Sprint Store vs. Online vs. Radio Shack?

Which is the best way to deal? Any experiences to relate?

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› See More: Sprint Store vs. Online vs. Radio Shack?

Dave <[email protected]> wrote:
> Which is the best way to deal? Any experiences to relate?

I just had a great experience activating my second line through Telesales.

One minor annoyance was that they agreed to waive my $36 activation fee, but
someone forgot to code the account for the $36 credit. It would have been
less of a hassle if I wasn't on the Clear Pay program - the activation fee
put me $29 over my spending limit*, and my service was temporarily turned off
as a result. We had a payment earmarked for them anyhow, so since you can't
talk to customer service if you're over your limit (you get sent to
Collections, and they supposedly can't transfer you), we made the payment and
got turned back on a couple hours later, and then I called Customer Service
and had them apply the promised credit, which took all of about two minutes...

With that one exception, my experience with Telesales was good. My new phone
was delivered "next-day" as promised. I put the phrase "next-day" in quotes
because we ordered on Friday, July 2nd, and Fedex wasn't delivering July 5th
due to the observance of Independence Day (not something Sprint has any
control over). But we did receive the phone on the next day FedEx delivered.

One thing to watch out for: When you order from Telesales, apparently they
send the phone to you *already activated.* If this bugs you, go to a store
instead. Advantage of this policy: you can use the phone the second you take
it out of the box. Disadvantage: of course, if it falls into the wrong hands,
it's already usable. If you don't receive your phone on the next business day
after you order it, CALL TELESALES IMMEDIATELY and have them track the phone.
If the delivery service says they've already delivered it, then you need to
make sure they TURN THE PHONE OFF to avoid any illegitimate charges on your
account.

We used Telesales because the closest Sprint store is a half-hour from our
house (they've still not opened up the one they are promising at our local
shopping mall). I talked to Radio Shack, but they told me that I couldn't
get the phone and then port my Verizon number to it six weeks later at the end
of my Verizon contract. Since I need to port my Verizon number to an
existing line, and I tend to avoid buying phones from anyone except the carrier
anyhow, I decided to call Telesales.

--SJS

*Regarding the activation fee: We weren't only billed the activation fee
on our latest bill - we were also billed the usual charges - one full month
for August, plus the customary pro-rated charges for July, the first month of
usage on the phone. Over $100 total, since I have a $50 calling package and
a couple extras on the second line. It's just that the activation fee is what
pushed us over.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 10:56:30 -0500, Steven J Sobol
<[email protected]> wrote:


snipped

> since you can't
>talk to customer service if you're over your limit (you get sent to
>Collections, and they supposedly can't transfer you)

Here's the trick:

Call the landline number (888-211-4727) and when the machine asks for
your cell number give them your home number or some random number from
an out of town yellow pages or any landline number. You will then get
the voice prompt asking what you need and just say "representative".
This way you can get to a human before the system knows who you are.
Quite handy for people who want to understand their bill before they
pay it.

Bob Tenney <[email protected]> wrote:

> Call the landline number (888-211-4727) and when the machine asks for
> your cell number give them your home number or some random number from
> an out of town yellow pages or any landline number. You will then get
> the voice prompt asking what you need and just say "representative".
> This way you can get to a human before the system knows who you are.
> Quite handy for people who want to understand their bill before they
> pay it.

Rockin. Hopefully I won't have to use it but it's nice to know it's available.
(This is the first time in three years that the service was interrupted, and
it wasn't because I was late making a payment...)

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Bob Tenney <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Here's the trick:
>
> Call the landline number (888-211-4727) and when the machine asks for
> your cell number give them your home number or some random number from
> an out of town yellow pages or any landline number. You will then get
> the voice prompt asking what you need and just say "representative".

So what you're saying is, you need to use a TRICK to get in touch with
Sprint PCS customer service? Does that strike you as acceptable?

Lest someone respond "Yeah, but all the other providers suck too,"
when I want to get customer service on my current cell phone, I just
call the cell phone number of the sales rep who sold me the phone.
Any time, day or night.


Don Doumakes
Email: doumakes at loganet dot net

"I just call the cell phone number of the sales rep who sold me the phone"
I just dial *2 from my cell and say "representative"...

