the better. It’s unfortunate that a lack of training and oversight on the part of customer facing individuals can cause such frustration to your companies supporters.

Thanks for all the info over the years. I have to say I joined the Sprint family because of your PERSONAL RESPONSE on this very blog. I wasn’t getting the info I was looking for even with searching both the official Sprint internet sites and all the other various forums/blogs/websites on the internet. Thank you again, your response personally made me decide to become a customer and I have enjoyed the service and the info since.

Unfortunately, it looks like I may be leaving due to some current moves that Sprint is doing.

I’m not very happy about the $10 monthly DATA charge for all NEW activations, including upgrades of any smartphone after Jan 30, 2011, that would be an extra $120 per year cost to me if I change my phone. I was starting to think about the Epic, but this very cost was keeping me from upgrading, especially since I don’t live in an area that even has 4G service or looks like it will get it anytime soon. But now the $10 charge Sprint was originally attributing to 4G service is for ANY data device, even if it is on the slower 3G service or a device that can’t even get faster 4G service (like the Kyocera Echo, that I just got interested in). Funny part is, I don’t even use that much data with my Samsung Moment, my 12 month average is 363460 kilobytes, and only a high of 618317 kilobytes one month, which is what the charge is supposedly now for.

But the real thing that is irritating me is the new automatic downgrade in April to their new 2nd tier Silver Premier plan, so I’ll only get upgrades every 22 months, not every 12 months like the Gold members, (unless you have been a sprint customer for over 10 years, then I’d get to stay on Gold), but my first 2 year contract runs out in Nov, so I’m out of luck from April till Sep, but by then, I’ll be ready to leave Sprint instead of staying.

So I’m wondering if they are going to release the Kyocera Echo before March 31? And as cold as it sounds, with the tragedy that just happened in Japan, is that going to affect potential delivery of these phones?

Getting a Kyocera Echo about the only thing that’s going to keep me as a customer at this point in time. If I can’t get it before the automatic downgrade at the end of the month, I’m no longer going to be a happy customer, because my contract status is changing WITHOUT MY AGREEMENT, and my costs to upgrade will increase if I was to upgrade my phone before September, and then the $10 charge on top WITHOUT ANY INCREASE IN SERVICE SPEED.

These marketing decisions made by Sprint are driving me, and I suspect other current or potential customers, away.

Anyhow, good luck in your position, hopefully I’ve provided some valid feedback as a current customer.

Thanks so much for for the effort and time you have put in here. I will miss the lists of articles as I often find this as a good place to find interesting stuff I haven’t seen elsewhere.

I understand and respect your decision, though. One thing I know for sure is that Sprint is better off because of recognizing gifted employees such as yourself. I hope that the reduced stress of maintaining this blog in its current form will help you better focus on your work and your family. To that end, may God bless your efforts.

I will look forward to you future, less frequent, posts.

Thank you! Your blog has kept me informed and I’ve truly appreciated it.
All the very best!

Tracy

Thank you for making the effort, Russ, and for putting up with the chaff…

Take care,
Tom