SprintPCS cuts off service

Agreed. Maybe Paul is a Sprint shill?

"Joseph Huber" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:20:12 GMT, Paul Miner wrote:
>>On 14 Jul 2005 05:47:11 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>>>Quote
>>>I'm also seeing a healthy dose of bad customer behavior. As a parent
>>>to the individual in question, you might want to take this opportunity
>>>to impress upon your son the importance of good credit and the
>>>importance of actually reading and making sure you/he understand the
>>>details of your plan, especially the billing section. If the account
>>>has an Account Spending Limit, it wouldn't have been a secret to both
>>>of you.
>>>Paul Miner
>>>Unquote
>>>You are off track with these comment.
> [...]
>>Looks like I was right on, to me.
>
> Except possibly for the fact that in your posts you seemed to have
> been defending Sprint for cutting off this individual's phone without
> first contacting him, when it appears (in the part of
> [email protected]'s post that you conveniently snipped) that Sprint
> violated their own policy by not contacting him first. I wouldn't
> consider defending Sprint for violating their own policy to be "right
> on". Nice spin job though...
>
> And also, your little lecture on parenting was condescending and
> completely uncalled for as well.
>
> Joe Huber
> [email protected]

---

› See More: SprintPCS cuts off service

On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:29:07 -0700, "Mij Adyaw" wrote:

>Agreed. Maybe Paul is a Sprint shill?

Well, I don't know, but your assertion is likely to start some lively
discussion... Do you have a flame-retardant newsreader?

Joe Huber
[email protected]

Joseph Huber wrote:

> Except possibly for the fact that in your posts you seemed to have
> been defending Sprint for cutting off this individual's phone without
> first contacting him, when it appears (in the part of
> [email protected]'s post that you conveniently snipped) that Sprint
> violated their own policy by not contacting him first. I wouldn't
> consider defending Sprint for violating their own policy to be "right
> on". Nice spin job though...

Not contacting how?

A couple times during my tenure as a Sprint customer, I was late paying a
bill and got shut off as a result. I didn't have any contact from a human
but did receive a text message to my phone each time saying "we shut you off
- please call us."

Hey Ian, is it possible that Sprint sent a text message to the phone in
question? (just wondering)

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

There should be a warning message providing several days for the customer to
contact Sprint before the phone is turned-off.I like Sprint service very
much and am considered incorrectly to be a Sprint Shill by some of the guys
at work, however, if I received this type of treatment from any cell phone
service provider, I would cancel my contract, eat the ETF, and switch
providers. I can really sympathize with the original poster of this thread.

-mij

"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Joseph Huber wrote:
>
>> Except possibly for the fact that in your posts you seemed to have
>> been defending Sprint for cutting off this individual's phone without
>> first contacting him, when it appears (in the part of
>> [email protected]'s post that you conveniently snipped) that Sprint
>> violated their own policy by not contacting him first. I wouldn't
>> consider defending Sprint for violating their own policy to be "right
>> on". Nice spin job though...
>
> Not contacting how?
>
> A couple times during my tenure as a Sprint customer, I was late paying a
> bill and got shut off as a result. I didn't have any contact from a human
> but did receive a text message to my phone each time saying "we shut you
> off - please call us."
>
> Hey Ian, is it possible that Sprint sent a text message to the phone in
> question? (just wondering)
>
> --
> JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
> Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
> temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)
>
> "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Mij Adyaw wrote:
> There should be a warning message providing several days for the customer to
> contact Sprint before the phone is turned-off.

I disagree. In my case, I knew I was late. It's incumbent on the customer to
know when his due date is; in my case, mine's usually on the 24th or the
25th. Once you're late, technically, they could cut you off even if it's the
day after the due date, and be within their legal rights.

(I speak as someone who people pay to provide monthly services. Things work
the same way with me, although the customer would have to have a pretty bad
payment history with me for me to turn him off the day he goes past due;
usually, I do give people a grace period.)

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

I was referring to an "overage" and not a late bill. If the person have gone
over a spending limit and he has a history of paying his bill on-time,
Sprint should extend the courtesy of notifying the customer. If he does not
reply within several days, then they can shut-off his service.


