Sprint & Sprint Corporate Screw-Ups - Advice Needed

[mbressman]

I am a new customer to sprint (as of March, 2005) and in the short time that I have been a Sprint customer, I have experienced a lack of customer service unparalleled in my history as a customer of numerous carriers. I don't want to bore everyone with the long, drawn out story, so I'll try to make this quick. Basically, Sprint agreed to replace a defective Treo 650 phone that I had, but in order to secure the return of the defective unit, they stated they would have to charge my credit card approximately $600 and then it would be reversed when they received the defective phone back (who does it this way...isn't it supposed to be "we'll charge your credit card if we DON'T receive the defective equipment back?"). Of course, they sent me the wrong model Treo 650 (w/o the camera) and when I called back and they told me it would be no problem to send me the right model Treo 650, what they didn't tell me was that they were now going to charge my Sprint account approximately $600 for the second replacement to be sent out to me. This charge, combined with my current month's balance (which wasn't even due yet) put me past some credit threshold on Sprint's account and so within a day or two, my phone was turned off (without me even being notified about it - I just couldn't make phone calls one day and this is how I found out about it). Regular Sprint customer service was completely unhelpful and couldn't promise me anything beyond turning my phone back on for a day or two (and since I hadn't yet received the second replacement, there would be no way for me to return the defective phone before the service was turned off again). I should also mention that my father was in the hospital right around this time undergoing a cardiac catherization (or something along those lines where they use angioplasty and stents) and I needed to be able to communicate with my family to know how he was doing. Being that it was a weekend, I had to wait until Monday before I could call Sprint Corporate, and I finally got through to a representative who apologized for the inconvenience, agreed to turn my service back on again and ensure it wasn't turned off, and credited me my first month's balance in full. If this had been the end of things, I would have been OK (unhappy, but I would have managed). Unfortunately, it was just the beginning. Even though I eventually got the second replacement and returned the first replacement and my defective phone promptly, Sprint apparently had a lot of problems receiving it, confirming it, and noting it on my account. In fact, they had so many problems that after I had confirmed they had received both units via UPS, my phone service was shut off a second time, and a THIRD time (after I was promised by the corporate representative that it wouldn't be shut off again)!!! Additionally, Sprint screwed up again and credited the initial charges for both phones back to my Sprint account instead of one back to my Sprint account and one back to my credit card account. Because the only balance on my credit card account was the Sprint charge and I assumed they would be crediting it back to this card (and even confirmed this with the Sprint corporate representative), I didn't pay the balance, and when it wasn't credited back correctly, I got hit with late fees and finance charges on my credit card. All in all, even after I got through to their corporate office and was promised that there wouldn't be any more problems, they screwed things up even worse. When things were finally straightened out, I called their corporate office back and spoke with the same representative that I initially spoke with to see what could be done to compensate me for ALL of these problems. I asked for three things which I didn't think was too greedy: to be let out of my 2-year contract so I could leave at any time (even though I informed them that at this point I wasn't planning on leaving since even though they had really screwed things up for me so far, the rate plan was better than I could get anywhere else), to receive the unlimited SMS messaging plan for free (normally $5/month), and to get a $5/month credit on my PCS Vision Plan (so instead of paying $15 a month, I'd only pay $10 - I'd read a bunch of places that Sprint was now even offering PCS Vision for $10/month in some places so this was hardly an over-the-top request). The representative came back after meeting with her management team (explain to me again why she needs to meet with her supervisors...I thought this was corporate, where the person I'm speaking to is authorized to do what is necessary, not to get approval from above) and told me that what they could do is give me 3 more months of service for free, and allow me to leave Sprint in the next 30 days with no early termination fee, but that she couldn't let me out of my 2-year contract permanently. I was fine with the 3 months of service for free, but given everything that had happened in the past, I really wanted the ability to leave Sprint at my convenience without an early termination fee. I argued for a while with the representative and got nowhere, and so now I have to decide within 30 days if I want to stay with them for another year and 10 months or leave and go elsewhere. The problem with leaving and going elsewhere is that most of the other major carriers (Verizon, Cingular, etc.) don't offer rate plans comparable to Sprint's (I'm on the $50 Fair and Flexible 700 minutes plan with $5 no roaming, no long distance, nights and weekends starting at 9 PM, $15 PCS Vision Professional Pack (includes unlimited data usage with my Treo 650), and 100 SMS messages per month). Does anyone know if any of the other carriers might be willing to match this plan, or provide something close to it? Do any of the other carriers even do matching or help out customers who are interested in switching to their service? Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions? Should I stay with Sprint? Should I leave? Is what they offered seem acceptable considering the circumstances and the trouble I went through? Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks, and sorry if this post ran a bit longer than I anticipated

- marc

[Yankees368]

Wow, sounds like sprint really has it out for you. I looked at cingular, and for $75 a month, which is only about $5 more then you pay right now), you have switch to cingular and get:

$50 plan with 600 rollover minutes
No Roaming (well, because there is no roaming on cingular)
Unlimited mobile-to-mobile
$24.99 Unlimited MEdia net option

Thats a total of $74.98 a month...how about that?

