I'm really at the end of my rope here. I'm having a horrible, horrible day. Please help me think of what I may have missed. I'm writing all the details down because I have them fresh in my head and I need to record them.

Sprint PCS misrepresented their service to me. I signed up for a service that was represented to me as having customer service that one would not have to pay an extra fee to utilize. I spoke with customer service representatives a couple of times over the first week of my service, because there was a problem with the number they assigned me. I was not charged for either of those calls.

A couple of weeks later, I tried to pay for my first month of service using the website. The website payment system would not allow the payment to go through, due to an error. I checked the FAQ, took the appropriate steps to try to resolve the problem myself, and finally used their online contact form when nothing helped. I received no answer in 4 days, which I deemed to be an appropraite length of time to wait.

I called to follow-up to my email. I told the automated attendant that I wanted to speak with a representative. A recording was played informing me that a $3.00 charge would automatically be applied to by bill if I wanted to speak with a representative. I opted not to continue.

I went back to the contact form and sent a follow-up, adding to my complaint that I had signed up for my service with the belief that customer service was included in the deal. I received no reply to either of these emails.

A week later, I sent a letter to the PO box listed on the website.

The next day I made my payment via one of the other methods. I was concerned that my service would be disconnected and I would still be held liable for late fees and reconnect fees, and God knows what else.

About a week after that, a message was left on my voicemail stating, "This is Bobbie calling from Sprint PCS. Please call our customer care line." She did not leave a phone number, a last name, or any assurance that I would not be charged the $3 fee.

I spent a few days mulling this over. I finally decided today to call the customer care line. Over my lunch hour, I called the customer care line and spoke with a representative. He agreed to waive the fee for the call because it was a web site error, but could not assure me that the error would be corrected, and could not do anything to my satisfaction about compensation for the misrepresentation of service. I asked to speak with a supervisor, and was put on hold for over 10 minutes. I had to get back to work, so I disconnected the call.

After work, I called again and spoke with a representative. I explained the situation to him, and he told me that he would waive the fee for this call, and he would get a supervisor for me. This time I only had to wait 2 minutes, but the hold time before the representative picked up was something like 6 or 7 minutes.

The supervisor's name was Nelson. At this point I started writing down names. I asked for Nelson's last name, which he refused to give. I explained the situation to Nelson, who repeatedly interrupted me to rudely state "the fee is non-negotiable". I asked him to refrain from interrupting me again, and he said, "Well, the fee is non-negotiable". I asked to speak with his supervisor, and he said that I would not be speaking with his supervisor because the fee is non-negotiable. I asked him if he was refusing to allow me to speak with his supervisor, and he again said, "You will not be speaking with my supervisor." I asked what his supervisor's name is, and he said that her name is Becky. He again refused to give a last name. I informed him that he was the rudest customer service representative I'd ever spoken with, and he thanked me and hung up.

I sat dumbfounded for a few minutes, feeling utterly helpless. I began to cry, and felt ridiculous for crying. I decided then that I no longer want this service.

I called customer care again and spoke with someone whose name I forgot to get because I was trying very hard to get my composure. I explained the situation to him and informed him that I felt abused by his company, and I wanted out. I told him that the 1 year service contract that I signed up for did not include an agreement to be abused by the staff, and have to pay for the privilege. I asked to speak with a supervisor, and I was put on hold again. I was not transferred to a supervisor, but instead to the cancellation department.

I spoke with Robert in the cancellation department. I explained the situation to him, and by this time I was crying again. He told me that the $150 penalty for cancellation was non-negotiable. I explained again the reasons for my cancellation. I told him that his company is holding me hostage. He told me that he could hear the frustration in my voice, and then said that he could go ahead and process the cancellation if I'd verify my address. I verified my address and asked if I would be charged the fee. He said very plainly, "yes." I told him NOT to process the cancellation, and demanded to speak with his supervisor.

