Any Mobile, Anytime

There’s a hot new feature that is being rolled out to Sprint customers this week… it’s called ‘Any Mobile, Anytime’ and it might just be the deciding factor for millions considering a change in providers. I know that when I scrolled though my contacts – I have 2 landline numbers in there, and the remainder are wireless numbers. I suspect this is the case for a lot of people – and those are exactly the type of folks that will benefit hugely from this new feature.

Any Mobile, Anytime is a feature that provides customers unlimited domestic calling to or from any other domestic wireless number while on the Sprint network without utilizing anytime minutes. The only eligible plans include Everything Data Plans, Everything Data Shared Plans, Sprint Business Advantage Messaging and Data Plans and Everything Plus Data Referral Plans, Individual and Family. You never have to worry about restrictive calling circles with Any Mobile, Anytime – you get free calling to over 250 million wireless subscribers.

• Competitively, Any Mobile, Anytime blows away T-Mobile’s myFaves, AT&T’s rollover and Verizon’s Friends and Family. Never worry about calling circles.
• It makes life easy for the customer because they don’t need to worry about what wireless carrier friends, family and co-workers are on. Easy to sell, too.
• Value. Any Mobile, Anytime is included on eligible plans, which already save customers more than $115/year on individual plans, and $600/year on family plans compared to comparable Verizon and AT&T plans.
• Existing customer experience is enhanced because customers on eligible plans will automatically get this benefit.
• Available to new and existing Consumer, IL and CL customers only on Everything Data plans, Everything Data Share plans, Sprint Business Advantage Messaging and Data plans, or Everything Plus Referral Data plans for Individuals and Families.
• For new customers, the Any Mobile, AnytimeSM feature is automatically added when selecting one of the eligible price plans. • For existing customers on eligible plans, the Any Mobile, Anytime feature is applied at the start of the customer’s first billing cycle after launch.
• If an existing customer on an Everything Data Share plan adds a new line of service, the new line will automatically get the feature at time of provisioning. – The existing line, however, will get the feature applied to their plan at the beginning of their next billing cycle.
• As part of Sprint’s Right Plan Promise, existing customers may switch their rate plan at anytime without a contract extension.
• All rules & regulations of Everything Data, Everything Data Share, Sprint Business Advantage Messaging & Data plans and Everything Referral Data Plans for Individuals and Families applies.

Individual Plans (Consumer & Business)

Everything Data Plans

450 ($69.99)

900 ($89.99)

Shared Minute Plans (Consumer & Business)

Everything Data Share Plans (Price per month for 2 lines)

1500 ($129.99)

3000 ($169.99)

CL Business Plans

Sprint Business Advantage Message & Data

200 ($59.99)

450 ($69.99)

900 ($89.99)

1350 ($109.99)

2000 ($129.99)

4000 ($179.99)

And you know these plans already include great features, like:

• Unlimited Messaging
• Unimited Data – Web, GPS Navigation, Email, Sprint TV Premier, Sprint Music Premier, and more.
• Unlimited Nextel Direct Connect and Group Connect (not included with Everything Data Share Plans)
• Unlimited Night and Weekend Calling with Nights starting at 7pm
• Nationwide Long Distance and No Roaming Charges
• Everything Data Share plans – Add- a-Phone (lines 3-5): $19.99/per line
• Remember, Everything Data and Everything Data Share plans qualify for Sprint Premier Program and Sprint Business Advantage Messaging and Data qualify for Sprint Business Benefits

Types of calls not included in Any Mobile, Anytime (Same exclusions as M2M) – Indirect methods such as:

• Calls placed to or received from Directory Assistance
• Calls to retrieve voicemail
• Calls through voicemail
• Calls made or received while Sprint customer is roaming, domestically or internationally
• Calls placed to or received from international phone numbers
• Calls placed to or received from landline numbers
• Calls placed to or received from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) numbers
• 3-way calling if one or more of the calls is placed to or received from an excluded call type
• Call forwarding has its own per call charge. Call minutes do not go against Anytime Minute bucket

BlackBerry Tour 9630 – July 20

Been trying this devie out for a little while now on the side.. gotta say – I REALLY like it. Looks like everyone will be able to snag one (assuming you haven’t already snagged a Pre instead) on 07/20 **updated to 07/12**

All About the Discount – NVP, that is.

Some one sent me a message asking about the NVP discount that we offer to employees of companies that have accounts with Sprint. More specifically, this person received conflicting answers from many different employees as to whether or not the discount would apply to his particular plan. I began replying, however very soon the short note back had become several sections long and it was apparent that this would be a great topic that a lot of people may have questions about, or are maybe not aware of what exactly is involved in the process and why it can take up to 60 days (1-2 cycles) to reflect on your bill. Oh, and of course – which plans the discount does not apply to.

Essentially (and in terms that don’t give away anything internally that shouldn’t be), here is how the NVP Discount program works & what the process is & some other info that may help to understand all about NVP Discounts:

What is NVP? It stands for Sprint’s National Value Program, and it allows business customers(& employees) to receive set discounts on their MRC (Monthly Recurring Charges) each month on their bill/invoice.