"Steve Sobol" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Mij Adyaw wrote:
>> There should be a warning message providing several days for the customer
>> to contact Sprint before the phone is turned-off.
>
> I disagree. In my case, I knew I was late. It's incumbent on the customer
> to know when his due date is; in my case, mine's usually on the 24th or
> the 25th. Once you're late, technically, they could cut you off even if
> it's the day after the due date, and be within their legal rights.
>
> (I speak as someone who people pay to provide monthly services. Things
> work the same way with me, although the customer would have to have a
> pretty bad payment history with me for me to turn him off the day he goes
> past due; usually, I do give people a grace period.)
>
> --
> JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [email protected] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
> Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
> temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)
>
> "Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Guys I was wondering the same thing. And I have to admit I edited
(toned down) my first shot at a reply. No point getting excited talking
about phones.
Well the phone is back "on" and a deal is being worked on that sounds
pretty decent. Let's say that he is being offered a new 2 year contract
w usual $150.oo credit towards a new phone a reduction in the
overcharge minutes (that was unexpected and nice) and a good amt of
mins AT going fwd. So sounds like SprintPCS realises they had somewhat
used a hammer to try to kill a fly. Will probably get worked out
shortly and be good for the customer and Sprint.

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 09:17:38 -0700, Mij Adyaw wrote:

> I was referring to an "overage" and not a late bill. If the person have gone
> over a spending limit and he has a history of paying his bill on-time,
> Sprint should extend the courtesy of notifying the customer. If he does not
> reply within several days, then they can shut-off his service.
>
>

The overage cut off system is designed as a protection method for both
sprintpcs and their clients. When you go over this limit at the amount
this person did then sprintpcs goes by the higher probably that it was
fraud or a mistake and do what they can to immediately prevent further
overage. If you try to make a call it goes right to a sprintpcs billing
rep who explains the problem to you. Once you reach this "limit" it is not
a soft limit and they don't want to give you a few days to charge up more
on your sprintpcs account esp if it was not you, the account holder, (say
friend/family/etc..) doing it. Also while they are trying to contact you
about the problem you can still further put yourself in the hole, esp if
you are doing it willingly not as the account holder.

Now you might say that sprintpcs should set a soft limit that gives them a
buffer before you reach the hard limit where they cut you off. Well that
soft limit would be the point you start hitting overage on your account.
Sprintpcs gives you a few ways to check your minute usage not to mention
the total cost you have accumulated so far. It is your responsibility to
make sure you stay under your limit and like others have posted sprintpcs
explains the credit/security deposit limit at sign-up. I know I don't want
sprintpcs notifying me every time I go over my minute plan along with
warning me I might hit the credit limit I already knew of. This would be
annoying since I usually know that I went over my plan minutes but for
people who want to be nagged sprintpcs does offer the ablity to send you
billing notifications via text messages for around 2dollars.

Being a good customer or not has nothing to do with this hard limit
because it is meant as a limit you will never cross. If you can't be
responsible enough to make sure you never violate the agreement you
made with sprintpcs maybe you shouldn't utilize their service. They have
no reason nor should they justify the cost to make sure they can hold
people's hands as they slowly approach the limit esp since they already
offer a notification service. Their customer service has issues already
going after people who can't/won't pay their bill now add in people who
already pay their bill but go over x amount every month you will just be
wasting resources that have no merit. After all the account holder in
question that started this thread will pay the account off and since he
knew he went over all he had to do was call *2 and authorize a payment,or
do an on-line onetime web payment, or maybe even stop by the store and use
one of the machines sprintpcs provides. If you don't agree with this then
don't sign the contracts sprintpcs provides.

Long story short this person knew he went over, sprintpcs gladly let him
up to a point they felt he could pay all he had to do was utilize features
sprintpcs already provides but refused to bother with them and sprintpcs
cut him off in accordance to their mutual agreement. Lesson learned is
that you should pay attention when you sign/approve an agreement with a
company you wish to have a stable relationship/service with.