I was put on hold for 10 minutes and passed on to Christopher. Christopher was very rude to me as well. (It seems that the requirement for promotion is a level of rudeness that surpasses that of any other representative on your level.) Christopher stated repeatedly that the cancellation could not be processed without the fee, and the fee is non-negotiable. I explained the entire course of events to him yet again, and he continued to state that it was non-negotiable. I told him that there is no such thing as non-negotiable, and that there was someone in his company that would be able to resolve this to my satisfaction if he would transfer me to his supervisor, or give me a name of a person to call at a level above him. He said "Godd luck trying to find that person." He was very smug and rude. I told him that I wanted the fee waived for the call since he had been unable to help me, and he refused. He said that it is not that he didn't help me, but that he gave me the answer that I did not want to hear. I asked for his last name, which he also refused to give, stating that last names are not given "for security reasons". I asked for his employee ID number (something which Nelson had given me earlier), and he refused, stating that he is the only Christopher who works as a Support Services Team Leader.

So that's the last of my communication with the company so far. Here's what I see as my next steps:

1. Look up the officers of the company through the better business bureau (there is no information worth anything on the Sprint websites) and flood all of them with a letter.

2. Report the company to the better business bureau and request mediation for resolution.

3. Litigate (I really don't want to do this. It's time consuming, expensive, and I'm sure Sprint has a team of lawyers to protect them and allow them to continue their shady practices.)

4. Register a domain and tell my story, and invite others to tell theirs. Register the site on every search engine with keywords that one might use to find cell phone service. Write letters to editorial pages of newspapers and magazines. Make it my crusade to inform everyone of the unconscionable practices of the company.

*sigh* I'm out of ideas. I'm asking for serious suggestions. Suggesting that I send Tobor after them and things like that are cute and all, but I don't have it in me to laugh right now. This is a sincere plea.

This is the shittiest birthday gift I've ever gotten, and I begged for it. I'm so angry and frustrated that I feel sick.

Would they be charging this to a credit card?

If so, maybe you could cancel the service and then dispute the charge, saying that you did not authorize it. Then the credit card company removes the charge from your bill and goes to bat for you. It's worked for me, anyway.

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Would they be charging this to a credit card?

If so, maybe you could cancel the service and then dispute the charge, saying that you did not authorize it. Then the credit card company removes the charge from your bill and goes to bat for you. It's worked for me, anyway.

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If the fine print of your agreement mentions the fee for customer service, I'm afraid you are probably out of luck legal-wise. If the salesperson or ad that attracted you to Sprint PCS was misleading, however, you may have a case. Still, there isn't enough money at stake here to be worth hiring a lawyer. You can't afford a lawyer good enough to beat Sprint, unless perhaps there was a class-action lawsuit you could join into.

Your best hope is that there is one of those cheerleadery-type managers in Sprint's customer satisfaction department who will be aghast to see a Sprint customer get treated rudely. If you got the attention of someone like that who holds some power, they'd probably comp you a few months of service or something like that. The trick, of course, is getting hold of someone at Sprint who gives a damn. You will likely go through more clueless call agents and asshole line managers before you will reach someone who has a clue about what bad customer service can do to the company.

Advertising online your bad experience with Sprint is a dicey proposition. If you do so, you must be sure that anything you say in a derogatory way about Sprint can be proved. I speak from experience on this one. My wife and I had a very bad experience involving Volkswagen and a local car dealer. My wife posted an account of the horrendous customer service we were given on a Volkswagen Bug club's online forums. Soon thereafter, we received a threatening call from the dealer threatening to sue us based on what my wife posted. Then, the dealership banned us from even using their service department, even to get warranty service. Repeated calls, letters, and emails to Volkswagen accomplished nothing.

By the way, my wife just called Sprint PCS "Customer Care" at 888-788-4727 and did not get the message about the $3 per minute thing. Is that the number you tried?

Eat a rat. You know you want to.