Don Doumakes wrote:

> Bob Tenney <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
>
>>Here's the trick:
>>
>>Call the landline number (888-211-4727) and when the machine asks for
>>your cell number give them your home number or some random number from
>>an out of town yellow pages or any landline number. You will then get
>>the voice prompt asking what you need and just say "representative".
>
>
> So what you're saying is, you need to use a TRICK to get in touch with
> Sprint PCS customer service? Does that strike you as acceptable?
>
> Lest someone respond "Yeah, but all the other providers suck too,"
> when I want to get customer service on my current cell phone, I just
> call the cell phone number of the sales rep who sold me the phone.
> Any time, day or night.
>
>
> Don Doumakes
> Email: doumakes at loganet dot net

Don Doumakes <[email protected]> wrote:

> So what you're saying is, you need to use a TRICK to get in touch with
> Sprint PCS customer service? Does that strike you as acceptable?

I can understand why they do it. Same reason that they had the $3 customer
service charge for ClearPay customers a couple years ago - they don't want
people who have been turned off for nonpayment calling in just to complain
about being turned off. Calls to Sprint cost the company real money in terms
of CSR wages, etc.

On the other hand, I thought the $3/call charge was a crappy way to deal
with things. It was abusive towards people like me who are on ClearPay only
because their credit was bad when they signed up. I pay my bill on time
every month, and I never call CS unless I have a question or problem that
needs resolved. I think I've only ever missed one or two on-time payments in
almost four years.

Likewise, the policy of *never* letting someone who is shut off talk to CS
can be a problem. I just went over my spending limit, ONLY because I was
not given the $36 credit for activation of my second line that I'd been
promised by Telesales. The charges associated with the extra pro-rated
partial month, plus the regular charges for August, plus the miscellaneous
fees for the extras I have on my account, still wouldn't have pushed me over;
it's the activation fee that did it, and I was supposed to have received a
credit for that activation fee.

But in order to talk to CS to have it properly credited, I had to get my
account turned back on and out of collections, which meant I had to pay money
to get the account back under the limit. Fortunately, we had some money set
aside to give to Sprint, so it didn't become a huge issue.

In my case, I went over and was shut off SOLELY due to a screwup on the part
of the company, and as I told the collections rep, this is not a good way to
treat a loyal customer who just activated an additional line of service.

> Lest someone respond "Yeah, but all the other providers suck too,"
> when I want to get customer service on my current cell phone, I just
> call the cell phone number of the sales rep who sold me the phone.
> Any time, day or night.

You seem to be missing the point. There is normally no big trick to calling
customer service. You need to go back and read my post again - I only got
shunted off to collections because I was shut off, because I went over a
preset spending limit -- which, unless your credit is bad, you wouldn't
normally even have on your account. The only other time you get sent to
collections and don't get to talk to CS is if your service has been temporarily
disconnected for nonpayment.

And if you don't pay your cell bill, and you get shut off, your sales rep
probably won't be able to do much for you.

I do think the situation sucked, and said so to the collections rep (and
he still couldn't do anything for me, but he at least sympathized with me),
and I plan to complain about it. But I think you're misunderstanding the
situation.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Jim85CJ <[email protected]> wrote:
> "I just call the cell phone number of the sales rep who sold me the phone"
> I just dial *2 from my cell and say "representative"...

You're also missing the point. Please go back and *read* the rest of the
thread.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Hmm.... sombody must have done too much snipping because there is no
thread in this post...

Steven J Sobol wrote:

> Jim85CJ <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>"I just call the cell phone number of the sales rep who sold me the phone"
>>I just dial *2 from my cell and say "representative"...
>
>
> You're also missing the point. Please go back and *read* the rest of the
> thread.
>

Jim85CJ <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hmm.... sombody must have done too much snipping because there is no
> thread in this post...

Should have made it to your webserver by now - I'm referring to my reply to
the original poster "Dave" - which, as far as I can tell, was the first
reply to make it to the newsgroup.

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.

Steven J Sobol <[email protected]> wrote:
> Jim85CJ <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hmm.... sombody must have done too much snipping because there is no
>> thread in this post...
>
> Should have made it to your webserver

duh. "news server", not "web server"

--
JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / [email protected]
PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED)
Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids.