Sprint EVDO online
I just started using Sprint broadband in my laptop today, with their Novatel Merlin EX720 ExpressCard. The card is pretty sweet. It’s an EVDO rev A (aka EV-DO, aka 1xEvDO, aka 1xEV-DO, official name: CDMA2000, High Rate Packet Data Air Interface) card. Here’s a speedtest.net result from inside my office in Montclair, NJ:
So that’s kind of impressive.
I ordered on Monday. Someone changed my corporate Tax ID along the way, and I was flagged for a deposit. After trying 3 times to have them change it and that not working (India), I let them take a $100 deposit. I ordered on Monday, was told I’d have it by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. Got it today (Friday) so still good.
The out of box experience is miserable. You install the software, plug in the card, and the software tells you it’s “locked” with a “user lock code.” There’s nothing in the documentation about this, so I called the “activation number” that is on page 4 of the manual, figuring it may not be activated. After being on hold for 25 minutes to talk to someone, they had no record of my order in their system.
They asked a bunch of questions like did you order it from Sprint or Nextel? I bought it at sprint.com - I guess Sprint? I find out later no, I ordered through Nextel somehow, and I got to hear all about their “recent merger” (which began in December of 2004 and was “completed” in August of 2005). I learned they are bringing new software online in their offices next month called “Ensemble” and was placed on hold while he talked to the people that are rolling that out or whatever. Then they told me my account was neither with Sprint or Nextel but with a company he had never heard of before.
He put me on hold again, and asked me for my wireless phone number again. I again explained I don’t have it. I also mentioned that I’d log into my online account that was created when I ordered, and get the information there, but according to the email I received, my username is text.nextel.store.orderreceipt.acctmgmt.membernametext which doesn’t seem right.
So I dug out the packing slip and started reading random things to the guy: customer number, order number, address, tracking number, P2K number, and then here’s a barcode with MDN written next to it. Lo and behold, that’s my “mobile device number” and that’s the same as my phone number. He tells me that that’s what he needed at the beginning of the call and if I had provided that we wouldn’t have gone through all of this. I explained that he asked for my “phone number” and when I said “I don’t see that here, could it be called something else?” he told me no, it would be under phone number. From there, I got my “unlock code” which was 1709, which doesn’t correspond to anything.
What’s that rationale on shipping a data device with an unlimited plan in a “user locked” state? And then not mentioning anything about it in the manual or other included papers? Like:
- FIRST STEP: Install software.
- SECOND STEP: Plug in device.
- THIRD STEP: You must CALL Sprint at THIS NUMBER and sit on hold for 20 minutes to get your unlock code.
That would make it clear.
Hopefully I’ll never have to talk to them again as long as I live. My first cell phone was a Sprint PCS phone back when they had just started, and the customer service was so horrible that it took me two weeks to cancel my service. I had to call sales and act like a maniac to finally get to talk to someone, and they disconnected me. So I let them disconnect me. It seems that not a whole lot has changed there. They still have 20+ minute hold times. According to Sprint, I still owe them approximately $350 for that service (which I was unable to cancel) even after they lost a class action over their behavior.
ANYHOW…
I’m excited to use the device. I’m using it now and so far so good. I have to figure out how to use the GPS part of the device, it appears to have added some COM ports to my system (weird) so maybe that’s how it happens. More later.