But I’m an individual, what gives with this Corporate Classiication? There are four primary account types that pertain to NVP Discounts: NOTE: Standard consumer/consumer accounts  MUST be converted Corp/IL type accounts as a part of the discount process. You’ll see why later.

1.  Corporate/Corporate Individual (i.e. someone who works for a company like General Motors or JC Penney’s whose company has a business agreement with Sprint, and has a Nextel device)

2.  Corporate/Corporate Individual (CDMA workaround) (someone who works for a company like General Motors or JC Penney’s whose company has a business agreement with Sprint, and has a Sprint device)

3.  Public Sector/Gov’t Individual (police officer, fireman, teacher, or someone in the public sector whose company has a business agreement with Sprint, and has a Nextel device)

4.  Public Sector/Gov’t Individual (CDMA workaround) (police officer, fireman or someone in the public sector whose company has a business agreement with Sprint, and has a Sprint device)

NVP is synonymous with ‘Company Discount’, ‘EVP’,  and ‘Employee Discount’ as different terms are used to describe the program in different areas, however they all reference the NVP Program/Discount.

Let’s start at the beginning. You have to get the discount added to your account. You can do this online (http://sprint.p.delivery.net/m/p/nxt/ais/wdyw.asp), via echat (http://www.sprint.com/chat) or via customer care (*2 from your handset). You can either tell the agent which company you work for and they can look up the NVP code for you, or you may already have the code from your employer/group.

It’s important to note that no matter what normal method you use to request your discount, it is not added real time. The agent will simply fill out a web-based form with all of your information, including the discount amount and code, and it is then submitted to a special back office team for processing. After the form is submitted the agent will read this to you(often paraphrased):

This is generally where the fun begins. In short, a special back office team receives the request in the form of a case/ticket and works them generally in the order received. Now, if you want to understand what goes on behind the scenes, here’s a good place to start:

To receive the discount, the customer’s account has to be attached to the sponsoring company’s ‘hierarchy’. This creates two common scenarios that customers are not often aware of:

• Changes the billing cycle for the customer to match that of the sponsoring company. Everyone receiving the discount under a particular company will have the same bill cycle.
• Can create partial-month charges (these will process one day after the customer’s current cycle).

Upon receipt, the discount form (now a ticket/case in the que) is assigned to be worked on the first day after the current billing cycle. This is what creates a lot of confusion, as if it’s toward the end of your cycle then your request will be processed in as little as a couple of days; or if you just started your billing cycle at the time of requesting the discount, it could be as long as almost a full month before your request is even processed. You won’t be able to speed this up, so as much as you don’t like it – it is what it is. You are told of this 30-60 day process when requesting the discount, and frankly no one you can speak with will have the ability to change it once the request has been submitted.

Once your current billing cycle ends, the very next day your request will be processed in the billing system. The account will be converted from an Individual/Individual account type to a Corporate/Individual account type. Your bill cycle will be matched to that of the sponsoring company. Since your billing cycle has just began on this day, that means if it happens to only be a day or two away, that you will receive a partial month bill for a few dollars for those few days on your ‘old’ billing cycle – this also means that if it’s almost a full month before the company’s billing cycle starts, that your partial month bill could be almost your full normal bill.

• NVP(IL) Discounts are bases on the volume of sprint account
• A valid email address is required to process the request. This will only be used to notify you on the status of the discount(confirmation or follow-up). A Corporate email address is preferred, as this speeds up the validation process. The customer will receive a confirmation email, but not immediately. It will detail the discount amount as well as any partial month charges.

Here are the restrictions places on the NVP Discount Program Eligibility:

• The online form used to submit NVP Requests is only a portal which creates a ticket/case for a separate back office team to process. It’s important to remember this is NOT a real-time change.
• The back office team will reject any case that does not meet eligibility, requirement regardless of any other statements made at the time of case submission.

Here they are:

• Account requesting discount must be a valid IL/Subtype combination
  • IL/Third Party Employee is NOT a valid type for NVP
  • IL/Phone Connections (SERO) is not a valid type for NVP
• CorpID provided must be a  valid _Z* extension (i.e. _ZZZ, _ZZM, ZZZ P2, etc…)
• Account must be in good standing (no NPD or other suspended status)
• Contact making request must be the listed BAN owner

Even though a BAN has been qualified for a discount, there are certain price plans and charges that the NVP Discount will NOT apply to:

• Any Month-to-Month Plan
• $99.99 Simply Everything Individual Plan
• $89.99 Simply Everything Multi-Lines (2+)
• $29.99 Basic 200 Plan
• $39.99 Blackberry Unlimited attachable plan.
• $50 Free and Clear Area-Wide 1000
• $59.99 Unlimited Data Plan (Connection Cards)
• $90 Unlimited Access Pack
• $119 Unlimited Access Pack
• $149.99 Unlimited Access Pack
• TEP/ERP/ESRP Monthly Charge

Q. If I submit a web form and the customer’s current bill cycle is today what will happen?

A. After the form submission the web form will be sent directly to the back office group for processing without any delay.

