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10 Rants this month

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1. Sprint is a piece of shit company. They will try to screw you every way they can. I was told what my final payment was and when I tried to pay it they said that I need to wait until Jan 21st. This way they can hit me with a late fee. Iam contacting the attorney general with this as well as writing a editorial in the Wall Street Journal. I believe that the Security Exchange Committer needs to look into them for fradulant charges and padding their revenues with these false charges.

   Comment by So Cal — January 4, 2008 @ 6:23 pm

2. Beware of a class-action worthy scam currently being conducted by the Sprint folks. I recently decided to upgrade to one of Sprint’s new LG rumor phones because of the additional $50 ‘Web Special’ discount if I bought it online and committed to a 2 year agreement. (Regular Price $279.99/Instant Savings -$180.00/Web Special -$50.00/Total $49.99).

   I elected to have the cost just added to my regular bill.

   My bill arrives, and there’s no ‘Web Special’ credit listed on my bill and I now owed them the extra $50.00. Called customer service and they tried to tell me that the special is just for new customers, not existing ones. Nowhere on the site is there anything remotely hinting at this exception. No asterix, no small text. I love how the ‘Returning Customer’ always gets punished – never gets the discounts, never gets the incentives.

   I fortunately had a copy of the online order details that listed the credit, and after another 45 minutes of discussion with the lady and her supervisor (20 of which were on hold), they caved and gave me the credit. The line about the ‘returning customer’ exception was just that – a line. It turns out the discount applies to everyone – they were just trying to cover-up the scam – covering their arses! Unbelievable.

   The one nice lady at customer service says it’s happening to a lot of people… that the ‘web special’ credit is “mysteriously” failing to show up on people’s bills. I typically don’t check my bill that closely, but this time I’m glad I did.

   Short of the story… check your statements. If you’ve bought a new phone with the lure of a ‘web special’ rebate and a sign-your-life-away- to-a-two-year-deal, you may be a victim of this misleading, bad business, lawsuit-worthy, Sprint Sucks Scam.

   Also, btw, their mobile online interface sucks. Try buying a new ’skin’ for your LG Rumor thru your phone’s sprint site. Try it, i dare you! It’s impossible. Literally. Then try previewing an ‘animated screensaver’ before you plunk down the 4 bucks. Again, impossible. Then try getting some new image icons for your contacts. It’s the ultimate exercise in futility. Good times.

   I’d like to track down the so-called-techs who work for sprint’s online design team and ask them if they’ve ever ACTUALLY USED THE PHONE to try to buy stuff. It’s easy money for THEM, ringtones and stuff, and they’re sucking.

   If Sprint just did their jobs, they wouldn’t have to resort to bilking people with scams to make their money. The money would come if they’d just clean up their act.

   Sprint Sucks!

