Sprint Provides AWFUL Service, Could Take A Lesson From AT&T

Via The Consumerist:

(Mike Licht)

Melissa couldn't get any reception around her home on her iPhone, despite living only 20 minutes from downtown Chicago. Zero bars. It wasn't just annoying to always miss calls, it was also damaging her rental business. But thanks to a detailed, and snarky, email to the CEO of AT&T, she was able to get the wireless provider to reset its towers and fix the service around her house.
At first AT&T told her the problem was with her phone. All the problems would disappear once she upgraded from her iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4. She did, and they didn't. Then AT&T tried to tell her that it was her car that was interfering with the signal. But she would step out of her car and there would still be low reception. Since she could drive to her parent's remote lake house and have perfect reception, it really seemed like the problem was localized around her home. (If you have a low vulnerability to motion sickness, you can watch this shaky and blurry Flip cam video of Melissa having zero bars inside her house. The text on the screen, referring to the speed of the text messages, says "They go fast inside. Just can't hear you.)
It wasn't until she sent the following email to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson that she got real action:

“

Dear Randall,
I know I said yesterday I would stop with the emails but today was not a good day for me and the iPhone 4. Also I would like to mention that I spoke with Katria this morning. I would like to say that the phone conversation was very pleasant, funny and very, very helpful. Seriously. I really mean that. She was very very helpful.
So here is what's going on today. Maybe this will help your tech's figure out the problem. Maybe there is actually a problem. I still believe it's New York all over again where you had to stop selling them. The Apple store even said that but no one at AT&T will admit that.
Taken in Munster, IN (25 miles from downtown Chicago). These are taken today and the time is CST. This was while sitting in my car outside. Maybe my car is at fault.
Yep, still in Munster IN in my car. Still won't load. Again, maybe it's my cars fault.
Wow, look it loaded finally. And hey, congrats to my brother on getting that barfly badge on yelp. I told him to add it to his resume. It shows commitment and follow through. BTW he posted that to his Facebook yesterday so really no new news. Still in Munster IN.

Still in Munster IN. Still not updated. Still really proud of my brother. BTW he's 25, I remember being 25. Good times.
Wow, have to be connected to a network, that's shocking! Still in Munster IN.

Now please let me explain that the doctor is really not asking her to sample actual shit. It was pills to make her back feel better. I would never recommend a doctor that makes you sample that. Back in my home town of Whiting IN.
Also had a great call with my lawyer today at 12:29pm again I believe maybe Munster or Highland IN. They couldn't hear me. BTW lawsuit has nothing to do with you. I was injured. I'm not suing. Just want my phone to work. Anyway, again, another important phone call while driving and THEY COULDN'T HEAR ME!
Also Randall, My cousin Amy who is not taking the what we talked about before came over last night and we put our iPhones side by side. She had sent me a text message that never came through. I was unable to take a picture of this. I'm going to suggest to Apple that their next new iPhone model can connect two of them together and some how take a picture. Randall, I suggest if they do make this product you only sell it on the moon. I believe they may have good reception there.
So here we go again. Another day, more lost calls and texts. But I just want you to know I sleep good at night that I upgraded and you got that money and I added internet to my second line and you get that money. I really really really hope you spend it on jet fuel to get around. That would mean a lot to me.
All My Love,
UNSATISFIED AT&T USER
Melissa

”

After she sent this out, AT&T called her to tell her the information in it had helped them diagnose the problem. They were going to reset several towers in her area. Melissa noticed a change. She had more than one bar on her phone and people were able to hear and understand what she said in phone conversations. Amazing! AT&T also credited her $79.99 for her troubles.

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38 Comments

via consumerist.com

Interesting. I'm having a very similar problem with Sprint, and they have been unresponsive, failed to meet commitments to even call me back, and have ignored a score of e mails like this lady sent. I wonder if the people at Sprint even care about customer service. I have the private emails of most of their top execs, including CEO Dan Hesse, but NONE of them have ever written back. Sure doesn't seem like it. And yes, The Consumerist has copies of all my emails and calls. 