Q. What communication does the customer receive when we include their email address?

A. You can assure the customer that their email will NOT be used for any solicitation. Customer will receive a brief initial email (after you submit the form) thanking them for participating in the discount program and second and final email just before they get their invoice with any changes that were made to their account (i.e. account and/or bill cycle change, discount percentage).

Q. Do I give the customer the case number once I have submitted the web form?

A. No.  From the customer’s point of view you have completed their request and they will get the discount on their next invoice.  The case number is for internal purposes only.

Q. If the customer is already on a hierarchy, can I still use the web form?

A. Yes.  The web form can be used for any consumer (wants to get a discount) or individual liable (wanting to change the company) customer.  It does not matter that they are already on a hierarchy.

Q.  Is this discount off the entire invoice?

A. No, the NVP discount is only applicable on the MRC for the plan.

If you have other questions regarding how the NVP/Employer discount works, comments are open! The process is fairly straightforward, and anyone can qualify for the Credit Union discount, which is a base 10% off with no verification, simply by saying you use a credit union!

Palm Pre Release Date Quickie

Don’t get all excited(yet). I just wanted to remind folks that are going bananas over the release date of the Palm Pre, and whether it’s too close to ‘this date’ or ‘that event’ or all of the other similar things that are spreading around the world… take a look back at the history of Sprint device releases, and i’m sure you’ll see a pattern, and it’s certainly not by chance that it happens that way. The launch date for devices is generally on a Sunday for retail – but you must also remember that these devices are always available via direct ship channels (i.e. Telesales) on the Thursday before.

I am NOT saying the device will launch on a Sunday, but only if it was to be a standard Sunday launch process, then you could order the device at 6 o’clock Thursday morning, and have it in your hands by Friday afternoon. So keep that in mind when you’re attempting to rule particular days in or out just because some event is either too close or too far away from whatever date you’ve picked.

What I CAN say is that all of our retail stores were assigned product ambassadors who will not only receive a Pre that they will get to keep, but in the email they received, it detailed how many weeks before launch certain things would happen (like being selected as an ambassador, phone shipped, begin demo’ing, etc…) .. so if you know anyone that got one of those emails, then you will come much closer to narrowing down the date :)

Palm Pre Monthly Service Plans

Lots of folks have been looking for some clarification on the service plan options for the upcoming Palm Pre… who am I to disappoint? So here are the options that users will have to choose from (whether you’re a new or existing customer, the options are the same):

Simply Everything – Individual or Family/Shared

• $99/1st for Individual & $89/2nd+ for family/shared

Everything Data – Individual Plans

• 450 Min – $69.99
• 900 Min – $89.99

Everything Data Family – Shared Plans

• 1500 Min – $129.99 (lines 1&2) / $19.99 each(lines 3-5)
• 3000 Min – $169.99 (lines 1&2) / $19.99 each(lines 3-5)

Business Essentials Msg & Data – Individual/Pooled

• 0 Min – $55.00 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone (40¢/min)
• 400 Min – $69.99 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone
• 1000 Min – $89.99 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone
• 1400 Min – $109.99 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone
• 2000 Min – $129.99 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone
• 3000 Min – $179.99 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone
• 4000 Min – $229.99 (1 line) / $55 per add-a-phone

And for the most frequently asked question of the day…

What about my SERO plan? – You’ll have to switch to the EPRP program if you want the Palm Pre. I know you don’t want to hear that, but that’s the way it is, and I can’t see it changing considering the push behind it.

Oh – and WOW at all the places that picked up my Pre FAQ post… thanks to everyone that’s visited the blog from all the other places online, but in reality I’m just a person with a blog that occasionally likes to write about what’s going on. I’m much more active on our internal blog than I am on here, so that’s why you don’t see a lot of posts on here.. as I’ve usually already posted it once, and don’t have the time to do it all again for the public side, despite that most of you call can’t see that anyways, but i digress. Oh, and why does everyone immediately assume I’m a guy just because I’m a geek?

Some Palm Pre Questions

Despite the fact that all of us that know the actual release date of the device are bound by a NDA and our job titles, we all know that it’s going to be soon… so I figured it might be nice to answer a few FAQ before it arrives. Here’s some questions and facts and how-to’s that might answer some of the questions or curiosity about the Palm Pre!

On the Palm Touchstone charging dock

What is it? It’s a new type of charger that does not require that the Pre be plugged in, or attached to any wires, it simply rests on the touchstone charger. The charger itself is, of course, required to be plugged into an outlet.

What happens if you receive a call while the phone is charging on the Touchstone?

• You can pick up the Pre and it will automatically answer!
• You can leave it on the Touchstone and it will automatically answer in speakerphone mode if you choose.

