Trying to decide between Sprint retention offer and ATT's GSM Plan. Please help.

[Riva]

My husband and I have had business lines with SprintPCS for over 5 years. Last week we merged our lines to a shared plan. Here's what we've currently negotiated with Sprints retention department for a 2 year contract.

- $40 / 750 shared minutes.
- $20 / Add a phone.
- Unlimited PCS to PCS with 2 year contract.
- Unlimited night/weekends starting at 8 pm.
- 1st incoming minute retained from previous retention plan.
- 120 recurring minutes on each line (total 240 minutes) retained previous retention plan.
(This would bring our total combined minutes each month to 990.)
- $150 rebate for each Sanyo 8200.

I know this is a decent offer compared to plans I've seen here, but the fact is we've also been considering transferring to ATT Wireless which is currently offering: GSM National $59 / 900 minutes, $10 second phone line, no roaming in gsm national area, free shared night/weekends starting 7pm, free incoming text message, 3 free 411 calls, unlimited mobile to mobile. Plus great rebates available through Wirefly.

Should mention we also have other family members on ATT, so we'd probably get a lot more out of our their mobile to mobile minutes than we would with Sprint's pcs to pcs.

Now we tried to get the additional 5% Sprint customer loyalty discount, but we were told that code was only available for customers coming off of a contract (We've asked twice).

Any ideas on what other Sprint codes/options are currently available for someone in our position... at no additional cost? And tips on getting them? This will be our 3rd 2 year contract with Sprint. Although for the past year we've been on a month to month plan. We have one week left to decide.

Thanks for any feedback.

PS: I find it interesting that ATT's normall GSM national plan competes pretty strongly with a Sprint retention contract.

Re-edited: They do rate the same in Service/Plans, according to JD Power; however, ATT rates much higher (4 stars) in Customer Care than Sprint (2 stars).

[mcurtiss1970]

I wouldn't trust JD Power as far as I could throw them. AT&T reputedly has bottom of the barrel CS.

[mattocs]

I wouldn't trust JD Power as far as I could throw them. AT&T reputedly has bottom of the barrel CS.


But sprint is also known for very poor CS...but I have found out that is very untrue...so maybe its not true with ATT.

[mcurtiss1970]

But sprint is also known for very poor CS...but I have found out that is very untrue...so maybe its not true with ATT.exactly why i don't trust JD Power...or Consumer Reports for that matter

[Riva]

Hi Everyone - Thanks for responding to my message. Also, please note I edited my comment regarding JD Power's ratings. "They do rate the same in Service/Plans (3 stars), according to JD Power; however, ATT rates much higher (4 stars) in Customer Care than Sprint (2 stars)."

Now I have to say, I haven't been too impressed with Sprint's Customer Care myself. But that aside, how do you feel the two plans compare? Also, do you think I have a chance at getting anything more from Sprint retention department? I know it's a good offer, compared to others offers I've seen here, but I really feel like I need more of an incentive to stay with Sprint, given the ATT plan... and other factors I mentioned above. Thanks again for your feedback.

[Deval]

keep in mind that if you travel, and you are off the GSM network, your phone instantly becomes a paperweight...they dont charge roaming because there is no option to roam, it either works or it doesnt. got a question for you...have you ever left your phone on Sprint Only mode, and watched it search for service? Same idea now, but there will be no analog backup

[Quill]

Two things to consider IMO:

1) How is AT&T coverage in your area?
2) How is Cingular coverage in your area?

Additionally, have you considered the impact that the Cingular buyout (which is in process and not yet received final approval from the feds) of AT&T may have on your contract with AT&T if you switched?

Personally, I would avoid a company in flux. AT&T is hemorraghing customers like crazy which is why they've moved to offering the deals they have now. When you go to renew your contract in two years and you're a Cingular customer, will you be able to get the same kind of deal?

Switching always come down to staying with the devil you know or going to the devil you don't.

Just some food for thought.

Good luck whatever you do.

