Sprint referral "rewards" is pretty lame

This is the graphic from an email I received from Sprint (Yes, I'm a Sprint customer).

What I find amusing is once again Sprint thinks so lowly of its customers...especially long LONG time customers like myself. A $25 gift card is not worth the time or effort to even just ask a friend to join Sprint. If Sprint wants people to really refer someone, they really need to up their ante.

Hell, almost ten years ago when I first got on DirecTV, they gave me $50 per referral ($10 a month off my bill over five months). Not only did I get $50 but my referral got $50 disbursed the same way. Fast forward to the present and DirecTV is offering $100 per referral...of course, disbursed $10 per month for ten months only for the referrer...BUT the friend only had/has to sign a minimum one-year contract whereas Sprint requires the two-year service contract!

So, who is giving the better deal for a referral? Now it's not exact science comparing a satellite provider with a cellular provider but you get the point.

I just don't see that $25 is incentive enough to refer a friend to Sprint. If I just happen to know of someone that is going/moving to Sprint, then sure I'd ask them to say I referred them, get my $25 and not split it with them. Otherwise, I'm not wasting my time!

A cheaply priced replacement battery for HTC Evo Shift

The other day, I was Googling for a replacement battery for my HTC Evo Shift. My current batter doesn't seem to be fully charging and then the phone also doesn't show the correct charge of the battery. It'll show orange but then I'll pop the battery out, put it back in and turn on the phone and it'll show green at half charged. It never shows fully charged even after having it plugged in overnight.

So, that's why I want to get a new battery versus a new phone and versus getting it from Sprint. The replacement battery at Sprint is like $45 plus tax. I don't want to spend that much on a replacement battery since I can probably upgrade to a newer phone soon (if I decide to) and I'm sure the upgrade would be anywhere from free to $100 depending on the phone.

Enter Google. I searched and it gave me a few store listings with various prices, actually a wide range of prices. I saw a few for around $3-$5. It got my interest but also piqued my curiosity on why it was $3. I was thinking of one of those cheap Oakley sunglass sites that show $200 Oakleys for $25 today but then the website is gone the next day. I had some Visa gift cards that I would use for purchasing versus my ATM or Credit Card because I didn't trust them but then they disappeared and I was glad I didn't trust them AND didn't purchase anything.

Anyway, that's why I was curious about this website. I clicked on two links for a $2.99 battery and a $3.30 battery. I decided to email the second website/company (www.everydaysource.com) because when I searched for the battery it had the following in the product title:

Standard GENERIC Battery for HTC EVO 4G / Evo Shift 4g / A9292 / Supersonic HTC Hero (Sprint)

However, when I looked under the 'Compatibility' tab it did not show the Evo Shift 4G. I was like, "Why?" and then I decided to email them. I found the 'Contact Us' page and it had two emails: one for sales and general information and the other for customer service.

I assumed that sales and general information would be the place to start since my question was about a product description versus needing customer service for a product I have already ordered or received. I sent this email on September 18, 2012 around 10:47 a.m. I never received a reply even though their 'About Us' page says,

With a specialized and dedicated customer service department, EverydaySource.com® offers a buying experience that cannot be matched.

I guess that doesn't automatically correlate to a 'specialized and dedicated' sales and general information service.

I realized yesterday that I had not received a reply and thought I'd forward my original email to the customer service email address. I sent it at 10:53 a.m. on September 26 stating that I previously emailed "sales" with no reply in eight days so hopefully would get one from customer service.

I received a reply that night at 10:42 p.m. Stating that the link I posted in the email for the product is dead. This is the link below

http://www.everydaysource.com/product/standard-generic-battery-for-htc-evo-4g-evo-shift-4g-a9292-supersonic-htc-hero-sprint-htc-imagio-xv6975-htc-ozone-xv6175-htc-snap-s511-sprint-htc-snap-s521-s522-htc-tilt-2-htc-touch-pro2-sprint-t-mobile-verizon-gsm-t-mobile-dash-3g/83765?esprcggbadtf120917=sc+gb+83765&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_search&utm_campaign=google_base#ItemDetailTab

Did it work for you? Yes?! It still works for me. I don't know why it didn't work for the customer service representative. Maybe she doesn't know how to copy and paste a link if it's not automatically hyperlinked in the email. Who knows!