IMPORTANT: The Touchstone charger is purchased separately, it DOES NOT come in the box with the device. Touchstone is the name of the line of products, not a name solely for the charging device. All Touchstone products will have the branding of ‘Touchstone (product)’.

Why is it called webOS?

OS stands for operating system. So, the reason this is called webOS is that the operating system is completely connected to the Web. Some of the older operating systems required a connection to the computer. In order to provide a great mobile experience, as well as perform the functions of the phone, Palm had to create a new operating system from scratch.

What are some of the customer benefits to this?

• No need to have a cord available.
• No need to have a computer available.
• Can update data almost anytime and anywhere.

During initial setup, the webOS platform creates a Palm profile. This profile gives customers access to critical Palm services to:

• Update device software.
• Download new applications from the App Catalog.
• Restore calendar and contacts data and applications downloaded from the App Catalog.
• Erase calendars, contacts, and other data through a remote wipe.

Will webOS work if it is not connected?

Contacts is an example of an application that can use data from the Internet and from internal storage. In this example, Contacts can get data from a Facebook account. It retrieves this data through its Internet connection. Now, what happens if there is no data connection? Let’s say the customer is on an airplane and has all the radios turned off. Contacts will simply pull the data from on-phone storage so that you can still see your contacts.

Do I have to get a new plan?

There are three categories of service plans for this phone—individual, shared, and pooled plans. Some of these plans are existing and some of them are new. In short, the device will require either a Simply Everything/Everything Data Plan or a Business Essentials Data Plan. (UPDATED THE VERBIAGE, AS I HAD THE WORD ‘SIMPLY’ BEORE ‘EVERYTHING DATA PLAN’, SORRY BOUT THAT-SEE NEXT POST ABOUT PLAN OPTIONS IN DETAIL) Even if you are an existing customer, you must switch to one of the approved plans. Remember that the Pre phone requires a data plan to activate the phone, and this is a system function that is unable to be bypassed.

REMEMBER: The Pre phone will not have a Phone as Modem plan option.

Unboxing and First Use:

First Use configures the phone for use, and walks you(the new owner!) through creating a Palm Profile, and introduces some basic gestures. Remember, the account must be active and the phone must be provisioned before the phone will begin the First Use experience. The customer must complete First Use and agree to the Palm Terms and Conditions. If the customer does not complete these steps, the phone will not work. If the customer does not want to complete the step0.0.0s, he/she can return it to the place of purchase.

Gestures

• The back gesture is a light, quick flick from right to left in the area below the screen.
• The delete gesture is a light, quick flick from the left to the right or from the right to the left over a message or notification.

Using ‘Cards’:

Cards are an easy system for managing applications. Each application is a card. As you open more applications, more cards will open. Think of it this way. It’s a window or screen in an application that minimizes to appear as a card when the user presses the center button. You can have several applications open and running all at the same time and flip between them. Imagine them to be like you’re holding playing cards in your hand, where you can fan them out and scan between them. This is the concept of the card view.

When you launch an application, it will launch in full view. Say you’re in one application, and need to check another. For example you’re checking your e-mail, and need to check something in your calendar, this is where card view comes in handy. You can click on the center button to take your current application to card view. From there, you can launch the launcher view, or click on one of the applications in the Quick Launch bar.

To close a card, simply throw it up towards to the top of the screen. The card will float away and close. Don’t worry about saving anything before you throw it away; webOS saves for you. As you use the Pre phone, you’ll notice there is no save button. It automatically does that for you. For example, an email that you’re drafting will automatically be saved into the Drafts folder of that e-mail box.

Synergy

The Palm Synergy feature is a key feature of the webOS platform that brings your information from all the places it resides into one logical view.

With the Synergy feature, when there are matches of contacts, it automatically connects the information in a linked view. Once again, this link only exists on your Pre phone, using the Synergy feature. If you go to Facebook or your Exchange ActiveSync contacts separately on your computer, you will not see this linked reference.

Synergy & Email

The Email application on Pre is very robust. It supports the EAS (Exchange ActiveSync), POP3 (Post Office Protocol), and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) protocols for sending and receiving e-mail. The webOS platform can have up to eight e-mail accounts, either EAS, POP3, or IMAP, running at the same time.

How to make Sent Items to show up in Favorites?

• A yellow star next to the field of choice means that the field will be viewed in the Favorites view. So, for the sent items on their Gmail account, you would open the drop-down menu for the Gmail account, find the Sent folder and click on the star to change it to yellow. Now check your Favorites folder. You’ll see that it’s there now.

How to add an email account:

• From the main Email account screen, click on the e-mail menu in the top-left corner. Click on Preferences & Accounts, and click Add an Account.

Where would go to adjust settings on your e-mail accounts?

• From the same location in Preferences & Accounts, click on your Gmail account under the Accounts section. From here, you can change the account name, the type of notifications you’d like to receive, or not, and add a signature. Once you’re done, use the back gesture to return to the previous screen. Remember, there is no save button, but once you enter information and move on, it’s automatically saved.