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005 23:44:29 -0400, Central wrote:
[sermonette snipped]
>Long story short this person knew he went over, sprintpcs gladly let him
>up to a point they felt he could pay all he had to do was utilize features
>sprintpcs already provides but refused to bother with them and sprintpcs
>cut him off in accordance to their mutual agreement. Lesson learned is
>that you should pay attention when you sign/approve an agreement with a
>company you wish to have a stable relationship/service with.

Well, not exactly...but another nice spin job nonetheless (right up
there with Paul Miner's). As was posted earlier by this user's
parent, Sprint suggested to the user that this account was
inappropriately cut off, and offered the customer some extra minutes
and other concessions to keep him as a customer. Now there's a lesson
for you...

Joe Huber
[email protected]

On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 00:19:32 -0500, Joseph Huber wrote:

>
> Well, not exactly...but another nice spin job nonetheless (right up
> there with Paul Miner's). As was posted earlier by this user's parent,
> Sprint suggested to the user that this account was inappropriately cut
> off, and offered the customer some extra minutes and other concessions
> to keep him as a customer. Now there's a lesson for you...
>
> Joe Huber
> [email protected]

You mean where sprintpcs tried to do what they can to keep one more
customer by offering him a better plan that would not keep having him
paying overage fees? Right I guess being responsible for your own
obligations is now a spin job these days. As far as what you call
concessions they are having him sign a new 2yr agreement which means it
was just a standard plan upgrade. This is something they would do for him
wither or not they believe they were at fault.

I personally don't care how people wish to view who is at fault in this
case but I don't think it is fair to blame sprintpcs because someone can't
bother to keep track of their overage/credit limit. The responsibility of
fulfilling your obligation to sprintpcs should rest on you. Sprintpcs
shouldn't have to hunt you down to fulfill it.

On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 05:43:32 GMT, Paul Miner wrote
>Joe, talk about a spin job... *sigh*
>Rather than giving Sprint credit for trying to make a bad situation
>better, you'd rather spin it to mean that Sprint somehow admitted it
>had done wrong.

....and...

On 14 Jul 2005 05:47:11 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>SprintPCS has now apologized to him as they say that policy is to
>contact the individual b4 turning off the phone.

Well, for Heaven's sake, Sprint did admit that they did something
wrong!!! They cut off this guy's service off without first calling
him, which apparently violates their policy. Paul, do you and Central
actually read these posts before you reply to them???

On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 05:43:32 GMT, Paul Miner wrote
>I have no idea how you got there from here

I was responding to what was posted in plain English. Unless, of
course, you and Central are insinuating that [email protected] is a
liar. If that's the case, come out and say it, and provide some
evidence to back up your claim.

>The bottom line is that every customer should accept the personal
>responsibility expected and required by a person who willingly enters
>into a business relationship such as this.

I can't disagree with that.

>Know your contract and abide by it, and these kinds of things won't happen.

These kinds of things will and do happen because Sprint's employees
are not well trained and don't know Sprint's own policies, which
evidently happened here.

Eagerly waiting to see how you guys will spin this one...

Joe Huber
[email protected]

Paul Miner wrote:
> On 12 Jul 2005 21:36:25 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>
>
>>Let's bear in mind here that while the gross billing by SprintPCS is
>>$200 the actual cost toPCS is much much lower. So it's not like they
>>are going to loose $200 when their actual cost is a smaller amount.
>>It's their profit which inflates the billing.
>
>
> That's a horrible way of trying to justify bad customer behavior. It's
> none of your business how much profit Sprint does or doesn't make on
> your son's $200 bill. If he owes $200 then he owes $200, not some
> lower amount that you think represents the amount minus the profit.


Not only that, but this is something the OP and his son AGREED to. He
freely admits that his son regularly hits overages, and could have
easily switched to an F&F plan with just a phone call to limit his
exposure to high fees. But for whatever reason, they insist on
voluntarily paying Sprint this supposed egregious amount of profit
instead of switching to a plan that would be inevitably cheaper.

At that point, it should no longer be considered profit. Instead, it's
a voluntary tax on stupidity and pigheadedness for which the OP has
really no right to complain.