[larry]

Originally Posted by mbressman The problem with leaving and going elsewhere is that most of the other major carriers (Verizon, Cingular, etc.) don't offer rate plans comparable to Sprint's (I'm on the $50 Fair and Flexible 700 minutes plan with $5 no roaming, no long distance, nights and weekends starting at 9 PM, $15 PCS Vision Professional Pack (includes unlimited data usage with my Treo 650), and 100 SMS messages per month). - marc

You should be able to get 7PM N&W on this plan for no additional charge. Or at least 8PM. Just wanted to mention that.

[WirelessBeachBum]

So right now you are paying $70 per month for service.

The retail price of the Verizon Treo 650 is $399.99 with a two year agreement ($200 less than you paid Sprint)

$59.99 900 min. unlim N&W, Unlim IN calling, No Roaming, Nationwide Long Distance
$2.99 for 100 text message

Then decide on a data package:

$0 ala carte, pay .015 cents per KB of usage 1/MB would be about $15 per month (the average text only email is only 1KB in size)

$24.99 10 MB of data usage per month

or

$44.99 Unlimited Data

So depending on how much data you plan to use (and you can change your data plan at any time.) Verizon would cost you between $63-99 per month, plus give you 200 more voice minutes.

[mbressman]

Originally Posted by Yankees368 Wow, sounds like sprint really has it out for you. I looked at cingular, and for $75 a month, which is only about $5 more then you pay right now), you have switch to cingular and get: $50 plan with 600 rollover minutes No Roaming (well, because there is no roaming on cingular) Unlimited mobile-to-mobile $24.99 Unlimited MEdia net option Thats a total of $74.98 a month...how about that?

I might just check this out...thanks!

[mbressman]

Originally Posted by larry You should be able to get 7PM N&W on this plan for no additional charge. Or at least 8PM. Just wanted to mention that.

How's that? According to Sprint, this is an extra $5/month option??

[mbressman]

Originally Posted by WirelessBeachBum So right now you are paying $70 per month for service. The retail price of the Verizon Treo 650 is $399.99 with a two year agreement ($200 less than you paid Sprint) $59.99 900 min. unlim N&W, Unlim IN calling, No Roaming, Nationwide Long Distance $2.99 for 100 text message Then decide on a data package: $0 ala carte, pay .015 cents per KB of usage 1/MB would be about $15 per month (the average text only email is only 1KB in size) $24.99 10 MB of data usage per month or $44.99 Unlimited Data So depending on how much data you plan to use (and you can change your data plan at any time.) Verizon would cost you between $63-99 per month, plus give you 200 more voice minutes.

Thanks for the info, but the voice and unlimited data plan alone (I use data way too much to not get unlimited) would cost me in excess of $105/month...way too expensive for one phone's service...

[Yankees368]

Originally Posted by mbressman I might just check this out...thanks!

Glad to help!

[WirelessBeachBum]

Originally Posted by mbressman Thanks for the info, but the voice and unlimited data plan alone (I use data way too much to not get unlimited) would cost me in excess of $105/month...way too expensive for one phone's service...

Verizon is very rarely going to be the least expensive carrier in town, but as many of their customers will tell you the added expense is well worth it.

Look at the example you gave, The Treo 650 with Verizon is $200 less than what you paid (that's not including all of the extra interest and finance charges they cost you by billing your credit card.)

Then take a look at your time...Not only were you without service, how many hours did you have to deal with this. How much is an hour of your time worth?

Just take how much you (or your employee value's your time) and multiply that by how many hours you have spent messing with this problem. You have to compute that "cost" into what you are really paying for wireless service.

Price of monthly access is just one thing to factor into the decision of buying wireless service, customer service (before and after the sale), network coverage, billing policies etc.

By the way I used to work for Sprint and left them because of the same type of problem you are having, I had customers with situations that could not get solved and just kept getting worse and worse...Sprint still needs to get a handle on issues like this. It's most likely to get worse before it gets better, especially with their pending merger.

Good luck to you.

[larry]

Originally Posted by mbressman How's that? According to Sprint, this is an extra $5/month option??