SO here's the question: Should I post all the e mails and legally recorded phone calls I've had with Sprint? The call where the dude I'm talking with freaks out when I inform him the call is being recorded and read him the Missouri and FCC laws about recording calls is worth the price of admission alone. Classic corporate meltdown. 

What do YOU think?

Posted via email from Mark Edwards 3.0

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• Sprint Deal Will Mean 6 Million More iPhones Sold In 2012 (APPL, S) (businessinsider.com)

Cheaper Than an iPhone 4S: At End of Emails, Type ‘Sent from my iPhone 4S’ « Borowitz Report

CUPERTINO (The Borowitz Report) – A clever work-around discovered by a tech-savvy smart phone user has enabled millions of consumers to avoid buying Apple’s heavily touted iPhone 4S: at the end of emails, they merely type, “Sent from my iPhone 4S.”
Tracy Klugian, a self-described “gizmo fanatic” from Akron, Ohio came up with the ingenious solution after deciding that the iPhone 4S’s price tag was too rich for his blood.
“I’m glad that this work-around will give non-iPhone 4S owners the same thrill that people who spent $299 on it have been experiencing,” he said.  “It’s definitely a much cheaper way to go.”
Across the country, millions of iPhone 4S owners who learned about Mr. Klugian’s inventive fix jammed Apple stores to return their devices, many of them purchased just hours earlier.
“The only reason I bought an iPhone 4S was to let people know that I owned an iPhone 4S,” said Donnelly Rixon, 24, a self-described “douche” from Sacramento.  “This wrecks everything.”
An official statement from Apple indicated that the company would not accept returns of the costly devices, but assured consumers that the $299 price tag was well worth it: “The iPhone 4S is the most amazing device in the history of the smart phone, until the iPhone 5, which will be released tomorrow.”
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Posted via email from Mark Edwards 3.0

The iCloud Is Here, for Apple Devices ONLY. Does Google Change Its Pricing Strategy NOW?

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeSo Apple finally unleashed the iCloud today, and as many had feared, unlike similar offerings from Amazon and Google, their whiz-bang service ONLY works with Apple devices.  So those of us rocking an Android phone or (heaven forbid) a Windows phone or PC are out of luck.



Check out this graphic from the Apple iCloud site.

There’s iCloud. And then there’s everything else.

If music is your thing and you have the collection to prove it, iCloud with iTunes Match is the easiest, most affordable way to store and access all your music.

	Apple	Amazon	Google
Library in the cloud	Scan and Match3 (minutes)	Upload4 (weeks)	Upload4 (weeks)
Music app for Mac and PC	iTunes	Web	Web
Upgrade to 256-Kbps AAC5
Annual price for 5,000 songs	$24.99	$50.00	$???
Annual price for 20,000 songs	$24.99	$200.00	$???

FULL DISCLOSURE; I am a paying customer for the Amazon Cloud Drive and am beta testing the Google Music beta.  I'm not getting compensated for either.  But I'm also not an iOS user, with my only Apple device being an iPod Nano.  That means I can't use iCloud or iOS5.  

I think Amazon's pricing is fair.  I do wonder what Google will charge for their service, but since I carry an Android phone by HTC (no compensation) I'm probably going tostart paying for Google Music when it's time.  Mainly because it will probably work best with my phone, although right now I prefer the Amazon Cloud Player because it has a decent equalizer. 

So if you're Google, what are you thinking about the pricing of your music service now?  Apple is putting theirs out free, with the handy iTunes Match service (which I would pay for if I had a compatible device) for $25 a year.  Does Google undercut Apple and make their service cheaper or somehow better, like linked to Spotify?  I'm guessing they're thinking hard in Mountain View right now.

This is going to get interesting, and it proves that the future is in the cloud. 