   Comment by Anonymous — January 5, 2008 @ 9:48 am

3. Ever since Nextel took over the website and redesigned it, it has been a horrible mess. There are so many bugs in the code that nothing works right and information that gets entered deletes
   itself. While they were redoing the site, I could not access my
   account to find out what I owed on individual phones. Called CSR and the could not even tell me current total I owed because they could not access my account either. Eventually got them to remove the late fee I was charged because they could not take my money. New webite went up. Went back online and had to spend 45 min. re-registering my account with 6 digit pin and security question. Next day called CSR and after giving them my “secret” PIN outloud, payed my bill using credit card over the phone. They accessed my account no problem, thanked me for my payment. Next day my phones were disconnected for non payment. Called CSR, who told me my PIN was not valid so they could not access my account to find out if payment had been credited. TOLD ME I WOULD HAVE TO GO TO A SPRINT STORE TO “RESOLVE THE ISSUE”. Now, when Sprint and Nextel combined – the stores stopped being service centers and became stictly retail sale stores. I had even been told that no-one in the store could even access my account.(That Was A Lie).That particular sales rep just did not want to be bothered with me because there was no commission involved. As noted prevously on this site, the sales reps make huge commissions everytime they get that two year contract, which is why there are so many complaints about peoples contracts getting extended without their knowledge or approval or when they weren’t supposed to be. There are a lot of dis-honest sales reps working for sprint.(To be fair there are some really good ones just trying to do their job, I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t on here bragging about how much money they make).
   It seems that a lot of the CSRs, ussually the ones overseas who work for slave wages in sweatshop condtions are really jealous of the sales people, because it has become their stock anwser when they finally admit they don’t have the training to help you is that You Need To Go To A Sprint Store to Get Your Issue Resolved. And what does the Sales Rep. do when you tell them a CSR sent you? They dial *2, jump through the same hoops you have to, talk to someome in Quala-Lampoor who can’t understand them and repeat everything you have been saying for the last two (hours, days, months, years; take yor pick), put them on hold for twenty minutes while you are waitng in the store, connect them with someone-else who puts them on hold, comes back and tells the SR that they can’t give them the correct access code to reset the account because even though the SR is looking at me face to face the CSR cannot verify that it is me (I swear to god this is true, at this point the SR started laughing almost histerically instead of loosing his patience; regained his composure, and actually said “Well I am talking to you now on the customer’s cellphone that you just said was not activated, it is a camera phone I can send you their picture: You don’t have pcs access? I can fax the photo to you.”) at which point he wast transfered to someone else who put him on hold while they “resolved” the problem, Then the Sales Rep. finally hung up, told me that he thought maybe he might have finally got it straightened out, and that the CSR Supervisor he had talked to was resetting my online account and would be emailing me with info needed to reset my PIN, because no-one could do anything with my account until I could give someone a valid PIN. The only thing he was able to do was use my drivers license # to hack into my account info and tell me that there was no record of my payment but that my account was active and not suspended. The SR apologised for all of the incovinience and pure lunacy of what customer support had become. Told me to go online when I got home and reset my PIN, and tried to resolve the problem with the phone thata was sort of working but not because it was the only one of three that was temporarily suspended(for no apparent reason) by offering to give me a FREE PHONE! of course after prodding he admitted that the phone was only free by extending my contract for another two years.
   Of course later that night when I went online, there was no email, I could not log on to the sprint site to reset my PIN, I again called *2 and was told that CSR could not help me with my problem and I Would have To Go In Person To A Sprint Store. She told me Customer Service was not allowed to reset my PIN and security question only a sales rep could do that. When I tried explaining to her that I had been to the sprint store that evening and they could not reset anything online in the store because they could only look at my account and could not do anything until a CSR or Tech person reset my six digit PIN, she had the gall to tell me if I had actually been to a Sprint Store that evening they would have reset my info for me. I asked here if she was accusing me of lying to her and we then had a five minute disscussion of wether or not she had used the word liar. Apparently it was not an accussation if she did not use the specific word LIAR.
   For those of you CSRs who think we’re all trying yo get free stuff and whining about wanting out of our contracts just to screw sprint out of a couple hundred bucks, explain to me why I should not be reimbursed for the minimum six hours of my life I have spent just in the last two days dealing with this crap. I’ll even be more than generous and bill at 15 bucks an hour. It should be more like $100/hr since most of my time is spent as technical consultant teaching a lot of you guys basic computer skills and helping you learn English. For those few of you ( aand I really don’t think you realize how few there are) that actually are competent at your job and sincerely try to help people, this is only one of many experiences I’ve had with Sprint, the majority of them like this. For all of you (CSR’s) in Canada an Nova Scotia, you need to try and forgive us when we reach you already at the boiling point, This is what we’ve been thruogh by the time we luck on to you. You should be fighting for raise and fighting really hard to raise the standard of other call centers towards yous.
   TO ANYONE ABOUT TO REGISTER ONLINE WITH THE NEW SCREWED UP SYSTEM:
   1) Only Choose The First Security Question About What Your Elemntary School Is. It IsThe Only One That Is Valid And The Only One Any CSR or SR Can Ask You
   2) Use A Scrambled And Complicated PIN I Don’t Know Yet Wether Using More Than Six Digits Would Help Or Hurt. using a sequence like 123456 may seem like a good idea for the simple minded CSR’s, but sequential#’s seem to be adding to the problems as there are probably thousands of PINs by now that are 123456 234567 etc. There is not a warning that any # sequence has already been used

   Comment by Anonymous — January 7, 2008 @ 10:17 pm

4. I know this will not resolve anything but I figure venting may save my life as I will certainly have a heart attack if I talk to one more Sprint employee about this issue.