Luckily, I was still awake and I got the item # from the link that was supposed to be dead and replied to the email. I received a reply at 3:50 a.m. on September 27 (I was not awake at this time) stating,

"This battery can not work with Evo Shift 4G. If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank you for your cooperation."

I have one question, "Why does the product title state 'Generic battery for HTC Evo Shift 4G' but customer service tells me it does not work with the Shift 4G?"

I knew there was something screwy with it being $3.30. That's what we call shady business people! People not as smart...er...inquisitive as me would just buy the battery. Then they'd have to try to contact their sales and/or customer service to return the battery that doesn't work with their Evo Shift 4G. I'm sure sales/customer service would give them a hard time or some people would just say, "Screw it! I'm only out like $5 total." Bullshit! I'm like the paper boy from the movie Better Off Dead:

"I WANT MY TWO DOLLARS!!!!

Random I know. But so now I'm still stuck with a half-charging battery for my Evo Shift unless I suck it up and pay the $45+ for the battery from Sprint.

Sprint HTC Evo 4G

My wife has talked me into getting her the HTC Evo on the Sprint network. We have had Sprint for a long, long time and I have never really been disappointed by it's call service and quality. There is the once-in-a-while static calls that I dial the number and/or answer a call and it's nothing but static. It's easily fixed by hanging up and calling again. Not efficient if it's a 911 call but it happens so few and far between that it's a non-issue right now.

I must admit the Sprint customer service is between 5-7 on a scale to 10 but it's not completely horrible. It is beneficial that the mobile service is pretty damn good that I don't have to call customer service. The only times I have called is to get my phone service, complain about why I'm getting a charge as a long-term customer that new customers are not getting or to remove that stupid-ass, fucking-retarded activation fee of new phones. It's used to be $15 and I think it's something like $30 now but I'll be damned if they will keep that charge on there for as long as I have been a customer.

Oh crap! I went off topic.

So, the wife is getting an Evo. We stopped by the local Sprint store and put in an order. The phone is a pretty hot item right now so they didn't have any in stock and there are none available online. The store guy said a shipment was coming in Tuesday, today, of nine phones and four were already reserved. For a $50 deposit, he could reserve one for her. We did. Then as we drove around, we wondered if other stores might have them in stock. We check two in close proximity and both were out as well. She was bummed because she wanted to play with it over the weekend. Oh well. Didn't happen and Jay wasn't a replacement for the playing. :-(

A quick side note: As mentioned, I've been with Sprint for a long time. As such, I'm what they are calling a premier customer. I don't know if that rates me with someone who has 2+ years of service compared to my 10+ but it does make me sound special (I just don't feel it). We've only had our current phones for a year but as a premier customer I can upgrade in a year with the same pricing as a new customer. So the Evo will cost me $299+tax out of pocket. Yep! Ho-ly shit! It does have a $100 mail-in rebate because of their 30-day money-back guarantee which is pretty cool but I don't know how cool because I've never used it. So then the phone will have cost only $199+tax. Oh, and the $10 "premium data" add-on for the 4G which I'm sure is available in Dallas but I hear it's not widely available like in Podunk.

She'll pick it up tomorrow and we'll see how she likes it. I'll see if I can get some hands-on time with it and give my opinion as well. I've played with a coworker's Evo a little bit but not enough to get an in-depth view/feel. So far, I know it's similar to the iPhone but it is slightly bigger. The battery usage is atrocious but so was/is the iPhone. I'm a little put off by the everythings-touch versus tactile because I'm used to a BlackBerry Curve. Of course, I used to have a Samsung M or A 900 flip phone and when I changed to the BB Curve I didn't like it much either but I eventually loved it after getting comfortable with all it's functionality.

The wife doesn't use her BlackBerry Curve to quite the extent I do and I mentioned that she would have too much phone in the Evo and it would piss me off if she didn't use it for all it's worth OR answer the damn thing when/like she should. For instance, she turns it off or on vibrate before teaching her class and then...it's fucking silent for all purposes since it's in her purse because she doesn't turn the ringer back up/on after. It pisses me off to no end to call and call and call and she not hear/feel her freaking phone because she's retarded. Yes! I called her retarded. She likes it when I do. Okay, she doesn't but I think many thousands of people would agree with me that her actions are retarded!

Enough on that and I'll see if I can get some play time and review the Evo when we get it.