![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-68654-100x100.png\")
killer bees...now that's an awesome idea.
killer bees...now that's an awesome idea.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/css/images/default.gif\")
i had a similar problem with Sprint. They never resolved it--they wrote it off fast and sent it to collections.
Document EVERYTHING and take them to small claims court. Maybe give them one more shot at executive customer service first.
Write a letter to Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee. Keep documentation of everything. If you don't get resolution from Forsee's office in 30 days file a small claims case. Make a BBB report. If sent to collections hire an attorney to sue Sprint Nextel in regular court with documented hours, attorney's fees, lost clients, lost client calls, damage to reputation personal and business, and find your written contract.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-66824-100x100.png\")
This is exactly why I do the pay-as-you-go thing. I know it's not right for everyone, but damn if I'm going to tie myself to yet another contract with a giant telecommunications company.
I guess this is SOP at Sprint. Every time I call with a problem they say it's taken care of, and then a month later I have to call back because they either didn't do what they said they would, or they did do it, but made some other mistake. Now I just assume that they haven't done anything until I actually see it on my bill. I've never had anything this bad (they've even made a few mistakes in my favor) but I honestly can't even remember the last time my invoice was completely correct.
I'm starting to think the front line CSRs don't even have computers. They just pretend to look stuff up, say what I want to hear and then hang up.
CSR changed my plan without my consent, sprint is the worst because they don't do anything to serve their customers.
wow that's worse than what tracfone did to me!!!
they totally suck at keeping track of stuff, apparently.
watch out for TRAPfone or CRAPfone or totally WACKfone. i bought the year's service plan and the double minute plan, then woke one day and looked a my crackfone to see that i had 0.0 minutes and an expiration date in the past. impossible. i called and spoke to someone who gave me numbers to type into my phone and read back what it said. the secret codes told them that my phone was broken. oh really? well they sent me a broken replacement, replaced it a couple weeks later, and neglected to give me back my double minute plan or my years worth of service.
when i tried to get them to face up to their mistake they kept flipping the script back to page one:
\"uh we don't have any record of your ever having used our service... would you like to activate your CRAPfone?\"
\"no im calling because i spend 200 dollars for a service i am not recieving. my phone rings when i call it i just can't answer...\"
\"sir are there minutes on your phone? you cant answer without minutes, you know.\"
\"well no sh*t lady! that's how's its been for the last 2 years i have used your service. why should it change now? the problem is that there's no way in *ell im buying more minutes until you tell me what happened to the 800 minutes i just had, and also the expiration date needs to be put back in the future, likew next year, where it was!\"
Thats the part where CRAPfone puts you on hold and pretends to get a manager, then several minutes later its, \"sorry we have no record of ever having had you in our system would you like to activate your trapFone?\"
\"uh... i thought i just told you... nevermind\"
the moral of my rant is don't get trapfone, crackfone, crapfone or any other service that spells phone 'fone'.
other marked stupidities of the service include the fact that you can't see who is calling unless you have minutes, so that after you switch to a REAL service you have to keep a few 'units' on your slapfone just to see who calls your old number, just in case you know...
the agents also barely speak english
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-2055-100x100.png\")
It is always amazing to me to watch the tide sweep back and forth between who has the best Customer Support & Retention of all the wireless carriers. Despite the down, then way up, now way down again CS from Sprint I remain with them because I have a grandfathered, unreal plan with unlimited data because I signed onto the very first high-end Vision plan, ever... And I stayed with it. I'm just waiting for the day that they decide to do exact this same thing to me.
And I absolutely know it will happen.
But when it does - it is going to be hard to decide who to go with my pretty decent company-supported cell phone bill stipend. Verizon is known for the best service in my area, but has poor support, and they are behind on phone technology. Strange as they used to be known for being the best in all ways (service, coverage, support) Cingular has awful coverage, slow, strange pauses in transmissions of voice, expensive data plans, but perhaps the best support right now. Sprint comes in second in several categories, but that means they aren't dead last in any category. Which means they win for me. Talk about the lesser of evils.
Additionally, why in the @#$&% hasn't some company come in and be the JetBlue or Song of cell carriers and kick all three of these marginally acceptable carriers squarely in the nuts? Kills me.
sprint has messed with us up one side and down the other. One of the agreements that I had made with one rep. over the phone was we sign up for 2 more years of service and get an additional phone for my wife and my phone fixed for free. Well we had to pay the $35 for her phone and they said we had to pay to have my phone fixed. Well thats not what they told us over the phone. But to make it \"OK\" they said we could send in a rebate and get our money back then it would be like we never paid. Well that was over 2, 3 months ago and we have yet to see that rebate. We hate Sprint and as soon as our contract is up were going to Cingular.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1161-100x100.png\")
Brenda writes:
\"I would recommend he file a complaint with the FCC (http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm). I had similar issues with AT&T, and filed a complaint with the FCC. By law, the company must follow-up with any consumer that files a complaint the FCC. This is tactic is not widely know, and works better than calling any CSR.
