[Geckotek]

If you are out of contract, threaten to cancel....THEN see what kind of deal you get (including moving to $10/mo vision.)

[MFizzel]

I've enjoyed my treo and cingular thoroughly, no reason to ditch them. ...and when I go for a jog or to a bar, I don't have to bring my treo with me There are many advantages with GSM.

[Geckotek]

Ah yes, the SIM switch. Nice....wish we had it. Think it may be coming or even already here in limited applications.

[dimensiondvdrob]

If you are out of contract, threaten to cancel....THEN see what kind of deal you get (including moving to $10/mo vision.)

Exactly Geckotek...

If you are not in contract, ask to speak with someone in RETENTION DEPARTMENT. These guys have the 'power' to give plans not available or seen anywhere. My buddy has 2 phones with Sprint and pays something like $100.00 for both with Unlimited Vision, etc.

So harm in asking.

[psisquared]

I've enjoyed my treo and cingular thoroughly, no reason to ditch them. ...and when I go for a jog or to a bar, I don't have to bring my treo with me There are many advantages with GSM.

I thought so too, until I called Sprint Retention and talked with them about this very thing and they gave me a second line FREE. Amazing what saving $240/yr by switching to a GSM provider will do when negotiating with Sprint (i.e. 20/month add a phone = 240/yr usually with Sprint).

Now I use my old Sprint phone when I don't want to risk damage to the Treo. I do have a different number when I do this, but at least I can make calls and I guess I could always forward calls from the Treo if I wanted.

[lyndon_h]

sprint is the shiznik. I love the fast vision. Couldn't be much happier.

[Kahuna]

Each carrier has their niche.

I do like the removable SIM I carry my old phone around on the weekends when I do not need the bulky 650.

[ArtGuy]

Had Cingular for 1 year after many,many years with Verizon's poor customer service and smarmy billing practices. Cingular would drop calls all over Boston. I live 5 minutes South of Boston and was told by Cingular's Office of the President to deal with the poor service , because I lived in a fringe area! Gee, if Boston is a fringe area, what do people in the 'burbs do??? Now when my Treo 650 on Sprint is quiet, it's because the person on the other line isn't speaking - NOT because the call just dropped AGAIN!! I'm very happy with Sprint. And the 2 or 3 calls I've made for a bit of help have been quick, pleasant and pain-free!

[tcatnat]

I was with VZW for 2 years and for the first year my reception was very good. For the last year I had significant issues with my reception, i.e. dropped calls, echoes during conversations, calls fading in and out. Sometimes it would take up to 6 hours for me to receive a voicemail. Spots where I always had reception I suddenly had none and could not place calls or got frequent drops. I called VZW several times and they blame it on my equipment. I asked them why then did it work for the first year? They had no answer. My reception has gotten so erratic that I tried to cancel but of course they would not let me without charging $175 per line (I have 2 line family plan). Their arrogance and unwillingness to address my issues has lost them a customer. When my contract expired I moved over to Sprint. I believeVZW is currently at or near capacity for its system in my area. Before you sign a long term contract with VZW take advantage of any trial period and use the phone as much as you can during peak calling hours.

I have been happy with Sprint so far. Bye bye VZW.

[Geckotek]

In VZW's defense, I had a similar issue w/ Sprint. On one of my Samsung phones, it worked great for a long time. Eventually, it got to where I couldn't keep a call connected. I changed phones and my problem was resolved. Turns out, the phone had just slowly declined in it's ability to work well.

Verizon may have been correct when they blamed it on your hardware. The only way to know would have been to try another phone.

With that being said, no carrier is perfect all over the US. Some have better coverage in others in different places....just gotta try them out.

Besides, once you leave the interstate highway corridors, Sprint coverage gets dicey.

I completely disagree. I work for a company that has plants in a lot of rural areas. My phone tends to work better in the plants than my co-workers who use our Cingular corporate account (I'm a contractor.)