   Dec. 28 – Order two new phones for my kids. Salesman is friendly, offers free phones and a minimal monthly increase to my current contract. Heck, I even order unlimited texting because I know my kids will use it. Things are good.

   Dec. 31 – Phones arrive and kids are happy.

   Jan. 6 – My wife’s cell is turned off on a Sunday, and the number Sprint left on the text message is not open until Monday.

   Jan 7 – My wife calls and learns her phone was shut off for security reasons – but they couldn’t provide any applifying information. After 45 minutes her phone is operational

   Jan 7 (evening) – My phone is turned off. Too tired to deal with it I wait until Tuesday.

   Jan 8 – I call the number to learn my phone was turned off for an overdue balance. Turns out I was 6 days past due (my fault – busy with holidays), but according to the customer care rep, that would not usually result in them turning my phone off. I pay bill and get phone turned on.

   Jan 9 – My wife’s phone is turned off again. Two hours on the phone with Jeremy in the finance/billing department I learn that my Jan bill has exceeded $1,000 – apparently the unlimited text I ordered never made it to the billing department and I was charged more than $500 for text message. There was also an issue with the new phones Sprint provided not being on the same network, again not my fault. According to Jeremy I had a $760 credit coming to me, which still left me more than $200 in charges that I wasn’t responsible for. Because Jeremy wasn’t authorized to provide a credit in that amount, I was told a Sprint rep would call me back

   Jan 11 – No call back from Sprint, so I mix a large and strong Jim Beam and coke and prepare for battle. I speak first with Angela, a supervisor in the billing department. For nearly two hours Angela and I work through the bill, of which I now have a hard copy. At one point she got the bill down to about $490, but that wasn’t enough. Now, I do have a temper, but thanks to Jim I swear I was as calm and polite as I could be, but Angela and I were not in agreement that this was a Sprint problem. At one point I told her that I was being exceptionally nice considering the circumstances and expected her to treat me with respect. Her response was, “Sir, I have been doing this for 8 years and you do not need to tell me how to do my job.” I said, “I hope this call is being recorded because you are not very good at what you do.” She had the damn nerve to tell me that she must me good at what she does because “I WAS ABLE TO DO WHAT THREE OTHER PEOPLE COULDN’T DO AND SAVE YOU $500!” Do you belive that crap? After more review of the record, Angela discovered that the two new phones Sprint provided for my kids were not compatible with the two Nextel phones my wife and I have. Basically, they are on different networks and couldn’t be incorporated into my current plan. Wow, an eye opener – its Sprint’s problem! After more effort, Angela got my bill down to $300, but could do no more. The next stop was Brian in customer care. I forced Brian to listen to my tale and told what I wanted, which included getting my bill down to what it should be, providing two new phones for my kids, and a new one for me, which quit working when I accidentally dropped it into my Jim Beam and Coke. I informed Brian that if I didn’t get complete satisfaction I would write a check for $800 and cancel the contracts on all 4 phones. It would have been an expensive lesson, but one that could have saved my life. Brian was very nice and got the authorization to send me three new phones and got the bill down to what it should be.