I received a refund check in my case. All others who I have told about this have received either a refund check or a credit for the amount from the telecommunications company.\"
Been a loyal customer for 6 years with Sprint myself, mostly because we try to keep our distance. They don't bother me and I don't bother them.
My final straw may have come about a month ago. One day I got in the mail a \"thank you\" for upping my plan (which was to expire in August) and agreeing to a new 2-year contract. NEWS TO ME. I have the plan's end date circled on my calendar (the same day I switch to the iPhone and AT&T).
I called them up and told them they'd made a mistake. Their records indicated otherwise -- that I apparently verbally agreed to a 2-year commitment in exchange for 50 free minutes per month. (I laughed out out. Fifty minutes is an insult!)
In cases like this, I fall back on several tried and true tactics:
1) Ask to speak to a Manager
2) Threaten them with BBB action
I went so far this time to request they produce the \"evidence\" of me saying yes to such a ridiculous contract. Apparently a corporate department outside of C/S can produce those recordings, but I never got that far. Luckily, common sense prevailed and they cancelled the 2-year contract and reinstated the old one.
Like I said, if they don't bother me...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-6444-100x100.png\")
Not to be a appoligizer for Sprint, but one of my lines went two months without any Internet plan and over the two months the service came out to $300 in overages. I sent an email to CS and without a single second of hold time the issue was resolved successfully. Nice job.
These stories are common not insolated incidents.
I worked for Sprint, now I'm with Embarq. Two of my co-workers had the exact same thing happen. (ex-sprint employees) They do this to their own employees not just their customers. You're best bet is to have a Sprint store fix the issue or call customer service from a phone at the Sprint store. This way anything thing the idiot on the phone says or does can be double checked by the rep at the store. Most store reps/managers can hand out credits up to 200bucks.
I've had no problem getting them to credit my account and friends too. The system doesn't work so you have to circumvent it. You will get no where calling their CS line.
I went to the local Sprint store on 11/23 and purchased 2 phones. I selected the $59.99 per month family plan and was told that $20 would add unlimited text messaging to our plan.
On 11/24, Sprint mailed me a bill for $182 and 5 days later mailed me another bill for $284. When I called to find out what was going on, the first 2 reps I got on the phone with told me that since I had purchased my phones in a Sprint store, I needed to go there with any problems I had with my bill, then hung up on me. A phone call to the executive team got some credit applied to my account, but only $187.
I was informed that the $20 unlimited texting wasn't available for my plan, so I was charged $15 for unlimited texting on the 1st phone, and after racking up about 10 bucks in per message texting fees on the second phone, they added the 15 buck unlimited texting to that phone also, but kept the $10.40 fee for per message texting that they had already billed me for. I was charged activation fees which were supposed to be waived. I was charged $75 for a data plan when I had specifically requested that data access be blocked on both phones.
On the 12th day of my contract, I returned both phones to the Sprint store and canceled my contract. I was told that for 12 days of having a plan that was $59.99 per month, the balance on my account was $84, and that since the current billing period ended on 12/28, they wouldn't be able to cancel my account until that day, and I would have to pay for service for phones I didn't have for the period from today (12/04) until the 28th.
I pointed out to them that they were able to activate the phones within an hour of purchase, they could deactivate them within an hour also. They wanted me to keep the service active until the 28th, when I would be 5 days past the 30 day return policy.
After going a few more rounds with them, they finally agreed to cancel my account immediately, and with all the credits that were applied, my account balance was -$14.00.
I'm waiting anxiously now to see whether they send me another bill for several hundred bucks or they send me a refund for the $14 their computer shows on as a balance owed to me by them.
Also, in addition to all this crap, the 20 minutes of usage we got out of those phones were pretty bad too. Lots of static, multiple dropped calls. Even if they hadn't screwed up my bill so bad that I canceled the contract, I probably would have canceled anyway because the service was so bad.
I don't know who I'm gonna go with now for cell phone service, but I'll never go back to Sprint.
Sprint has had a lot of issues lately.
I'm a third party dealer for them and whenever I call them for any customer issues they give me problems, and I'm a sprint rep.
Hard times.