If you call the retention dept. they will usually give it to you for free. I got it free.

[mbressman]

Originally Posted by larry If you call the retention dept. they will usually give it to you for free. I got it free.

do u have a phone # for the retention dept.? thanks!

- marc

[Gman]

Originally Posted by WirelessBeachBum So right now you are paying $70 per month for service. The retail price of the Verizon Treo 650 is $399.99 with a two year agreement ($200 less than you paid Sprint) $59.99 900 min. unlim N&W, Unlim IN calling, No Roaming, Nationwide Long Distance $2.99 for 100 text message Then decide on a data package: $0 ala carte, pay .015 cents per KB of usage 1/MB would be about $15 per month (the average text only email is only 1KB in size) $24.99 10 MB of data usage per month or $44.99 Unlimited Data So depending on how much data you plan to use (and you can change your data plan at any time.) Verizon would cost you between $63-99 per month, plus give you 200 more voice minutes.

I would be very wary of these data options with a Treo 650 if you plan on using it much. If you are like me you will use it more and more data intensively as you use the phone and these options (minus the $45 option) would work for only light users. $24.99 for 10MB is insane in my opinion.

G.

[mbressman]

Originally Posted by Gman I would be very wary of these data options with a Treo 650 if you plan on using it much. If you are like me you will use it more and more data intensively as you use the phone and these options (minus the $45 option) would work for only light users. $24.99 for 10MB is insane in my opinion. G.

I agree completely. How can Verizon charge $24.99 for ONLY 10MB of data when Sprint gives you UNLIMITED Data for only $10-$15/month. Its absolutely ridiculous, which is one of the reasons I'm leaning towards staying with Sprint...

Hopefully Verizon and Cingular and the other carriers will wise up and adjust their data prices...maybe once they fully roll out their 3G High-Speed Networks...

[larry]

Originally Posted by mbressman do u have a phone # for the retention dept.? thanks! - marc

I just checked into it and apparently the direct numbers to the retention dept. no longer exsist. You could try calling 1-800-658-7564 (regular customer service with little or no wait time) and see if they'll transfer you to the retention dept. or ask them if they can give you free 7PM or 8PM. Tell then your friend just got it free and you want the same. Sometimes it takes two or three tries to find a rep who's willing to help though.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Originally Posted by mbressman I agree completely. How can Verizon charge $24.99 for ONLY 10MB of data when Sprint gives you UNLIMITED Data for only $10-$15/month. Its absolutely ridiculous, which is one of the reasons I'm leaning towards staying with Sprint... Hopefully Verizon and Cingular and the other carriers will wise up and adjust their data prices...maybe once they fully roll out their 3G High-Speed Networks...

Verizon has fully rolled out their data networks? That's been done since August of 2003. They are now in the process of rolling out EVDO...I assume that's what you are talking about.

All wireless is local, so you also need to consider how each carrier covers your area. Sprint in my market is managed by Airgate/Alamosa and they have different rate plans than offered in your market, (for example the $5 no roaming option is not available, here you pay $10 for 100 additional roaming minutes.)

On a PDA for many users 10 MB of data is sufficient. The average Text Based email is 1 KB in size. So if somone used their phone for just text based email, that's over 10,000 emails per month.

Many customers go on an "unlimited plan" just to not have to worry about overages, but it's always a good idea to look at how much data you actually use and go on a plan that fits your needs. I know of many Treo users that are on the ala carte pricing and save money that way.

Verizon spent Billions of Dollars on upgrading to 3G, there is no reason to discount a premium product. Eventually the prices may drop, but for customers that see the value in strong network coverage combined with great customer service most are willing to pay for quality. You have to ask yourself why does Sprint sell their 1x network for half the price of Verizon? Take a quick look at the national coverage maps and that answers that question real quick. The target customer for data devices is generally business, and business customers have different needs than consumer customers. Sprint has big data revenues because of PCS Vision, but in reality a Verizon customer with a regular handset and $5 mobile web get's the same experience as a Sprint customer paying $15 for PCS Vision.

As far as adjusting Data prices, I have seen that adjustment already. Unlimited Aircard service on 1x was initially $99.99, then it dropped to $79.99 and now it is $59.99 (EVDO is still $79.99).

But if Sprint coverage and data services work for you and you can live with all the screw ups they have caused in your finances by all means stay where you are happy....but you need to put the screws to them and ask them to put you on a month to month contract without month to month contract fees, just tell them that is the only chance of them keeping you as a customer.

