I too have Sprint (for my wife's phone now, work pays for my phone so I ditched mine when the contract was up) and have had similar painfully stupid experiences with calling "customer support." I would suggest going IN to a Sprint store rather than calling, they can usually help you out MUCH better. Calling just gets some idiot who doesn't care on the other end, who can hang up on you and you won't get the next time. They'll mumble their name so you don't catch it and can't report them. However, if you go IN to the store, there's someone there whose neck you can ring if they don't get it right - and a load of potential customers who are listening to your bad experience. I've also found going to a nicer area of town or a rural area helps quite a bit - if you go to a lesser side of town, they're just a bunch of clowns that are trained to push what the company makes the most money off of, and don't really have a clue about any of the equipment at all.
SMARTPHONE: Poor battery and even poorer SPRINT customer service
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radioman
Super Member
I have a sprint andriod phone as well, and fell in same trap *** you did. I have insurance on kids phone and none on mine nor wife's. I replaced one due to crack screen under insurance and yeah - you are right its a refurb. They also told me to keep the old battery and transfer to new. We also had a SHOOOOOORT battery life compared to the old blackberries we had. I did a general read between many models and discovered samsung andriods are battery suckers. I ended up going on ebay and getting the highest milliamp battery they had for my phone and it only doubled the run time from less then half a day to nearly all day. I too went thru the same BS of changing the settings on my phone to minimize the battery use, but its also unacceptable to me too as I want the 4g, GPS, screen full brightness on all the time. I left 4g off and used WIFI wherever I can to save battery. I am definitely going to check the battery life next time I upgrade along with whats the rated battery life on WHICH battery and the controls settings used. I think its all false advertising.
riptides
Super Member
I have a Galaxy S3. I charge overnight and go regularly with GPS locations on, wifi on when applicable and e-Mail scheduled for prime time only. During "regular" hours 6am-6pm I usually engaged in 50 voice calls, 1/3 being on speaker, 200 text messages and about 60 e-Mails, 1/2 with attachments. I browse the net for headlines only.
Now, not having plugged in overnight, the battery is showing about 30 percent full.
I'd try a full discharge of the battery, and attempt a recharge.
I hang out in the various Android forums, have not seen the battery issue as described by you.
Now, not having plugged in overnight, the battery is showing about 30 percent full.
I'd try a full discharge of the battery, and attempt a recharge.
I hang out in the various Android forums, have not seen the battery issue as described by you.
riptides
Super Member
Look at this link. Interesting suggestions in there.
Battery life worse after JellyBean? - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com
madmax12
Veteran Member
I was a Sprint customer a decade ago, but had to switch when I relocated, since their coverage area wasn't as good as competitors. My two thoughts are weak signal (as others have mentioned, that will drain battery quickly) and screen brightness. I set mine manually. Early morning and as soon as evening hits, I dim the phone screen fully. I almost never have the brightness higher that 25%, unless I'm in full sun. But I avoid the phone in full sun.
An Apple phone is made of Samsung parts, and Samsung uses Apple technology (thus their back and forth court battles), so I would consider Samsung an excellent phone. Mine is an HTC. Sometimes I can't get a full day with heavy use. I always have a car charger and wall charger with me. If you know you will be in a remote location later, but you are near a charging location "now," use it while plugged in for hour phone call, etc. Then it would be fully charged when leaving home/work, etc. I know my suggestions may not work in your situations, but those are the constructive words of encouragement that I have, at this time. Hope it helps.
An Apple phone is made of Samsung parts, and Samsung uses Apple technology (thus their back and forth court battles), so I would consider Samsung an excellent phone. Mine is an HTC. Sometimes I can't get a full day with heavy use. I always have a car charger and wall charger with me. If you know you will be in a remote location later, but you are near a charging location "now," use it while plugged in for hour phone call, etc. Then it would be fully charged when leaving home/work, etc. I know my suggestions may not work in your situations, but those are the constructive words of encouragement that I have, at this time. Hope it helps.
cqaigy2
Super Member
Smart phones are notorious for their ability to suck a battery dry. Thru work, i had an early android based phone, exhausted the battery in about 2 hrs, then a thunderbolt, alittle better, now an iPhone 4 that last all day without messing with it. I now have left over car charging devices for my last two android phone. I did find the android phone more fun to play with cause they're linux based and you can actually get into the operating system to play around in. I haven't hacked this iPhone yet.
Biggreenavalanche
Gold Member
Sorry guys, bear with me as this will be alot of ranting with a few questions at the end. And ALL comments, good or bad, are welcome.
As some of you know, I have spent the last few months traveling for work. This has made me realize how valuable a smartphone could be. I was well past my upgrade time anyway. So late in Feb, while in Arizona, I decided to call Sprint and upgrade our two phones. I called sprint and explained what I wanted in a phone and was advised that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus would be the best value for my needs. So I ordered two of them cause I wanted to have it for my final week of travel in Phoenix.