Synergy & Contacts

The Contacts application allows you to manage contacts from different sources. You can sync your contacts from Exchange ActiveSync, Google, and Facebook. You can also store contacts on the phone only. You’ll notice that the application doesn’t distinguish between accounts. Thanks to the Synergy feature, all your contacts are displayed in a single list.

How did you know where to find out whether Google is one of your contact accounts?

• While in the Contacts home page, click on the Contacts menu in the upper-left corner and choose Preferences & Accounts. From here, you’ll see all accounts that are associated with this contact card.

How do you determine that a contact is linked through the Synergy feature?

• To the right of the contact is a picture. Layered pictures indicate a linked contact. If a contact is linked, that means that the webOS platform found two or more pieces of information that were the same in a contact from two or more accounts.

How do you change the order contacts are displayed in?

• From the same view in Preferences & Accounts, you can choose to change the sort order.

Synergy & Calendar

The Calendar application allows you to manage appointments on your Pre phone. Calendar can sync with Exchange ActiveSync, Google Calendar, and Facebook. You can also store Calendar appointments on the phone only.

The default view will show all appointments from all accounts. Each account gets assigned its own color when it’s added. Each appointment will match the color of the account it came from. Benefits include:

• Appointments from different calendars all show in one place.
• Free time is condensed but can be expanded to add a new appointment.
• Customers can be more productive with all of the calendar information on one view.
• Avoid double-booking.

How do you know if time is available when in a filtered view?

• Time occupied by appointments in other calendars is a striped grey. Plain grey timeslots are available.

How do you change the color of the account?

• You can change the assigned color by going to Menu > Preferences & Accounts > Account Name.

How do you stop synchronizing a calendar with an online account?

• You can stop synchronizing a calendar with an online account by going to Menu > Preferences & Accounts > select an account from those listed > Remove Account.

Messaging

Messaging is truly unique on the webOS platform. The Messaging application provides a single interface to manage instant messages and SMS/MMS messages.

Synergy enhances the messaging experience by displaying all messages together in chronological order. This lets you switch back and forth between IM and SMS/MMS without losing the context of the coversation. In the buddy view, you see a list of all your contacts that have an IM account and their status. In the conversation view, you see all the messages you’ve sent and received from a specific contact with a label indicating whether that message was sent via IM or SMS/MMS.

• Can continue an IM chat on the phone through SMS.
• Don’t have to search in different places for information from a chat or IM.

Universal Search

Universal Search finds applications and contacts. Information is filtered as you type more letters. The first letter entered brings up phone applications. The second letter will layer in local contacts on the phone (and files if you have any). If any applications also have the second letter they will remain in the search options. Once you go past anything contained on the phone, the Pre phone abandons the local search and gives you the Web options.

How can you use Universal Search to save time?

• Search for contacts rather than scrolling through a contact list.
• Search for applications or Web sites.
• Search for possible answers on one of three Web sites if not found on the phone.

What about the data on my old Palm?

webOS is designed to not be connected to a computer for data synchronization – the Synergy feature takes care of that. However, the first time customers use the Pre phone, they may have data on their computer that they would like to import. That’s where the Data Transfer Assistant comes in. Let’s learn more about how customers migrate data to the Pre phone as they get set up using the phone.

It is important not to think of the DTA as synchronization software. It only moves data onto the phone. It does not move data from the phone to the computer.

On the phone, customers have the choice of integrating their data with an account using the Synergy feature, such as Gmail or Facebook, or leaving it on the phone for backup using the Backup service.

Backup Options

The Backup service automatically backs up preferences and account settings. It does not back up individual files or items. For example, if you have 15 e-mails in your inbox, the e-mails are not backed up.

Backup does back up the account information used to access that inbox. It also backs up any preferences you store inside the application. For example, if you change the alert settings for a Calendar account, those settings will be backed up.

Third-party applications added to the phone are backed up. These items are backed up automatically each day. Customers can also initiate a manual backup.

When is a backup restored?

• Automatically restores data after an Erase or Device Exchange by signing in to the Palm profile.

How do customers delete their backup?

• If auto-backup is disabled, the current backup is immediately deleted from service.

What information is stored in a backup?

• Contacts stored directly on the phone (not those synchronized through the Synergy feature).
• Calendars.
• Account settings.
• Downloaded applications.

Camera, Photos & Video

How do you adjust the flash settings?

• The camera is automatically set up to recognize if a flash is needed. To change the settings, and turn off the Auto setting located on the screen.

What type of file is the picture saved as?

• Photos save as .jpgs

How do you fast-forward or rewind through a video?

• Tap the circle on the player bar and move forward orbackward, releasing where you want the video to resume play.

Can you watch a video in portrait mode?

• No. Videos must be viewed in landscape mode.

What video formats are supported?

• The Videos application supports MPEG-4, H.263, H.264. DRM-protected video files are not supported.

Amazon MP3′s

How do I get credit for a download?

