[Samsung Epic 4G Touch] epdp14:
This is quite long but I wanted to detail the entire process of getting an Airave from Sprint for free. I didn't have to lie to Sprint to get one, but they made it quite difficult...

I've been a sprint customer for about a month now. I knew that upon signing a new contract I would have a 14 day evaluation period that I could drop if I wasn't satisfied. I've had a bad experience in the past with Verizon having horrible signal in my house, so I decided to thoroughly test my Sprint signal during the 14 days.

Fortunately, the Sprint signal checked out. I had around 3-4 bars out of 5 around my house. I know that doesn't say anything about the signal strength etc but I could make and receive calls and 3g speed was acceptable. Last Friday (21 days into my contract), however, a Sprint tower went down. I know this because I called Sprint when I began missing calls in my house and also was unable to call out until the phone switched to roaming. I asked the rep when the tower would be fixed and she said it was scheduled to be fixed by the end of the day on Saturday. Sprint down for a day? No problem. I can just switch to the Verizon PRL (which works perfectly for me, even though Verizon didn't) and switch back when they get it fixed.

I switch back to the 11115 PRL Saturday night and no dice. All of the same issues are there. Can't call, missed calls, etc. I call Sprint and ask what happened. I know that a scheduled fix time is a guess because things can come up. The new rep tells me that the new fix time is Monday afternoon. Ok, no problem again. I can just leave it on the 00002 PRL.

Monday afternoon comes and the same situation repeats itself. Problem not fixed. However, when I called in the rep said there were no ongoing issues in my area. I asked if the tower was fixed that they had been working on and she said she assumes so because there are no ongoing issues at the moment (honestly, Siri would probably be better than level 1 Sprint support that I've received sometimes... and thats saying something). So, knowing she can't do anything about it, I ask what I can do about the terrible signal. She walks be through the PRL and profile updates, battery pull, etc (I had already done all of this). Problem still there. She ups the ticket to the next level and then the signal drops because I'm on Sprint's PRL now.

Sprint didn't call back (I switched to 00002 immediately) and I didn't feel like dicking with level 1 that night so I called again on Tuesday. I had to retell the story yet again because the Sprint techs evidently don't read the previous tickets (maybe there aren't previous ticket notes? I have no idea, all I know is I continuously have to repeat the same things to Sprint reps). This rep tells me that she wants to issue an Airave to fix my issue but I need to go to a Sprint store to ensure that my phone is not the culprit.

I'm on FC05 at this time. FC05 has never had any signal issues for me at work or other places other than my house. Thankfully I have my wife's phone on stock rooted EL29. I tell the Sprint rep that I have two phones experiencing the same issue, so the likelyhood of both phones having the same issue due to hardware is extremely unlikely. She says she agrees and will immediately issue an Airave. This is where I believe she lied to me. She gives the the 1000 digit ticket number and tells me to go to the nearest store and they will give me an Airave.

I arrive at the store about 20 minutes after talking to the previous Sprint rep. I give the store the number and they look it up in Sprint's system. They say that they can see that I've talked to the reps in the past few days etc and the issues I've experienced. They tell me, however, that there hasn't been an Airave issued for me as well as the stores don't stock Airaves any more. Ok.

The rep at the store was really nice and tried to help, but couldn't do anything of substance evidently. He gave me the direct number to tech support (sounds like level 2? No idea.) I tell the rep that answers (no wait!) the entire story from the beginning and she immediately tells me that she will transfer me to the Airave department. The guy that answers the Airave department has no knowledge of my situation so I ask him to read the ticket to see what I've done to reach this point. He says OK, waits about 30 seconds, and asks questions that ell me he hasn't read anything. Whatever, I'll explain the situation again. He says he needs to transfer me to the tech support department. I tell him that I just came from there and I've tried all of the tech support steps as well as in store. He transfers me anyway. The next tech support rep apologized and issued me an Airave on the spot. The Airave has been added to my Sprint account online but I haven't received it. No charge for the Airave and no monthly fee.