[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III] slackguru:
Beyond Charged

Not sure if you're a new user to the Airave or not but I figured I had better share this.

Oct. 2011 my wife and I switched carriers from a local carrier to Sprint, against my better judgement. I was a long time loyal Sprint customer from 1991-2002 until the digital switch. When we signed up this time we both got the Nexus S 4g. Thank God, because the only thing that saved us was the ability to use Google Talk over Wi-Fi throughout the next period of time.

I was working out of town 5 days a week and home on weekends at the time and from October to December Sprint nearly ruined my marriage and effectually ruined my good name and the state of my account standing because they simply could not get the two devices to communicate properly. We were experiencing things like missed calls, missed texts, no notifications of either, if missed call left a voicemail we would not be notified, texts would arrive 12+ hours after they were sent and Sprint decided we needed to implement an Airave in BOTH locations to improve reception. Unfortunately getting my roommate while working to cooperate with Sprint was virtually impossible, in hindsight, I'm glad he didn't.

Sprint never disclosed that every call going through the Airave was actually changed to an Airave usage minute that came off our then small plan because we were enjoying the unlimited mobile to any mobile minutes. It didn't matter if you were calling a mobile or a Sprint mobile even... every minute through an Airave ate away at your plan minutes. Our $169.00 bill became over $1000.00 in far less than a month. The use of it did decrease our connection issues but throughout the course of troubleshooting with support, executive services and engineers we determined the reason it helped is because the Airave had a single, hardwired MSID that all calls through it used that matched the cellular number that it was assigned. Because it isn't a mobile device it's MSID didn't have to differ from it's mobile number.

Sprint reluctantly refunded the majority of the excess charges, added the unlimited calling feature to the Airave and credited us for it's addition throughout the remainder of our contract and promised not to charge us an early term fee should we decide to take our service elsewhere. From October through April 2012 each my wife and I received 2 replacement NS4G's in spite of the fact that we asked to try something different back on October 10th and was REFUSED believe it or not because of HOW our order was placed. It was a web order that required an instore reservation and for some reason the store cancelled the web order and placed an entirely new order now requiring a deposit where my web order did not. In less than a week of receiving our 3rd NSG4 each, in March of 2012 we both knew the devices still weren't working and with the help of a couple engineers within Sprint, not only did we find the problem we also determined that Sprint was unwilling to admit it and certainly unwilling to address it or repair it.

In our area, our devices have their cellular number and an MSID that differs from it. When I would place a call to my wife, my MSID would receive it's necessary approval from the DSLAM but then the DSLAM proceeded to record a second, different MSID that it randomly assigned to me, her or our communication as you would have it depending on who was initiating the call. Then when the equipment handed off the approved network communication to the receiving end, the second fictitious MSID was handed off and not the originating MSID and because it had no actual communication associated with it, it would simply not notify the receiving party of any call, text or voicemail whatsoever. Not only that, but when the receiving DSLAM received the communication, it recorded a third, altogether different MSID through some dynamic assignment I would assume.

Starting in Feb or Mar Sprint then decided we needed to try new numbers with new devices which was this 3rd NS4G, assuring us both that neither of us would lose our original number since we ported them in, never receiving the benefit of the $125.00 port in credit they claimed we received back in December. All I remembered was a $400.00 bill in December 2011. We tried it and they found even with the new numbers the same MSID issue was going on which prompted the next decision they made which included different devices.

Sprint finally decided to try different devices sending us both used Galaxy S II E4GT's that we were told would be new. By this time, I was no longer working out of town and because we were no longer away from each other and I wasn't using my phone near as much the trouble wasn't seen as often so when we got the new devices it was almost like the issue was non existent. However, the several times I did travel the issue resurfaced immediately. I video taped the opening of the "NEW" devices because they both showed up in a FedEx bubble pack flexible envelope in tiny little boxes with batteries free floating in the envelop in their own plastic bags. No chargers, no headsets, no documentation, no disk with drivers, and no retail box. Both phones had cosmetic damages that appeared to be scuffs. Nicks in the plastic cases on the edge near the glass display and when we registered them on Samsung dotcom, I was sure to use the live representative to do so to make sure it was all documented. We were assured by Samsung that we wouldn't have any trouble receiving warranty service for a year.

Still experiencing the issue with different devices, new numbers and actively engaged engineers calling us to test services we thought for sure they would finally get the issue resolved. Then the time came to put our numbers back where they belong as promised and somehow miraculously Sprint not only lost my number but they continued to hold it hostage until December 2012 when the VP of Consumer Credit was finally forced to send me a "loaner" phone with my original number on it. She agreed to create us a new account with only our two original numbers on it sour current account wouldn't make us look like credit derelicts to any representatives we talked to for any service or support but instead of honoring her agreement, less than a week later, just following Christmas, we receive a letter from Sprint Legal Department telling us we had 30 days to find another carrier since they were deciding to exercise their right to terminate our contract.

Executive services left us hanging, none of our service ever worked as expected, our bill was never repaired virtually none of their representatives were completely honest or knowledgeable and on top of all that, their executives were equally dishonest and frankly I feel damaged irreparably because that period of time I will never get back, I felt like a project manager for them every step of the way because expected call backs would almost never occur and I was constantly prodding someone to do their job in a timely fashion. Over the course of 16 months I spent over 400 hours on the phone with someone from Sprint and we shall see if the Legal department makes good on, not only repairing the account's final status or if they will decide rather to leave the account until it can be written off rather than crediting the account as it should be...

I am monitoring the reporting at the different bureaus very closely right now because if I see any notice of any delinquency I am prepared to take this even further because I am almost certain I will have no problem finding a lawyer in a defamation of character law suit.

I hope your charges don't get nearly as bad as mine did.

Good Luck.

OH, and P.S. This is for Sprint, when I finally complete the project I've been working on I am certain you, like all the other carriers and ISP's, will be interested in utilizing it's functionality because it, if as effective as I think it will be, will reduce network congestion by over 90% by changing the way transferred data is perceived by routing and switching equipment along the path. Don't think you will receive any consideration whatsoever.