This past Saturday, I walked into the 6th most trafficked Sprint store in the US and purchased a Sierra Wireless 598U USB aircard. I had heard that Sprint’s mobile data cards were fast and I wanted to see for myself. It was an easy enough purchase. After spending a hair North of US$60 I walked out of the door with it, ready to surf anywhere I was with my MacBook Pro at the famed high speeds of Sprint’s national 3G network.

By the time I had it all set up and was surfing away to sites like Neiman Marcus and ESPN, sites I generally never attend but did so just to see how fast they would load, I was blown away. It was more than fast. I felt like I was on my high speed cable network, it was so fast. My wife is with me, so I crank on Internet Sharing via AirPort and away we go…

Um, no. In fact, the network shuts off. I turn off sharing and the blazing speeds are back. I turn sharing back on, and no more connection again. Wow. I’m paying US$60 a month for this? Anyway, I stow it for later and we head home. I fiddle around and then head out to go to my favorite local spot for coffee and to get some work done for a few hours. Later, I spend time at home just futzing around. I’m really using the network to see how well it works.

This morning I head on over to the Sprint.com site to check on usage, since the SmartView app doesn’t keep track for you, and I am met with an amazing site. I have a mere 300MBs of usage left! What?! I spend a nerds worth of two days, around 12 hours, on the wireless network and I’ve supposedly used up my monthly quota already? Not even slightly, bub. I’m a nerd. I know what kind of data runs through a pipe being used for browsing and email.

I called Sprint support and told them the gory details and they decided that they couldn’t do anything except create a service ticket and wait. I wasn’t about to start paying US$0.05/MB in a few hours so I declined and turned it off. I boxed the whole thing up and took it back to the store for a full refund. I asked them about phone as a modem and the potential for unlimited data again, and they had no idea.

Now, if I were to start up a horticultural center and sell plants and gardening gear people would start coming to shop there. When people would come to me or other staff with questions about plants and feeds and stuff I’d have to tell them that I have no clue. I just sell the stuff. How many people do you think will shop at my store again, or at all?

Not smart, Sprint. Not smart.

Two days later, I return it.

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