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By the way, my wife just called Sprint PCS "Customer Care" at 888-788-4727 and did not get the message about the $3 per minute thing. Is that the number you tried?

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Eat a rat. You know you want to.

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First you have ta SCREAM. Then you gots to
cry . Then you gotta cuss them out. Then just to be a BUTT, Hang up on them!!!

If I may add my own lovely Sprint story.

About a year ago, sometime in January, I began mulling over the idea of a cell phone. After checking promotions with various companies, I'd pretty much made up my mind to go with Sprint. My wife and I were both going to get phones and we wanted to be able to use the same pool of minutes, and it seemed as though Sprint was the only company that would do that.

They had a deal going in which you could get a $100 rebate for buying two phones as well as a $100 service credit for getting a certain service plan (one over $40 a month, or something like that). The deal sounded great and I'd finally resigned myself to exactly what I was going to get. Then I waltzed in and lo and behold, all the offers had ended the day prior. Everything had changed. All their plans were different. It was a mess. Thinking that the friendly customer service people might be able to help, I asked if I might still get the deal a day late. They all but laughed in my face.

So I scrapped the whole cell phone idea.

But it kept itching at me. I went back and forth on the whole idea and then finally wussed out and gave in and got a deal that was a whole lot less cool than the one I'd hoped for. But I had my phones. I ordered them on a Thursday and they were at my house the next afternoon.

Lo and behold on Sunday a whole new host of Valentine's Day deals cropped up. Exactly the same shit as before. A $100 service credit and a $100 rebate for all the shit I'd just bought. And I knew I had the fuckers. They have a 14 day return policy which allows you to ship everything back and cancel, provided you do it within the time period.

So I call up their customer service. (I don't know if this $3 thing is new, but I never got charged. Granted I haven't called them in months.)

I explain to the rep that I missed the rebates and credits by 2 days. I expect to get them, and if they don't, then I'll simply return the damn phones and purchase them again. Which would be really stupid and a big hassle, which I'm more than willing to go through to save $200. Mrs. Dumb as a Brick on the other end of the line apologizes and says there's nothing she can do. So I ask to be transferred to the cancellation dept.

The people there do anything to keep you as a customer, so obviously this rep agrees with my idea. I have the foresight to get his name and extension as well as the time I spoke with him. I recall clearly saying to him that I would cross my fingers. I recall just as clearly him telling me there was no need to worry and that I'd get everything I had coming to me. Ha.

Needless to say, months past and I probably spent at least 4 or 5 hours on the phone, most of that on hold, explaining this stupid story to half a dozen people. I was more than willing to hunt down the original rep and kill him if I didn't get my money.

Which I finally did. But in retrospect, it would have been much easier to return the fucking phones and rebuy them.

I firmly believe that it's shit like this that makes people go nuts and start killing sprees.

You can spend hours fighting over shit with big corporations and then can fuck you all they'd like because they know you can't do shit. Then every once in a while they piss off some freak who decided to jump in his car, drive halfway across the country and start sniping people as they're leaving their call centers after harassing customers for several hours.

I wish I had some brilliant insight as to what you could do. Unfortunately, I don't. Chalk it up as a $150 learning experience. It sucks, but it's not worth all the pain and suffering you'll cause yourself worrying over it.

But if you do decide to storm Sprint with a baseball bat, let me know and maybe I'll come.

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It's my own damned fault for selling my soul to this demon company.

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Figures that they don't cover my area. :(

jeez... when you can't take a joke, it's time to seek help.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were that... witchy right now... I'll go away.

Gee, she only talked about being upset and in tears. Dumbass. If you were any kind of human you'd apologize correctly.

Thanks, fuzzyman, I appreciate the backup. However, I truly do not want his apology. An apology made without sincerity is worthless - even more worthless than a sincere apology from him would be, somehow.

I am stuck with Verizon for another year until my contract runs out. And I was thinking about switching to Sprint afterward because their plans are so much better.

