Gee, thanks, Sprint

To recap an earlier posting, to set the scene:

I had a family plan with two phones. Both were out of contract.
One of the phones was malfunctioning, so we went to our local Sprint
store to get a new phone to replace that. Expected result: pick the
phone, Sprint puts it on the account in place of the old phone, that
number gets a two year contract, and we are out the door in 10
minutes.

Actual result: Sprint employees futz around for nearly an hour
trying to put the phone on the account, and finally tell us it is
not possible, unless we let them change our plan to one of their
current offerings. So we let them do that. So now we've got a
worse plan, and they've put two year contracts on both of our
numbers!

Fast forward about a year. We leave Sprint. I have no problem paying a
$200 ETF, because we bought that new phone a year ago, and used the $150
discount. But my phone had been with them for something like 3 years.
It should not have an ETF. Yes, we changed plans, but only because they
told us that we HAD to change plans to keep service--that should not
reset the contract (especially since the new plan was not anywhere near
as good a deal as the old plan).

I had occasion to call Sprint three times as part of the process of
leaving Sprint. (Because the first two times, they neglected to
actually cancel one of the lines. It took three calls to actually get
that to stick, and make sure they didn't try to sneak an extra month in
there, since the third call was on the second day of a new billing
period--after I called the supposedly dead number and it still worked so
knew the second call to cancel had not actually worked!).

On two of these calls, I complained to the rep about being charged two
ETFs. One sympathized, but said there was nothing she could do. The
other said she'd put a note on the account that I wanted to dispute it,
and they would call me back in a few days to talk about it.

No one called. The second ETF fee showed up on the next bill. I paid
it--so my account balance with Sprint is now $0.00. This was about 3
weeks after they were supposed to call.

Now, a couple weeks after that, they finally called back about the
disputed charge and left a message on voicemail. The message said
something like "We are calling about dispute #soandso on account
#whatever, and we see that your account is at $0.There is no ETF charge
on it. Thank you for being a Sprint Customer".

Great job of investigating the dispute, Sprint. I guess it didn't occur
to them to look at last month's bill?

--
--Tim Smith

Personally I think there is tremendous flexibility with customer service
reps, with all carriers. I left Sprint three months after getting two new
free phones, and although I was with them for over two years, I just told
them that I couldn't get decent service at my home, and they waved the fees.
They were so nice to me, I felt guilty leaving. Since then I've been with
VZW, and the service is excellent, but they cheat me every sneaky way they
can, and when I need information about something I can email my question six
times and get six wildly different answers. It's all pot luck



"Tim Smith" <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> wrote in message
news:reply_in_group-E0AED8.23530501022008@news.supernews.com...
>
> To recap an earlier posting, to set the scene:
>
> I had a family plan with two phones. Both were out of contract.
> One of the phones was malfunctioning, so we went to our local Sprint
> store to get a new phone to replace that. Expected result: pick the
> phone, Sprint puts it on the account in place of the old phone, that
> number gets a two year contract, and we are out the door in 10
> minutes.
>
> Actual result: Sprint employees futz around for nearly an hour
> trying to put the phone on the account, and finally tell us it is
> not possible, unless we let them change our plan to one of their
> current offerings. So we let them do that. So now we've got a
> worse plan, and they've put two year contracts on both of our
> numbers!
>
> Fast forward about a year. We leave Sprint. I have no problem paying a
> $200 ETF, because we bought that new phone a year ago, and used the $150
> discount. But my phone had been with them for something like 3 years.
> It should not have an ETF. Yes, we changed plans, but only because they
> told us that we HAD to change plans to keep service--that should not
> reset the contract (especially since the new plan was not anywhere near
> as good a deal as the old plan).
>
> I had occasion to call Sprint three times as part of the process of
> leaving Sprint. (Because the first two times, they neglected to
> actually cancel one of the lines. It took three calls to actually get
> that to stick, and make sure they didn't try to sneak an extra month in
> there, since the third call was on the second day of a new billing
> period--after I called the supposedly dead number and it still worked so
> knew the second call to cancel had not actually worked!).
>
> On two of these calls, I complained to the rep about being charged two
> ETFs. One sympathized, but said there was nothing she could do. The
> other said she'd put a note on the account that I wanted to dispute it,
> and they would call me back in a few days to talk about it.
>
> No one called. The second ETF fee showed up on the next bill. I paid
> it--so my account balance with Sprint is now $0.00. This was about 3
> weeks after they were supposed to call.
>
> Now, a couple weeks after that, they finally called back about the
> disputed charge and left a message on voicemail. The message said
> something like "We are calling about dispute #soandso on account
> #whatever, and we see that your account is at $0.There is no ETF charge
> on it. Thank you for being a Sprint Customer".
>
> Great job of investigating the dispute, Sprint. I guess it didn't occur
> to them to look at last month's bill?
>
> --
> --Tim Smith