• All transactions are handled by Amazon. You can also access your download history from your account on amazon.com after logging in.

Where is downloaded Amazon music stored on the phone?

• MP3s are stored on the mass storage partition.

Will downloaded songs be backed up automatically?

• No, you must access and back up files via the USB Disk mode.

Web Browser

Does Flash work in the Web application?

• No, as we learned earlier, the Web browser supports JavaScript, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), and cookies, but does not support plug-ins (Flash, Shockwave, VBScript, WML script, and so on) or Java applets.

How do you delete bookmarks?

• Open the Application menu and tap Bookmarks. Swipe the bookmark off the side of the screen and tap Delete.

Can you select/highlight text on a Web page?

• No.

What other options are under the Applications menu?

• You can clear cache, clear cookies, clear history, toggle on/off, block popups, accept cookies, and run JavaScript.

How can I know if Google Maps is using Cell or Wi-Fi ID or GPS?

• If the map shows an outer circle either Cell ID or Wi-Fi ID is being used to determine the phone’s location. If the map shows a dot by itself, it means either Standard GPS or Assisted GPS is being used to determine the phone’s location.

Sprint Applications

The Pre phone does NOT support Sprint Music, Sprint PictureMail, or Sprint Digital Lounge.

Resets

Resets are much different on the Pre phone than other smartphone or PDA phones you are familiar with. Even the language is different—out are terms like soft and hard reset; they’re replaced with terms like Restart, Partial Erase, and Full Erase.

Saving Battery

• Turn-off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios when not in use.
• Charge frequently and often! Batteries perform better when charged frequently.
• Make sure a data-intensive app isn’t running in the background (e.g., Music).
• Log out of IM apps if they’re not in use.
• Adjust the screen brightness.
• Check your signal strength – fringe coverage between 3G and 1xRTT will use more power.
• Reduce the frequency of syncing on e-mail accounts.
• Waking the screen often will use more power (e.g. opening and closing the slider).

And finally….using your Pre for a long time? Seem sluggish? Here’s the fix:

So… there you have it! I’ve used the Pre a few times now, and I’m very impressed – despite the lack of the touchstone charger in the box. If you take that out of the equation, the only actual device complaint is the inability to select/hilight text on a webpage – ALTHOUGH you can send a screencap/image of any page you’re viewing, so that’s *almost* the next best thing, and it has worked really well when I’ve tried it so far. So how about it.. .ready for the Palm Pre ?

Feel free to comment below, or take it to the forum over at SprintGurus as they have some of the in-the-know and knowledgeable folks around, here’s the link to the topic: http://sprintgurus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315

Sprint Overage Relief Minutes

Tired of paying $.40/per minute or more for using more minutes that your plan allows per month? There’s a little known tip to help avoid paying the ridiculous price for overages. You have to be alert and plan ahead to get the savings, but it’s well worth it. For instance if you used 200 minutes over your plan in any given month, you would have to pay $80 in overage – with the tip below, those same 200 minutes only cost you $10 ! It does pay to plan ahead, or at least to know what day your bill cycle ends and how to check your MOU (minutes of use).

Here’s how it works! Sprint offers ‘Overage Relief Minutes’ to customers who have used more minutes than allotted in their plan. The purpose was originally intended to help customers in ‘one-time’ situations or to use as part of an offer to entice you to upgrade your plan starting with your next bill cycle while providing the overage for the current month at a discounted amount.

• You MUST call in before your bill cycle ends. Overage Relief Minutes can only be added before your bill generates. Nor care or account services or anyone can change this. If you waited too late, you’ll just have to pay for your usage and mark your calendar next month for your cycle end date.
• Overage Relief Minutes come in ‘buckets’. There are several available for consumer accounts, with one restriction: You may only ever purchase a 500 minute bucket 1 time during the entire life of your account. This is enforced by the system and cannot be overridden (though there is a trick, read on!).

Buckets of Minutes	Cost
100 Overage Minutes	$5
200 Overage Minutes	$10
300 Overage Minutes	$15
400 Overage Minutes	$20
500 Overage Minutes	$25

So, how do you get them? It’s simple. Just dial *2 and ask! Tell the agent that you’d like to purchase “Overage Relief Minutes” and if you can feel the blank stare on their face (hopefully most of those have been weeded out by now) insist they look in their knowledgebase for the information, or in a super nice way suggest to them that they ask their team lead or supervisor about it. While every agent is trained on these, most have forgotten the 5 minutes they spent on it during six weeks of training, and it’s not a common call driver, so some may not be familiar.