So much for that idea.

On the plus side, while Verizon reception and coverage blow, their customer service has been good. When my wife was traveling overseas for work, they switched my plan over to one that included international calls, effective midnight that night. No muss, no fuss, no hassle. The same thing when I started traveling and decided to go to a plan with national coverage.

But for the money you get 10% of the minutes you do with Sprint, so I end up just not using it much.

I give you, my most sincre apology...

I am very sorry.

I never read your whole post, I was not trying to make light of your situation, I didn't realize you were in tears.

Just stop harasing me, and maybe i'll take fewer potshots.

Once again, I hope you can resolve this. Being a meger teenager, I have no experiance in dealing with phone companies. Best of luck and godspeed.

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I give you, my most sincre apology...

I am very sorry.

I never read your whole post, I was not trying to make light of your situation, I didn't realize you were in tears.

Just stop harasing me, and maybe i'll take fewer potshots.

Once again, I hope you can resolve this. Being a meger teenager, I have no experiance in dealing with phone companies. Best of luck and godspeed.

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I've been reading over this thread, and I'm just shocked. I only regret that I don't have an answer for you... I'm afraid I've never had this kind of trouble and probably wouldn't know where to turn either.

Better Business Bureau

Local television news consumer report desk

Local radio morning drive show

Consumer Protection Agency

Television consumer report desk in the home area of the Sprint office.

Local newspaper

ACLU

State attorney general

Public Utilities Commission

Give them the information you've given us. Dates, times, names, and copies of your contracts. Lay the money you owe them in an escrow account and you can fight it forever.

good luck,

bunner

Over here,
In the beige house,
Just trying to help.

I guess im fortunate in that , in their never ending desire for customer numbers , companies over here have been doing the Pay as you Go phones at ridiculously discounted prices for ages now.

£30 for the phone. Comes with £10 calling credit.

I had a phone with monthly contract about 4 years ago. It was nothing but hassle from beginning to end , with the now classic (and even on my pay as you go phone , it does this) voicemail service that rings you on your mobile , and then if you answer , connects you to the voicemail you didnt ask for , and charges you 50p a minute to listen to your mail.

I sympathise with you LadyJ. Telecoms companies are , in my experience , the biggest bunch of bastards in existence when it comes to dealing with your problems with their service.

I actually worked out that , if this phone were to break , itd be cheaper for me to buy a new pay as you go phone than it would be for me to phone them , send it off , pay the repair cost , and then pay for them to send it back to me (by recorded delivery of course).

(My home phone is with a cable company , Telewest. Its no END of hassle getting stuff out of them.)

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*big hugs for LadyJ*

I can't really offer any advice, gorgeous. Over here in Australia we have, not one, but several bodies whose job it is to rap the phone/internet companies on the knuckles if they fuck up. We have a telecommunications ombudsman, and the general office of consumer and business affairs, which incorporates the office of fair trading. In this country, those bodies have a remarkable degree of power, so bullshit like this gets resolved, slowly but surely.

Bec and I share a house with a legally blind bloke named Quentin. One day a door-to-door salesperson for a telephone company called AAPT was talking to him, and asked if he wanted more information. He wanted to get rid of her, so he said yeah, and signed a bit of paper which she said was permission for AAPT to send him advertising. A week later we found that our long-distance carrier had been switched to AAPT. We were livid, as you may imagine. We called them up, said the magic words - "blind" and "ombudsman" - and we were switched back with no hassle. We later found out that the same nasty practise had been used by AAPT's door-to-door people to target other blind people, and the elderly.

I think the word "cunts" is the only one that really fits.

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I give you, my most sincre apology...

I am very sorry.

I never read your whole post, I was not trying to make light of your situation, I didn't realize you were in tears.

Just stop harasing me, and maybe i'll take fewer potshots.

Once again, I hope you can resolve this. Being a meger teenager, I have no experiance in dealing with phone companies. Best of luck and godspeed.