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Mij Adyaw wrote:
> The problem is that $200 is chump-change.


Heh, it may be for you and I Mij, but the vast majority of people with
ASLs are on ASls because their credit level has spoken to the contrary.
For some people, $200 IS a lot of money, especially if they've
demonstrated through poor credit that they can't pay it in a timely manner.


> If a person gets a credit card, I
> believe that lowest spending limit is $1000.

My sister's in collegee. Her first credit card had a $200 spending
limit on it.

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[email protected] wrote:
> Yes I acknowledge some of what you and others have said...but.....
> Why cut off service w/o notice? What an insult.

I guess it depends on point of view. Cutting off the service is the
quickest way to elicit a response, as often times a friendly call from
CS will often get ignored by people who go over their ASLs.

> Especially when authority to debit a bank account has been given.

The authority to debit the bank account has been given fro MONTHYL
charges, not whenever the hell Sprint feels like it. In fact, I would
bet that if they HAD just ddebited his bank account and he then bounced
a check or something as a result, you'd be in ehre complaining about
that instead.

> With
> all bills paid on time over 2 1/2 years would it not be better
> corporate policy to call the customer for a chat b4 cutting off
> serivice w/o notice? Especially when the amount owed to SprintPCS is
> actually an agregious over charge, per the new plans just installed
> days ago by SprintPCS which probably would have reduced the billing by
> maybe $100?

If it's an egregious overcharge, then why hasn't he switched plans?
Until he switches, it's an overcharge that he has AGREED to pay, and
that right there makes it quite fair.

> Did SprintPCS actually update their credit rating on my son over the
> last 2 1/2 years? I would probably assume they didn't despite the
> history of good payments etc.

You can be sure they didn't, if they didn't remove the ASL. Perhaps
there's another credit-related reason for this. You'd have to ask Sprint.

> Sounds to me that SprintPCS is very inflexible, to their own
> disadvantage. And why cannot the service be resumed quickly when
> SprintPCS is contacted by the customer who offers to make any
> reasonable payment immediately?
>
> Nope sorry. This is decidely bad account management period.

Y'know, porting is active now. But until you guys either change your
plans or change carriers, then nothing will happen. You've agreed to
these terms even though you're out of contract and can easily switch to
more reasonable terms that you've already indicated you're aware of.


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[email protected] wrote:
> Quote
> I'm also seeing a healthy dose of bad customer behavior. As a parent
> to the individual in question, you might want to take this opportunity
> to impress upon your son the importance of good credit and the
> importance of actually reading and making sure you/he understand the
> details of your plan, especially the billing section. If the account
> has an Account Spending Limit, it wouldn't have been a secret to both
> of you.
>
> --
> Paul Miner
> Unquote
>
> You are off track with these comment.

No, he's quite on track. And please, learn how to quote.

> The individual concerned has an excellent job, excellent pay has taken
> and nearly completely repaid a whole car loan and overall has a really
> excellent credit rating.

*golf clap* Good for him! And yet, he doesn't practice good consumer
sense by switching his account to a plan that would save him hundreds of
dollars, even though he's fully aware of his options, leaving you to
come here and moan and cry about "egregious" overcharges he could've
easily avoided.

> His overage on his plan is caused 100% by
> travel on business (which is reimbursed to him).

So in other words, he's also expensing this egregious amount to his
employer, costing THEM more money then they really need to spending
because he could've switched to F&F and saved THEM hundreds of dollars
every month. Not a very good employee in my book.


> SprintPCS has now apologized to him as they say that policy is to
> contact the individual b4 turning off the phone. Now the phone is back
> on though minutes will be charged for the last 3-4 days of his current
> month at 40 Cents per minute. He is not reupping for a new plan
> immediately as he is considering Cingular.

Good luck to him then. I hope whatever he decides, he exercises better
judgement, as so far it's been pretty poor.

> FI I appear to have no account spending limit, as none shows on any
> screen. And when actively travelling it's not easy to keep checking the
> amount of the latest bill accruing, esecially if away from a PC for a
> few days.

*4 ?



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