• Overage Relief Minutes don’t roll over, no matter what expiration date is put on them, again this is systematically enforced. If you want them next month, you’ll have to call in again. They aren’t intended to be an easy way to get extra minutes, but rather for help for occasional overage.
• The agent MUST backdate the SOC to the start of your current billing cycle, or you will only get a prorated portion of the minutes. If this happens, call in after your bill posts to get it corrected, and be clear about what happened and insist on proper credit to your account.
• You can change your mind and purchase more minutes! If you call in on the 20th day of your bill cycle to add a bucket of 100 minutes, and realize on the 30th day that you really needed 400, you can always add more.
• You can only purchase the bucket of 500 minutes one time, however you can ‘stack’ the other buckets all you want. Need 500 again? purchase a 300 and a 200. Need 600? stack a 400 and a 200.Officially there is no limit on the upper amount, however you’d be able to get 1,500 once and 1,000 any month thereafter, as the same code cannot be ‘stacked’ twice during the same month (assuming you get a rep willing to add that many – as most would probably have the good sense to require a plan change, and I can’t say I’d blame them on this, though there’s no official policy).
• Lastly – in case you have a plan that doesn’t include it – Overage Relief Minutes DO NOT apply to roaming minute charges. These would be billed as normal.

If you find yourself using Overage Relief Minutes more than once or twice, then you probably should listen when the agent offers to tell you about a different plan that would save you money – because most likely they’re right, and you’re hanging on to that ancient plan for sentimental reasons – and if that’s the case, then you may actually want to consider our newer offerings that really do include everything. While there’s no formal policy on requiring a plan change commitment when using these minutes, do the math yourself and see what’s right for you, because in almost every case you will save money if you find yourself using these more than a couple of months in a row.

It’s really that simple – so know what day your billing cycle ends, and check your minutes of use each month (that’s 12 times a year – surely you can find the time!). You can find your MOU on sprint.com, by dialing *4 from your handset, and by speaking with someone at Care (*2).

Have you used Overage Relief Minutes before? Did you know they existed? Comment Away!

Customer Care no longer taking payments over the phone

New this week – if you call into Customer Care (*2) to pay your bill, be prepared to be transferred to the interactive phone system to complete your payment.  In an effort to reduce inbound calls to care centers, and to increase the awareness of self-service options, the policy went into effect at most centers this week. 

If you call for other reasons, the agents have been instructed to resolve any issues first, and inform you that after those are all taken care of you will be transferred to the *3 payment system to complete your payment. While I don’t agree with the change, I do see (if only a tiny bit) why it was implemented. It’s a step backwards from the personal touch and the ‘be the reason’ approach, because in all likely hood most customers know they can either pay online at sprint.com or over the phone by dialing *2 – so if they’re already on the phone with an agent, and their payment method is already on file, it literally takes 30 seconds to process a payment and all is done. With this new system, not only do I think that some CSAT scores will drop, but it also increases the transfers for each agent – yet another metric that stands between them and a pink slip.

What’s your thoughts? If you’re arleady on the phone, or willing to wait for an agent, should you be transferred to an automated payment system to complete your payment?

ScanLife EZcode

There’s a new addition in the sidebar – it’s a ScanLife EZcode. The concept is pretty simple, and it allows you to instantly visit and share this blog with others. Currently it’s only set to take you directly here to the blog, but it can also have options such a ‘Contact’ or ‘Sumbit a Tip’ – both of which may be implemented in the future.

To use it, you simply have to have the ScanLife app installed on your phone (available from the digital lounge @ Sprint since November, and available on most other carriers too, I assume). Then a snap of the image with your camera phone is all it takes. One quick use would be if someone had printed out a post, or if someone secretly pinned only the EZcode on your bulletin board, you could pull out your device and be instantly connected to the blog, or given contact options, too.

Here’s a larger version, in case your phone’s image quality is too low for the smaller version:

I’m yet sure what options may be enabled in the future, but I think the contact and tips menu items will be likely targets in the near future.

Go ahead – cut it out and leave only the EZcode in random places around the Sprint Campus – I know you’re dying to!

Blogging ‘from within’ Sprint

I suppose the subtitle of this post might as well read: “Why I decided to stay anonymous while blogging about Sprint/Nextel“. Before I go any further, to answer a question someone asked: no, I do not actually blog from work (at least not on this blog! We do have an internal blog, but more on that later, read on…), as not only would that destroy my desire to remain unnamed, but it would not exactly rank high on the ethical scale, either.  I assume the reason for the question was in regards to the moniker I chose,  “Inside.Sprint.Now”. It simply attempts to make reference to me working inside Sprint/Nextel, and also brings in an aspect of the ‘NOW’ network that most people are familiar with. So nope, no blogging for this particular venue at work; not now, not ever. With that being said, I am part of one of the very few customer facing teams that has unrestricted profiles for accessing anything outside of the corporate firewall. So while I could blog from work, it’s not something that I would do. Hope that clears that up (and saves the goons from Corporate Security from wasting their time attempting to search the logs so they could lock ..  question.. hmm, let’s go with.. interrogate  me in room for 6 hours (Yea, it’s not legal, and we all know it happens, but I suppose that’s just another reason to not get terminated, isn’t it) – and that’s another post for another day!, and in case you’re wondering, Sprint does not consider not allowing you to leave as a voilation of any laws or rights. While you will almost always find me commending Sprint/Nextel on pretty much everything, that is the one policy(unwritten, of course, because having it documented would be a security risk, right?) that I disagree with the corporate stance on. At any rate, this all really does relate to the topic for this post, as it gives you a tiny glimpse of what a strange world life inside the Sprint corporation can be like. And while it may seem like I’m harping on Sprint, that’s the only policy that I really have any major issue with, and it’s an internal thing, and has nothing to do with Customer Service. Other than that one item, which I learned to accept some number of years ago, I have generally nothing but high recommendations for Sprint, and not just because they sign my checks, but because not only are they a good employer, but they have a good quality product. We have a few care/marketing issues that are being ironed out, and overall are set for a solid comeback to the top of the pack, where the industry is concerned.

