Epic4G Amounts Of Frustration

I have been, until now, a very happy, long-time Sprint customer, I have been a customer for nearly 10 years.


The reason for my frustration is my current phone, the Epic4G.  Ever since the latest update to Gingerbread, I have had nothing but problems.


Some of them are:

• Random rebooting.
• Random locking up and freezing, requiring me to pull the battery to get it to restart.
• No audio - nothing on the phone calls, notifications, or alarms.  Requires a reboot to get back
• Running very hot to to the touch, even when no apps are open
• Incredibly fast battery drain, sometimes with 3-4 hours even with very limited use
• Unable to make phone calls at all - nothing happens when I attempt to dial.  Again this requires a reboot.
• GPS will not connect.
• Calls will go right to voice mail, and voicemail does not show up for hours.
• When the phone is locked up and I pull the battery to reset it, the battery goes from almost full to almost empty

This is just a few, there are several other problems as well, and judging by the amount of similar complaints I have found on the internet, I am not alone in this.


To date, I have done three factory resets.  After the third one, I did not install any of my apps, but just had the stock phone.  After the 2nd day, it was back to freezing and having to have the battery pulled to get it to restart.


I went to the nearest Sprint store to see what could be done. My first option was to bring my phone to a service center and have it rolled back to Froyo.  I did go to the service center, they said there was a hardware issue causing all of this; one of the pins in the charging port was bent and possibly causing it to short.  The swapped my phone for a refurb model, and said that should take care of it.


No.


Within days the exact same issues began anew.  Factory reset again, no change.


My second option was to add a new phone on a third line, wait the 30 days, then swap my current phone number to the new phone, and the new  phone number to the Epic.  Unacceptable because  the additional expense  would be a minimum of $720.00 over a two-year contract, plus the cost of the new phone.


The third option would be to do an early upgrade for a $125.00 fee and purchase a new phone.  Since I would like the iPhone 4s, this results in a $325 total charge.  Again, unacceptable


Friday night I was driving home hoping to beat the storms.  Wires came down in the road directly in front of me, so I attempted to call 911.  Guess what... my phone was locked up yet again.  Pulled the battery, waited for the reboot, and then was able to call 911.


Saturday night, the alarm company that does my mother-in-laws medical alert station called and said they had a faulty signal and could I go check to make sure everything was OK.  I hustled up there, she was fine, but while talking to the alarm company my phone rebooted.


Completely fed up at this point, I called Sprint Customer Service again.  Apparently the people on the phone lines don't share info with the people in the stores.  The rep I talked to on the phone tried his best to help me.  He got in contact with account services, who said that the store has the ability to waive the early upgrade fee. The store told me that they cannot do this.  I told the rep on the phone that, and he said the store had incorrect information, and they certainly could waive the fee.


Sunday afternoon I went to the Sprint store on Glenway Avenue, again lined out all the issues and problems I have been having, and told the manager what the rep on the customer service line told me.  He said that was wrong, the store had no way to waive the fee, and that he never heard of that even being a possibility. So what I have is this.  A phone that doesn't work 75% of the time, a company that has a huge disconnect between sales and support, and complete frustration that a 10-year customer has no recourse.  It's completely and utterly inconceiveable that this kind of runaround still exists.


So if anyone in Sprint land wants to try and help me, I'm more than willing to stick with you.  My ideal solution would be to have the early upgrade fee waived and I will purchase the iPhone.  You've had my business for 10 years, what are you going to do to keep it?