I'm not sure about your other locations, but I was just in Northern China and my Sprint phone worked just about everywhere (Beijing, Datong, Pingyao, Taijuan, Xian). Have you actually tried a digital dual-band phone in China or Taiwan? I had to enable international roaming with Sprint (free), and I did rack up some large roaming fees ($0.99/min from Sprint + long distance through the roaming carrier ~ $1.00-1.50/min), but at least it worked and worked well. They also have some interesting options for getting a Sprint SIM and/or renting a Sprint GSM phone.

Well, I don't know China well, but I'm headed there in a few weeks. Do you know if a CDMA phone will work in Yanji? (Yanbian prefecture, Jilin province)

[MadlyAlive]

jackbauer...How can you go 24 hours without taking a leak?

[scaredpoet]

If you travel overseas, a Sprint Treo will be useless..

For one, not everyone frequently travels overseas.

Second, in the rare occasions I DO travel overseas, my treo will NOT come with me, even if it was GSM. The dynamics surrounding handset theft in countries where GSM is prevalent are VERY different from in the US, and in such places, the phone I carry is NOT going to cost $500+ to replace, thank you very much.

Third, you seem to equate "overseas" as being the parts of the E.U. that have been shortsighted enough to mandate GSM coverage exclusively. Seems the CDG disagrees with you about what consitutes "overseas":

http://www.cdg.org/technology/roaming/coverage.asp

[robangel]

I have to add that I also bever get bad coverage in rural areas with Sprint unless you count somewhere around the grand canyon and I thought of one more....Around Lake Shasta in Northern CA. I don't call those rural I call those wilderness In rural areas in the east and midwest never had an issue.

[psisquared]

Well, I don't know China well, but I'm headed there in a few weeks. Do you know if a CDMA phone will work in Yanji? (Yanbian prefecture, Jilin province)

Here's a link to Sprint's International Roaming Dept. You'll need to have them enable International Roaming on your account before your phone will work there (enabling its free, roaming on other networks of course is not). When you go to their site, click "Coverage" and you can check whether your Treo will work. Anywhere it says Digital Dual Band should work with your Treo. With that said, I looked at the names of those places you quoted, and I saw Jilin should work with your Treo.

http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/co...ntlWelcome.jsp

[Geckotek]

Thanks, I found that the other day. I'll be giving them a call. Looks like I may spend a few days in Seoul on the way back as well!

[reverland]

Here is why I quit Sprint. This is the BBB I filed.

I decided to look into 4 lines of service with Sprint PCS and get the deals that they offer on the website. I currently am a Sprint customer, but I am not under a contract anymore, so I could cancel my service at any time with no penalty. I had decided that I would get 4 new phones, new service with 2 year agreement and after delivery of the new phones I would cancel my existing service. I called up Sprint's customer service and spoke to Bruce at 9:30 PM on April 25, 2005, I informed him that I am currently a Sprint customer. I then started asking him questions about the phones and services I was going to purchase online. He then informed me that I did not need to order on the website, and that I could order over the phone with him and he would give me the same deal and have everything go through my exiting account. I then ordered a Palmone Treo 650 and 4 Sanyo 8200. The Sanyo’s were having a buy one get one free special. I informed him that I only needed 3, but asked if I could get the fourth one without having to activate it. He told me there would be no problem with that. Now we come to Thursday April 29, 2005 12:50 PM, I look on my sprint account to see that I now have 5 numbers associated with my account when I only needed 4. I talked to the Sprint PCS representative who says they are adding all 5 phones to my existing account. I informed him that I spoke to someone Monday and that this wasn’t supposed to happen. He then said that is not Sprint PCS policy and I would have to return the phones. I then spoke to his supervisor Tracy and she said there would be nothing they can do for me and that I would need to return the phones. I then spoke to her supervisor Christine Taylor and she said I would need to return the phones. So after purchasing over $500 worth of phones and new service I have to return them all and wasting 3 days waiting for an order that should have never gone through. This wouldn’t be such a problem if I was getting something more than I should, but I stated to them that I was willing to cancel my existing account and would purchase everything online. Instead I have to return all 5 phones, inconvenience myself in doing so, and now the phones that I expected to be a birthday present will be late. I am very dissatisfied with the service I received from Sprint PCS. The customer service representatives were worried more about keeping to company policy than to try to make me a satisfied customer. There was no middle ground with them. They would not give me the deal and I could not keep the phones.