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Go away. I have resigned myself to coping with your presence in the forums, but I think you need to get out of my thread. I'm asking my friends for help, not hypocritical fuckwits for apologies. Just. Go. Away.

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guys guys guys, chill with the still now. no hate etc etc etc, okay?

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-wow-

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for months now

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ignore, ignore, ignore.

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Telewest. Its no END of hassle getting stuff out of them

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ignore, ignore, ignore.

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id prefer that kind of response than the kind of all-out open hate that gets displayed from time to time on this board. maybe a quiet word before ignoring but thats just me. i respect your decision DexX and i think im gonna follow suit

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im not saying that hes alright and people should leave him alone, just there were better ways to do that. thats all

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im not saying that hes alright and people should leave him alone, just there were better ways to do that. thats all

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thank god for that, i thought you were gonna remain deadly serious for too long then. well done for being human

45344

a FOAF said it best:

"Ultimately no one should make you feel like they are doing you a favor by letting you give them your business."

Doesn't help your current situation much, but maybe it's a warning for the rest of us; other than the government and the utilities, we have a choice. let's exercise it. If nothing else, Sprint PCS has lost any future commerce with me based on how they've treated you. Might not matter now, but maybe in the future, it will.

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...If nothing else, Sprint PCS has lost any future commerce with me...

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I just wanted to mention that I use Verizon for my mobile and for my land line on the island. My mobile phone took a huge shit and is now a doorstop. My rep tried my phone with a different battery and said that it worked, but when I got it back, it did not. She called the Verizon store and now, this Monday; I can go in, bring my battery, and they'll do a Fast Exchange for me and hot swap a new phone to my battery with my old number already programmed in. No problems. They also took $5.00 off for the two weeks that the phone was down.

I only pay about $50.00 a month for unlimited long distance 24 hours a day, and my local calling area is pretty wide. Roam charges are almost nothing, and the phone is coded for full WAP, web side access.

You might want to look into Verizon.

Thanks for letting me try and help.

Rule of Thumb:

Large corporations hate bad publicity. One bad news report on a local station and some newspaper coverage of a person filing papers with the Attorney General and the PUC can fucking destroy thousands in business for that market for them no matter what they do. They usually say: "That was a terrible oversight", and then make sure that they get a shot of you accepting your refund on TV with a big, smiling representative giving it to you.

It's cheaper.

Here's something from Cleveland. Ameritech has been cramming their user's accounts with shit they don't need for years instead of offering actual customer service. All of their reps are encouraged to use fake names, too.

It's a fact.

Your predicament inspired this little bit of inanity, LadyJ. I hope this raises a smile.

45461

Thanks DexX.

Bunner: Yeah, I know that bad publicity is a powerful tool, but I'm sure that Sprint has a team of lawyers waiting to slap me with a slander or libel suit if I say anything that remotely ventures into the incorrect in relating my account. I looked back on the notes I made, and I don't have all the dates of my correspondence. I'm trying to get all my I's dotted and T's crossed before I play the bad publicity card.

That story about Ameritech sure does sound right. I think Ameritech might even be slightly more demonic than Sprint. I remember the problems I had with them. Oy vey.

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Thanks DexX.

Bunner: Yeah, I know that bad publicity is a powerful tool, but I'm sure that Sprint has a team of lawyers waiting to slap me with a slander or libel suit if I say anything that remotely ventures into the incorrect in relating my account.

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Hey, Bunner - are you back back, or just visiting back? I would prefer the former, if that makes a difference.

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Thanks DexX.

Bunner: Yeah, I know that bad publicity is a powerful tool, but I'm sure that Sprint has a team of lawyers waiting to slap me with a slander or libel suit if I say anything that remotely ventures into the incorrect in relating my account.

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I wouldn't worry, really. Little Known Fact:

Lawyers only sue people with money. Suing the poor is a waste of time.