[NYCDru]

I am sorry but if I was going to have a high end PDA/data device then i would not tolerate poor CS AT ALL. Sure the competition may be more expensive but there is also the peac of mind factor.

[NYCDru]

Originally Posted by WirelessBeachBum On a PDA for many users 10 MB of data is sufficient. The average Text Based email is 1 KB in size. So if somone used their phone for just text based email, that's over 10,000 emails per month. Sprint has big data revenues because of PCS Vision, but in reality a Verizon customer with a regular handset and $5 mobile web get's the same experience as a Sprint customer paying $15 for PCS Vision.

Your first statement makes the idea of a PDA phone more tempting for me.

Sprints Vision pack gives unlimited data with no drainage of minutes AND 100 text messages and a few other pluses. The Cons are that depending on your area and how ell you are covered Vision use can be good or bad. With VZW you pay less initially but it takes from your minutes.

[larry]

Originally Posted by WirelessBeachBum All wireless is local, so you also need to consider how each carrier covers your area. Sprint in my market is managed by Airgate/Alamosa and they have different rate plans than offered in your market, (for example the $5 no roaming option is not available, here you pay $10 for 100 additional roaming minutes.)

In my market Sprint doesn't even charge $5/mo for the no roaming option. It's included right in with the Fair & Flexible plan with no additional charges.

[Verizonfone]

I had Sprint PCS for a few years and endured some of the worst customer service that I've experienced in my entire life.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Originally Posted by NYCDru Your first statement makes the idea of a PDA phone more tempting for me. Sprints Vision pack gives unlimited data with no drainage of minutes AND 100 text messages and a few other pluses. The Cons are that depending on your area and how ell you are covered Vision use can be good or bad. With VZW you pay less initially but it takes from your minutes.

"mobile web" is not a killer app for most consumers, many never use the web browser in their phones. I think Verizon is taking a good approach in the future with Vcast. $15 per month unlimited Video (15 frames per second) and mobile web that doesn't use your airtime.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Originally Posted by larry In my market Sprint doesn't even charge $5/mo for the no roaming option. It's included right in with the Fair & Flexible plan with no additional charges.

The affilitate companies have to pay for their own Roaming, in fact they have to pay when their customer use Sprint Corporate plans. That's why they charge different amounts in different areas.

I guess this internal problem will come to a head sometime over the next year. I can't imagine companies like Alamosa will want to share markets with Nextel...other technical differences, that will be the biggest hurdle for Sprextel.

[larry]

Originally Posted by Verizonfone I had Sprint PCS for a few years and endured some of the worst customer service that I've experienced in my entire life.

I haven't found customer service to be as bad as some claim. No problems to report on my end.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Originally Posted by larry I haven't found customer service to be as bad as some claim. No problems to report on my end.

Larry, many of the problems that I had to deal with when I worked there had to do with Account Spending Limits... Once you hit your number you are sent a message and have 24 hours to make a payment. In the B2B channel it was a mess because we would bill the equipment to the customers account, and if they had a $125 spending limit they would often by suspended before they even got their phones. Talk about leaving a bad taste in a customers mouth.

Some customers never had problems, others would have situations like mbressman has endured. I had good friend that had similar situations. Of course it didn't help Sprints image when Consumer Reports rated them worst out of the national carriers. (I had a meeting to close a huge account the day that report came out...it was quite embarrassing when the decision maker pulled out his copy and started asking me about it.)

[Gman]

Originally Posted by WirelessBeachBum Verizon has fully rolled out their data networks? That's been done since August of 2003. They are now in the process of rolling out EVDO...I assume that's what you are talking about. All wireless is local, so you also need to consider how each carrier covers your area. Sprint in my market is managed by Airgate/Alamosa and they have different rate plans than offered in your market, (for example the $5 no roaming option is not available, here you pay $10 for 100 additional roaming minutes.) On a PDA for many users 10 MB of data is sufficient. The average Text Based email is 1 KB in size. So if somone used their phone for just text based email, that's over 10,000 emails per month. Many customers go on an "unlimited plan" just to not have to worry about overages, but it's always a good idea to look at how much data you actually use and go on a plan that fits your needs. I know of many Treo users that are on the ala carte pricing and save money that way. Verizon spent Billions of Dollars on upgrading to 3G, there is no reason to discount a premium product. Eventually the prices may drop, but for customers that see the value in strong network coverage combined with great customer service most are willing to pay for quality. You have to ask yourself why does Sprint sell their 1x network for half the price of Verizon? Take a quick look at the national coverage maps and that answers that question real quick. The target customer for data devices is generally business, and business customers have different needs than consumer customers. Sprint has big data revenues because of PCS Vision, but in reality a Verizon customer with a regular handset and $5 mobile web get's the same experience as a Sprint customer paying $15 for PCS Vision. As far as adjusting Data prices, I have seen that adjustment already. Unlimited Aircard service on 1x was initially $99.99, then it dropped to $79.99 and now it is $59.99 (EVDO is still $79.99). But if Sprint coverage and data services work for you and you can live with all the screw ups they have caused in your finances by all means stay where you are happy....but you need to put the screws to them and ask them to put you on a month to month contract without month to month contract fees, just tell them that is the only chance of them keeping you as a customer.