[mbrenner]

1. Coverage is everything. The plans are close enough that it should be a coverage issue that decides this.

2. In my area sprint has the coverage AT&T does not. If the situation were reversded I would have AT&T (which I carry for work, but make about 1/3 of my work calls on my sprint phone because the AT&T phone is out of range.

3. Be advised that AT&T coverage may be significantly better now than it will be after the merger. Now you have full access to both companies towers and capacity. Much of this is overlapping. Imagine if Sprint and Verizon merged how good the coverage would be, that is the present situation with AT&T and Cingular. After the merger Cingular/AT&T will be selling a lot of capacity to T-mobile and other GSM providers, so the network will shrink in capacity yet support the same number of users as it does now.

4. As the GSM providers start adopting WCDMA in the future some GSM network capacity will be lost to WCDMA use on 1900.

Things to think about. On the sprint side, in the next few years AMPS networks will be decomissioned and analog roaming will be lost, so sprint will have to enhance its CDMA network and CDMA roaming agreements to cover more rural areas if they want to provide coverage in non metro areas.

Finally note that AT&T free calling to other AT&T phones only applies when both phones are on the AT&T network, so if either party is on a cingular tower (which happenes often) no free minutes.

[NocTurnerV]

keep in mind that if you travel, and you are off the GSM network, your phone instantly becomes a paperweight...they dont charge roaming because there is no option to roam, it either works or it doesnt. got a question for you...have you ever left your phone on Sprint Only mode, and watched it search for service? Same idea now, but there will be no analog backup

No, actually, there's plenty of roaming with AT&T; there are literally dozens of regional/local GSM providers in the states that help tremendously with our roaming coverage. The truer statement to make is that there is no *analog* roaming, because all of our GSM phones simply skip this altogether. I certainly don't think our coverage compares with Sprint all-around, but I've gotta chime in anyway...

[lennyj17]

And u also need to consider, what type of cell phone the rest of your family and friends have, i have 22 fam and friends that i speak to on any given day, :eek: and they all have sprints, so u can see how i clean up on the pcs2pcs, i may have 2 people inmy phone book that have att,

first thing consider is coverage
second is what does the rest of the fam and friends have

trust me u will save alot with just those 2 opt right there, then consider all else.

also u might want to see if cigular will still honor att pgk, b/c i know that alot of companies that do take overs will not honor the grandfathered packages


hope this helps !!!!!! :D :

[Riva]

Thanks everyone. All your comments have been very helpful, and you've given me a lot to think about.

To update: I was just told by a Sprint rep, over the phone, that we could get the 5% customer loyalty discount added if we gave up our first incoming minute. Strange how they keep changing their story. So any ideas on how I could get them to throw it in without giving up my first incoming minute?

I mean it is just a matter of calling enough times to find a rep that will be nice enough to add this on..., or are they really limited on what they can do?

Btw, I'm stuck in my house right, because of the hurricane in Florida (kind of surreal), so I've got nothing better to do right now than to work on the Sprint retention department. Hopefully my phone lines will stay intact. ;-)

[Untouchables15]

And u also need to consider, what type of cell phone the rest of your family and friends have, i have 22 fam and friends that i speak to on any given day, :eek: and they all have sprints, so u can see how i clean up on the pcs2pcs, i may have 2 people inmy phone book that have att,

first thing consider is coverage
second is what does the rest of the fam and friends have

trust me u will save alot with just those 2 opt right there, then consider all else.

also u might want to see if cigular will still honor att pgk, b/c i know that alot of companies that do take overs will not honor the grandfathered packages


hope this helps !!!!!! :D :

More than likely they would honor the plan that u would have through att. When southwestern bell and the rest of the bells became cingular they still honored all of the old plans. I had cingular when they first started out, when it was still southwestern bell. I switched over to there gsm service last october and i had a ton of dropped calls and my phone wouldn't ring half the time and would go to voicemail. I would definately stay with sprint because the quality of gsm is not all that great. my entire family has cingular and they live in an area that all there is, is cingular. there are towers everywhere there, but still the service isn't that great. I live near downtown dallas and alot of ppl here in texas have cingular. I still see the sames problems with other ppl to. Cingular, att and tmobile are pretty much all the same to me because they all have gsm. Im not tryin to bash them. i really wanted to stay with cingular, but for it just didn't work out.