:- )

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This kind of stuff makes me feel better. If these people don't get sued for libel, maybe I'll do something like this. :)

http://www.snopes2.com/business/info/badhotel/frame.htm

Hey - You went to snopes2!

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Hey - You went to snopes2!

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oh.

I let my cell phone service lapse and now the things are just decorative accents. Probably not wise for someone whose hobbies include hiking, kayaking, and commuting, but at least I don't have to fuck with this kind of noise. I would probably have a stroke over it.

Away from home, I use payphones, but even then sometimes... Not too long ago, I was surprised to find myself putting my foot through one because of the circles the operator ran me in. It wasn't the 35 cents, or the 35 cents after that, or the fact that they asked me for another 35 cents. It was the principle of the thing. And I was trying to make a call to report a cab that was driving extremely dangerously, as if the driver were on a combination of PCP, cough syrup, and Lipton Cup-a-Soup. I and several other drivers had nearly gotten killed by this fuck, and on top of that the phone company went and ... and all of a sudden I just smacked the receiver down, took a step back, and gave it my foot. So, Bell-Atlantic, there's your fucking 35 cents.

I don't know how this story is supposed to help, but hey.

The only episode of the Hulk TV show I enjoyed is when he went green apeshit all over a pay phone for much the same reason.

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Here's something from Cleveland. Ameritech has been cramming their user's accounts with shit they don't need for years instead of offering actual customer service. All of their reps are encouraged to use fake names, too.

It's a fact.

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Hey, I just discovered the way to get around these damned cell phone contracts.

Don't buy the phone from them. That's why they want to lock you in for two years and have you pay for leaving early. They are selling to the phone at cost or at a loss to get you in. When you leave early, they want that money. But if you already have a phone, you cna go on a month-to-month plan.

But phones are expensive, right? Not if you buy them on eBay. You can get the same model phone (used, though sometimes new in box) for about the price that they'd charge your for a phone with a contract.

I found this out because I wanted to replace my current phone with something smaller that I'd actually keep on my person. They had a nice StarTac in the store for $99 -- if I extended my contract for another two years (with a penaltry for leaving early, naturally). Without a contract they want to charge me $250.

So I called Verizon customer service and said, "A friend of mine is giving me his old phone, it's much nicer than mine. Can I switch to it?" Sure, no problem. I don't even have to go into the store. Just read them the serial number.

So on eBay I do a search on "startac" and "verizon" and there is the phone I'm looking for (about 10 of them, actually) -- all under $100. Some with extra batteries, car chargers, etc.

The trick is -- go to the store (or web site), figure out which phone you want -- then buy a used one.

I feel strangely liberated by this discovery. I can beat the system!

i have a phone company story too!
in my house i got roped into taking care of the phone service.
first they demanded long distance, so i got it, and then they said we should wait until the summer subletters moved out... like they might call taiwan for hours and hours and then leave us with the bill.
so i canceled it, and when they left two weeks later, got it again.
i went with IDT because their commercial looked so horrible and boring, it was as if they didn't need my business. as if they didn't even care if they caught my attention.

sold!

so then MCI calls up and says "holy crap, what was it... was it something i said? baby you can't do this to me, come back to me baby! you know we're right for each other!"
their offer was: what IDT offered verbatim, plus 50$

sold!

so i figured, you know, if MCI is my long distance carrier, then IDT must have been dumped. i mean, i used their service for less than a day.
i spent the next few months throwing out their letters, which i assumed were saying "please come back, why don't you return my calls?", etc.
that is, until they started to change colors.
apparently they want a full months pay for one half day's usage.
fine, it was 26$ and i have no idea how it got that large, but i sent it.
and then they sent another one for 15$ saying they'll go to a collection agency if i don't pay...

so now it's a game of chicken... they have no right to keep asking for money for not doing a service, and i could contest them, if i weren't so damned lazy.

i'm so lazy i can't even be bothered to write a conclusion.
me go sleep now. bye bye.