Positive Sprint Customer Service Experience

I've written in the past about the horrible experiences I've had with Sprint customer service, so I think it is only appropriate to write about a positive experience. Last month I decided to contact Sprint to find out what would happen to my account if I ported out the primary number and left the other lines alone. I've been forwarding my Sprint line to my AT&T iPhone for a year and decided to finally "reclaim" my number. I was holding out due to an ETF, but decided that the ETF got low enough that it was no longer a reason to keep forwarding the number (also SMS didn't forward). The Sprint representative answered quickly and said that a new number would be assigned and nothing else would happen to the account.

I decided to try my luck and see if I could get the lines on the account rearranged to move included features to the lines that I was keeping. The rep said that since the plan was so old, the changes couldn't be made which I completely understood. However, when I checked the account, the changes I requested were actually made! I was surprised, but pleased (I did verify this with a Sprint reseller).

After all that, my parents actually ported out their phones to Verizon so my Dad could get an iPhone. When I got my latest bill, it looked as if Sprint billed me a bit more than I expected. It should have been the regular monthly fee + the ETF for my line (Sprint bills one month in advance, so it was the normal fee without additional lines). When I contact Sprint on Friday, I got email back Saturday with an apology and a credit applied to my account; not just the credit I was supposed to get, but credits for other stuff that I won't see about until the next bill shows up. That was great service to respond so quickly and fix the issue.

Thanks, Sprint!

Lost my iPhone

Just over a year ago, right after I quit my job, I bought an iPhone 3GS off Craigslist for development. I was going to be working on a project that did barcode scanning, so the iPhone simulator wouldn't cut it. I had a feeling that a new iPhone was coming out, but it was either work a month and earn money or save the $325 and make excuses to why I couldn't test the app; the choice was pretty easy. When the iPhone 4 came out, I bought one and kept my iPhone 3GS running iOS 3.1.3 for a testing device.

I made the mistake of letting my son (3 years old at the time) play with it and he quickly learned to use it to play music, see pictures, take pictures, and check the weather. He now calls it "his" iPhone and loves to listen to music on it (yes, I did set the volume limiter and selected appropriate music for him). The phone is amazingly durable and my son now listens to it with headphones when we're in the car which is a huge improvement from us having to listen to his music on the stereo!

At least I didn't actually lose my iPhone, but I doubt I'll be able to get it back from my son anytime soon!

Fixing a problem I didn't know I had (FaceTime)

Today my father was playing with FaceTime and couldn't reach me which was odd as my phone was on and had WiFi access. My dad had tried earlier using my email address as well and when I looked at my iPad later, I saw a missed call, but it should have rang on my desktop. The number on my iPad was the number that my dad's phone was initially given before he ported his phone number.

Ahh, a bell went off and after a bit of searching, I came across an Apple Support Article about this particular problem after porting. After reading this, it dawned on me why I couldn't FaceTime from my desktop to my iPhone; I had ported my phone number to AT&T a few weeks ago (I was just forwarding it from Sprint since I got my phone last year). The quick fix was to turn off FaceTime and turn it back on again to get it to re-register with Apple's servers. My dad did the same thing and presto, FaceTime worked.

However, I also forgot to setup FaceTime on the desktop with my primary email address (my Apple ID is not my primary email address). A trip to the FaceTime preferences on the desktop fixed that issue as well.

So, if FaceTime isn't working, check preferences and turn it off then on again and it should work again.

As you can probably tell, I don't use FaceTime much!

Spoiled by broadband or is it a necessity?

For WWDC, I've been staying at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco as it is close to Moscone West where the conference is being held. While the conference has WiFi throughout, having access in my hotel room is needed so that I can keep up with work before and after each conference day. Unfortunately with the hotel filled with geeks, the Internet connection goes from bad to worse at times. I've managed to sort of carry on a video chat with my wife twice, but that was when no one was around. The hotel apparently charges $60 for the week (the front desk said it was complimentary when I checked in) which is more than the full monthly bill for my home cable modem connection. My experience isn't unique; my co-workers in the W hotel down the street have been experiencing the same problems. As compensation for the poor experience (after tweeting about it), one co-worker received a cheese plate. Personally I'd rather have a working connection than a cheese plate!

I can understand that WWDC occurs just once a year and the hotel has no interest in paying for excess bandwidth the entire year for the one week there are a bunch of geeks in the hotel. While the room has been fine, the quality of the Internet connection may be the deciding factor for people choosing a hotel.

I feel quite frustrated trying to do work with the slow access which is causing me basically to do nothing; it's a good thing that I'm at a slow point in my project.