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• WWDC 2011: Apple iCloud will be free, iTunes Match replaces pirated songs (hazima.wordpress.com)

HD's Killer App Goes Poof! Radio InSights by Glenda Shrader Bos & Richard Harker

You’ve probably heard that Apple’s new iPod Nano will have an FM tuner with iTunes tagging built in. Lost in radio’s coverage of the announcement was its impact on HD Radio. You may recall that in Fall 2007, iBiquity Digital announced a deal with Apple to enable iTunes tagging on HD radios.

Clear Channel, Cumulus, Cox, Entercom, and Greater Media all quickly announced that they would support tagging. You can read iBiquity’s complete explanation of the process here, and Apple’s latest explanation here.

Here’s how Wired’s Listening Post blog explained the process:

HD Radio stations send song information along with their signal; when the user hits the tag button, that information gets stored on any iPod in the receiver's iPod dock. The next time the iPod is synced with the user's iTunes collection, the tagged songs show up for purchase within iTunes.

Tagging finally gave HD Radio something quite unique. It nudged HD Radio a little closer to hip by aligning the product with the essence of hip: Apple. There was a slight problem.

For tagging to work, your iPod had to be docked in an HD Radio designed for tagging. So those who already owned an HD radio without the feature were screwed. Today, some two years after the announcement, Amazon lists only five radios capable of tagging, all pretty pricey. Don’t plan on tagging with your sub $50 Insignia.

Wired added this analysis:

I suspect that Apple created this feature with more than HD Radio in mind, and plans something along the line of Rhapsody's hardware tagging feature, which lets users tag radio songs on Sandisk and Sonos players for purchase or subscription download.

Wired was pretty close. Apple’s deal with iBiquity was just a test. They wanted a system that could sell more downloads and trump Rhapsody, and HD was the perfect guinea pig. They already had tagging on the entire iPod line. With the kinks worked out, now all they had to do was add an FM tuner to the iPod. Which they did with the new Nano.

Make no mistake. This move was not designed to help radio. It was designed to give iTunes a revenue boost. Radio stations do share in the download revenue that tagging brings to Apple, but it probably won’t be enough to reinstated the Christmas party.

The real value to radio is the acknowledgment that radio can move product. They were looking for more revenue, and they knew that the Internet couldn’t deliver. There is no other vehicle that can expose people to music like commercial terrestrial radio. The Labels and performers may have forgotten this, but Apple didn’t.

As we stated in an earlier blog, Steve Jobs needs radio more than radio needs Steve Jobs.

And HD? Apple knows how many downloads HD generated for iTunes. Maybe that’s why they didn’t bother adding an HD tuner to any of the new iPods. Today, Apple has over a 70 share of the MP3 player market. In contrast, Microsoft has a one share. We think they’ll wait to see how well Microsoft’s new Zune with an HD tuner sells.

via harkerresearch.typepad.com

This post makes me sad. And I've been sad about the future of HD Radio since the Apple event on September 9th. The Nano has FM, but NOT HD FM Radio. How could iBiquity have let this happened?

Tomorrow, the unanticipated HD Radio Zune will be unleashed by Microsoft. I personally spoke with a senior executive at iBiquity over three months ago about getting a test unit or giveaway items so listeners can experience HD Radio. Not a peep for follow up. I've always been a supporter of HD Radio, I program HD Radio stations, but it seems that iBiquity and the HD Radio movement keeps on getting into the "Red Zone" (football season is here) and fumbling. If they could get their chip in the Zune, I've got to think they could have shelled out the cash to get it in the Nano.

Sadly, I have to agree with Glenda and Richard. STEVE JOBS NEEDS RADIO MORE THAN RADIO NEEDS STEVE JOBS. And I'm wondering (PERSONAL OPINION) how many people really want or see the need for HD Radio. As an industry, WE ARE NOT CREATING A NEED. As they say on the Interwebz, EPIC FAIL.

Posted via web from Mark Edwards 3.0