La-De-Dah... Business Premier Member

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 121

Oh, this is rich. I'm a valued business customer! LOL

I've got a corporate liable account, I haven't been notified of the change in writing, but I've had three discussions with Sprint in the past month or so (with three different answers). I've been told that I needed to 1) work toward the goal of reducing my usage, 2) that it wouldn't affect business customers and 3) that I might get "fined" for going over.

And I was offered to bow out without ETF if I quietly leave by 9/11.

Sheeesh. (insert the proper 4 letter word here instead! LOL)

Even trying to stay off of youtube, streaming radio, etc... and I still used 10+ Gig this month - which is way down from what I'd like to be using. 4 more days to go on the billing cycle, so stay tuned. Smile

(and they are reporting that I've used 3 or 4 more gigs than what my SurplusMeter is showing - there's another whole issue)

But anyway... I got a mailer today promoting their business premier perks.

Get this... it starts out with this opening line:

"Dear Sprint Business Premier Customer,
The place your business is in today may not be the same place it was in the day you joined Sprint. So we want you to know that no matter how your company changes, we're here to make sure your wireless service keeps up."

That makes me want to roll on the floor laughing at this point!!!!

So far, you dirty birds haven't shut me off... but if you do, then obviously "my business might not be in the same place it was the day I joined"... no internet is rough on a business!

Unreal.

So what gives? Do they wanna keep me (and I might even buy two new Treos) or am I getting the boot for being a data pig (I'm definitely one of their problematic 1% customers! LOL).

I'm gonna give them a little call tomorrow. If I'm a $250 a month customer, I wouldn't think they should have heartburn over 10-15 gigs of data. (and I don't roam).

Let's see if they can "keep up".

orangepeel · EVDO User Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 52

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 121

I called in and talked to Sprint today after getting this "business premier" thing in the mail.

I was told that they aren't messing with business accounts... and that my account was not affected because it was put in place before the July 13th change.

I'm under contract until March '10, so I really am thinking of adding a SE treo to my account. I'm just trying to wrangle it so that I can get some sort of assurance that my EVDO account is not going to be messed with. (I know, I know.. but a girl can dream, can't she?)

My billing cycle ends in a just a couple of days... and I'm over. Way over. I think I've used about 10 gigs (according to SurplusMeter) and the last time I checked, Sprint has me down for 3-4 more gigs than that.

I have only downloaded one 350MB file, 3 songs, and the rest is from just using the internet for work. Included in that was a total of less than an hour on youtube (for the entire month). I've had a few software updates, and I've had to move some small jpgs around to customers and such.

I've stayed off of my streaming radio station I like, etc. I've really tried to be careful and there is no way that I can stay under 5 gig and use this as my only internet connection as I have done for the past 5 years.

So for all of the people that think you have to be a torrent junkie to go over the 5 gig, I'm here to say that 5 gig is nothing.

jfulmer · EVDO Junkie Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 155

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 121

jfulmer...

that's the best breakdown I've heard yet ... (and if you said it like that before, I missed it).

I totally "went off" on a Sprint CSR the last time I called in because she says that 5 gigs "was A LOT" of usage. My butt, it is.

Thanks for doing that, jfulmer ... maybe that will make a little more sense to a few.

Sally

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 111

5 gig a month is very little. It is light internet use, no video, and some e-mail per month for 1 person.

Mark

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 121

Oh, Mark. You silly boy.

Can't you see from the above that 5 gigs is "A LOT!" of data???

The above is taken from Sprint's site if you click on "plans available".

10,000 photos my butt.

And it's funny how they won't say how many web pages you can view (and yeah, I know why)

Just teasin' ya.... You know I'm with you.

I'm up against 10 gigs and I sure didn't do a million emails this past month!

This chart is such deceptive BS on their part!

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 121

Just an afterthought...

Whattaya wanna bet that some board of executives actually believed that chart when they toyed around with installing a 5 gig cap?

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 111

Yes I am sure that those idiots actually believe that 5 gig is a lot of data. I know first hand from living within 17 gig a month with WildBlue how limiting 17 gig is. I can't even begin to consider living within 5 gig a month, which is why I have cancelled my account.

Sally · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 121

Call me the eternal optimist....

But I hope that some of these posts make it back to the stuffed shirts sitting around a board room table somewhere back at Sprint.

Another bet: that 12 out of 12 of them never used the service in a way that they would be able to know what 5 gigs really is.

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 111

Well I have bitten the bullet and had WildBlue reconnected, so Sprint has already cost me money. Thank goodness I had left the dish on the side of the house and kept the old modem. I am hoping to get hooked up with another wirless provider sometime in the future.

Black05Hemi · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 16

I can't imagine going back to wildblue, horrible latency

Markgc · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 111

My WildBlue has always worked very well even in the rain. I am using it now and I don't see that much difference to my wireless connection. I think that I have been lucky with my satellite set up with the pc against the same wall as the dish and only about 10 feet of coax between the dish and the modem. I would rather pay $80 for 17 gigs as opposed to $60 for 5 gigs.

Mark

andy6432668 · EVDO User Joined: 02 Jun 2005 Posts: 57

Since the bean counters always want to make more money VZW , Sprint and others may lower the cap to 2.5 gigs per month for $ 59.99

herlien · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:27 am Post subject:

Random comments on this thread --

Andy, do you have any basis for your 2.5GB assertion, or is it just a random guess on your part?

I agree with Black05Hemi. There's no way, no how, that I'd ever go back to Wildblue after I've experienced EVDO. The difference in latency and responsiveness is simply amazing.

Although I agree that 5GB is a small amount for a true broadband connection, and I wish they'd make it 10 or 15, I think that EVDO users have to come to grips with the fact that we don't have a "true broadband" connection. We have a cellular connection, and it's limited by the economics of that technology.

I'm one of those that lives in the boonies, and EVDO is my best choice for a decent connection. But I realize that it's not DSL or cable. Take jfulmer's numbers, for example. Yes, you're only getting the equivalent of 7.5 hours per month. But it's 7.5 hours of the entire cell's capacity. If you assume that the cell gets that kind of use for 16 hours per day (you're not using your 5GB at 3AM are you?), then that usage would only support 64 users on a tower. At $60/user, that's less than $4K per month. I'm not in the business, but I'll bet it costs them more than that to keep a tower in service.

I'll join the chorus in saying that Sprint totally screwed up the way they handled this. And I also agree that it's unethical to change people's contracts in the middle of the contract, despite the legal loophole that allows them to do it. I think my service should be unlimited until my contract runs out, and I'm mad that it isn't. I think Sprint management is sleaze for what they did.

But the economics of the situation means that we can't expect our dollars to buy much more bandwidth than this over the long run.