   Jan 15 – New phones arrived. I call the 866 number to get them programmed and operating. My line is up and working; the two phones for the kids continue to read in-progress. One hour and multiple phone calls last night fail to fix the problem

   Today, Jan 16th – I sit down with coffee and call the 866 number, answer the security question to verify the account. When the agent can’t fix the problem with her step-by-step instructions I am refered to tech support. After answering the security questions and verifying my account, I am told there is a special tech support line for hybrid phones and once again transfered. After answering the security questions and verifying the account, I explain the issue. After a few minutes I am put on hold, and exactly 35 minutes after I began the call, I was disconnected. So, here I sit 9 days after this nightmare began with a weakened heart, 7 Sprint phones of which two are operational, waiting on the tech guy to realize he cut me off and call me back. I am confident that I will not get a call back and will be forced to repeat this process later today. I am going to wait until 5 p.m. so I can justify mixing a Jim Beam and Coke before I begin.

   Comment by Buddy — January 16, 2008 @ 5:33 am

5. Why or how an extended contract is tacked on without my permission I don’t know. I dropped my phone in the pool while on vacation. Bought and paid for another one (didn’t add it to my bill) and they extended my contract without my knowledge or agreement. Bastards.

   Comment by Anne — January 21, 2008 @ 9:20 am

6. Why offer rebates if we won’t ever recieve them? We bought 3 razrs and have not seen a dime a year and 8 phone calls later. We are done with Sprint/Nextel. We’re doing the healthy thing and moving to Verizon. Period.

   Comment by Anne — January 21, 2008 @ 9:23 am

7. Look at your Sprint bill under “Additional Usage Charges & Purchases”. Then call and ask a Sprint rep “what is this charge for”. They will say “I-duno” Then realize you have been getting plowed with this charge for a long time and their policy is to only make corrections for the past 2 months. Yea .. Sprint, you can hear your wallet drop ???

   Comment by enlarged anual orifice — January 21, 2008 @ 9:49 am

8. Well, my rant is similar to many others in that the customer service reps. were nothing less than dishonest and disrespectful. My story begins with a cell phone needing a replacement because my infant son did a number on it. Not wanting to spend a ton on a phone with bells and whistles I purchased a refurbished Samsung. The problems began when my first bill came after I purchased this new phone. On my original contract I did not have, nor did I want, internet access and, for some reason, I began to be billed an extra $75 for “casual internet usage.” This was NEVER included in my contract but suddenly it began appearing on my bill. For the last four months I have had to call to rectify the bill and have asked repeatedly to block internet access in case, as they implied, I “accidentally” accessed the web. Finally this month (January ‘08) I had had enough of this BS. I called again to block internet access and asked to be credited the $75 for something I have not been using. On a Tuesday I called and the CSR said that the last CSR I talked to the previous month did not block the internet feature. This CSR said that she would cancel internet (once again) and would credit my account the $75. (By the way, I was also paying taxes on a service I was not receiving. Do not even try to get your paid taxes back!) I called to make my payment by phone on the following Friday but, lo and behold, NO CREDIT. I called yet again to speak with a CSR and besides being extremely rude, she told me that this account could no longer be credited. I then asked to speak with a manager to find a solution and, while being transferred, Sprint hung up on me. I called back again to speak with a manager but the CSR said she had to deal with me first. Fed up with this crap I asked to speak with someone to cancel my account because I believed that they had breached the original contract I signed which never included internet access. This next CSR was also extremely rude. She would not listen and was yelling at me and said that I did not know how to use the features of my phone and that is why the internet was being used. I tried to explain that I never used the internet feature and that I have asked repeatedly for it to be blocked. She finally admitted that it was not blocked until December 15 (sure!) and the she would credit my account but would not terminate my account without a $200 deactivation fee (BS! They did not honor my contract.) She also admitted that as a matter of policy they leave the internet and text messaging features available even if it is not in your contract so that the “customer has the flexibility” of using their phone as they see fit. Obviously, this is a deceiving way of conducting business. I was credited this month and I still do not know if the internet feature is blocked, but I do know that I was insulted by the implication that I do not know how to use a cell phone. Give me friggin’ break, these people are a**holes!