I'd much prefer Sprint's $15 unlimited Vision than the 10 MB package from Verizon. I don't see Verizon's coverage advantage as significant. Often in my travels I have found that if Sprint does not have a signal neither did Verizon. That's just my experience. I see no premium in their 3G services at all to justify their prices. As far as a reason to discount their products, I am sure they'll see some after Sprint-Nextel's deal completes.

I have not had bad customer service at all from Sprint. It seems to be one of the overly propogated things you see on web sites- again, in my experience and I've been with them since they turned on their San Diego market.

G.

[larry]

It's even a sweeter deal for those of us who have the grandfathered $10 unlimited data plan.

[Gman]

Originally Posted by larry It's even a sweeter deal for those of us who have the grandfathered $10 unlimited data plan.

and even sweeter with my old $85 2000 minute plan with Vision,Pictures,unlimited text and a free add a phone.

[Gamer03]

I had it for free too.

But we signed a two year contract with a FS plan.

Or was that for the PCS to PCS minutes?? I don't remember. Oh well, Sprint lost my family's business since their network in our area sucked.

[larry]

Originally Posted by Gman and even sweeter with my old $85 2000 minute plan with Vision,Pictures,unlimited text and a free add a phone.

I even get free video mail (which is usually not included in the $10 unlimited plan).

[mbressman]

Ok...so I was happy to let sleeping dogs lie and take the offer they made me and move on with my life. Unfortunately, it seems as if Sprint isn't done screwing me around.

I, along with I'm sure many of you out there, make use of the voice-mail option on my cell phone. I also tend to get voicemails sometimes that I'd like to save. When I was with Nextel, and I attempted to save them, it clearly informed me that they would only be saved for 14 days from the point I was saving them. Not sure how Sprint's system worked, I attempted to save a voicemail, and there was no warning given to me that it would be deleted within a certain timeframe. To be absolutely sure, I called Sprint Customer Care and verified that a saved voice mail would remain saved and would not be removed until I deleted it, and even searched through my phone's documentation and sprint's documentation (both online and offline) to ensure that there was no contradictory information. Unfortunately, despite all of this, my saved voicemails have been deleted, and I now find out that saved voicemails only last on the system for so long (although no one seems to be able to give me an absolute timeframe...I've heard 10 days, 14 days and 30 days so far). I called Customer Care and spoke with a supervisor requesting that my voicemails be recovered. She connected me to Technical Support, which informed me that this wasn't possible. The original supervisor had also stated that if it wasn't possible to recover them, compensation could be discussed and she would note this on my account. Unfortunately, when I called back the second time and spoke with a customer care supervisor (Paul Schmidt, ID #: 7527) he was incredibly rude to me, told me the issue would go no further and compensation would not be offered. Certainly not pleased with the current situation, I called the Executive Services/Corporate # that I had used in the past to try and reach someone. I spoke with a corporate representative there who was vaguely familiar with my previous problems, but would not assist me since at this point, I've been offered a lot of compensation already (all for legitimate problems that I've had and major screw-ups that Sprint has caused) and haven't actually made any payments to Sprint yet (not that I'm not planning on it, since I'm locked into a 2 year contract, but my past compensation for other legitimate problems has so far allowed me to not yet have to pay anything to Sprint...however, this is a totally new and separate problem and so it should be looked at without regard to past problems). She stated that either she or the original corporate representative that I had been dealing with would get back to me on Tuesday. All I really want at this point is the $5/month unlimited SMS messaging plan (which many people have for free anyway since they were grandfathered into it) on my plan for free. I don't think thats asking for a lot, but I thought I'd post a continuation of my problems on here and see what everyone else thought. Am I asking for too much? Is there any other ways I can get this compensation for this legitimate voice-mail deletion problem? Any other ideas, suggestions, constructive criticism? Any help or information is appreciated! Thanks!

- marc

[kruegerklan]

Originally Posted by larry If you call the retention dept. they will usually give it to you for free. I got it free.

Could you tell me how you folks got through to corpoate or the retention dept.?