screwed out of $50...worth fighting over?

About 15 months ago, we went to a Sprint store to replace a dying phone
that was on our family plan. After spending about 50 minutes trying to
put the new phone on our account, the store said it could not be done on
our current plan, and the only option, they claimed, was to switch to
one of the current family plans. Hence, we did so. Note that we were
not replacing the other phone on the plan, which was over 2 years old at
the time.

(I asked about this on this group when it happened, and the general
opinion was that the Sprint store people were idiots. The reason they
were having trouble is that the new phone supported some features that
were not available on our old plan. But they could have put the phone
on the old plan, without those features, if they had not been
incompetent).

The new plan was not nearly as good as our old plan (the old one had
unlimited text messaging, and unlimited Vision, for both phones).
Making the new plan match our old plan's features would have raised our
costs by about $20/month over the old plan. We decided that wasn't
worth it, and just went with the basic version of the new plan, which
was about $10/month cheaper than our old plan.

OK, flash forward to the present. I was given an iPhone as a gift, and
have moved my number to that. Sprint has, predictably, hit me with
their $200 early termination fee. They say that changing the plan reset
things, even though I have not changed phones in over three years.

It seems rather unfair to me that I should have to pay that, even though
it was their store that (incorrectly) told me my only choices were to
change plans or not replace the dying second phone. By my calculation,
I should reasonably owe them $150, not $200. (I did save $10/month for
15 months on the new plan, so if their store had known what it was
doing, I'd have spent $150 more than I did over the last 15 months, so
it seems to me that I do owe them that--basically I want to be where I
would have been had the store been able to do a simple phone exchange).

OK, I can live with losing $50, but as a matter of principle, I don't
like the idea of being out $50 because Sprint can't bother to ensure
that their local store has competent employees. Is there any good way
to try to get them to knock $50 off the termination fee? Their phone
reps have not been helpful. They are sympathetic, they say, but that's
all.

The other person on my family plan is impressed with the iPhone and
will probably leave Sprint now. We have no qualms about paying the $200
termination fee if he does. His phone is 15 months old, and would be
under contract even if the store had been competent and had executed the
simple phone swap we had wanted.

I certainly hope you are correct Paul.

Although I recently renewed my contract (2 years) and I am mostly satisfied
with the phones and plan, Sprint forgot to mention one small detail. That
the price given to me for an option was only for one year, not two.

So my advice for anyone dealing with Sprint-Get it in writing!!

"Paul Miner" <pminer@elrancho.invalid> wrote in message
news:hp8nk3p09a7icbuf23t2uoe3jj9thd63f2@4ax.com...
On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:22:19 -0000, Tim Smith
<reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> wrote:

>About 15 months ago, we went to a Sprint store to replace a dying phone
>that was on our family plan. After spending about 50 minutes trying to
>put the new phone on our account, the store said it could not be done on
>our current plan, and the only option, they claimed, was to switch to
>one of the current family plans. Hence, we did so. Note that we were
>not replacing the other phone on the plan, which was over 2 years old at
>the time.
>
>(I asked about this on this group when it happened, and the general
>opinion was that the Sprint store people were idiots. The reason they
>were having trouble is that the new phone supported some features that
>were not available on our old plan. But they could have put the phone
>on the old plan, without those features, if they had not been
>incompetent).
>
>The new plan was not nearly as good as our old plan (the old one had
>unlimited text messaging, and unlimited Vision, for both phones).
>Making the new plan match our old plan's features would have raised our
>costs by about $20/month over the old plan. We decided that wasn't
>worth it, and just went with the basic version of the new plan, which
>was about $10/month cheaper than our old plan.
>
>OK, flash forward to the present. I was given an iPhone as a gift, and
>have moved my number to that. Sprint has, predictably, hit me with
>their $200 early termination fee. They say that changing the plan reset
>things, even though I have not changed phones in over three years.
>
>It seems rather unfair to me that I should have to pay that, even though
>it was their store that (incorrectly) told me my only choices were to
>change plans or not replace the dying second phone. By my calculation,
>I should reasonably owe them $150, not $200. (I did save $10/month for
>15 months on the new plan, so if their store had known what it was
>doing, I'd have spent $150 more than I did over the last 15 months, so
>it seems to me that I do owe them that--basically I want to be where I
>would have been had the store been able to do a simple phone exchange).
>
>OK, I can live with losing $50, but as a matter of principle, I don't
>like the idea of being out $50 because Sprint can't bother to ensure
>that their local store has competent employees. Is there any good way
>to try to get them to knock $50 off the termination fee? Their phone
>reps have not been helpful. They are sympathetic, they say, but that's
>all.
>
>The other person on my family plan is impressed with the iPhone and
>will probably leave Sprint now. We have no qualms about paying the $200
>termination fee if he does. His phone is 15 months old, and would be
>under contract even if the store had been competent and had executed the
>simple phone swap we had wanted.

I know you aren't seeing any outward signs of this, but Sprint
recently kicked off two internal initiatives, one dealing with
simplifying the business for its customers, and the other dealing with
improving the customer experience. The latter point specifically deals
with existing customers, not potential customers, so it would apply to
you.

Two of the key talking points were that the number of involuntary
contract extensions would be greatly reduced, and that ETF charges
would be pro-rated based on the remaining length of the contract. I
don't know much more about the initiatives than that, but it sure
seems like you aren't benefiting from either of them.

--
Paul Miner