[Deval]

No, actually, there's plenty of roaming with AT&T; there are literally dozens of regional/local GSM providers in the states that help tremendously with our roaming coverage. The truer statement to make is that there is no *analog* roaming, because all of our GSM phones simply skip this altogether. I certainly don't think our coverage compares with Sprint all-around, but I've gotta chime in anyway...

Thats true...I mis-worded my post...

[macaddiict]

I worked for AT&T Customer Care for the last two summers... and based on my experience there (and the changes that have come into play), I would not recommend AT&T Wireless to anyone right now. In 2003, the main emphasis for customer care was getting issues resolved and making it a good experience for the customer so they'd stay with AT&T. This summer, the main emphasis was making the company look good to Cingular for the merger - which meant NO credits (even for billing errors - you had to just fill out a form and hope someone called the customer back), NO courtesy credits at all, no equipment discounts based on tenure, trying to get every customer under contract, .... the list goes on. Basically, right now AT&T is focusing on making itself a profitable company to buy out for Cingular. And if you think things will get better when Cingular is in control, you're crazy!

The other main reason to stay away from AT&T is the backend systems. It is common knowledge in the industry that if AT&T Wireless was a car, they would have a hanger and duct tape holding on their bumper. The system is ancient, proprietary, and the GSM and Digital systems don't talk to one another at all. Many changes a care rep makes don't even go thru, because the systems are interdependent but don't work together (yeah, explain that one to me). Basically, until things get straightened out, even the nicest rep in the world has their hands tied when it comes to pretty much everything.

http://www.cio.com/archive/041504/wireless.html

http://www.cio.com.au/index.php/id;45350857;fp;4;fpid;20

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/crm/story/0,10801,87181,00.html (This article is weird, because it says AT&T has a CDMA network as well. . . ?)

The problems that caused number portability to screech to a halt are mostly fixed . . . but you can't print a RMA label, change a contract end date, or add Call Waiting without a HUGE crash and delay. I know that working in Customer Care (where people don't usually call unless they have a problem) can give a biased view of the company . . . but I wouldn't recommend them at all. Then again, I'm sure there are 1 or 2 happy customers out there...

[Hte2w8]

Wow...the above post speaks VOLUMES. Thanks for thr insight.

[mcurtiss1970]

One of my friends has had AT&T TDMA since God knows when...just moved over to GSM and still loves it. AT&T really screwd the pooch on something really good and went downhill faster than Enron

[BeNT]

keep in mind that if you travel, and you are off the GSM network, your phone instantly becomes a paperweight...they dont charge roaming because there is no option to roam, it either works or it doesnt. got a question for you...have you ever left your phone on Sprint Only mode, and watched it search for service? Same idea now, but there will be no analog backup

That is true but ATTWS has roaming agreements in place with both T-mobile and Cingular and quite a few other GSM carriers. I have an ATTWS GSM plan as well as Sprint. The CS is horrible at ATTWS, but you can get things done if you do, just like Sprint, keep calling until you get someone to help you. ATTWS CS can even give you better plans if you complain or have issues. We were upgraded to a 800 min. shared, $10 2nd line, N&W @ 7 and unlimited mobile to mobile, free incoming text all on $39.99 mo. plan (+ the $9.99 2nd line). Only reason we still have it, that and a 2 yr contract. I traveled coast to coast a coupla months ago and w/ the roaming agreements never once lost signal (even in some really rural areas), and because I have a national plan....no roaming fees. Mmode is way over-priced though. Bottom line.....great coverage, decent plan, horrible CS, good price. As long as you don't use Mmode too much it's okay. I prefer my sprint and the biggest thing is no one knows what is going to happen to ATTWS plans in about 8mos. when ATTWS no longer exists (becomes Cingular).

[BillybathGate]

My husband and I have had business lines with SprintPCS for over 5 years. Last week we merged our lines to a shared plan. Here's what we've currently negotiated with Sprints retention department for a 2 year contract.

- $40 / 750 shared minutes.
- $20 / Add a phone.
- Unlimited PCS to PCS with 2 year contract.
- Unlimited night/weekends starting at 8 pm.
- 1st incoming minute retained from previous retention plan.
- 120 recurring minutes on each line (total 240 minutes) retained previous retention plan.
(This would bring our total combined minutes each month to 990.)
- $150 rebate for each Sanyo 8200.

I know this is a decent offer compared to plans I've seen here, but the fact is we've also been considering transferring to ATT Wireless which is currently offering: GSM National $59 / 900 minutes, $10 second phone line, no roaming in gsm national area, free shared night/weekends starting 7pm, free incoming text message, 3 free 411 calls, unlimited mobile to mobile. Plus great rebates available through Wirefly.

Should mention we also have other family members on ATT, so we'd probably get a lot more out of our their mobile to mobile minutes than we would with Sprint's pcs to pcs.

Now we tried to get the additional 5% Sprint customer loyalty discount, but we were told that code was only available for customers coming off of a contract (We've asked twice).

Any ideas on what other Sprint codes/options are currently available for someone in our position... at no additional cost? And tips on getting them? This will be our 3rd 2 year contract with Sprint. Although for the past year we've been on a month to month plan. We have one week left to decide.

Thanks for any feedback.

PS: I find it interesting that ATT's normall GSM national plan competes pretty strongly with a Sprint retention contract.

Re-edited: They do rate the same in Service/Plans, according to JD Power; however, ATT rates much higher (4 stars) in Customer Care than Sprint (2 stars).


Umm, I just recently ported over from ATT... I would have to say SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY! Why you ask?
Well, ATT does in fact have the worst CS & phone service. TRUST me, they're also a bunch of thieves. My reason for leaving... I had purchased a Motorola V600 from them in July of this year (after being told it was my moto T721 phone which I had originally bought when I signed up and not the service) because I had been getting a hell of a lot of dropped calls. (I live in NYC), Anyway, after the purchase and having used the phone for 2 weeks, I was still getting dropped calls like crazy! I returned the 369.99 V600 and my money was just sittiing in the account. I called ATT to request a refund since I had returned the phone, and they told me it would take 60 days to get a refund (***?) Now while the money was sitting there, they were deducting from my monthly bill which for that month (July) was 55.25 plus they took out money for the next month (41.17) even though July was far from over . I'm like "OH FUGGING NO!" I was going to pay the 55.25 the same day they deducted from the 369.99 BTW. Ok, so that left me with 273.57. I had been with ATT for almost a year and my 1yr contract was up in August I might add. I was so pissed TFO, I called them and GLADLY paid the "CANCELLATION FEE" which was 175.00 BTW and ported over to Sprint the same day (July 20) and been using Sprint ever since (mind you they took out money for the month of August). Anyway, that left me with 98.57 which I called them again for a refund, only to be told that I would have to wait 30 days. Okkkkkkkk no problem, called them on August 20... only to be told I would have to wait 60 days!!!!!!!!!!! I tell the CSR, you take out money from my account in 1 second even though my bill (41.17) wasn't due for antoher 30 days, and you tell me I have to wait 60 days for money that YOU OWE ME!!!!????!!!!!? All she said was "sorry" Sorry? I cursed her out!!! It felt good too! :furious: :D. After all that, I get a check in the mail on Friday (Sept 24) for 61.29!!!!!!!! I called them up and asked where was my 37.28 ? It seems that they charged me AGAIN !!! I told the B**CH, I haven't used ATT since the day I ported over to Sprint, and only after demanding to speak to a supervisor... they agreed they made a "mistake" and would be sending the difference to me in (get this) 4-6 weeks!!!!!!! I can only laugh at them, because the whole experience has been a nightmare for me. Since using sprint, I've been nothing but happy. The service works everywhere my "GSM" service didn't! You've been warned!!! Stay away from those thieves! I almost resorted to going to NY1's "Help Me Howard" and making it a public issue! Now if you want a "Good Plan" by all means do so and use ATT because they DO have good plans, but if you don't want SHODDY SERVICE & DIRTY PRACTICES, then STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ATT!
LOL

[keil]

you have to look at what your realy want from a Cell phone company. Do you want more minutes @ a cheaper rate? Do you want Coverage, Where do you want your phone to work? Am I Roaming or not? How can I tell where my Coverage ends and starts... How many of my Family/Friends use this company.. do they like it... how easy is it to use the Phone... Do I have to read a 300 pape text on how to set up my phone book... Do I want inernet on it, does this phone have a camara (sp) In my plan am I charged for things I do not understand, can I go to a store or call up CS and get help...

just set and think about what you want, I personaly love SPCS, I do not like ATT for what they did to me 3 yrs ago... but you know times do change sometimes companyies will change also...

[BillybathGate]

you have to look at what your realy want from a Cell phone company. Do you want more minutes @ a cheaper rate? Do you want Coverage, Where do you want your phone to work? Am I Roaming or not? How can I tell where my Coverage ends and starts... How many of my Family/Friends use this company.. do they like it... how easy is it to use the Phone... Do I have to read a 300 pape text on how to set up my phone book... Do I want inernet on it, does this phone have a camara (sp) In my plan am I charged for things I do not understand, can I go to a store or call up CS and get help...

just set and think about what you want, I personaly love SPCS, I do not like ATT for what they did to me 3 yrs ago... but you know times do change sometimes companyies will change also...

ATT will NEVER change my friend.... :eek:

[keil]

LOL, what I was saying is that not all companies change, and ATT will be one of them

[Riva]

Well after reading all the notes here and weighing in all the factors, I'm probably going to stay with Sprint. Although, I'm still working on trying to get them to give me that 5% customer loyalty discount. If anyone has any ideas of how I could get them to throw that in without me having to give up my free first incoming minutes, please send me a private message.

To reiterate: First they told me this discount was not available on our account at all. Then another rep told me it was available, but we'd have to give up our first incoming minute, because the computer would only take one code or the other. Should I give it 20 more calls? ;-)

The retention contract so far is:

- $40 / 750 shared minutes.
- $20 / Add a phone.
- 120 recurring minutes on each line (total 240 minutes) retained from a previous retention plan. (Total minutes each month would be 990 minutes.)
- Unlimited PCS to PCS with 2 year contract.
- Unlimited night/weekends starting at 8 pm.
- 1st incoming minute retained from a previous retention plan.
- $150 rebate for each Sanyo 8200, we've purchased at Costco for $199 ea.

Monthly cost would be $60 plus tax.

Plus they're also giving us one month off (paying our bill) and throwing in 750 extra minutes this month to relieve our anxiety about not being able to track our minutes this month.

Thanks for any other ideas.

[LoanShark]

Don't buy at&t. My dad has it and his phone does all kinds of bizarre things, including merging other random people's calls onto yours (big privacy issue that has never happened with Sprint), the GSM sound quality is not as good as CDMA (in my humble opinion), the coverage while better than T-Mobile, still leaves something to be desired, and the upcoming merger could potentially create all kinds of issues for customers. AT&T sucks *****.

[ThePCSRep]

No, actually, there's plenty of roaming with AT&T; there are literally dozens of regional/local GSM providers in the states that help tremendously with our roaming coverage. The truer statement to make is that there is no *analog* roaming, because all of our GSM phones simply skip this altogether. I certainly don't think our coverage compares with Sprint all-around, but I've gotta chime in anyway...
If you could read he did say that the phone would not use analog roaming gosh why do people flame here without reading flame after you read the whole post

[sovalon]

Sprint cancelled my employee plan about 2 weeks ago and so i thought i would try to look around and try another carrier. i tried cingular or att and hated it. singal in minnesota is horrible, i didnt get reception in half the places that i did with sprint. i even tried 2 different phones and still the same result. those looking to go ATT, do NOT get the motorola mpx220, it is the worst phone ever.