The person who emailed me the question from above, had read the article on the Consumerist which sounded more like a decree from the Kremlin, than the CEO Corporate Lawyer of a ‘multi-glom-o-corp’ in the heart of America. In case you missed it: Sprint/Nextel Will Fire Any Employee Caught Participating In Blogs, via Consumerist.com. And while it was technically from legal, its rumblings began in the boardroom, and everyone had a similar say in the decision, for ‘nicety’ sake, it was decided that legal should deliver the news, which is why you never seen the CEO quoted on it – that way it could allow room for ‘spin’ in case it backfired (which, of course, it did). Of course this policy is no longer enforced, and instead employees that identify themselfs as such when posting online, are asked to keep our standards in mind when using any type of online or social media service. For the most part that seems to work really well, although you don’t seem to find very many active ‘Sprint’ bloggers – which may very well be the result of blogs and social media sites themselves. If you were a employee that thought about starting a blog, and was not aware of any existing policy on it in either direction, and you googled to see if there were any other Sprint blogs out there… not only would you not find many (if any, at all) but you would see that news story from a couple years back, and I’m willing to believe that 99% of most folks faced with those results, would not desire or seek to blog in any way would could be related to Sprint – which, even if it backfired, you almost have to wonder if they didn’t consider this ‘aftershock’ effect when they leaked emailed the policy to 80,000 mailboxes. Whatever the ‘official’ policy now allows, the damage has already been done for many would be bloggers from within the sprint enterprise – at least outside the firewall. We do have a semi-social networking/blogging application on the intranet that a lot of us partipate in, which while good, isn’t great. Without giving too much away, I’ll just say it’s certainly no WordPress. It does provide some level of networking within the organization, though it has a lot to be desired. It’s still in the infant stages I suppose you could say, so we’ll see where it goes. I have a fairly popular following, it would seem

So, you may wonder, after reading all of that (and that’s 0.0001% of the entire picture), why I would want to have a blog that is related to Sprint. It’s a valid question, and for the answer I suppose you should be aware of a couple of things(and I hope I don’t break any hearts or disappoint anyone that’s been on the edge of their seat waiting to see what would become of this blog). Here’s only a couple of the reasons that I don’t worry about blogging in this arena, despite all the hoopla:

• No product ‘leaks’ here. Not worth my career, sorry. Visit BoyGenius for that
• I’ve had access to all this info for years, do you really think I’m suddenly gonna feel like sharing? This isn’t AA.
• My paycheck is nice. In fact, It’s rather large for what I actually do. I think I’ll keep it that way. It’d take me way too many years to get to the same position at any other company, and even longer for them to forget about me so I could spend my days assisting in the care of a portion of our customers, or set my voicemail box to forward to my house for days on end with no one knowing. 
• I love sprint, we have great service and a quality product. 
• Helping right prior service ‘woes’ is my specialty
• I find that blogging is best when the author not only knows the arena well, but isn’t afraid to tell both the good and the bad, when either need to be talked about. That’s me. 100%.
• Oh, and the Corporate Security and the goons that ‘monitor’ sites looking for slips and leaks.. well, I have coffee with them a few mornings a week – and while they have no idea that I blog, if they did, they would never let it be known. So yea.. I don’t have any worries there.

Oh yea, and there’s that other little thing that I forgot to mention in the list above. Maybe you’ve heard of it.. it’s this great little thing called:

The First Amendment.

Yep, I went and brought the 1st amendment into it – but quite frankly, I’m allowed to blog about anything I choose, and if that topic happens to be Sprint/Nextel, so be it. So yea, I think that pretty much sums it up. Oh, and the anonymous part? I figure that’s probably best for now, just to keep it simple and my life a little less stressful. Those in the know probably would not have a hard time putting a face to the moniker, but there’s no need to attach a name to my blog, as I feel I can put more depth and real-life experiences into the blog if I don’t have to worry about anyone stressing because I said something the didn’t like, or that wasn’t run by the legal team first. So in a nutshell, that’s a little insight into why I decided to blog the way I am.

This post wasn’t really customer-service related, but I did feel it was necessary to include early in the life of the blog, just so we’re all on the same page. Now, on to the more interesting stuff soon! If you have ideas or questions for me, leave a comment or email: inside.sprint.now@gmail.com !