On March 1st, I activated the phones and on March 4th I flew back out to AZ. I quickly realized that the battery life was terrible. With only 1 hour of "screen on" time, my battery is at 50%. Unacceptable in my book. The wifes phone is the same way. Not to mention that about 4-5 times a day, the phone randomly shuts down or freezes. I called later that week, maybe on the 5th or 6th to express my concerns. I was guided through some steps and settings to try to minimize battery drain and was also advised to give it a few weeks as the batterys sometimes take time before they actually hold a full charge and to let the phone do its auto-updates. I understand all of this. And I told the rep that the purpose of my call was to inform them of my dis-satisfaction and that if things didnt improve, at least I made them aware of it right away.
Fast forward to now, things are no better. Last week I had issues with my cable. I called them first thing in the morning with 100% charge. After 1h and 3m of talk time, my battery was 51%.This phone is "supposed" to have a 7.5h battery life.
So last night, I called sprint and told them this is unacceptable performance and I want this fixed. Well after an hour of pleading my case, and talking to 2 different people, they basically only gave me 3 options...
1. Buy insurance and take the phone to a sprint store for repair or replacement. And if it needs replaced, it will be with a re-furbished (fancy word for used) phone.
2. Take to the store without insurance and pay whatever they charge for repair or replacement...(again with a used phone)
3. Get the extended battery which is 2100mAh vs the current 1850mAh for free but I pay $12 shipping.
All of this is because I have passed the "14-day" return window
Now part of this I guess is my fault. Because I rushed the decision to get this phones they advised and I didnt have time to fully research them as I now have had the chance to do. And it seems you really have to search hard to find any good reviews on this phone
But the point remains that I have 2 phones that do NOT work as advertised, and they were notified within days of my issues, and I was told to wait. And now they are telling my my only options are to spend more money and/or take a used phone. I think NOT. I already have a $321 bill on the table for two phones that suck, and I refuse to pay a dime more to get these phones working like they should. I spent another hour on the phone this morning, again to no avail. They are telling me to spend MORE money to get my phones fixed. and they are 18 days old:laughing:
And to make things worse, of the total of 3 people I have talked to, all have said something different as to how to get the phone "serviced". The first guy said only with insurance. The second said it wouldnt cost me a dime cause the manufacture warrants it for 12 months (but I risk getting a re-furbished phone that is no better). That was last night. This morning the guy said that they would repair it at no cost but I STILL would have to pay them to "look at" the phone. ($60 or so). By this point I am so irate that I told him I would take the phone to the store, and if they tried to charge me anything at all to resolve this issue, that the next call to him would be to get an address to send the phones back to and I would no longer be a sprint customer of 7 years and then I hung up. I then called the sprint store, and got a DIFFERENT story. They said there is NO charge to look at the phone and diagnose it, but I would have to pay for any parts to repair or replace it
So, Tomorrow, I am taking the phone in and letting them diagnose is and go from there I guess. I also found a few e-mail address for some sprint "higher-ups" and told them my story. Weather those were good addresses and if it will do any good....who knows. But I flat out refuse to pay a single dime more to get these phones working right. And that includes the $321 I currently "owe" them for the phones, activation, etc. I dont feel I should have to pay anymore than what was agreed upon to get phones that work as advertised, and I wont even pay that until they DO work.
So now.......let me have it. Am I totally off my rocker??? Am I foolish to expect more than 2 hours of talk time OR more than 2 hours of screen "on" time with a phone rated at 7.5 hours? The one nice thing about this phone is it DOES give a nice breakdown of the battery usage. So before anyone asks, NO I dont have any rogue apps or anything sucking the battery down. With a 50% battery, and screen usage being 75% of that.....that 75% equates to 50 minutes to an hour at most. Same with talk time. The one morning I mentioned where I had to call about my cable..... Only thing I did was make a 63 minute phone call and battery is at 50% from a full charge:confused2:
My apologizes. Rant off for now.
A. You are spot on and seems like you've done all that should be legitimately required as a consumer
B. YOU are the consumer and have notified the company of your dissatisfaction with a faulty product in a timely manner, I personally would pay them either.
C. Nope, don't think you're off your rocker.
Good luck...
Rich
radioman
Super Member
Hmmm -- I could be wrong, but sprint is keeping tight tabs on thier OS versions. The phone wont let us upgrade to anything higher then gingerbread. sprint thinks its the most stable version and I think its BS. the only way to upgrade is root it.
I forgot to add one more thing -- I added a free airrave from sprint as my son's complains of static noise and dropped calls. After I went thru sprint support and they verified I needed one and "qualify" they sent me a air rave free with only exception is to pay the taxes on a extra line. The battery life when home increased some.
brain55
Veteran Member
My last phone was an HTC Evo 4G, its battery life was terrible much like your phone, I always needed to keep a charger nearby. My current Samsung SIII has significantly better battery life at least 4 times the life. With this phone I can actually make it through a work day without needing a charge.
Brian
Brian
radioman
Super Member
Hmmm -- I could be wrong, but sprint is keeping tight tabs on thier OS versions. The phone wont let us upgrade to anything higher then gingerbread. sprint thinks its the most stable version and I think its BS. the only way to upgrade is root it.
I forgot to add one more thing -- I added a free airrave from sprint as my son's complains of static noise and dropped calls. After I went thru sprint support and they verified I needed one and "qualify" they sent me a air rave free with only exception is to pay the taxes on a extra line. The battery life when home increased some.