I Love My Q. I Hate Sprint

Strong words, but I have spent 7.5 hours with Sprint’s customer service in the past two weeks. No exaggeration, I’ve kept track.

• It took me 5 hours to get my phone activated. That included 2 hours on the phone with their toll-free customer service, visiting three different Sprint stores, and waiting for 2 hours with one of the stores that was finally able to help me.
• One of the Sprint stores actually refused to help me. They said that they were  in competition with the 1-800 Sprint sales, and since I bought the phones there that they would not help me. I said, "You are wearing a Sprint shirt and you can’t help me with a Sprint issue?" He said, "Nope."
• I had problems with my phone last week, and I spent 1.5 hours on the phone with a lady who knew less about my Q than my 6-year old knows. She literally had never picked up a Q and kept asking me where certain buttons were located. My phone was locked up, and she told me 6 different times to press the menu button. I kept saying, "Uh, my phone is locked." I finally hung up and figured it out myself my searching online user groups.
• Today I received written confirmation in the mail of my service plan and found that my expiration date was wrong (they added an extra year to what they promised me). I fought with a woman (strangely, with an Indian-accent) for an hour. When I threatened to cancel, she finally told me that she changed it for me, but was unable to confirm it in writing. She kept saying, "My word I give to you…" (They must study Yoda-language in India). She said if I checked my account online it would still have the wrong date, but that I should trust her that she changed it in the system. It is almost laughable.

I love my Q. The only reason I went to Sprint was to avoid termination fees with Nextel. But I really want to switch to Verizon (who also carries the Q). Is it worth $400 in termination fees to switch to Verizon? Are they really that much better?

Right now I despise Sprint so much I’m thinking it might be worth it.