   Comment by Anonymous — January 26, 2008 @ 2:45 pm

9. Sprint is 90% billing Dept. and 10% Service. This is the sleasiest
   company I have ever encountered with ZERO customer service.

   I had 2 sprint phone contracts. I decided to get a 3rd
   to use for my blackberry with another telephone number.
   I had never activated the phone, had payed about 6 months
   on the “contract” which actually involved no service. Even though
   i was already paying them for 2 phones, had never used the 3rd,
   they insisted on finishing the “contract” or pay the $200. even
   though the actual service was never activated. It got down to
   3 months left on the contract and hours on the phone with
   ostrucrtionist “customer service” parrots, who blocked every attempt
   at a solution. Soooo, I cancelled phone number 1, tried to negotiate
   with them…to no avail. I then cancelled phone number 2, still no
   good faith attempt on sprints part to resolve their aggressive billing.
   So rather than deal with this low life, worse than a drug dealer company,
   I gave them the $200. and waited for my small overpayment to be mailed. I had just cancelled 3 phones with these geniuses. they offered me $100. to keep the phone until the end of the contract. I truly just wanted these corporate slimes out of my life, so would not have continued any business dealing with them for an offer of thousands of dollars. Turns out they kept the overpayment and actually
   told me on the phone that “a decision was reached” that the return of the overpayment would not be made. this is the most rutheless company that is all about “capturing capital” and could care less about
   being a wireless phone company. I would advise anyone to avoid them like the plague.

   Comment by Donaldo — January 29, 2008 @ 1:26 pm

10. I am a long time customer of sprint. And I pay on time every month. I have had some terrible experiences with them in the past, and the only reason I stuck with them was because my monthly charges were so low, I could not switch carriers without spending lots more money.

    The wife needed a new phone badly. So I started phone shopping for a Christmas present. I researched all the carriers over a 5 week period, and concluded that against my better judgment, I would keep sprint, and get back into a 2 year agreement. I wound up getting PDA phones for both of us, with the belief that I was extending my existing contract and adding a fee for data use. (I was told this was $15.00) This was after 4 trips to the sprint store to get prices.

    Well, it turns out that there was a data charge for both phones. ($30.00 each.) Big surprise to me, NO ONE said anything about each phone being charged. (Remember, 4 trips to the sprint store…) Plus, even though I had unlimited texting on my previous plan, I was told that no longer applied and I had to pay additional fees for texting.

    This drove the monthly price WAY above the other carriers plans. So, the day after I got the phones, I called sprint to complain, and wound up talking to the cancellation dept. to end my relationship with them. The rep negotiated a deal with me that I just could not refuse. it involved returning one of the phones, and reactivating an old phone.

    I was sent a return kit for the phone, and returned it promptly. I placed 3 calls to customer service, to make sure that my account would not be overcharged for the returned phone. (My account is set up to autodraft from my bank.) I was assured that they would prevent that from happening. Via the website, I was able to verify they received the phone, and corrected the amount due on my account.

    Well guess what. They withdrew almost $400.00 more than what I actually owed. So I called to find out how to fix this. The representative I spoke with told me it would take 3 to 4 days, and the money would be credited back to my account. So I waited a week before I called back. This time I was told no refund had been requested, or processed. Plus, it would be 2 to 4 weeks before I would receive a refund check. (I’m not holding my breath.) When I asked to speak to a supervisor, my request was denied.

    Everyone I know HATES sprint. I used to know a guy who worked for sprint at a cooperate level, and I asked him why they treated their customers so bad. he told me it was because “they have you locked in, and they don’t have to treat you nice.”

    I read the other day that sprint’s market share is way down, and this is resulting in a big layoff. Also that they are “fixing their customer service problems.” Sprint should treat their existing customers the same as they do the potential customers!

    The ONLY improvement I am seeing is that now, they answer the phone. All my problems before included hours on hold. That has not been an issue this time. But I still hate sprint, and I doubt that I will ever commit to another contract with them, even if it costs me money.

    Comment by Anonymous — January 30, 2008 @ 3:52 pm

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