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Name: Sprint Web Address: www.sprintbiz.com Cost: $19.95/month for dial-up through Earthlink Setup Fee: None Hours included: Unlimited Postal address: 6200 Sprint Parkway, Overland Park, KS 66251 Toll-free phone: 1-800-877-4646 Phone: 1-877-700-8920 POPs Provided by: Own Reviewed on: Mon Apr 14 2003 Reviewed by: ACougar Rating:

When my mortal coil has been spent and my cyber-presence grows static, I believe that across ISP land I will be remembered as a fair and friendly reviewer, but a cranky, difficult customer -- one who complained too loudly and too often.
As you might have guessed by now, I wouldn’t recommend either my primary or my back-up ISP’s to anyone. I live in a rural area whose connectivity is compromised by poor phone lines and is further comprised by having too few options other than dial-up. My anguish is further exacerbated by the fact that for some glorious two years I had unfettered access to a T1 connection.
I search out ideal ISP’s for much the same reason that so many others subscribe to magazines about lifestyles of which they will never have the means to partake. I take joy in the vicarious thrills. I want every site I visit to be perfect. I want to know that some people out there, a lot of people, are getting really good service. Because if that’s the case, then one day I too might get quality service.

You Are What you ISP
Poor ISP service has cost me hundreds of dollars that I know of and possibly thousands of which I have never even heard. I’ve had assignments lost in cyberspace. I’ve suffered weeks of lost emails and perhaps even more unsettling, have had random pieces abducted in route when all seemed well. I’ve had my email address changed on me three times in three years, twice without my input or knowledge. My ISPs have made me appear sloppy, tardy, obstinate, and wholly unprofessional.
We plan to move within a few months, and while the quality of the schools will be our first priority, not very far down on my list of considerations is the availability of quality Internet service. I keep two services, a high-speed connection via cable (my phones lines rarely allow a signal to break 10K) and a dial-up, which serves both as a back-up and a reminder to me of why I have to keep on speaking terms with my DSL provider, the only high-speed option open to me.

Sprint Dial-up, a Paragon of Ambiguity
If you want to get dial-up access through Sprint -- have to get it through Sprint -- then go to the Earthlink site, but do not visit the Sprint site. What you will find there is the appearance that they themselves provide dial-up service, but it’s quite obvious that if indeed they do, they don’t give much of a hoot about it any longer, preferring to let the low-end rabble slide over to Earthlink.
The Sprint site still brags about a hardly impressive 440 dial up points in the US and a more impressive 2300 abroad. They act like they offer dial-up, even call it a cost effective alternative, but provide no opportunity for signing on. Even when you go to their online store, they won’t tell you how much, but rather request a long form’s worth of information, which you exchange for their promise to call you. In fact when you click any link that mentions dial-up, even their link to live dial-up support, you will be taken to dead pages or back to their promise that for the surrendering of one mere telephone number, they will have a qualified specialist get right back at you.

Civil War Price War
With great perseverance, round about through the FAQ page and several error messages, I finally found a way on their site to sign up for Earthlink for $19.95 a month, two dollars a month cheaper than Earthlink’s own price but without any of the substantial moneysaving signup specials that you will find on the Earthlink site. They don’t even mention the combo package with Sprint long distance advertised on the Earthlink page. The two-dollar a month bargain works out to your advantage over Earthlink’s intro package after about your third year in, providing of course that there’s no price change.
Well, I don’t know about you, but if I want Earthlink I will buy it through Earthlink, and I already have plenty of deadline crunches and dinners interrupted by script reading telemarketers wanting me to cast out my current long distance carrier (I don’t know why half of them even bother to call, as they seem to change my service anytime they darn well please, which is why I’m going to an Internet telephone service. Maybe sometime in the near future, I’ll let you know how that works out.)
My visit to Sprint reminded me why I don’t like putting my fate in the hands of large companies. The primary irritation with such companies is their assumption that customers are stupid. (You people know you think that.) Then there is the total disregard they seem to have for people’s time and patience. Please, if you don’t want to sell me dial-up, don’t send me on a wild goose chase; just tell me. If you want me to go over to Earthlink to consider their worthy products, that’s all fine and good, but don’t leave me dancing from page to page in search of a service that may or may not exist.

The Carnal Knowledge Motive
There are too many alternatives out there to waste your time trying to deal with Sprint’s telemarketers. However, if you are so last decade that you are worried that using anyone but Sprint will ruin your chances of a wild fling with Candace Bergen, go ahead and waste your time, but when that salesperson calls, I bet his or her main intention is not to satisfy you with dial-up service anymore than it is to fix you up with the Widow Bergen.

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	- by Anonymous	04/15/03