RBM wrote:
> Personally I think there is tremendous flexibility with customer service
> reps, with all carriers. I left Sprint three months after getting two new
> free phones, and although I was with them for over two years, I just told
> them that I couldn't get decent service at my home, and they waved the fees.
> They were so nice to me, I felt guilty leaving. Since then I've been with
> VZW, and the service is excellent, but they cheat me every sneaky way they
> can, and when I need information about something I can email my question six
> times and get six wildly different answers. It's all pot luck

I remember being in Alaska, and my sister-in-law not believing me that
the flashing roaming indicator meant she was not being charged roaming.
She called Verizon to ask them, and they told her that they had no
service in Alaska, explaining to her "it's our 50th state, you know."
The second call to them, she got the right answer about roaming, but she
didn't try asking if Alaska was still the 50th state according to Verizon.

Tim Smith <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> writes:

> To recap an earlier posting, to set the scene:
>
> I had a family plan with two phones. Both were out of contract.
> One of the phones was malfunctioning, so we went to our local Sprint
> store to get a new phone to replace that. Expected result: pick the
> phone, Sprint puts it on the account in place of the old phone, that
> number gets a two year contract, and we are out the door in 10
> minutes.
>
> Actual result: Sprint employees futz around for nearly an hour
> trying to put the phone on the account, and finally tell us it is
> not possible, unless we let them change our plan to one of their
> current offerings. So we let them do that. So now we've got a
> worse plan, and they've put two year contracts on both of our
> numbers!

Note: here you type that they put two-year contracts on both numbers.

>
> Fast forward about a year. We leave Sprint. I have no problem paying a
> $200 ETF, because we bought that new phone a year ago, and used the $150
> discount. But my phone had been with them for something like 3 years.
> It should not have an ETF. Yes, we changed plans, but only because they
> told us that we HAD to change plans to keep service--that should not
> reset the contract (especially since the new plan was not anywhere near
> as good a deal as the old plan).


You can see where you got screwed here. You must've signed two
separate new contracts which each had ETF's associated on a per-line
basis.

> On two of these calls, I complained to the rep about being charged two
> ETFs. One sympathized, but said there was nothing she could do. The
> other said she'd put a note on the account that I wanted to dispute it,
> and they would call me back in a few days to talk about it.
>
> No one called. The second ETF fee showed up on the next bill. I paid
> it--so my account balance with Sprint is now $0.00. This was about 3
> weeks after they were supposed to call.

Ugh. So now you've paid them money including the disputed amount. I
have a feeling I know where this is going.

>
> Now, a couple weeks after that, they finally called back about the
> disputed charge and left a message on voicemail. The message said
> something like "We are calling about dispute #soandso on account
> #whatever, and we see that your account is at $0.There is no ETF charge
> on it. Thank you for being a Sprint Customer".
>
> Great job of investigating the dispute, Sprint. I guess it didn't occur
> to them to look at last month's bill?

I dunno Tim, you made some pretty serious consumer errors here that
have complicated your situation. First, you signed a new 2 year
contract on a line where you didn't get any discounted equipment.
That left you in the double ETF situation to begin with. You
should've dug your heels in at that point and said "No--if you can't
figure out how to get us a new phone on our old plan, I'm taking my
business to another store. I don't want to have to pay 2 ETF's
instead of 1 if/when I need to leave sprint in the next 2 years."

Your second boo boo was sending them money including a disputed
amount. You'd have been lucky to get the 2nd ETF cleared if you
hadn't paid it (depending on whether you bought from an authorized
Sprint Dealer, or if it was a Sprint-owned entity that couldn't figure
out how to get your new phone onto your old plan). In contrast to the
relative customer service ease of waiving charges "in the system" it's
next to impossible to get companies to send you check out of good
will once they already have their money.

I wish I had happier news for ya, but best I can tell you've learned
an expensive lesson. I don't see any blame on Sprint here UNLESS the
nitwits who couldn't activate your new phone on your old account were
Sprint employees working at a Sprint-owned corporate store.

If they were just yahoo's of a reseller, it's largely out of Sprint's
hands, and since you're no longer a customer, they don't have much
customer service incentive to pay for a mistake that is shared by you
(the contract signer) and the reseller who couldn't figure out how to
renew one line of an old plan.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://toddh.net/